ABOUT PEOPLE WHO WRITE
A just anyone writer can wear turtle necks, listen only to classical music or be inspired by music… Place their tongue in whatever pleasure (metaphorically speaking) in front of the allotted word painting time… A normal kindergarten teacher coming home gets dinner heated in the microwave, takes her phone and gets every single character in her erotic novel nude and in acrobatic positions in bed.
A PERSONA, A GENRE?
We must reckon we have a “persona” or avatar for every single space in which we need to maintain a mood. If you work in an office, you already know what I’m talking about (“Dead to boss” says the inner one). And if you have ever taught anything in a school, you must have at least three other personalities to cope with life.
Then, if we count that, plus a “persona” for every single genre you try to write in; besides the ones for every character visiting your brain (in case you haven’t rented yet a professional studio for such a purpose) we start to think we’re crazy. But no.
It is just that space and time are required to build up a certain mood… Right?
THE WRITING PERSON
However, it is not mental sanity I want to mention. It is the need to have this “writing persona” Cathy Birch (the creative writer’s workbook 2009 and this is not advertising) says is necessary to have one.
I think it is not. Writing for me is exactly the same as other jobs. You need time and an investment of effort. Even cleaning bathrooms does require time and effort. Mental or not, that doesn’t make it more or less important.
WHY AN AVATAR THEN?
Because saying you’re a writer sounds cool when you’re making money out of it. It is not when you’re selling the TV to survive a few days more. Because it helps to do something embarrassing, as having people (not actual people butcharacters) have intercourse out of nowhere). It can be to make a little not so serious to write when it is only a hobby that would make you blush if the boss at the office came to know.
THE WORST AND THE BEST
In between this and the other; writing is about what you like and what you hate about yourself.
It is going to be your mask and your nudity. A mask to face the world. The nudity to show your intimacy (in a sort of unpunishable voyeurism). It is a disguise to make yourself go and speak up when you’re not used to.
Sometimes, it is no more than a name. A name that makes people think what you want they think.
Do you wear masks at work? Do you think you need a “persona”? Is it useful to think in avatars to change POV at writing?
Warning: what you read was just nonsense about writing fiction. Have fun thinking in a “persona” to write what you normally would not. Pasto kalo.
