Hello Writers and Creatives!
Many of us hear the calling to write. “I should be a writer,” we think to ourselves, and we work toward it. But I wonder if we ever ask: Who is issuing that calling? Who is calling us? and why?
In his Red Book, Carl Jung noted that he heard a voice calling him to be an artist. He determined it was his anima making the call—the creative force, the muse within. Well, if you have a muse within, and if that muse is going to say anything at all, isn’t it likely to say, “You are an artist?” What else would the creative force say? “Be a technician?”
Jung said, “No, I am a doctor.” And yet, he wrote prolifically.
So, I got to wondering: Who is calling me to write? And what does that inner being want? This quote from Sylvia Plath jumped into my mind:
"Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences."
--The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Writing, Plath seems to say, is secondary to living. And yet, I’m not so sure. Writing is my way of living—it's not secondary. I kept a journal for forty years. I worked through all kinds of horrors, beauties, joys, and entangled problems. Writing has always been my friend, my way to understanding, my way to clarity and insight. I cannot imagine living without writing. How would I even be able to think if I did not write?
So… live first and put it in good sentences? That seems to reduce writing to a process of recording or expression, not one of discovery. Yet for me, writing is how I discover the life I am living. I plunge in every morning, take note of what I going on, solve problems, brainstorm answers, and sometimes engage a muse and write a poem.
The limit on this approach is simple—if you write from only one voice, one perspective, then you discover far less than you could. At least, that's what happened to me. When I am trying to work out answers to problems, the ego speaks. It wants what it wants. Sometimes I ask myself what another perspective might want, but all too rarely do I engage that voice as a character. Thinking back to Jung, there is the me that is living this life, but there is also anima, shadow, trickster, and the voices of my dead parents. There’s an inner farmer, an inner athlete, and an inner snob. They are all there. All of these have other perspectives, and when I can give them a voice, I discover more about who I am really am.
So for this week, here’s a salute to those inner selves. I’m talking with mine. Are you?
Articles on Writing
As many of you know, I started a technical writing company in the mid-1990s. It soon became a training company, and then a consulting group. Writing was always the center of what we did. If you are thinking of going freelance, this story I published this week could be interesting for you:
How I Lost a $54,000 Writing Contract
And, from the week before, I also have this:
Writing as a Full Life Commitment
Literary Events
I had no announcements from people about events for this week. If you have one, please send it and I will list it. Events can be online or located in Minnesota or Wisconsin to be listed.
Some of my work…
Here is a selection of my stories this week. I wrote several pieces on postcapitalism.
Target’s Net-Zero Stores
First steps in the transition to a new postcapitalist world
Where Does Your Lettuce Come From?
A new kind of farm is the first step to abundant “digital” food
Why Are Unskilled Jobs Disappearing?
It is part of the inevitable move toward postcapitalism
How I Lost a $54,000 Writing Contract
And the mistake you must avoid
Ukraine’s Lessons for Climate
Putin manifests chaos, Ukrainians inspire action
Articles for the Write On! writers’ community are in two places—here on Substack and on Medium. While the Write On! newsletter is free and provides a lot of valuable information, the articles about writing, how to make a living as a writer, and working with Medium and other platforms are available only to subscribers. If you like to read a lot of different things, I suggest a membership on Medium where these same articles appear. It is $5 a month, and I would ask you to use this membership link because it helps sustain my work. If you prefer to have access only to my work, $5 a month here on Substack works fine as well and is even better support for the work. Thank you for your understanding.
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Write On!
Anthony Signorelli
Ideas, insights, and imagination to help you live better in a worsening world. Topics include Men, #MeToo, and Masculinity; Postcapitalism; Climate Change; Digitalization and Cryptocurrency; Green Energy; Retirement and financial planning… basically everything that addresses making life better in this challenging time of history.
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