The truth(s) of the matter

Before we get into it, I'd like to thank all the readers who expressed support for this series so far.  I hope to live up to your expectations.  What I would like to do first is discuss the Four Noble Writer's Truths then discuss the path we writers can take to reach a greater enlightenment about our writing and our lives.

Truth #1:  suffering (dukkha) exists

I don't think anyone would argue that the writing life can be full of pain.  Not only is it a solitary profession, but we writers tend to invest very much of ourselves in our work.  For most of us, writing isn't what pays the bills, it is our (almost) guilty pleasure, our sideline that feeds and fulfills our creative impulse and gives us one of our most important self-descriptors.  

Telling someone you are a writer is likely to inspire awe, reverence, revulsion, contempt, snide comments, adoration and pleas for financial support, sometimes all in the same conversation.  

 Add to that the fact that everything about writing and publishing seems to be in flux right now. It's hard to determine which houses to write for, when or if to self-publish, which agents have the best interests of their clients rather than their own survival uppermost in their business plans.  

It's okay to admit it is tough out there.  Many of the familiar guideposts are gone or in unsuspected places.  It is easy to succumb to fear-based thinking and action, where we hold a death grip on what we think should be rather than accepting that the landscape is changing in some ways that serve and in others that don't.  Which brings us to . . .

Truth #2:  the cause of suffering is desire

As writers, we are programmed to set goals. Some folks will go so far as to say that if you don't set the goal of writing every day, you aren't a real writer.  I myself have urged writers to make plans for what they would like to accomplish each day, month, year, five years.  We all have dreams of landing on the bestseller list of some kind, even if we haven't the temerity to hope for a New York Times placement.  We want to touch readers lives with our prose.  We want a hell of a lot.

Now think about the characters we write about.  Without knowing what our characters want, we couldn't have a story.  Goals are the primary axis of the ubiquitous triumvirate of goal, motivation and conflict that provide the engine of the story.

Without wanting or desire at least one of the genres in which I write would disappear entirely.  How can you have a romance without desire?  Or for that matter, how can you have a good detective who doesn't really, really want to find the mass murderer and bring him (her) to justice?

If we didn't want so much, our lives as writers could possibly be so much easier.  If your family's finances didn't hinge on book sales, you wouldn't be under such pressure to produce.  If you weren't worried about expanding your readership, you might be more willing to take more risks with your writing.  I could go on and on.

So is all this wanting bad?  Like most things, I don't see this situation as good or bad; I am only describing what is.  Good or bad, right or wrong are subjective distinctions to my way of thinking and on a soul level unnecessary.  But that's a subject for another post.

In a recent meditation, this statement came to me:  peace is the absence of wanting anything.  I really believe this to be true.  In an entirely peaceful world we could thrive without the need to be or do  or have anything in particular, with the possible exception of the most basic survival needs.  However, most people didn't sign on to be the next Buddha; they just want a happier, more productive life that provides a modicum of peace and a change to help their fellow man a bit, if that's possible.


Truth #3:  the end of suffering is awakening

My next post will deal with this subject extensively, but let's suffice it so say that illumination of some kind is almost always at least part of the solution to the dilemma.  As with many situations, our perception of them is more problematic than the situation itself.  Our judgements of the situation, our expectations of what is good or bad about the situation, our attachment to particular outcomes as desirable and/or undesirable may hold us back more than "bad" reviews,"bad" sales, or "bad" whatever else you can imagine.

That's all for now.  See you next time when we'll continue with the third truth and get into the fourth.  I  hope you'll leave me a comment to let me know what you think so far.