Strange.
This is really strange. I mean, writing my first blog post.
I’m sitting on a bright platform with a microphone and a recorder. All I can
see in front of me is darkness. There may or may not be any audience in the darkness, studying
me with great interests or contempt. Or there might be a dog---I’m not talking
about you. This is my first blog post, as a writer, and this is how I feel.
So what am I going to talk about, today and in the future?
No, I’m not going to start bragging about my book. You can check the other
pages if you are interested (by the way, exactly what drove you here to hear me
rambling, I have no clue of). I’m going to talk about everything, anything.
That’s what a writer does. Fiction writing is probably the only profession in
the world for which holding an advanced degree (in Creative Writing) is
considered far from adequate. What do writers do? They build worlds, create
people, predict how things should happen and comment on how things should have
happened. They are playing God! How dare we write about life, assuming we
understand life?
Of course, we can always write about ourselves (by the way,
how dare we claim that we understand ourselves?). In fact, this is almost
inevitable. We either write what we have, what we are, or what we lack, what we
aren’t. Either way, we define ourselves through writing imaginary people and
imaginary events. It takes courage to expose; it takes pain to hide.
Now, you may say, standing up from the darkness in front of
me, “Wait a minute! Could you first explain what the title of the blog means?”
Here is my answer:
1. The Taranis Spirit is a motorcycle made in Thyphol, an
imaginary place located on Planet RB-2 in the Renaisun Quadruple Star System.
This type of motorcycle has adaptive wheels for riding on hills. Don't ask me any more details for I don't know.
2. The Taranis Spirit is either a fancy warship or a
military maneuver. I haven’t decided on it and I wouldn’t tell you even if I
have.
3. The Taranis Spirit is the tentative name of my
novel-in-progress, the sequel of The Starlight Fortress. See, I still can’t
avoid talking about my book, as what a writer normally does.
Okay, if by far you still haven’t left, I know you really
like me. Personally! And that deserves some reward. So I’ll offer an advice on
writing. They may help you, or they may destroy you. Depends on how you use
them.
Don’t do what everybody else is doing. Why? Because, for
some reason, in the modern world, whatever profession or activity you could
think of, there are many people doing it right now. There are many people
writing books. Many making movies. Many applying for industrial jobs, research
grants … A common critique I hear about my book is that things happen too
fast compared with most of the books in the market. Every scene has drama in
it. I could have added a lot more stuff in between to slow it down, to split it
to several books. Well, this is not a wrong advice. The only thing is, if I do
so my book will end up looking similar to many other books. Why would I want
that? How could one expect his work to stand out, to bear unique comments, if
he’s doing what everybody else is doing?
Which is the major cause for people
not achieving what they want to achieve, fear of failure, or fear of success?