Why writing is worth it
I'm presently doing a paper edit of The Emerald Serpent and a screen edit of the Kira Chronicles series. I've also just been involved in enrolling our students for semester 2 of the Bachelor of Writing and Publishing at Fairfield, and today I turn 60. So all these things have got me thinking about the whole creative journey. Thanks to my other half leaving the alarm set for 5, when he got up and went to Sydney at 4, I've had a great deal of time to lay in the dark and consider how long I have left to tell the stories that still lurk inside me.
I feel a creeping sense of desperation about this but how important is it really? What writers labor over, what drives them, what excites and desponds them; does it really matter?
Storying is so old that it's tempting to claim it as being part of what it means to be human and while I never purposefully started to write until 38, I was always wandering about, usually alone, contemplating things - building up a writing store, I realise now. And I continue to do the same; alert always to what seems odd; to what prompts questions; to what resonates.
I'm thinking too that the question about whether storying matters, has two parts: mattering to the writer and mattering to the culture. The writer has their heart and soul invested in what they write (or they should have); so writing is both intensely personal, fulfilling and frustrating. To write is to perpetually grasp after the eternally elusive; to try to capture the vision in the imperfect vehicle of words. And even when captured, storying is not icing on some cake; it is (or should be) nourishment for the soul; it should say something; observe something; not in a teacher-ish way, but so subtly and powerfully that the reader hears and understands without conscious effort.
Whether the culture values storying is evidenced by our narrative-centric society: books, films, ads, apps, songs, politics and so on, all build stories or encase themselves in story. How a culture values individual stories is something else again and comes and goes with fashions and with political climates. The most damaging thing a writer or storyer can do is to trade their unique story for the story they think the culture wants.
As you the writer stumbles about in the dark cave of your story, tripping on stones and barking your shins on plot problems and characters obscure motivations, keep your attention firmly on the dull glimmer that hints of uncut gems. These are uniquely yours, worth the hunt, and they do matter.
I feel a creeping sense of desperation about this but how important is it really? What writers labor over, what drives them, what excites and desponds them; does it really matter?
Storying is so old that it's tempting to claim it as being part of what it means to be human and while I never purposefully started to write until 38, I was always wandering about, usually alone, contemplating things - building up a writing store, I realise now. And I continue to do the same; alert always to what seems odd; to what prompts questions; to what resonates.
I'm thinking too that the question about whether storying matters, has two parts: mattering to the writer and mattering to the culture. The writer has their heart and soul invested in what they write (or they should have); so writing is both intensely personal, fulfilling and frustrating. To write is to perpetually grasp after the eternally elusive; to try to capture the vision in the imperfect vehicle of words. And even when captured, storying is not icing on some cake; it is (or should be) nourishment for the soul; it should say something; observe something; not in a teacher-ish way, but so subtly and powerfully that the reader hears and understands without conscious effort.
Whether the culture values storying is evidenced by our narrative-centric society: books, films, ads, apps, songs, politics and so on, all build stories or encase themselves in story. How a culture values individual stories is something else again and comes and goes with fashions and with political climates. The most damaging thing a writer or storyer can do is to trade their unique story for the story they think the culture wants.
As you the writer stumbles about in the dark cave of your story, tripping on stones and barking your shins on plot problems and characters obscure motivations, keep your attention firmly on the dull glimmer that hints of uncut gems. These are uniquely yours, worth the hunt, and they do matter.
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