What makes a writer?

What makes a writer?

So I guess the real question is, why do writers write? Do we write to mimic others who have written before us? Are we learners who need to have others tell us if we’ve done it right? Do we write to experiment, to exercise our particular muse? What makes a writer? Why do we write?

I would not presume to speak for anyone else. I write for me. And I also don’t presume to say my way is right. My way is right for me.

I have a lot of training. I studied writing in school, in university, in my life as a reader. Others may not have taken this same course, so I can’t speak for why they write.

But I would ask those others, why do you write? And the obvious answer is because they wish to say something. And why is that? Because writers are different, they see things differently and they are moved to write about those perceptions.

My opinion is we do it in spite of, or alongside of the opinions of others. I’ve thought I was dissed by people who populate this website. Maybe I really was dissed, maybe that was my perception. Others think I’ve dissed them, maybe I did, maybe that was their perception. It doesn’t matter.

The main thing any writer here should do, thinking they have some role to play, or some wisdom to impart, is to be supportive of writing that surprises.

All the writing we hold dear, through historical verification and publishing in major anthologies, was in its time surprising. The ‘experts’ of that writing’s time were not impressed, or they were confused, or just plain disgusted. And they were wrong. That writing turned things around and writing made a quantum leap.

I’m not so egotistical to think my writing might do that, frankly I don’t care. I don’t write for others, I write for me, but hey! I said that already. If it were up to me I’d not allow ratings on this website, but I’d require reviews. They are two different things.

Anybody who reads something on this site should be required to say something about what they read. Instead we are allowed to ignore, drive-by rate, or maybe actually use our writing skills to create a picture of how the work made us feel or look at the world. We should be required to do that, but I know my wish is unrealistic.

But this isn’t about what we should do, instead it is about why we write. And so I’d like to put a challenge out to all those who consider themselves to be serious writers. Plumb your depths and respond to this question: Why do you write?

I can only tell you why I do. Each day of my life I look at the world around me and I have sensual reactions to it, I have intellectual reactions to it, I have philosophical and spiritual reactions to it. I am a writer. And I will write as long as those reactions come to me.

On the other hand I’ve read a lot of work. As a child, as a youth, as a young adult, as an aging one. I have what they call perspective, backed up by education. And if I were to give advice that’s what I’d say to those wishing to write, gain perspective.

And then experiment. Writing is a mutable skill. If all writers wrote like all others before them then writing would be a dying art. Our challenge as writers is to make it live and the only way it will live is when we experiment and change and create things nobody ever saw before.

A lot of it will be crap, a lot of what has already been written has been crap, but take a chance. Change happens in the grinding, like pearls. Don’t be afraid to grind to the beat of a different belief, a different vision, a different style and form.

And when you do that, when you try and create new things and forms, you will come very close to answering my original question. Why do we write? Cognizant beings write about what they see, it isn’t always like what others see, but it is the way and means whereby our culture evolves.

Maybe you shouldn’t ask why you write. Maybe you should just do it, regardless of what other people think, because you have something unique to say. And if other people understand and accept the unique thing you have to say, well and good, and if they don’t, it makes no matter, because you are writing for yourself.

Our society and culture has always changed when people wrote for themselves. Experiment with your writing, don’t expect anything, just experiment. Even the blind acorn sometimes finds a sow. Create some pearls. I am an oyster, so I hope, and so I write.