create with sand

[image error]sand drawing, bunky’s pickle, flickr

One quick note about a concern for keeping sole possession of one’s creative work or ideas, especially where it concerns publishing online. While it would be upsetting to me if I found someone had whole cloth lifted something of mine and claimed it, it is not the worst thing in the world either.

I took myself off of an online fiction sharing site where my book cover and title were almost completely lifted and copied with someone else’s byline. But since having had time to think about it, I realize that the best part of writing or doing anything creative is the simple fact of having written the first of your particular piece, cover, title or even simply the act of putting someone else’s work with your work which I do here with others’ photography.

Creating is chased by many for the pleasure of feeling at least for a moment you have created something new. Later you may realize how much of it was inspired by something read, something watched or heard. There is a time to realize all creating is a communal effort, whether we are conscious of it or not. We have been influenced by others in our lives, by things we have experienced, read, witnessed. But for a time what we have made feels newly minted and this is a terrific feeling.

Someone copying your stuff does not rob you of that initial pleasure of having created something new to you, or brought something into existence that didn’t seem to be in existence before. To me, it is the whole reason for creating. I have known writers to be completely caught up in the sense of being robbed. I understand. It is theft of property. But why give someone else the satisfaction of taking from your happiness as a writer, taking what you yourself have shown is worth someone’s trouble to take?

Creating is giving, to yourself, to others. It is letting go. There is no controlling whether someone will take your work, whether anyone will even read it, whether it will be treated fairly. But you give anyway.

I have had more than one person say creative writing and storytelling is merely navel gazing, self-centered escapism. Ok. All I know is people have always needed stories. It is a communal act of giving and receiving. I am not sure a civilization has ever imploded from a plethora of compelling stories.

To keep on creating no matter what is to grab for that brass ring again, to reach for that thing no one can steal. It is to be vulnerable, constantly. It is to create your design with sand. And in these current dark days it is to practice a form of mental health hygiene, to communicate across chasms, to join invisible communities.

If all I have is a notebook and pen, I know I can still create stories which may some day find an audience. Or I might be my only audience. It is a humanizing practice to write on paper, to paint on cave walls. It fulfills a primal need. It connects us to our past and to our future.

Never let anyone convince you you are doing something irrelevant when you write or when you encourage others to write. And never let acquisitive folk steal the joy of having felt the joy of that first creation, having created something new. Sure an editor may tell you it is like a lot of things he or she reads, but you still have that feeling of having created. That feeling contributes to the motivation to be on a constant hunt for that new story to share around the fire, with your own embellishments, your own angle. It is special to you and you have helped create it by participating in your art.