Question for fellow writers/artists

[izhilzha]

I won't bore you with the backstory to this question, but:

Have you ever really struggled with the thought that you may have nothing worthwhile to say? That your own point of view, as it would be expressed in your work, is neither interesting nor important?

Or is that just me?

Comments

[maychorian]

Only all the time.

You get told so many things as a young writer going to a college for a writing degree, and the going out in the world trying to find a job in your field. It's tough. They say you're too young, you don't really have anything to say, you should spend time traveling around the world to get more experience (hahahaha, do they think I have money to burn?), and on and on and on.

But I have found that there ARE people who want to hear the stories I have to tell. I draw a lot from my own experiences to write about kids, families, sibling relationships, the things friends will do for each other. The deeper the story draws from myself, the more people tell me that it meant something to them.

I think we all have something important to say. We just have to figure out what it is.

[izhilzha]

Right. I've been there. It's just that being 30 and either still not knowing what I have to say, or having no way to say it to anyone (except myself and God) is getting really old.

[scionofgrace]

All. The. Time.

Actually, I think if you don't think it, you end up becoming one of those strident blowhards who really doesn't have anything worthwhile to say.

[izhilzha]

Heh. That's...probably a good point, especially if you're writing nonfiction.

[rj_anderson]

Not exactly. I do believe what I have to say is interesting (at least to me) and also potentially important, because it's based in spiritual and experiential truth; but what I struggle with is the worry that I'll either never be able to communicate it in a way that is compelling to others or even makes sense to them.

Or else that people will get the message, but then they'll just say, "So what? I knew that already."

[izhilzha]

Yeah, I think that last line is mostly what I'm afraid of. That I will put in the work only to have it fall into the void of everything that everyone has said before--no use to anyone, except maybe (maybe!) me.

[fpb]

If the story itself is worth telling, that will not happen. The story is part of the message; it is the message. Whatever else you may get from reading Hamlet or Keats, you get Hamlet or Keats. If you have written a story that people remember, in a style that imposes itself on their memories, you have also given them a new thought. And a source of further new thoughts.

[ladybrick]

I think I worry more that I'll run out of stories to tell.

[izhilzha]

....

I wish I was you, then.

[fpb]

If you have stories to tell, you have things to say.

[izhilzha]

I feel I have so many fewer stories than most writers I know, or at any rate that they are smaller and less interesting (less extreme, less deep) than others, that this is not a terribly encouraging thought.

[yahtzee63]

As long as the story is fun for the reader/listener/etc., I don't worry about "important." I'm here to entertain. That doesn't mean I don't care about what I'm saying, but I guess it's the difference between importance and responsibility.

[izhilzha]

I guess the difference is that I feel that I am here not only to entertain but also to communicate. What I love most in stories is the sense of connection with someone who is either very like me or very different--the deeper understanding of myself through someone else, or the new understanding of something beyond my current experience, and I don't know if I have either of those to truly offer.

[yahtzee63]

You can communicate "to." When writing, it's very hard to communicate "with," at least outside of fandom, or even there on a deeper level. There is a communion between writer and reader, but I have come to believe it is almost always the reader's sole privilege to experience; she alone can really understand what has resonated with her, and why, and it may be for reasons and in ways that the author never imagined.

For (inadequate but nonetheless accurate) example, I am quite sure that the writers of "Alias" had no intention of creating something as meaningful as the show as to me. That does not change what I got from it, love in it and will always feed from in it.

[izhilzha]

True. That was something I both savored and was annoyed by when I was studying English Lit: half of my fellow students loved this idea so much they would pretend to see things in the text that weren't there even by a stretch of the imagination, whereas I enjoyed seeing how well I could support what I was seeing from the text. (This skill has served me well in fandom meta discussions.)

Your point is well made, though; writing or art of any kind is, in the end, a sheer gamble by the author/creator. I'm quite certain that the writers of Life on Mars (UK) didn't mean to create a main character who is so much like me it's a little bit terrifying...but it's a great, layered show, and that's one of the things that *I* have found in it. I guess that's what I should work on, then: writing that sort of layered excellence.