From the Divine Studio: Why I Write

I love to write!

Merging with my muses, writing takes me places I could not imagine, and it is glorious.  If I could, I would spend most of my time writing, whether it be fiction, poetry or non-fiction.  Presently, my emphasis in writing is fiction.  I love spending time with my characters.  Even the awful ones, and especially the awesome ones. They are so alive!

Good fiction is badass because readers can, for awhile, escape to new and exciting worlds.

Also, I love to write because, to me, writing is as Hafiz (translated by Daniel Ladinsky) states:

“In my divine studio

What I have been working on is this:

Painting the Truth,

Revealing

A more realistic picture of God,

Tearing down the cruel walls

That separate you from the tenderness of Fire.

Someone must be withholding

The crucial lines

In all those stories you have heard of our

Friend,

For there is still too much fear

And pallor upon your cheeks,

And I rarely see you

In the marvelous Theater of Freedom…”

(Hafiz poem excerpt from “The Theater of Freedom” in The Subject Tonight is Love, page 20).

This Hafiz poem is a manifesto, of sorts, for me, as I strive to write and share “the crucial lines” that can hopefully help lead readers to the “theater of freedom.” 

(And I think of God as being a benevolent entity who cannot be bound by human definition of anything, including religion, sex, gender, or even love.)

Also, the following lines from Steven Pressfield also articulate in part my purpose in writing:

“If we were born to overthrow the order of ignorance and injustice of the world, it’s our job to realize it and get down to business.”

(Steven Pressfield excerpt from  “The Authentic Self” in The War of Art, page 146.)

Ultimately, I love the beauty of words and the spells they can create when arranged for musicality.  Each word itself is a spell, carrying connotations that cultures have agreed to give them; hence, the dual definitions of “spell” a word and the “spell” words can instill.  Also, the arrangement of words in a sentence can, at times, be nearly an incantation.

These are my bold purposes for writing, why I love to connect with my muses, and write, write, write!