How to Write and Why

Today, my fellow observers of this freak phenomena known as life, I will be talking about something I read. A few days ago, in Studies in Literature, I read the prologue to Harold Bloom's book, "How to Read and Why". In summary, the prologue said that how one should read, is for one's own benefit, because it is impossible to read for the benefit of someone else. Consequently, why to read, is because no one else can read for your own benefit. Now, this got me to thinking;


Why do we write? Is it for reasons as self-serving as the ones for which we read? Are we simply writing to improve our own intellectual ability and standing?


I for one, think that the writer is in fact, in general, just as self-serving as the reader; I think that the true writer, in fact, needs to write (connecting back to my thoughts on the idea of a "Creator's Itch"), and that any and all benefits given to the reader are, in fact, nothing but a side-effect. I say this, because I believe that the motives for art are either one or both of two separate reasons. I believe that the artist can be either a god, a creator of infinite majesty, of worlds, people, events, who controls how these things interact and coexist, like a child with toy soldiers, or an adult with actual soldiers. Or, an artist can be the alternative: A chronicler of events that have already come to pass. The story a chronicler creates appears in his/her mind fully formed, the events and story completely fixed in time, like a prehistoric insect, trapped in amber, and it is their job to retell and detail these events as closely as they can.

In this way, the artist is something of a slave to his creations.

In this way, they are not necessarily his creations at all.

Now, while I have heard of a number of authors who are firmly in the camp of the chronicler, I tend to find myself gravitating, more often than not, into the role of God. When I create a character, I tend to be in very strict control of what this character says and does, and I must say, it is rather intoxicating. Admittedly, this tight degree of control does tend to result in less "flowing" dialogue, which is certainly not my strong suit to begin with. But, I must say that, when I write, no matter how much control I have over the characters I'm writing, I never write for anyone but myself. I only write for me, for my own personal gain, so I can benefit from the existence, and the recording of, my story. So, if there is a single thing you can pull from this nigh-incomprehensible rant, it is this;


When you write, write for you. If you do that, everything tends to work out from there.

 But, enough about my opinions, why do you think people should, or do, write?

484 words,
24 minutes.