What drives you to write fiction? After all, writing fiction is hard work. You might spend years learning the craft of writing fiction. Then more years trying to get your work published. Then the reviewers sink their fangs into your precious baby. Then your book hits the shelves, sells a few copies, and disappears in the flood of new titles. All for a LOT less money per hour than you’d earn flipping burgers.
Why do we put up with up with this? Are we sick? Are we stupid? Are we that desperate for attention? Why do you write fiction?
I’ll tell you why I write fiction. It’s because . . . I can’t NOT write fiction. Yes, writing is painful, hard, knuckle-busting work. But I love it. I love starting with a third of an idea. I love composting that idea for years and years. I love adding to it little by little. I love developing the design for a beautifully structured story. I love hanging out with characters who don’t really exist anywhere except in that small space between my ears. I love writing proposals and selling them to editors. I love sitting down to a clean page and typing that first sentence. I love drilling out my daily word count. I love finishing the story and typing THE END and knowing that I’ve done something most people can’t do. I love editing it. I love the adrenaline rush of doing final edits at 3 AM and emailing it in to my editor at the last possible second. I love reviewing the proofs. I love getting the first copy of my new book in the mail.
I love it all.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But let me tell you, a story is worth a million pictures. There is something about Story that makes us human. Story gives us meaning in a random, crazy universe. Story gives us the strength to get up in the morning and face a faceless day. Story gives us hope. Without Story, we’re all a bunch of buck-naked apes.
With Story, we’re humans.
It’s writers who create stories. We make up our own little universes. We get to play God in our story-worlds. The creation story in the book of Genesis tells us that we are made in God’s image. I have a hunch that part of what that means is that we are creative beings. We speak, and story-universes leap into existence. That’s cool. That’s massively cool. What could be cooler than that?
That’s why I write fiction.
What about you? Why do you write fiction? Leave a comment and tell me why. The best comment (in my sole judgment) as of Friday night at midnight, Pacific time, wins a free autographed copy of my latest novel, DOUBLE VISION, which features multiple universes and tough decisions.
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