Why Write?

 

Tonight at dinner with friends they had no idea what I do for a hobby.  Not wanting to brag, I told them that I fooled around with writing.  Eventually showing them the website after some prodding; the evening took on a whole new tone as it were.

I don’t talk about this hobby.  I should I suppose, but those people are not you people. Does that make sense?

If you are reading this, you and I probably have a lot in common.  We express ourselves in ways that few do.

I wrote once that writers are probably the loneliest of people around.  We can be lonely in a room full of people.  I know many of you are shaking your head, you probably agree with me and have been there.

I started writing as a child.  I won’t bore you with the details, but I had a pretty screwed up childhood. I often lost myself in my writings that I wish that I could find today.  I wrote what I was feeling.  I wrote as if I were talking to my best friend.  I even wrote some songs that if I could find them today, I would probably shake my head in utter amazement of just how pitiful I was.

The truth of the matter is we are all a little messed up.  Not one of us is perfect, if you were, you would have been nailed to a cross and no offense, I don’t want that job.

After making my way free of my parents’ home at the ripe old age of 1 day after my 18^th birthday, the real lessons of life kicked in.  You must find a job, and you must work, or you don’t eat.  You must sell some service to someone, or you sleep in your car or the park.  I never slept in my car or the park, but I did have to pay extra to pay my rent two weeks at a time on occasion.  Spaghettios were a luxury.  Cheap soup, five for a dollar was typical.

I never once took a job that I was qualified for.

I bluffed my way in and did all I could to learn what I had to do to be successful. My entire life has been such a struggle with things like that.  I see them as challenges and figure I have the brains to do it, so I do.

As an avid reader, I enjoyed so many of the novels of our time and those that came before us.  One night after finishing a Clive Cussler Novel it hit me.  “I can do that!”

Everyone must start somewhere.

I began the process of writing the novel Under Roswell. The abrupt ending of one of my favorite TV shows because it was being canceled drove me to try my hand at fan fiction which inevitably pushed me to start Under Roswell.  Understand I did this for me.  I never intended to publish it.

The more friends that read it more encouraged me to try and publish it.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get an agent’s or publisher’s attention?

Working through the process, it is an ugly process.    Rejection letters from so many agents were seriously affecting my attitude.  When I read some of the things that are out there, I was amazed that I could not lasso an agent.

I tried an experiment.  After E.L.James had written 50 shades and it went viral, I read it.  No offense, love you girl but, I said to myself, I can do that one step better!

I wrote a rather tawdry novel that I don’t even market.  It receives over 2500 hits every day all on its own.  I thought that it was smutty.  Some of my friends who read smut have assured me that it is not.  Let’s just say it is 50 shades naughty and leave it at that.

It is selling around the world so people must like it.

When asked about it, I told my friends that I like to write science fiction.

“If people are buying that other book, why not write more of those?”

Here is the truth of it.  Individuals who don’t understand writers or authors judge us on what we write.

It is silly really.  Do they think that Agatha Christy is a murderer?

I killed off people in Under Roswell; am I a murderer?

Here is the real point I wanted to make.

When I journaled as a child and young adult, it assisted me in understanding who I was.

When one writes, they see themselves in their characters.  I see parts of myself in my characters.

I always wanted to write a self-help book called Mirror Time. I wanted to understand that person in the mirror who looks back at me so often.  Behind those eyes, there is this soul, reaching to break free of the facade that society puts on us.

That soul breaks free in my novels.

I have so many characters who I love deeply!  Often I  wonder if I am Cybil? Relax, no voices telling me to kill someone or anything like that.  Just the lone voice in my head trying to live on some planet or some other realm where pain can be mitigated with a keyboard and mouse.  A place where evil people can be dashed against the rocks, and disappear under the waters of life to become part of the cycle of life.

Why write? Why not write!

Nobody ever has to read what you write, ever!

I would like to share a thought with one of my younger followers out there.  Yes, I am talking to you.  The young person who pours out your soul on a blog.  I read some of your writing, you are a beautiful person.  I love your heart and who you are. I look forward to reading your first book.

For now, write those things in your diary and keep the key close.  Take care of what you write and post dear one.  There are some folks out there who are not nice writers like us.

I have never known anyone to judge another writer for the stuff that they write, but if they do, I certainly don’t need them as friends.  I keep toxic people out of my life, and I would encourage that of everyone!

I am rather pragmatic when it comes to subjects to write about.  What is selling?  What are people reading?  Give me a topic, and I will give you a story.  While I love science fiction, I also love fantasy and magic and witches and warlocks and maybe even a vampire.

I truly think vampires have been done to death, but more and more novels about them, still pop up.

“Vampires, done to death,” get it?

I don’t endorse anything that I happen to have in one of my stories.  It is fiction, and it worked in the plot at the time.

Let me thank my newest followers for taking the time to check in and read my writing.  I look forward to swapping thoughts, tropes and what have you here in this blog.

I honestly believe that writers or authors should support one another and I certainly will.

Connect with me here or on Twitter @authortwscott  or www.authortwscott.com, I would love to hear from you.  If you are one of my readers of my novels.  Thank you so much!  Your patronage is the reason that I do what I do.  With the thousands of hits daily on some of my author pages, I feel it is only a matter of time when the Brand TWScott will mean something more than it does.

If it never happens, however; I want to make this point.  I am a much better person for writing my novels.  I now know me better than I ever have before.  My Novels have changed me as well.  I reach out to people who I would have not have reached out to before.  Write…Try it for yourself… Everyone has a story, what is yours?

 

Much Love -TW