What do you want to write?

Posted byLaidback DMPosted inBooks, University, Writer Interrupted, WritingTags:, , , , , , ,

What are the issues that you especially want to talk about / celebrate / examine in your stories?

There are a lot of stories in the world. There are many more hovering in the random threads and wings of my head. They long to burst forth from their cocoons, bright and beautiful butterflies ready to shake mountains, half a world away.

I’ve led a very interesting life, but by some measures it may not be very interesting at all (I have never run away from ravenous cannibals, for instance). I have many personally-affecting issues that I’d like to examine in my stories, yet when I think of what I really want to read in one of my tales, issues are not the first thing that come to mind.

As a burgeoning writer, I first and foremost want to entertain. I want to write stories that are emotionally engaging, that are exciting and that surprise with their twists and turns. I want my readers to feel that they connect with me as an author, that they “get” me in ways they didn’t think were possible except with perhaps a well-known friend or loving partner.

I may not be the best writer in the world, but if I can achieve this in at least some basic way (whether that be a reader’s fleeting smile or a tightness in their chest), I will have succeeded in what I set out to do.

Okay, so that didn’t really answer the question. In short, I love all genres of writing.

Like Iain M. Banks, I want to write speculative fiction and current-day serious fiction. Like Patrick Ness, I intend to write kinetic young adult novels. Like Nam Le, I want to write short stories of every type, that bring a tear to my eye and that provide a fascinating juxtaposition to life. Like Justin Cronin, I want to mix literate writing with the horror thriller. Like George R. R. Martin and J. R. R. Tolkien I want to write fantasy fiction that astounds.

But I don’t want to write like any of them. I want to write like me.

Cheers

Steve 😊

This was my response a number of months ago to a question posed to me in one of my writing subjects. My answer still holds true, now. (It also contains links to some of my favourite authors’ websites.)

So, what would your answer be?

Go wild in the comments, if you dare 😉

Published by Laidback DM

I’m a writer who loves tabletop role playing games, poetry and (you guessed it) writing.

16 thoughts on “What do you want to write?”

  2. That’s quite a list of authors you have there – a lot to live up to. I want to write about the thin membrane that separates our daily lives from the infinite, terrible void beyond – and characters who come close or cross divide and have to get back.

    Thanks for sharing.

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  3. I read fantasy when I was growing up. It is extremely unusual for a Malay kid, staying in the suburbs, walking around with books by Michael Moorcock. I also finished LOTR in 3 weeks. I loved my primary school. It had the most extensive English titles. Complete TinTin series, nice encyclopaedias. I hope it is still a great library now.

    I have always had a dark, morbid view of life, I love horror stories, things by the Poes and Gaimans alike rule my world. I would like to write local horror stories one day. Well one day.

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    1. I love Edgar Allan Poe and Neil Gaiman. Have you ever read any HP Lovecraft? If not, try him out, awesome early 20th century horror writer. I’ve written some horror short stories and have some ideas for a few horror novels. Now I just need the time to write them lol 🙂

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  4. Great timing on this post 🙂 This topic is very real for me right now after doing some soyl searching on which direction I want to take with my writing. I have finally figured that out and now my writing lines up with who I am now not the person I was in the past.. since taking that step just recently I feel the difference already! After work8ng retail for many years the one thing I have learned is you have to believe in the product your selling if you want to make the sale 🙂

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  5. A writer is always writing and can do nothing else. A true writer is always working on a short story, a novel and maybe an essay. I am constantly reading biographies of writers and they are always writing. Writers begin to write when they can put words on a page. So just write write write.

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  6. I love to write “what if” or alternate reality stories. In those realities, there’s a version where my husband lived, and we are happily going through life. There’s a version where I spent much more time in school and had a far greater impact on the world. There are places where time is not linear (ala “Arrival”) and an understanding of God is closer. There are places I can put myself into history and see what a bit of that might be like.

    Then there’s the intermix of old and new – Renaissance stories of a midwife and modern day stories of a medicinal herbalist, and how one remembers which herbs do what and where common sense fits into the mix. Writing is just letting my mind play and writing it down.

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  7. I am a nurse, and I love learning about anything that has to do with the human body. I have really become interested in mental health. So I don’t write fiction, I write a lot of nonfiction articles on topics related to mental health and mental disorders. However, I have always wanted to write a biography of sorts. Many times when I share my past, background, and my experiences…. the response I get is “Damn, you should write a book.” For example, to give you a very short idea, at one time in my life I was addicted to drugs and living on the street, the things that happened during that time are the things most people only witness in the movies. Today, I am drug free, an excellent mother of three, and I graduated at the top of my class in nursing school with a bachelor’s degree. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you consider where I was just a couple decades ago, it seems to me that it is a miracle. So to sum it up, I would love to write a book about all of this. Where I came from, and how I got to where I am now, (as entertainment but yet inspiration to others), But I have held off because I just don’t have the creativity that I believe would be needed to tell this kind of story. Maybe someday…. for now though, I will stick to educational articles.

    You are an amazing poet, I have always admired the creativity of those who are able to write such excellent poetry. Keep writing….

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