“It doesn’t matter . . . whether a style is correct or incorrect; what matters is that it be efficient, or suited to its task, which is to endow the stories it tells with the illusion of life—real life.” -Mario Vargas Llosa, Letters to a Young Novelist
Letters to a Young Novelist is a new favorite of mine. In simple terms, it finds a way to capture many ideas that I’ve had for years. A running theme of the book is the concept that writers are not made but chosen.
If that makes you feel uncomfortable or even special . . . it should. In our society, there is a prevalent—if largely unspoken—opinion that writing is a waste of time, an art form that we don’t have time for.
According to Vargas Llosa, this pressure to conform can lead to a “kind of defeatism” that, in turn, can “thwart the ambitions of young people”, causing would-be writers to live “on the margins of society as an almost underground activity.”
Once upon a time, this kind of talk would’ve discouraged me. Today, it makes me feel like a rebel. It makes me want to create original, unique, unorthodox art. I’ve never fit into any boxes, so for me, writing allows me to express my individuality in a way that nothing else has.
As a child, all I wanted was to publish a book and perhaps go on a book tour. Was that too much to ask? But over time, I came to view the work as its own reward. As Vargas Llosa says, “those who see success as their main goal will probably never realize their dream.”
Don’t let that scare you. Think of writing as a conversation. An attempt to interpret what you are seeing and feeling in your exceptional way. Vargas Llosa is correct in that the gift of writing is a “predisposition of murky origin that causes” those who have it “to dedicate their lives to an activity that . . . they feel called, almost obliged, to pursue”.
Welcome to a safe place where you can express your thoughts, fears, ambitions, and wildest dreams. Write down the things that inspire you, the things that keep you up at night. Be afraid, be bold, and be courageous. Fellow writers welcome to the conversation.
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