Separating the Art from the Artist
Like I have mentioned in my about page, I am much more than a writer. I’m a brother, a son, a boyfriend fiancé, a Minnesotan, a marketing specialist, and a writer. While I enjoy writing, a writer is not all I am or what anyone is alone. But in a way, everything at least lends itself to writing. Like author Terry Pratchett once said:
“I've lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.”
He was a son, a father, but always a writer (which lasted most of his life.)
And while this website will still be about writing, there is more to writing than the writing itself. There are things that influence the writing like reading. Reading and writing are a unique pair that naturally compliment each other. Peanut butter and jelly, coffee and a jelly donut, or a cozy blanket on a cold winter’s day. And to be a good writer, I’ve always heard to cast a wide net. Sometimes, you catch the fish that have been rumored to be in the river. Other times, an old boot. All of it comes from somewhere and might come off as disjointed, but everything merges together like Stephen King when he wrote Carrie. Two separate ideas became one, and Carrie was unearthed. (I bet there’s a story about a fish living in a shoe or maybe the shoe is a key to a murder mystery and the fish happened to eat some important evidence so it’s a fishing contest between the detective and the murderer. Just an idea.)
How did King do it? Ideas just come. He didn’t need to be a woman or have psychic powers. These things just come about and from what I can surmise from On Writing, King’s various interests played a key role in this coming together. He was the vessel from which all his stories came.
I guess the point I’m making is the artist and art are not tied together in an all in one package. I’m guilty of some author worship and celebrity worship, and when they say or do questionable or what I consider awful things, I admit feeling the work is tainted. But the writer who wrote one work is never the same as the next work even though the name might remain the same (or pen-name in many cases.) Does this give them a pass? The court of public opinion and the sentences that are given out either being “cancelled” (which I didn’t know human lives were TV shows) or possibly losing money from bad publicity can have an affect. Corporations want to please everyone (everyone has money.) So, some people are “cancelled” but others come out and say the things we want to hear and things continue like nothing happened. I know some writers that could walk back comments or dispel rumors and make a lot more money, but choose not to. For some, money is not an issue because they have so much of it or they never did it for the money.
What am I trying to say exactly? Art like novels, films, and stories can create worlds larger than just one person. Eventually, we all own a part of it because without anyone to enjoy it, what is art? On it’s physical level, it is just an arranged sequence of matter in a certain order that someone insisted in displaying that way, whether it’s from a muse, a god, or the love of profits using the hottest new algorithms. I suppose there is hope that these people are only a vessel. I doubt authors think of all the hate they had in their heart while writing a story. There is another thing that is at play which one person alone can’t make. There are other forces that guide these visions and writers try to capture that at that point in their lives.
Anyway, just a heads up this website is becoming dlsteffen.com. The blog will stay, but writers have many interests, and writing about writing is just one of those. If you’re reading this, thank you for reading. I hope this is valuable and entertaining.
