The Thursday! Newsletter 1-20: Why I Write
Volume 1, Issue 20
I write for you.
There! Done! Nothing left to do this week but mention you can still buy my book, autographed or not, point hopefully at the links to the stories I wrote this week, and save this bad boy so I can play some more Stardew Valley. Gosh, this newsletter stuff is easy!
But that isn't all of it, is it? I don't think you'd let me get away with that answer were we standing face to face and you had asked me, "Jimmie, why do you write what you do?" It is true that I write for you but it's also true that there is way more to the answer and the "way more" bit just might be useful for you in your creative endeavors.
Let's just see.
One of the big pieces of advice I've run across over and over while trying to become a better writer is a writer have to figure exactly why they write. A big piece of advice like that deserves some attention, so I tried to figure it out. Do I write for me? Do I write as therapy? Do I write to change the world? Do I write because I simply must write and would shrivel up and die if I do not? That last one is my favorite because it, as much as anything else in my life, put me in a writing funk that lasted months.
The truth of the matter is I don't write for myself. I can live my life without writing another story or poem or newsletter. Admittedly, I would not live as well nor as happily. In fact, I'd be pretty miserable. I know these things because I lived most of my life without writing and I was pretty miserable for most of it. You may have read about some of that in one of the earlier issues of Thursday!, so I don't need to go over it. What's important to get here is I don't have to write. I write because I love telling a cracking good story that makes someone else smile or shiver or hesitate just a moment longer than necessary before turning their lights out at night. I shared "One Hungry Werewolf" with Cedar Sanderson because I thought she might find it a nice little chunk of grist for her art inspiration mill.
I write stories full of hope in which the "good guys" win way more than they lose because our world is full enough of grimdark despair in real life and in fiction. In my stories, when a boy summons a demon, it's not for revenge or horror, but because he desperately wants a friend so badly his heart might crack open like a glacier if he's rejected one more time. But I write a story like that so you can feel that boy's despair and how that despair becomes faint and trembling hope, so you'll have one good and hopeful thing to add to whatever else you dealt with in your day.
Other people will peddle their world-changing snake oil to you. They'll tell you how you can be completely awesome if you'll just SLAY the right bad guy or OWN the right opponent or FIGHT the right power. Not me. I'm writing stories you can wear over your heart like armor against cynicism and rank opportunism. I'm doing stuff you can genuinely and unabashedly love. I'm making poems and tales and goodness knows what else you can scoop up and ingest like med-packs in the most bullet-stormy, total party kill, round of gaming you ever played. I'm making a bridge over the lava pit in King Koopa's castle so you can stomp him with confidence and rescue whoever over there needs rescuing. Maybe the Princess, maybe Luigi, maybe yourself. I don't know. You're the Mario; I'm just the guy giving you a little safety and happiness.
So. What are you up to? Why do you write. Why do you paint? Why do you sing? What's your deal? You need a deal, you know. You really do need a reason to do what you're doing because, let's be entirely honest with each other, creativity is not practical. It makes the practical more smooth and palatable most days. It is the ease to our toil, the salve to the world's hurts. We don't hang a lovely painting on our walls because it makes the wall stronger or the house more secure. We hang it there because it makes our hearts lighter to see it or brings to mind something from the past. We might even hang it there to get a greasy bit of pleasure when others see it and note just how expensive it must have been and oh how right we must be to spend our money on that.
In the end, I write for you -- to give you a moment's diversion from the sharp edges of reality if you want it.
Maybe you've got a cool thing that someone else needs today. Maybe that's your "why". You think? Tell me! I'd like to know!
Autographed Book Alert: Want an autographed book or two? It's easy! Drop some money in my PayPal account (jimmiebjr@gmail.com)! When you do, let me know how many copies you want, where I should send them, and to whom I should autograph them! One book is $15 and 2 is $25. Easy peasy, chicken squeezy!
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What I Wrote and Read Last Week
I've been thinking a lot about lost time and regret, though not quite as obsessively as the subject of "Catching Summer in a Jar".
Sometimes, when I see a writing prompt, a story jumps right to mind. That was not quite the case with "The Most Timely Recipe".
The story of a woman who went looking for the source of a cold draught in her apartment and found a second apartment behind her bathroom mirror has stuck with me a bit more than I first thought it would. Can you imagine the possibilities?
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Here Are the Arts and/or Letters I Promised
The Mapologies blog makes wonderful maps like this, which details what people in various countries call the nephews of Donald Duck. You can lose an easy hour browsing the different maps there. Trust me on this.
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One Last Thing
To borrow a phrase from another smart author, Thursday! is free, but it is not cheap. To show your support, forward it to someone who'd like it or order my book. If you like it, you can add your review to these. Is this your first time seeing my newsletter? You can read previous issues and subscribe right here.
If you'd like to talk back to me, encourage me, suggest something you'd like to see or you'd like me to write about, you can always hit the reply button! I can't promise I'll always answer back, because I'm quite forgetful, but I'll read everything you send.