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Monday, February 8, 2010

Letter to a Young Writer





Don’t feel pressured to create masterpieces—you can’t force art, wait instead for those sublime moments when the angel kisses you and then flow. Don’t sit at the computer and make yourself write flawless works, that style is going to produce nothing but shit. Writing is an exercise rooted in constant revision, reworking and rewriting, changing and restructuring until the piece is as good looking as it can be. Cinderella will look a lot better at the ball if she takes the time and effort to clean herself up and dress her best.

The writing that I present to the public is the product of months of slaving in the kitchen, working hard and smart to make a dish that some people will enjoy—not everyone. People have a diversity of taste buds and prejudices towards certain foods that makes it impossible for a universally enjoyed dish. Enjoyment of a piece of writing really comes down to a matter of taste.

I love pizza but I’d rather make a fresh, exotic, and new type of pizza rather than simply imitate an old pepperoni pizza recipe. That’s a matter of taste for me. What I’ll lose in popularity, I’ll make up for in innovation, originality, and style.

Perhaps a dish that combines BellyBuster’s Buffalo Chicken and Buontempo’s pizza that some may find genius—nirvana to their taste buds, and others may find unpleasant for it takes risks and adds a twist to a classic dish that’s out of their comfort zone, is what I seek to create, at least at this point in my career. A diversity of dishes emblematic of the evolution of my consciousness and diversity of raw life experiences I seek to translate will most likely follow. For now though, I’m shooting for the fresh, original, innovative works that make me stand out in a packed kitchen of chefs. The moral of the story is however, making art is hard work and even though you worked long and hard to make you dish, not everyone will enjoy it—subjectivity is the nature of taste.

Eventhough most critics deep throat Shakespeare, he’s not without his harsh critics. Not everyone will like the food that even a great chef makes, but that shouldn’t discourage the great chef. The great chef can making a living making food because enough people like its taste. Enough people desire his food and spread the word that it’s delicious. They may even call him an excellent chef or a creative genius to his face. All criticisms and praises however, are ultimately food for the ego—an ego which will be incinerated or slowly decomposed with your body. Ultimately, the only opinion that really counts for something meaningful is the one that smiles back at you in the mirror. It’s the only opinion that you have to live with. When you are completely content with yourself, when you are in love with the fate God gives you and can smile at yourself in the mirror—God smiles too.

You have the freedom to take an unfavorable review, soak an old dip spitter and continue to spit tobacco in it while it slowly disintegrates if you choose. And believe me, I’ve done it. Moral of the story, critics who sit in the crowd while you fight the lion in the arena and tell you how poor and unskilled you are, should never compromise your self esteem. True self-esteem is rooted in self-love. Self-love shines from the gorgeous ocean diamond within, from your essence—it is not selfish, narcisstic or arrogant to love yourself, it’s a prerequisite to truly loving others. The writer and the critic, unless they are friends and truly know one another, will always be engaging in a battle of egos. Sometimes the ego will be stroked, other times it’ll be bruised, but this is ultimately a meaningless battle. Better to be at peace with yourself that to fight unnecessary wars with critics.


If you’ve made your art the best it can be and you know that you worked tremendously hard to make your dream of this piece of art real and you poured your heart into the effort, then how can you honestly get down on yourself? Because another writer for whatever reason…because he was jealous, because your writing didn’t agree with his taste buds, because he wanted to attract readers, because he genuinely thought your writing sucked ass, because another writer may have more talent or because he can’t stomach dry sarcasm, gave your brainchild an unfavorable review? Please.

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