It's a business not made for the faint at heart, and I think every writer asks themselves as some point, "is this really worth it?"
Bare with me on this one. I am coming to you live from a writing session that went way too late, so this blog is filled with disorganized raw thought. Continue at your own risk.
I once had a professor tell me, "if [what you're writing] is hard to write, that's your sign that it must be written." He was one of my non-fiction writing professors, and may I say my favorite thus far.
While he was referring to personal essay and memoir writing, his remark reminded me of another professor's statement who I had in undergrad. He said, "writing is a risk."
One was a non-fiction writer, and the other was a fiction writer; but it doesn't matter what you're writing, anything you are willing to publish is vulnerable and a risk. I assume only writers will understand this personally, but I wanted to highlight the truth behind it.
I just started a non-fiction workshop class for school, and after writing the introduction to my piece, I realized it's going to be much harder to write than I anticipated. It has nothing to do with the amount of content and research I have, I have more than enough-- it's emotionally exhausting. I am reliving memories I wanted to keep tucked in journals forever, fighting feelings of exposure and vulnerability, and praying through every section to make sure I am protecting people I love. It's hard, and I keep a tissue box next to me when I'm working on this now haha, but I know this is the story that must be told.
In terms of fiction, though, I have a handful of friends who primarily write fiction, and I don't think it's fair to undermine the emotions that come with writing that genre. Writers are not robots (and no, AI is not a writer...). We can only write about things that we know: characters are based on either a person or a complication of people we know. We can only write about feelings and emotions that we ourselves have experienced before. And when it comes to creating characters and the world they live in, I think of it similarly to God creating us-- He carefully created every single person, He loves us immensely, and sees no flaw in us. When a writer creates his or her characters, it's vulnerable to put your heart out into the world and see how it's received. It stings when people don't understand or resonate, and it's easy to feel defensive when someone points out a flaw in someone you "created."
Fiction or non-fiction, writing comes from the heart. Whether you're literally writing about your life, or revealing snippets of yourself through fiction, there is always a risk of your heart getting misunderstood, or shattered. I wish people would disown the narrative that writing is easy.
It's hard to put your thoughts on paper, it's hard to create a world inside of one that you know, it's hard to communicate a message and wisdom, and it's hard to share it with people who may reject it.
Writing is a risky business to get into. Not just financially, although that's an entirely different topic, I'm talking about the emotional and mental risk of it. It's a business not made for the faint at heart, and I think every writer asks themselves as some point, "is this really worth it?" To which I can answer "yes."
Comments