Xandra Gregory

Every author writes because he or she has something to say to the world.  That message may be as small as “chocolate birthday cake is the world’s most perfect food” or as large as “can’t we all just get along…to survive the zombie apocalypse” but it’s that message that keeps us going through recalcitrant characters, lame plots, killer revisions, and impersonal rejections, not to mention the demands placed on our writing time by family, friends, and of course, judgmental acquaintances who wonder when we’ll get a “real job.”

Messages are like sermons–they best belong in pulpits and not in pulp fiction.  There’s nothing I hate worse than to be jolted out of a story with a thwap upside the head over an Issue.  Or the Moral Of The Story writ large in flaming letters.  Consequently, that’s the last thing I want to do to somebody else, either.  I’ll keep it in my pants if you’ll do the same.

Finding your message is one of the toughest parts of the writing process and your writing career.  Figuring out what it is that you’ve got to say to the world.  Some writers might never be able to articulate it, and some don’t care.  I’m one of the ones that do care, though, and for me, it’s very important that I be able to articulate just what message I’m trying to send the world when I put pixel to paper.  I’ve been involved in a six-month quest to figure out what I truly want to say with my writing, and I think I’m finally beginning–just now beginning–to scratch the surface.

The message hasn’t come from the obvious places–good messages never do.  God speaks most profoundly the furthest away from the cathedral, and Buddha is found in the pebbles on the muddy riverbank.  The message has also led me in directions I didn’t think I could or should go, which tells me that I’m on track.  A big part of having something to say is to know that it’s going to take a little intestinal fortitude to open yer trap and say it.    This is the true writer’s journey.  Oh, sure, that thing where you take your heroes on a quest to Mordor and walk ‘em through the fires of Mt. Doom is important enough…but it will be something less if the changes you force on them don’t also change you.

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This entry was posted by Xandra on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 8:07 am and is filed under Writing, Writing Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.