WRITERS WHO ARE WORD ASSASSIANS
Do You Write to Hurt or Kill?
For most of my life my mind was adorned with statutes bearing the boldly written names of writers who'd impacted me and millions of others with their words. I wanted to be such a writer. I wanted to impact millions with my words. I'm not alone in this quest. Every true writer if s/he is truly honest, will admit having similar notions. (For the record: a true writer is someone who is passionate about writing to the point s/he would never permit an AI to write for them, but only to research for them. All others are hacks.)
WRITERS MUST EXAMINE THEMSELVES
One day some years ago, I had an epiphany. It was dumbfounding, at first. Frankly, I struggled with it (I still do, at times). The mental "pictures" in my mind would not, at first, allow me to accept the “revelation.”
The passion for writing drained from me. I even quit writing. There had been other times when I'd quit writing, but those were times when I'd run into health problems, or times when I was so busy with my law practice that I did not have the time or energy to write. This time, I quit with a different mindset, not knowing if I'd ever write anything again. I hoped I would. But, I wasn't sure about that. I didn't see how I could because I'd always thought of writing as not just a mental thing, but an emotional thing as well. My feelings are very much a part of me as a writer. It isn't just an intellectual rendering of my mind.
I began seeking answers, examining myself, looking deep within, and asking myself questions about myself. Have you ever done that? You should try it. But, only if you're able to disarm yourself and get totally honest with yourself. You have to look at the real "you," not the "you" that you would like to be, not the "you" projected to others, but the person stripped of all the various masks we wear and barren of all the mental, emotional and even physical postures we take with others and with ourselves.
It's a difficult thing to do, frankly. And, it may even bring some depression. It did for me. I didn't like what I saw. I struggled with accepting what I saw. But in time, I finally accepted the truth.
WHAT ARE YOU AS A WRITER DEEP DOWN?
Want to know what I saw?
I'll describe it...in part.
I saw a man who had a deep-seated anger at evil and injustice (and some other things). I still have that. But, I realized that it was an emotion that allowed me to justify using words as weapons. It allowed me to slice and dice another person deemed to be an "enemy," with words as sharp as any knife, and laugh at the bloody corpse as I put my keyboard away. There were other things, but suffice it to say, I did not like what I was shown that day. I find it fascinating how we, as humans, attempt to hide (from ourselves and others) our pride. We convince ourselves our ego is not inflated and the pride that sometimes oozes from us (an invisible substance to ourselves but usually very visible to others, particularly our friends) is not pride at all. It's confidence, don’cha know? We're "proud" of overcoming obstacles in life and of being successful by our hard work and being able to work through hardships that have assailed us in life, blah, blah, blah.
A Writing Career Sidelined for Decades
Over time, my epiphany coupled with a closer look at "me" gave me a new perspective on writing. I realized that I had to learn how to write certain things with a different mindset. Ironically, for the first time in my life, I was nearing the point where I could devote serious time to my writing. All the years prior to that were distractions that kept me from ever devoting serious attention to my writing career. I recall doing some articles on databases for a magazine right after I graduated from Purdue with a BA in American History. I'd been accepted for law school and also working full-time for a local utility company. That summer, I received a letter from Sams Publishing asking me if I'd write a book for them on databases. Oh my! That was a dream-job. I was fascinated with databases and it would give me a chance to expand my knowledge to a level that only comes with intense research and study. But, as I thought about it, mentally outlining the work I'd need to do and the time it would take, I knew I could not accept the contract.
I wrote nothing during law school (3 years) except essays and term papers and study notes. Then, when I graduated, the only thing I wrote for the next several years was legal briefs and motions. Eventually, I managed to write a non-fiction book about the pastor of the church I'd attended for around twenty years. Since over 75% of my clients were from that church, the writing of the book nearly bankrupted me. I knew when I started the book that it would seriously hurt me financially, but frankly, did not anticipate how bad it would be. An older lawyer once told me: "It takes about 7 years to build a successful law practice and it only takes a year to destroy one." I had to tell him later that he was wrong. Mine disappeared overnight. I literally had clients coming into my office firing me and demanding their files.
An Encounter with a Child Molester Causes a Book to be Written
So, my writing career was once more put on hold whilst I began rebuilding my law practice. I did manage, during this time, to write a few western fiction novels, but I did not have the time to learn how to promote them, so I just threw them up to Amazon without any promotions. They did fair and I have had some good reviews (even a few who touted me as being in the same atmosphere as Louis L'Amour). During the rebuilding of the law practice, I had an encounter in my new church with a church member (also a client), who turned out to be a child molester. Due to his heavy involvement with our church and at times, even our church children (the child molested was his own grand-daughter), I realized how vulnerable we were. The church had virtually no security measures in place. So, it motivated me to write a book, Protecting Your Church Against Sexual Predators. The essence of the book was that if a church provided the proper security for the church against these predators, two valuable things would occur: (1) the church would not be owned one day by a plaintiff and their lawyers; and (2) by protecting the church they'd be protecting the children.
My "epiphany" had occurred prior to the writing of that book. Since then, my efforts at writing have been rather mundane, unfocused and pretty much on whatever I felt like writing. I did a few westerns, mostly for myself as writing them is, for me, a kind of escape. I literally am able to ride those dusty trails in my mind for the many hours of writing. So, if I never made a dime for writing them, I'd still do them because of the pleasure they bring me.
All of which brings me to the point of this piece, to wit, the great truth I learned about writing.
If you're a writer reading this, I do hope that you can grasp what I'm about to bring to you. But, I do realize that for most of you, this will whiz by your head and miss you entirely. And, it has nothing to do with your intelligence. Frankly, if I'd read this fifteen years ago, I'd have disagreed with me. Seriously. (I still find myself wanting to argue with me now and then and sometimes have written things, posted them and had to remove them.) But, where writing can go wrong for any writer is when s/he writes with one or more of the following purposes: (1) to hurt someone; (2) to take pleasure in a great "put down" of another person; and/or (3) to merely display his or her skills as a word assassin.
Some Writers are Good at Cutting Throats with Words
I'm good at cutting a throat with words. In fact, I'd say I'm an expert at it, better than your average word assassin. So, when I write a piece, say something on the news around us, I have to step back later and ask myself about my intentions. Sometimes, it's not easy to do. You see, there's nothing wrong with speaking the truth about a matter, or even calling out wrong or evil. Sometimes we need to do that. But, writers need to take more responsibility for their words by examining themselves.
What was the real reason for writing it, and for writing it in that "tone" of voice? Was it to satisfy your ego? Was it to expose someone as an "evil doer" or was it to inflate your reputation as a champion of good vs. evil? Are you able, as a writer, to expose that evil-doer and yet keep your ego in check? A good reporter is actually very good at that kind of writing. I'm terrible at it. I want to mingle the facts with words that don't just expose them, but cause the reader to despise them and ridicule them. The writer held in check in me wants to do a piece against those who are evil such that even good Christians will read it and the thought of praying for such a person will evaporate and never again cross their minds.
So writers, I do hope I've challenged you to at least try and put your ego in the "Hold" file while you write and to try and write without mockery and without drawing forth anger and hatred from your readers. Do you really want to bring out MORE anger and hate into our world? Write the truth. And, write with passion, with feeling. But, don't craft your work to engender hatred.
Let me close with this. And, this is VERY hard for me to write. If you knew me better, you'd understand the difficulty for me. I hate evil. I hate injustice. And, keeping myself from writing in a caustic, scathing tone of "voice" is extremely difficult for me when I write about certain people/subjects. It is difficult for me to write about Hamas. I despise what they've done. I hate their cowardice, their use of fellow Palestinians as human shields, and their brutal, non-human attacks on Israelites. So, writing about them is difficult to do and not write without deliberately causing the reader to hate the individuals themselves. I hate their evil. I hate what they stand for and their deeds. I hate the organization because of its stated cause and reason for existence and ultimate goals. But, I resist writing words that would cause a person to hate another individual. There’s too much hatred being slung about on social platforms today. The comment sections are often bizarre rants of hatred spewing vile words and venomous hatred. I can’t say I’m always successful at controlling my words. I do try. But, if our words bring hatred towards another person, then we have to realize it is probable that we’ve done a disservice.
To whom, you ask?
Well, humanity, for one.
And, to God.
The hardest words to obey in the entire Bible: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But, I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt 5:43-44).
Loved this article.