What it takes to be a good writer?
I think that question still stands before me and shines with the same red flashing light it did at the beginning of 2009 (right at the beginning of the 1st semester) - ‘what it takes to be a great writer’ was the big bug back then. When I read now what I have written then, I think that I have pretty much covered all the qualities a writer needs to sit on the table with and do the work: courage, devotion, time, creativity/imagination; though my interpretation of them might have gone through a slight transition.
It takes courage to actually write something and post it somewhere, being facebook even, for people to see and even dare to critique. A hard thing to do, but not impossible. Everything a writer writes is in one way or another personal so to share it with an audience its scary. The thought of someone not liking it, the fear of rejection. The overcoming of this fear requires courage, so I am giving it a firm wooden chair and placing it in front of me on the table, so I can stare into its eyes at the end of a work and know it is there to help me take the chance.
The devotion part can be a bit tricky, now I place it on the same glass chair as time. Indeed it takes a lot of time, more like consumes all the time you have, and even more, without even bothering to check the clock. It often ends up in burned dinners or missed phone-calls, or as the White Rabbit (Alice in Wonderland) says, being ‘late for a very important date’.
On a tree-like chair, sitting next to me sits the creativity/imagination. I like this chair, it has all the colours of the rainbow in all the weirdly twisted branches and points in every directions onward, most of all upward. I believe it’s appropriate for such a wild beast as ones creative power/imagination. Why am I /-ing the two? Well the way I see it they are not all alike and yet all the same. Yes, pretty similar and equally important but not quite the same. Often when I write, and let my imagination run loose, I need my creativity when I edit the piece. I am distinguishing between the two by placing the creativity next to the crafting of the written form of the imagination.
Around the courage in front of me I have a lot of small chairs and they are filled with books, newspapers, magazines, brochures, articles, journals and written materials I still need to get to. Everything from J. Gardner, passing S. Mayer, taking a turn to a Tolkien classic, and after a few children books, sport and beauty magazines crashing into a D. Brown. Why? Because as much as a good read is important, some bad will hopefully help to avoid this kind of mistake in the future.
Observation. A conversation on the bus, an outfit in the store you think no one sane will ever wear, meeting an old friend, a loss, a win, a smile, a heartbreak. Observation. There are thousands of stories waiting to be found all around us, being fictional or factual. Stories lurking around in the dark corners of ones imagination, stories hiding in the shadows of the backstreet alleys, stories dancing proudly in front of us oh a bright day, a different story in every snowflake, in each ray of sunshine that touches the face of the Earth… and quite possible in space as well.
To be able to see all those stories, to touch them and dare to explore them, to get to the heart of each one of them. To create, master and enjoy what is inside your own soul and dare to share it on a piece of paper with the rest of the world.