It does no good to write if I don’t publish. I mean, what’s the point? Writing without publishing means my words get stuck in some drawer, hiding in the dark. Writing is meant to be read. It is the second step toward publishing. 

Reading is the first.

IngramSpark posted the challenge to writers recently to explain why they publish. In one way, the answer is simple, as noted above.

Yet writers are often afraid of having their words read by strangers, fearing what they’ve written isn’t good enough. But you have to start somewhere.

The seed for my desire to write was planted by my oldest brother, Irvin, when I was still in elementary school. He drove me to the Elizabeth Knapp Branch library in Detroit and pointed out books that he thought I’d like to read, the same books he read when he was my age at the time.

I read a few books in the small library we had in the Catholic elementary school I attended, but the public library opened whole new horizons for me. I became an avid reader, taking out as many as six books one week, only to return the next week to bring those books I’ve read back and looking for six more.

Perhaps my favorite book series at the time was “Swallows and Amazon,” written by Arthur Ransome. I didn’t find out until much later that Ransome was a well respected author in Britain, and his children series was considered a classic, with adventures set mostly in Britain’s Lake District. I just thought the stories were a lot of fun. Yet something began percolating in the back of my mind. Even then, the thought to be a writer sprouted its early growth.

The real spark that drove me to pursue my writing occurred years later when I was the “humor editor” of the high school newspaper. Like any high school, this school had its cliques, a group I really had no interest in joining. But one day, one of the guys in the group was reading the column I wrote, and he cracked up. Another guy in the group asked, with obvious disdain, “Why are you laughing?”

The first guy answered, “Because it’s funny.”

I didn’t write to make him laugh, though I hoped to make some of the students laugh. The fact that I did make him laugh had me thinking that perhaps this writing idea was something I should explore.

One of my first stops when I started classes at Western Michigan University was the newsroom of the college newspaper, The Western Herald. Even though the classes I signed up for that first semester had nothing to do with journalism, I soon realized I wanted nothing to do with those classes. (Who wants to take a sliderule class at eight in the morning?) I was hooked. Journalism became my interest and my career from the 1970s and into the early part of this century.

But there was one side trip for me when I took a break to attend The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop back in 1982. I wanted to write fiction, especially science fiction. But I wasn’t ready, yet. There were still plenty of stories ahead of me as a journalist. Even so, I realized I was using some of what I learned at Clarion in my writing as a reporter. Good writing is good writing.

Though I still do freelance work from time to time, I eventually decided to turn most of my efforts to science fiction. In doing so, I learned something else. Much of what I learned as a journalist I could use in my fiction, especially dialogue. What reporters do most is listen. We know how people talk. We know when to ask questions, and when to stay quiet until the person we’re interviewing fills the silence with the perfect quote.

During my time with newspapers, I had covered the police beat, higher education, theater, music, and so much more. Some of the articles were grim, some uplifting, some entertaining, and yes, some funny. Journalism gave me a palette of ideas to color my stories when I turned to fiction. But when I began that return, I started by revisiting Ransome’s “Swallows and Amazon” series, reading the stories again, and reading more about the author himself. I soon realized I had a favor to pay forward. I bought the first book of the series and gave it to Irvin’s youngest daughter. She loved it, as did my brother, as did I.

Then I set out for Mars.

I’ve published three novels in the Martian Sands series so far, and am working on the edits for my fourth. 

Why do I write?

Why would I not write?

And because I write, I publish.

Tom Chmielewski grew up in Detroit, MI and worked for several newspapers in the Midwest and freelanced for magazines, including science stories for The Atlantic’s online edition. He currently lives in Kalamazoo, MI, where he was on the staff of the Kalamazoo Gazette for 10 years. Tom is also the treasurer of The Clarion Foundation, which runs The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop.