I’m in a mood today.
One of those pondering life kind of moods. Only I’m not pondering life so much as I’m pondering writers in general.
The inner workings of a writer.
When I think about myself as a child, I don’t remember being a stereotypical curious kid. I didn’t push buttons to see what happened. Didn’t mix different liquids together to see what would blow up. Didn’t set up booby traps for people and watch from a safe distance as they fell prey to my creativity.
Quite the contrary, in fact.
I was fairly easy going. A real roll-with-the-punches kind of kid (so long as bugs and other assorted scary things weren’t involved). The kind of kid who knew exactly what she wanted to be by the age of ten and never strayed from that path. I wasn’t a leader or a follower. I just kinda watched and absorbed the world around me… Working out stuff in my little stories and other assorted writings.
I pursued writing classes and yearbook positions in high school, movie review gigs and newsletter articles in college. And, upon graduation, I jumped right into the world of journalism. Once I got over the initial shyness about calling people I’d never met for interviews or story tips, I enjoyed it. I liked meeting new people and listening to their stories. I liked asking questions and learning as much as I could about them and their world.
And I still do. I just do it on my friends now. 
I liked being in places where I could simply sit back and observe (small town “city meetings” can be a hoot!). Still do. Drop me on a park bench in the middle of a city with a hunk of chocolate to keep me busy and I could sit there for hours simply people-watching.
People fascinate me.
I don’t pick them apart. Don’t judge them or their choice in attire. I just watch. And imagine. I try to figure out what makes them tick.
Why? Because I’m curious… Not about stuff or how things work. But about people. Why they do what they do. How their experiences have shaped them.
Intriguing stuff. Really.
Okay, so here’s my question. Or, rather, the question I’ve been pondering.
Do you think my love of writing was born from my interest in people and what makes them tick, or do you think my yearning to write spawned my love of visual/mental observation?
Yeah, it’s a chicken-or-the-egg kind of question, but I’m curious.
Now, hold onto that one for a minute and lets delve a wee bit deeper…
I’m also a rather sensitive person. I feel people’s hurt and joy. Always have. It’s gotten me kicked more times than I can count, but it’s who I am.
Since we’re all friends here, I will give you an example of just how far I take this sensitive stuff (remember, cleansing is good for the soul 
). I was bored one night—a few years ago—and turned on the Miss America pageant. Not my thing ordinarily, but I watched (again, I was bored). When they crowned the winner, she looked so surprised and so genuinely happy that I actually got teary-eyed for her.
Yup. I know. And it’s spelled S-A-P, people!!!
Anyhoo, songs make me cry. News articles fire me up. Senseless crimes make me angry. And I internalize it all, processing it somewhere in the back of my brain. Slowly. Methodically.
Sure, sometimes I wish I could switch it off, focus on my own road and keep my head down. But I can’t. It’s as much a part of who I am as the whole writing thing is.
So is that why I set my sights on writing at such a young age and never, ever second guessed my decision??? Is it because writing gives me an acceptable place to release emotions??? A place to put it all without being branded a nut???
Hmmmm…
I wonder if writers, by nature, are more sensitive creatures. Feelers rather than thinkers…
Thoughts? Comments? Off-color jokes?
Anyone?
Hugs,
~Laura
*I decided to test out my leading theory (which, btw, is the notion that I write because of who I am) by taking this feeler/thinker quiz. Sure enough, one of the best careers for my personality type was….drum roll…a writer. Coincidence? I think not. And what’s even more frightening was what it said when I clicked on the little hints for people trying to communicate with my type of personality. It’s dead-on!
**Not a writer? Take the quiz and see if your career is one you match personality-wise. My pondering has expanded…
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Theo doesn’t want to say that this blog entry struck him as somewhat disorganized and unfocused, but…wait a minute. Yes, that’s precisely what he wants to say.
Theo took the quiz, and it was recommended that Theo become either a “meteorologist” or a “hooker”. Theo remains a man of mystery.
by Theo Epstein
on September 11th, 2007 at 12:41 am
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A hooker, eh? Have fun with that, Theo.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 5:01 am
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Laura,
I was that other kid you spoke about. Inquisitive. Always taking things apart to see how they fit back together, although I often couldn’t get them back together. At least not without having extra pieces. Maybe that’s why I became an engineer.
I may be the only writer in America that didn’t dream of writing since I was a child. In fact, I only tried writing because my aunt (85 years old and sharp as a tack) gave me an assignment. Well she and her husband told me I need to write something.
That all sprung from traveling in China for a month in 2002. I was trying to stay sane while spending hours and hours on trains, Jin Bei mini-busses, ma moos, oxen carts, etc. I decided to keep myself occupied by writing a funny story of our travels. I sent that to my aunt, in leiu of a letter that I owed her and that’s how I started.
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Laura, I have no idea why writers become writers. I’m sure there are as many reasons as there are writers. 
I know that for me, it was the constant asking of “what if…” and watching people and making up stories about them. Well, there was one other factor, too. I loved books and I wanted to be able to transport a reader to another world and entertain and surprise and delight that reader.
by Sara
on September 11th, 2007 at 8:10 am
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I started writing because I looked & looked for the books I wanted and just didn’t find. What I was looking for became so specific in the process that I figured I should write it myself. I’m in non-fiction; I don’t know if that might be true for some fiction writers, but I think Toni Morrison said something along these lines.
by Cynthia
on September 11th, 2007 at 8:54 am
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My reasons are similar to Sara’s–I wanted to write a story to entertain. And for me, it was also a great job for a stay at home mom.
But I do love to people watch and have always been interested in mysteries…
by Heather
on September 11th, 2007 at 9:04 am
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I didn’t push buttons to see what happened. Didn’t mix different liquids together to see what would blow up. Didn’t set up booby traps for people and watch from a safe distance as they fell prey to my creativity.
Oh, you so missed out.
Do you think my love of writing was born from my interest in people and what makes them tick, or do you think my yearning to write spawned my love of visual/mental observation?
Well, knowing you only as a bunch of text on my computer screen (I mean, how do I even know you’re real?), it’s kind of hard to say, but I think that, in general, people do what they do because they’re driven to it. I think we have foundations of who we are that push us to doing certain things.
So, I think you’re writing is probably borne out of your interest in people, not the other way around. Curiosity is a foundation. If someone isn’t curious, they’re never going to take that next step that leads to writing. At the same time, I’m willing to bet that there’s a whole slew of other reasons you write, too. As opposed to say, just sitting there on your park bench watching the world go by.
I’ve taken that test before. I’m an ENTJ. Supposedly my best career is to be in charge of something. Which is a bummer because what I’ve really always wanted to be is a drunken Scotsman.
Considering I’m not Scottish, that’s a challenge. But I don’t see why that should get in my way.
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Laura, that test was interesting - it reinforced that I really embrace the Gemini/Cancer cusp birthsign attributes of having a two-sided personality (not two-faced though!) and a hard outer shell over the softer inside (yeah, and I have a nice, sandy, sunny beach to show you here on the Cleveland shoreline - ha!)
But, really, the categories were harder to chose from, ’cause it really depends on the day and time and what’s going on around me, as to how I look at and react to people and situations. I wanted to be a high school history teacher from the time I was 12, because learning things and then passing on what I find so interesting to others has always been both what I like to do and what I’m best at. I just can’t figure out how to do more ’showing’ than ‘telling’ which is the problem in writing fiction, especially mysteries. I can do it better in person, with props and examples such as actual places I can show, but trying to do it on paper isn’t working out as well. While it didn’t show up as a career choice on the quiz, I was/could be again, a great interpreter at natural and cultural resource sites.
by Kate Hathway
on September 11th, 2007 at 9:56 am
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Bob took the quiz abd as a consequence has become flummoxed. The quiz tells him he should be some things that he is, some things he is not but wishes he were, and some things the thought of which horrify him.
Of course, the quiz does not ask if one is afflicted with ADD.
At least I don’t think that was part of the quiz.
I can’tg recall with any degree of certainty.
Whatthehell am I doing here, anyhow?
by Bob Rudolph
on September 11th, 2007 at 10:13 am
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I write because I’m a control-freak. I started out as an actress, but when you’re on stage, you have zero control of anything, so that obviously didn’t work out. As I writer, I still get to go inside someone else’s head, to experience things I wouldn’t normally experience, and to live vicariously through someone else, but I also get to be God (sort of) and make sure that everything turns out the way I want in the end. I write because of who I am, and because I’d be impossibly crabby to be around if I didn’t.
by JennieB
on September 11th, 2007 at 10:31 am
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I write for the free milk and cookies.
What? No free milk and cookies?
They told me once I was published I’d get free milk and cookies! Forget this! What the hell have I been doing with my time all these years?
Not even a discount coupon for the local bakery?
Hell.
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Regina, if Mike isn’t the cookie p[erson in your house, nobody else could do what you already do with cookies. My wife already knows that the failure of my gastric bypass is due to some incredible cookies, but so far she hasn’t caused me enough pain that I have given the name of that person up.
by Bob Rudolph
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
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Will, I think what fascinates me about this question is that it lends itself to a discussion I’ve heard often among writers. Is the craft of writing something that can ever truly be learned…
I knew someone once who was in the science field. Yet desperately wanted to write fiction. This person, even after years of trying, was still so wooden and so mentally removed from his characters that he just didn’t “get it.”
Did you enjoy writing even for fun as a kid whether it was a career thought or not???
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
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Cynthia, good point. I wonder if non fiction writers would come about differently. You write on fact, rather than making stuff up like fiction writers. Interesting…
Heather, you did everything you could to learn about writing. And you absorbed it all. You’re a serious case of someone who simply made up their mind to do something.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
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Stephen, I will have you know that when I was writing that line you singled out I actually thought of you. Considered sticking in a sidebar comment aimed at you and then didn’t.
***Well, knowing you only as a bunch of text on my computer screen (I mean, how do I even know you’re real?), it’s kind of hard to say, but I think that, in general, people do what they do because they’re driven to it. I think we have foundations of who we are that push us to doing certain things.***
Oh, Stephen, I’m real.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
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Kate, very interesting self observation on the whole better at making it come alive in person than on paper. See, this pondering stuff is good.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
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Bob, what job idea horrified you? C’mon, fess up.
Jennie, do you think you like to play “God” because you’re a sensitive type?
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
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Regina?!?!?!?! No one told me about milk and cookies!!!!
Sara, sorry I missed you. I noticed your reasons are close to mine.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
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Laura,
Nope. Never wrote. Never cared to.
The only training I had prior to deciding to write this novel was one semester of business writing. Of course all this lack of training came to light in my first draft.
I only wrote when I absolutley had to. Now that doesn’t mean I didn’t write, because in my profession you have to write reports, briefs, etc. And a lot of them.
I’ve always been a quick learner, though. And when challenged, I’ll try anything. Well, except poetry. I freely admit that I have a poetry deficit disorder.
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Oh, and Laura. You should come to our open mic tonight at Wired Coffee. It starts at 7 PM. I’m reading a short chapter of my 2nd novel.
I need to learn how to read my own work in front of a group.
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See but, Will? I’d end up making you laugh or something and then you’d get mad. Besides, I might not be real.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
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Is the craft of writing something that can ever truly be learned
The craft? If by that you mean the technical aspects of writing, I think so. Depending on the person being taught, of course.
Can inspiration, quality, an innate understanding of it, or the arrogance to keep doing it even though you think you the guy who writes nutritional content on the back of ketchup bottles is sooo much better than you are?
Not so much.
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Now that’s just the challenge I need. I’ve seen you, you’re real enough.
Trust me on this Stephen.
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Stephen, well said. Though with this particular person it\’s like he was so wired to be technical in thinking that he couldn\’t grasp how to make characters real rather than robots he moved around a page. Just couldn\’t seem to be able to make that leap.
And I often wondered if that coincided with that whole left/right brain thing. Thus, who you are…
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
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Will, not sure if that’s a good endorsement or not…
Would I have to sit through poetry at this thing?
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
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First, check out this link,
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/
It’s Agent Jessica Faust’s at Bookends blog today. It’s titled: Talent or Learning: What Makes a Writer an Author.
Laura, I won’t lie to you. There usually is some poetry. Although, you can come and read too. And the light at the end of the poetry tunnel—–ME.:D
The coffee is excellent also.
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Nope, not sensitive at all, unfortunately. Being open to everyone else’s pain hurts. I guess I should have said god, not God… kind of like the gods in Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld series, that play the humans like a game of chess or marbles, making bets about the outcome. I adore Terry Pratchett!
by JennieB
on September 11th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
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Will, perfect on the bookends blog. I agree with the part about good writers having a talent that’s in them…that can’t be learned. I knew I liked that agency .
And Jennie…
***kind of like the gods in Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld series, that play the humans like a game of chess or marbles, making bets about the outcome.***
Don’t know why but that statement is making me picture you sitting at your computer screen doing a “muhaha” under your breath as you subject your characters to various trials and tribulations. LOL!
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
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I think it’s Lois McMaster Bujold (an absolutely brilliant writer of fantasy and science-fiction, for those of you who haven’t tried her) who says that she’ll sit down and try to determine what would be the very worst thing that could happen to her characters… and then make it happen. Good advice!
by JennieB
on September 11th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
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Laura, the funny thing is the ‘making things come alive in person’ never translated to getting roles in any school plays - which, I think, is also more showing than telling. I can make things very interesting in an interpretive way, by making connections between bits of information so that those listening often said “Oh, that’s neat, I never thought about it that way” (or things similar to that), but I must admit, it’s still more telling than showing, except those props help me in personal encounters.
I do think it’s something to do with left/right brain divisions, I can be creative with concrete objects, facts, ets. but have trouble with more fictional ideas. Both are gifts, but maybe that’s where the gift parts differ.
by Kate Hathway
on September 11th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
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Though with this particular person it\’s like he was so wired to be technical in thinking that he couldn\’t grasp how to make characters real rather than robots he moved around a page.
I used to do photography. On occasion, when I can, I still do. There was a friend of mine I used to go out shooting with. Technically, he was a much better photographer than I was. Always had his exposures right, color balanced. Knew which filters to use, what aperture and when to hit a scene with a flash to make sure that you could see the shot.
But, oh my god did his pictures suck.
They were completely flat and sterile. Like somebody had sucked all the juice out of the scene. He just had no idea how to compose a shot, or how to grab an interesting shadow.
So, from a technical aspect, I think any art can be taught. But I don’t think you can teach talent.
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Kate, I am so whatever brain is the artsy side it isn’t funny. Science kills me. I’m creative, good with common sense…but technical stuff isn’t pretty.
Stephen, your “flat and sterile” description is perfect for my guy’s writing too. He could come up with amazing plots, but to bring it to life–he fell short. Way short.
by Laura
on September 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
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When I first started writing I went to a 4 hour class taught by a St. Louis writer, Bobbi Smith. I was the first one to sit down and she asked me what I did for a day job.
I told her I was an Environmental Engineer.
Her instant response was, “OMG an engineer? You’re so left brained, how on earth can you be creative?
I asked her if she could design a bridge. I said you had to be pretty creative for that.
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Laura - it was lawyer….
by Bob Rudolph
on September 13th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
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Ahhhhh. Understood.
by Laura
on September 13th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
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