Why Do I Write: 008

Why Do I Write?

Why do I write always seems like a question which should have some profound answer. Something about having to share your passion or outlook with the world. To educate or bring attention to something vitally important to you, and those around you. Or maybe something even more wax lyrical. I’m not undermining or mocking any of those reasons, they’re all great reasons. But, if I'm truthful with myself (which I always try to be) my answer is a lot simpler:

I write because I really really enjoy writing and storytelling.

I could make it grander and say it’s my lifeblood, and that’s true to a degree (although cinema also gets me out of bed in the morning) but it’s the enjoyment of telling a story which makes me write most days. It’s a selfish reason to be honest, because, if I stopped enjoying writing, I wouldn’t do it anymore, no matter how well (or not) things were going. I write stories for myself, expressing the ideas that have popped into my head. I really hope others enjoy my tales, but they’re truly written for an audience of one.

Enjoyment

I think my reason of writing because I enjoy it is important in this day and age because it almost goes against that ever thinning line. A lot of times now people monetise what would normally have been a hobby. Good at Photography, start a Youtube Channel. Enjoy sewing, you should have an Etsy. You like Skateboarding, you should post clips of your tricks on Instagram or TikTok. It’s rare to see someone just enjoying a hobby now with no strings attached.

And once it’s turned into a business, the joy can be sucked from it fast. Not always… but there is that lingering threat. And if you do fall out of love with it pushing forward because it’s your business could permanently ruin the pure love for the hobby you once had.

I’m guilty of monetising my hobby too as I self publish my work, but I know for a fact that I'd write most days just for me whether I made another penny in the craft or not. I want it to be my career. I want to one day be able to live off my writing again, but I've barely written a word for anyone else, and frankly, never will again.

Writing has always brought me joy, from writing short stories as a kid, to the scripts I wrote in my teens through to my late thirties, to the last few years working on different novels. And all while I have that enjoyment, I’ll continue to write, whether the stories are read by anyone else or not (although, please read them)

Storytelling

Another big reason I write is my fascination with the art of storytelling. I find the structure of stories sometimes just as interesting as the words themselves. I read way too much Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler in my teens. Learning about the Heroes Journey and Character Archetypes. I was fascinated by mythology from all around the world. Soon that love spread to script writing and Syd Field’s work on the Three Act Structure.

Storytelling for me holds a direct mirror to life. We’re all the heroes (or sometimes villains) of our own story, and are going on a wild journey filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys. I like that idea, even if I feel like I've had too many dramatic dips and low points in the last ten years.

Within my writing I never grow tired of playing with structure and format. Writing outrageous shit which somehow still largely fits into the Journey. I like hitting those beats and reaching transitional moments. Experimenting with different combination of character archetypes. I love twisting genre conventions, or applying them in interesting ways to genres they don’t belong in. My writing is a practical way to do those experiments, while also getting to tell a complete story.

I guess all that stuff comes under finding my voice. My Style. Improving as a writer. I believe I can only really do that if I'm writing for myself, rather than to a current trend, or even my own readership. I back myself, and hope to learn a lot more about writing while I do.

Creative Outlet

Then there’s the Creative Outlet idea. I am someone who firmly believe everyone should have some form of creative outlet. A way to either express themselves, or take themselves out of the day-to-day grind of the world. Disappear into something they love. Writing and Photography are my creative outlets (Along with cinema)

I adore creating new worlds. Building a character from scratch. Telling an insane story that can’t possibly happen, but treat it like it is happening. It gets my brain firing. I can spend, days, weeks, months obsessing over the world I'm building for the story I'm telling and in those moments nothing else matters. However difficult my life is or isn’t at the time, the result is the same, I can disappear into my work.

Maybe some would argue that’s not healthy. That these stories are a way of escaping things I need to face, and that may well be true, but I don’t care. I like living in the worlds I'm building. Moulding the characters I'm creating. And there is plenty of subtext in my work dealing with the things which matter to me in real life, even if I don’t make a big deal of it on the surface of the story. (the way subtext should be)

Writing is my way of expressing myself, but it’s also my way of telling fantastical nonsense stories. It can be both!

Life

Writing will always be part of my life. I know that, because it has been already for over forty years. I’ve stopped for little periods of times when things have gotten rough, and I'd stop again if I need a little break from it, but it’s something I'll always go back to. I always have.

Writing has helped me overcome grief. Gotten me through heartbreak. Helped me in my absolute lowest moments, and rarely by ever writing about the issue itself. Often, it’s just being able to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard now) and tell a story. Any story, no matter how absurd, or straight forward… as long as it’s one I've created and want to tell. That’s always the key part for me: I write because I want to write.

That won’t ever change.

… I haven’t added a personal update this week because things have been kind of quiet. I’m working hard on Alice on the Air but little else and am just having one of those weeks where I’m a little in my own head (Did also finish reading all of the Darren Shan Saga though)

I won’t write a personal aside next week either as I’m away for a couple of days but there will be a post. After that, should be back to business as normal.

Stephen