anarchic literature

People send me articles describing ‘the rules of writing short stories’ or ‘how to write a book.’ Complete crap. Fuck the rules. Just write. Writing is an obsession, a desire, it is unstoppable, it is essential to the life of the writer. The writer is often solitary and has thoughts and ideas that are often too unconventional to share with the external world through conversation... these things need to come out. Writing is an expression of the individual in whatever form and style he or she sees fit. How can there be rules? If there are rules, how can anything original and personal ever exist? How will writings differ from any others? All you need to write is a love of the word... to see the word forming on the page or the screen or wherever it is that you prefer to see the word form and grow into something of expression.

                We are conditioned into thinking that nothing is of value (including people) unless it is a success (success defined within the same doctrines that condition thought). So people sit down to write and think ‘what would people want to read?’ ‘What would be successful?’ Why not just write from the heart and mind and do what helps you? Writing for me is therapy, it is how I make it through each day. Often I read my own writing back afterwards and think 'what a load of rubbish.' It doesn’t matter, it helps me to gather my thoughts and to work through them. They begin to make more sense as they flow from the fingers and appear before me on the screen. There are times that it appears before me and I enjoy what has been written and these are moments of great pleasure because therapy has resulted in something beautiful. However, as I have mentioned, even that which is not beautiful is still therapy and therefore meaningful... to me at least.

                No more rules. Just write.