 For Authors: September 29, 2021 Issue [#10991] |
This week: When "I" opens the eye Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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| I couldn't understand why my former boss did some of the things she did. Her actions seemed to be detrimental to the organization she had founded herself. In an attempt to understand her motives, I tried writing in the first person about those episodes. |
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Dear Reader,
There is something immediate about a story written in the first person. As a reader, one is possibly drawn in quickly since it seems like a friend or acquaintance is narrating something that happened to them.
As a writer, I thought I'd use this technique to try to understand some things that puzzled me about the actions of a former boss. I attempted to put myself in her shoes and tell the story from her point of view.
It worked!
I'm not sure if the motives I attributed to her were her actual motives in doing what she did. I may have been way off the mark. What did happen was that I clarified things in my own head, to my own satisfaction The incidents no longer troubled me, since they were now explained. It was cathartic indeed!
Here's an example.
My previous job was in advertising, writing copy. Often, clients briefed the advertising agency very late, and demand the work 'yesterday'. Which meant overnight stints, often back-to-back with no rest in between. Invariably, frayed nerves led to bad tempers. The need to churn out brilliant work to a tight deadline with people breathing down one's neck - over and over again often led to burn out. Fortunately for me, I was too junior when I was in that job to get too much of the brunt of this, but I saw colleagues suffering.
Keeping the maxim 'the customer is always right' meant that the clients could not be requested to change their ways. However, I thought a better job could be done rotating those who had to spend wakeful nights at the office.
So when I wrote about it, I tried to see it from the boss's point of view. Here's a fictionalized diary entry by her:
"Anita is working late again, for the third night in a row. Maybe I should've put Suresh on this campaign and given her a rest. But I need Suresh to be alert to attend strategy meetings, I can't have both of them tired out at the same time. Maybe Anita can make up by taking a couple of days off in the middle of a non-busy week."
I have no clue whether this was the boss's actual reason, but it helped me cope when Anita got snappy with me for no fault of my own. Instead of snapping back, I actually got her some coffee!  Hey- she was my senior, and I had to keep her in a good temper, didn't I? But writing that fictional diary did help put things in perspective. Just a tiny example of writing helping to cope with real life situations.
Thanks for listening!
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Thank you for the responses to: "The Sins of the Writer" (In which I spoke of JK Rowling's remarks on transgenders, without mentioning this directly.)
Christopher Roy Denton 
LOL. Coming from you, Sonali, we know who the author is without you naming her. It's strange how authors are treated. Some, like Stephen King, can admit to a wide range of nefarious activities and even include some illegal activities in his books making them sound like a good thing and yet his books sell better when he does. She makes a few observations and her sales suffer.
Having said that, I doubt they'll suffer that much. Especially since her target audience begins at MG, and MG kids aren't as bothered about transgender issues as older people. 
Beholden 
Artists (in the broad sense, not just painters) are notoriously flawed. Often that is because of a common fallacy amongst them that, because geniuses are not bound by the usual rules of society, they have licence to do as they wish. But the truth is that there are plenty of writers out there who are just like thee and me and wouldn't harm a fly. No, their character does not have bearing on whether their work is good or not. A classic is a classic, no matter the character of the author. Social media does more harm than good these days and we do well to limit our use of the thing.
Kell Willsen 
Thank you for some very interesting questions. I think it depends to a certain extent on the seriousness of the sin -- discovering that a beloved performer, writer, or artist was a murderer, for example, would dampen my enjoyment of their output. But it wouldn't change the nature of truth.
Good values are true no matter who espouses them. Sometimes, the very values we ourselves struggle with are the ones we can best write about, because of how much we've thought about them. Taken in the wrong way, that can lay an artist open to charges of hypocrasy. Awful parents and/or spouses who write about idyllic family life, addicts who write in praise of self-control, etc.
But yes, minor disagreements are best overlooked if at all possible. Hauling people over the coals because they spoke a word out of turn, or dared to disagree with the popular opinion, is certainly not a trend I want to support.
Quick-Quill 
I'm not sure what you are getting at so I'm guessing here. I remember the Dixie Chicks making a statement that cost them, potential buyers and lost ticket sales. I think it was the beginning of their demise.
Paul 
No, comments by the author do not affect the quality of the writing, but I am hard pressed to buy an excellent story written by the Grand PooBah of the KKK. I pretty much refuse to support anybody who expresses hate, intolerance, ignorance, etc. as their agenda whether it’s writing, acting or any other media.
I’m an actor and I understand the energy I project into a piece I do so I don’t trust the energy I get from actors like Jon Voight and Gary Busey, etc. whose talent I used to admire because they supported (former president). I remember the movies Birth Of A Nation and Buster Keatons The Little General that tried to glorify hatred. I’ve read books with that as a glorifying concept too.
Osirantinous 
Great NL Sonali. I can't believe in this day and age we still rely on others to tell us how we should think and feel. Or that we best burn all books written by X author just because X author said or did something that offended someone else and the whole world now has to live in regret that we had X author's books on our shelves. It's like how no radio station plays Michael Jackson songs anymore. Cancel culture is a cancer.
Crow 
I much enjoyed reading your article. It is a sad truth that a politically incorrect opinion will often sabotage - in this case- a book, but also a career or an entire life's work. Are people so afraid of ideas that they will seek to stifle any that do not meet the status quo's expectations? Surely you have read Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'? Books are burned and people if they are determined to adhere to the ideas expressed in those books. Is it not the greatest shame when ideas of no dangerous intent are attacked simply because they will not yield to the powers that be. May God have mercy on our beautiful land. Crow
dogpack saving 4premium 
Many people respond favorably or negatively to a comment by a famous someone by if they agree purchasing the products or following, or whatever else is available bye to them, or they respond negatively by not purchasing the products or unsubscribing, or other means. You're correct/right in putting forth the questions and showing that there are other responses that people can choose to use to respond to a famous persons or any persons comments. This is good food for thought/pomdering.
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