Brenda Weaver.com
Articles
Home
Updates
Ancestors of Fire
My Newsletter
Articles
About Me
New Listings
Contact Me
Author Links
Autographed copies
Hell's Raging Fury
Dragon Lord of Kells
Reviews

Why do we write?

By Brenda J Weaver

 

 

     Why do we write? Are we bored? Do we do it for attention? Maybe we do it just so we will leave something substantial behind when we go beyond this life. As for me, I write because its a part of me. A part of who I am. I dont think I have ever written because I was bored. For attention? Perhaps, although I have never thought of it that way. As far as leaving something substantial behind when my soul wonders to the great beyond, well, I never thought of it that way either until my dear husband brought it to my attention. He told me he envied me because when I am gone people will remember me because of my poems and my stories. It was very touching and what a wonderful way to be remembered after our passing.

     No, I write because there are all these little stories, locked up inside of me wanting to be born. Its just something that I have to do. Ever since I was a little girl, my imagination has run wild. I wrote short stories all the time because they needed to be born. When I wrote my first full length novel I was in heaven. I pushed myself from short stories to full manuscripts and I am glad I did. Writing to me is like taking a trip through time. Its a harrowing experience and youre just not sure what is going to happen next until you are there and once its finished youve had the time of your life!

     Yes, we writers are eccentric to a point. But we need to be so that we can use our imaginations to its full potential. We are word warriors in every since of the phrase. We paint pictures with words in order for our stories to come to life. When we take a name for our hero or heroine and work around it to bring life to the characters, its like that old Frankenstein movie where Dr. Frankenstein says, after building him, Its alive! Its alive! Thats how I feel when I breath life into my characters and my story unfolds.

     If I only had one chance to help someone become a writer, I would tell them point blank. This is not a business for the faint of heart. Its a hard business to get into and a hard one to stay into. And yes, it is a business! If you do not look at it as such then you will certainly have failed yourself. Granted, there are those, with the new technology for e-books and the small publishing houses, that do it just for fun once or twice just to say that yes, I have a book published. That is fine if that is all that you have in you. As for me and the rest of us hard working writers, it is a career or at least that is how we would like to perceive it. So in that point, we have to work harder to get published, to fight up the ladder of success with a thousand other writers who are doing the same. To me, that is one of lifes greatest challenges. When you get that first letter that says yes your book is good but no we have no place for it at this time, your heart sinks into the dark abyss of your soul. Why would someone say yes its good but no they dont want it? Who knows?! All one can do is pick up the pieces and start over again.

     Why start over again just for another let down? Because all these little voices that are inside of you are begging to be born and you just cant let them down. You cant let yourself down. I had tried off and on for over twenty years to get my first book published. Talk about disheartening, but I kept trying and in the mean time I kept writing. My own personal novel log is chock full of stories and ideas for stories yet to be born. And each and everyone of them will have their day in the sun if I have anything to say about it. I will keep trying for each one of them until I take my last breath.

     We as writers are humbled by the fact that our fans love our work and we try to the utmost of our abilities to fulfill their hearts with the love of our characters. It is our duty as a writer to fulfill their fantasies as well as our own. If not for them, we are nothing.

     I hope that if you decide to write a story whether it be a short one, a novel or a poem, that you bare your soul and use your imagination to its full extent. For by doing so, you will have fulfilled your hearts desire.

 

 

 

 

 

All Rights Reserved 2004