From Me to You

People always seem to think that writing should be for the writer's sake, and that the writer should be happy with the work regardless of what others think of it. That's right... to a point. Of course, there's striving for quality, which really can't be done by one's self, but that's not the only reason to share one's work.

I think it's important—maybe even more so—to let others enjoy it.

Now, to some extent, I do have a need to write every once in a while. Once I spend time beyond that on a story, though, what is it for? Maybe it's not necessarily wrong to just write a lot for my own enjoyment, but, when I think about it... Isn't it a little bit selfish? If it's exclusively about what I want, and I'm putting tons of my time and resources (and maybe even some others') into it just to have fun myself, wouldn't that seem a little self-centered? I could be spending that time helping people, or at least hanging out with them so the enjoyment is shared.

So I kind of feel obligated to share my writing. In my case, this is hardly a burden; in fact, I have trouble writing most things without some friends' feedback along the way. But that's not the case for every writer and every story, and I think we have a responsibility to let other readers in on the fun. Maybe it's just a silly story, and maybe it's more than rough around the edges, but someone out there could really enjoy it or even learn from it (whether that be a life lesson or just some material for mnemonics). And who am I to keep that from them?

I might have a weird way of looking at things, but how about you? Do you think a writer is obligated to share? Only under certain circumstances?

Sharing is Caring

Some of you may have noticed that, on a quite a few of my fiction and fan fiction ideas, I've put up a notice that someone else is free to try it out. My father is staunch in his belief that such a thing will inevitably lead to someone taking my idea and making millions off it. (If they can, power to them. It's better than I would do, anyway.)

Yet I've also heard that posting ideas publicly helps to enforce that they belong to me. With all of the other posts I put out here, it would be hard to argue that a posted story idea was actually posted after someone else started writing that story—even if I can change one timestamp, it's obvious whenabouts I posted that idea.

At the same time, I'm posting all of my Fragments, which are so little and vague anyone could take one and slip it in without drawing suspicion. And that's okay. I've already taken an idea from a friend and then given it back to her. I don't mind. Just because these thoughts entered my brain doesn't mean I have irrefutable claims to them, or responsibilities to write them. It just means I had an idea that I can treat however I please.

As I just mentioned, I take ideas from others. Of course I do! There aren't really any new ideas; it's just the combinations. And if I use ideas from others, why shouldn't others get to use ideas from me? Half of them they'd find elsewhere, anyway; I just thought it would be nice to get them all in one place.

Basically, writing is more of a social occupation that it seems like it should be. I could probably lock myself in my room and just ideas from other books—and indeed I will do this—but that's not enough. I have to get a few ideas from living my life, and, still, that's not quite interesting enough to get me all the material I need for an original piece, anyway (considering I do, in fact, prefer to lock myself in my room all of the time). So I get a few ideas from others' lives and the stories they've read. We bounce all of our ideas off each other, and both of us can come out of it with stories that never would have occurred to us otherwise. Maybe there is some competition when it comes to publishing and such, but writing to me just seems like a team sport.

What do you think? Enjoy sharing your ideas? Enjoy seeing others'?