Adrian
Rego
Writer's
Motivation to Write
Most
people, if not everyone, has heard of at least one story that
involved dragons and magic at some point in their life. Readers of
fantasy enjoy the stories that are given to them and force them to
delve into the worlds created by their favorite authors, but if not
for the royalties, why do writers write fantasy? Most people would
probably believe that writers write only for the money behind
publishing, but writing overall has come to help people in many other
situations that aren’t entirely connected to a financial premise.
So what’s the purpose behind the written copies of a single story
that fill shelves upon shelves at stores, homes, and libraries?
Writer’s usually use writing as a tool of expression and a means of
escaping formal writing. Fantasy gives writers a hand in
self-expression by allowing them to express their thoughts and ideals
indirectly with looser rules on writing structure. I've been given
the idea of Dungeons and Dragons role playing as a center in fantasy
writing, but that's not always the case since. It could be a factor
to base off of, but it's the author's imagination that weighs heavily
on fantasy writing since they are the one creating the rules of this
fictitious land.
My
curiosity peaked and I asked a friend of mine, also a fantasy writer,
what her reasons were for writing and what she was able to do with
the writing that she has done, despite the lack of published works.
She explained that her motivation to write came from not only solving
her own problems, but escaping them and even reality itself as well
as formal writing. Her focus on fantasy played more on her role play
on forums rather than her own personal writing, but the links were
still made with her role play and escaping from reality. Though her
escape reigned true unconsciously, her main focus was on
self-expression. In “Studies in Writing: Writing and Motivation”,
the idea of self-expression being used as a key factor for writer's
motivation appears several times from chapter thirteen onward, which
I wholeheartedly agree with and am not surprised about. Which leads
me to believe that writer's are motivated to write due to the
availability of self-expression and escape from formal writing and
reality in the case of fantasy writers.
Literature
Review
In “Studies in
Writing: Writing and Motivation” Chapter 14 Section 4, Oldfather
and Shanahan surveyed students from fifth and sixth grades in a
suburban Southern California classroom. The research was based on the
examination of students and their purpose for their engagement to
their in class writing assignments. “Report cards were in narrative
form. Students wrote dialogue journals back and forth with Sally
responding to what they were reading. They wrote poems. They wrote
short stories and some even got involved with writing “chapter
books,” often in science fiction or fantasy genres.” (Oldfather
and Shanahan 264) The students chose their topic and writing genre
for their assignments, which already allowed room for self-expression
at the start. “Data analysis indicated, in fact, that students
within this classroom culture found that the most compelling aspects
of their school experience were in relation to various forms of
self-expression.” (Oldfather and Shanahan 264) It turned out that
the main means of self-expression that the students used happened to
be writing. Because of the students choices of genre, narrative,
fantasy, science fiction, and so on, I've come to believe that the
use for writing isn't just for self-expression but their escape from
reality. Their are no direct references in the chapter itself, but
I've come to believe it just because the use of fantasy and science
fiction genres were even listed, since genre and that escape from
reality play a part in the idea of self-expression. Not only that,
but because the students get to write about something they enjoy and
write in the way they're comfortable with increased their love for
writing. The motivation to write then came from their love for
writing as a whole and their ability to continue expressing
themselves and their ideas.
Still on the same
page, Oldfather speaks of epistemological empowerment, which she
defines as “a sense of intellectual agency and ability to know that
emerges from a strong sense of the integrity of one’s process of
constructing meaning” (Oldfather and Shanahan 264). Through the
writing done in class, the students were able to understand and make
sense of things on their own accord. Paul, twelve year old student,
was contemplating the concepts of knowledge and learning. He then
explains his philosophy that “The only thing you can own is
thoughts, just thoughts …. The way you say things. I think that’s
the only thing you can really own, and that’s how you see the
world. How you say the world is” (Oldfather and Shanahan 264). Now
it seems that I'm going off topic, but this still ties into
self-expression in the way that Paul was able to not only question
learning and knowledge, but to understand and create his own meaning
for the concepts all done through and because of his writing.
Now I hadn't
thought of the idea of writing helping in developing this skill or
thought process, but it makes sense. Instead of looking for outside
sources, the student thought of a single concept or group of concepts
and gave them meaning based off of his own knowledge and developed
critical thinking skills. To my understanding, teachers try to teach
their students critical thinking skills which doesn't always work the
way they intend it; however, in this one classroom, the students were
able to develop their own critical thinking skills with some help
with communication between classmates and their teacher. From my
understanding, giving students full power over their writing gives
them the chance to express their full selves which then allow them to
think over, understand, and give meaning to what's on their minds.
Methods
In
order to get an outside understanding of why writers continue to
write, I interviewed a fellow writer on why she wrote in general.
Three main concepts that she went over were self-expression and the
escape from both reality and formal/academia writing. She explains
that most of her writing comes from her role plays on forums. All of
the role plays are fictional, which all then divide into realistic
fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, and so on. In the interview, I represented
myself as Z and her as W. In just the first few questions, W had
explained that the main importance to her writing was
self-expression.
Excerpt
1:
Z:
When did you start, like, tapping into fantasy?
W:
Mmm..Fantasy was most likely in public grade Eight/Nine 'cause that's
when I started role playing a lot more.
Z:
Makes sense. Makes sense. I started role play a lot more in high
school, 'cause that's when I found out about it. Um... What got you
into writing? What made you want to write in general?
W:
Because I was actually able to express myself when it comes to
certain things like... 'cause
my writing was actually quite good, 'cause I actually took a writing
course in sch- high school. And in school right now.
Considering
self-expression came into the picture so early in the interview, I'm
to believe that it's the most important aspect of her writing. W
actually shows her confidence in her writing after she mentions the
ability to express herself. I'm to believe she's confident, not only
because of her classes, but because she writes with many other people
over forums that give her feedback on her writing as well. Despite
her love for writing, she explains that one writing turn off is
academia and formal writing. W explains that formal writing was
“filled with stupid jargon” (Excerpt 2). In order to avoid the
silence W brought when touching on academia, Z switches the topic to
tap into W's motivation for writing. Ironically enough, even in the
interview, there was a sense of escape from formal writing just by
the refusal to speak about it. From this time forward, anything
writing was understood as creative writing, fantasy writing, and role
play. W
then explains briefly on how writing allowed her to escape conflicts
in life. This ties into the self-expression and even the escape from
reality depending on what she writes about. If she's writing on the
subject, then she'd be able to express her thoughts on the situation
and even try to learn from it. On the other hand, writing off topic
would give her that opportunity to avoid her conflicts. True, it's
not always good to avoid one's problems, but it's never a fine idea
to linger on something that troubles you to the point where you may
crack from stress.
Excerpt
2
Z:
That's pretty cool. It makes sense. I feel the same way about um..
academic writing and all that kind of -
W:
Academia!
Z:
Academia, Yea. Because it's-
W:
Filled with Stupid Jargon.
Z:
-laughs- Welcome to Jargon, Welcome to Academia, but um... Yea, I
don't like academia and I doubt you would too if you've tapped into
the fantasy genre, and it's all about creative writing.
W:
Mhmm
Z:
Um... Can you tell me any example of what you've written, like...
like why you enjoyed it so much... Maybe?
W:
-snickers- Uh... Because I can actually escape out of what I can
like- like I can escape out of what's happening in my life. Like, if
something's bad I can start writing or I can think, but that's when I
got obsessive with role play posts, 'cause I'd be walking around and
my mind would be running role play posts of what I should write and
what I shouldn't write and, like, multiple scenarios and what the
person would reply to and stuff like that.
