Topic #544
“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” – Flannery O’Connor.
Authors have many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?
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That’s a great question! The effort to put the ideas from inside my head out into the world is unmerited, essentially. Writing is often a thankless job, unless you manage to hit the moment perfectly, striking the fancy of enough readers. If they can’t find you because algorithms work to prevent it, and you can’t afford to advertise effectively, you feel you’re screaming into the whirlwind. Unfortunately, added to this is the grifter utilizing AI to produce fake manuscripts. When AI could benefit an artist to overcome the lack of capital for advertising, it is instead set against them to ensure they never can, burying their work beneath millions of bot manufactured shitty texts.
It feels so defeatist to go over this, as I examine the hurdles. However, I am at a point where I can study the problems without them touching me so deeply. It sounds trite to say that you get used to it. However, you really do! Big publishers are in the business of making money, and if they can silence the competition, they will. So don’t ever shut up!
It’s been one thing after another for writers in the past few decades: the gatekeepers, failing independent publishing, the claim no one reads anymore, the rise of influencers, and now AI. As if a lack of capital were not enough, there are all those bad actors thwarting any author’s rise. If you don’t have it or nepotism to assist, you’re going to have to strive.
How does one strive against these terrible odds?
Think of all those authors who came before you centuries ago. They had a drive to do this, and nothing was going to stop them. They published themselves, and they put their books out there regardless of getting any love back from other humans. Ovid did not ask permission or approval of a publisher. An author needs to have a reason to write, no matter what it is, that lasts against all the hurt and frustration coming their way. You can call it loving the art, but is your love strong enough? From my perspective it is something more than love, but just as fragile as pain and frustration experienced by being halted at every step damages it so thoroughly.
Is Your Love Strong Enough?
Bryan Ferry
Just one step at a time,
And closer to destiny.
I knew at a glance,
There would always be a chance for me.
With someone I could live for;
Nowhere I would rather be.Is your love strong enough,
Like a rock in the sea?
Am I asking too much?
Is your love strong enough?Just one beat of your heart,
And stranger than fantasy.
I knew from the start,
It had to be the place for me.
Someone that I would die for;
There’s no way I could ever leave.Is your love strong enough,
Like a rock in the sea?
Am I asking too much?
Is your love strong enough?
Is your love strong enough?Is your love strong enough?
Just one beat of your heart.
Is your love strong enough?Is your love strong enough?
Just one beat…Written by: Bryan Ferry
Album: Legend (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Released: 1986
Lyrics provided by Musixmatch
A good buttress against losing heart is to have many reasons. Don’t think for one minute having one solid reason is enough. The love that you have for writing will change over time. You’ll gather more reasons and achieve distance that makes the old ones moot for all the right reasons. We grow throughout our lives, so should our love of what we do.
For instance, I write for a multitude of reasons. You’ll find I cite cinema as a huge reason for putting me here. The great films of the 1980s, for which many are so nostalgic, (looking at you Stranger Things (2016)) inspired me to create. The blessing of growing up in that time, bookended by the 1970s and 1990s in my most formative years, certainly is a reason for why I write. Scholastic Books provided subscription services that made a home library possible. In addition, my grandmother, who retired by the time I was up and running, took me to the library and on outings when not in school. What a beautiful time to be alive.
From there, cinema has provided some epic fare. There have been books and movies pumping ideas into my head for decades. What else helped was my dislike of hanging out at parties and taking part in that whole fraternity style high school life. I remember the slight disappointment in not having that as well, but it isn’t as if I didn’t hang out with friends–going dancing, to theme parks, their houses, all the things. It was just less frequent. Therefore, I had plenty of quiet time to recharge my introvert batteries and absorb books and movies.
Being from a boring town, watching movies was a big entertainment option. Sometimes we got to theater shows and concerts. The creme de la creme, however, was getting to Disney World. For someone steeped in cinema, you might imagine what a big deal this was. Beyond that, though, Walt was a huge creative, and he showed me that spilling your brains out into tangible things was truly possible. Next to him, Jim Henson presented the importance of taking that bottomless creativity and making things that mattered, that people loved, and touch other humans. To show love through creativity.
Feeling the love through the screen on films from Disney, Ridley Scott (Legend (1985)), Henson, Spielberg, Lucas, and many others helped me piece together my puzzle. Tolkien, Jordan, Austen, Poe, Shakespeare, and so many others filled in more pieces. Family and friends added their pieces. Experiences and education still more pieces. That makes what you see before you now. 1000s of pieces complete that picture. Therefore, if I forget or can no longer see those pieces, I know there are 1000s from which to pull.
No one can take this from me. My hero list has only grown and become more diverse over time. Not a single frustration or hurt will remove my appreciation for past and present creatives who I enjoy, who make me feel, somehow, what I do actually matters. Instead, because they touched my life, I don’t count readers as fans. How do I even class those folks who read my work and enjoyed that work as fans? They feel like friends and that is how I see them.
Writing gives me friendship and connection. Irreplaceable. At some point, that may reach a point I can’t see everyone’s faces. I hope they’ll know that they matter to me, just the same. The whole point was for them to read the book and feel the joys I do with the stories I tell. Otherwise, those stories could stay wrapped up in my brain not bothering anyone.
Why would you bother to write it all down?
Somehow, I had the thought that others might like to explore the ideas I had. They had me invigorated, so why wouldn’t they provide that to others? Essentially, I wanted to share that excitement I felt. My writing met with confusion from those who require others to assure them my work is worth reading. Conversely, others ready to take a chance on the adventures I pen embrace them. That is the basis of why I write–to share my stories. Like I said above, there’s no other reason to put it all on paper without that desire being strong first. It gets your pen to paper.
Aside from the desire to share that which I am excited about, I wanted to provide to others the same high I got off reading and watching films that those creators had provided for me. You know the feeling of watching a great movie or reading a great book. I am compelled to create as in kind. If people don’t come along to pick up the pen when others have passed away, where would the new stories come from? Folks may not be able to reconcile what they see in me with the reality of me, but that’s not my problem. I’m here to be a storyteller, not what they think I should be.
During my graduate studies, I was awarded a fellowship for my social justice writing. All of my books contain explorations of social issues, such as women’s roles in society during war time/historical ages, the bold exposure of how domestic violence can destroy lives, it shows how community strives to protect its members and how that plays out in realistic ways. I even explore how folks can heal from bad experiences and that their value isn’t in arbitrarily set ideas of purity. Nobility is found in the heart, not your blood line.
A common thread you may find in my work is the message to never give up, and that things change over time. They may get worse, but they will also get better. Sometimes we have to fight for that, but the fight is worth it. Stay.
But, just like I am 1000s of pieces of my history and touchpoints, so are my books. They come from dreams and nightmares I have had, and they come from and idea to challenge myself to create something lasting. The base of it all is to give love back to a world that showed me such beauty. Yes, there is ugliness, but oh, it is so beautiful, too.
The more love we put into the world, the better things will get. Click on the links in the scroll box below to find out why the other authors write. Each of us is different and compelling in our own ways. Before you go, subscribe by dropping your email in the box on the top right. The hop will arrive Friday afternoons in your inbox without searching the web to find us. See you next time!
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