Writing Stories and Novels the Organic Way
It appears to be the case that many aspiring authors join in the competitive world of genre writing. Perhaps they think this where money and fame are to be achieved. Perhaps these genres are the only kinds of books they themselves read.
Whatever the motivation, authors of genre books seem to follow the works of the very successful as their models. So many of these types of books are monotonously the same. Plots are boringly similar; characterizations gloomily repeated; surprise endings not so surprising, and generally rather gratuitous.
I believe I am characterizing what is deemed the mass production book industry-as opposed to the literary publishing business.
There are numerous small publishing houses with the mission of promoting the works of serious writers. And there are many serious writers, who manage to produce entertaining, exciting, and thought provoking books that inspire the human spirit.
But even these more interesting fictions seem to have quite a bit of similarity to them. My sense is, even these writers follow recognized patterns and/or worn-out literary forms. Even the so-called ‘experimental’ novels follow the dreary path of sameness.
Whatever happened to true originality? Is it the result of our industrial and post-industrial age that such uniformity is inevitable? This may be the case. However, I’m not equipped to answer my own question. I only know I feel the need to see new creative juices introduced to the field of writing.
So, this modest essay is a call for more of what I choose to describe as ‘organic’ authorship. It is my sense that people are writing too cerebrally. There is little authenticity to their writing. They seem not to have delved deeply enough into their own living substance, pulling from the core of their being the true essence of themselves.
I believe this is the true purpose of a writer, has always been the reason for making stories. Stories must point to some inner truth about life. The writer, to deserve being known as an author, is required to bare his/her soul. We writers are asked to show to our readers the way to self-understanding by revealing who we are through our fictions.
Organic writing. What do I mean by that? In a nutshell, let the story tell itself. The story must inevitable come out of the writer’s unconscious psyche. You, the writer, as a personality with consciousness awareness, are the midwife for the subterranean self. You, as writer, must open the door to the inner-self.
This is my approach: A sentence may come to mind; a dream may stimulate a scene for the opening of a story; or a persona, a character if you will, may suddenly emerge in my mind. I begin with one or more of these stimulants. Like an impulse.
I have no idea where this kind of beginning will lead me. I don’t let my thoughts race ahead, building a mental notion of a story line, in other words making a stab at plotting-what happens next.
I put down the first line, or the name of the character that has entered my awareness, or the place. I may simply begin by describing a place.
And having written the line or the few words, I wait to discover what will happen next-what will come up to the surface. It’s almost as if my fingers, on the keyboard, are making the decisions of what to write.
As the story progresses, I try not to think too much about what wants to be said. I can later put more shape into the words, the formal structure, the characters. Or I can polish as I go. Often, I prefer to rework as I proceed.
But my main objective is to not force the story to go where my mental persuasions demand it to go. I allow my inner, my unconscious psyche determine the unfolding. And from that process comes a sense of revelation. Eventually, I begin to understand why the story is being written, what it is saying about me, about our human condition, and/or about our journey as spirit beings in this earth plane.
And when my story is completed, I have a sense of having arrived at a new sense of the ultimate reality. This to me is the purpose for the work in the first place: to uncover a truth about existence. Naturally, I call this the organic way.
