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Why We Write
This blog post is about motivation. I am going to state my opinion about different motivations for writing. At no time am I saying one motivation is better than another for anyone but me. It's because this is my personal opinion, not an attack on anyone. Folks, when I attack people I do so directly and by name. After all, if I am going to put energy into a confrontation, I might as well enjoy it.
For those of you who have a congenital need to be offended, please PM me your outrage as no one really give a shit about your pretend sensibilities on the Interweb. Either that or hit yourself in the head with a hammer, because I promise you will look back fondly on that option.
Creative people create. That's a simple enough statement but what lies behind it is the motivation to create and the methods to fulfill that motivation. And while I believe every creative person shares a compulsion to create, we do not all share a commitment around that compulsion.
Hmmm. That sounds like a value judgment, should you be offended? Only if you need to be.
It's like this. I love to cook. Truly, I enjoy it and I am a decent enough cook, even bordering on good. But I'm not a great cook. I am highly motivated to learn a bit about cooking here and there and try out things I feel are not too onerous but I lack a commitment to cooking to do the hard work and research, the practice and failure to become a great cook. So while this does not diminish my love for cooking, it is obvious I am not really committed to it. I do it when I do it and I appreciate the praise of people and I forget about my failures as soon as I throw them away.
It's like this story is an allegory for something, because it is.
I believe people fall into five (5) main categories of motivation for the things they do:
What's more, people separated by more than one (1) level of motivation tend to clash. For example, those who are looking to be their best at something and those looking just to have fun do not share enough in common concerning motivation to have a civil conversation. Those wanting to have fun tend to deride the efforts of those trying to be their best and vice versa.
It does not have to be this way, it just often is.
Most everything I do starts at a level four (4) of motivation either through interest or desire to succeed. From there I will trend to a three (3) or a five (5) as I see the interaction between my talent and development. As a result, I tend to take these things seriously. Since I take them seriously I tend to listen to those who are competent at them. I do not approach new situations with an attitude that I know best because, let's be honest here, in most cases I don't know a damn thing.
All well and good and very entertaining, I am sure, but what's the point?
Neopoet is a writing workshop. I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I have a compulsion to not only write but to write to the best of my ability and for my writing to be reviewed by my peers and judged worthwhile. This does not mean I am seeking praise or I will feel worthless if folks don't tell me I am pretty, it means that when I interact with other writers I want to do so as an equal.
So I work at writing. I study and I read and I write and I edit and I review and I critique and I tear apart my work and toss "good enough" into the garbage. I don't try to write important or groundbreaking or epic or whatever. I try to write competent works that meet or exceed my goal of creating the style of writing I love.
And to do so, I have to study and write in styles I do not like so I can see and know how it is done and why it is done and what I can take from it to make my own craft better. I do this so I can create a body of work that will be read and enjoyed forever.
Because that is my goal as a writer, for my work to survive me and become part of the conversation of humanity. I do not write for the praise of friends or transient good feelings or anything else other than to create worlds and moments that people will enjoy forever.
And what if I do not achieve my goal? What if my writing is merely ordinary and dies with my last breath?
Well, that is out of my control. All I can do is work for my goal and continue to focus on achieving it. Failure to achieve the goal does not diminish the effort and passion I put into writing. And I always ask myself, would I rather not try and fail or try and fail? For me it's always the try because I am more likely to succeed if I actually try.
But trying takes time and effort and I can only spare time and effort to work with people who have a similar focus. I can chat with others but their commitment and mine is not compatible and "good enough" is the same as "complete crap" in my eyes.
There's a reason I don't suffer from writer's block and can write 8 lines on anything and work on several projects at a time and put so much effort into critique and throw away more lines than I publish.
Because writing is a passion for me. Not a hobby, not an interest, not something that I just like and enjoy and want to share with friends. It is a passion and I could no more stop it than I could stop breathing. And passion takes work and commitment and sacrifice and determination and time.
It's not an accident, it's not a lark, it's not fad. And it most certainly is not a desire to be praised.
It is, simply, a desire to be heard; forever.
So, if we do not share this motivation, perhaps we can quietly ignore each other. Actually, that's not true. If you do not share my motivation, perhaps you can quietly ignore me as I am already quietly ignoring you, not because you are a bad person but because we want different things from writing.
It should be obvious by now I am not interested in a popularity contest, nor do I care if people think I am pretty or nice or pleasant or whatever. I'm here only to improve my craft and skill and to work with those who have the same passion.
For those of you who have a congenital need to be offended, please PM me your outrage as no one really give a shit about your pretend sensibilities on the Interweb. Either that or hit yourself in the head with a hammer, because I promise you will look back fondly on that option.
Creative people create. That's a simple enough statement but what lies behind it is the motivation to create and the methods to fulfill that motivation. And while I believe every creative person shares a compulsion to create, we do not all share a commitment around that compulsion.
Hmmm. That sounds like a value judgment, should you be offended? Only if you need to be.
It's like this. I love to cook. Truly, I enjoy it and I am a decent enough cook, even bordering on good. But I'm not a great cook. I am highly motivated to learn a bit about cooking here and there and try out things I feel are not too onerous but I lack a commitment to cooking to do the hard work and research, the practice and failure to become a great cook. So while this does not diminish my love for cooking, it is obvious I am not really committed to it. I do it when I do it and I appreciate the praise of people and I forget about my failures as soon as I throw them away.
It's like this story is an allegory for something, because it is.
I believe people fall into five (5) main categories of motivation for the things they do:
- I do this because I am forced to do this
- I might enjoy this, let's see
- I'm just looking to have fun
- I want to see if I'm good at this
- This is a passion; I want to be my best at it
What's more, people separated by more than one (1) level of motivation tend to clash. For example, those who are looking to be their best at something and those looking just to have fun do not share enough in common concerning motivation to have a civil conversation. Those wanting to have fun tend to deride the efforts of those trying to be their best and vice versa.
It does not have to be this way, it just often is.
Most everything I do starts at a level four (4) of motivation either through interest or desire to succeed. From there I will trend to a three (3) or a five (5) as I see the interaction between my talent and development. As a result, I tend to take these things seriously. Since I take them seriously I tend to listen to those who are competent at them. I do not approach new situations with an attitude that I know best because, let's be honest here, in most cases I don't know a damn thing.
All well and good and very entertaining, I am sure, but what's the point?
Neopoet is a writing workshop. I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I have a compulsion to not only write but to write to the best of my ability and for my writing to be reviewed by my peers and judged worthwhile. This does not mean I am seeking praise or I will feel worthless if folks don't tell me I am pretty, it means that when I interact with other writers I want to do so as an equal.
So I work at writing. I study and I read and I write and I edit and I review and I critique and I tear apart my work and toss "good enough" into the garbage. I don't try to write important or groundbreaking or epic or whatever. I try to write competent works that meet or exceed my goal of creating the style of writing I love.
And to do so, I have to study and write in styles I do not like so I can see and know how it is done and why it is done and what I can take from it to make my own craft better. I do this so I can create a body of work that will be read and enjoyed forever.
Because that is my goal as a writer, for my work to survive me and become part of the conversation of humanity. I do not write for the praise of friends or transient good feelings or anything else other than to create worlds and moments that people will enjoy forever.
And what if I do not achieve my goal? What if my writing is merely ordinary and dies with my last breath?
Well, that is out of my control. All I can do is work for my goal and continue to focus on achieving it. Failure to achieve the goal does not diminish the effort and passion I put into writing. And I always ask myself, would I rather not try and fail or try and fail? For me it's always the try because I am more likely to succeed if I actually try.
But trying takes time and effort and I can only spare time and effort to work with people who have a similar focus. I can chat with others but their commitment and mine is not compatible and "good enough" is the same as "complete crap" in my eyes.
There's a reason I don't suffer from writer's block and can write 8 lines on anything and work on several projects at a time and put so much effort into critique and throw away more lines than I publish.
Because writing is a passion for me. Not a hobby, not an interest, not something that I just like and enjoy and want to share with friends. It is a passion and I could no more stop it than I could stop breathing. And passion takes work and commitment and sacrifice and determination and time.
It's not an accident, it's not a lark, it's not fad. And it most certainly is not a desire to be praised.
It is, simply, a desire to be heard; forever.
So, if we do not share this motivation, perhaps we can quietly ignore each other. Actually, that's not true. If you do not share my motivation, perhaps you can quietly ignore me as I am already quietly ignoring you, not because you are a bad person but because we want different things from writing.
It should be obvious by now I am not interested in a popularity contest, nor do I care if people think I am pretty or nice or pleasant or whatever. I'm here only to improve my craft and skill and to work with those who have the same passion.