Is writing simply sitting at the computer keyboard and putting words on the screen and then printing them out or uploading them to an eBook site? Do authors simply get ideas, outline them, and then pound out the words? The answer is yes--they very often do--but I humbly suggest that when artists in any medium are doing their best work, they are channeling what it is that wants to be written or expressed.
This is not a new concept. Writers, painters, and musicians have said this for thousands of years. Noel Paul Stookey, the "Paul" of Peter, Paul and Mary, refused to accept royalties for "The Wedding Song," which he wrote for Peter Yarrow's wedding. Stookey claimed that the song was given to him in answer to prayer and that he was simply the vehicle for what God wished to express. Accordingly, he put the song into the Public Domain.
I was pleasantly surprised when I read the same philosophy in the preface of Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. This powerhouse agent said that after all is said and done, a writer needs the humility to get out of the way of the story and allow something larger to come through the writing process. I think Herman has it right.
Humility doesn't come easy to any human being, and when we create something of great meaning, we naturally want credit for it. There's nothing wrong with copyrights and royalty checks. After a certain point, however, we must admit that our skills and aptitudes are given to us at birth. At our best, we are expressions of greater truths. This is why it is so thrilling to find and read a book that truly inspires the reader. We see something that we never saw before, or we see it in a new light.
Not everyone will accept this. It takes faith, but without faith that my words come from a greater source of wisdom than my own brain, I don't think I could do what I do.
~ William Hammett
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