A Writer Writes, But…
©2022 by Vernon Miles Kerr and VernonMilesKerr.com
A writer writes, but a writer has to have something helpful to say. And, even then, people won’t listen unless they’re entertained in the process. Most people won’t. A writer’s body of work must be coherent. Mine isn’t. It’s a mélange, a potpourri of the random thoughts of a perpetually wandering mind — a mind that ranges the Universe collecting trivia, like one of those hard-rubber “Ace” hair combs when held over tiny scraps of paper. My old friend, former critical-writing professor and mentor, Manfred Wolf, says, “It’s time you wrote a book.”
I scan my GoogleDrive, and my own voluminous blog (VernonMilesKerr.com) trying to find a coherent thread, something that could be tied together with a thesis and thus result in a book that’s both helpful and entertaining.
I guess, one recurring theme is the negative impact of religion (generally) on the human story. With a sub-theme of how do you emancipate humans from the deeply inculcated, youthful brain-washing that nearly all of us get? How do you make such a serious and explosively sensitive subject — entertaining? A novel? What genre? Or just a big, long rambling look at the history of religions and their negative effect upon history — along with commentary. Nah, that would only help the scholarly. — UNLESS, you made it something like a Monty Python flick. Hmmmm…Am I onto something?
In my opinion, “Religion,” per se, wouldn’t be half-bad if people wouldn’t take it so seriously—AND if they’d keep it in the privacy of their own homes. What do y’all think?
That’s such an important point you bring up. Sure, a writer writes, and yes, mostly it’s for themselves, but when a final product is created, it should also be done so with an audience in mind. It’s a balance I try to find with my own writing too. I don’t have advice for you, but I just thought I’d drop this thought!
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Thanks for your comment. I agree. Ironically we (at leas I) belittle “commercialism” as opposed to true “art.” But even true art needs to be communicated so that SOMEONE will pick it up and read it. 🙂 Otherwise what’s the use?
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