The Author: Why Write?

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood.  I'd type a little faster.  ~Isaac Asimov

The following is an excerpt from an article about the art of the written and illustrated word.  This article will by published later this semester in volume 2 of The Abbey Leix Anthology: O’More Articles on the Art and Design of Education.

Just like any other art form, writing is not an easy craft, and yet people anywhere from dabble in to obsess over the process. Why?

Ø  to release the story within

o   Maya Angelou believes, “There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you” (qtd. in Christensen).

Ø  to feel the physical, emotional, and spiritual experience of writing

o   Eudora Welty writes, “Suspense, pleasure, curiosity, all are bound up in the making of a written story” (4).

Ø  for immortality

o   for those you write about

§  Just Mona Lisa is forever immortalized in her half-smirked painting, “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this [Shakespeare’s sonnet], and this gives life to thee” (Shakespeare ll.13-14).

o   for the author-artist

§  Hilaire Belloc has one of my favorite quotes on the topic: “When I am dead, I hope it may be said: ‘His sins were scarlet, but his books were read’” (455).

    

Writing as an art form is a vicious cycle: writers need responsible readers need responsible writers need something worth saying needs someone able to effectively communicate it needs the effort of a responsible writer needs the respect of a responsible reader.  It will go on forever. Stories need to be written and read. The talent of a crafty writer creates the craft of writing.

Despite those pop-culture explosions that make me smack myself on the forehead in misery for those who find these stories worthy, there are books ready for my reading, and those ready for my writing. Nothing can compare the feeling of pride when I can step back and view my finished work of art. My clothes are not slashed with paint, but my wrists are with the creases from my keyboard. I am author-artist: hear me type. 

Possible Writing Challenges

1)   Why do you write? Answer the question, in writing of course.

2)   Search for three great quotes on writing. Write one paragraph for each quote interpreting and explaining how the quote does or does not compare to your own thoughts on the subject.

Asimov, Issac. “Writing.” n.d. Quotegarden.com. 10 February 2011  <http://www.quotegarden.com/writing.html>.

Bulloc, Hilaire. “Writing and Writers.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1992.

Christensen, Patti. “Patti's Favorite Storytelling Quotes.” 2004. PattiStory.com. 18 Jan. 2007 <http://www.pattistory.com/54-
               Quotes.htm>. 

---. “Sonnet XVIII.” 100 Best-Loved Poems. Ed. Philip Smith. New York: Dover, 1995.

Welty, Eudora.  On Writing. New York: The Modern Library, 2002.

A special thanks to the ever-talented Anastasia Morozova, who painted my above writer’s portrait. I hire her often for my artistic needs, including the illustrations for an upcoming children’s book. Please let me know if you need a portrait or any other work from her.

10 Writers I Suggest You Experience in Your Lifetime

1)       Ernest Hemingway (novels, short stories)

2)       Gerard Manley Hopkins (poetry)

3)       Carol King (songs)

4)       Sandra Boynton (children’s books—Jack’s favorite)

5)       Jaclyn Moriarty (young adult novels)

6)       Shakespeare (sonnets, though “the play’s the thing”)

7)       e e cummings (poetry)

8)       Kate DiCamillo (young adult novels)

9)       Willa Cather (novels)

10)    C. S. Lewis (novels, non-fiction)