The whisper of a writer’s voice
No writer — through writing their writer’s journey — can hear that voice. This is what I thought, looking at things using what I knew — 100% certainty setting. One thing I know, 100%. It knows how to throw things away. Somehow my critic being is always ahead. Ahead of my innocent being, ahead of other beings in development. It keeps silencing things, too quickly. To defend it, it may be due to practical reasons: why bother with so many possibilities, with the risky movements? The critic gets the credit, as wise, unfortunately.
The complication — the more I fed that critical being — is his kills in killing plagues. He can’t see. He can’t see that badge. All he sees, when the sprout comes out, are potential plagues. I had no way of knowing. Now I know — I would say by chance or perhaps lucky — that what appeared to be noises, or the undesired, perhaps were the sounds of a writer’s voice. Whispers.
Before we move on, I have to say thanks to a window, the window that allowed the light to come my way. Thank you, Julia Cameron. Thank you for The Artist’s Way and thank you for morning pages. The doing of Julia’s morning pages have unlocked something. Or it broke the bars of a body and set a mind and spirit free. It could be huge. I even fear, that being or that beast. I am not sure, that it is 100% good, or 100% bad.
But the more I did morning pages, the more I wrote, and the more I kept on feeding that (innocent) being, one thing were happening: A crack to those bars. From 99% certainty, to 98% certainlty, and on and on. I might be now at 90% certainty. As a consequence, I may have set that being 10%. The following is an example, of how that being — now free — is hunting my writing.
Before
Our environment — of tools, methods, and the social mechanisms — given by this now networked and digital world, sometimes looks like that salt lake flat. They invite us to join and to accelerate. And we know, of the so many things in front of us, an abundant world of solutions, with voices, narratives, tools, methods, platforms, and networks — all which give us a means for interacting and iterating. While it can be overwhelming, we don’t see all of that as a flat land meant to slow us down. In reality, what we see, and what we get, are things to boost us, to take us to move even faster. Consider, for example, the cost to access motivation from these networks. We can be thrilled with stories that enlighten our entrepreneurial spirit. On the other hand, consider the tools, or methods, that are proven to advance collaboration. But more than motivation and processes, we are equally able to advance the actual startup using actual networks of support, the interactive spaces where we can get in touch with potential customers, investors, mentors, practitioners, cofounders, partners, and more.
After
Now, we may ask why we are here. Why you are here and why I am here? We are here because of that space where we see what is possible. It starts from the inside, founders know that, qualified or not. But then it moves with the outside, our environment, what I call our building blocks, given by tools and methods and social mechanisms. An now-rich, or faster, or networked environment which wants to give us that ride. And they know our passion. In perspective, when I look at them, I tell myself that don’t impress me much. But when I am back there, in the arena and wearing my hungry founder helmet, they do. Most of them seem pretty smart, they seem pretty right. They come with their shiny machines and some think they are geniuses. But then, again and again, they drive me up to a wall. What are them building blocks? They aren’t much different from us, in essence, although they seem pretty qualified when we need that ride. They are the potential customers, potential mentors, potential advisors, potential practitioners, potential investors, potential marketeers, incubators, accelerators, you name it. And with their qualified tools and methods or frameworks or platforms, all that they want is to take us, to give us that ride.
And the reflection I made:
Now, I don’t know the one you like. They might be both confusing for the reader in a hurry anyway, or market standards. Anyway, that is just a scene and I wanted to say that founders are now equipped with too many solutions and that these solutions can harm their way. Now, to the voice, or whispers, the point I want to highlight is that the new version was influenced by Shania Twain’s song entitled That Don’t Impress me Much. Well, I know, 90% sure anyway, that you may be saying now “that don’t impress me much.” It’s okay.
But what I fear more is how I were impressed before — by them impressions where I could not hear anything, not even a whisper of that possible voice. See, I am not saying that that is a good voice. But I have a point. I feel, now I know, when that beast comes my way. I see the scenes, from the movies, I hear their voices from the songs. It passes through, 10% visible.
I have used lines from Rambo II (“I’m expendable. What means expendable Rambo? You are not expendable.”) when I wanted to make a point that founders are not expendable. I have used lines from Pink Floyd’s The Wall when I wrote that “all in all, they are just another brick” when I wanted to make a point that the building blocks of founders can also get on their way. I have used lines from Top Gun II, “don’t think, just do it,” when I wanted to make a point that founders sometimes move using instincts.
This thing, or this force, or this movement, or a beast, is clearly hunting my writing now. I say that with 90% certainty. Now, after I had lowered my discretion settings, from 100% and through morning pages, I had the opportunity to see how the original version of that movement were coming along. To be honest, 90% honest this time, at the time I could not hear anything. But not because it was too weak but because it was too strong, too visceral, or too colorful.
I once told my wife, who knew I was writing a business book, with a half full glass of excitement, that I had used some lines or words of metaphors from Jurassic Park. She brought up a point that I could be confusing my readers. We both understood that, 100%. And we both too considered the possibility that I wanted the audience to know what I did. But we kept the partly window open, right there. And somehow those broken bars had set a beast free, to some extent. And now the beast keeps coming and going. Now the beast continues to hunting my writing. Doing it, again and again. I can’t say if this is good, 100%, of if this is bad, 100%. The thing I can say, for now, is to ask us — what is your setting?
