Back in December when I was still unemployed I had a friend
I used to work with ask me to speak to her creative writing class.
I’ve never been a
great public speaker, but something that I read at the time suggested
that if you want to be a successful author you need to be comfortable in front
of people. So, I went.
It went fine. The
class was nice. They paid attention, well, most of them. At the end there was a
time for questions. Right away, one of the people in the class – I think it was
one of the campus’ librarians – asked what kind of writer I was. I gave some
rambling answer about genre and how all
my stories seem to have some kind of crime involved somewhere, whether it’s big
or small.
I was happy with the answer and moved on. I answered a few
more questions when a kid in the front asked me “Why do you write about
crime?” Great follow-up, and it gave me
an idea for a series of blogs.
When I was in school – well, when most of us were in school
– I learned about the 5 Ws and an H. The questions words. Who. What. Where.
When. Why. How.
Why is crime a central part of nearly all my fiction was
something I’d never explored. Then, as I thought more about it. I’d never
answered the other questions about my writing. Like “Who am I as a writer?”
“Why do I write?” “What do I write?”
Maybe it was something I should do. Maybe it was something
that could be useful. So that’s what I’m doing. For the next few Mondays I’ll
be taking a hard look at those questions and try to answer them.
Hope you enjoy it. Hope I get something out of it.
