The Challenge for Writers.

Allerthorpe Woods.For those of us who like, want, need or arecompelled to express ourselves in writing there are a number of challenges tobe faced. These vary according to the nature of the writer and the type ofwriting pursued.So, if you're a writer, what are your challenges?I'll start you off with my own.
My most basic challenge is one I impose on myself bya quirk of personality: I feel strongly about many topics; passionate, even.But I used to allow this strong emotion to overwhelm my writing, so that I becamea proselytising missionary, spreading my beliefs and opinions at the expense ofreadability.
I prefer to write fiction, being a natural teller oftales, rather than an essayist, but my need to teach and preach (I should pointout here that I'm a committed agnostic who views all organised religion withsuspicion - there I go again, you see?) overwhelmed my story telling and turnedmy work into thinly-disguised evangelical tracts on one subject or another. Ofcourse, this isn't attractive to readers. Why would it be? I mean, who careswhat I think? Readers are looking primarily for entertainment. If they want tobe harangued or beaten about the brain with someone's opinion, they'll go thelocal debating society, attend a political rally, visit a church or join somesociety or other. What they want from novels is story.
So, what to do about this unattractive habit ofmine? Well, I wondered if I might dilute the urge to put the world right byallowing myself the luxury of joining serious debates taking place elsewhere,thus allowing that part of my brain to feel it's had its say. That way,perhaps, I could then write instead of 'right', if you see what I mean. So, I'vebecome a member of Digg, StumbleUpon, AllVoices and the HuffingtonPost sites. Here I can indulge my missionary self whenever I feel the urgeto attack some injustice that heats my blood. And there are many, I can tellyou. I've always loathed injustice in every form. I also hate hypocrisy, andlies, and conflict politics, and waste, and environmental denial, and religiousdogma and brainwashing of children and… well, you see where I'm going withthis, don't you? But, by joining these arenas for serious debate, I can get thefrustration out of my system and leave my imagination free to tell stories withoutreference to the passion of that reforming zeal.
Oddly, what I've found is that I now write free ofthe need to teach, but that my work is still influenced by my beliefs andconcerns. However, this now forms themes rather than being the meat of thepieces. So, I'll write a story ostensibly concerning the relationship betweentwo potential lovers but the perceptive reader will recognise the strand ofgender inequality lurking under the surface. Or I'll write a futuristic pieceapparently about the erotic adventures of a couple of 'eternals' but the readerwho sees beneath the surface will detect the thread of debate on the poverty ofrelationships based entirely on the joys of sex and the danger inherent inallowing technology to develop unchecked by common sense. But the stories willbe damn good reads without authorial intrusion. (Those who've read Breaking Faithand The Methuselah Strain may see parallels here).
There's some suggestion that our challenges aswriters may be based in our challenges as human beings and I wonder how truethat might be. I left school early in life, due to a combination ofexternal events over which I had little control (see my previous post on Motivating the Writer if you want more detail.) ButI'd been brought up as a confirmed Christian and, following a crush I developedon the local curate, as a young man, I'd decided on the Church of Englandpriesthood as my future role in life. Events soon knocked that out of me,however; events and a growing sense of the hypocrisy rampant in organisedreligion. But my need to 'preach', to 'evangelise' was clearly alreadydeep-rooted even then. Later, when I re-examined my options and looked back atmy life and varied career, it became clear that I might, as I'd often beentold, have made a good teacher. It's clear that these aspects of my personalityhave come to the fore in my writing. So we can see where personal challengesbecome parallels of writing challenges.
As for injustice and my other long-held passions, Ithink they've developed alongside my self-taught awareness of the wider world.I've quite deliberately exposed myself to those issues that seem important,rather than dive under the covers of simple entertainment or drown myself inthe froth and inconsequence of the celebrity culture that now engulfs so manyadults.
I've always had what many have described as anunhealthy concern for truth and honesty, perhaps inherited from myextraordinary mother, who was a well-loved local confidante of more people thanI realised at the time.
As for my interest in other subjects, my step-fatherwas fascinated by butterflies and moths, by the night sky, by the tales ofRyder Haggard and the poetry of Omar Khayyam, whose work he could quote atlength. So, I suppose I developed similar interests more or less inevitably.Though my own interests in science, natural history and fiction are far widerthan those I was initially introduced to. But my step-father's passion didspill over and infect me.
So, it would seem there's some evidence to supportthe view that our personal challenges can become our writing challenges.
I've exposed mine here for you in the hope that suchconfession might be helpful for my readers and visitors. The refusal to acceptor face those challenges that get in the way of good writing are often thecause of blocking of the creative channels. They must be faced and acknowledgedbefore they can be defeated or at least diverted. If you want to write well,you need to discover what your personal challenges are before you can doanything to reduce their influence on your writing. So, whether you'reafflicted with something as basic as a lack of grammatical discipline andknowledge or something in the way of a more complex psychological problem, thefirst step seems to be acknowledgement of the possibility. Once you reachrecognition, acceptance is not far behind and it is then that strategies can beput in place to reduce the influence of these challenges on your output.
Up to you. You can either share your own challengeshere or keep them private. Either way, a bit of work on them may well result ina more rounded and deeper development as you as a writer. I hope so,anyway. 
Silly and irrelevant question, just for the smile: Whydoes Superman stop bullets with his chest, but duck if you throw a revolver athim?