Once, a friend of mine, Wulf, published an awesome post called ‘What The Hell Are You Writing?’ Fluff, or something that will last? In the comments, Merc asked how it is that you do this, how you make your work mean something, and give it themes and depth weight. She noted that there seems to be this gulf, between what we want to do, and what we actually do… But that it nonetheless seems something worth striving towards.

This is my response:

And in the end, striving is what counts.

You do it, I think, in the end, by caring. You care what happens, you care about knowing… You dare to ask the questions you don’t know the answers to, to bare your soul, to inject something that means something to you into your work, even though people might hate it, and by extension you…

I think that this is one of those cases where wanting, trying – this is enough. There will always be a disconnect. You can never move yourself like others can move you, because you see the imperfections, you read behind the lines and find the blood and sweat and tears… But if you’re trying, genuinely trying… That, in the end, is what counts.

 

What do you think? Do you write ‘fluff’? Are you happy writing fluff? Or do you strive for something more out of your writing? Something that might just change lives and leave the world a better place?