Ok, I'm going to warn you ahead of time that this may be a meandering mess of thought, but's 7:18 in the morning and I need to get dressed and get my butt off to work - however this idea will not leave me alone and I feel like I should simply put it here and let it go so I can have some peace about it.
How do I even start?
So, here's the thing. I have this feeling that there are those that feel that it's better lower your expectations about what it is that you're doing in order not to get your heart broken when you don't reach or achieve your dream. I think this holds true for most endeavors in people's lives, but I think the creative ones are particularly afflicted with this premise because the thought of making money doing something outside of the "norm" and that's fun seems like a long shot. And it probably is. Does that mean you shouldn't try?
Hell no.
I was thinking this morning about people who say, "write for fun, don't expect to get anywhere with it, just enjoy the act." I know this is also said about creating music, creating works of art, etc. And yes, there certainly is a point in this. However, why can't you write for fun and strive to achieve greatness at the same time? Why couldn't you pick up a guitar and play with conviction, wanting to succeed in what ever form that success means to you? Why can't we want both for ourselves? Because if we don't achieve our goals, become published, support ourselves with our art and still enjoy it, we will be heartbroken?
That's crap.
What happened to living life to it's fullest potential? Loving with abandon? Because it hurts when it's taken away? Yes, we are human and we will get hurt. If you open yourself up and try, take chances and end up getting hurt, crushed even, isn't that better than walling your heart up and never feeling anything?
So, for those who say it's better to lower your expectations and not get disappointed when things don't turn out the way you think they will - I say, that's fine if it works for you. I would much rather shoot for the stars and land on the treetops knowing that I gave it all I could than to shoot for the tree tops, land there and look up at the starts always wondering "what if". I would rather break my own heart than to not let it feel the thrill of simply being alive.
And because I feel this is important, I've decided to wait to kill off my bus load of kids. If I do it now, no one will care. I need to take a few steps back and better establish my characters and their relationships. Because once that bus crashes, there's no going back and the reader better damn well care about that - or should I say, I'd better give the reader enough so that they actually can care about it, otherwise I'm just hanging out on some branches. I better strive for some atmosphere here!
No comments:
Post a Comment