When You Feel the Urge to Write … You Write.
I’ve been thinking about all the wannabe authors out there. I don’t know why. I suppose it’s because I’m in the same boat with them. I write because I feel the urge to put my stories down for others to read. It’s something I have to do.
Have to.
Even though I occasionally wonder if I’m relevant.
I often hear young people talking about what cool new music they’ve been listening to and, if they bother to ask me about it, all I can think of is stuff from the 60’s. Some of them might even laugh at some of the songs I mention.
Nobody seems very interested in my opinions about the sorry state of music these days which, I suppose, is the way it should be. I had my turn, with my father not liking all that yeah, yeah shit I listened to.
Except …
Music isn’t just for the young. I noticed a few months ago that SiriusXM Radio quit their 40’s channel (it actually went away in 2014), which would have been a great shock to my mother … if she knew anything at all about XM Radio.
She would have missed the music, if she had subscribed to the station. That, alas, was never going to happen. Her shock would have come because she distinctly remembers radio coming through the airwaves for free. Why would she ever want to pay for it?
Is it really the same thinking to wonder why my sons (or most anyone else in their generation) wouldn’t want to listen to The Last Train to Clarksville, by the Monkees? It was a really big song in 1965, and I still know all the words.
Am I going to wake up some morning to discover SiriusXM Radio has discontinued their 60’s channel … because there aren’t enough subscribers in that age group anymore?
I suppose it’s inevitable.
That was the same year I wrote my first serious short story (I was a little older than the kid in the picture). Most of the magazines I sold a few shorts to over the years don’t even exist any more.
I didn’t really sit down to write fiction full-time, however, until I left the nine-to-five grind in the first quarter of 2008.
My first novel (published in 2012) was set in the 60s.
It was something I knew about, which was a very good reason to write about it … but just because I lived through it doesn’t mean it’s the only thing I can write.
The same should be true for you.
Personal experience shouldn’t be something limiting, despite the phrase write what you know. I’ve also written short stories dealing with Alzheimer’s, the war in Iraq, quantum physics and a meeting with the devil … none of which I’ve been directly involved in.
I can, however, read … and I do a lot of it.
That’s the key. Read. Read a lot. Read everything you can get your hands on. And, if you want to write … write. The stories will come.
I can’t vouch for how good they’ll be. You’ll have to take responsibility for that. But I promise you … if you sit down and do the work … they will come.
My latest, BLOOD LAKE, will be out this summer. Look for it.
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Painting With Light 