After the wonderful responses to 'Why do you write?' I thought I'd ask all you writers (aspiring and published) another question about you and your writing. Everyone wants different things out of their writing, and writes for different reasons. Every writer wants to achieve something different.
What do you hope to achieve with your writing?
I still have the same goals for my writing as I did before I had an agent and a book deal...
What do you hope to achieve with your writing?
I still have the same goals for my writing as I did before I had an agent and a book deal...
1. I want to be able to financially support myself through writing. That won't be just novel writing, and it won't be something I'll be able to achieve for years, and I'll probably have to survive on tin spaghetti for my entire adult life, but that's my goal. I don't want a six-figure advance or to have my book be the next Twilight. I'm pretty happy being the first Steph Bowe, even if she does survive on tin spaghetti.
2. I want to affect people. This is probably a ridiculous thing to want, but I'll mention it anyway. I feel isolated as a person. I feel very different from all of my friends. I'm going to use being a writer as an excuse for being a tortured soul, which is a total cop-out, I know. I hope that people who feel the same way I do are out there, even though I haven't met any of them. If a teenager (or older person) who feels like this picks up a book of mine and is able, if only in a really tiny way, to feel as if they aren't such a freak, they aren't as different as they think, someone else feels as terrible as they do every day, and it makes them feel a little better, knowing they're not alone, I'll feel good. I like to imagine that something like this will happen to someone, and it makes me feel as if my life has purpose, if I can affect someone else.
As I said, it's a ridiculous thing to want, but anything that keeps you getting up every morning, no matter how ridiculous, must be a good thing, right?
My writing is something that is an inextricable part of who I am and affects every facet of my life. I don't have a whole lot of life goals. I don't want to go skydiving or conquer a mountain or have seven children or attend a special university. I want to be happy, I want to stay close to my family, I want to be able to make a living out of writing. That's it. That's all I want.
So, tell me - what do you hope to achieve with your writing?
12 notes passed:
To corrupt the innocent and convert minions. :::cackle:::
I've always felt that my life could go in two directions:
1. Go to college, marry mid-level manager, become soccer mom, die
2. Move to paris, become starving writer, die of drug overdose (Not that I do drugs, but it fit with the theme), become famous after my death.
I've changed this opinion now, and I think that I want to be a writer just to be... validated. I'm going to be in politics, but: can you name a senator from the 20s? No. Can you name a writer? Offhand, easy. Dorothy Parker.
I'm too much of a cautious person and the thoughts of not having a day job with a stable salary would terrifies me senseless. However, I do hope to be able to earn money writing fiction in the future.
I want to tell a good story with my writing, a story that will stick in the readers' minds after they've finished reading. If there is a single reader who enjoys my writing as much as I do my favorite authors', I'd be happy. :)
All of the above. I want people to become aware and even become inspired. And even if (and that's a very big 'if') I somehow make it as a writer- I'll still keep my day job. Nothing lasts forever, especially in the entertainment industry.
What do I hope to achieve with my writing? To write an awesome story. You might not want a six figure advance, but I sure do. I'd like to be the next Stephanie Myers minus all the criticism.
I'm with you. I want someone to get something out of my writing and enjoy it and I'd love to be able to live my life through writing and doing what I enjoy doing.
I don't have a lot of life goals either. :)
-Lauren
I seriously got chills reading your post. I feel the exact same way, down to every word, with a minor difference - I wouldn't be happy surviving on tin spaghetti, just because my parents are poor and I want to get myself out of that. I feel very connected to just one of my friends, but otherwise, same with the tortured soul thing. I want to affect people - I want my life to have a purpose. Sorry for being a parrot but it's the truth :)
To be able to work in my pyjamas, while eating ice cream and listening to The Cat Empire all day ... but also to make people think stuff & feel stuff & maybe, one day, change someone's life with my words! (I am a megalomaniac, after all!)
I want for my writing, fiction and nonfiction alike, to entertain, to humour, to evoke thought and opinion alike, but mostly to bring about positive actions and changes ranging from the personal to societal level.
I also hope to achieve a new clarity concerning language and eloquence, but if not that then at least a new level of analytical thought.
My goals are the similar to yours. I don't want to work in an office or in retail hell. I want to support myself by doing something I love (even if writing is painful at times) and write things that entertain and make people think about themselves and how the world works.
I recently had an interview for a professional writing and editing course, and was asked a very similar question, and your post has kept me dwelling on it.
In no particular order:
- I want to write words that I can be proud of - encapsulate true beauty, wonder, tragedy and joy perfectly in print.
- I want to write words that other people will read and/or hear, and will stay with them.
- I want to find my own voice in my words - something truly mine, and not contrived, pretentious or unconsciously derivative.
- In terms of finances, I'm not so concerned about being able to support myself through writing, but I want to be able to write well enough for it to pay for itself.
I agree with everything you said but I am not really concerned about supporting myself through writing alone though,cause you never know. I might not be able to publish and be #1 best seller but aslong as I am doing it for the love of it. Writing for me is a hobby, and it would be too stressful to have to worry about finishing my manuscript just to pay the bills, so the safer thing to do in my case: get another job and write on the side so I have something to fall back on. Writing is a risky business, you never know whether you may be dining on caviar or tin spaghetti( eww gross!)
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