oh to be a writer, a real writer!

"I'm not going to tell the story the way it happened, I'm going to tell it the way I remember it."

Narrating our lives through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, blogs...subscribing to our own myth, the myth that we have lives worthy of narrating, worthy of sharing. Seeking the best light in which to present ourselves and enjoying hipstamatic and instagram's zany effects which help erase lines and spots and colour our experiences with the hue of faded, seventies coolness or X-Pro II style. We seek words and images that will connect us to others. We want to be heard and seen in a world where, increasingly, many feel mute and invisible. We want to leave a trace of ourselves, a scattering of breadcrumbs along the path. Follow them and find me...please.

The impetus to write is to impart certain knowledge, whether this is knowledge based in the fictional world created by the writer, or based on authentic information. Either way, the writer has an overriding idea that she or he wishes to convey. And then they seek whatever devices they can to amplify their meaning, win the reader over and get inside their soul. Although the latter is perhaps too intense a desire...

It all starts with an idea. From the initial idea, the writer commits it to paper, or in more modern terms, to the screen, arranging the work in a certain way and finding suitable material with which to express this idea. The text which ensues is an amplification or elucidation of the initial idea. Invention and intention are co-dependent elements in the craft of composition. In inventing a work, or inventing a way to relate auto-biographical adventures, the writer takes the subject matter and uses it to  meet a certain end, to fulfil her or his intention.

Authorial intention is the fundamental requirement in the act of literary creation to which all other elements are subordinate. The creation of a context, or, in other words, the selection of appropriate subject matter, the ordering of material and the use of some fancy footwork literary devices all follow on from the writer's initial mental conception and give form to the idea.

A real writer knows what to do with an idea, or more importantly, can first of all recognise a good idea. A real writer sees the good idea, feels the potential emanating from it, picks it up, turns it over, and then seeks to convey that idea in such a way that the reader can feel the weight of it in their hands and their hearts. A real writer knows the fear of offering their newly clothed idea up to the world for the world to take from it what they will, to love it, hate it, spit it from their mouths. The real writer knows this fear and offers their ideas all the same.

Oh to be a writer, a real writer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLISb4_gIxA