Wednesday Rants: September 11, 2013

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another round of random ranting. This week I will be following up the last 'Thoughts on Writing' segment with this week's talk on 'The Way of the Writer'. So without further hesitation let us begin.


[Thoughts on Writing-The Way of the Writer

In my first year on Fictionaut, there was a forum post asking what we writers thought about writing. My answer was just straightforward.

We have something to say.
We have ideas to share.
We have information to relay.
We want to communicate.

I added that to my 'Why do you write?' of my Fictionaut profile and kind of left it there. But what did I mean by all of that. Well I took the time reflect on it since I said it with no rhyme or reason and I feel I could share this with all of you.

1- We have something to say.

One of things that make storytelling, throughout all media, is that there is underlying message or metaphor or allegory, just something there that grabs a persons attention. Historically speaking, many stories were written in certain ways to avoid things like imprisonment for speaking out against a government, or exploring a taboo. These are the thing that make people think, but it would never happen, if the storyteller had nothing to say. In all writings, regardless of quality, have this in common; the writer has something to say. Whether its comedy, or warning us about the dangers of damaging the environment, or challenging social norms, the writer is telling the story because he has something to say about it. It doesn't matter whether the reader agrees or not, or decides to scream controversy. It something the author saw that felt needed to be shared. It can have entertainment value, it can be hidden messages like in Grimms tales, but no matter what, the author is writing because they want to say something to someone, for better or for worse.

2- We have ideas to share.

One of the beauties of Science Fiction are the ideas of technology that come out of it. Many Sci-Fi writers in the 1800s had ideas of traveling through space, or using new types of weaponry to fight aliens, or building a new mode of transportation that benefits mankind. Ideas are not just relegated to Sci-Fi of course, many traditional fiction set in present eras of the time shared ideas from politics, to business, to schooling. Many writers have ideas that can be mind-blowing, make us think twice about the way we act as society, or the potential to improve society. Writing brings forth ideas for everyone.

3- We have information to relay.

Sometimes, we as a society act in our nature to ignore things, or be ignorant of what is happening around us. Sometimes it information that is not relevant to our situation, like computers. Sometimes it could be an issue that has nothing to with us. But the thing about writing is the author learned of something, saw something, had a conversation about something that could be informative and is not readily available. Whether fiction or non-fiction, writers convey the information they learn to the general public and let us know when something good is happening, or something bad is happening, and no one is aware of it. Just think of how many laws came into being, how companies changed their rules, and how many everyday people changed their lives around because of the writings they read. All because information was provided to the reader at their finger tips.

4- We want to communicate.

I read in one of the books, which I am sorry the title escapes me, while I was learning to improve my writing where the author asked a student a key thing to writing. The answer was communication. I found that interesting because communication has many forms but served one unifying purpose, to get us to talk to each other. Let me put it like this, there is a book about vampires that made a lot of money while simultaneously triggered vitriolic hate. Despite the panning, it did one thing amazingly, it got people to talk to each other. See, we human beings, well... we really need to talk to each other more often, and its very easy to do but somehow difficult. Writing is a good way to at least get us to talk to each other. Be it fun, informative, or fan-biased, storytelling allows readers the ability and freedom to provide feedback to each other on what they thought. It brings a person's characteristics and helps bring people together, or at least an understanding. The freedom to agree or disagree, or agree to disagree. But the underlying objective is to get people to talk to each other, because talking is good.]

So this ends another session of 'Thoughts on Writing'. I thank you all for joining and look forward the next session in two weeks. Free 'Shell' Friday is this week and falls on a very creepy date for all you Horror. Enjoy.

Until Next Time...
See ya.