{"id":768,"date":"2016-03-04T19:05:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T23:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=768"},"modified":"2016-03-04T19:05:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T23:05:21","slug":"and-the-question-is-why-do-we-writers-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=768","title":{"rendered":"And, the Question is: Why do We Writers Write?"},"content":{"rendered":"

And, the Question is:\u00a0 Why do We Writers Write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no right or wrong answer.\u00a0 I came to literature as entertainment.\u00a0 I devoured books as soon as I learned how to read, perhaps because my mother was a voracious reader-mostly mystery books, and later in life romance novels.\u00a0 Probably because my mother read to me-fairy tales and nursery rhymes-or my sisters read them to me or did I read them to myself?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Literature was entertainment; and, it was also a place a child could go to escape the place she was in\u2014unfamiliar places.* My sister and I went to the neighborhood library almost daily because my mother was a fast reader and we children were the supplier of books-and cigarettes (in the 50\u2019s children could go to the corner grocery store and buy cigarettes simply with a note from a parent).<\/p>\n

No doubt, many writers write to entertain, especially fan fiction writers:\u00a0 romance novels, vampire stories, mystery novels.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re all fluff.\u00a0 I admire the research that goes into most writing.\u00a0 Research immerses a reader in setting-time and place\/history or future.\u00a0 However, all of the writers I\u2019ve worked with write because they have a story to tell.\u00a0 They are witnesses\u2019 of their own and other\u2019s stories.\u00a0 Joy Harjo\u2019s The Women Who Fell from the Sky <\/em>comes to mind; in \u201cWolf Warrior\u201d she writes:\u00a0 \u201cI know I carried this story for a reason and now I understand I am to give it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask students: what do you obsess about?\u00a0 What story is it you need to write, what story do you write over and over again, or, what story haven\u2019t you written because you\u2019re afraid to write it?\u00a0 I ask these questions because I think it is a human need to understand. I write to understand myself, to make sense of who I am.\u00a0 Other writers may search for other epiphanies of understanding, whether of spirit or science; whether of the past, the present, or the future.\u00a0 It\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an audience for all of our stories.\u00a0 We may be our own best audience, but there\u2019s an audience, perhaps beyond our reach, that doesn\u2019t yet know they want to\/they need to hear our stories. Someone once told me that releasing our stories to the public is part of the writing process.\u00a0 I tend to agree.\u00a0 It may be an intimate sharing with a family member or a friend, or a public sharing at an open-mic.\u00a0 It might be publishing on social media, self-publishing a book, or having a book accepted by an independent, or not, publisher.<\/p>\n

Why do we write?\u00a0 Because it gives us pleasure, but sometimes grief; writing is a tool to understand ourselves, to witness, to tell the truth, to imagine\u2014to release joy, pain, and anger.\u00a0 We write because our story, and stories that are important to us, were not the stories we grew up with reading.\u00a0 They are the stories we lived.\u00a0 With writing we have the power to record history, condemn it and\/or praise it, and \/or reimagine it; we have the power to be.<\/p>\n

Writing Exercise:\u00a0 *Unfamiliar places I visited, as a child, through reading were, amongst many, the following books:\u00a0 Flicka, Ricka, Dicka; Curious George, Dr. Doolittle, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, Little House on the Prairie, Alice\u2019s Adventure in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, The Five Chinese Brothers, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, and many more.\u00a0<\/strong> What are the places you visited, as a child, through books?\u00a0 Were they familiar places?\u00a0 Write a children\u2019s story that reflects your experience as a child.<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n

\u00a9Sherry Quan Lee, March 4, 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And, the Question is:\u00a0 Why do We Writers Write? There is no right or wrong answer.\u00a0 I came to literature as entertainment.\u00a0 I devoured books as soon as I learned how to read, perhaps because my mother was a voracious reader-mostly mystery books, and later in life romance novels.\u00a0 Probably …<\/p>\n

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