Have any of you attempted to write? I'm not talking about essays and such. I mean, simply for the joy of seeing your thoughts and creativity manifested in solid form, writing... Well I have. Multiple times. And may I just say, writing a book is hard. Millions of ideas for wonderful stories float in my head constantly... but they are very shallow ideas. They often lack the subplots and twists necessary to hook a readers attention, and when I attempt to elaborate on these, my idea withers away.
Poetry, on the other hand, is cake. All you need is metaphor, perhaps a catchy rhythm, some subtle (or not so subtle) word play... All you need to make poetry is a feeling and a desire to express it. With books, you need drive. You need a desire to make history. To change history. To predict the future. To act as a tour guide to distant lands nobody has ever heard of. To use one sense to engage all the others. To not just express your emotion, but to draw out the emotions of anyone who reads your words.
Maybe I'm just built for comfort... but all that takes a lot of energy. The next time you read a book, tap into the emotional road map of every character that crosses the page, then imagine how much more it must have taken to develop these emotions in the first place. I'm not trying to say that writing is some treacherous journey that should be avoided, but I do think the profession is being seen in a smaller spotlight, so to speak, and I don't think that's very wise. "Anyone can write a book" I've heard this many times... and it's true. My point is that most won't, because it's time consuming, and stressful, and in my experience, it requires you to know yourself.
One day, I hope to be a published author. I want to engage people all over the world with my words and stories. However, I intend on doing it like J.K. Rowling or Anne Rice or J.R.R. Tolkien and not Stephenie Meyer. I intend of being absolutely exhausted after I finish a book, because it is going to take every ounce of emotion, every single creative thought, and every bit of concentration I have.
At this point I'd like to point out that I don't think Meyer is a terrible writer, just a lazy one. Her storyline is very... predictable, and I agree with some of the observations made by others on the web, that her books seem to feed on the emotions of the readers instead of engage them... Her books of sparkly vampires are indeed emotional vampires themselves. Again, I point out, this is not necessarily a bad thing. She has made millions from it. I'm just not fond of this method or writing.
I loved this post-- it's so true, there's a major difference between writing or reading a book and living the story inside your head. The former is a narrative, and the latter is an experience.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. For me, writing is the most freely-indulgent way to live out your fantasies that lie yet beyond your grasp. Though writing purely for self can seem rather masturbatory, you can do it as much as you damn-well want and audience or no audience, the only one you need please with it is yourself! Keep writing!! <3
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