Calling yourself a ‘writer’ gives you an easy one-word label for those times when people ask “what do you do?” and you don’t want to explain what it means to wear 13 different hats in the age of online business.
I used to fancy myself as a writer, until I wised up and realized that’s a poisonous identity.
Truth is I don’t like writers very much.
As a category they’re a fairly miserable and weak-minded set with a strong victimhood game.
There are individual writers who are fantastic, lovely, inspired, and goal-driven people. Sure. That’s the deep difference between the individual person and the category. What’s true for this one dude may not be true of the class, and vice-versa.
The intelligent soul would do well to remember that little nugget for most any situation.
But to be a writer brings a powerful negative energy.
Writers see themselves as endlessly frustrated people.
Frustrated by “finding ideas”
Frustrated by having to sit still with a writing implement and focus to do the work
Frustrated by publishers
Frustrated by editors
Frustrated by finicky readers
Frustrated by that jerk who leaves a one-star review on Amazon because that’s the only time in their life they’ll feel any sense of power
They carry this energy with them, too. A group of writers is otherwise known as a “beach fest” (read that with an Australian accent for maximum effect)
These are the kind of people that focus on the fresh twigs springing forth on the nearest tree with no idea there’s a forest… and they resent you for breaking the illusion.
Obsessing over mostly useless details, tactics, and “hacks” is one way to distract yourself from doing the scary, intimidating work that really moves the needle.
People do not like to be shaken free of their imaginary chains.
The Romantic myth of the artist as a tortured soul misunderstood and punished for the creative impulse is just that — myth.
Creativity can be as mechanical and rote as you want it to be. Creative work benefits from restrictions, constraints, and limitations.
Creativity requires less opiates and whining about a muse, more commitment, focus, discipline, and dedication to boredom.
The life of a tortured creative is good victim-cred, though, and that racks up serious points today.
It’s true that artists of all sorts, from writers to musicians to painters and sculptors and dancers, are notorious for diva-energy. They’re arrogant, rude, dismissive, ruthless, and other not-so-nice adjectives.
Maybe.
Could be that there’s a lesson about that.
Ego gets a lot of blame for ills in the world, but I see things different.
The attitudes and behaviors that the hoi polloi judge arrogant, cocky, disagreeable, and self-absorbed are products of a weak ego. They bristle with porcupine spines so as to cover up the untrained flabbiness hiding beneath the surface.
Yes, a weak ego. Here’s why.
All of us have at least two minds.
One of them is intuitive, creative, living in the imagination’s world of pictures and feelings.
The other is logical and rational, in love with the sound of its own voice.
The creative part possesses immense powers and lacks any focus or sense of direction.
The conscious part doesn’t do much but give directions. Otherwise it is powerless.
You can see where this is going. A powerful engine with nobody in the driver’s seat is a disaster in the making. A powerful king with no kingdom is a loud-mouthed idiot.
To thrive you need the whole package, the chief executive plus a competent team.
Without a strong, focused, capable ego to direct your mind, the unconscious mind takes direction from the will of other egos.
This I believe to be the major reason that so many people are passive and directionless.
Creatives are the worst at this. They live in that intuitive and creative part of the mind — air and water without the fire of desire.
Meanwhile the unfocused ego is weak, so its energy gets diluted in lack of focus and disciplined action.
Weak ego is very much like a muscle that never gets trained.
You need a stronger ego to take command, set the agenda, and fuel your creative unconscious self with vitality.
The stronger the will, the greater the power to set that unconscious mind on higher and greater targets.
That’s an unpopular opinion among the crowd obsessed with what The Science says about human psychology — which is only more reason to take it seriously.
If nothing else, showing up with an attitude of calm optimism, expecting the best while investing nothing in the real outcome, can only bring your better game.
But I think there’s a lot more going on.
The will gives purpose, and purpose responds to meaning.
I’ve said too much for today. If you want to know more, I recommend this from one of my favorite thinkers:
Matt Perryman