Lately I’ve been thinking about how I approach new stories or poems. Generally I start writing on a whim with some picture, idea, or relationship as inspiration. However, I tend to notice somewhere in my writing that it’s not going anywhere. Then it comes: why I’m writing this? (this is where my sweeping rewrites generally start) and I find a purpose to guide the piece. My questions to you is: Do you find yourself starting with a purpose in mind, or writing for the sake of writing? Does your writing even need to have a purpose? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
—Florian
Hey Flo,
I’ve found that I don’t really write with “purpose” per say when I am approaching creative writing. I always kind of sit down with the intention of learning something for myself, not necessarily writing something to be learned? I don’t know if that makes much sense, but I think that my direction of writing comes sometime after I have been writing for a while. I need time to sift through my thoughts and get familiar with the writing habit before I can understand what purpose I am reaching for.
That being said, prompt-guided writing has been really helpful for me in past semester. I am straying away from thoughts that stand as familiar and comfortable and reaching towards parts of my writing that would otherwise remain unexplored.
Hi Flo,
I have different answers for each poetry and fiction. For fiction, I typically start off with a single scene of inspiration, whether that’s an action or a setting or a description of a character. I just start writing without thinking about where I want the piece to go and let my characters steer the plot as I think of new aspects of their lives and personalities. The purpose of my fiction pieces appear with time as the story progresses, but I never start out with a goal in mind. For poetry, however, I typically want to capture a specific feeling with words, so I begin with the purpose of translating a specific abstract experience into language. Sometimes my poetry does not have a purpose, though, and a phrase simply pops into my head that I want to expand upon but which doesn’t necessarily convey any experience I’m having at the time – in that case, the purpose will develop as I write.
Hi Flo,
I’ve found that for my writing, I tend to write without a purpose in mind. But I think this is different from writing something without meaning. I’ve started to wonder if maybe our job as poets isn’t to impart a purposeful wisdom or an enlightened vision but to write what feels true and let the reader determine if it serves a purpose for them or not. I think it’s helpful to ask yourself “so why did I write this” at the revision stage because it’s you going back and trying to catch a clearer picture of the truth you wanted to capture. But at least for me, whenever I walk into a poem with a mission, I’ve always missed the aspect of unpremeditated truth, the underlying heart of the poem.
Hi Flo,
Thanks for the great question! Truthfully, I usually start my poetry without a purpose in mind. I am usually inspired by something suddenly, and quickly write it down. It is often only after I have completed the poem that I realize why I even wrote it in the first place. I can start to identify the emotions or motivations behind the writing. I guess that might be a purpose in itself; I write in order to express emotions, events, and inner thoughts that I didn’t even know I had/wanted to express. On the other hand, I tend to start prose with a purpose in mind, since I like to map out a sequence of events and a reason for that sequence. However, I might finish my story and realize that I pursued an entirely different purpose, or I actually want to change my purpose. I certainly found myself doing the latter after finishing my fiction story last unit.
Hey Flo,
I like to think that one is always writing with some purpose. That purpose may not necessarily be a lesson, or an explanation, or something thought-provoking. The purpose could simply be to write something someone else might enjoy reading or even just writing to go through your own thoughts on paper. Most of the time when I’m writing, I’ve noticed that this is the purpose it is serving. Most of my writing isn’t really being written to be read by others, it’s just something I enjoy doing that helps me feel better. And so even though I’m not writing to educate, or to entertain, I think that I’m still writing with a purpose (although somewhat selfish).
Thanks for the question. I hope you’re doing well.
Hi Flo,
I don’t think poetry needs a purpose, but I know I have an incredibly hard time writing poetry without one. Personally, I can’t really ever start a poem without knowing what I’m writing or having a really compelling reason to write it. Sometimes I do wish I weren’t like that though, so I think that writing just for the sake of writing is okay too, and maybe you find the purpose along the way. If you don’t, then the fun is just in the way words string together, the chance you get to play with them. There’s nothing wrong with taking joy in that and it’s something I think might work on trying to do.
Hi Flo,
I find that I do both; sometimes I write with a purpose in mind and other times I write just for me. If I’m having a bad day or something happened recently that’s been stuck on my mind, I find that writing poems helps relieve some of the tension I feel and makes me feel better. I feel like once I write down my feelings or a memory or anything, it’s there if I want to look back at it another time, but it’s out of my mind. It almost gives me a sense of power or control over my thoughts. Other times, though, I might write to convey a message. I’m really passionate about the environment, so I like to write a lot about nature, and I guess that my purpose of writing about nature is to foster an appreciation for nature in whoever reads what I’ve written. Currently, I’m writing a story based on my Grandmother’s life and I think my purpose for writing this is to share my Grandmother’s story. So overall, I don’t think that writing needs to have a purpose, but it can.
Thanks for the great question,
Lucia