I just stole this idea from Gus Sanchez and his blog, Out Where the Buses Don't Run. (An idea he freely admits he stole from another blogger, who stole it from another. . . you get the picture). Or, rather, I'm taking up the challenge Gus issued after a bit of discussion with his readers, that every author should craft a mission statement, just as a business or a non-profit has a mission statement to explain why they bother doing what they do. So here's my attempt.
I write to have fun creating stories that others will have fun reading. To justify my fun, I also make a commitment to the hard work that lies between my fun and their fun--revision, editing, and proofing to make visiting my worlds an escape from reality with no bumps on the road.
Or maybe I should just refer to my experience a couple of weeks ago with the children who see me as an author first and foremost, and stick with that mission: Don't make liars of those children. Sit down and write.
That's a pretty all-encompassing mission statement for an author.
That's a really well-formed mission statement, Rebecca. I like that you made your statement more about the reader than you.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I realized that although I write for myself, in a way (I write because I want to write), I made the move to publish because I wanted to be read. To me, that means I enter into a sort of unspoken contract to make something someone would want to read. I'm not sure I bargained for the demands that I write more of the same.
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