Philip K. Dick said, “I want to write about the people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards.”
George Orwell said, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
My writing philosophy is similar to that of Orwell and Dick. I write because of images in my mind and thoughts of people living the lives I wished I could live. But as Orwell said, writing is also political. Not political in the sense of the US government, but political in the sense that we all are free agents. Every individual is a political agent; everyone plays a character in their daily lives.
This is how I see my writing. It’s a way of playing out scenarios in my head. It’s also a way to share my philosophy, a way to explain my worldview. You see, it’s not easy for me to put in some of my beliefs; they tend to be too technical. Writing, mainly fiction, is my way of sharing my thoughts in an entertaining and universally connective way.
Writing is also a way to memorialize. For me, it’s not a memorial for people, but a memorial to my past. My struggles with mental illness have influenced much of my work. I’m able to vent my anger and sadness into the ink. My sorrow and my happiness speak through my characters through words and actions.
Writing is an art. It’s my preferred art form. It’s how I speak. It’s how I live. Writing should be for everyone. If writing is political, we all should learn to write and learn to write well.
We are all political creatures, and we have to learn to express that.