Exploring the Writing Craft
By Maurizio Bisogno
[Maurizio’s interest in philosophy and writing began forty-four years ago .]
“A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it”.
Samuel Johnson
Is writing a pleasure or a necessity? How can you write rationally and be exciting at the same time? You don’t write fiction or non-fiction in the general sense; you write your philosophical interpretation of life and that of other philosophers. Your aim is to write cogently, clearly, logically, and convincingly, although these words don’t have exactly the same meaning. I like the word ‘cogent’. When I can apply it to describe my text, I receive a feeling of realization; if it is true that I have a clear and convincing argument, other considerations don’t matter. This is also the aim of my work, that is to say, to achieve truth and durability over the apparent ever-changing aspects of life. Ultimately, it transforms me, and it could give the reader some epiphany.
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Consider this sentence “When you wake up sad and feel that there is an ocean of sadness around you, writing seems the only option”, as the description of a condition in which you could find yourself; there is also a suggestion of what to do, which is also the only thing you can do to achieve a level of awareness that you never experienced before. You wake up sad and perceive as this emotion is spreading all over your surroundings, you immediately act to move out of it: you start writing. Here part of the writing goal is achieved.
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The other task as a writer is to reach the readers because, when what you write differs hugely from what people read or write, your work will keep you poor; if your writings do not sell well the reason could be that you don’t write with the purpose to sell your product. Think to when you buy something, give some thoughts to this situation, then keep that feeling of want and visualize your article or your book, are you moved to give some money away in order to have it? If not, then there is more work to do to make it an object of desire.
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Your general frame of mind should change from one that keeps you on a path that someone else has assigned to you toward the attitude that involves taking efficient actions toward the achievement of your goal, which is to earn your life by writing. So writing is work and as such it requires discipline and control of your impulses. By that I mean, it requires effort. How many times I am tempted to stop writing and go to town in search of some other satisfaction! You must have control over your other desires to keep your schedule writing time. I am not saying that it should be the only desire you have but you must eliminate those other desires that control you.
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Any progress or improvement springs from not being satisfied in some way; this is also the foundation for any desire, which is another way to express what you lack. As a writer, for example, you might not be satisfied with the professional outcome of your research and your writings. From this negative spot you can build a positive outcome; from the acceptance of the reality of this place you can move to a better one.
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The question of what one knows and what one can know is an open one but after years of writing, I obtained an understanding or two. First of all, men can be made to believe anything. Our mind is like an empty vessel. Second, Truth is what one believes firmly. You may wonder what this has to do with the topic of this article. Reflect on this: is writing a means to know even when it is only fiction? Ultimately, we establish some reality when we write, we build like any other craftsman does when they make or create a new product: they use existing elements to objectify something which was only in their mind. Doing is actually an act of knowledge, and writing is doing; furthermore, when it is done with knowledge of the art and when there a soul in it, then it goes beyond matter.
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We all need tools and instruments to perform our doing. We cannot make anything without the mediation of some instruments and a means in which to operate. We depend so much on devices that nearly nothing could be made without them. As a writer, in this moment, my prosthetic device, is the pen as it represents an extension of my reflection; on its turns, this latter depends on my sensory organs. In fact, I am using the eyes to see the paper and the hand to move the pen. Nevertheless, during the most intense moments of this activity, I feel as if the thoughts I am expressing have nothing to do with my present sensory perception. Is it possible that I am only the means of some higher level of consciousness of which I am not entirely aware? In the case of some writings, it will happen that when I come back to them some time after, they will look alien to me, as they were written by someone else. A sense of strangeness, of distance pervades me, as if I had not much in common. I don’t want to have anything to do with that writing or the ‘I’ who wrote it. My understanding of that is the text is having its own life either that it needs to be rewritten. In both cases this appears as one of the mysteries of this secular and now essential part of being human, which is the act of writing. © Maurizio Bisogno