PASSION, OH YEAH
As a writer, one of the first things one should ask is why — why write? After all, It’s a lonely path to go down, booby -trapped with wrong turns, false starts; and disappointment. I recall one writer, Pirsig I think, who fought the depression of yet more refusals from publishers, by papering the room in which he wrote, with them. As he progressed with this, although a knock-back was still a knock-back, at least he had another piece of wall-paper. See, you have to be brave to write — or at least arrogant enough to believe that what you write has value. Truth is, it is not necessarily so. So early on, to survive you have to work at and develop two things; a thick skin, and merciless self- appraisal. George Orwell suggested a third; dish-washing skill. He wrote ‘Down and out in London and Paris’ surviving for the most part on dish-washing in restaurants. What we call now a dish-pig. Apart from that, it‘s a must -read for any writer who thinks he or she is doing it tough. It is my personal favourite of Orwell’s work. So why did he write? Because he had a passion to do so. And that is the answer every writer must have. Passion. Because to write for any other reason is doomed to disaster.
And this passion can have many beginnings. — and outcomes. An early passion for ‘natural science’ led Darwin to put together his magnum opus — ‘The origin of Species’.
Er — and Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, no doubt with equal passion.
On a personal level, most of my early life was spent exploring the world of visual art — for many years as a sculptor in stone, bronze, steel, wood. The single-minded passion of this life, far outweighed the financial considerations — or lack of. Later, I turned more and more to painting, exploring the possibilities of the two-dimensional medium of expression. Writing sort of crept up on me, around the same time. I don’t feel any different about these modes of creative expression; the passion driving the obsession is always the same.
A friend once said to me: ‘Sometimes, when a painting is really beginning to come together, You feel that you have surpassed yourself — you feel like a god.’
I don’t think anyone ever put it better.
At the high-point of any creative endeavour, the creator achieves a high, I believe a heightened awareness level, which is more addictive than any drug. So despite any problems, any crisis looming, financial, familial, career path — the passion will win every time. Creative passion, once out of the Pandora’s Box, is nigh impossible to be denied.
