This is a question I'm sure most writers don't give a lot of thought to. Most of us just sit down and write what interests us, what we're passionate about, and after enough time and practice a pattern begins to emerge. For most of us, we leave the packaging to someone else and try our best to make writing as organic and nebulous as possible. That is, after all, what gives us the best results.
To be honest, I'm not sure that's going to work out for me. When I read a blog or story I particularly like, my first response is something like "I want to do something like that." And thanks to a wide variety of friends, I'm exposed to all *kinds* of writing. Obviously, I'm not versatile enough to write in every style I want to, so I think it makes sense for me to sit down and think about exactly what I want to be doing with my writing. What do I want to sound like? What's my ultimate goal with this kind of thing?
It's not an easy question to answer, even though I feel like it's something I should be asking of myself. What interests me? Why do I want to talk about these interests with a wide audience? What am I hoping to show people?
I think when it comes right down to it, I'm fascinated by the act of storytelling and what we get out of it -- as a society and as individuals. I think the symbols we use and how they relate to the aspects of ourselves we admire is very, very telling. Most of the time, we don't even realize what we're doing, what we're saying by who we choose to obsess over, tell stories about and connect with. It's that cultural subconscious that's really intriguing to me. I think there's always an undercurrent running through a community that will tell you what it's about if you're able to crack the code. I think, ultimately, what I want to do is talk about that in my stories.
Storytelling, to me, is a worthwhile pursuit because it's such a powerful tool of self-reflection. Our storytellers show us who we are in ways that we would otherwise find incredibly painful. They hypnotize us into seeing the parts of ourselves and our society that we would rather not see. Our stories, at their best, force us to be honest but also enable us to handle that honesty with grace and compassion. If you're able to do it just right, you can take the blinders off of someone's experience with a well-constructed story. You help people to see things exactly as they are -- or exactly as you see them, at least.
Right now I've been focusing on the idea of stories as entertainment, because I think that's what a story needs to do at the very least. No one's going to let your story affect them if they're not entertained by it; so you need to figure out how to package your presentation in a way that's gripping and fun. There's no shame in wanting to write a story just to entertain; in fact, a lot of our 'serious' writers could really stand to remember that lesson. Entertainment, ideally, shouldn't be the only reason for a story's existence, but it's got to be a big reason. If you're going to sermonize or lecture, there are other avenues for that. Ayn Rand may have had an interesting political idea to espouse, but she absolutely sucks at story-telling.
Ultimately I'd love to be the kind of writer who had something to say about the role mythology plays in our lives, in all of its forms. I would love to playfully tweak our fascination with pop culture while at the same time illuminating its purpose and elevating it beyond its admittedly shallow nature and reputation. I would love to explore the alchemical process of mixing truth in with a stew of symbolism, metaphor and misdirection so it can be made palatable. And I would love to entertain while doing it.
So there we go. Now that I've outright said it, I guess I have a direction to point myself in. That direction might completely change once I get some actual practice under my belt. We'll see. I just think this is a talking-out-loud conversation with myself that needed to happen.
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