There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized. Or even cured.
—Robert A.
Heinlein
There is something in a writer that cannot be removed; it can only be released. That is to say, nobody can take by force what a writer has. Rather, writers must give up whatever they are holding inside themselves. And they must do so willingly.
At the same time, writers themselves have little control over what they write. Sure, they can go back and edit and re-edit and even rewrite from scratch. But the things a writer writes come from an unconscious core of her being. The conscious level of the act of writing is only word choice and presentation – it's an attempt to accurately describe that unstated idea, the undeveloped prompt. The irony, of course, is that idea itself can never fully be described.
That irony never stops the writer, though. As Heinlein says, writing is an uncivilized act. It is savage and unfiltered, and the writer cannot ever be subdued. She can be stopped or even killed, but so long as she has the power to write, nobody can control what emerges from her pen. Only she can suppress herself by not writing.
This is wonderful, because it means that writing is a revolutionary act. It is defiant and individualistic and unconventional. Writers cannot be tamed, nor should they try to tame themselves – rather, they should unleash themselves. All new writers have to learn what it means to let themselves write without obstruction. While some are able to unleash themselves once or maybe twice in their lifetimes, many never figure out how to do so. A handful have been able to do it repeatedly.
What have you been suppressing in your own writing? What can you unleash today?
Quote from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein
Background Image: Pixabay
Monday Morning Writing Motivations
- May 14: Writing to Perfection
- May 7: Create Yourself
- April 24: Wake Up and Write!
- April 17: Benjamin De Casseres
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