Authorship
While it may be true that we create our own reality, as the gurus tell us, and indeed I like the idea that I’m writing the story of my own life, and perhaps even wrote the basic plot outline before this life began — I don’t need to be a drama queen, I’ve been known to remark. I’ve created bigger and better dramas in my life script than any of the superficial dramas some people like to manufacture (hollow laugh) — still, into these fictions we weave as autobiography, there enters the hand of The Editor to introduce the unexpected: some pruning here, some expansion there, a different mood, a change of pace, perhaps a touch of conflict to spice things up — until the prose suddenly (it seems suddenly) acquires a different rhythm, the tale a new perspective.
Well, it’s always good to surprise the reader — even when it’s me, writing and reading my own story. Or thinking that I do. I have some say, some authorial input, even quite a lot ... and yet The Editor, just like that, can alter it in a moment.
Perhaps that movie about Truman, whose whole life was a TV show only he didn’t know it, the only one not in on the joke, is in fact the truth for all of us? Does a panel of alien extra-terrestrials or a bunch of disembodied supernaturals watch our personal stories, and even the larger planetary dramas, unfolding as entertainment?
Yes, contemplate that thought. But know, even if it were so, not a lot we can do about it. Either way, we are left to work out our scripts, including the surprises / editorial interferences. I say: better write well, better submit the most excellent script that one can before The Editor begins tampering.
And if changes are made anyway, we can still decide to work with them. Perhaps some are improvements. Maybe The Editor sometimes gets it right? Even if not, what we’re stuck with is what we have to play with. If we must revise our plans, must go in a new direction — well, so be it. We can still determine the fine detail, still spare no effort to write ourselves to a splendid conclusion.
Written for Weekly Scribblings #30 at Poets and Storytellers United: Writing as a Metaphor for Living.
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage /
And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, /
We Poets of the proud old lineage /
Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ...
(James Elroy Flecker)
Love this! It's true that we create our own reality however it may be .. but I believe destiny tends to edit the story every now and then. And who knows? Perhaps one day our stories will be the ones being shared and told. Here's to writing/living our scripts well 💝💝
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sanaa. I'm glad it strikes a chord with you.
DeleteIn Hinduism , we believe that evrything that happens is because of our deeds and karmas, so yes, ture what we do will impact our story for sure.
ReplyDeleteNow that’s a thought, Rosemary! Maybe all those things that keep happening to us, that change the course of our lives, over which we have no control, are just editorial changes to our manuscripts. I like the way you describe it better: ‘some pruning here, some expansion there, a different mood, a change of pace, perhaps a touch of conflict to spice things up — until the prose suddenly (it seems suddenly) acquires a different rhythm, the tale a new perspective.’ I love that movie, The Truman Show, and can watch it again and again, I always spot something I didn’t notice previously. In future, my mantra will be ‘blame it on the Editor’!
ReplyDeleteMind you we are usually quite fair as writers commenting on each others work and only suggest alterations if there is a glaring error.
ReplyDeleteI am charmed by the fanciful musings tethered by the most sensible of observations about life. I believe in our freedom to add all the rich details we can to the story, and hope at the end it was a good one worth telling despite the twists and dips.
ReplyDeleteLuv the consciousness underlying choices, actions, and the plot of our own dramas
ReplyDeleteHappy Wednesday. Thanks for dropping by to read mine
Much✏love
Rose6, you've offered some insights as to writing your story. I'd love to write mine but I fear it would only be interesting to those who know me. I like to write for my readers, if they aren't there the enjoyment is gone.
ReplyDeleteStay Safe!!
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Dear Jim, my friends call me Rosemary! (And I trust you're a friend.)
DeleteIt's the nature of writers, I believe, to tend to embellish a bit to make things a bit more interesting, as in the old parlor game of starting a story at one end of the room and being amazed at how it evolves as it goes around the room. I know a story told by the young and naive me would take on a different inflection when told by the present me, weathered by time. An evocative write, Miss Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteSomeone once told me that people don't really have free will. They said that having free will would involve choosing to get sick or not, choosing to get into an accident or not... the list when on. This person's reasoning didn't make sense to me. Fine, so we can't really dictate what life or fate will throw at us. But the fact that we can choose how to react to the throws gives us a lot of power--the Editor can make us dance, but we choose our steps.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever see that Arthur C Clarke video about fractals? How beautifully patterned and organised the whole Universe is, no matter how widely or finely we examine it ... and then, the bit that excited and elated me most of all (because I like to think my will is free): randomness is built-in!
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ReplyDeleteI love this existential theory. In my life, The Editor always makes even the bad things work in my favour... eventually. Lovely write.
I think that is indeed the way of it – but we lacking the overview, and can't see how things work out until we get to a point in the narrative where we can look back over those events.
Deletetime for a nice cuppa reali-tea
ReplyDeleteA splendid conclusion is always the goal, but the route to get there is often tortuous indeed!
ReplyDeleteBut the best laid plans... I tend to agree with you, Rosemary. Interruptions, redirections and the random menagerie of life. We are but actors on the stage (I think I read that somewhere, hmmm)
ReplyDeleteOh, that darn Editor. I'll just have to insist on creative license :)
ReplyDeleteAha, I think you've got the secret!
DeleteWe absolutely make our own reality. We have to, or go mad, and punch
ReplyDeleteThe Editor. Love the possible analogy to The Truman Show. Great movie, and who really knows?