GWW’s first chapter covered a lot of what I hoped it would. Perhaps most interesting, is that in reading the first few paragraphs I began reminiscing about an experience imI had helping my friend write a paper about Kafka’s Metamorphosis in his paris apartment. Evidently, the writers of the chapter were also thinking about this book, as they’ve quoted it and talked about in the section prior to and in the section “See the Seeds”. In addition to demanding some thought on how Belgian bureaucrats seeded a story for Kafka, I thought about how in writing about fiction writing, two minds can think parallel thoughts despite their expansive difference in both time, space, and bodily maturity. Perhaps this is what is most interesting to me about fiction, and my answer to why “… a staggering number of people out there harbor an intense desire to create fiction.” Because it does, in a way, strip us down. And writing, uniquely, allows us to transcend many barriers in order to connect with one another. Of course there are universal languages- like math, and kindness. But, as the GWW discusses, nothing can quite as complexly implant and uproot the savored thoughts we had put away in our brains the same way fiction does. The GWW also talks about how this isn’t quite so easy as story telling, or growing seeds. Rather, it demands the following of subjective rules. And, emphasizes the importance of “digest[ing] the elements of craft, merg[ing] them into their systems, which is very different from slavishly following the rules.”. And then, of course, there will be creation “Out of nothing…” that will inflict something, on someone, somewhere, sometime. And maybe that is what important. In taking it upon myself to answer the same question that the writer asked their GWW teachers and students, I think I write fiction because it fills a need. I think thats why everyone does something. Thats why some people kick puppies and others go on hunger strikes. Everyone is fulfilling a need.
