A quote from Ernest Hemingway. Is this what drove him to the bottle? The pain that writing unearths? For unearthing is what needs to be done.
Deep emotions have to be dug up. Real emotions not the little bubbles of indignation, rage and envy that pop to the surface in social media, then burst and are no more, lost in the avalanche of the next postings.
We live in a time when little is concealed. Our every thought is shared on social media. We have no time for reflection, for the slow build up of pressure that demands that we write or otherwise explode.
Like a diamond, a good story is crafted under immense pressure over time into something bigger than its small sorry constituents. Just as a small piece of carbon becomes the hardest of stones, this process of intense reflection finds what Ralph Waldo Emerson describes as ‘the universal thread that connects us to the rest of humanity, and, by doing so, turns our small, personal sorrows and individual tragedies into art’.
Motivation (in character, author and plot) are all found in this volcanic eruption. But they take time. Weeks, months. Sometimes years to forge them into a gem.
Copyright Roslyn Lawson. Images Wix and Wiki.
SSOA writers' blogs are made possible through the support of City of Sydney grant assistance.