Wheel of Inspiration

     Writing tends to be a solitary activity.  We may be able to perform it in crowded places if we're lucky enough to have the focus while riding the train or sitting in some common space.  When you come down to it, though, the actual act of stitching the words together into meaningful patterns is all done alone in your head.  With that basic fact established, I will also say that writing is more social than most other things you do alone.  For one thing, writers of fiction tend to walk around with all sorts of people in their heads.  Even when we are alone, our minds are often working in social ways.  But the aspect I wanted to examine in this post was the camaraderie among those who practice this solitary art.

     While it could be said that authors are in competition with each other, you rarely see them behave as if they were.  There is a realistic limit on how many books may be published in the world, and anyone who has submitted work to a publishing house that's overwhelmed with manuscripts wishes theirs will rise to the top of the pile.  Beyond that, we can all rationally see that when a reader chooses one thing to read, they are not choosing the others (this time.)  There are winners and losers, and as in any other form of competition, we hope to be the former.  I think the difference occurs because writers recognize that reactions are subjective.  There is no clear measure of good or best in it.  Different stories or styles affect readers in different ways, and different readers accept works according to their own preferences.  What one person loves, another may hate.  I could not hope to write a story that was universally adored because people just don't work that way.  So  the challenge is less about beating your "competition" and more about matchmaking what you have to offer with the people who will love it.  Knowing that frees authors up to be supportive of each other.  They gather in groups or clubs, either in person or online.  They go to conferences and workshops.  They offer each other tips, reviews or praise.  In general, writers see each other as fellow travellers rather than opponents.

     Another reason for this may lie in the nature of art as a means of expression and communication.  Whatever the technique, art is fundamentally social.  When we write, we're trying to reach someone.  It may not be someone we know, but we are nonetheless reaching out.  Writers begin as readers, and we all know what it feels like to be touched or inspired by something a stranger has written.  We respect the power in the words.  To us, readers and writers, these are not lonely messages shouted into the wind; they are a conversation.  A story is told, which inspires another, which leads to another, and all the while we're learning, building and exploring the truth of the world.

And we are connecting.

     No author wants to be copied, but nearly every author would be honored to know they had inspired something more, maybe even something that would inspire them in turn.  That's how the conversation rolls forward.

     I've been lucky to have people in my life that I can create with.  My husband and I trade ideas and feed off each others' stories frequently.  It's how we collaborated on our novel, each writing alone, but coming together regularly to compare, bounce ideas back and forth and grow something greater than either of us could have done alone.  Now, I'm hoping to do a little of the same sort of cooperation on our website, Echoes of Ashes, this time, with visual arts.  We started a challenge this month, asking artists to send illustrations inspired by our stories.  We'll pick one to display on the home page for a two month period along with the artist's information and links to their other work.  It will be interesting to see how others envision and express the stories' events, what they find important or engaging.  It will also be rewarding to be part of that wheel of inspiration, and help a talented artist to be noticed by a new audience- an audience that may in turn become inspired to create something of their own.