Author: strongbluu@gmail.com

When success is demanded, the tongue is silenced; marketing oneself is not the key. The ideas will market themselves. It takes hard work, faith, courage and God’s graceful hand in making history – when men act as the bridge between divine will and what manifests in the world.

My conviction is that, to be a sound person in reasoning, all that which is needed to that end is already God-given to the human who is endeavoring toward achievement.

No personage shall taste the nectar of success except by the accumulation of free-will and fate into a single wholistic system of achievement.

This system comes with endeavor and grit. This system comes with patience and faith. This system comes with courage and the positive human will toward betterment.

Be The bird of Ibrahim A.S. that tried to extinguish Nemrod’s fire: this is the motto of the writing artist. He might feel alone in it, but the symbol is universal. He is thus not alone.

The early people achieved so much. They wrote for life. Today if you have 20 books published, you’re prolific. Well, Ibn Arabi R.A. wrote 200 books and more. My point of preaching this system of endeavor and giving the example of Ibn Arabi R.A. is that we must aspire toward greatness ourselves, knowing we are always going to fall short of the standards our forefathers set for us.

This is humility to know it. If we become arrogant and say that we are equal to our forefathers – and yes, saying that is arrogance – then history will do justice to the arrogant ones by either forgetting them or remembering them as an evil sign.

Thus I write with humility.

The writing stamina is so elusive. If a writing space is welcoming and gives a warm vibe, you can write for a long time there. Otherwise it’s a drag. The quest for prolific achievement is not an easy one. You got to keep moving. The gaze of the world brings its own heavy pressure.

A good writer has strong and reliable shoulders. Literary shoulders. And honesty is admitting that he himself stands and builds on the shoulders of giants.

I once thought that I would be a giant myself. It’s a noble endeavor. I shouldn’t make claims about a noble endeavor because that’s distracting and a way to lose energy. It makes the sacred, profane. If I have to be a giant, I must keep at my work head down on the page and fingers on the keyboard. Put a tape on my mouth so I don’t make a noise either!

I know my good friends read my short-pieces. They show love and appreciation to me. I am happy for the joy it brings to both parties – the reader and the writer.

If I were inspired by the impulse to have a lover, or the impulse to have a blessed child – I would’ve been prolific by now!

Then what am I inspired by? Higher human needs of self actualization? Russian novels? Readers of Russian novelist giants are not inspired per se. Nobody reads those novels as guides to self actualization. People read them to get a better sense of how not to live in a mess. Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground is a classical guide to creating a messy life. So its readers are taking inspiration from opposite elements – to win through removal.

Some die for strength and honor. Some die for mother homeland. Some die for religion. Some die for leaders and great causes. Why do writers die? A writer is an elusive entity. You are nothing yourself yet your writing is all. Not to say nothing is a bad thing, spirituality preaching nothingness is actually a worthy goal: because it is the identity found when nothingness embraced.

Thus I strive for nothingness as a writer.

The blank canvas is nothing to be feared. It’s where the imagination begins and ends. It’s where people are differentiated. It’s where the good, the bad and every hidden shade of the soul are displayed.

My favorite line in literature has been: Beauty shall save the world.

It tells much about human endeavor. Many succeed in doing amazing stuff. I too want to succeed like that. But those who crave success often look everywhere but within. Human beings are expert at missing the mark.

Time & space. Light & ink & energy are what we writers need. What even is our hero-story? We are but the wizards who help other heroes succeed in their lives.

Once a writer wanted a perfect hero. He wrote his story. It lacked the friction of life. Then the same writer wrote a story in which his hero was imperfect – and at the end the hero was just a little less imperfect. Sounds like a good deal for a novel.

My gut feeling says that inspiration arrives in sporadic bursts. So be it. So be it that I am myself, even if imperfectly so.

A good writer has to take risks. His hero should be right in the middle of the action where the risk is. In risk there is beauty of growth. In risk there is truth to be uncovered. In risk the good side of you can shine brighter than your darker impulses. I can’t stay riskless; which is to say, sharing my work with the world is important. Producing new work daily is important.

A paragon is built not in one day but with indefinite diurnal labor.

If I want a paragon, I must not skip a day. Small deeds, but with consistency – beat large inconsistent deeds.

Thus I write.