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| Art and fame; the two are often mutually exclusive. One only need watch five minutes of a Jessica Simpson interview or even less of a pop music video (aside from the aesthetics of cinematography and video production) to understand that fame most often goes to those who are willing to pay the price to attain it and not to the most artistic and talented. Perhaps this is something of a positive. At any awards show there are more psychotic, depressed, empty, lost, and spiritually void personas than one can shake a straight jacket at. Perhaps this is because they have received their reward in this life in full when they are starving for spiritual exploration. |
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I am beginning to see through the veil of fantasy about the writing life, the fantasy I held to in ignorance. It is not an easy row to hoe. It is like any endeavor, full of greed, commercialism, haughtiness, struggle, pretentiousness, fear, self loathing and depression, and a host of other things that can be found in any profession or art form. It is built upon contacts and networks and who knows who and not on the pure talent that I had always assumed it would be. The most brilliant work can go unnoticed and unrewarded from lack of the right contacts and the worst sort of drivel can make its way to the best seller list. The literary forms are the worst, run and maintained by the most pretension and elevated view of the self. They are a select group of initiates, whose only recommendation is the politics or anti-social agenda that fuels the words that spew forth like an overfull gutter. This pains me the most, as I have thought and still think that the form of writing I do the best is the literary form. Yet, in a long line behind me are the literary journals whose sole reason for recognition is the singular rejection of anything that I write. Most are polite in their refusal, stating that the submission isn't right for their publication. Yet what is right? That remains a mystery to this day. Even my contest entry got short shrift from the judges. The piece that has meant the most to me, the piece that took a month to craft isn't even worth a few lines of text from these gods of the literary heavens. The worst one, the one run by a member of Stories.Com, the one whose pretension ekes from the very web page that displays the 'chosen few’ deems the work of little note.
I know, this is the life, right? The life lived to only write what comes out, to craft the art in a way that touches the soul that exercises the mind and senses and pushes the limit of expression. But, how does this meld with the need to be published? The need to have others see the works and be touched by them is important. But is it important enough to weather the constant storm of rejections? The popular advice from the published is "keep submitting." But, how does one gain the motivation to keep trying in the face of such obstacles? Is it my writing? Is it my subject matter? Is it the form or the clumsy use of words? I know not because I have been told not. Although it is appreciated when the rejection is polite and professional, the doubt lingers on, long after the rejection has been digested and flushed out of the system. Can one be a great writer and not a great writer at the same time? Can one be mediocre in one world and great in another? excerpt from"Invalid Item"
I was reminded of the mindset I had when I first began to seriously consider that my imagination would make me a writer. This was written in December of 2002 after several months of writing and submitting to publications. I was full speed on the roller coaster of getting published to make a name and see myself in print. I was doing all the right things. I was stretching out my creative muscles and I was writing what came next. I was researching markets and formatting manuscripts to be sent in the mail. I was hopeful and I was ignorant. I was full of myself and I was filled with the commercialism of every book sporting the title of “How to become …”
Yet I was also discovering the art of creativity and one would think that this should be the first thing discovered before tackling the world of “fame”. Fortunately for my soul and my sense of creativity I was exploring what it means to create, that spiritual exercise of expressing what is hidden to the normal eye but whom the artist has eyes to see and ears to hear. I will unabashedly state that art and “Art” are expressions of creativity mirroring the creator. Understanding the relationship between muse, inner artist, artist child (what ever you want to call that part of yourself that longs to create) and the creator God is important to understanding the struggle to create. It is also important to put into proper context the desire for fame and the publishing world lest we sell our proverbial creative souls to the wrong gods.
Each god is benign in themselves and certainly one can remain creatively pure and be published or make money or become famous. But who claims the right to that creative soul? Would not that soul be better off creating first and for the act of discovery rather than offered up on the blocks to the highest bidder? I almost stopped writing after the rejections and the discovery of what the publishing world was really like. I was horror filled to find that artistic quality and creativity meant little to the game that is the discovery of the next (fill in the blank). Why did it matter so? It mattered because it was why I was writing. I lamented and brooded with each failure because it meant that I was accomplishing little. I wasn’t creating because it was fun but because I wanted a hit from F(ame) and a sip of N(otoriety).
I’m older and hopefully a bit wiser now. I still struggle with just creating for fun and not having some ulterior motive for doing it. Being published or being known had its hold on me and it was not like someone told me it had to be this way; I assumed it. I assumed this is what it was all about. Yet, like a journey of spiritual discovery, my creativity was saved from a pit of gloom and doom because it was the journey that mattered and not the destination. You may call yourself an atheist or reject the Judeo-Christian God and trinity, but what cannot be escaped is the spiritual nature of creativity. I was willing early on to subject that thought to the trappings of being published and being known. I found that writing and creating just to be published was as spiritually empty as the proverbial melodrama villain is of compassion. The artfulness of creating a work whose truth was plumbed deep from the well of the soul is the fulfillment of a spiritual act.
Not published yet? Been writing for decades and wanting the dream but not tasting it yet? So what? Are you struggling instead to create stories and characters that reflect your own journey of spiritual discovery? If the journey is the destination then what you are doing is more fulfilling than the tired hulks who are writing their tenth book in a series but whose life was drained away on book three. Glory and fame are fleeting and many an artist whom we revere today where unknown in their own day. What we see is the product of their spiritual journey of creativity and we enjoy what they created now because their authors remained true to their art.
Are these the words of someone who isn’t well known and published attempting to mollify myself and others that we are not really total failures? Possibly. However, if I’m right and art is labored over first just to try something new or to stretch out new creative wings free from the prying eyes of others then what have you got to lose? Try your creative soul. Don’t sell that soul to the publishers; keep it safe and sound in your own possession and remain true to it. Then, and only then, once the creativity has been birthed and is ready do you offer it up to a wider world.
Do you have a story of phoenix like rising from the ashes of disillusionment? What is it?
Do you write just to be published or do you write just to write? Why or why not?
phil1861
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When and what was the last thing you created just for the fun of it?
If you can be accused of artist abuse (inner artist, muse, artist child) how and why do you do it?
scribbler 
Submitted Comment:
thank you for the inspirational NL. :]
viper 
Submitted Comment:
Is there a diffrent way to open a story as oppesed to a book or novel? Or are they all hard to figure out how to open. I am finding this difficult to figure out.
No, any beginning is a beginning regardless of the format of the work.
ncblondie
Submitted Comment:
Great newsletter. Too often, I find my inner critic getting in the way of my writing. When I do let my inner child out, I find that those are the pieces I most enjoy doing.
LovelyOne
Submitted Comment:
This struck a lot of cords with me.
Too frequently I berate my inner muse. I often listen to writers who say that they write 2-3 chapters a day when working on their novels ... and I wonder ... am I a REAL writer? I don't do that.
I just can't write like that. Schedule constraints for one, and then my muse is not all that cooperative either. Sometimes it wants to write a poem, sometimes an essay. I work on my novels whenever my muse decides it has something to add to it. I've learned not to force it. It just creates a lot of frustration and I end up with a sub-standard product.
But ... when I hear writers talk like that, I have to keep reminding myself ... I am a writer TOO. Just b/c I can't/don't sit down and write five pages in one sitting, it doesn't mean I'm less serious about writing. I'm still making progress.
Anyway, good information. You really got inside the writer's head.
Take Care,
The Absentminded Professor
grim
Submitted Comment:
Liked this newsletter quite a bit. The style of it seemed to be the antithesis of the topic. It was very thorough, thought-out, and well organized to stress certain points at certain times.
Which is the point I wanted to make, one you might be addressing in a future newsletter, but I thought I'd bring it up now: Letting your inner writer play is an essential to coming up with original characters and situations, but when the time comes to cage those fireflies, you need your logical brain just as much. The best stories, I find, are the ones that allow both halves of the brain to contribute in equal parts. Let those ideas fly, and then later make sure every single one is blinking on and off simultaneously, choreographed with precision.
writeone
Submitted Comment:
You know, it's funny, the thing I enjoyed doing was reading the dictionary, or the tired set of Encyclopedia Brittanica's my parents had in a glass-front bookcase which had seen too many coats of paint. Thanks for reminding me why I love to write ... and why I love for others to read the words I birthed onto sterile, white paper.
By the way, it snowed about three inches last night. Today's sun threatened the inviting white ... but my kids were begging. Yes, I played in the snow today. I didn't slay any dragons and I certainly wasn't rescued by my knight in shining armor, but I felt free again.
Tonight, I gain freedom on the wings of words.
writeone
writeone
Submitted Comment:
I have perused the market guides and often see regulations concerning genre. I understand genre means a type, or category: for example: romance, horror, comedy, mystery, etc.
But if a publisher is listed the following way, what does it mean?
"Fiction: Literary, short story collections, novels. No genre."
I mean, doesn't everything basically fit into a genre? Or has it been too long since I attended a lit class?
Tehanu
Submitted Comment:
A very encouraging newsletter - thanks for sharing!
I cannot remember the last thing I created simply for fun. I tend to plan and strategize far too much. I should work on that.
jessdavin
Submitted Comment:
I'm not sure I'm neglecting my muse as much as my muse is manipulating me. Like a controlling boyfriend, I find my writing constantly taking over my thoughts and time. As a result, I'm writing a ton, but my chores don't get done and my schoolwork also suffers. Apparently my muse doesn't "do" assigned papers.
vivacious 
Submitted Comment:
What a wonderful, timely newsletter! I have been struggling with my own lack of creativity, and now I know fear has been holding me back.
But I have to go now. It's playtime!
Areida is a Pita
Submitted Comment:
Wow! What a great newsletter. I chastise myself frequently when I don't write regularly, telling myself I'm lazy and I need to stop playing around with freewrites and get to some real plotting so I can be published before I go gray. There are times when my writing is forced, stiff, and unrealistic: usually when I'm making myself write and don't want to at all. But then there are times when the words seem to flow from my fingers and onto the screen, and after rereading what I've written, I wonder how I ever came up with that. And when that happens, I'm happy. My spirits lift, and to me, that is playing. I've never thought of my "muse" as a child, but this newsletter has convinced me that perhaps that mindset could aid me when I'm faced with writer's block. I'm still a teenager, and I often try and force myself into maturity. Thanks for the reminder that we're all still kids at heart.
~Areida
essence of thought
Submitted Comment:
Hello to "the Pookie",
It is an interesting newsletter you have written here. It makes the one think of Writing in a different and special way, though I think that writing for public have to be taken more seriously. But what you have said is true for this makes a writer overcome his fears and overflow in his writing.
Thanks again an keep going :)
humorous_sage
Submitted Comment:
I always have fun when I sit at the keyboard. Writing is fun. Poetry is fun. Make believe is my favorite game.
humorous_sage
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For Authors: February 15, 2006 Issue [#883]
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