"The only way to change your story is to change what you believe about yourself. Every time you change the main character of your story, the whole story changes to adopt to the new main character."
-Don Miguel Ruiz
I got the above quote from a church bulletin that was meant to tell people that it was alright to change their life. Being a writer, I saw something else. I looked Don Miguel Ruiz up and found some interesting things. Please excuse me, reader, for I did not know who he was. Don Miguel Ang
el Ruiz was born in 1952 and is a Mexican author of New Age spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts. His most famous and influential work, "The Four Agreements", was published in 1997.
The Four Agreements are:
1.) Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2.) Don't Take Anything Personally.
3.) Don't Make Assumptions.
4.) Always Do Your Best.
(Source Wikipedia)
In creative writing, the writer writes a story about someone and if that someone cha
nges for some reason then it changes the entire piece one is working on. That goes without saying, however I don't know how many times I am reading a book or a short story and the main character or villain does something that is totally unexplainable and the author does absolutely nothing to explain it. As I reader all I can do is say: huh? And after some checking, put the story down.
That does not mean there can't be some hints in the story and I have to do some work to look for it. That can be fun. In some of James Joyce's stories, one does have to look a
nd read between the lines to figure out why some of the characters do what they do in his stories; but the point is the information is in the stories. Joyce provides enough flesh on the bones to give the necessary information and for me it is enjoyable and very satisfying.
I trust some writers to put the necessary information in their work in the first place. Those writers have earned my trust by my reading them in the past. I always look first before discarding a story or even a poem. Things have to fit and I have to have enough to understand and to form a complete image in a piece of art although it may not be what is in the writer's or poet's mind. One of the most beautiful short stories I ever read was "The Dead" by James Joyce because there were so many layers to explore in that story. At every reading, I get more and more out of it because of that factor.
It is enough in one's own life to see the changes that happen and to play detective in trying to figure out what is going on with the people around you and one's own reactions to it. All of us do change. We change moment to moment, day to day, month to m
onth and year to year. It is what life is all about. That is why I love journals because I can go back to the old journals and see how much I have changed over the course of the years. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. There are many who don't believe that. I had a friendship that broke up over that many years ago. He did not think it was a good idea to enquire too much into one's own life. A writer has to ask and question why a character does this and not that and when change happens, why?
-Don Miguel Ruiz
I got the above quote from a church bulletin that was meant to tell people that it was alright to change their life. Being a writer, I saw something else. I looked Don Miguel Ruiz up and found some interesting things. Please excuse me, reader, for I did not know who he was. Don Miguel Ang
el Ruiz was born in 1952 and is a Mexican author of New Age spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts. His most famous and influential work, "The Four Agreements", was published in 1997.The Four Agreements are:
1.) Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2.) Don't Take Anything Personally.
3.) Don't Make Assumptions.
4.) Always Do Your Best.
(Source Wikipedia)
In creative writing, the writer writes a story about someone and if that someone cha
nges for some reason then it changes the entire piece one is working on. That goes without saying, however I don't know how many times I am reading a book or a short story and the main character or villain does something that is totally unexplainable and the author does absolutely nothing to explain it. As I reader all I can do is say: huh? And after some checking, put the story down.That does not mean there can't be some hints in the story and I have to do some work to look for it. That can be fun. In some of James Joyce's stories, one does have to look a
nd read between the lines to figure out why some of the characters do what they do in his stories; but the point is the information is in the stories. Joyce provides enough flesh on the bones to give the necessary information and for me it is enjoyable and very satisfying.I trust some writers to put the necessary information in their work in the first place. Those writers have earned my trust by my reading them in the past. I always look first before discarding a story or even a poem. Things have to fit and I have to have enough to understand and to form a complete image in a piece of art although it may not be what is in the writer's or poet's mind. One of the most beautiful short stories I ever read was "The Dead" by James Joyce because there were so many layers to explore in that story. At every reading, I get more and more out of it because of that factor.
It is enough in one's own life to see the changes that happen and to play detective in trying to figure out what is going on with the people around you and one's own reactions to it. All of us do change. We change moment to moment, day to day, month to m
onth and year to year. It is what life is all about. That is why I love journals because I can go back to the old journals and see how much I have changed over the course of the years. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. There are many who don't believe that. I had a friendship that broke up over that many years ago. He did not think it was a good idea to enquire too much into one's own life. A writer has to ask and question why a character does this and not that and when change happens, why?
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