Post your short essay, "Why I Write," here.
Could Elaine please post the information about the TV show on Bravo here for us all to see. Thanks for sharing that!
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A place for Writing 12 students to read each other's writing, to critique, to suggest, to improve.
About Me
- Brad
- Former adult teacher who loves island beaches. Happy homebody and family man; once devoted dog owner, now without Tashi, my Tibetan Terrier. I prefer the absurdity of the imagination to the absurdity of imagining nothing.
7 comments:
TV Show: "Writers' Confessions"
-is a new tv series which just started last week and is on every Thursday evening, at 5:30pm to 6:00pm on Bravo, Channel 40 (Shaw cable). It also repeats at 4:30AM Friday morning.
-I did tape last week's show and will be taping it every week, as it seems quite an interesting one, so if interested, I can always bring in the tape to show in class.
-Last week was interviews with a few famous Canadian authors discussing the challenges of publishing their first book or short story, how their writing was affected once they became published, etc.
Yes, Elaine, can I count on your bringing in the show this week? It will be fun to talk about the show together in class.
Here's another essay I've written on this topic from 2006.
Why I Write
Writing is like the “green fuse” in Dylan Thomas’s poem, a force that “drives the flower.” Sitting down and composing good prose is as quintessential to me as it is for Norman Mailer.
I thank my teachers, first of all. I write because of Mr. Snidal in seventh grade, for his “Hey! What you wrote was really good,” in the hallway. My science teacher, imagine that! And Sam Roddan, who scrawled “evocative, lovely” below a memoir. The librarians who kept their libraries filled with books for me to while away the hours, I thank them all. True, not one of them was perfect, but without my first teachers, writing may never have become my passion.
I write because I love reading. By reading I mean anything and everything; the internet was invented for a guy like me—no end of new prose on the web. Pretty often I’ll know more about what’s interesting to New Yorkers than to Vancouverites! Reading is portable, too, and many a night I’ve read a novel by flashlight in a tent pitched on some high mountain pass. I’ve spent thousands of hours reading in my life, in a rail carriage crossing into Spain, on a ferry sailing south to Crete, on a plane over the Baja. A love of reading fuels my writing every day.
But mostly I write because writing matters. It matters to my students who know that, by writing well, doors open to them. Through reading the masters, the Orwells, Mansfields and Hemingways of the world, I’ve learned that writing has a transformative power and, maybe, I’d like just a small piece of that power for myself: my writing, my “green fuse.” Just once to write a line as powerful as “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” just the chance I might one day, helps make writing matter to me.
Writing is an ideal way to honour the legacy of my teachers, to pay back my debt to the writers I love to read and to, no less than that, make some kind of small difference to the world through those who choose to read my words.
Why I write:
I like when John Jakes says, “Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” Perhaps he is right, be ourselves when we write, or at least we try to be when we write. And perhaps that’s the part of reason why I write; be myself when writing.
I write because I can express my feelings while I’m writing. While I’m writing, I don’t know, it’s like I’m in heaven because when I start to write, I’m in some kind of place and I can express whatever I feel like in there. Or in serene place, that nobody can find me, and I can write whatever I want.
I also write because if someone reads my piece, they can somehow relate their stories to mine, in other words, they can share my experiences, and feelings through my piece. Especially after I write something crappy, and feel lousy about it, but someone finds it interesting and inspiring, that makes me all happy and inspire me to do more writing.
I finally write because I can write anything I want, or maybe what Kay said in the class last time, “sex, or write something romantic.” Maybe what Kay said is true because I wrote something romantic during the summertime small to pass the time. So, I think what Kay said is true.
So, I think it is true when John Jakes says, “be yourself when writing” because when we’re not, at least I think the readers will notice immediately, or not.
Yes, Brad, I'll bring the shows I've taped to tomorrow's class!
Why I Write:
I write, therefore, I am. Well, the reason I write is nothing quite so eloquent or profound as that. But, it may be somewhat close to that line of thought. Why do I write? I suppose writing has always come so naturally to me that I've never really questioned it. But it's a good question to explore. So in contemplating this, I've come up with some of the more significant reasons for which I write.
Not to oversimplify it, I write because I love to write. I have always loved it, since I was a child. You see, I was never a great "talker". Ever since I was young, speaking in public would just terrify me. More than anything in school, I think public speaking was what I hated most. Actually, just talking to people was never my strong suit. I was a pretty introverted, shy, little kid. But! Put a piece of paper in front of me and tell me to write something about myself or, better yet, tell me to write a story and. . . "Ka-Blam!" I was off and running! (So to speak). I was just better able to express myself through my written words; even through something simple like keeping a daily journal as a child. I just got so much pleasure out of it. It was an extension of myself.
Most of all, I absolutely love to create stories. I would say that is my true passion when it comes to writing. (Yes, sad to say, it's not essay writing). I enjoy coming up with characters, plots, different situations and letting my imagination take me anywhere I want to go. In storymaking, the sky's the limit. And then I get the satisfaction of not only myself, but also others going along on the journey with me through that story. To know that they are taking something from it with them. And maybe for awhile, they escaped with me.
As I got older, I realized that I'd been given a certain gift in writing and that it was something that I dare not waste. I want to use and develop this gift as often and as much as I can. At one time, I thought that everyone could write to some degree or other. But later on, I found out that that wasn't true. I met more and more people that told me that they really couldn't write (and they weren't just being humble). Or they would say that they just didn't like writing. Perish the thought! How could that be when I love it so? That's when I came to appreciate "the gift" even more. And I can't get prideful about it either. It comes from a place outside of myself, much bigger than myself.
So what I can't say, I can write. But so much more, and so much better. An interesting gift. It's like my inner voice coming out, only not into the air, but onto paper. It's the "fancier" side of me. Articulate, not shy, even playful. From inside can come a whole world that didn't exist before. New characters, new places, new drama. And to think I can create that. This definitely doesn't originate with me. It's a talent I've been given. Not to be misused, abused or neglected. But to be developed and fashioned into something worth saying. Or worth reading.
From Kay:
Why do I write
I was employed and productive since age 14. Now retired I refuse to join the ranks of New Westministers major senior population essembleing daily at the local mall, or playing cards at the senior centre.
Writing allows me to tap the source of memories or imagination that this old head conjures up, to turn them into words in hopes they either interest or entertain others.
I ask myself do I write because I want others to know me?, really that is not big in my life, it may sound strange but I think I write to maybe know myself . Writing does come from a inner source whether it be true or fiction.
Writing also allows me to test myself;," do I have anything interesting to say, and is it interesting to me only, or would others enjoy reading it.
Age provides a wonderful resource in which I can tap into, allowing me a new adventure.
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