On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
Writer Julie Duffy shared the following thought-provoking advice in a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog:
It’s hard to take our eyes off the endless news coverage, but the world needs us to peel ourselves away from the outrage machine, and instead make art that tells the truth.
Fiction doesn’t have to preach a political message.
But even if you’re writing about fairies or aliens, fiction cannot help being political because everything you write reflects your values and mirrors your experiences.
Don’t be afraid of that.
And don’t think your writing doesn’t matter, because there are “more important issues right now.”
There is no more important issue that opening someone’s heart to subtlety, to nuance, to the fact that every human being contains multitudes and that it is possible to hold two opposing ideas inside you at the same time.
The Hamas attack on Israel was horrifying and the death toll and famine in Gaza is horrifying.
Two very old men are running to for a second term as President in the US and we have to elect one of them because that’s how the system works.
Some young women love Taylor Swift and have discovered that being part of the fandom for a football team is fun.
As a writer you help people to turn away from the shrieking “this or that” of social media and welcoming them into the complex world of fiction that deals with all the parts of being a human in community with other humans.
It is important work.
It is healing work.
Joanne Guidoccio 