The ‘Myth’ and The ‘Reality’ of Writing (Part One)

By Mohammed Adamu.

THE MYTH

PREAMBLE
Of the many mythological Greek gods of antiquity, was a wings-footed deity named ‘Caerus’, -the grandson of Zeus who reputedly went about incognito and on a tiptoe, with a tuft of hair-shoot on his forehead.

And the omens were that whoever were vigilant enough to discern his presence, may grab at the tuft of his forelock until their wishes were granted! Else not discerning his presence meant that ‘Opportunity’ had eluded them!

But what, you may ask, has ‘writing’ got to do with the mythology of some Greek ‘god of Opportunity’ named Caerus? Plenty I say. And I will soon prove the nexus between ‘mythical opportunism’ and the vicissitudes of ‘writing’.

If you ask me, one of the many problems generally associated with ‘writing’ -and especially organized, non casual writing- is ‘procrastination’; -namely in this case, the habit of always postponing any writing plans or ideas.

And you know what the English say: that “procrastination is the thief of time”. But in fact you should wish that the malady only steals your writing ‘time’! Because ‘procrastination’ also is a veritable maimer, killer and the entomber of great writing ideas’!

Being indecisive about a writing plan, or unable to continue the writing of an already-begun plan or maybe delaying the continuation of, or resumption on, the writing of any previously discontinued work, are all procrastination’s terrible handiwork.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND THE GODS.
In truth, the paths even of the most celebrated writers, from antiquity down to the contemporary, are massively littered with the morbid bodies either of un-begun, poorly-begun, tardily finished or even doomly un-finish-able materials!

And the reason is that great writers too appear to struggle with the written word -and that is if not that they do so even more. Because obviously, seekers after perfection in writing (which most great writers are), often don’t even think that last hour’s masterpiece, is still good enough! It can be made better!

Every time great writers read back a piece, no matter how good it was before, they think that it can still be made better -and thus should be consigned to the bin of the un-finished, or gradually even, of the un-finish-able. Now the god of this sub-realmn, must have the devil in him for ‘excellence’!

The writer’s parkinson’s is my coinage for a writing malady that may be of the finger’s inability to steadily snug the pen; or a syndrome from want of skills or of knowledge, or both. Or it may just be the consequence of the absence of Cadmus, the god of writing; or of some other ancillary gods..

And maybe I sound intellectually superstitious, right? Maybe yes. But in truth I believe that all good writing is a function of one or both of two major sparks: the sparks of ‘knowledge and skills’ or the sparks of the Midas touch of the mythological gods! Or of both.

It is amazing how sometimes you read back a piece you have so casually written and you now wonder how you could so effortlessly have penned such a masterpiece in the most minimum of timing and probably with the littlest presence of mind? Has to be the gods!

And this is how the discerning writer is sure to know he is not actually being mythologically superstitious about it: the day that the gods elect to desert -or leave- him to the avail only of his own devices, that day he will see that ‘skills’ alone or ‘knowledge’, do not the good writer make!

There is, I have often noticed, some kind of gratuitous icing of providence even onto the cake of a writer’s existential ‘skills and knowledge’, -such as poignantly reminds of the gracious descent of the 10 Commandments, up from Mount Sinai even unto the rock of Gibraltar.

That inexplicable surge of enthusiasm that a writer always ‘badly’ needs, of determination, of the equanimity of mind and especially of the sudden serendipity of inspired ideas, such as will furiously compete for his consideration, can only be thanks to the invisible hands of some gods at work!

THE COOKS AND THE BROTH
Ironically in the kitchen of the writing art, ‘too many cooks’ do not necessarily spoil the broth; they can in fact only make it even brothier! Because a writer is like a blacksmith who needs, at once, the heat and red-ness of many irons at once in the fireplace!

Needless to say that he may not, by the way, need them all! But to be the ‘old-dog-writer’ that you should be -and thus be the one to whom no new tricks may be be taught- you must always contemplate your ‘what-ifs’, and not the ‘what-if-nots’!

Because being like war, writing also requires filling the proportions of defense at the time those of offense are filled! In polemical writing for example it means preempting rebuttal, in a manner that doing so against the grain of logic and reason, is obviously at the peril of the rebuter’s self-ridicule!

The pen, as they say, may be mightier than the gun; yes; but it is itself mutable even by mildest maladies such as when the pen may always be ‘inky and ready’, but the brain may occasionally be ‘high and dry’, -lacking in all the departments of ‘inspiration’.

And the realm of ‘inspiration’ as you know, is not the forte of the god of writing himself, ‘Cadmus’. Rather it is the preserve of the ‘Muses’. Thus making woe still betides the writer at peace with the god of writing but in the cold with the gods of ‘inspiration’!

Being friends with the god of writing, (Cadmus) but strange bedfellows with the great gods of inspiration, the ‘Muses’, is as the drunken Porter in Macbeth says about the dilemma-evoking nature of ‘liquor’, which he says “provokes the desire, but takes away the action”!

‘Inspiration’, not necessarily ‘skills or knowledge’, is the soul of writing. And the ‘Muses’ therefore, not averse to pranking with such power, may hit you with an idea at midnight as you leave the toilet, eager to return to bed before Hypnos, the ‘god of slumber’ departs your sleep eyes!

So that now you may either return to bed with the god of ‘Slumber’ or you may get into a new romance with Caerus, who now technically epitomizes the ‘opportunity’ inherent in the gift of ‘inspiration’ from the Muses. Using their ‘inspiration’ actually is what passes for grabbing at the tuft of Caerus!

Thus in just one night a writer may receive the graces of three gods: those of the Muses -for ‘Inspiration’; Caerus -for ‘Opportunity’ and Cadmus -the substantive god of the writing art. No writer worth his salt will ignore the manifest benevolence of these gods, and decides instead, to go to bed with a sleepy ‘Hypnos’!

And as you stay awake jotting these ‘inspired’ stuff, who knows, maybe after just an hour of guided articulation, a masterpiece, requiring only the crossing of the t’s and the dotting of i’s, may be born, which, ordinarily even a week of exertion in a library may not have birthed. That’s the irony of writing for you.

To Be Continued
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