Everyday Canvas

Writing through Obsessions and Time Capsule

Prompt 1 by Joy : J. G. Ballard, the author of Empire of the Sun, said: “I quite consciously rely on my obsessions. In all my work I deliberately set up an obsessional frame of mind. In a paradoxical way, this leaves one free of the subject of the obsession.” What do you think about this? Do you use your or another person’s obsessions in your writing?


We all write for various reasons, some mostly for living, others for the love of it; yet, all writing ends up becoming subliminal, since the subconscious finds a way to connect to our hidden depths, as if we are channeling ourselves like mediums. When we do this, consciously of subconsciously, we dig up dirt, which partly means our obsessions.

For example, author Martin Amis, obsessed with video games, wrote Invasion of the Space Invaders: An Addict's Guide to Battle Tactics. Edgar Allen Poe was obsessed with fear, especially fear of insanity, the death of beautiful women, and alcohol. He has put all these into work, as many of his stories and poems are fictionalized and exaggerated forms of his obsessions. I also think, since so many novels have protagonists or other characters who are writers or journalists, this shows we writers’ obsession with lliterature and writing.

To help us with our work, it is a good idea to make a list of our obsessions, although they may change or become forgotten as time passes. The items on our lists can be things that keep popping up in our minds as good memories or haunting ones, or even pieces of other writers’ stories that we keep recalling. They can be visual things like the images of damage after disasters, faces of monsters, or people who have been like monsters to us. They can be our backgrounds, our family rituals, members of our families, loved or hated friends and lovers, what made us deliriously happy or cracked us, etc. Do you stop to pet dogs or cats even if you don’t know their owners or smile at babies at the mall without even looking at their parents? Do you like haunted houses, planting, photography, keeping your floors clean, or starting to wash yourself from your head or from your toes? All these qualify for writerly obsessions.

The items on our list are what we can base our stories upon, possibly time after time. As our subconscious doesn’t discriminate between the good, ugly, odd, or evil, it is important to silence our internal critic while making the list.

Whether we like them or not, since our obsessions exist, why not make use of them knowingly? As Natalie Goldberg says in Writing Down the Bones, "Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them; things they can’t forget; stories they carry in their bodies waiting to be released.”





Prompt 2 by Princess Megan Rose 22 Years : What would you put in this year's time capsule to channel the essence of our current moment for future generations?


The photo of the astronauts in space repairing something on the Astrolab
A video of the Amazon jungle before it’s ruined by men
A video of the North and South poles “ “ “ “
A video of the plants and animals about to become extinct
The snapshots of WdC as soon as P15 is made public
My WdC portfolio page’s snapshot
The Apple Watch
Zula pocket printer
Sony a7S Full Frame Mirrorless Camera
My family’s photo before we all become extinct
The list of daredevils who want to go to Mars to colonize it
A list of crazy diets that women put themselves through