Archive for the ‘Why We Write’ Category

Writing to Right Wrongs?

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

The other day I met a musician/screenwriter who told me his screenplays was about a traumatic events in his youth.   “You’re writing to right wrongs,” I said to him.  He blinked with surprise.  “Precisely,” he said.

When you think about it, most of our writing is about righting wrongs.  Do we dash off a quick note to an airline company when we’ve had a terrific flight?  Never.  But what do we do when the airline loses our luggage?  We sit down and write a letter or email.  I believe the impulse to right wrongs also motivates us when we write fiction.  We want to expose those wrongs.  By doing so, we seek some resolution.  Perhaps just writing them is the catharsis we seek.  When I examine my own fiction (my novel is currently in the hands of an agent), I see that in some measure I too want to write/right wrongs.  I want my characters to triumph over these.

In terms of my multiplication workbook, I could also say that I’m writing to right wrongs.  In my view, it is wrong to subject children to drill upon drill to memorize the tables.  Yes, children will learn the tables through rote memorization.  After all, most of us learned the tables this way. I did.  But why torture children when they can learn the tables through a fun, playful way?  My son loved my method.  So my impulse in writing my workbook was to “right a wrong” and share my method with others.