And besides, in fiction, you can make the good guys win every time. Yeah, I know someday God will make real life have a happy ending, but it may not be in my lifetime. Writing fiction is like taking illegal drugs without the side effects, immorality, and fried brains.

Rob

The world of fiction still has to follow the same principles that the rest of us must follow. However, in my story or novel I get to determine the outcome. The bad guy is still caught or dies, and the girl still gets her hero. But in the end, when the rules are followed, I get to mete out the justice and the rewards.

After years of seeing good people hurt by bad people, there is a sense of control that I’ve never had in writing how-to manuals. I enjoy creating characters and developing them into people with strengths, weakness, idiosyncrasies, habits, and personality traits. Writing fiction is not only rewarding, it just plain fun.

Of course, I also do it for the thrill of creating new worlds. I love the thrill of naming new creatures no one has ever thought of, or creating places and names that stir the imagination. Who knew there were so many universes just within my own mind?

I also write because in my mind, at least, I think one day I could one day be as good as Tolkien or Jordan. They are the two men I aspire to. I am young and full of fire, and I have time and passion to become the best writer I can be.

I think that about covers it.

I write because I live.

Most of my writing until recently (40 odd books) has been non-fiction…and writing non-fiction has been as boring as anything!

As I’m not 7 foot tall, nor built like tank, my heroes and heroines can do all the things I can’t. Writing fiction brings dreams to life. Some people might say I need to see a shrink. Perhaps I do. I’ll write one in!

But I also love the way I can alter the environment to suit my story. I can create scenarios that make my writing a furious and fastpaced adventure story, or slow it down for tender love scene….or two…

Yes, I love writing fiction!

Wow. I could say because it’s part of me. I could say that I do it to get these people out of my head - coz it’s a little crowded up there. I could say that I write because I have to, because if I don’t I’ll go crazy. But, whilst these all have their impact on my need to write, it isn’t all of it.

I write fiction because I feel it. What the hell does that mean? Well, I watch a lot of sci-fi - always have - and I feel that too. I dream of other worlds, other galaxies, other histories and I can feel as the characters do, see as they do. And I want to find out if they resolve anything, if they go anywhere, what they do when they get there. I can let them live their lives and feel free from the constraints of the ‘real world’ for a while as I watch the characters progress.

It’s like asking myself ‘How would I feel to be standing on another world?’ in the morning then in the evening be staring up at an unfamiliar sky and saying ‘Oh! That’s what it feels like.’

I’ll never leave this planet. I’ll probably never leave the town I was born in. But with my fiction, even if no one ever reads it, if no one ever cares about it, at least I can send someone to other places, to a more interesting, fulfilling, involving, exciting existence that the one I lead.

Why do I write fiction? Because without fiction, my life would be empty, dark, dull and monotonous. Without fiction, my dreams are worthless. I write to live the dreams I can never fulfill. I write because I need to.

As a human, I’ve seen both apes and humans buck-naked. Not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. As a nurse, I’ve seen way more than that. As a fiction writer… Ahh, that’s where the fun begins! I get to see the baby in the womb, limbs forming, eyelids developing, taking shape and growing into something wonderful. I’ll admit, the giving birth is still painful. Haven’t found a way around that yet. But when you hold that published mss in your arms for the first time, you forget the difficulty of the birthing process. At least for a little while.

Stop writing? Never! I MUST continue to write. Stories, poetry and fiction will allow my grandchildren and others to see the world in vivid technicolor. Zowie!

Writing in itself is like your life story. Each story has characters that embody a little of piece of you. Your telling a story but you somehow find yourself addicted because the characters you have created are visions of you. Like God is in all of us. A little part of us is in the stories we create. Writing is therapeutic.

Non fiction is overrated. Fiction can take non-fiction and apply it to the fictionalized world. You’re basically getting a two for one deal. Fiction is the future and the future is stranger than fiction. So what do you get? You get non fiction. Fiction itself eventually becomes non fiction.

Jerry Lewis held a comedian workshop once, and he interviewed every single student, only asking one question: “Why do you want to make people laugh?” Without the correct answer, he turned people away regardless of talent.

The answer is: “Because I have to.” I need to.

When I don’t write, the unwritten words beg me to write them. The stories inside me clamor to be told. I have A Story, only one, but it can be told a myriad of ways, with infinite plots and infinite twists and infinite endings. The Need to Feed the Beast is inside me, always ravenous, always inspired. I go nowhere without a pen and notebook. Writing is what I do. Writing is What I Am.

Condidi ergo est. I write, therefore I am.

[Thank you for your newsletters, and now for the blog as well. You’ve always been so helpful in improving my writing. I eat, sleep, and breathe the Snowflake, and it’s had an impact on me like nothing else. All the work you do for us author-hopefuls is very appreciated, Mr. Ingermanson!]

And when someone says, “Oh my God, I can’t believe it! Why did you make Sean leave?” It makes you forget all the tortures you went through while writing it. In the end, you have won.

I started writing because of a dream I had. Not a vision but a dream. Now I can’t stop. The dialogues pop into my head, scenes create themselves in my mind, and characters are screaming to be let out.

I love writing. It’s better than reading. I hold on to the pen (or keyboard) for dear life as my characters race all over the page (or screen). I get such a charge out of it!

Fiction is also a very strong tool to help us all (the writer and the reader) see beyond the natural possiblilities around us. It expands our horizon, propels us to experience cultures, continents, emotions that we may have never encountered. Through fiction, we can live and feel beyond ourselves.

I love to tackle impossibilities; that’s another reason why i write fiction.

Do I write because I CAN’T not write? Um…most of the time. My mind is now trained to look at life as one big pool of ideas for different stories, so if I didn’t have some outlet for that, I’d go nuts. (More so than I already am.)

But, first and foremost, I look at my writing as a ministry. I pray each time I sit down at the keyboard for God to give me the words, for his message to come through loud and clear (makes me feel guilty for editing sometimes…ha) and that what I write will reflect Him. It’s my ministry, my passion, my desire to give back. That’s the main reason.

And, if I’m honest, I want to be my own boss, (answering only to God, okay, and my editor), set my own hours…and get paid to do something I love. Yeah, I want the money…but at least I have my priorities right, right?

I write fiction because it is the most simple and at the same time most complex creative act I can undertake.

What can be simpler than taking up a pen and squiggling it against paper to get words?

What can be more complex than creating entire worlds, populating them with people who are more real than real, and giving their lives meaning and justice?

It really is all about writing colossal “lies” that tell the simplest, most fundamental “truth.”

It’s just incredibly cool to have this power that ultimately humbles me when I wield it. I wish more people realized that they have the same power. Learning a story and fighting myself to write it down truthfully is the best way I have found to learn how to be a real human being.

Plus I write the stories down in order to make more room in my head for more stories. I have quite a backlog so I better get back to my writing. LOL

As for fiction writing . . . I write fiction to escape my mundane existence. If you don’t have a life, create one.

Welcome to the blog world. I look forward to it!

Randy Ingermanson finally got his Advanced fiction writing blog up and running. In his first post, he asked “What Drives You To Write Fiction?”
For me, the stories themselves drive me to write. It’s kind of like they take a life of th…

If the heroine in my current WIP were to take on flesh and blood, I’d probably be on the losing side of a fight right now. I’d better not let her read my plot chart.

Great new blog, Randy! I’ll add it to my favorites if you don’t mind.

Okay, that’s only part of the reason. Like those before me, and I’m sure after me, I write because I have to.

To hold it in is similar to having the stomach flu. Keeping the story churning in my head hurts worse than letting it all out.

I can’t claim any higher purpose to my stories or my characters, because I honestly have no control over them. In short, I do what the voices tell me to do. If not, sheesh do they become annoying!

This is such a great encouragment, and proof(maybe) that I’m NOT crazy.

I agree with you, I write fiction because I can’t stop. All the stories, ideas, inspirations, and voices in my head need a place to be expressed. (Yes
I said voices, and no I’m NOT CRAZY

Just the simplest thought or something in the news, on billboards, or on the side of the road set my mind off in a hundred directions, and they don’t stop until I pull them into a plot or character.

Our world is full of unique people, and I love watching our own mannerisms play out, each with a story to tell. People watching just shows how many stories there are out there. (Yes I watch people, no I’M NOT CRAZY!)

Even the creative process is an amazing example of the time, effort, love, pain, sweat, and tears God spent on us. Watching my fingers type out words on a page, and listening to the ping pong balls of ideas in my head draws me closer to God often leaving me breathless at how Amazing HE is.

I could go on and on about this subject, cause it’s the reason I get up in the morning. And I probably should stop before you think I need a straight jacket.

Thanks Randy!

Writing forces me to look with deep and true eyes at the world and especially at myself. Writing makes me more compassionate, more humble, less judgmental. Writing saved my sanity through my midlife crisis. Writing gets me up at five in the morning even on the days when all I can do is stare at a blank screen and pray for words, any words.

Right now, after a long string of painful rejections and in the midst of a serious block, I’m tempted to say writing is an expression of masochism. But deep down I know that’s not true. Reading fiction has given my life deeper meaning, and I want to contribute what little mite I can to that great tradition. Writing puts me in a community with people like Jane Austen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis. I don’t know any neighborhood where I’d rather live.

Deciding why I *shouldn’t* write is a question I could answer. Why shouldn’t I write?

For all the reasons you mentioned—writing pays crap for the most part; writing takes dedication and years of practice to the exclusion of a lot of other things; writing opens doors for anybody who can read (and some who are barely literate) to tell you that you stink and are wasting your time; writing reveals secret parts of me that I, first of all didn’t know existed, and secondly didn’t want anybody to know about; writing has brought on a recurring and horrible pain in my shoulder and wrists; writing has required me to change my sleep schedule to accommodate the time required to produce the work—I now get up at 4 a.m. every single day and write until I have to go to my “real job”; writing forced me to step outside my comfort zone by writing letters to editors and agents I don’t know asking them to *please* read my stuff; writing has cost me money what with software, conferences, website hosting, paper, stamps…it’s not cheap.

And finally, writing is hard to do well—it’s sooo hard to do it well. I read a book like To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I think to myself, “Holy crap. I’ll never be able to do it like that!” Did I mention that writing also gave me a massive inferiority complex?

So why do I write? People constantly find reasons for not doing it, and I understand all of them, I really do. But honestly, I think for me not writing is like fighting my body’s natural functions—like holding my breath. I can do it for a while, but I turn blue, feel dizzy, and ultimately pass out. Then I wake up, and I’m doing it again. That’s pretty much the size of it.

I enjoy several different creative endeavours; experimenting with ingredients to come up with new recipes, taking parts of one sewing pattern combining them with another then using material of my choice to end up with an original design or bringing all the elements together that turn a house into a home. Yet of all the creative endeavours that I’m involved in, I find writing fiction to be the most challenging.

After all, what could be more challenging than sitting down and creating an entirely new world. Even if that world is a street in a well-known city, it is still new in the sense that it is being relayed through the unique lense of the writer’s eye. And then to inhabit that world with beings (human or otherwise) who have never existed until the moment they pop into your mind. Then once all that’s assembled to take them and yourself on an adventure the like of which has never been lived before.

Now it doesn’t alway happen in that order. In fact for me, the characters usually come first and they have already started the adventure without me. I must then discover where they are, what’s happened to get them to this point and inevitably, how to get them out of the trouble they’ve gotten themselves into.

The final challenge, of course, in writing ficiton is to relay all that information to the reader in such a way that they feel like they’re taking part in the adventure too.

Susan

P.S. It was interesting to note how you had applied the same principles to writing your first blog entry as were explained in the latest issue of The Mad Genius Writer E-zine. What a great way to reinforce that lesson!

That is how writing is for me. It is something I have to do and if I don’t, it will drive me crazy until I can sit down and do it. Sometimes, like phlegm, no one wants to see it, but sometimes I get lucky and the world craves to read it (at least my small little world). I don’t really have any choice in the matter, it is just a byproduct of my brain function.

I write, therefore I am. No parody intended. (If you believe that, then I have caused you to suspend your disbelief…)
Most of all I LOVE fiction. It’s the only way I can truly get in touch with myself; and by the same token with others who love fiction.
That’s it. End of story. Or is it the beginning?
John

I write because it gives me deep-down emotional satisfaction.

The deeper answer: I love the puzzle of finding all the pieces of my story world and figuring out how to put them together most effectively. I really love that feeling of flow that comes when I’m totally immersed in that other world and I can feel the chemistry in my brain shift (it’s an addiction, even, since I get cranky if I haven’t hit flow in a few days!). I love learning new things (aka research, craft and yes, even marketing!). I love choosing just the right word, or crafting the perfect metaphor to translate the picture in my head onto paper and then into someone else’s imagination. I also love talking writing with other writers.

Okay, and I struggle to remember that I love all these things when I’m in that scary stage between the ultimate possibility of idea and the reality of getting it on the blank page. But I love the feeling of triumph when I screw up my courage, dive in, and get those words down.

Thanks for making me think about why I write fiction. Now I’ve got to go create some!

I also am beginning to love the challenge of editing, to take a story and shape it to make what I’ve envisioned the best it can be. It’s daunting at times. It’s a different sort of animal altogether. But I see that it’s just as important as the writing if I want to share that with anyone else.

Welcome to the blogging world!

I write because I feel God gave me this gift to use and I’m trying to use it in a way that glorifies Him.

I write so I don’t have to match socks or wash dishes. I’m too busy creating my next, best novel to be disturbed, doncha know.

I write so I don’t have to wear a bra. The computer doesn’t care if I’m in pajamas and truly, my imagination needs all the blood flowing freely to my brain.

I write so I can just say no to drugs. There is nothing quite as exhilerating as the “writer’s high.” When I’m in that zone and the whole world disappears, it’s the end-all, be-all of my existance. Besides, what other ‘drug’ gives you a sellable product when you come down?

In the end, I write because if I didn’t, I would be grading potatoes on a farm somewhere in Wisconsin, on medication because my mind would wander so much, folks would think I had checked out of reality for good.

Seriously, why would I give up safe driving, getting out of household chores, going braless, and a perfeclty legal, free drug to grade potatoes?

I had never thought about the second until you mentioned it. We ARE created in His image, which means that we are given creativity and humor, the ability to create something from nothing in a sense. It is the most exhilarating thing (believe me– I’ve gone skydiving and white water rafting too) to see world and characters take form under your guidence and then reveal something to you that you hadn’t thought of because they are created in your image and can create something on their own.

As for the first, over the years I’ve tried to stop writing because sometimes it felt like I wasn’t DOING anything. But I couldn’t stop. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop. And once I accepted that (still struggling sometimes), I feel free– this is a gift God has given me so I need to use it to the best of my abilities.

Thank you, Randy, for creating this e-zine (and now blog); I find it a real encouragment that there is someone out there who doesn’t even know me encouraging me to continue writing.

~Jessica

“I have often begun with an actual experience and in the end produced what I have had to call a fiction. In the effort to tell a whole story, to see it whole and clear, I have had to imagine more than I have known. ‘There’s no use telling a pretty good story when you can tell a really good one.’” (p41 The Way of Ignorance)

You asked, “Are we sick? Are we stupid? Are we that desperate for attention?”

Maybe to a non-writer. But like you Randy, I CAN’T NOT write. (Though when it became and idol in my life I had to lay it down for a while.)

So who am I to fight against what God designed and called me to do?