For my first ever post on this blog, I was given lots of advice. One thing I will forego at this time, is description of self. I don’t want this to start off like the first day of school. This is my name. This is what I like. This is where my life is. So in the spirit of that…

What is the value of a question?

This question, in and of itself, is a challenging one. This is partly challenging because of a further question. Doesn’t it matter what the question being asked is? And can’t this bring us to a further question. Do the questions matter more than their answers, or vice versa? And if either of these things are true, does that matter? To try and address these questions, I will focus on some other ones.

There are several questions that I’ve quarreled with in the past months, questions born from necessity. Four years ago, I set out to write a trilogy, and the following year it was done. This was a strange feeling, to be finally done with this thing I lived inside for the twelve or so months it took to initially complete, though I knew I wasn’t really done. I’ve spent the successive years trying to perfect it, to make sure the ideas are cohesive and to ensure that the ideas are exactly as I want them.

So my first quarrelsome question is this: What does it mean to be a writer? Technically, I have written The Warren Files. I’m finally done. Technically, I will hold the first book for the very first time in the coming weeks. Technically, you are reading this on kevincadyauthor.com. But does any of this make me writer? Does it matter that these words are on the page? Maybe those questions don’t matter, but then again, maybe the answers don’t either.

A second question, something not yet addressed, involves the writer’s intentions. Do they make a difference? If someone scribbles the most beautiful poem in the world on a napkin, trashes it, and no one ever reads it, does it matter? Does it matter if, in fact, that was the intention? Does the author’s disregard for potential readers make the poem more valuable? Less?

Words obviously can help us notice things we haven’t before. Writing can help our readers to see—the author, the world, civility, philosophy, human rights—differently, and potentially help them push their own questions into the world. So doesn’t this effectively answer the original question? If questions bring more questions, and this ultimately creates a more diverse society, where people are thinking, questioning, not just for the sake of an answer but for the sake of further questions, for the sake of understanding, doesn’t this make questions valuable?

Does any of this matter?

Does whether or not I call or consider myself a writer matter?

Does my intention for this post make a difference? If my goal is to connect people with the ideas in my first novel, or entertain potential readers, or create discourse in the name of Kevin Cady’s Author Website or simply put my wandering ideas onto the internet, does it matter?

This question I have struggled answering, partly because of the first question (What does it mean to be a writer?), though I believe I have an answer for not only the first but in turn the second question. All writing can matter, and a lot doesn’t, and the writer’s intentions can either add value or devalue it. So it depends, like most things, and you shouldn’t get too hung up on it. Just write. If you write you're a writer.

This blog will hopefully reach readers and help them connect with writing, mine or otherwise, with ideas, mine or otherwise. Hopefully I can reach readers that have a completely different type of mind than I do. Hopefully I can reach readers who believe what I believe. Hopefully I reach readers that like to read…duh…but hopefully I reach readers that also like to think. Hopefully I reach readers that like to explore the world and try to understand not just the things we already think we know, but the things we know we don’t.

In A Solitary Awakening, questions are valuable, the same as they are in life.

Questions are what breach new horizons.

Questions can create schisms in society, and questions are what can fill those schisms.

So what is the value of a question?

The Value of Questions

Kevin Cady