Follow the voice

Some folks have an inner voice that tells them to play sports or an instrument. For others, that voice drives people to study science or learn a language. My voice wanted out of my head and the natural place for it to go was down on paper. I began writing stories when I was 10 and have written both privately and professionally for the past 30 years.

Much of the writing is pure crap. Sometimes, in the middle of pure crap, there will be a sentence or two that are true gems, sentences that encourage me to expand into stories. However, that is quite rare. But, the voice in my head compels me to write and write I do. I started writing because I was compelled by that inner voice.

That voice has served me well, allowed me to become a documentary writer, a journalist for the AP wire, a magazine writer and more. Quelling that inner voice has helped further my career and helped put food on my table. Even though I’ve now been writing for decades, I still consider myself a bit of a fraud. It isn’t until I’m working on my fictional short stories that I find an internal peace. How can I be a fraud if I’m writing fiction? I wonder if all professional fiction writers were non-fiction frauds and until they realized fiction could legitimize them they went to bed depressed.

I digress. I write because if I don’t, my brain would explode under the weight of all the useless knowledge it holds. By putting pen to paper (yes, I am still an old-fashioned writer, using a pen and paper and not typing it out on a computer) I find that the useless information can go one of two ways: I can generate a short story that will amuse me or I can find something useful to write about for the local paper or a specialty magazine. I mean how many times have you begun writing something with purpose to find that when you’re at the end, the purpose has completely changed. For example, a few weeks ago I began writing a short story about a couple that lived in Bethesda, MD. By the end of the piece, I realized the couple did not have much to say, but a local magazine may buy the piece with some minor alterations.

Moral of this story is that write what you know and write what you don’t know, but if there is any voice in your head telling you to write, obey that voice and you may find some extra cash in your pocket. At the very least, you may find some internal peace.

- Rion Haley