By Andrew D. Carter
Stories - Can I write consistently, even when I really don't want to?
If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to email me. If I don't know the answer, I'll tell you and try to find someone who does.
You can still write despite wanting to be somewhere else!
OK, the answer to this question is really connected to you. You need to get in touch with why you really want to write stories in the first place. While you're deciding, let's have a look at why some others write. Maybe some of this will strike a chord in your heart.
Katherine Anne Porter once said: 'I did not choose this vocation...yet for this vocation I was and am willing to live and die, and I consider very few other things of the slightest importance'.
Norman Mailer spoke about how his friend, the French writer Jean Malaquais, 'suffered when writing like no-one I know'. When Jean was asked why he went through all this pain the answer was 'But this is the only way one can ever find the truth. The only time I know when something is true is when I discover it in the act of writing'.
Another example comes from the Australian Poet Kenneth Slessor. He talks about the 'pleasure' he gains from writing. However he goes on to say this: 'By which I mean the pleasure of pain, horror, anguish and awe...' Another Australian Poet and Novelist, Bruce Beaver said 'Writing has always been as necessary to me as eating'.
Roger McDonald sees the healing value of writing: 'stepping into a territory where words clarify and heal the obscure and broken edges of experience'. Dorothy Hewett was a writer because her mother wanted her to be one. She commented on the ABC 'not only a writer, but a good writer'. She also cheekily added 'not that my mother really knew the difference'.
Communication can be a driving factor like for Somerset Maugham: 'I was small; I had endurance but little physical strength. I stammered; I was shy; I had poor health'.
However the answer for some points to within. Georges Simenon was very firm in his belief that 'every writer tries to find himself through his characters, through all his writing'. The Welsh Poet and Story Writer, Dylan Thomas, said the in-your-face statement: 'I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me...and my effort is their self expression'.
Kurt Vonnegut says writers are like 'canaries in the coalmines': 'Writers are expressions of the entire society...all artists should be treasured as alarm systems'. While accepting his Nobel Prize, William Faulkner said a Writer must 'help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honour and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice...' of what it means to be truly human.
George Orwell took a very different approach as to why he writes stories: All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand'. Now that's what I call hopefulness, despite loving his works and enjoying especially 'Nineteen Eighty Four'!
OK, I've covered quite a few views on why 'Writers write stories', all except for the most important one to you: YOURS. I can't do that. Only you know why you want to write your stories. Only you know what empowers you. Only you know what you care about the most.
Carmel Bird reiterates in her book 'Dear Writer' the universal truth 'the source for the material of fiction is in the life, the experience, the memory, the self of the writer'. Knowing yourself is the cornerstone of all good stories.
Let me end by giving you something to do. Jot down a few points about why you truly want to write stories. Write down things that really touch your spirit. Write them down for only you to see. File them for future reference, but somewhere handy where you can gain motivation by adding to and re-reading your answers. Use this to write a little everyday, even if it's only to add one more point to your list. Gain power from it!
Now...go write your stories!
Would you like to learn more about writing and have your work critiqued? Would you like to read more compelling fiction? Would you like tips on obtaining income from your heartbreaking works of staggering genius? If so, please visit http://www.storiesdquell.com/html/writing.html to get started today!
From Author Andrew Carter - DQuell Productions and http://www.storiesdquell.com DQuell Stories.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_D._Carter
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