Intriguing categorization. My writing is definitely in the memory and reaction world. Even my tiny poems feel more reactionary with the constraints and the seed word.
For a short period in 2021 I played with one sentence stories, maybe this will be the push to explore the imagination again.
"notice how little input the poem, the fairy tale, the epic, the vision, the prophecy, the allegory (all forms with a highly respectable pedigree) have in our lives."-I was surprised to read it; my case is just the opposite. Maybe others are much more like me than it'd seem? What does the early childhood starts with, after all? Poems, and fairy-tales, and epics..
I can only dream of writinffrom inspiration and imagination. It seems so inattainable. When I sleep it comes to me; then I wake up-and it's almost gone.
The writers who can do that are wizards to me. I can't even grasp it. I try to-and it's too high to grasp, like reaching for the stars.
At least I can read them-which might be even better deal:)
Thank you, for this amazing, very interesting essay.
Interesting, i presume most of my writing these days comes first from the imagination, then memory with almost no research. It is curious tho, how inspiration/channelling drags the imagination into its net.... i think?
Interesting post. I broke onto the Substack scene to find a place to put my stuff. They wouldn't settle down till I did.
These words and lines used arise in my head, I guess in my daydreaming imagination, and turned into pieces with some light sculpting from me. The less I interfered or added it seemed the better.
I've only reflected on where the writing comes from recently. The poetry is from the intimacy of my life experienced, with a good dose of 'stilling' myself to hear the words that want to spill out.
And play with them just a little until they beat or sound out how they should. I've been reading lots of authors and writers since I started (Sept '23) and might experiment with essays of thought, which would be a combination of inspiration, ensuring the antenna are up, channelling (or listening to the whispers) and definitely, definitely some research.
To stand on the shoulders of what's gone before and maybe steal... /alchemise thought... like an artist.
First-- this is great, enormously helpful. I’ve archived it for reference.
I wanted to add this about projection--
This may or may not help you, but I have a trick I use for this. My theory is that the most basic human flaw is self-delusion that we use to avoid taking responsibility.
We have different types of self-delusion. This makes it very difficult for people to understand others. In my social circle, I hear again and again “I don’t see how anyone can not see that Trump is awful.”
To me it’s not that hard to understand. The key is to imagine how they are psychologically avoiding responsibility, the narrative they use. We don’t usually realize our own use of narrative for this purpose, so people using a different narrative just seem like idiots or assholes to us.
I suspect that you, being brilliant and perceptive, rely far less than most people on self-delusion to avoid responsibility, which could make it hard for you to imagine ways other people are doing that.
‘Rumplestilskinishly spinning’ - worth the read alone, Sam.
I think there’s merit in the argument that the recent heavily visual bias in media consumption has had two deleterious effects on literature: one, the ‘see don’t say’ mantra has become so tyrannical and reductive that unless a story is a film-in-waiting, it’s not so attractive; two, film frame rates are shredding the patience required for journeying with the written word. Obviously, there’s the guardians of the publishing galaxy too, and the curious problem of the marvellous marketing tail wagging the literary dog.
Of course, these are not necessarily barriers to inspiration and writing just to potential readership, and to making a living, and general motivation levels, and to hope in the future breadth of a profound and nuanced world literature.
Intriguing categorization. My writing is definitely in the memory and reaction world. Even my tiny poems feel more reactionary with the constraints and the seed word.
For a short period in 2021 I played with one sentence stories, maybe this will be the push to explore the imagination again.
I really liked this schema. I have been writing from the imagination, rather than inspiration, much more lately
"notice how little input the poem, the fairy tale, the epic, the vision, the prophecy, the allegory (all forms with a highly respectable pedigree) have in our lives."-I was surprised to read it; my case is just the opposite. Maybe others are much more like me than it'd seem? What does the early childhood starts with, after all? Poems, and fairy-tales, and epics..
I can only dream of writinffrom inspiration and imagination. It seems so inattainable. When I sleep it comes to me; then I wake up-and it's almost gone.
The writers who can do that are wizards to me. I can't even grasp it. I try to-and it's too high to grasp, like reaching for the stars.
At least I can read them-which might be even better deal:)
Thank you, for this amazing, very interesting essay.
Interesting, i presume most of my writing these days comes first from the imagination, then memory with almost no research. It is curious tho, how inspiration/channelling drags the imagination into its net.... i think?
Interesting post. I broke onto the Substack scene to find a place to put my stuff. They wouldn't settle down till I did.
These words and lines used arise in my head, I guess in my daydreaming imagination, and turned into pieces with some light sculpting from me. The less I interfered or added it seemed the better.
I've only reflected on where the writing comes from recently. The poetry is from the intimacy of my life experienced, with a good dose of 'stilling' myself to hear the words that want to spill out.
And play with them just a little until they beat or sound out how they should. I've been reading lots of authors and writers since I started (Sept '23) and might experiment with essays of thought, which would be a combination of inspiration, ensuring the antenna are up, channelling (or listening to the whispers) and definitely, definitely some research.
To stand on the shoulders of what's gone before and maybe steal... /alchemise thought... like an artist.
First-- this is great, enormously helpful. I’ve archived it for reference.
I wanted to add this about projection--
This may or may not help you, but I have a trick I use for this. My theory is that the most basic human flaw is self-delusion that we use to avoid taking responsibility.
We have different types of self-delusion. This makes it very difficult for people to understand others. In my social circle, I hear again and again “I don’t see how anyone can not see that Trump is awful.”
To me it’s not that hard to understand. The key is to imagine how they are psychologically avoiding responsibility, the narrative they use. We don’t usually realize our own use of narrative for this purpose, so people using a different narrative just seem like idiots or assholes to us.
I suspect that you, being brilliant and perceptive, rely far less than most people on self-delusion to avoid responsibility, which could make it hard for you to imagine ways other people are doing that.
‘Rumplestilskinishly spinning’ - worth the read alone, Sam.
I think there’s merit in the argument that the recent heavily visual bias in media consumption has had two deleterious effects on literature: one, the ‘see don’t say’ mantra has become so tyrannical and reductive that unless a story is a film-in-waiting, it’s not so attractive; two, film frame rates are shredding the patience required for journeying with the written word. Obviously, there’s the guardians of the publishing galaxy too, and the curious problem of the marvellous marketing tail wagging the literary dog.
Of course, these are not necessarily barriers to inspiration and writing just to potential readership, and to making a living, and general motivation levels, and to hope in the future breadth of a profound and nuanced world literature.
Really love Sam's writing!
Great essay, I think I fall under inspiration and imagination, with my fantasy novels.