Last month passed in a blur of work, illness and exhaustion. I didn’t have much time to write and unfortunately missed October’s posting. I’m currently on a short break from work and am feeling much better. My daughter and I have been enjoying lots of fun Halloween activities and watching Disney films.
Writing News
I’m working on a couple of short stories for anthology calls that end late November and early December. I don’t think I’ll have time to look at my novel again until 2021.
Fairytale Dragons, featuring my story “Forged in Flames” comes out on 30th November and I’m excited for the online release event (details to follow!). The anthology is available to pre-order here.
Why I Write What I Write
This month’s optional question:
Albert Camus once said, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said, “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?
An overactive imagination and a love of reading got me into writing in the first place. I’ve always been interested in ancient mythology, philosophy, science and space exploration, so I was naturally drawn to sci-fi and fantasy. I began to create my own worlds and characters based on my childhood favourites and eventually developed my own style.
I write first and foremost to entertain myself and satisfy my own curiosity. I have to create things in my free time, otherwise I become miserable and frustrated. Writing is the easiest form of self-expression for me as it requires nothing but my imagination and a pen or laptop. I do enjoy experimenting with visual arts but I find words much easier to manipulate than paint, pencil or clay.
Speculative fiction is my genre of choice because it gives me the freedom to explore my wildest “what if?” ideas without the constraints of reality. Many of my stories do contain a message for “civilisation” if you read between the lines, but any truths about society tend to be expressed through metaphor or allegory and often only reveal themselves to me after I’ve finished writing. So, I suppose I do write to “discover what I know” on some level.
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group post on the first Wednesday of every month. We want to help writers of all stages to overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.
This month’s awesome co-hosts are: Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria!
Why do you write what you write or read what you read? Do you enjoy speculative fiction?
Sounds like a great reason to write 🙂
Ronel visiting on IWSG day Achieving Kick-Ass Goals
No worries you missed last month.
That’s why I like science fiction and fantasy – you don’t have to worry about reality.
I like retellings and dragons, so that anthology sounds neat! I can relate to what you said about needing to create and writing being the easiest way for you. In a way writing is also the easiest way for me to do that, but not necessarily to do well lol. But yes, there is a lot of room for exploration in spec fic!