Only all the time.

You get told so many things as a young writer going to a college for a writing degree, and the going out in the world trying to find a job in your field. It's tough. They say you're too young, you don't really have anything to say, you should spend time traveling around the world to get more experience (hahahaha, do they think I have money to burn?), and on and on and on.

But I have found that there ARE people who want to hear the stories I have to tell. I draw a lot from my own experiences to write about kids, families, sibling relationships, the things friends will do for each other. The deeper the story draws from myself, the more people tell me that it meant something to them.

I think we all have something important to say. We just have to figure out what it is.

Edited at 2010-02-21 02:07 am (UTC)

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Right. I've been there. It's just that being 30 and either still not knowing what I have to say, or having no way to say it to anyone (except myself and God) is getting really old.

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All. The. Time.

Actually, I think if you don't think it, you end up becoming one of those strident blowhards who really doesn't have anything worthwhile to say.

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Heh. That's...probably a good point, especially if you're writing nonfiction.

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Not exactly. I do believe what I have to say is interesting (at least to me) and also potentially important, because it's based in spiritual and experiential truth; but what I struggle with is the worry that I'll either never be able to communicate it in a way that is compelling to others or even makes sense to them.

Or else that people will get the message, but then they'll just say, "So what? I knew that already."

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Yeah, I think that last line is mostly what I'm afraid of. That I will put in the work only to have it fall into the void of everything that everyone has said before--no use to anyone, except maybe (maybe!) me.

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I think I worry more that I'll run out of stories to tell.

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....

I wish I was you, then.

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As long as the story is fun for the reader/listener/etc., I don't worry about "important." I'm here to entertain. That doesn't mean I don't care about what I'm saying, but I guess it's the difference between importance and responsibility.

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I guess the difference is that I feel that I am here not only to entertain but also to communicate. What I love most in stories is the sense of connection with someone who is either very like me or very different--the deeper understanding of myself through someone else, or the new understanding of something beyond my current experience, and I don't know if I have either of those to truly offer.

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Believe me, I am not being sarcastic but totally serious when I say "doesn't everyone?"

But the simple fact is, we don't know what will resonate with others, so all we can do is be as honest as we can...

Or tell our little lies well :)

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Oh, yeah. Often.

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Yes and no.

After reading some crap Christian Fantasy novels, I don't want to fall into the trap of trying to force my work to tell "important" things. Because if the message is more important than the work, then one will not succeed with either the message or the work. If one is true to the work, then the truths in the work will be seamlessly part of it, and more easily digested. I can write about what is important to me, and if it's something from my heart, then maybe my heart will speak to your heart, if I'm really lucky.

As for "interesting", again, I can only figure what is interesting to me. I can hope it is interesting to others, but I can't tell, not unless I ask them, not unless they tell me. Certainly, if I find something boring, then my audience will find it boring also, because my boredom will leak out on the paper.

Do I have nothing worthwhile to say? On bad days, I think I am talking to emptiness. On good days, I don't worry about it.

The worth of the gift is the love with which it is given. Our whole lives are like children's drawings in comparison with the artistry of God. But God loves our children's drawings anyway.

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I wasn't writing about "messages" per se. I'm sure you know me well enough to know that I abhor attempts to preach in fiction. I guess I'm just very unsure that anything I have to say will benefit anyone else; and I have never yet come tot the conclusion that I actually have enough good stories to tell that what I have to "say" within them doesn't matter.

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Just write. If you have something to say, it will get said - by some sort of unexpected accident between working out the plot and revising the writing for effect. Look at Agatha Christie. No writer ever approached writing more purely as a task to be overcome and a skill to be learned, and yet she ended up producing a body of work that is not only significant and enduring, but that expresses a definite viewpoint that is both unique and universally understandble. Of course, it can often be said that it is universally understandable because it is commonplace; often, but not always. Some meditations on evil, as in Pale Horse, and some visions of beauty, as in Hallowe'en Party and the Harley Quinn stories, are really memorable, and the whole thing lives. What I am saying is: if you approach your work as a craft, the viewpoint will come out and may well turn out to be something respectable. If you worry about the viewpoint first, however much right you may have, you are putting the cart before the horse.

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Thank you. I did not expect to be so well reminded of the best writing advice I ever got, from you. (That's meant as a compliment, sir; I still tend to remember that you write non-fiction blog stuff before I recall that you also write fiction.)

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Once in a while, but then I remind myself how much I love art with no importance, say cheerfully to myself, "You're such a hack!" and get on with the work.

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Wish I could do that. Perhaps it should be a goal for me. :)

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Coming to this late, but I'm still at the stage where I'm trying to work out what I'm trying to say. Worthwhile or not, I'm still not sure what stories I'm trying to tell.

However, my real justification for writing this comment is the following quote by Lewis:
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

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Oh, thank you for the quote, that's exactly what I needed to hear. Yes. Okay.

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