Is it bad to want to write as much for validation as for pleasure? I love writing, don’t get me wrong, even for the sake of just writing! But even more than that I really, really love when someone likes or connects with my writing, and often that’s what keeps me going on a story! But sometimes I feel really guilty about that, like I shouldn’t be writing for that petty reason. (Sorry if this is a weird ask, it’s just been bothering me a lot lately.)

jaimistoryteller:

theticklishpear:

Is it bad to want to bring someone else joy?

Is it bad to gift someone with something you think they’ll like?

Is it bad to enjoy the reactions of others when you have specifically set out to do something for them?

Nope. Not at all.

In his address to the Oxford Union Society, Patrick Stewart relayed a story from a Boston Conservatory opening-year speech, in which a pianist said to the students:

“One of my parents’ deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician–that I wouldn’t be appreciated. I had very good grades in high school. I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated than as a musician–and they love music! They listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function….

“If we were a medical school, and you were here as med students, practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that on some night at 2:00 AM, someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you’re going to have to save their life.

“Well, my friends, someday, at 8:00 PM, somebody is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you perform your craft.”

Everybody has their reasons for making art, and for some, that reason is reaching out to others, establishing contact through the works they do, finding others who enjoy the same things they do. Writing is no different than music in this respect. It has enormous power to reach others and make an impact, and it doesn’t matter if that impact is large or small, on you or on the audience–it’s all worth it. No one’s reason is inherently better or worse than another’s, and wanting to touch those around you is not petty.

My sister’s household has set up an Unnecessary Apology jar in their apartment in an effort to break several of the folks living there of the habit of feeling bad about perfectly normal, acceptable things, and literally apologizing for everything. I admit that they yelled for me to contribute to the jar several times over the three days at Christmas we were together, despite being 4 hours away from that jar. I apologized for liking something and my brother-in-law would shout, “Unnecessary Apology jar!” I would apologize as I second-guessed myself gifting something I thought someone would like and my sister would shout, “Unnecessary Apology jar!”

So to you, my dear anon, my lovely writer, my great source of imagination, my star in the sky, my gift-giver and my gift itself,

Unnecessary Apology jar!

And now? Write. Write for what you love, for the smiles and the kudos and the comments and the likes. Write selfishly, for the reasons that keep you writing and the things that keep your stories growing strong. Thrive off your food, whatever that food may be, and never feel bad for it. We all live off something, and you should never be ashamed of what that is. So go. Go write. Go share. Go grow.

Good luck.
-Pear

The reason some of my longer stuff is done and not WIPs and some of my shorter stuff isn’t? Feedback. I literally wrote 400k in 3 months because I have a great writing partner and we give each other feed back on our projects. End result? We both write more.