If you want to write you must have faith in
what is. You must respect what exists, because it has earned the right to exist.
Of all the possibilities, of all the things that might have existed, this thing
exists and you should write about it. Be fearless. Explain nothing. Justify
nothing. See things as they are and write about them. Don’t waste your creative
energy trying to make things up. Even if you are writing fiction, write the
things you see and know.
If you want to write you must have faith in
yourself. Faith enough to believe that if a thing is true about you, it is
likely true about many people. And if you can have faith in your integrity and
your motives, then you can write about yourself without fear. With the right
kind of faith, you can be at peace with people knowing things about you and
passing judgment on you. And they will judge you. Those who will never dare to write and who will
never bare their souls in words will pass judgment on you. And the more hidden
they are behind masks of lies and pretense, the more eager they will be to turn
the spotlight on you. You will be a scapegoat. You will speak our sins, and they
will lay hands on you and drive you into the wilderness.
This is old school. This is primitive. This is
the way things are. We look for someone to bear the burden of our sins, then we
drive them away so that we don’t have to look at them and can go back to our
sinning with peace of mind.
But if you can live with all of this, if you
can let people know things about you, keep your eyes on the ball, and keep
moving forward, living hard and straight and writing about it, then you can be a writer.
And maybe a writer is something you want to be.
rlp
