The Message in a Bottle: The Need to Write

You won't find the need to write specifically listed on Psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Need, but it's there. Maslow's theory is that humans are driven to satisfy needs, urgent survival-based physiological ones first, such as the need for air, water, food, shelter, sleep, and clothing. After these needs are met, we seek safety, love and belonging, esteem, and finally self-actualization.

Sometimes, the need to write transcends all other needs. The Diary of Anne Frank wasn't written for publication. Anne wrote to understand and to escape from the horror of hiding from Nazis. She documented evil as well as the kindness of her protectors and she left a legacy for generations of readers to understand her brief life.

Why do we write?

We need to. Whether we write to entertain, to enlighten, or to inform, we write because stories matter. Wilke Collins wrote The Woman in White to expose how English law deprived women of basic rights. The injustices he presented through compelling fiction led to changes in English law.

People write out of need. When we write what matters most to us, we often sacrifice other needs. We give up time with family and friends to research and compose stories. In the heat of first drafts, we skimp on food and sleep. Investigative journalists sacrifice personal safety to get the truth and report it, because they value the sharing of the truth higher than their comfort and safety. Authors also become so vested in creating their stories, they forgo time with friends and family.

My dear friend named Terri's story took decades to write. Like Anne Frank, my friend wrote because she had to. Her son committed suicide. At first, she wrote because people didn't talk with her when she needed to cope. Some didn't know what to say. Some didn't want to know more than the newspaper account of the tragedy. Terri was burdened with grief, doubts, questions, and the stigma of being the parent of a troubled teen who committed a social taboo.

Terri privately expressed her feelings in poetry and journaling while struggling to find a new normal life for her other two sons and herself. Her journey took decades because at different stages her perspective grew clearer, broader, and easier to grasp.

At first, she wrote because no one listened, no one spoke with her. She wrote to make sense of her loss, to document a life that might have been, to leave a record for her other sons. Now, from her decades-later perspective, she views her writings as a way to help others who have lost a loved one to suicide.

The courage to share her story comes from a source greater than self. She will soon publish the story in her life that matters most--The Write Way to Grieve: Journaling Through the Aftermath of a Suicide by Terri Johnson. She wants her story to be a light for others in the darkest time of their lives.

We write because we must. Even if we never meet our readers, we write. Like Robin Williams needed to make others laugh to stave off his personal pain, like a shipwrecked sailor tossing a message in a bottle into the tide, writing gives us hope and connects us to others.

We write because that hope, that connection matters.

After working decades in journalism, Joni M. Fisher turned to crime. Her Compass Crimes series has garnered attention in Publisher's Weekly and earned recognition in the 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards, the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Awards, the Indiana Golden Opportunity Contest, and the Sheila Contest. She serves on the Arts and Humanities Advisory Board for Southeastern University and is a member of the Florida Writers Association, the Kiss of Death Chapter of RWA, and the Women's Fiction Writers Association. She's also an instrument-rated private pilot. For more information, see www.jonimfisher.com.

INGREDIENTS FOR WRITING - by Kathy Ivan

Suspense.  Mystery.  Romance. 

There's something about those words that stir the imagination.  Being able to craft a story filled with the right elements, a blending of all three, reminds me of baking.  All the ingredients have to be added in exactly the right amounts in order for your delicious confection to come out perfect (and in my case hopefully edible). 

I love layering in all the nuances to my stories, adding a dash of mystery to keep the reader turning the pages.  Did I write enough intrigue and danger within the world I've created that the reader absolutely, positively, unequivocally cannot stop reading when they reach the end of the chapter, and must turn the page to find out what happens next.  Don't you love that feeling? 

There are differing techniques I use while I'm writing.  If it's a mystery, the reader can't know whodunit until the very end—the big black moment.  I'll feed little hints and clues along the way, but I never come right out and say Mr. X is the villain.  That's left up to the reader to figure out and if I've done my job right they'll admit they never saw the ending coming. 

Now suspense for me is a totally different mindset.  I've got no problem telling the reader right up front who my bad guy or gal is and the horrible things they've done to earn that moniker.  Then it's up to the hero and/or heroine to not only catch the evil-doer, but stop whatever nefarious scheme they've concocted and foil it, making sure that evil is denounced and trounced and everybody lives happily ever after. 

But, and this is a big one for me—there always, always has to be a romance in my books.  Romance is my passion, for both writing and reading.  I don't want to read a book that doesn't have a good solid romance as a cornerstone of the story, and my romantic suspense writing needs that touchstone not only for my readers but for my own satisfaction.  Besides, watching the sexual tension ratchet up between your hero and heroine while they're running away from the maniacal mobster bent on their immediate destruction gives me a vicarious thrill.  

(Hey, if I'm the heroine and I'm gonna be chased by some crazy guy determined to end my life, I darn well better have a handsome hero beside me, although hopefully I'm kick-ass enough to save myself when the situation arises.) 

Suspense.  Mystery.  Romance.  My ingredients for a truly good book. 

Kathy Ivan is busy at work on her next romantic suspense set deep in the bayous of Louisiana.  Her latest suspense, Connor's Gamble is available now. 

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

That's what we've always heard, right? Yet we, the author, need to use those thousand words to paint a vivid, complete picture in the mind of the reader. We don't include photos or paintings or even stick figure drawings in our books. Instead we pull together words and weave nouns and adjectives, adverbs and pronouns to embellish the blank canvas of a reader's mind with brilliant colors and textures so they "see" the story clearly.

In the writer's mind we see the hero's shaggy dark hair in need of a haircut. His sapphire blue eyes should sparkle with laughter or pain or lust. We develop the imagery, provide definition to his muscular physique. We want the reader to know whether he's average height or taller than everyone around him. We can do this by showing him interacting with the people, places and things surrounding him, everyday ordinary items which make the hero realistic in real world situations. Sometimes we even have pictures of our hero on our computer or printed out to look at as we tell our tale.

But have we done our job?

Through descriptive prose, using only our words, does the reader see the same person we see? Can they see the single lock of hair that falls across his forehead when he's running across the frozen tundra, pelted by sleet, freezing rain, and roaring winds determined to get to the heroine? Or visualize the rivulet of sweat rolling across his naked chest, mingling with the dark mat of hair trailing downward to disappear into the waistband of his jeans as he's leading his lady fair through the rain forest, whisking her away to safety?

Have we used the right words and phrases to paint our villain as more than a black and white caricature from old Hollywood movies? We need to wield our words as the paintbrush, layering in the varying shades of gray, giving depth and dimension to him (or her). Shadows and light—make them become a living, breathing person with good and bad qualities just like every other person on the planet.

So, remember, choose your words wisely. After all, we are the artist with the paintbrush and blank canvas, the photographer pointing the camera lens ready to click the next shot. Let's hope our thousand words are worthy of the picture.