The Literature of Ideas

In the beginning, there is a resolution to write, to tell a story. The empty page waits, sometimes patiently, other times exerting a pressure to begin. The writer sits & from the space cleared within a congested mind—inside the vast laboratory of stored sensory instance, ideas & direction begin to manifest.

All endeavour, whether redemptive, discursive or futile begins with an idea.

Within the gears of creative intellect, emotion & resolve combine to hatch ideas—these are the building blocks of a writer’s craft. These ideas evolve to serve as the foundation which drives intuitive combustion inside the creative centre. This is what the blood gets pumping & imagination enfolds around an idea like a chrysalis, so beginning to massage this fragment of instance for narrative option. What direction does the story need to head? These connections are what form the bridges between the writer's conscious mind & the characters who emerge from this activated imagination. All action within a story stems from some initial idea—that synthesis between creator & created is the reaction which serves to spark a reader's response.

If there were no ideas maturing like plants living in some carefully maintained garden, that world within our story, we would succeed is creating only a vacuum; a morass. Their development is what builds the connective tissue in our characters & what provides the access for the reader into this created world. Ideas are what fuse the psychology of characters together within coherent structure & they define the nature of personalities we strive to establish.

Morality is determined through choice. An idea, whether self-generated or imported from an external source, is what captivate imagination & the thrill of determining potential directs creative focus into the fields of endless possibility. A single idea, clearly & passionately expressed, has potential to ignite a generation.

Literature, so rich in cultivated ideas has the power to transform. Within the space established by the writer’s vision of the world as it could be, combined with the readers' hope that the redemptive factor is worth the trust of consideration afforded the imaginary, paradise might be achieved.

{Painting by Leonora Carrington}