The other day, I came across this Tobias Wolff quote:
It got me thinking about that recurring question: Why do writers write? I’ve always maintained that writing serves as some kind of therapy, a way to play out hopes and dreams and fears via characters who, in a sense, protect the author who creates them.
I’ve always been into “make believe.” I played with Barbie dolls far longer than most little girls because I just loved the stories. I loved imaging scenarios and giving those scenarios life with plastic dolls. All the while, I wrote stories–on that paper with the wide lines (remember those?). And, I suppose when my writing abilities developed enough, I didn’t need the dolls anymore; the confines of my own mind–plus some paper and a pencil–sufficed.
For me, though, writing hasn’t been about getting things right that I got wrong in real life. If anything, it’s been more about getting things wrong that I got right in real life. My writing tends to be dark. Sometimes it’s funny-dark, but sometimes it’s just plain dark. This is in great contrast to my life, which has been pretty hunky-dory, as they say (or maybe “they” don’t say that, but my dad sure does).
It’s a little dangerous to assume that all fiction writing is sourced in reality. Or, rather, the stories may be sourced in the realities of the writer’s hopes and dreams and fears, but not in the realities of the writer’s circumstances.
I don’t see my writing as a chance to “redo” anything in my real life. I suppose that’s because I’m not the type to look back or have regrets. A psychologist would say my issues tend to center around worrying about what’s ahead. And that’s probably why my characters are often years older than me. Maybe for Tobias Wolff, his issues tend to center around the past. No matter, all of us writers (and humans) have things we’re trying to resolve. Writing is our outlet, the only outlet we know (or just the one we prefer because excessive booze has its negatives).
What drives your writing? The past, the present, the future? Actual circumstances or imagined feelings?