Nice post. I think I write short stories because they're all little exploratory adventures. Explorations into myself and explorations in craft. There's a big introspective part of writing stories for me, where at some point in the writing I start to consider why this material is important to me, what is my engagement with it? This makes me a part of the writing-is-cheaper-than-therapy school of writers.
Another motivations for writing is that I find the craft side cool, fun and challenging. Every story is an experiment in material and word arrangement. When the craft works, the sum of the words is so much greater than its parts that there's a little thrill of excitement. Every successful story makes me feel like, "Oh, my god, I did the trick again."
There are other motivations, of course, like writing being integral to my self image, or the attention of others to what I have done, or to take part in the good battle the people I grew up respecting took part in, or money (the money is not totally insignificant--it won't move me into a better house or even buy a car, but a couple thousand extra dollars a year in writing income isn't something to be ignored).
I don't think I've ever felt the motivation I hear sometimes, like, "My characters insisted I tell their story," or "I must write or I will die." Still, I have a niggling pressure once a story seed germinates within me to get the story out. I'm not sure all the time if the urge to push is akin to child birth, a bowel movement or expunging an alien, but there's a definite sense of urgency to tell the story.
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Date: 2007-10-24 05:10 pm (UTC)Another motivations for writing is that I find the craft side cool, fun and challenging. Every story is an experiment in material and word arrangement. When the craft works, the sum of the words is so much greater than its parts that there's a little thrill of excitement. Every successful story makes me feel like, "Oh, my god, I did the trick again."
There are other motivations, of course, like writing being integral to my self image, or the attention of others to what I have done, or to take part in the good battle the people I grew up respecting took part in, or money (the money is not totally insignificant--it won't move me into a better house or even buy a car, but a couple thousand extra dollars a year in writing income isn't something to be ignored).
I don't think I've ever felt the motivation I hear sometimes, like, "My characters insisted I tell their story," or "I must write or I will die." Still, I have a niggling pressure once a story seed germinates within me to get the story out. I'm not sure all the time if the urge to push is akin to child birth, a bowel movement or expunging an alien, but there's a definite sense of urgency to tell the story.