Well, it sure isn't the fame (haven't got any) or fortune (ha!) so it must be the self expression. I got started with writing in the 1990s back in the zine days, submitting travel articles to tiny little homemade magazines. I'd just come back from a year traveling across the Middle East and Asia and had a million stories to tell. The main story was that I went to lots of "scary" countries like Syria and Iran and had a great time meeting wonderful people. That became a thread in my writing that continues to this day.
My career has since shifted to mostly fiction, and the self expression continues. Whether I'm writing about a soldier on the Western Front or a scavenger in a post-apocalyptic wasteland or a guy on Skid Row in Tangier, there's a little bit of me in all my characters. What other job lets you do that?
And you're fortunate you've traveled and had so many experiences from which to draw.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to stick little aspects of my life in my writing, but I try not to do it too much. Don't want to use them all up.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of being a writer is that no experience that impacts me for good or for ill is ever wasted, but becomes grist for my unconscious mind to write deeper. :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've written a straight-up memoir of your experiences, but I think plenty of people would love to read that.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Writing always give us a chance for expression!
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