A Little Note on the Purpose of Writing
By Anthony Santoro

Ask people what they want to do in life, and you can throw them into a conundrum.  Some people don’t know what they want to ‘do’ tomorrow, let alone with their whole life.

You can also stump a person by asking them what they want to ‘be’ in life.  I’ve seen people go mad on this one, too.  How can they possibly know what they want to ‘be’ if they don’t even know what they want to ‘do’.

‘Sure’, I hear you say, ‘but I know what I want to be, I want to be a writer.’  Good for you.  That’s noble.  But, what does a writer do?  ‘Well, he or she writes of course.’

Of course.  But, why?  What is the purpose of writing, anyway?

Here we are with a talent: the skill of writing, telling a story with the written word. This is not something that is possessed wholesale.  Not everyone has it and one may spend many years learning how to do it effectively.

But now that you have it, what are you going to do with it?  What are you going to achieve with it?

One example is a person who has great dexterity. She may choose to do nothing more than casually playing a guitar with this ability, or they may realise that this skill has a purpose greater than the mere entertainment of a few friends at a BBQ.  Maybe the skill could be put to use in a hospital to calm patients before surgery?  There are innumerable uses for this skill that serve a far higher purpose than strumming a guitar alone in a bedroom.

It is ‘purpose’ that drives many to learn how to perform a craft with skill enough to affect millions.  There are artists, who not being the greatest singers or musicians in the world, will yet sing to thousands about world peace and harmony.  Their intention, communicated by their art, can motivate and change the course of things to come regardless of how well they could actually sing.

And, that is purpose.  They are doing what they are doing for a reason; not merely to be famous, secure a passive income or to just ‘be happy doing the thing they love’.  Not nearly.

Anyone who has read Tolkien may note that his works are inspiring; they deal with the comradeship, brotherhood among races and fighting the good fight against all odds.   The Lord of the Rings, for example, has done a great deal more than just be a good story.

And so it is with any writer – you want to tell a story, that’s the main thing.  But, why do you want the story to be told?  Even with publishing: Do you just want it published for fame and income?  Though it would be a nice and welcome exchange for all the hard work you put into completing your manuscript, it is far more valuable for someone to approach you and say: ‘I loved your book! It really changed how I think about things.’

Truthfully, I don’t know any professional writers who write solely for income. They write for a purpose.  They have something they want to achieve by their writing.

You may want to ‘be’ a writer, but can your ability have a purpose?  Consider the purpose it could have. There have been writers who have saved people’s lives with their writing; there have been writers that have stopped wars with their writing; there have been writers that have slowed the dwindling ebb of their civilisation and changed the course of history!

People have done such things just with their ability to string words together in a legible sentence and tell a good tale.

Getting published, selling a million copies, appearing on a morning television programs – they are all very necessary parts in the process; but, none of them can usurp the value of purpose.

I am a writer and businessman; and, in the conduct of both I am still striving to achieve my own purpose.  And, the purpose isn’t to make a billion dollars, because the purpose must be good and must be much higher than the low goal of money.  For once you make all that money, what are you going to do with it?  The answer to this question reveals the purpose.

Anthony Santoro is the author of the Mike Felice series of detective novels and is a principal contributor to the The Writers' Resource Centre, the WritersWorld.com.au and the Fundamentals of Fiction Writing course.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.

If used elsewhere, this article must be published with the following copyright notice (link to the Writers' Resource Centre site must be included):
© Copyright Anthony Santoro and The Writers' Resource Centre 2007


> Read Katherine Wilson's article about Surviving Rejection