Yann Girard your article was truly depressing. You hit several nails on the head, you accurately portrayed the frustration, the hopelessness, the struggle, and you ripped off the mask of an illusory reality. You touched on the heartache every writer feels (no matter their success). I nodded my head repeatedly as I read your article. I’ve been there, done that and felt that.
But man, that was truly depressing. I’ve already felt that depression. I’ve already stewed in the angst, and I’ve already bathed in the hopelessness.
When a writer completely surrenders to their muse, when they silence their noisy mind to allow a story to come through, and when they offer that story to the world it is like screwing in a light bulb and turning on that light bulb.
And that is when everything goes awry. Once we turn on a light bulb we then hastily put a lamp shade over that light bulb. It is then the lamp shade that we use to sell the light. We don’t market the light but rather the lamp shade. We put our lamp shade on all the right websites with all the other millions of lamp shades hoping that we hit the right lamp shade formula so that people discover the light beneath that light shade.
We then spend all our energy and focus on creating just the right lamp shade that lures people to the light underneath the lamp shade. But all lamp shades are barriers to the light underneath them. Instead of sellers of light we become sellers of lamp shades.
The biggest problems writers face are the lamp shades they put over their work in order to sell. Every lamp shade is a wall we place between our light bulb and any potential eyeball that may see that light. Every other writer does that so we feel we should, too. Every other writer is selling lamp shades and so we feel that in order to compete we must come up with the very best lamp shade.
But every single lamp shade only hides and diminishes the light. Some light shades might sell reasonably well but it is the lamp shade that sells and not the true, un-blocked light. You can go to Amazon and delight in a seemingly endless smorgasbord of lamp shades but the true reader is looking for the light beneath the shade.
But they are in a minority. Most people go to Amazon looking for lamp shades. And that’s why most writers sell lamp shades and then get pissed off when they don’t sell.
Instead of trying to sell lamp shades we are better off screwing in our light bulb, turning it on and then walking away. Books are like children. They don’t come from us but rather through us. They can never grow unless we release them. They cannot ever become what they are meant to be unless we remove the lamp shade and allow them to shine on their own.
The hardest thing for any writer is the process of surrender. It is this lack of surrender that dims our own light. But we vehemently refuse to surrender because we equate that with losing. We have this silly notion that success as a writer has something to do with winning.
Writing is never, ever about winning. It is about transcending winning and losing. It is about the light beneath our optical/mental barriers. It is about breaching those barriers and communing with the light of others and the light that connects us all. It is about a naked light bulb shining brightly without any barriers. It is about surrendering to the light.
And that is when we, ourselves, are filled with even more light. And so we cannot help but produce even more light. It is the continuous shedding of this endless supply of light that sustains and nurtures us….
…. provided, of course, that we are not fixated on the lamp shades. Those lamp shades are not only a barrier to new readers but they are a barrier to new light coming through us.
Yann, you wrote a terrific article about lamp shades. Now do us all a favor and write for us an article about light. We want to see your naked light.
