I recently sent some of my poems and a manuscript to several different places that appeared to be interested in the type of poetry that I provide, and this is significant because I haven’t sent my poems to an outside source before. When I first started to write poems, I sent some of them to Obscura to be published in the magazine for the year (I believe it was 2019), but I haven’t made a dedicated effort to send my work somewhere else. What makes these efforts more significant, is that I had to pay an entrance fee in order for my work to get considered. When you attach a concrete value to a submission, it feels as if there is more weight to it. Obviously. I’d lose nothing but my pride if Obscura rejected me.

I’m mentioning this, because as writer’s, there is a lot to consider when we actually write. One important consideration, is what is the purpose of this piece we are writing?

Am I writing this in order to receive recognition? Or am I writing in order to appease myself?

The two aren’t necessarily exclusive either, but there are differences in how you should view and approach your writing as a product, when you decide where on the spectrum you decide to place your work. And if you’re like me, and have decided that you should be recognized for your work, then you have to consider the objective reality and truth of the writing you are producing, rather than what your own specific truth is. This was discussed shortly in my previous post.

As humans, we have a tendency to cascade our trauma’s, emotions and/or biases when we express ourselves. We spread these motivations or perspectives and we saturate our surroundings with them, and as writers, that includes what it is we write. As since we are writing, it is only natural for us to put ourselves into the writing by consequence of us not being able to detach from our ego. This is relevant to the purpose of our writing, because this wouldn’t particularly matter if we are writing just to satisfy ourselves and our ego, that is unless our ego demands purification of our content. That purification, in my opinion, would entail removing clear biases that we are only attached to due to our unique experiences, which many other people would not feel so strongly about, because they do not share those experiences. That is why, if you decide to write for recognition, you have to learn to be more objective and detach yourself from the story your envisioning, and instead learn and explore the story that is growing as you write and document.

As I write, I find myself often changing course entirely for this reason. I may originally intend to write about how I don’t know how to approach my friend whom I care for deeply, due to the distance that has suddenly grown between us. As I progress, the work will twist and turn and when I recollect my thoughts on it as a whole I realize that it speaks to me as a commentary on the perspective we Rorschach, which in turn leads us down different paths, despite the face of it being similar. In this vein, I’d find much more connection with the world as a whole than specifically with my friend, although that seed is still in there. If I were to hold true to my ego during this writing, and stayed on track and allowed my trauma’s and emotions dictate my direction, the end product wouldn’t be anywhere near as exciting, dynamic and I believe, accessible to those in conversation with it.

This feels somewhat disingenuous and disappointing to me in some facet, because I truly want to say that you should stick true to yourself and not conform for anyone around you. Because not only did I put forward this argument earlier, as we are all unique and individual slices in this galactic pie of the cosmos. However, I feel like I’m able to reconcile this if I consider progress and improvement as something inherent to us all. I believe that there is an objective truth out there in almost all scenarios, and I believe it is possible that each person has their own truth to realize in their own world. If we all strive for this in the way we can, we can both be true to ourselves, and reach an objective height where the power and monumental truth of our stories allows us to be recognized, as we deserve to be.