Why do we write? This is a complex question with no easy answers. Do we enjoy it?
Colm Toibin says he doesn’t like it very much. AL Kennedy and Amit Chaudhuri both admitted to decidedly mixed feelings on the subject, in a piece in The Guardian UK.
According to Kennedy: “The joy of writing for a living is that you get to do it all the time. The misery is that you have to, whether you’re in the mood or not.
“I wouldn’t be the first writer to point out that doing something so deeply personal does become less jolly when you have to keep on at it, day after cash-generating day. To use a not ridiculous analogy: Sex = nice thing. Sex For Cash = probably less fun, perhaps morally uncomfy and psychologically unwise.
“Sitting alone in a room for hours while essentially talking in your head about people you made up earlier and then writing it down for no one you know does have many aspects which are not inherently fulfilling. Then again, making something out of nothing, overturning the laws of time and space, building something for strangers just because you think they might like it and hours of absence from self – that’s fantastic. And then it’s over, which is even better. I’m with RLStevenson – having written – that’s the good bit.”
Chaudhuri says: “…Then there’s the group of people who don’t enjoy being novelists, to which I probably belong; whose lives are at once shaped and defined by, and to some extent entrapped in, the act of writing fiction. I still find it difficult to believe that I’m something called a ‘novelist’; but this hasn’t stopped me from dreaming, frequently, of alternative professions: second-hand bookshop owner; corporate worker; cinematographer.”
On the other hand, Will Self wrote, in the same piece: “I gain nothing but pleasure from writing fiction; short stories are foreplay, novellas are heavy petting – but novels are the full monte.
“Frankly, if I didn’t enjoy writing novels I wouldn’t do it – the world hardly needs any more and I can think of numerous more useful things someone with my skills could be engaged in. As it is, the immersion in parallel but believable worlds satisfies all my demands for vicarious experience, voyeurism and philosophic calithenics.
“I even enjoy the mechanics of writing, the dull timpani of the typewriter keys, the making of notes – many notes – and most seductive of all: the buying of stationery.”
I have a writer friend who declares writing to be an affliction. He has to do it, but he suffers it like a misfortune. I don’t agree with him. (Well sometimes I do, but that’s only on my worst days.)
I am utterly schizophrenic about the process. Sometimes I hate it. I wallow in self-pity: Does anyone really care? Why should I struggle so and wrestle all these demons? Is there any point? On the other hand, when it flies … wow! It’s better than sex, that feeling of being on another plane, immortal, all-powerful. And I agree with Will Self: I adore stationery. I feel a thrill when I enter a stationery shop. I try out the pens, look for the most sensual notebooks … (Sad really, but there it is.)
Generally speaking, I feel calmer when I’m writing. When I don’t have a novel in process, I’m inclined to be gritty and irritable.
How do you feel about writing? Why do you write or long to write? We’d love to hear your opinions.
Jo-Anne Richards is the author of four novels. Her latest is My Brother’s Book, published by Picador. Order it from Kalahari.net
She lectures in journalism and writing skills at Wits University, besides running workshops in literary skills, narrative journalism and Romance writing. She supervises Masters students in the Creative Writing Masters programme at Wits.
She is co-founder of allaboutlove.net, a website dedicated to good reading and writing. The site publishes novels and short stories, and runs interactive online writing courses in romance writing. It includes a basic lesbian romance writing course – thought to be unique.
