It is an intriguing experience for an author when his characters make their own choices.

Hieronymous surprised me today.

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A writer faces many challenges against his or her work. Procrastination, health, finances, and lack of inspiration are but a few.

But no challenge is more insidious or more difficult to handle than distraction.

Whereas procrastination is the willful neglect of a given task, distraction is a waver in concentration brought on by external sources. Procrastination is the writer’s fault. Distraction is not. Either way, procrastination or distraction, the end result is the same. Writing does not take place. Gestating strings of thought are lost. Time must be spent just to recover the point of development abandoned when distraction or procrastination took place.

Once the distraction lands in the writer’s brain, it has done its damage.

Limiting sources of distraction is a writer’s only recourse to handle this particular threat to his or her work.

Turning off the television, not looking at email or text messages, limiting internet searches to anything other than research directly related to the current project, and not answering the phone are the best means of closing the predominant avenues of distraction. Concentration is hard enough without being impinged upon by demands for communications brought on by family, friends, business associates, or strangers. Broadcast media are prone to news flashes that may raise concern of a socially conscious individual. However, more often than not, the writer distracted by such news usually can do nothing at all but empathize and the news could have been heard or watched at another time when the writer could contemplate its meaning without being pulled away from his or her work.

Music and hence music players can be a wonderful tool for inducing an emotional state which the writer wishes to experience as an inspiration toward creating the same emotional state through a written passage. However, a writer must be judicious with his or her time spent playing music. If he or she is paying more attention to the music and less attention to the work at hand, music has become a detriment. Time spent playing music must be invested with discretion.

An author must learn that time is his or her most valuable asset. Time must not merely be spent wisely, but it must be guarded and cherished.

Though time for the universe may be infinite, time for an author is limited.

When someone demands time of a writer, the writer must know that what is being demanded is the most precious thing the writer has to offer. He or she is better off giving blood instead. Those who are in an author’s life must know that the author’s time is worth more than gold.

Time is to be respected. Time is to be cherished.

Like any human, an author is entitled to a social life. Human interactions are necessary. Humans are social beings, and–despite any allegations to the contrary–writers are human. Relations are also necessary to provide the fuel and material upon which the writer draws not only in the creation of his or her work but to provide substance to his or her work.

Relationships require an expenditure of time in order to stay healthy and active.

However, the writer must make it clear that his or her “writing time” is a specific time where interruptions must be of dire nature if they are to occur. The wise writer sets days and times when he or she is “unreachable,” as well as days and times when he or she is open to discourse.

Although a window with some sunshine flowing through it can make a writer feel less isolated, and whereas a picturesque view can be cheering, a window is also an invitation to allow the world entrance into the writer’s workplace. A window is an opening upon distraction and an easy crutch for the procrastinator.

It is best for the writer to turn his or her back to any window and to “exist” only in the “room” of his or her mind when writing.

For a writer at work, it is best to let the world run on its own during writing time. Writing time is sacrosanct. Nothing short of natural disaster or Armageddon should be allowed to intrude.

Writing time is time to be a hermit. A writer at work is a monk at prayer. Let no one interrupt a writer’s quest for union with the divine.

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Why write? What function does it serve? It is a lonely task, often unheralded, frequently ignored, and rarely profitable. So why do it?

The fundamental purpose of writing is to record information and transmit such information over time and distance. Writing allows for non-verbal exchange where the communicator need not be present at the time or in the place in which the information is received. Writing also allows for “permanence” in that the written record may survive the life of the writer. Last, writing allows for “accuracy” in that the words of the writer are preserved and may be checked against for deviations from his or her account.

So, it would seem that if this all comprises the sole function of writing and therefore the reason for reading, then all written materials would be non-fictional.

But, that is not the case.

Fiction exists. Fiction is preserved. Fiction thrives. Fiction is sought and desired. Fiction is created. And fiction is honored.

Why?

The writing of fiction first appeared in storyteller form. Tales were handed down by a verbal tradition. Later, writing fiction into a recorded format developed–whether inked on animal skin, painted on walls, or chiseled into rock. This craft and practice arose so that tales could be disseminated over larger distances and to greater numbers of “listeners” and so that tales could be preserved for posterity in their “original” form.

As writers, we must ask ourselves: Why does the public seek our stories? The answer informs our writing. If we know why readers read, then we know what need or desire we must fulfill in order for our work to be accepted. The better we fulfill those needs and desires, the higher chance we have for critical and financial success and for longevity of our body of work.

The answer is neither unexpected nor astonishing. But it must be borne in mind.

Writing is an art. It is an expression of one individual’s viewpoint, contemplation, emotion, idea, question, or conclusion or any combination thereof.

If we accept that writing is an art, then all art forms share this definition of expression.

So, why is there an audience for any of the arts? Why attend a concert? Why see a film? Why go to an art gallery? Why go to a play? Why watch a ballet? Why read a novel?

The motivation is a common characteristic uniting all the arts.

THE ANSWER: Audiences experience art in order to have an emotional experience. Audiences want to be moved. They want to laugh and cry and cheer and jeer. They are willing to “suspend their disbelief” and accept artifice for reality for a limited time and on a limited scale so that they may live vicariously and be provoked by art.

Upon the storyteller tradition, audiences may ask themselves what is being expressed? They want to understand not only “plot” but message. They will look for the “point.” Finally, they will ask themselves how does the given expression in its given medium relate to their own lives? What does it “say” to them?

Great art elicits emotional response and triggers introspection.

Art can be used as a device not only to communicate ideas and conclusions and beliefs but also to cause examination of those same things.

Art can be used to educate, but the artists must not be didactic or the audience will wander.

Art is entertainment. The fundamental function is to drive an emotional response. To create empathy and to carry the reader on a journey.

Therefore, as a writer, my primary goal is to make the reader feel. I want to give my readers an emotional roller-coaster ride. I want to build anticipation, put them through twists and turns, spin and jostle, cradle and hurl, soothe, jar, and shock. I want to involve my reader and make them feel at risk, while all the while there is no real danger. I want to take my readers in my hands and propel them over a broad range of emotional experiences running the gamut between love and hate, sorrow and joy, fear and anticipation.

I want to thrill my readers’ hearts.

I also want to tickle their brains. I want them to think. I want them to examine their beliefs and want them to question society and their place in the universe. I want them to question reality.

By the time my readers reach the final page of any novel which I have written, I want them feeling that they have lived through an amazing experience. I want them to be “satisfied.” By giving into the narrative and allowing themselves to live with and as my characters, I want them to feel as though they have lived other lives.

I want my readers wanting more.

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BECOME AN APPRENTICE! Click FOLLOW on the right of your screen to stay tuned for updates and for exclusive material on Marc Royston’s A Wizard’s Life, an epic adult fantasy soon to be released as a serialized novel.