Writer's Perspective

Source: http://www.roxanarobinson.com
/pgs/about.html

Roxana Robinson is the author of five novels from 1988 to 2008.  Four of her five works have been awarded Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.  In “If You Invent the Story, You're the First to See How It Ends,” Ms. Robinson discusses her perspective on the writing process, saying “My own reasons for writing, for setting down the story, are to a large extent selfish.”  She chooses to write in order to make sense of something happening in her life.  If something is keeping her up at night, Roxana will write about it in order to process what’s happening and be able to move on.  Her writing allows her to process these happenings so that she can free herself from those thoughts.

Ms. Robinson often finds herself writing about families.  She says, “The family is at the heart of our emotional lives. It's where the heat is, the source of our most powerful feelings.”  For her, it’s about the unique relationships that are encountered within a family, and these relationships are the most important relationships in our lives.  These relationships are also the basis for other relationships that are developed in our lives.  Roxana also points out that the family dynamic provides an endless opportunity to write about.

Personally, I find Ms. Robinson’s perspective to be true.  There are so many dynamics in a family that one could write about.  A mother may not talk to her child for years because of some disagreement or choice that was made that they did not agree upon.  Or a family could be so close that they live on the same street and do everything together.  There are so many different relationships within families, and the larger the family, the more interesting relationships that there are.  I also agree that some writers are writing to clear their head and thought process.  If an author always writes about summer romances, this could be from an experience she had and it is still very much a part of her.

Often times, I have thought of writers as either journalists for a publication or those that publish scholarly papers.  However, my views have changed to see today’s writers as those with such a vast range of skills, experience, and knowledge.  In thinking about social media on the internet, I used to feel that the content available was either from a news source or individuals more or less rambling about their thoughts - just chatter.  I didn’t realize the tremendous amount of blogs available today, and those blogs can include written pieces, video blogs, photo blogs, or a combination of all three.  A web developer at a software company might choose to write a personal blog about his expertise several times a week, citing code for how to create fancy websites.  Or a hotel chef may want to expand her audience outside of the hotel so she creates an Instagram account to showcase her food masterpieces.  

Some may think that social media is changing the journalistic field.  But when seeking information on social media, it’s important to remember that social media sites “are ways of conveying information, but they do not dictate the nature of the content conveyed” (Kovach & Rosensteil, 2010).  I fully agree with this thought.  Social media needs to be thought of as the means of communicating what writers need to say.  It is not changing the content of what writers are saying, but instead is offering the writers another way to get their message to an audience.

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Kovach, B., & Rosensteil, T.  (2010).  Blur - How to know what’s true in the age of information overload.  New York: Bloomsbury USA.

Robinson, Roxana.  (2000, July 17.)  If you invent the story, you're the first to see how it ends.  New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/071700robinson-writing.html.