Monday, January 16, 2012

What do you want as a writer?

What is it you want, as a writer that is?

Do you want money? Fame? Notoriety?

Me, I'll tell you what I want, since you asked nicely.

I want to be loved.

I brought the cheese, you bring the crackers, eh.

But really, that's what I want. I want to be that lingering aftertaste, that euphoric moment after you wake up from a vivid dream.

I want to be one of those authors who people discuss fondly, and say, Man, I liked that story. It resonated. I related to that character. Remember that one scene where the woman sewed her arm back on, man that was cool.

I don't know if that will bring me anything other than internal satisfaction. If so, that's fine, I suppose.

See, I mentioned in an older post that one of my readers gave me a statue of Percy Freebottom, a character I created who is all dreamer, and all he dreams of is writing his name in the moon. The reader bought me a 12" statue of a spaceman, and had the name Freebottom stenciled on the lapel pocket.

He said when he and his wife were at a baseball game on a full moon night, his wife looked up at the moon and said, I wonder if Percy wrote his name yet?

That's what I want, folks. I want to resonate. I want to vibrate deep in your cockles.

Anyway, what is it you want, and are you finding it yet? I am. One reader at a time, I'm finding it just fine.


- Eric

8 comments:

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I want my books to make a difference, to inspire others to be more and achieve more and pursue their dreams.

Anne Gallagher said...

You know what I want, what I've always wanted, a snail mail piece of fan mail from a reader who tells me how much she loved my book, and how much it made her cry.

S.A. Larsenッ said...

I want to share my youthful experiences through my writing to help others. So often during my youth, I felt alone. To give a child/teen a hug through my words is my goal. Fame and fortune are fleeting. Positively impacting another's life is everlasting.

Matthew MacNish said...

That's awesome, Eric. I'm not sure what I want yet. I just want to tell stories, I guess.

Wine and Words said...

Good thing you don't want for much *wink*

Me? All I want is for the pieces of my emotions to coagulate onto a page, creating an image that makes me say...AH HA! There I am.

I don't imagine anyone is going to love me for it, and I don't expect many crackers. I sure as hell appreciate the crumbs though.

Cynthia Lee said...

Right now I'm just enjoying making stuff up and writing it down.

But, yeah, I guess I'd like to be loved as well.

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Sometimes we think we know what we want from our writing. But as with much of life, we are often surprised with what means most to us after the fact. I hope you and the others get your desires from writing.

Being able to support myself from my novels would be nice though. Roland

Phoenix said...

All I want to do is make people laugh. Right after I make 'em cry.

Is that too much to ask? heh. :)