David Foster Wallace on Why You Should Write

Why should you become a writer? For fame? To make money? To prove you're smart and talented? Well, today we're going to explore the real reason all of us should be writing!
Discover over 100 of David Foster Wallace's favorite books and the three books he wrote with by his side below
writeconscious.ck.page/8956ce...

[@david_aria]

I write because I have a deep spiritual need to. I write to organize incoherent "trauma dumps" into exactly the type of fiction you're describing. Whether or not I'm competent enough to do it is another story. And you're right. The reason the ego is so heavily involved in (us) people who "you'll see ... will be published someday" is because the real desire does come from the desire to heal. The lie we tell ourselves is that fame and success would somehow mean we'd finally have integrated our shadow, as if that happens overnight. I write because I know I need to stop lying to myself and tell as much of the truth as I can so I can deal with it. Maybe if I deal with mine, others can too. That *must* be the goal. Tell the truth.

[@TheGoodMD]

Ian, you’ve said a lot of stuff that resonates with me. Over the past year or so I’ve become much more authentically myself. God even at AA meetings I couldn’t be honest. It wasn’t until I turned 28 that I finally let myself be who I am. I’m satisfied with where I’m at. I’m writing consistently for the first time in a long time. That’s what matters. Couldn’t have done it without you Ian.

[@brentolie]

This is magnificent, particularly because you so strongly believe what you're saying. This is one of the most honest videos I've seen in a long time.

[@zacnewford]

Remember my name. One day you'll be a massive channel!

[@Michaelschizophernic]

Great video! Definitely motivated me to continue on my writing journey. Thanks for the content!

[@AngloSaks666]

"The Healing Component" is a reasonable way to put it, I guess. I hadn't thought of it quite like that. A transformational process was maybe more what I was thinking, in the reading, but also of course in the writing in order to make it happen. Spreading into depth and breadth, transforming by undermining the narrowing and shallowing patterns, and thus healing as a consequence.

[@electricshepherd6153]

What a wonderfully inspiring video! Thank you for the content and insight brother!

[@light1908]

Write to heal yourself and others! Absolutely agree, WC. I started writing in an incredible lonely moment in my life, which allowed me to connect with a few people online and in the actual world. And it still does today, which is truly priceless to me. Also, never quit, WC. You are so much appreciated!

[@CINEMARTYR]

Yo! Right back at you Ian. Thanks for the shoutout. Super inspiring vid.

[@justingil27]

You're the man Ian!

[@getstakerized]

Writing as a form of meditation… to deal with depression etc… understand myself better… maybe it will resonate with someone else, too… take some pleasure in it, viscerally, the feeling of the pen rolling across the page, leaving traces…

[@speechaphasia]

Bravo!!

[@andreasbjrndal3083]

hey Ian, im writing a big assignment for my high school right now, its about literary naturalism in blood meridian. Ive been watching a lot of your videos for inspiration, and i was wondering whether you have found anything that signifies that McCarthy was inspired by the naturalists. Thank you for the great content!

[@marcusorr7168]

I am trying to write in order to explore my thoughts in a format that I am able to reflect upon.

[@amynow]

“My name is Jack White”? That dude made it already. He’s a rock star 😂

[@aaronjclarke1973]

I don’t much money from my literary work but I write because it brings me joy. I strive to write work which other writers admire.

[@RJGilman1967]

I'll read your short story and give it a thoughtful and informed critique. I used to write coverage for features and one hours.

[@TrevK0]

would be nice to hear your thoughts on literary journals of today.

[@user-fv5ys7tn7y]

What are your thoughts on screen writing and cinema/TV?

[@rayhutcherson6860]

I've noticed how my writing has turned into long self-counselings. I just wrote a very abstract account of the last 8 years of my leaving America in search of where it went. It turned into a healing of my judgement about my Mother and her behavior. I now can say I have no energy about her behavior.

[@dethkon]

I can tell this guy has done a lot of 12 Step speaker meetings. Not in a bad way or a good way, just a way. Maybe a certain cadence I’m picking up on. Am I in the right ballpark, or am I way off? And since you asked? I’m here for entertainment and curiosity, but really because the KZbin algorithm chose to put you into my feed today. Congrats!

[@WriteConscious]

Are you asking if I've done 12 step meetings or if David Foster Wallace has?

[@dethkon]

@@WriteConsciousYou. Obv I know that DFW did. But I understand if you don’t wanna break the tradition of anonymity, so feel free not to answer this question. I myself am a recovering addict.

[@WriteConscious]

Never been to a meeting in my life, but I've read the Big Book and a ton of books about the twelve steps/addiction! Crazy that I somehow have the cadence though lol. I have made freeing myself of addictions of all kinds (technology, substances, food, codependency, and other stuff) the central focus of the last ten years of my life though.

[@SamElliottsStache]

Because I'm introverted, in financial dire straits and a couple of stories have been growing in my head for over a decade now. But I'm too intimidated by the blank page. Writing, for me, is the ultimate man versus self conflict. I'm in constant battle with myself on whether if I will ever find my voice, am able to write a coherent and vivid passage that flows enough to compel the reader to turn the page. It's really exhausting.

[@user-ks8ux4ig6b]

Love what you are doing but I'm not sure about enlisting art/literature into the job of healing trauma or any other purpose. Honestly, I cringe a bit when I hear people talk about trauma - maybe that's because I've seen so many iterations of the concept over the last 50 years. Each generation seems to have its own spin on it (from the hairy orgasmatron 70s primal scream, to the inner child rebirthers of the 80s, to the repressed memory 90s, etc). I haven't seen the obsession with trauma pay off much in the long run...

[@jackson633]

Most people can't even be healed from acid reflux, they keep right on eating spaghetti and meatballs right before bed every night, and lay awake wondering why their esophagus is burning. They never reach for the bottle of Tums or read about which sleeping positions mitigate acid reflux, they just lay in bed, bloated, ignorant and in pain. A tool is only ever as useful as the person wielding them as able to make them. Unfortunately, most people are too stupid to do anything for their trauma but drink, watch Netflix, and stay up late because they feel like their 9-5 is taking up too much of their leisure time which they inevitably waste. This in no way makes art a less viable tool for those who can properly wield it.

[@Thurnishaley6969]

Trauma is real read Gabor mate myth of normal

[@user-ks8ux4ig6b]

@@Thurnishaley6969 thanks for recommendation

[@watcherofthewest8597]

I kind of agree. Trauma seems to be what most people in history called life. Great video!

[@jeffrey3498]

Why write? To trigger a transformation in the reader; or at least, to plant the seed of transformation.

[@voidsword8095]

While I don't necessarily agree with everything you said in this video, overall the message is great.

[@JorgeVonninger]

I'll probably never publish, but I have a novel, a novella, and a couple unfinished novellas under my belt that are some what readable. I don't regret the 5 years I've put into it so far. But I don't really know how to go about it, how to actually be a writer. I just write and don't really have a plan beyond it.

[@SamElliottsStache]

I'm interested in reading some of your works. Link?

[@JorgeVonninger]

@@SamElliottsStache Only one thing exists digitally, everything else is still in it's first phase which only exists on typewritten sheets of paper or in journals. Have an email address?

[@prehistoricturtlesaurus5309]

Personally, the hardest part of writing is picking up where I left off with any enthusiasm. While I'm in the groove, it's all discovery and excitement and purpose. The next day I think, "what is this garbage, this derivative bullshit? I thought this was worth the skin off my dick? Did I think I was being cute or something?" I guess I'm chasing after a hope that one day, I'll have written something I'm not embarrassed of the next day. And that from that, I'll be able to put something out to see what happens instead of just going through these cycles of desperate creativity and apathetic slumps.

[@johng4609]

Zapffe's pessimistic essay The Last Messiah has excellent food for thought about our motivations for creating art -- 'sublimation' -- as one of our habitual categories of 'repressional mechanisms': "Though they take a vast and multifarious variety of forms, it seems legitimate to at least identify four major kinds, naturally occuring in every possible combination: isolation, anchoring, distraction and sublimation."

[@timmellis5038]

I'm attempting to write here now again because I love reading and I know how to write. As I go through my life and my jobs suck, I again and again, wonder if I could survive on writing? I wonder if it's possible if I could create something that people would enjoy reading? And I wonder doubtfully if I could get a few thousand dollars here and there, and if I could improve my writing and make a living where I don't have to clean people's toilets to pay my rent? But I'm not trying to save anyone's life- not even my own- I'm just trying to make an unbearable life less unbearable. I'm old now, so if a girl came around all excited because I wrote something I'd probably tell her to f**k off. I would like to say that I may know how to write, but I don't really know how to write stories.

[@FrancisGo.]

I'm here to fulfill my souls contract. 😅🎉❤

[@Terrificguyonline]

Writing / art comes from anger. Its an alternative to the conventional aggression. It comes from a wish to break others on a deep level.

[@Thurnishaley6969]

For you lmaooo. Get therapy

[@mistaando9741]

sometimes i feel like the perfect midwit, too smart for one half and not smart enough for the other

[@jameslebeau7078]

Hey dude do you follow Mark Passio's work? You're speaking many of the same truths, it's insane synchronicity that I found your work

[@moorbilt]

I write as a thing to do. I write as a form of thinking. I write thinking a form of writing to my self could affect me. I write to kill my self and tell a different story, a beautiful story.

[@dethkon]

Remember my name. One day you just might see me in the newspaper! (Check the obituaries 😆)

[@CamPattErson-jw2ug]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. if one sharpens their craft enough their words will brush up against the gods like Conrad, McCarthy, and Celine.

[@puturro]

That's all good. I just want to make people laugh while reading. Humor is saturated in visual media

[@francissookraj3202]

I read a few articles on David Wallace Forster and I seen interviews of him talking about writing. Lot of people say his book Infinite Jest is too complex to read but it's regarded as literature? Why is that? Why did he commit suicide when his career was about to take off? Good show.

[@SamElliottsStache]

It sits on my shelf and I'm intimidated by it. It seems like a modern-day James Joyce; too cryptic and highly difficult to ingest.

[@TheGoodMD]

“Make money from books so you can get laid” lmao

[@tygorton]

Would you take investment advice from someone living in squalor on the street? Maybe let's not take life advice from a man who committed suicide. Literature is not lifting the world up into higher consciousness, complete nonsense. We have tens of thousands of pages of literature produced across centuries and here we are, wallowing in the same exact confusion, hurtling toward another world war, making all the same mistakes we have always made. I am not saying "don't write", but I am saying: stop believing in the absurdity of the "tortured genius" that has been sold to you by Hollywood and media your entire lives. If you want to be saved, go outside and put your hands in the dirt. Grow food. Become a producer of something with intrinsic rather than subjective value. I realize this will be an unpopular comment. People like Hallmark card sentiments, not actual truth.

[@user-bj8gh6vq5m]

Tbf Ian said he doesn’t believe in the “tortured artist” either. Also thank you for the alternate take.

[@stevec.5010]

never take the advise of people who kill themselves.

[@Misserbi]

A failed pick up artist with a habit is borderline. I suspect DFW took on the freedom and liberty and hit a wall. My theory is 18-25 is the time. Anything before or after is viewed as pathetic. The virtue is not and knowing.