Writing Some Wrongs

I know I’ve already gone into some detail over on PS as to my motivation for writing, but I thought I’d quickly reiterate some key points here which are more relevant to all the articles that I’ve submitted to the site so far.

I have a very annoying habit of constantly feeling the need to apologise for everything and anything on a regular basis, so I’d like to take this opportunity to, erm, how can I put it…… ‘Make known my feelings of regret for this repetitive trait’. Yes, I think that covers it. Unfortunately, this article is in some ways an apology in itself, and for that I can only apologise.

Doh!

I love writing, I love it to bits, but I wouldn’t say I’m a terribly creative writer. In my opinion there are several members of Planet Skaro and contributors to The Vervoid who really are terrific writers; people who have a talent for crafting the written word in innovative and creative ways rather than just rattling away in a fairly two-dimensional fashion like I do. I’ve only been writing seriously for a couple of years so I suppose I’m still a bit of a novice, and this really shows in what I have chosen to write about so far, with particular relevance to my articles here on The Vervoid.

Up to this point in time everything that I’ve written has been one of two things: either a passionate hobby or interest of mine, or some nostalgic tale either from my childhood or my adult life over the last 15 years or so. I’ve enjoyed myself so much with writing all this stuff that I’ve only just realised that from the outside it probably seems all very self-indulgent and perhaps even big headed; at the end of the day all I’ve been writing about is me and I just wanted to take this opportunity to try and justify my actions.

I find that writing can either be very difficult or extremely easy – a bit of an obvious statement I suppose and something which applies to most things, but that’s just how I’ve found it so far. I’m currently attempting to write some ‘proper’ Doctor Who fiction which I must admit I’m finding a bit of a struggle, though I’m still enjoying it because it requires such a different approach to non-fiction. However, whenever I’m writing about either a hobby or a childhood memory, I find it very easy to do because all the information is already there. Yes, it takes a certain degree of ability to write it in a way that’s interesting and easy to read, but it’s unarguably a great deal easier than creating fictional characters and situations and crafting them into a workable story.

Without boring you with tedious detail, that’s it really. That’s why I’ve written copious amounts of personal stuff and little else; it’s simply a way of both enjoying the process of writing and it being bloody good practice. The problem is that it’s the actual decision to take this route which can most obviously be looked at as selfish or big-headed. Yes it is good practice, but I’m really writing mostly for the personal enjoyment I get from doing it rather than writing something for other people to enjoy. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want anybody to read my articles, but I enjoy the writing process so much that I suppose I’d be quite happy to continue churning out more of the same and just having it sit on my hard drive.

As much as I do want people to be able to read and enjoy anything that I submit here, there’s an inherent problem in writing about myself or my interests, and that is that it’s very unlikely to be of any interest to anyone else. My first serious piece of writing was an entire book about growing up with Doctor Who, which although as a writing experience was enormously enjoyable, it’s really not a subject which either the general public or even general or die-hard Doctor Who fans would ever be falling over themselves to read, and I think that it was an unfortunate place to start for me. I seem to have got into a habit of writing about my life because I enjoy it, but blindly pursuing the same path even though I know it’ll only ever be read by a handful of people. What I love about writing personal nostalgia is that it makes you remember things that would otherwise remain locked away in the back of your mind. The process of researching for and writing Growing Up With The Doctor was great because I managed to recall so many things from my childhood that I’d forgotten about. The mere process of sitting down and trying to remember as much as possible opened the floodgates, not only about Doctor Who but all the related things that were going on around me at the time.

I’ve taken the trouble to write this piece to pre-empt yet another nostalgic article which I’ll be posting over the next week, and this one’s a real hum-dinger. I don’t want people to get bored of reading my ramblings, but neither do I want to become bored of writing them. I just wanted to make it clear that I’m not trying to publicise myself, my life or my interests. I just love writing and for the moment I’m happy reliving some nostalgic memories or ramble on about my passionate interests. I just hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy reading about everyone else.