Monday, May 30, 2011

Art & Fear

I flatter myself I'm not wholly chicken. I do think it takes a certain amount of bravery to be an artist of any sort. You have to be willing to expose yourself in all kinds of ways. I write things, sometimes, thinking oh, no. I shouldn't write that- people will think this character is me and that I'm a weirdo (not saying I ain't, but still, who wants that for their grand epitaph?). Or worrying that a piece of writing makes me look immature or conceited or obsessed. Or just exposes me as a crappy writer...

I look into Bayles and Orland's Art & Fear from time to time, when I forget what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. At the end of the day (read: at the end of my life) I can't guarantee that anything I will have written will be meaningful to anyone, so I might as well make sure it's meaningful to me. I'm making use of the vacuum, I guess. Usually, I accuse the vacuum of being guilty of giving me so much space that I lose the plot, quite literally. The upside is that I have enough space to decide, firmly, if I'm willing to stand behind a piece long before anybody else has seen it. Happy writing, Bloglodytes. Keep pecking away at those keyboards.

5 comments:

Whirlochre said...

Dredging beyond the artifice traps monsters in nets, which is why it's always easier to glisten in the shallows.

If it helps, I have absolutely no idea what this means but I trust it to mean something

Sylvia said...

Or worrying that a piece of writing makes me look immature or conceited or obsessed. Or just exposes me as a crappy writer...

Yeah, I certainly know this one.

I've not heard of Art and Fear - is that a recommendation?

Mother (Re)produces. said...

I don't know whirl; sounds like a thinly veiled reference to the Rocky Horror Picture Show to me. Could that be it?

Sylvia,that's a good question. There are many things I like about the book, and things in the first sections (how fear of yourself and fear of others can sabotage you) that to me were worth the money. There's some stuff later in the book that gets a bit soggy wishy washy fluffy philosophical, or is just plain irrelevant for me at the moment. For people like me who grew up having their self-confidence systematically undermined, I think it's worth a read. Buy it used? Borrow it? Library?

fairyhedgehog said...

You're braver than I am. I'm currently hooking away with a crochet hook far more than I'm writing!

Mother (Re)produces. said...

Perhaps.
On the other hand, by the end of our respective lives, you will have produced a pile of useful, snuggly items, and I will have produce a pile of paper that my grandkids have to recycle.