It feels good to be moving forward with this story. Having the support of my critique group has been a huge help. Writing is such a solitary business--there is only you and the blank page (or screen, depending on what technology you use). That is one of the ironies of creating art.
The artist creates in solitude for some imagined or hoped-for viewer/audience, but the two may be separated by impossible stretches of time and/or distance, never to connect except for the work that joins them.
Who do I write for? That depends on what I am writing. I'm not sure I even imagine an audience when I write most of my poetry. The initial push to write comes from some solitary need I have to transform in internal feeling to words. Then, in the editing phase, I think about my poetry community at Wild Poetry Forum and specific poets there whose opinions and talent I admire. I want to craft the work into a piece of art I will be pleased to share with them.
Writing the novels have been a different case. I feel like "HoMD" is a promise kept to my children from the germ of an idea my boys gave me over the Summer. That idea has been shaped and expanded into the story of Langdon Parker and the House that has his father trapped within it.
In each of the three novels I have worked on, there comes a point where the story must be written in order to keep the faith with my characters. They become real to me as I internalize their hopes, fears, and struggles. They deserve to find their way to the right ending and so I write with them in mind.
Who do you write for and why?
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