JOLLY DAYS

Surface to Substance

VS Naipaul wrote in his essay On Being a Writer:

I felt it as artificial, that sitting down to write a book. And that is a feeling that is with me still, all these years later, at the start of a book—I am speaking of an imaginative work. There is no precise theme or story that is with me. Many things are with me; I write the artificial, self-conscious beginnings of many books; until finally some true impulse—the one I have been working toward — possesses me, and I sail away on my year's labor. And that is mysterious still—that out of artifice one should touch and stir up what is deepest in one's soul, one's heart, one's memory.

The beginnings of creative works are inevitable and obscure. Creative works are waiting to form up, to overflow into expression which then shapes itself, with the aid of editing and understanding of what is evolving; but those expressive acts don't act directly, or through cajoling or pre-conceptualization. It is more like allowing, stepping out of the way, being open and aware; relaxed but aware.