The Impact of Sacrifice

When we consciously examine the role imagination plays in generating the myriad functions needed to construct a manuscript, some awe is sure to follow. Not only is the creative mind required to generate detailed images & realistic scenes, often woven from unique experience & sense memory, we also require these pieces fit together. Only creative necessity could be so vast & cunning.

A successful writer's imagination provides uniformity in tone & theme; in sequence & the logic of continuity. For the working writer, a hidden loom of potential must operate through conscious will, so often motivated by fickle whims of ego yet required to distinguish a difference; so often forced to survive on the barest nourishment for inspiration—what else would be so loyal to an overall vision of the world?

Is the power of imagination enhanced by acknowledging sacrifices made to release the mysterious currents? Does it factor that we shun family & friends, forgo social engagements or isolate through boredom & disappointment?

Probably not.

We deny life excitement in order to build a more intimate relationship with this baffling mechanism, housed somewhere in the depths of creative ambition. These sacrifices are the obligation which permits access. Sometimes, when I have really struggled to get some good writing down, I am tempted to cherish that work beyond the merits it possesses. I suspect this is because it has cost me something from reserves to create yet this is no guarantee of quality or applicability.

The ego demands recompense & if I do not watch for these indulgences, I will saturate & clutter the text with superfluous guilt of compromise.


{Painting by Marzena Lavrilleux }