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Seeking Out The Inner Writer by William Whitecloud
You’ll know you’re there when you don’t know where you are
Call me old fashioned, but I still get goose bumps when I hear Bob Dylan sing All Along The Watchtower. The same thing happens when I read William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. It can even happen to me in the middle of a Harry Potter book.
It seems there are some words that, no matter how grave or frivolous, manage to capture our imagination, transporting us beyond our conditioned life obsessions. Tolkien described Hobbits as little people who love to read books full of things they already know about. The words I am talking of cut through the notions we are resigned to about our selves and life, and validate the authentic nature, purpose and experience of being. They re-assure the heart and soul that they are not alone on their journey.
The wonderful thing about sublime writing is that it is rewarding in every sense. Not only does it have the power to illuminate, empower and inspire, it pays well, too. It is truly abundant. Sublime writing is actually a living force that conquers the hearts of its audience and takes care of its author in one stroke.
The question I have often asked myself is where do these words come from? Not the rational mind, obviously. When I showed the manuscript for my book, The Magician’s Way, to my friends and colleagues, I was struck by how none of them read it just for themselves, automatically judging it by how they imagined other people would react to it. Since being published, almost every one of these assumptions has been proved wrong. It goes to show not only how warped our notions are about what truly appeals to others, but also what a blind urge we have to pander to what we believe others want to hear. As writers, our problem is that we unconsciously mistake our readers for Hobbits, and want to conform to what we believe will keep them happy. We lose sight of the greatness in each individual and how well they respond to honesty – in whatever form.
Susan Barnes, who teaches intuitive writing, produced three books that went nowhere before she wrote Kelly Karate Encounters the Moon Princess, which was snapped up by a publisher before she had finished the first draft. The difference, she confesses, is that her earlier books were forced and rigid, based on academic formulas, whereas Kelly Karate emerged as a result of simply exploring the emotions of a cathartic experience she had in her late teens.
What is Barnes’ hot tip to aspiring writers? Do not show your work to others – trust yourself! Trusting our inner voice might sound clichéd, but it is the sole determinant of whether we will bring forth sublime expression or not.
When a fellow writer asked Gertrude Stein for tips on overcoming writer’s block, she replied, “My dear boy, you just write.” As an intuition teacher of long standing, I know that when a writer is “blocked” it is not because there is nothing there, just that the writer won’t accept what is there. The writer’s inner critic is doing the outer critic’s work for them. Their ego is ignoring what their inner voice wants to say and searching for something externally acceptable to say.
When Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings he had intended merely to write a sequel to The Hobbit. Neither he nor his publishers imagined they would make any money from the dark tome that emerged. Little did they know Lord of the Rings would become the biggest selling book of all time. Tolkien, therefore, is to be applauded not so much for his fantastic imagination as for his willingness to grant it expression.
Because here in lies the real challenge of honouring our own inner voice – it is such a lonely undertaking. We are always stepping into the unknown; we never know where we are. We have no clue how what we are doing will turn out or how it will be taken. Unbelievably, Bob Dylan won his first Grammy awards almost forty years into his career for Time out of Mind. Commenting on the success of the album, his producer, Daniel Lanois, told Rolling Stone magazine, “Even after we finished recording we didn’t know what we had in our hands.”
Writers are constantly looking for inspiration and brilliant ideas. We all want to be as clever as Tome Wolfe and relevant as Michael Moore. The truth is, though, that whatever is there for us to say in any moment has the potential to be great and touch others profoundly. Following our inner voice can be compared to climbing an invisible tree. Yet it is those who are brave and reckless enough to climb it who bring back the magical fruit that keeps the spirit of humanity alive.
William Whitecloud
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