Monday, June 29, 2009

A Little Bit o' Why

Since I'm here, boasting about my (victory, say victory) near-victory in taking semi-finalist honors in Writers of the Future, I might as well set some of my thoughts down on writing.

Why this? Why write?

I won't be able to give a full answer here and now... but however much I do say, I want it to be true. No safe, pat answer--nothing about how I write because I have no choice, etc. To do this right, I'm gonna dig a bit into my feelings, and ones that I don't normally try to put into words. The result might not be particularly coherent:

I write because, when I've read stories (and not just read them, but seen/heard/experienced them)... good stories, I have been moved. Not by all of them, certainly, nor even most. But a few have gotten through to me, to my core, and I know that I'm a different person because of them.

I feel them now, and carry them with me today. I can name a few, of diverse origins: a filmed-stage production of Camelot on PBS; the text adventure (interactive fiction) Photopia by Adam Cadre; It by Stephen King; Buffy the Vampire Slayer (television); others.

Anyways, when I look back on those... works (? stories? experiences?), I recognize that I have received something special from the universe. And I find that I desperately want to give back--to take these brushes with divinity I've had, refilter them, reshape them, and then blast them into the souls of people unlike me, yet like me, too.

I want to touch as I've been touched.

And yeah, I'm babbling more than I ought to, and sounding hokey to myself. I should stop. But there it is: I've known beauty, and it demands--from inside of me--to be shared. It's as close to God as I've known.

And so that's a little bit of why. Not all of it; I'm also in it for the Huge! Money!, of course... But for the most, I simply hope that I am one day skilled enough to give as good as I've gotten, and love as much as I've been loved.

1 comment:

  1. I read your story in the Flash Fiction magazine and really enjoyed - that's how I linked to your blog. As to why you write, I very much identify with your reasons. That feeling, that yearning to be a part of the dialog, to "give as good as . . . (we've) . . . gotten" is the greatest driving force for me as well.
    Keep up the writing. I'll be following on this blog to see when you publish again.

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