What is a life to write mean? Are we to "color within the lines" and hope we all reach our goal one day? Or can we simply break the rules every once in awhile without being caught?
Writing has been used as a means of free-thinking, a form of self-expression. Creative expression at that honestly. So many guidelines exist within the realm of writing that we often, even as new authors, become so entangled within it that we just simply lose our minds and decide to either give up entirely or put a long halt or hiatus to our current projects! Sometimes, breaking the rules, (even though heretically designed by generations past), can be a great thing for us. Like I said, even for the newer writers.
In this day and age, we all have lost sight of what is really there and what really isnt there. Its about monetary gain and not respectable gain. What I mean by that is - Society everywhere have grown accustom to the sake of seeking monetary influence/gain from the realm of Authorship instead of taking writing seriously as our past generations have. Writing, as I said above, has been used as a means of self-expression, free-thinking, creative expression, creating worlds beyond our understanding yet they understand us through the written word. Through the black ink permanently marked by the hammer of the keys on a keyboard or the led on our pencils or ink in our pens.
The world of writing in the last ten years have only but started slipping away from the very fabric from whence it came from. The ideaology of writing, the purpose of writing, the truth of writing. All being washed away slowly by technological revolutions, educational failings, the (Y) Generation seperating from the (X) Generation. (Why this? Why that?) - However logically constructed a question is - its purpose here carries a whole new meaning. And not a definition of well-deserved proportions.
Why must we seek monetary gain through the use of writing? Realities change every single day such as the National Economy but by there provides no excuse still for the sake of only using writing as a means of monetary gain.
Writing should be used to create worlds beyond our imaginations, beyond our understandings, grab the reader and pull them into the story, let them participate, influence themm, let them see, smell, touch, taste, hear, etc.... and judge only the words on the paper and not the cover itself. Writing is a tool of escapism. Reading is a tool of escapism - yet is the one and only true art of escapism allowed to be applied to our psyche that still holds us and influences us and yet we still prevail with the daily routines of our lives.
Where has all the wonder gone from writing and reading?
Technological revolutions have played a huge part of decreasing local bookstore sales and the presence of readers and writers of all ages. With the invention of Nook, Kindle, Smartphones, iPods, iPads, etc.... there has only been the one word to summarize such a illlogical excuse, "Convenience"! Convenience they say, well, whatever happened to the art of escapism in Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance? So much emphasis can be place on the word of "Convenience" when it comes to both reading and writing. Yet, as they (Y) Generation expands we as Writers and faithful readers have to learn to understand the ever changing world on the business of writng.
And hang on by a thread from the bottom of a huge dollar sign hanging over our heads.
I just read an interesting essay by Ray Bradbury that says the same thing. It is in the book, Zen and the Art of Writing, in the essay "The Joy of Writing." He says...."if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself.
ReplyDeleteYou don't even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is—excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health."