ON WRITING AND AUTHORING
Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” After 5 decades of writing, or more precisely authoring (meaning writing for a specific readership), I feel as if my life is a perfect testament to that. That veil between what I feel compelled to say and what I actually need to say, grows fainter with each passing year. I’ve been asked several times, “About what do you have so much to say?” — admittedly a paraphrase — but still on point, which is, in my mind, another way of asking, “Why would anyone sit around and record life when they could be directly experiencing it?”
Frankly, I’ve no clever, flippant response to Hemingway other than to admit I’ve yet to write or sell as many books as he. Literarily anemia, okay, I’ll also admit to that, having pontificated through the dialog of endless fictional characters over the years. As for having so much to say when, in fact, in crowds of even supportive people I definitely clam up, maybe it’s the anonymity of writing that is so compelling, which, having said that and read earlier today about the attack on author Salman Rushdie onstage, in public, supposedly with security, I’m suddenly not so sure about the anonymity part.
As for why anyone would sit around and record life (fictitious, non-fictitious or “historical novel” in style) in the form of a literary adventurer? Well, it sometimes feels like and often provides a respite from life, which, these days seems anything like author Douglas Adams’ characterization of Earth as “mostly safe.” Personally, I can’t believe how contentious, intolerant and impetuous people have become. Then again, maybe humans have always been. In fact, maybe that’s the long-sought-after definition of what being human actually means across the ages. But I don’t like to believe that. I prefer believing in the immense positive potential of humanity over the “business” of being human within which so many these days seem wrapped.
In the end, whatever the reason, the call to author — to entertain, to record for posterity, to advise generations to come — is powerful and present within, and I more rather “fall into it” than control it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) is available in printed, digital and audiobook formats, and has been purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment.
#RaymondGaynor #DanielSJanik #writer #author #actor #Hemingway #TheEdgeOfMadness #book #ebook #audiobook #Amazon #GooglePlay #AppleBooks #Rushdie #DouglasAdams #human #humanity #manga #animation #movie #film
Frankly, I’ve no clever, flippant response to Hemingway other than to admit I’ve yet to write or sell as many books as he. Literarily anemia, okay, I’ll also admit to that, having pontificated through the dialog of endless fictional characters over the years. As for having so much to say when, in fact, in crowds of even supportive people I definitely clam up, maybe it’s the anonymity of writing that is so compelling, which, having said that and read earlier today about the attack on author Salman Rushdie onstage, in public, supposedly with security, I’m suddenly not so sure about the anonymity part.
As for why anyone would sit around and record life (fictitious, non-fictitious or “historical novel” in style) in the form of a literary adventurer? Well, it sometimes feels like and often provides a respite from life, which, these days seems anything like author Douglas Adams’ characterization of Earth as “mostly safe.” Personally, I can’t believe how contentious, intolerant and impetuous people have become. Then again, maybe humans have always been. In fact, maybe that’s the long-sought-after definition of what being human actually means across the ages. But I don’t like to believe that. I prefer believing in the immense positive potential of humanity over the “business” of being human within which so many these days seem wrapped.
In the end, whatever the reason, the call to author — to entertain, to record for posterity, to advise generations to come — is powerful and present within, and I more rather “fall into it” than control it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) is available in printed, digital and audiobook formats, and has been purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment.
#RaymondGaynor #DanielSJanik #writer #author #actor #Hemingway #TheEdgeOfMadness #book #ebook #audiobook #Amazon #GooglePlay #AppleBooks #Rushdie #DouglasAdams #human #humanity #manga #animation #movie #film
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