Why I Write

After work the other day, I had lunch with a good friend. Privy to my novel-writing adventure, he asked how much progress I’ve made since the last time we’d talked. I admitted that I’ve been letting school take over lately and I still haven’t added much to the first scene I began that night at the coffee shop. I feel ok about this though because I read somewhere (I read more about writing than I actually write I think!) that one fairly successful method of writing is to simply keep the piece in your head until you’ve kept it pent-up so long it finally can’t help but be written and bursts out onto the paper in front of you. My friend was sympathetic to the fact that sometimes we just have to let school come before our other projects. Then he asked me a question that I thought I knew the answer to.

“Why are you writing this book?”

I gave him the same answer I’ve given everybody else—“I’m writing it because it’s a life-goal of mine to complete a novel. I figured starting it now is better than starting it later.”

The difference in how this conversation went and conversations with everybody else—everybody else has accepted this answer!

“So,” he continued, ”are you writing this because you want a pat on the back from people? Because you want it to get published? For your own personal satisfaction? Because you hope to sell it to movie people and become rich and famous like JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer or Nicholas Sparks?”

Ok, so he didn’t necessarily list all those people…but that was the jist of that specific question.

So he expected more of an answer. But I didn’t HAVE more of an answer! I will say why I know I’m NOT writing this novel—I’m not writing this novel so that my friends and family can just give me a pat on the back. I’m not writing this novel because I hope to get rich and famous, hell, I’d be surprised if I ever even got a piece of work sold to a publisher! So I’m also not necessarily writing this novel to send it out to hundreds of editors who will probably not pick it up, or to have my editor send it to hundreds of agents who will probably not pick it up, or to have my agent send it to hundreds of publishing houses who will probably not pick it up. And I’m not writing this novel just for the hell of it—to have a shitty first draft that I put away in a drawer where it dies.

I’ve been thinking about it the past couple of days. I don’t know that I’ve arrived at an answer that would satisfy my good friend. I am writing this novel because, as I said, it’s a goal of mine . I am writing this novel for the sheer joy of it. I am writing this novel as a personal challenge, and the feeling I know I’ll have when I’ve finished writing that first draft and I can start editing it and beginning a second draft. And a third. And fourth. And however many drafts it takes for me to know that the piece I’ve spent so long working on is the personal best effort I can give it. I’m writing this novel because, well, I’m a writer. And writing is what we do, damn it.

There is no right answer—I don’t think. Everybody writes for his or her own reasons. And as long as we’re writing, I don’t necessarily think anybody else can say that their reason isn’t good enough (except, I have to be honest—I think if someone is writing just in the hopes of becoming rich and famous, they’re a load of crap).

Oh and also, I just bought a book called “Child 44” by Tom Rob Smith. Apparently it’s also being made into a movie—due out sometime this year. I picked it up because it was only $6 and it’s the author’s first novel. Seemed like an inspirational notion to me,

Tell me, fellow writers, (who may only write because they’re required to, and that’s ok) I want to know why you write.