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But alas, there is a power afoot which disrupts this creative flow.
“All I want to do is write.”
“If I could just get a book published, then I’d be on my way.”
Ever uttered these words? Or similar phrases?
As a writer, when we delve into art of putting words down on a page, we tend to view life through the lens of the right side of the brain. That’s where art occurs. Creative juices flow like a river from that half. Flowers bloom. Butterflies flutter by. The wind snakes its way through the tree tops. The world is our canvas.
To a writer, evil lives within the left hemisphere. That’s where the horrors of math and science and logic lie. Creativeness can never coexist with these plagues of humanity. They are diametrically opposed in every way. Some non-fiction writers seem to think the two can be blended together, but the novelist scoffs at such naiveté.
Then, one day, the writer becomes a published author. The goal of “all I ever wish to do is write” seems well within his or her grasp now. Left-brained people send this author a thing called a contract. It is some legal agreement to satisfy the ones who have succumbed to the dark side. All they see is numbers, profit margins, and marketability. The author views these things as roadblocks to creative freedom. A necessary evil.
It’s not long before the now published author is asked to market said book. “These left-brained hucksters are simply trying to build their empires. All I want to do is write! That pure, innocent act of placing words in a select order to cause my kindred, right-brained spirits to jump for joy at the sheer awesomeness of my imagination.”
However, the shadowy secret of the dark side has been lurking all around the author. It’s been crouched in the branches of the beautiful trees the author paints with his/her “wordbrush.”It’s been swimming under the surface of the rhetorical river pieced together by the author’s prose. The left-brained have kept it hidden. They obscured the author’s view. They waited until the right time, when the right-brained author was at his/her weakest, most vulnerable point. They waited until the author was sitting in front of a contract. The pen of publication, like a tractor beam, snagged the author’s hand, dragging him/her into the fold without a whimper.
Before the author knew it, he/she was partnered with people who are more concerned with numbers, profit margins, and marketability.
Now, fully embroiled in this thing called a publishing relationship, the wretched, left-brained lowlifes placed further demands on the author. Facebook author pages must be created. Twitter accounts need to be launched. Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Hootsuite…to the author, the words of left-brained sound like the languages spoken in a bar on Tatooine.
The author feels like he/she has been sucked into a vortex—The black hole of business. All that awaits is the face-to-face meeting with the Emperor himself, informing the author he feels the author’s anger.
And we all know where anger leads, don’t we? Pain. The pain of sending out tweets and being a member of LinkedIn. Then comes the suffering. The author buying his/her own Facebook ads. Traveling a hundred miles away from home to sign books for people he/she doesn’t know. Telling novice authors who don’t market their books that he/she “finds their lack of faith disturbing.”
It’s then, in that moment, when the author realizes he/she has succumbed to the dark side of writing. The author is now a small business owner.
It’s inevitable, my right-brained friend. Don’t fight it. Embrace the left brain. Otherwise, end up on Dagobah, living in a hut, all by yourself, you will. Hmmm?
To see this article on the Seriously Write website, click on the following link: The Dark Side of Writing.
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