The Dark One
Auror
As a passionate 20yo, everything I did artistically (mainly music in those days) was about inflicting my world view on people.
Looking back on that I see a ham fisted young man shouting at the world about what was wrong and how to fix it.
No-one listened.
I was reflecting recently on how wrong-headed, immature and unrealistic I'd been as a youngster, and how much more sophisticated and well-informed my views were these days. In fact, a favourite saying of mine is that, if the person I was at 20 were to have an argument with the person I am today...the person I was at 20 would win the argument, but the person I am today would be right.
But the more I thought about it, and the more I considered my work that has, in fact, been commercially published, it occurred to me that I haven't really changed.
I am still pushing a whole bunch of social justice barrows in everything I do, it's just that they're not so ham fisted and obvious.
So, just like that arrogant, didactic, single-minded scumbag I was at twenty, I'm still trying to change the world, it's just that I've learned to do it more subtly and palatably. I don't scream the answer at people, I set up situations in my novels and let the politics happen in the brains of the readers as they deal with the antics of my characters. I let the readers come up with their own answers.
The message hasn't really changed, just the way it's delivered.
So what about you?
Are you pushing a barrow?
If yes, how much of that is the reason you're a writer?
Looking back on that I see a ham fisted young man shouting at the world about what was wrong and how to fix it.
No-one listened.
I was reflecting recently on how wrong-headed, immature and unrealistic I'd been as a youngster, and how much more sophisticated and well-informed my views were these days. In fact, a favourite saying of mine is that, if the person I was at 20 were to have an argument with the person I am today...the person I was at 20 would win the argument, but the person I am today would be right.
But the more I thought about it, and the more I considered my work that has, in fact, been commercially published, it occurred to me that I haven't really changed.
I am still pushing a whole bunch of social justice barrows in everything I do, it's just that they're not so ham fisted and obvious.
So, just like that arrogant, didactic, single-minded scumbag I was at twenty, I'm still trying to change the world, it's just that I've learned to do it more subtly and palatably. I don't scream the answer at people, I set up situations in my novels and let the politics happen in the brains of the readers as they deal with the antics of my characters. I let the readers come up with their own answers.
The message hasn't really changed, just the way it's delivered.
So what about you?
Are you pushing a barrow?
If yes, how much of that is the reason you're a writer?