Saturday, June 22, 2013

The Leap





We so often hear writers exalt “Discipline” as the mitigating factor for whether they meet with success or disappointment in their craft. It is the power of a will activated that facilitates an act of writing—this is the primary engine driving the power of a pen. Yet is it not trust which ultimately leads to the treasure of work that is joyous & surprising? Is it not the leap we take in pursuing what cannot be known for certain?

If imagination is to inspire, then guide us through the process of creating lucid writing, we must give it the trust required to not only build a foundations but also the form & structure of design.
It is this trust in a process which proves to sharpen with experience; it is imagination fueled by faith.



Trust can prove a demanding mindset. If inter-woven with the expectations of doubt, it might wander. As imagination begins to unravel pieces of a compelling narrative, all we are required to do is believe this will continue. We must relyon inevitability yet are so often compelled to impose upon this process.


Painters understand this trust, this working backwards to fill negative space with shape & colour. Though an overall impression may not have emerged, they continue plodding & applying material, confident in eventual coherence. Painters can cheat no more than writers. Doubt will cause the impulse to manufacture random connections & this can spoil the purity of what might be accomplished if patience is sustained.


Trust is the secret ingredient which enables the exceptional.



{Images by Dilcia Giron }


Sunday, June 16, 2013

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 }