What do you see your responsibility as a Writer is? Well…
First, let’s get last week cliches:
Time to Kill: Spare time which someone must somehow occupy. Kill implies wasting or using time frivolously. See Vanbrugh and Cibber’s play The Provok’d Husband (1728) or Ugo Btti (The Fugitive, 1953): “Killing time is the chief end of our society.”
Throw Down the Gauntlet: Issue a challenge. Date from time of knighthood, when the gauntlet or mail-plated glove was used to protect the hand, standard armor. Throwing it down was a challenge to combat as chronicled by Edward Hall in 16th century. Thomas Nashe (Pasquil’s Apologie, 1590): “I cast them my Gauntlet, take it up who dares.”
Blow Hot and Cold: Vacillate, indecisive. Expression comes from Aesop’s fable about a satyr and a traveler eating together on a cold day. Traveler blew on his hands to warm them and on his soup to cool it. The satyr saw this and threw him out because he blew hot and cold with the same breath. Term came to mean hypocrisy (“These men can blow hot and cold out of the same mouth to serve several purposes,” wrote William Chillingworth about the Protestant religion in 1638). Also used to describe simple indecision in Thomas Percy’s 1765 collection, Reliqus of Ancient English Poetry).
Remember, these cliches come from the book: The Facts on File of Dictionary of Cliches (2001) by Christine Ammer.
So what do you believe your responsibility as a writer is? Are we supposed to do a world of good? Do we write what we know? I guess this all depends on what type of writer we are. Are we non-fiction? If so, do we go to the ends of the earth to find the truth? And, what is truth, ours or someone else’s? If we’re fiction writers, then what?
I believe writing is first, for me as the writer. It’s something I do because I enjoy it. I love writing. I love making up stories–must be a fiction writer? Not necessarily. One can take fact and write a story. But it must be a good one and follow the facts.
Once I follow the first rule, writing for me, then we can follow the second rule–don’t cheat the reader. Whether it be non-fiction or fiction, there are rules a writer should follow. I didn’t say “Must” follow, but should, because there are always exceptions to the rules. But our story should entertain not only the writer, but the reader and hopefully will bring forth emotions, and in the end, satisfaction. We want to write a satisfying story wherein both writer and reader feel a completion at the end of the story. That should be true whether it be non-fiction or fiction.
Well, I hope I’ve given you some food for thought.
Until next time,
Keep writing!
Julie
