The Grasshopper #11: Interruptions From the Real World
Creativity is only a piece of the puzzle
Right now we are witnessing an historical event unprecedented in the lives of most of us. I am referring to the epic takedown that is the hearings of the Select Committee Investigating the Events of January Sixth.
My focus here is on the process of writing and generally the creative process. But a big focus of my actual writing is politics, climate, and current events. Real life, in other words.
I’m not a journalist, my pieces are observations and opinion. They are blunt and I try to temper a natural tendency to make them satiric. It’s pretty hard when you are dealing with characters like Donald Trump.
But that is part of the balance that writers must face as storytellers. Finding that balance, whether we are writing about today’s events or a fantastical story, is the key to finding your voice and style.
The source of that voice and style, for me, was coping with my outrage at the events going on in this real world, the vindictiveness and greed that drives our elected officials and a generation of men, mostly white, who put their own interests above those of their own children and grandchildren.
You might call it evil.
Ok, I just intentionally demo-ed that particular voice, because it is so different from what my little band of readers would normally find in The Grasshopper.
It’s one thing to write about the creative process. It’s another to see how you apply it to your passions in this life, right now.
If You Are Not Writing From a Place of Passion, You’re Not There Yet
Yes, there will be a quiz
Just kidding. My two main writing pursuits right now are the stuff I publish mostly daily on Medium.com and this newsletter, which has been on a twice a week schedule more or less. So, you might say they are steady gigs, though the newsletter is a labor of love not money, for the time being.
Steady gigs mean you do your thing whether you are up for it or not. I learned this from playing in bands (there was no bailing out if you weren’t in the mood). And from procrastinating on a book deal in the nineties.
I’d signed a contract to write a book on sales and deliver the first draft in three months, but I put it off until I realized I had only one month to write the thing. Fortunately I had written an extensive outline so it was possible. And I made my deadline, though it was not something I’d recommend.
This past week, hell, this past year, have been absolutely bonkers. Ukraine, the economy, nonstop climate weather, and now the January Sixth hearings and the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week by an utterly corrupt, nearly facist Supreme Court majority.
Not to mention the pandemic, which is going strong, although most of us prefer to think we are past it (we are not).
That is a lot of distraction, especially when a good portion of my writing focuses on those political issues. That writing comes from a position of anger and frustration and fear for our democracy, all both passions and potential interruptions when they become too much.
But the writing here at The Grasshopper is also driven by a passion. This is not my ramblings in a journal, it is my attempt to explore a creative life that is evolving rapidly, in this case the life of a writer.
It has become a cliche to quote Joseph Campbell’s ‘find your bliss’ advice, but that is exactly what we should be aiming for. Not a bliss state where we have checked out, but a bliss state where we have checked in.
You cannot successfully write if you are not in pursuit of that ideal on some level. Yes, it would be great to be cranking out amazing fiction or insightful observations daily, but it does not work that way for anyone.
I’m averaging about one thousand words daily, which is quite a lot. Like everything else, it follows Pareto’s Principle that 80% will be less good than the remaining 20%. And my daily and weekly publishing schedule means I only know what readers find interesting after the fact.
You can’t second guess yourself or predict what will go viral. You just have to find that place where you write without too much concern for how good it is and that requires passion, even in the face of that anger and frustration.
Following your bliss turns out to be a lot more like work than doing some forest bathing in an idyllic glen filled with dappled sunlight. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting.” - Katherine Hepburn
“You are what you do. If you do boring, stupid, monotonous work, chances are you'll end up boring, stupid, and monotonous.“ - Bob Black
“My mother said to me, "If you become a soldier, you'll be a general, if you become a monk you'll end up as the pope." Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.“ - Pablo Picasso
Picasso, besides being one the greatest painters of all time, was an endless source of great quotes. I once had a book of them that I think was called Picasso on Picasso that someone compiled. Thanks for reading!