Editor’s Note: This post is the third in a series that features former students of mine who have become professional writers. I asked each of them to focus on the topic, “Why I Write.” Today’s post is by Bill Torgerson, whom I first met when he was one of my writing students at Olivet and who is now an award-winning screenwriter, novelist and writing professor. His first novel, Love on the Big Screen, is set at a fictionalized Olivet in the era when Bill and I were there. (To see the first post in this series, by Dr. Michael Clark, scroll down or click here. To see the second post, by John Small, scroll down or click here.)
Five of the Eighteen Reasons I Write
By William J. Torgerson
Professor Joe Bentz was the first person I ever knew to be actively working on a novel. When I was his student at Olivet Nazarene University just south
of Chicago, I was an English teacher who wanted to be a basketball coach because I’d long understood I couldn’t play professionally. I had no plans to write, but I’d heard that Joe’s house was wallpapered with notes for his book.
As a country kid from Indiana, I found Professor Bentz’s ambition exotic, as if he were a space traveller who’d gone to Mars and come back to tell me about it. Professor Bentz was the first person to encourage my writing. I wrote an essay in his class about a bad date, and he told me I should send it out for consideration for publication. Over fifteen years later, a revision of that essay appeared in my first novel. Upon receiving Joe’s request to write this guest post, I was quickly able jot down eighteen reasons I write. Here are five of them:
- To Stand Out. Even when I used to think of myself as worth noticing because I could shoot a basketball from a long distance and make it go through a hoop, I was an everyday writer. At first, I wrote because it was a way in addition to basketball that a girl would take notice of me. Even though I’ve always thought of myself as a latecomer to writing, I realize that even as a middle school student I wrote (by hand on paper!) regularly for a specific audience: a girl I liked. I revised like an obsessive-compulsive madman.
- For Mental and Physical Peace. I have a high-octane mental and physical motor. There’s something about intense workouts and at least a page a day that allows me to get as close as I can to relaxing. When someone asks me what I do for fun, one of my first thoughts is that I run. Writing gives me a mostly positive act toward which to direct my addiction prone energy. When I write, I am somehow able to empty my mind just enough to get some sleep.
- Because I Can’t Stop. I received Prof. Bentz’s request to do this guest post via my iPhone at 5:08 PM when I was wandering around an outlet mall and my family was doing some school shopping. I could not stop thinking about what I might say. I woke after four hours of sleep that night with my mind demanding, “Why do you write?!!!” My subconscious accepts writing assignments without my consent. When I daydream, I’m mentally drafting texts, most of which won’t even get written.
- To Engage in Conversation. I’m one of those people who skips right past the small talk and dives into something intense. “Why do you teach?” I might ask somebody I’ve just met. When I moved from Indiana to North Carolina, this feature of my personality earned me the nickname, “Question Boy.” Later when these ruthless name callers became my friends, they confessed what they had been calling me behind my back. I want to know about you!
- To Live Life More Fully. I’m a better husband, father, and friend because I write. When I immerse myself in language, when I concentrate on the details necessary to bring a story to life, I am apt to spend my time in ways more in harmony with my belief system. When I write, I reflect, even if it’s on the lives of the characters that catch my attention. This causes me to know how I want to spend my time. I used to think of divorce as something that had happened to me. After I wrote an unpublished novel about that experience, I understood all the ways I was responsible for that divorce. I think it’s in part because I write that I know to make sure to pick up my little girls each day, give them a hug, and look them in the eye and tell them that I love them.
William J. Torgerson is an assistant professor in the Institute For Writing Studies at St. John’s University in New York. His adaptation of Love on the Big Screen was awarded the Grand Prize in the Flickers Rhode Island International Screenplay Competition. In addition to novels and screenplays, William writes short stories and articles on teaching and writing, and his work has appeared most recently in the University of Maryland’s Sakura, Old Dominion University’s Barely South Review, and NYU’s interdisciplinary journal Anamesa. You can learn more about William on his website at TheTorg.com.
Comments 6
Enjoyed reading your reasons. They coincide with mine. I particularly identify with “to live more fully.” I’ve been writing professionally for forty years and every day that I go to my desk is a pleasure–even when the writing is difficult or I’m a bit ‘off.’ Still, self-expression for me is the key to living the abundant life God (John 10:10).
I really enjoyed reading about your reasons for writing. I share many of these same reasons. I perhaps wrote to stand out more when I was younger, but if I am going to be honest I still hope my writing gets noticed.
The last reason you shared was very insightful. I don’t know if I have had this experience from my writing but I do in some ways relate. I often write poetry, so the derivative affect of story telling is not as pronounced but certainly the meditative and contemplative state of my little world that I write about helps me to know myself and how significant my friendships and relationships are.
Thank you for sharing. I’d like to read your other 13 reasons sometime.
I know what you mean about drafting in your mind! I typically lay in bed right before falling asleep my mind will outline some ideas that I have been trying to get down on paper. Ironically, it is as if my brain still wants to create thoughts even when my body wants to sleep I think that one wonderful thing about being a writer is there is always something to write about. Whether I am inspired to write poetry, or jot down some ideas to add to a plot of a story, I constantly get inspiration randomly. I guess that is sometimes the best inspiration because having writer’s block is never fun! Thank you for sharing, I appreciated seeing your comments and insight into why you write!
I appreciate being able to read a few of your reasons for writing. (And I, too, am curious about the remaining thirteen!) It’s refreshing to hear about writers who do what they do because, at least in part, it works well with how they are wired.
I’ve never thought to phrase it as you have, but “my subconscious accepts writing assignments without my consent.” I’m starting to notice that my mind often begins writing without me. At some point, I sit down to type, because I may as well cooperate with what it wants to do. I’m glad to know that seasoned writers experience this as well, and view it as a good reason to keep writing. Thank you!
I enjoyed reading about the reason’s your write. I share some of those as well but mainly I write for pure selfish reasons. To purge and organize my thoughts. Because I am a highly emotional person overreacting is my forte and through writing I have been able to feel better about situations and essentially organize the hellish things life sometimes throws at us. I write those things I wish I said but couldn’t muster the courage to say. This semester I have learned that many great authors wrote for this reason and in turn touched lives. I hope that one day I can grow to be this way and hopefully that screenplay I wrote after a bad breakup gets noticed! I’ll always remember a professor at APU saying…” written works get noticed and rejected for the silliest and most mundane reasons” and I believe that there are also times where words are written for those same 2 reasons. I can truly attest to that.
Thank you Professor Torgerson,
It is interesting how we find our passions in life. Like in your case, you were not trying to be a writer but rather were trying to get a girls attention! Who would have known that you would eventually fall in love with writing and find the thing you were meant to do.
And I appreciate what you had to say about what writing has taught you about being a father, friend and a human being. Although I am not a professional writer nor have published anything, I too write to learn more about myself and of the world around me. What a wonderful gift we all have in being able to express ourselves through the written word. Thank you for sharing with us your story.