Passion Behind the Ink

Found this paper today. Wrote it for my English class a while back and thought it was pretty good. Enjoy.



For me writing is something I have to do. I couldn’t be happy in a world where people didn’t write. I have a passion for it. Writing is one of the things that can spread an idea like wildfire. It has so many uses and is an amazing tool, but why do people write at all? I believe the answer that is the most truthful is passion. It doesn’t matter what an author writes, he has to be passionate enough about it to take the time to sit down and write about it.

Perhaps an author has a dream and wants to share it with the world as writer and teacher Christopher Meeks explains, “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in your head.” All stories begin as someone’s dream and through writing can become someone else’s. Writing is a way for any author to share his ideas. I’ve always liked to say, concerning fiction, that it’s like a way for one person to get everyone else to play with their imaginary friends. The author can have a whole universe inside his head filled with excitement, love, and even terror. An author creates this from his passion and uses this fire inside him to try to ignite the world. He has seen fit to write a two-hundred plus page novel about events that never happened, people that don’t exist, and places he may never see simply because he cares about all of these things.

An author has to have a love for what he is saying. Most people wouldn’t sit through a story they can tell the author doesn’t care about. If he doesn’t care why should anyone else? Authors do not think for months at a time about a subject they do not care about. It would be as monotonous as counting grains of sand on a beach. I don’t care how many there are they’re there and that’s enough for me to know about them. However, writing isn’t like that. An idea can hit you, it sparks a flurry of other ideas, characters are created, plots are worked out, details are developed, and it becomes a story. A refreshing breeze becomes a hurricane. Sometimes an author doesn’t just want to tell a captivating story, though it should be his first concern when writing fiction, he can also use his novel to broadcast a message. The Chronicles of Narnia are famous for their references to and support for Christian belief. The “X-Men” comic books are filled with the idea of accepting people who may be different from us. Passion can lead authors to find new depth in their creations. If you care enough about something you can think about it a million different ways and pull out a million different meanings and it all makes sense. Just like the people who write stories there is no one right way to see a book. Just like people, it takes a certain amount of passion to know the story inside and out enough to see all of its sides. Neil Gaiman, creator of the award winning “The Sandman” comic book series writes, “The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page…Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.” People do not label the drab or meaningless as magic. When a person creates something and it becomes more to people than a bunch of words, it becomes magic. Magic is supposed to be mysterious and wonderful. I don’t know if he really made the Statue of Liberty disappear but I know he did something impressive.

It doesn’t really matter what a writer is writing about as long as he’s passionate about it. Insignificant things like marks on walls, or dying flowers, or a person who would otherwise go unnoticed can be given great meaning if an author decides it. It can mean something special to the author and this meaning can then be shared through writing with an audience. The whale isn’t always a whale. Characters can become stand-ins for ideas. The archetypes begin to form around these common symbols giving the reader a host of meaning and offering the writer more ways to get his message across.

Passion for these messages is what some authors write for. Passion can not be learned a writer has to have it for whatever piece he is working on. Fiction is not the only place that passion can be applied to writing. One man’s passion can change the way the world thinks. Nothing great is ever accomplished without passion. Friedrich Engels wrote of poverty in London, “From this it follows that the social conflict- the war of all against all- is fought in the open.” Engels felt poverty existed in part for mankind not regarding each other as people but as enemies. We compete with each other for the same money so that some get more than their fair share while others are left to struggle. Many writers, like Engels, write for the social change which can occur as a result. The change is what they are passionate about. Women wrote about how much they could do if allowed, they urged their sisters to prove themselves, they pushed for their rights. Florence Nightingale was one of those women who pushed to have more than she did by asking, “Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity-these three-and a place in society where no one of the three can be exercised?” She could not see why she exists in a world where she has the same abilities as a man but could not be allowed to use them as well as he could. Eventually, women received the rights they deserved with much thanks to literature. Laws are made to protect people by people who are passionate about that. There are people who want to make the world a safer place for everyone. These are the dreamers who wish desperately for a world without war, hunger, or racism. These passionate few who begin the work of many and fight uphill battles in the hopes of finding something better.

It’s not just social changes non-fiction writers are passionate about. There are a good deal of other ideas for an author to be passionate about. Author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut believes any subject works, “A petition to the mayor about the pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.” Some have felt people were important enough to write about. Whether autobiographies or biographies, a wide range of celebrities, political figures, and everyday people have had their stories told by passionate authors. For whatever the reason people like George Washington or Cleopatra have inspired a variety of authors to tell their stories. Some authors have a fire to tell the tale of a person’s life from beginning to end. Others feel that one particular event is most important to tell. Thomas De Quincey tells of one particular instance in his life which struck him as very important, “When I walk at this time in Oxford street by dreamy lamplight, and hear those airs played on a barrel-organ which years ago solaced me my dear companion, I shed tears, and muse myself at the mysterious dispensation which so suddenly and so critically separated us for ever.” De Quincey met a prostitute named Ann whom he felt terribly about never being able to see again since he’d promised to help her reform. Whether a single event or an entire life, there exists a strong desire to tell that story to anyone who cares to read it. Authors can be fans of these people just like anyone else. An author can attach himself to John Wayne for the tough guy roles he played in the movies he and his father watched while growing up. Bob Marley may inspire passion to his biographer through the lyrics of love he wrote. Even Hector the young guy down the street may find his life recorded in a short story written by his best friend who felt passionate enough to tell their story of an eventful road trip. Anything can be important enough to write about if seen properly.

I believe people are most passionate about each other. We have the most impact on each other. The animals, plants, and weather do not affect the writing of people as much as the store clerks, police officers, wives and husbands of the world do. These are the people we love, hate, look up to, loathe, envy, and hope to meet. A man might fall in love with a woman instantaneously. He would experience the kind of passion that would flood into his heart leading to a creative overflow. “This overflow must be expressed,” the man might say. “I will write her letters, poems, and sonnets, anything I can to express my wish to embrace her and call her mine.” The love poems of the world have been written to express the passion between people for centuries.

Regardless of the reason for the writing there must always be passion behind it. The world is not moved by the strength of a man but by the passion of his heart. Nothing great is ever done without passion. Writing, even when it is not that great, still holds a fire in it. An author must always feel this fire if he wishes to express it to the world. The fire is always what comes first. No one sets out to create something without the passion it takes to create it. You need that fire to finish it.