Why write? Why publish? What’s the point? And Marcus Aurelius? — Will Marin Journal Entry #1

December 16 2019

Greetings world! My name is Will Marin. Welcome to my first published journal-entry!

Why do I write in a journal? Because I am attempting to make sense of the world. Why do we use language? We use language to make sense of the world. We use language for communication, and communication is a tool for making sense. (Shoutout to Sam Harris.)

Many people keep a private journal; but why have I decided to start publishing mine? Because there is a chance (nevermind how small) that what I write in my journal could be valuable in someone else’s life. Furthermore, publishing my thoughts keeps me accountable. Furthermore, publishing my writings provides me the opportunity to get feedback; feedback about my ideas, or about my writing itself. This public journal is not only a way to share my ideas, but also a way to improve my skill as a writer.

Another reason I’ve decided to start publishing my journal is because journal entries — or articles, to use another word — can act as conversation-starters; they can become the basis or foundation for communication, for connection; and if you continue to read my writings, you’ll learn that I’m all about communication and connection. I believe connection, of which communication is an important piece, is what (literally) holds the world together. Without connection, all we have is a void of unrelated free-flowing garble… but with connection, we have a well-rounded account of the world. This is why I always encourage connection; and I encourage you to communicate with me online via Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, email, etcetera… (Visit willmarin.com for those links).

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So, since this is my introductory journal-entry, I suppose I ought to give you some insight into just exactly what type of content this journal will consist of.

One reason why I’ve decided to publish my journal (instead of publishing a book, for example; although I do plan to publish a book in the future) is because my interests vary widely. I’m super interested in economics and global politics, but also super interested in fantasy and science-fiction. I’m super interested in journalism and current events, but also super interested in philosophy and spirituality and metaphysics. For this reason, instead of writing a book on one of these topics, I thought it would make more sense to write a daily journal (or a weekly journal; or every-other-daily, or just randomly… haven’t decided yet… probably multiple times per week, if not daily) which explores all sorts of different subject matters. With a real-time daily journal, I can talk about history in one paragraph and science-fiction in the next. This also might prove to be less boring for readers. Honestly, I prefer reading lots of different short articles on many different topics, as opposed to reading one long book which covers one topic.

So, this online journal will cover all sorts of things; from science-fiction to history, finance to philosophy, and even book reports or album reviews. This will truly be a journal for the modern renaissance man or woman.

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As a continuation of this first journal entry, I’d like to discuss something I’ve thought about a bit today. When I was a young child, starting around age seven, I wrote fiction comics and novels. Usually they were either fantasy or action novels. For example: I wrote a novel about a boy living in a medieval fantasy world, whose father disappears in battle, so the boy goes on an adventure to find his father; I wrote a comic-book of political satire where President George Bush gets impeached and flees America on a motorboat; I wrote a novel about two elementary-school students who run away from their home in Massachusetts and go on an adventure across America, only to end up at a juvenile detention center in California.

Writing fiction has been a huge passion of mine for basically my whole life. However, at some point in my adolescence, somewhere between age fourteen and sixteen, I hit a roadblock with fictional writing. This question began growing in my mind and gnawing away at my motivation to write: “What’s the point of writing fiction?” The logic was this: There’s a huge world around me, full of humans and other species, with lots of interesting things going on. Why spend time writing about things that don’t exist, when there’s a massive world with things that do? So I gave up writing fiction for awhile.

But then around age nineteen, the inspiration to write fiction came back. A story came to me; a story for an epic medieval fantasy novel. But something had fundamentally changed about me as an artist: I was no longer just a child without a care in the world; I was a young adult, and money was starting to become more and more of an important variable. New thoughts began to form in my mind as an artist: “What if I spend two years, hours and hours everyday, working my ass off to finish this novel… and then it isn’t successful? What if I don’t make any money from it? Wouldn’t it be better to just spend my time working a job where there’s a guaranteed paycheck?” Perhaps in the mind of a non-artist, this would have been a no-brainer: Work for guaranteed money, and don’t gamble on a novel. And then another thought appeared in my mind: “Worrying about the desire to make money from my art is ruining the creative process.” I had a point there, too, because trying to creative sellable art can corrupt the creative process and result in worse and less-creative art. It felt as if I were stuck at a catch-22.

And this brings us to today: I’m twenty-three years old, and I am still passionate about writing (as you can plainly see); but I have never published a single piece of writing that is more than a few pages long. Why? Because I’ve always wondered: What’s the point? And I’ve always decided that there is no point.

But I’ve also been realizing that if I truly believe that there is no point to publishing my writing, and specifically publishing fiction stories, then I’ll never actually publish anything. There must be a purpose to it, if I’m going to be motivated enough to actually do it. So now, I’m going to answer this question for you, and for myself: What is the point?

Well, there are many points; so let’s go down the list…

Firstly, love; love for the creative process. If you love writing, then you ought to write, simply for the sake of writing. If you love to sing, then you should sing, even if no money or fame come from it. And the same goes for anything else.

Secondly, when it comes to writing fiction, imagination is important. Just because something doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean it won’t have an impact on what does exist. By writing a fantasy novel, you may inspire someone to improve their real life. And furthermore, when you put your imagination on the page, then in a sense it becomes real.

Thirdly, as Marcus Aurelius said: “What we do now echoes in eternity.” If you love something, and you do it now, whole-heartedly, then you’re literally creating energy out of love; and who knows what positive impact this energy will have in the future! The point is, we have no idea how what we do now will affect the world of tomorrow… but if you act out of love, then how can you go wrong? Something good is bound to come from it later! So do what you love now, and marvel at the results later!

Fourthly, exploring the imagination is fun; and as I said before, things which only exist in the imagination can still have an impact on things in the real-world; and furthermore, things which only exist in the imagination can eventually become real (for example, a nonexistent device from a science-fiction novel eventually being invented by a scientist and implemented into daily life).

So, there are some of the reasons for fiction, as a reminder to you and to myself. And those reasons can also go for anything else you desire to do!

As a side-note to the prior paragraphs about writing fiction, here is a really interesting list I found on Quora, written by Abhinav Goel:

So, there it is: my first published journal entry. I’m looking forward to writing more of these. Lots of interesting ideas to be shared and discussed; and speaking of discussion, please feel free to message me with any questions or comments. You can reach me directly through Tumblr, but also on other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and more. I cast a wide net.

All my links can be found at willmarin.com. Cheers! 🙂💜