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.
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