It’s June, which means the sun is out, my roses are in bloom – and it’s time for another of our authors’ Round Robins…
This month the topic is:
Why do you write or feel compelled to write, even through the difficult parts?
This is such a great question. A while ago, when I was in a writers’ group, I brought part of my work in progress with me to read out, in order to get a fresh eye on it. I had been stuck on a scene for a while – writing and rewriting – and I was hoping for some advice. I can’t remember now which scene it was, but I remember telling the group that writing this chapter had been, ‘a real slog’.
One of the group turned to me in surprise and said, ‘Then why do you do it?’
I remember being equally surprised at the question. It was something I’d never thought to ask myself before. I just accepted that writing would be hard work, and I carried on writing, regardless. What made me different from Tom, the writer who asked the question? Why did Tom never find writing a slog? One reason might be that Tom writes for fun and as a hobby, and when he’s bored of something he’s writing, he puts it to one side and starts a new piece.
So why do I keep going when the writing gets difficult? There was a time when I would do the same as Tom. I would start writing a story, and I didn’t really know where it was going, so I stopped mid-way and started something else. I’ve written before about how joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme was a tremendous inspiration to me, and how it was through the RNA that I finished my first novel, The Silk Romance. Being a part of this scheme involved submitting a finished book. I was determined to do it and not to let the year be a waste, and so I wrote and wrote, even through the difficult parts, until I could write The End. It was tremendously satisfying to finish a whole book – and I still remember the euphoria of discovering it was going to be published!
But getting to the end and seeing my book in print isn’t my main motivation for carrying on through all the frustration and the headaches and sheer graft of wrestling with words until you get them to say what you want. Before I start writing a new book, I have a story in my mind that I want to tell. I have characters that feel real to me, and I want to make them real to other people. In a funny way, I feel that if I don’t finish the book, I will be letting my characters down by not telling their story. I have to keep on going, because now I owe it to my characters to bring them alive.
Creating anything worthwhile involves hard work. I mentioned at the start of this article that my roses are in 
bloom. My back yard was just rubble and rocks when we moved into our house. It took a lot of hard work to get it to look like this, and my garden is still an ongoing process. I feel about my garden as I feel about my writing. I have a vision of how I want it to be, and I keep on grafting in pursuit of that vision. Neither my garden nor my writing ever turns out exactly how I want it to be, but that doesn’t stop me from keeping on trying!
I’m very curious to know what the other authors in our Round Robin will say about their own writing, and why they keep going even when most other people would give up. If you’d like to check out their posts, please click on the links below.
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If you’re a writer, what is it that compels you to write, when others would give up? If you are creative in any other way – be it gardening, painting, needlework, or whatever – what is it that makes you want to create, no matter what the difficulty?
If you have any comments at all, I’d love to hear from you!
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1gQ
Marie Laval http://marielaval.blogspot.co.uk/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Aimee) A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com
Helena Fairfax 
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