Writing Ain't Binary Either

Many questions cannot be answered "Yes" of "No". Not if we want to engage in 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." And, if you have, or aspire to have, the word 'writer' after your name, some version of the truth is probably at least one of your goals. 

That and, of course, a billion dollars.

Most of life isn't binary. And so, it follows, most writing techniques, craft, voice, processes and so forth do not have 'yes/no" answers either.

I can easily write five to twelve drafts for a 450-word newspaper column that requires little or no research. One of my colleagues recently wrote a one-page poem (a good one, too) in the parking lot just before our Writers' Group meeting. This is not an unusual experience for her, and she seldom ends up making any substantial revisions. And, I may note, people pay her actual money for her writing.

One difference I have noticed in the way writers talk about the goals of their writing, I can characterize in the phrase "Provides insights vs allows insights."

Those who 'provide insights' can dazzle us with their unique take on human nature and circumstances and truth. We react with "Wow, what a great idea / perspective! I never thought of that before. S/he must be a wise person." Mainly, the insights communicated by this poet or author are the insights s/he intends. Well-said to infiltrate our otherwise conventional and dense gray matter.

Those who 'allow insights' tend to open up the world for us, without a whole lot of guidance regarding what that insight is supposed to be.  In the inescapable words of Leonard Cohen:

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in

With the "allows insights" approach, the writer's primary goal is to produce the "crack". What 'light gets in' depends to a much greater extent on the reader than on the writer.

I am particularly cognizant of this when I see reactions to my 'humorous' pieces. Humour tends to be lumped together as frothy and inconsequential. A diversion from reality. 

We would be more reluctant, I submit, just to take an extreme example to make the point, to lump Virginia Woolf in with soap operas.

Sometimes the writer opens the crack and lightning enters.

Of course some, and perhaps most, of the writing you are doing now, including humorous writing, will do both.

Writing ain't usually binary either.