Road Trip Wednesday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by YA Highway. This week's topic is: What's your numero-uno reason for writing?
I read the prompt and immediately thought it was a simple--no, easy--question to blog about. And then I started to formulate my answer, and I realized that it's not. It's really hard to explain why I write. Particularly because writing is hard work. An answer like "Because I love telling stories and I have so many I want to tell" doesn't explain how I get past writer's block, first-draft ennui, or tackling notes on a MS.
I write because I like the process and I love the promise. The promise of making something out of random ideas. The promise of falling in love with my characters. The promise of sharing my work with other people, in whatever form that takes. But most of all, the promise of creative freedom.
When I was in elementary school, a poet visited my class. (I wish I remember who she was.) She taught us about the concept of poetic license, and how when you're writing a poem, you can use words however you want. Verbs as nouns, nouns as sounds, nonsense words as meaningful. The poet has total creative freedom and license to do whatever. Poetic license seemed like the greatest thing in the world to me. No rules, total creativity. The people who get to play like that were the luckiest.
Of course I did start trying to use poetic license in my regular schoolwork, and that didn't always go over so well. I figured out not everybody, all the time, can play with words.
I think I started writing because I wanted to get to play like that and have a space where I had no rules, total creativity. And I do feel like the luckiest now, when I'm working on a story.
11 comments:
So true. Just look at Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky and all of the Dr. Seuss works. A whole lot of made up words there! But that's what makes it so fun :)
"But most of all, the promise of creative freedom."
I love your take on this, Rebecca, as well as the image you included. I feel similarly... diving into the unknown with the possibility of crafting something amazing is enough reason for me to overlook all the challenges of writing and keep after it day after day.
Ah, "the promise." I think this is my favorite answer yet!
"the promise of creative freedom." I agree, best answer yet!
I never really think of the creative freedom end of it. That makes tons of sense.
When I was writing academic papers for my Master's, while I enjoyed writing them, I found academic style to be so restrictive. I understand the reasons why you write the way you do when writing for an academic audience (primarily to keep things objective and impersonal), but it's much harder to write creatively, in a way that draws your reader in, when you have to write like this. So I completely agree with your point about having the freedom to play with words, to mess with. Punctuation. To play with words for effect. Good answer!
I love this answer! The creative freedom is an amazing aspect of writing, not just the freedom to use words as we'd like but also the freedom to dream up new worlds, etc.
And, YES, the promise!
'I love the promise.' I definitely related to this a lot more than the, ahem, easier answers of 'because I love it!'. I don't *always* love it: I get blocked, I get frustrated when my skill level doesn't match up to my taste, sometimes I'm just not in the mood. But the promise is a constant.
What a great answer! There is so much promise and excitement in creativity. Beautifully expressed :)
"I like the process and I love the promise" was perfectly put. The freedom of wordplay drives my need to write as well.
Oh, I loooove your response to this. "The promise..." and the freedom to be creative. Yes and yes. Excellent post!
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