The quick answer is that I simply have to. It’s my way of making sense of the world and it’s also my playground in that I can create my own worlds here. I love it and hate it in equal measure but to stop writing would be to stop living. It’s who I am.
When it comes to individual pieces of writing the answer to why I wrote them will change depending on the piece in question. This blog, for example, started in my writing diary, an idea I got from Scott Myers in his excellent screenwriting blog, Go into the Story (GITS). As I was writing it I realised that some of what I’ve learned as I strive to be a writer, may be helpful for other new writers. So in this case I’m writing because I want to help others avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way, and to share some of the great resources that have helped me.
I wrote my screenplay, Black Snow, for different reasons; as a way of bringing back a very special person, to explore the nature of grief and loss, to share my joy of mountains, to give hope to those who can’t find it…
Poems are something I write purely for the fun of it. They come unbidden into my head and literally seem to write themselves.
My current project, 10, is set in the near future and explores some of my concerns about the world we now find ourselves in. A world where terror attacks are increasingly common. Where fear and mistrust lead good people to make bad decisions. In 10, I want to explore alternative scenarios and options for how we might live better, as well as what could happen if we do nothing.
Tomorrow - How do I write?