“Find the Significant!”

When South Bay Writers was planning its last writing conference (which was put off because the economy wouldn’t support it, back in 2010) we thought we would build the conference around the theme “Why Do You Write?”  Not a bad idea—and I’ve been asking myself ever since, “Why do you write?”  I suppose different writers would give different answers to that question.

  

Some people might write to share ideas and experiences.  We’ve had some peak experience; or we’ve had an idea that seems to be important and possibly even original.  No one else seems to have noticed it, so we’d like to spread it around.

Or something has happened to us, and we think a friend or a relative might be interested in it.  Or we think it’s something important that other people ought to know.  We want to tell them; we try to explain.

Maybe we hope to improve the world—society, the nation—again, we try to explain.

Or, more mundanely, we want to become rich, we want to become famous.  We think we can cook up something entertaining, something enjoyable—and lure people into paying to enjoy it.  We’re hoping to make money.

We may write to give ourselves excitement; or we may chase adventure in hopes of writing about it and capturing the excitement for people who, for whatever reason, prefer to remain at home reading rather than first-hand-experiencing.

Maybe our writing is therapeutic, cathartic.  Somehow, it helps us get something unhealthy out of our system.  Perhaps after we’re done, we’ll arrive at a sense of feeling healed and whole; and never feel the need to write again.

Maybe we want to leave our family and friends with something to remember us by, after we’re gone; a consolation, after our death.

Maybe we simply want to understand ourselves better, or life better, or people better.

So many possibilities!  Lately I look at possible projects and wonder:  Which one do I choose? 

In spite of propensity to fictionalize, I dwell on past and possible future experiences:  For example, the holidays coming up.  I think of how I will interact with friends and family during the coming holiday season.  I think of places I’ve lived or visited; my experiences there; how to describes these things to other people I know.  I think of movies or books or music that mean something to me, and wonder whether it is possible to convey the significance these things hold for me.  I think of traumas I’ve suffered, and I think “What is significant?  Find the Significant—in the Past, in Art, wherever.  Find the Significant and convey it.  Do it—somehow! Do it!”