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Showing posts with label faerie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faerie. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Great Chase

The Great Chase

Why Friendship and Joy-Chasing are Essential for

A Life Well-Lived

 


In lieu of the increasing fans (like you),

here's a new post!

I'm not really sure what to write. It happens more often than not, actually. What really kills me, though, is how I'll get these excellent writing moods... all the stars will align and a hallelujah chorus will shimmer down from above... and then I'll get distracted.

Seriously.

And no, before you bring it up - it's not all social media distractions, either. Life gets distracting. My mind just becomes all cluttered up sometimes. Lately, I've been without a car - which has been frustrated. I don't like always being stuck at home, and it can drive me up the walls. As a writer, and really just as a regular ol' human being, the ability to get out when the fancy takes you is essential. I'm sorry Emily Dickinson... but no... I have mad respect for you and all... but still no.

I guess what I'm trying to say is how I think really good writing is something which, barring a gift from fickle muses, comes out of life well-lived. Good-bad-ugly... but still life well-lived.

What makes for a well-lived life?

I'm no Marcus Aurelius, but I think CS Lewis was on to something when he writes about Joy-Chasing in his Surprised by Joy, and also in his Pilgrim's Regress. There are things you will find, uncovered within yourself - or introduced to you by others, which stir up a Longing inside. For me, they're things having to do with mythology, theatre, traveling, Autumn, the rain... It's funny, because a tell-tale sign that you're probably on the right track to identifying exactly what your Joy is - the harder it becomes to say exactly what IT is. - Like those who have tasted of the magical food from Faerie... after you've returned from the Perilous Land, you're always left wanting in a delightful sort of agony.

Lewis humbly suggested that what we want is not, perhaps, the Thing ITSELF, but the chase. So the next time something moves you, don't try to possess it. Merely enjoy it while it is, as it is, and then carry on. Keep IT secret - keep IT safe.

Another thing I think lends to a life well-lived are good friends. A man may be the poorest in the whole world, yet if he has genuine friends he is rich. Friendship is one of those things which lend to Life's sense of meaning and purpose. When you suddenly discover that the guy or girl over there likes the same thing you do... that same secret Joy... there is often a moment, whether spoken or not, where each thinks something like, 'What? You too?'.

- This same thing is partly how I first met my to-be wife, Steph... it's how I first met my esteemed friend (and fellow author) R.E. Dean... Friendship helps make us MORE. A Joy we may have inside remains only that one Joy, but when friendship allows people to share a Joy... its like light splitting through a prism into a million new possibilities we never could have come to on our own. Shared Joy via Friendship is like staring down from a great height... we see all the twists and turnings which could have taken us higher up and deeper in - and all the other paths which could have led us on... but our Journey would have been radically different. Thus, WE would be radically different, in turn.

What does any of this have to do with writing, though?

It has exactly, precisely to do with writing because when we finally do sit down and write, we are not just putting words on a page, but little pieces of us. This is not ink, nor mere pixels which you now read - but the confluence of hundreds of thousands of interlinking friendships formed over shared Joy-chasing. Each word is not only my own - but also immaculately blended bits and pieces of people I've known and loved from all over the world - living and departed.

And it's the same when you create something, too.

Whenever someone pours their heart and soul, time and energy - blood, sweat, and tears - into something beautiful - we see Life as Art. (Tolkien would call it 'Sub-creation')

In all your Joy-chasing - happy hunting. Write on! Read on!

- Ryan
 

Friday, July 17, 2015

Rienspelling the Morning Away...



I cannot wait until Rienspel is published.
Seriously.

I woke up this morning and the winds which punctuate these late midwestern storms like so many commas were blowing through my backyard's trees. Later on, still thinking about the indescribable feeling I get when I think about Rienspel - the feel which has grown up from one single simple map sketch into a raging torrent of words and pages into this singularly great story... oh, I'm excited for it to be published.

I've learned if I focus on it too long - like strong drink or heady perfume - the feel can fill me up and make me ache. Like I said - it's kinda hard to describe. I want you to know, faithful reader, how each page, each character was worked over carefully. I know most of those reading this post are not numbered among the very few beta-readers I use... but oh, you are in for a treat.

You've probably noticed how I'm working on a different novel right now... The Grey Isle (The Path of Flames ? - I dunno, I'm still working on a title). And you're probably asking yourself, right along with me, hey Ryan - why don't you just keep working on Rienspel? You know... we're all going to want to get our paws on book two of the Phoenix of Redd series once we're finished! Well, the truth is I can't right now. Oh sure, I mean I can physically sit down at my desk and write, for sure... but I can't write IT yet. Writing something like this, which means so terribly much to me (and you should hear how my wife, Steph, goes on about how I care too much about what I write...) takes something out of me. I have to recharge. I have to let my heart and spirit breathe after soaring so high into the starry heavens.

I want you to know that this story, which so many people have helped make possible for me to write and bring to you... (and please try to keep the eye-rolling to a minimum here) Rienspel WANTS to be written. It's like a sentient creature, or like some sort of tale whose particularly delicious aroma has wafted out over that tenuous wall which separates us from Faerie. (SHHHH. keep your thoughts down, will you! - or they'll hear!) Speak too loudly about even the idea and it vanishes. I'm serious. It's like the moment when you are dreaming and you fully realize it is a dream... and then the more you struggle to remain in dreamland the more rapidly you rise to waking. We adventure in perilous lands best left to unexpectedly lucky widow's sons.... lost princesses... and those who long... deep, deep in their hearts for something BETTER.

Rienspel is my shot at it. It's just a book, yes. But what a book! The ideas within them... the subtle presuppositions laced, layer over layer, beckon even me for something... some grand thing... which is deeper, higher and greater than we dare hope to realize...

But like I said, it's kinda hard to explain.

- Cheers

Ryan

ps- for a treat, check out the youtube playlist I arranged to get your Rienspeling whimsy going: