A re-evaluation

Over the past few days I engaged in a soupçon of angst over my writing, including this blog. This morning as I lay in bed I imagined possibilities.

One was to retreat and retract: to stop posting on this blog entirely, perhaps with a re-posting of my favourites, and a cheery 'addio'. That option involved also abandoning my Facebook page and twitter account. In this option I imagined retreating to a focus on teaching and on my academic research into the mingled relationship between religion and society.

A second imagined option was to continue posting here and on Facebook but to alter the tone, style and content to a singularity of seriousness. That is, to post only serious comment on writing and to post no snippets of actual writing.

Before I get to the third imagined option I will say that of the two so far listed, the first was far more appealing - I would rather write nothing than control my writing to reflect what I think people want to read here.

Which is my segue to the third option - the one I have decided to follow. The title at the top of my blog says:


Smithy's Writing
Thoughts on writing as craft and as art... and the madman who attempts to live this way....


This is true to myself. Writing is both craft and art. I post commentary on the craft and often post links to other crafters. Recently I posted to
my Facebook page a comment by an artist who said that inspiration is for amateurs. I thought about that, being attracted to the idea. But finally, I disagreed. Writing is an art and art, if it is any good at all, requires inspiration. Writing requires constant inspiration in fact, but wedded till death do them part to craftsmanship.

Writing that is only craft will sell decently and earn a writer a living wage, but is always forgettable. Writing which is firstly inspiration, but which is effected through careful crafting, is worthwhile and will last. Alas for our day and age, I suspect that this form of writing will not earn an author a living wage.

This takes me to the final part of my blog's title - you must be a little mad at least, to choose inspiration over craft.

This was all inspired by my best friend's kind and wise critical assessment of my recent black posts. I have decided to alter somewhat my writing here, to reflect that sense of urgency to complete The Man who fell from the Sky, Book of Dreams and Religion & Society in the Atlantic World, the triad that drove me to blog in the first place. But I decided to reject that wise advice to remove posts showing me teetering on the edge of the black pit. What I did decide, based on my friend's advice, was to give more emphasis to craft. The balance was off. Inspiration is the engine, but an engine requiring more craft than I had provided.

This is me. Sometimes wildly desperate, sometimes passionate, sometimes sexually so, sometimes happy, sometimes analytical. My writing - fiction, poetry and academic - is all a reflection of these traits. If this indeed means I shall have no readers and sell no books, then so be it. I have lived most of my life altering my actions and opinions so as to please others. Not here, not now.

Ted Smith