And looks like I’ve changed my mind about not writing about this.
We write to share that part of us that might not otherwise be shared. The page is like a Fibber Magee and Molly closet where we store all those leftover parts of ourselves. Open the page and everything comes spilling out: organized, disorganized, jovial, sad, rational or irrational. Everything gets crammed into the page. We may not be lionized for it. Our words may be stolen and presented as someone else’s, but the important thing is to write them. Words are like a pressure valve, freeing pent-up emotions. They furnish a release that is somehow part of the solution to the problems they describe.
A page written by Cervantes.
Well said, Judy!
And happy holidays!!
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Have a wonderful holiday with your family. How old is your grandbaby now?
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Oh so well said Judy.
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It all does fall out. With the emphasis on fall. Please step back the floor is about to be abused.
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Very well expressed.
I have my father to thank for my love of words; written and spoken. He had a short career as an op-ed writer when he returned home from WWII. He always drummed into me the importance of being able to present oneself in words. My daughter has inherited a talent for writing, I would like to say from my dad. Unfortunately she has a job that takes up far too much of her time.
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There will come a time when she’ll have the time. There are so many people down here in Mexico that are writing for the first time now that they have the time. A healthy writing community.
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I like that we have some of the same reference points-Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet, for example. And yes, why we write. Someone said, (paraphrase and can’t even name the writer), I write to discover what I think, how I feel about something.
This morning, at my jounal, no thoughts, I thought no words, so I just put down what was in front of me: table. coffee. candle. journal. etc, until words became sentences became something I didn’t know I wanted to express, but there it was. And there it is, in my morning journal.
Thanks for this, Judy.
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That was the best lesson I ever learned regarding writing. Just sit down and let what comes come. Get out of its way and don’t try to edit. That can come afterwards.
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me too. and once the pen starts moving, it finds its way.
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Agree…
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A very true post. I’ve had a novel stolen by a publisher and sold under another name. I’ve had editors try and make my story theirs. If its possible for it to go wrong in writing it has for me. I nearly binned all my stories multiple times too. Now, I write just for me. If I get a like or too its a bonus. As for my novels, the world had its chance. now, nobody but me reads them.
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All of that is true, though I would categorize it more as “Why I write what I write.” I write because I can’t help it. I have a head full of words and since Garry is equally full of words, they have to go SOMEWHERE, so they go out into the world 😀
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Writing is much cheaper than a therapist and gets much more feedback!
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Absolutely.
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:>)
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I met a woman in the grocery store the other day and she quoted me to myself!! We started talking about onions vs. shallots, proceeded to talking about our mothers and ended with lost husbands. I said something and she said that was just what she’d read in a magazine and asked if I’d read it there.. and then before I could answer said, “Unless you are Judy DB and you wrote it–and I said indeed I was. Ha!!! What fun. I love meeting people who know me before we ever meet in person. It’s the best. The very best reward for writing, other than the joy of the act, is having people say something you’ve written has reached them and been of help in their lives. It’s a sort of absent friendship.
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How wonderful! What a nice gift to you! The gift of appreciation! You are right other than the creation itself having others appreciat what you do is so very rewarding!
Dwight
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So well expressed about such a broad subject~!
However your words on writing, and the photo of the beautiful handwriting of Cervantes, I am reminded of something that alludes to a meta-fictional publication (only six pages long), called, in English : “*Pierre Menard, Author of the **Quixote*” Oh what a can of worms this opens. A non existent Argentinian, writing about another fictional French character, who is claimed to be the true author of a circa 1600 story, which takes place in Spain~!
If my memory serves me correctly this very questionable tale of a French person who did not even exist: “Pierre Menard”. In the article he (in a way) appears to be the real author of Quixote, rather than Miguel de Cervantes. This was published in a false expose in an Argentinian journal “Sur” about the year 1939, by one Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian who I believe was also a pseudonym used by several other men who wrote short related ‘expose’ stories. They presented Menard as a “mystic” who exposes Cervantes and write a story much like Don Quixote, who he calls “Dom Quixote”
This whole tale is written as a 20th century blurb, and to me is such a mess that it gives me a headache even trying to write about it. But the publication fostered people into believing that it was possible and Cervantes did not write the book. In the time of Trump people have come to believe anything said often enough if it plays to their imagination.
Now I hope that my memory is close to being correct (but what do I know~!) So this makes us think about your original post, the question: “Why we write”
I feel that every person who writes usually has more than one reason. But the prime one is simply, EGO, looking for a “like” is icing on the cake.. Another would be to get over sorrow or loneliness, but many are good enough to do it for money. They can turn out books like a machine, which brings in good earnings for their efforts; some very good and others a waste of time and paper.
I write mostly to relate stories and poems covering my life experiences and as seen above, discussions of things of interest. Many write, especially poetry almost as a complex contest of their ability to produce good output from a contest with the use of subject matter and type, working and demonstrating their mind and skill, the same as working a crossword puzzle, solitaire or hobby work. Much of this turns out to be really skillful, fine work and I always enjoy reading it. However I doubt if I could ever approach the subject as prolifically as so many others can. There are other things such as writings of news events, nature, politics etc etc… This to me would be a very dull life indeed if such writers did not exist. So I say why question their motive, why not just enjoy their art, and above all else, they should always be encouraged in their efforts.
Fear of being plagiarized of our prime subjects or even having finished work stolen is a possibility, but I feel that this would be a result of the amount of exposure and the value of the output. Mostly the use of a phrase or thought is given proper credit, with the knowledge and permission of the originator.
On Sat, Dec 12, 2020 at 8:31 AM lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown wrote:
> lifelessons posted: ” We write to share that part of us that might not > otherwise be shared. The page is like a Fibber Magee and Molly closet where > we store all those leftover parts of ourselves. Open the page and > everything comes spilling out: organized, disorganized, jovi” >
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Yes, certainly many different reasons to write not covered in my short piece, but I think that if writing goes beyond the mundane and utilitarian, that what I have given as reasons lie at the heart of it. I do not write because of the prompts. I use the prompts to spur me to write and thereby get out of my own way to see what wants to be written.
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