What makes you write? For most people it’s an ordinary, perhaps even a tiresome act of communication. You write because your work requires you to write. You aim to keep the writing short, sharp and functional in emails, reports and presentations. Those occasions when you write in another mode – perhaps a letter to a friend, a postcard to the family – become fewer and fewer as new forms of technology take over. So Facebook and Twitter fill the gaps that used to be occupied by letters and postcards.
It’s a shame. But life moves on.
What makes you a writer? The only difference from the first question is the addition of the letters ‘a’ and ‘r’. Should they stand for ‘art’ and ‘recreation’? There’s a world of difference encompassed in those two letters. What distinguishes the writer from the person who sees writing as a work necessity is the intention and ability to gain personal fulfilment and enjoyment from the process. For me there’s really no need to think too long about the advantages of being a writer, rather than just someone who writes as part of a job. You do the job and you gain extra satisfaction from it. It works from every angle.
I’ve just returned from five days away in Andalucia with a group of ten people who are unquestionably writers. They came from all backgrounds, many different countries, working in a variety of jobs that involve writing. But they all wanted to become better, more creative writers inside and outside work. And the truth is that those two wishes go together, there’s no need or advantage in keeping them separate.
This was the fourth year we’ve run a Dark Angels course in the wonderful Finca El Tornero near Aracena in Spain. The days unfold in the sunshine against a backdrop of hilly vistas studded with chestnut trees and a soundtrack of birdsong with donkeys braying in the distance. We set writing exercises that stretch people’s imaginations – a whole series of constraints that liberate. People write. They become absorbed by their writing. And on the final evening they share personal pieces of writing, produced in this magical place, and the writing touches every possible emotion.
That’s what makes you a writer.
