No Writer is an Island – published by New Writers Welcome on MEDIUM

Thank you, editor Robert Ralph of New Writers Welcome on MEDIUM for publishing my opinion piece article “No Writer is an Island.”
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No Writer is an Island

(Well, at least most aren’t)

Many writers, myself included, are loners. We like to think of ourselves as that sturdy solo oak tree, standing in the middle of a vast empty field, with only wind-blown blades of grass surrounding us. Nothing to touch us. No one to tell us what we have to do, or how we should do it. After all, we are artists.

It is my belief that writers fall into two camps, with many variations in-between.

There are the gregarious sorts, who love their workshops, classes, book readings, and just gathering with other literary types. They eat up every word spoken, and absorb every piece of information. They listen to the advice of the writer gods, and they profit from what they learn.

Then you have the solitary sorts, like me. I just want to stay inside my own head, and write what I want to write. To hell with rules, or style, or syntax. I am one of the unwashed, unlearned masses, who flood the world with stories and poems, that had no right to be written in the first place. Or, maybe they did. My work may not be scholarly, but I believe it takes all kinds of stories and poems to fill the void. A little something by everyone, and for everyone.

Even though I, and other like me, do not follow convention, I do read a lot of work by other writers, and hope that I learn as I go along. My personal belief is that writing is an art, and there should be leeway in how it is interpreted. Afterall, not everyone is going to like every style of writing, painting, music, etc. There is room for many different approaches where the arts are concerned.

There are classical schools, and abstract schools, experimental, and so forth. It is the free-spirited artists that usually discover the next new technique. Some think this is good, others think that the staid and true form of classic writing, rhyme, realistic painting, etc., should be the standard – The Holy Grail.

When it is all done, who is to say what worked best? There is room for all of us.  So go out and gather. Or, stay locked in and contemplate. There is no right way or wrong way. JUST WRITE!