“If a story is in you, it has got to come out.” –William Faulkner
I love that quote by Faulkner. It’s how I’ve always felt about my best writing. When the story is in there, it just needs to come out, and the only way is through my fingertips. It’s a wonderful feeling.
What isn’t a wonderful feeling is how I feel about the publishing industry right now. I feel like writers are becoming less of artists because they’re at the mercy of publishers and consumerism. Will a story sell? If a publisher, editor or agent says no, too often the story is never written. Or if a writer sneaks and writes it between his/her agent-approved projects, it becomes one of Stephen King’s “trunk novels.” Filed away in a forgotten place.
When did writers start writing what everybody else WANTS them to write? If that were always the case, there’d be no banned books week (September 27-October 3, just fyi). Can you imagine Huxley pitching A Brave New World? Or Ray Bradbury trying to sell an agent on Fahrenheit 451? What if, at the time these books were being written, the publishing world said no and the writers didn’t write them? What if those books had never been there to inspire thoughts and feelings that aren’t always pleasant, but nonetheless help us to become a better place?
I believe it is the duty of writers and artists to bring things into the world that wouldn’t otherwise be there. If it’s a story that sells a million copies, great. The important thing is to get it on your computer screen and out of your head. Then do your damnedest to send it out into the world. Through the normal channels, through a small publisher, in ebook form or pamphlet or on your own blog, if need be.
“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, onto paper.” –Ray Bradbury
Because that’s your job. That’s why you’re a writer.
In honor of banned books week, I’d like to urge all my fellow writers to join me next week in writing something they want to write. Don’t write it because somebody else thinks it will sell. Write it because it’s in your heart. You may rediscover that joy that writing used to bring you.
BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye 
I only write what I want to write, it makes me really happy! But then, I also have a second job to pay the bills, so maybe I can’t understand a writer’s plight completely.
I think you have the right idea. Create what you want and if success follows, so be it! Good luck with your writing!
Damn. Okay, this made me cuss. This is so spooky how you and I had the same thoughts at nearly the same time. Here’s the thing, Michelle: I believe, like you, writers have lost their individuality. They want to be the next King or Patterson or Clancy. They don’t want to be themselves. They are, essentially what I have been calling cookie cutter writers–afraid to think outside of the box because they are afraid they won’t be able to make any money on it.
This is why I write the way I do. I wish to be an original (and I think I do that for the most part). I don’t want to be like anyone else. I want you to know me by the stories I write, not by the way I sound like everyone else.
Great post, my friend.
You are definitely an original, AJ! Thanks for the read and yes! Spooky!
Pingback: What Matters? The Story | Type AJ Negative