Fun for Friday

Time for a word or 2,000 this weekend?

Guest Wednesday

Things I Wish I’d Known: An Introduction

By J.S. Watts

A while back, I wrote a series of posts for this blog called “Questions I Don’t Like Answering”. Now, with Mark Meier’s continued indulgence, I’m about to embark on another series, this time called “Things I Wish I’d Known.” I’m intending these new posts to be (relatively) short pieces about things I wish I’d known earlier in my writing experience (I’m loath to write “writing career” because I’m no longer sure how possible it is for most writers to have a career, in the truest sense of the word, but this will be one of the things I’ll be exploring at some stage in the series). I’m intending that the posts will consider the writing and publishing process in particular and life in general, but as I haven’t written them yet, who knows where they will end up.

I should probably explain that when I say (or write - this is a blog post) “know”, I don’t just mean know factually or intellectually, but truly know, understand or grasp at a gut or bone-deep level. Many of the things I wish I’d known when I started out as a writer I did in fact “know”, i.e. someone had told me or I’d read it somewhere (possibly in a blog post like this one). Knowing the facts, however, isn’t always the same as understanding something, experiencing it for yourself or coming to terms with it, as I have sometimes discovered to my cost. So perhaps, rather than calling this series “Things I Wish I’d Known”, I should be titling it “Things I Wish I’d Understood Emotionally”, but that doesn’t sound so snappy. Hopefully, having read this introduction, you’ll know where I’m coming from.

The first thing I wish I’d known is the truth about rejection. I admit I’ve written about the subject of rejection elsewhere and on a number of occasions, but it’s such an integral part of the writing experience (unless you are self-published and never submit to magazines or are just very, very lucky) that my second post in this series will focus on it.

J.S.Watts

Why Do I Write?

I many have addressed this issue before, but I have more to say on the subject. Namely, IRL I can’t afford to travel, I don’t own the LHC, I can’t get access to the latest advances at the VLA, and I’ll never get to steer the WFIRST. So what’s a guy to do?

I write. When I do, I can see for billions of light years. Analysis of subatomic particles is child’s play. Watching people discover the secrets of the universe is a head rush like nothing else. I get to do all that and more.

I create and destroy worlds. People are born and die on the pages of my manuscripts. They fall in and out of love, experience joy and sadness, and taste foods unavailable on this planet.

There’s also the fact I enjoy telling stories. If I couldn’t share, though, I’d still write. There are galaxies in my mind that hunger for release, people who will never know existence unless I write about them, and discoveries just waiting to appear on the pages of a book.

Why do I write? To bring what can be into reality. When people read, the imagined becomes real.

One of the highest compliments I think an author could ever have is for people to talk about the characters and events on the written page. Discuss the motivation for what one person did to or for another.

Why did she love him?

Because she had a reality that went beyond mere plot lines. He responded to her kindness, and disaster was averted. All because their imagined existence achieved reality.

That is why I write.

http://www.meier-writers.com