Why I Wrote

I’m working through an unreliable list of reasons for writing.

Why I Wrote 3: Something really important to say. You think you have something that people really, truly do need to hear. Of course you do, just like the rest of us. No, no, you protest, mine really is important…you must listen. It’s precocious, isn’t it? Like a shrill four-year demanding his mother pay attention to his observations about the doggy peeing on the lamppost. Let’s face it, most of the time most of what most of us have to say, is mostly important to us, and that’s about it.

My story, Water Under Water is about a boy with an intellectual disability and his attempts to win his father’s love. I can’t tell you the number of times I found myself crafting a scene or a piece of dialogue, and then, on reading that first draft a few days later, having to go back and delete all the informing stuff, the educating, the lecturing. The really important stuff.

Orwell listed ‘historic impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ among his reasons for writing. And, yes, there is a growing community interest just now in disability – hey, we even get a gig in Summer Heights High and Glee! Sure, write into what is topical. In my case, though, I wrote about intellectual disability because I knew from direct experience it would make an interesting story. So, if the motivation is to say something, start a protest movement, and leave ‘importance’ out of story telling.

btw: others will disagree, but for me, Ian McEwan’s Solar is his weakest novel, because the story got lost against the background of the big-picture, important issue.