Thursday’s Thoughts on Writing ~ Doubt and Dogma

How much does your mood affect what happens on the page? Will your readers be able to tell? Will your characters?

In the same vein, if you doubt what you’re doing, will it show?

If you approach your writing like you’ve already succeeded, will that confidence carry through to the reader, inspiring their confidence in the words you’ve committed to the page?

Do ‘good’ people write better books than ‘bad’ people. If your intent is to uplift and inspire, does that make your work better than a writer whose goal is to entertain?

Am I pushing the realm of reality too far? Am I not pushing far enough? Is the story too unbelievable, too mundane, too wild, too boring, too emotional, not emotional enough? And who decides all this?

I’m taking my power back as a writer, casting off the fear and doubt, and ridding myself of inhibitions. What’s the worst that can happen?

They (the ‘professionals’ who dole out writerly advice) say you have to know the rules before you break them. They say to write what you know. This is spouted so universally, that it’s pretty much dogma. (dog·ma  noun  ~ A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.) I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I’ve heard/read/been taught this. 

But if that’s so, if this is really true, then are sci-fi writers aliens? Are historical fiction writers time travelers? Are thriller writers spies and mystery writers murderers?

Everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There is no universal truth in any form of art. We each need to decide what works for us. In essence, we need to make our own rules. Then, if we want, we can decide to break them. We need to be courageous and and maybe a little crazy and have some fun.

Have you ever seen a poem by e.e. cummings with perfect punctuation and grammar? But it worked for him, right? He’s still remembered for it today. And, as a very cool side note, which I just discovered while writing this, he died at the hospital in the town I currently live in. I never would have known if I hadn’t decided to shirk convention and create my own rules, which led to me googling the first name that popped to mind as an example of a successful professional who did the same, which I choose to interpret as kismet. I must me on the right write track!