Self as Foundation of Writing

Mark Antony Rossi

Mark Antony Rossi

Writing was once a painful affair. If it were akin to intimacy I would have elected celibacy. What's the point of enriching ennoblement if it involves eternal entrapment? True writing like true love demands honesty as a foundation and freedom as its construction materials. Anything less is dysfunctional drama on par with a telenovela.

Writers frequently overlook sincerity as a major ingredient in the craft of literature. There is no literary version of method acting to experience the reality of what you are attempting to portray. But pure imagination is not enough to drive a muse to its creative zenith.

The lesson is similar to knowledge needing wisdom to reach its fullest potential; therefore, without an active motivator writing is merely a collection of words. The breadth of passion motivates words to leap off pages and into multi dimensions capable of interacting with long term memory. Your imagination will not suffice if you have not harnessed the reader's psyche. For it is their imagination that completes the circuit of comprehension.

The best writing has a distinctive voice. A voice far from word manipulation and closer to soul identification. The better you know yourself the braver your voice resonates in this fractured landscape. Philosophers preach about knowing thy enemy as if such knowledge guarantees victory. I speak from experience: maxims mean zero if your gun has no bullets. And you cannot survey a battlefield until you learned how to command confidence in a device called Self.

Self is the partisan player propelling the best of writing. Yet this open secret is neglected by schools of writers believing attention more valuable than authenticity. By avoiding confrontation, they miss the mirror and drift off composing slogans for slouches and drivel for drones and settle for pale imitations usually thoughtless and always disposable.

We remain higher thinking creatures in this world if we stay true to ourselves and burn originality into the DNA of our creations. Any digital algorithm can throw together letters and numbers for a special effect. Only the human writer spilling forth its full self is capable of stopping the stars from blinking. And in that instant appreciate the Milky Way through the eyes of a creator instead of the lips of a imitator.

Setu, July 2018