From the Fiction Desk

When a writer or a poet sits down to write, they should pull open the scars of life and bleed out on the page in black ink. This sounds like a simple process in black and white, though the truth of the art lies deeply in the gray ocean of the author’s psyche. It is the wading through these waters, the exploration of their depth and their dangers that give a poem or a story the power to reach out and connect with the reader.

While it may read that this is about the painful emotions of defeat, heart break, or any other negative events, it is and it is not. People know, though they tend to put aside this knowledge, that for the pleasant events, the successes, the great loves of the world you have to be tried in someway, burned perhaps, but go forth on to your success. Others are caught in the fire and unable to escape. In either case, the emotions of the tribulations are the heart of the piece. Facing the emotions of these events can be a psychological wrestling match between the muse and the psyche. The muse knows that the story or poem is submerged in the gray ocean. The ocean does not want to surrender what has been sunk for the sake of the psyche. Yet, for the poem or story to be written with all the power it deserves, the muse must dredge the emotions of the events.

The therapy then begins as the author looks at the events and the emotions. He shatters his psyche and then mends the pieces back together in new ways, leading to a re-healing of the self as the ink goes onto the page—for another to read and understand.

Thank you for reading. Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on blogs, stories, and novels that I am writing.