The Subtlety of Distinction

As writers, we are afforded a breadth of opportunity which must, in order to fulfill it's purpose, exist outside of the practical. In daily life, we manage the various functions attached to maintenance & survival. Consequence for neglecting these requirements is unique & invariably direct—if we do not sleep, we eventually become deranged. Writing offers a unique opportunity to skip the practical & allow life to be explored beyond the systemic.

For those of us who chose to write about history, the editorial approach to all creative work is tantamount in determining how actual events will be restructured o the page. We ought to research exhaustively, reading, then comparing all available materials already in publication, all manner of reference to a subject we have selected for exploration. It logically follows that the greater the store of knowledge we strive to acquire through careful research, then the more applicable the content we add to a chosen subject. Knowledge derived from previous research is essential to this form of writing & the historian with lazy habits will soon be exposed for their lack of scope.

Yet the page can be seductive & writers who have chosen to set fictional narratives within a sequence of actual events, these writers have the challenge of imagining a story occurring within the discernible facts of recorded history. The greater the range of detail available to a curious reader, the more authentic the exposition in their imagination. Writers of historical fiction spend years researching a given period & as more & more of the subtleties of a particular time frame are discovered, the narrative generated from this educated imagination is infused with precise condition.

                                           

The greater an accuracy imported from careful research, the more accessible the landscape of a fictional narrative. The combination of actual & imagined emerges as a sparkling example of how the imagination can be cultivated to construct an environment whereby the writer operates within clearly defined perimeters, yet is able to devise fictional narrative threads which exist within that historical framework. Anachronism is glaring—there were no computers in the Nineteenth Century & any attentive reader will balk at a similar suggestion.

For historical work to function properly, the narrative must correspond to rational understanding.

Not so simple to recreate is the ethical landscape, where characters draw their fictionalized paths of

reason & conditions of motive. How tempting it can be to re-interpret history through the prism of contemporary understanding.

A brave writer wanting to understand the rise of Nazism in the Second World War will soon discover the potential for offense in whatever editorial choices they settle upon. In this example, the question unsatisfactorily determined in the Nuremberg trials still has people wondering today exactly what did the German people know of the Holocaust being carried out in their midst? A simple intention, suggesting one position or it’s opposite can so easily ignite a magnificent reaction, from either side of the argument.

The desire to understand more fully can lead a writer into re-molding actual events into a sequence where the reader is encouraged to suspend judgment & empathize along the lines of recorded history which has been determined by careful & calculated editing of available documentation. What is included, albeit shrewdly, can suggest that the story has been altered in some way to allow the creator of a fictionalized tale the opportunity to provoke debate which might not have been possible at the time the actual events played-out. Fictionalized history then becomes a carefully manicured garden, designed to showcase only what is complementary to editorial choices.

Is there an ethical responsibility when re-visiting volatile history? Should we bother to raise questions which have already been thoroughly answered? Should an imagination be free to invent the conditions for a re-interpretation of pain & loss? Can the writer’s imagination provoke a fresh approach to the resolution of actual events? How can we ensure pure fidelity to the sensitivity surrounding events which contained years of suffering?

                                         
{Images by Arthur Dove}

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}                      

Ethical Transference

Every writer, whether actively battling through the stations of an unfolding manuscript or swimming in the formative waters of initial contemplation, this creative mind is governed by a code of ethics. The imagination, that mysterious loom is set loose within what we consider to be all that is light or dark. Working within the solitude of our own studies, that imagination is coaxed, it is encouraged to generate fresh direction for the narrative we strive to capture.

Eventually, we come to a stage in development along the writing process where we must begin to scramble. Editors need to be approached, proof readers tolerated & then finally a publisher established to convert a manuscript into something which can find a group of readers.

As the circle expands & different minds contribute to what has previously been an intimate & private arrangement, ethics which have assisted in shaping the story are brought within the range of certain challenges. It is at this juncture when we discover how ardently we have challenged ourselves whilst working inside the watery womb of creation. Have we somehow become arrested in this solitude? Has privacy allowed us to become complacent or presumptuous in the narratives crafted?

The page is the ultimate teacher & the harder we bear down, in our own unique & lonely apprenticeships, determines the degree of success achieved once the manuscript begins to face the challenges of scrutiny.

This invented world we have cobbled together has its own particular morality. We may have attempted to refract back the daily plane as perceived or experienced. Perhaps we have raised the mundane up to contain the potential we believe possible to achieve? Standards of humanity are determined & trust between our invented characters allows the reader access to the moral tone we have cultivated.

The conflicts endemic to any taut story will correspond to the perimeters of envy or compassion the characters face. These challenges transfer to the reader—this is how we connect. Once the writer’s imagination enters, then initiates the imagination of a reader, we are powerless to pull back that combustion. The role of creator is fulfilled & we might only hope the foundations of ethical tradition we raised the narrative upon will contain all desired subtleties. It is this shading which resonates within the perimeters of the world we have established.

It is for a reader to determine the success of this endeavour.

{Paintings by Max Ernst }

The Seduction of Impersonation

A brave writer has an enormous field of play. When crafting fiction, the creative mind starts somewhere near that blank slate of unlimited potential and is free to devise and invent, encumbered only by combinations of a focused intellect and regressive morality. We are to generate the plausible from within the implausible; we may venture where we dare.


What can we learn by an immersion of the writer’s mind into the expanse of a character born from that same imagination? Through the craft of developing a fresh perspective, we are permitted the opportunity to be what we are too timid to explore in actuality or we might correct an injustice as it has challenged us in regular life. In this fashion, writers approach the work of actors — we are given license to explore both morality and causation, without the threat of direct consequence. From the familiar safety of a desk, we merge time and again with the gusto of a desire to create and explore.

For the full potential of an ardent imagination to be activated into a coherent competence, the writer merges with what it is they wish to emulate. Once the desire to sculpt language into exposition has hooked the focus of intent, what novice writer has not imagined themselves capable of literary skill far beyond present ability? We read, then recognize and begin to understand the power that writing can convey — so it goes. This desire to share in the act of so direct a form of communication spins momentum forward and we imagine ourselves following along the same precipice as those we have been illuminated by.

It is mandatory growing pain: incapable of recognizing the folly of a well-intended impersonation, the exhilaration of early expression is fulled by the surfacing of nascent contents from a newly activated, darting imagination. This emotional overture belies lucid reflection; we believe in these times that we have matched what we have so admired.

Eventually, the scrape of time exposes this early vanity. That ecstasy attached to what we first created almost always breaks down as we climb the ladder of moving that raw, bewildered and flawed work towards a reader. Every serious author knows that sting of re-visiting a manuscript they once believed to shine in brilliance but on second inspection emerges as too hackneyed and presumptuous to be rescued.

If the beginner becomes lost in the belief they have achieved instant brilliance, the cruel awakening from this deception might leave a scar. It is only through the humility which accompanies wisdom that reassures us we have not failed out-rightly but only made the error of over-reaching.

In review, we learn that the imagination has seduced us into believing that time alone in the creative cloister will circumvent the pains of sincere apprenticeship.

{Artwork by Odlion Redon}

Mirrors Within Mirrors

Why is the personality of a writer important? What can we hope to add to the experience of reading a book by knowing private details of the life of the individual who crafted it? By explaining the genesis of why they chose to elaborate one unique narrative into the complexity of a novel, can we expect to pick up moral cues that will assist in enriching a reading experience? Is the author truly the best person to amplify their own themes & sub-text anyway?

It might prove serviceable to assume that the serious writer is in possession of a depth of intent to communicate & also has cultivated the powers of observation & expression in order to make this ambition manifest. While conversation is liable to spontaneous whimsy & the foibles of a defensive ego, the written word is carefully etched, then refined to ensure that the desired intent is achieved. The writer’s message can be contained & monitored when assembled through the tools available to the craft of writing & hours — days; years dedicated to the perfecting of this vehicle for self- expression are mandatory.

The written word is fortified by a permanence which oratory cannot promise. The writer is permitted time to reflect, then revise; a speaker is vulnerable to the pitfalls of generating their point in the claustrophobic present. Print demands an obsessive preoccupation with translating the mechanics of an activated imagination, which is then passed down through the waiting intellect. Symbol is converted into words which must permit themselves to be inserted into a rational narrative, so as to not garishly draw attention to the echoes the symbol is intended to convey. Whether the writer is aware of the full potentiality of their symbols is of little matter, for they are only one half of the equation which formulates the passage of this communication.

Ultimately, it is the reader who is illuminated by any depth of expression & a convincing argument could be formulated to demonstrate that the author is not the more qualified in the intimate relationship between author & reader, to receive the full potential of impact. The personality which arranges for the imagination of an ambitious writer to craft a satisfactory piece of work is vulnerable to influences which the neutrality of a curious reader is not.

Original intent is activated in stages, in compounded layers. The personality of the creator of this landscape, conceived in any number of forms, is superfluous to the success of this exchange. Of singular importance is what has been captured within print.

“ She wants to hide away & yet she wants to control pieces of the universe. I suppose that is what is characteristic of writers. They want to be hermits & they want to imagine being directors of some vast stage of humanity.”
                                                               ~ Cynthia Ozick 

                                         
{All artwork by Hannah Hoch}

An Intricate Balance

    The Yang Energy = a compulsion always pulling towards action, in division, separation, difference

The Yin Energy = a compulsion always pulling toward being, merging, union, oneness

The work of a writer is a balance between polarized forces. On one extreme, we have the task of creation. We are required to pull from imagination the unique; material which distinguishes our vision yet also moves the narrative forward, towards the conclusion or the final layer of what it is we strive to express.

On the other end is a demonstration of will. We have the task of weaving all of the isolated units together, into coherent form. In order for our words to knit acceptably, into a focus recognized as literature, we must harmonize & connect all of the many particulars so that the writing is bound together in cohesion & coherence.

This merger of disparaging units can be accomplished through action which compels the drive of our story—through the flow of place, from one geographical setting to the next & if we are successful in this, we might also harmonize concepts of theme & the images which might serve as a symbolic interpretation of the narrative. Neither force can operate without the other, to either compel or unify. It is this delicate dance between the two polarized objectives which defines any success as an effective storyteller.

The art of literature is what all serious writers strive towards. It is that fusion of the poetic, the symbolic & captured in erudite economy of specific language. This fusion of technique raises the work so that it might be experienced on several different levels of interpretation. Yet the question remains: how is this achieved?

Perhaps it will be helpful to consider what those deemed successful at the craft of writing have to say on the subject? Their generosity in deconstructing their own personal mechanics might offer a unique glimpse into some of the secrets involved in mastering the art of storytelling.

Artwork by

Awakening

'Awe is what moves us forward.'                                       - Joseph Campbell

As writers, we struggle through many challenges particular to mastering our craft. The rites of passage are lonely, often dull & utterly necessary. We have excluded ourselves from countless social occasions; we resist all forms of distraction in order to negotiate with the vast scope of an activated imagination. To obtain a lasting view of what the deeper parts of subjective wisdom & experience wish to express to a readership, this is the rite of passage.

Eventually—the reward for effort begins to emerge. Something from deep inside experience & will; something which has greater resonance than the affects of everyday life manifests as proof of this evolution. We are overcome by the awesome nature of our own distinct creative process.

Once we have typed the final period of a closing sentence, then sat back to begin to understand what has just been accomplished, a feeling of transcendent satisfaction emerges. This wave of intuition & insight lifts us from the earlier position of nose-pressed-against-a-whirling grindstone of effort & we are permitted to realize that we have indeed, created something comprehensive, something wholly unto itself.

There is dignity in this expanded awareness; something supreme has been realized & this exhilaration is justly experienced. Imagination has not only responded to repeated requests for insight but has done this in a most mysterious way, with so little conscious effort. There is a cohesiveness to the work we have brought-forth & this unity would not have been likely if we had been operating from the exclusive territory of a conscious will to power.

                                         

Some confounding mechanism in the mind has surprised & provided; the culmination of aspiration, experience & effort has brought forth the fruit we yearned to harvest.

{Artwork by Hélène Druvert}