Between The Lines

Why do we write? It has been said that everyone has at least one book in them, but that still doesn’t answer the question. Why do we write? Why do we subject ourselves to countless hours staring at blank pages awaiting our pearls to come forth, or countless rejections from publishers who don’t appreciate those pearls. Why expose out innermost thoughts and feelings to an uncaring or disinterested public?....Leanne Hanson suggests that writing is as integral to her life as breathing. A life sustaining affirmation of the self. And who’s to say if she’s right or wrong.
I used to tell myself that I wrote for myself; that I was unconcerned with my possible audience, but that of course, wasn’t true. Writers are always aware of their audience, especially if they wish to eek out some meager living as a writer. What changed my mind and opened my eyes to the greater audience (than one) was a reaction to a short thought included in my first volume of poetry…”She was a smile from ear to ear that would not go away…until she did”. When I wrote that simple thought it was from the point of view of someone who was just unceremoniously dismissed from a relationship. I never allowed that that thought could mean anything else until someone who lost a daughter in a car accident saw her daughter as the ‘she’. Realizing that the words could affect others differently then they affected me, I became much more aware of my audience and reconsidered why I write.
I still write for myself, to a large degree, but I have become more polished. My poetry has grown from pure free verse to include some complicated and sophisticated forms. For myself, I find that I am much more considerate of word choice when I write in form, but I don’t think I wish to impose my appreciation of sonnets and ballades on those who have “Born to Free Verse” tattooed on their arms.
The point is diversity. There is room for all types of stylistic nuance in the world of writing. The simple fact is that without the differences, reading would be boring. Not the biggest fan of the realists, I still have preferences within the genre. I rather enjoy Hemingway yet find root canal sans Novocain preferable to Faulkner – even though Faulkner has given me the singular thought that in writing “sometimes you have to kill all your darlings.”