Today, I’ve been thinking about some big questions.
The biggest of them is simply, why?
Here are some of the whys that have me pondering at the moment:
Why do people write books?
Why do people read books?
Why is romance so popular?
Why do people get sick and die?
It was this last question that sparked the others, to be honest. A lovely, talented book coach, Susan de Freitas, recently died after a year-long battle with cancer. She leaves a young family behind, as well as many writers who benefited from her grace and wisdom.
So I ask myself, why her? Why anyone, really. Why am I still here, still writing, still managing to eke out a living?
Of course there are absolutely no answers to any of those existential questions.
But I’m feeling ruminative, so I’ll propose some answers to a few of the others.
Why do people write books?
It’s a question I ask anyone I’m going to work with as a book coach. Why write this book? There are many different answers and none of them are “wrong.” Some of the most common are:
To tell my story
To prove to myself I can
Because those characters have been rattling around in my brain for [fill in length of time]
Because people need to know about [fill in the blank]
Because I love to read [fill in the genre]
To make my [fill in the blank] proud
To leave a legacy behind
The ones I tell people probably aren’t the best reasons to write a book are:
So I can quit my day job
To become a bestseller
That doesn’t mean, however, that wanting people to buy your book is a bad goal. Because let’s face it: When you sell a book to a reader, you make a connection with them. You reach them. And if no one made any money writing books there would be far fewer of them out there.
The problem is that it can be hard to sell enough books to reach either of the two not-so-compelling goals listed above, and the whole “bestseller” thing is really problematic. Even the big publishers can’t predict what’s going to become a bestseller.
Why do people read books?
Psychologists and academics have tackled this one, so I’ll just focus on why I read books—and say that my reasons change depending on time of life and circumstances.
Right now, I’m reading primarily to escape from the reality of our world, to escape from my feeling of helplessness about all that’s happening around me. I read books (and watch movies and shows) where everything turns out for the best, where people are fundamentally good.
At other times I’ve read for the joy of luxuriating in beautiful language.
Or simply to understand an experience I will never have, to enter worlds that are not my own.
Even in those cases, the reading shuts out the world around me and moves me into a different reality. Whatever that reality is, a good book makes me feel enlarged, expanded, fuller.
I can’t help thinking that’s true for many readers.
Why is romance so popular?
I could answer this by simply pointing you back to the previous section of this essay. Romance is pure wish-fulfillment. Pure escape. Do many really good romance authors sneak in important issues and concepts while they’re entertaining readers? Yes, of course. But that’s not why readers choose their books.
It’s taken me a long time—70 years of living and 20 years as a published author—to accept that wanting to entertain readers, that giving readers the stories they crave, is OK. I don’t have to write the great American novel, or expose an important part of history that’s been buried.
I now accept that storytelling is important in any guise, and that exercising the best of my craft in writing historical romances people will want to read (I hope!) is not only an acceptable use of my abilities and time, but an important one.
Back to the existential question.
I started out talking about the way-too-early death of a beautiful, talented human being. She had her whys for writing and coaching, for creating her courses and workshops. And she has left a legacy for readers and in the hearts of the writers she nurtured. What they write will have come into being at least in part due to her generosity of spirit and ability to teach.
I suppose the point of all this is that if I died tomorrow, I know I would leave a legacy behind in my writing and my online courses. But I’m not ready for that. I know that no one can control the one inescapable fact of life, but everyone can control the ways they show up in the world while they’re still able.
For me, right now, that means focusing on bringing joy to readers with stories that entertain and provide escape, and helping other writers do the same.
Is that a lofty goal? I honestly think it is. Just as making people laugh is a lofty goal.
And, if you’ve read this far and what I’ve said resonates with you, I invite you to download and read my free novella, Miss Winthrop’s Vanishing Viscount. It’s short, sweet, and it will take you out of wherever you are today. The link is below. Use the password Winthrop2025 to get access to the ebook.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks, Susanne. you really got me thinking about why I write. I started writing after I retired at age 70. I add to your list and memories of your friend Susan's gifts: I write to enrich my life with a sense of purpose, intellectual stretching, and, maybe best of all, getting to know and learn from other writers like YOU! and my marvelous writers' group. I'm the oldest in the group; it has an age range of 25 to 79. I bet you can see why writing is so enriching for me. Anne Daignault