29/01/2008

Writing intimacy

Lots of readers are drawn to this blog by my posts related to literary craft - either out of interest in purely technical side of a book creation, or from appetite for private, or intimate details of a (however insignificant) writer’s life. One of the returning questions asked by these readers is: Why not make this blog more personal, or more literary?

I suspect that such exhibitionism is needed by those artists who do not express themselves in their published works, or who are hungry for more opportunities to share themselves than is afforded by public, but faceless, display of their works - publication. See, there’s a large degree of acting involved in writing, but a writer is an actor who performs for a faceless audience. For some that is enough, for others it is not. The latter feel that they need to interact with their audience, to further expose their inner selves, to throw their guts out on the table, whether because they were not able to get that fix through their work, or whether because they did not go far enough. I fancy myself of belonging to the former group - my books maybe be hard to follow, they maybe not be understood, they maybe disliked - but, as a writer I am satisfied to the extent of my intimate exposure in my published work, for better or for worse. In the end, though, it’s all a play, and it all boils down to only one significant common denominator - we all perform primarily in front of a mirror - that Nr 1 audience to all actors. And it is that audience that most desires intimate details.

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