stupid questions series episode #1

I guess to begin, we have to define "stupid question" which means that the question might very well have merit, but somehow attracts stupid answers like mining towns attracted two-bit whores.

Why Do You Write? must be the most stupid question ever, at least to writers, at least if you consider the most common answers

  • I must. 
  • To make the voices in my head shut up. 
  • And the omnipresent (and omni-prescient in some cases, for those writers who don't actually ever write much of anything) I Write. I Breathe. I Am.

I submit a more intriguing question: Why do you write what you write?

I write about guys, lots of guys. Guys hanging out in psuedo family groups, from groups of cousins, gangs of friends to homosexual lovers. Why?

Answer no. 1: I have brothers who are older than me. I never got to spend enough time with them. It's obviously a pathetic attempt to reattain some sort of sibblingness.

Answer no. 2: THE OUTSIDERS

My first book, of which I still retain the one and only draft written when I was the difficultly tender age of 13, was an OUTSIDERS riff. I didn't realize then that fan fic would have been an excellent way for me to start writing, especially for myself. My son is doing some of that: writing comics based on Assassins Creed. He even cribs images from the Googles for the pix. Go him.

25+ (ahem) years later, I'm still writing OUTSIDERS riffs under the guise of an urban fantasy series called SENTINEL.

My point, I get it. I get the appeal. OUTSIDERS was the first book that truly resonated with me, and I'm still trying to work out why.  That's cool. Cuz if you get that deep into it, after all, begs the question, Why Do You Write...?




See what I did there?

5 comments:

siebendach said...

Because I don't get the same feeling of satisfaction by doing anything else.

(Wish I could remember who said that ...)

ssas said...

Um... you?

But why do you write what you write?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'll bite. Trying to rush the answer a bit, and not overthink it.

I'm fascinated by bits of virtue and heroism that we fail to notice; by our tendency to equate beauty with virtue and truth; by our tendency to judge everything unpleasant as harmful and hostile; our common fallacy that our interactions would be trouble-free if we could only get everyone to agree; and how even if everything can be explained --- those explanations aren't always worth the effort to uncover.

That's why I write the stuff I write. Of course, I write some strange stuff.

siebendach said...

Argh! I've killed the thread! Curses... foiled again!!

ssas said...

I know. Why didn't people respond to this? It's a mystery. Then I'll write some dumb ass thing when I'm drunk and get a dozen people joining in.