The Why - Blog (July)

Apples and Apples

Everyone has it, whether they're in the arts industry or not: the why. Both sets of people can be asked: 'why do you work?', or 'why do you live the lifestyle you do', or 'why do you prefer ABC to xyz?'

For this blog post, I'll be speaking specifically about those who create in the arts industry: writers, musicians, film-makers, dancers, playwrights and actors/actresses, artists, etc.

I'll be starting with using an apple as a metaphor. Pick any kind you like. Eve. Jazz. Granny Smith. Lemonade. Royal Gala. Braeburn... No matter the apple, they all have skin, flesh and a core. Imagine your own work or another person's work ad that apple.

Let's work our way from the inside out. At the core of your work is why you created the masterpiece/s you did or are creating. It's that thesis that joins your heart as a person to the heart of your work as a creation; it's where the seeds are that you first planted when you decided to follow through with your crazy and possibly delusional plan to create something remarkable. This could be a person, a message, an idea/concept, plot twist, wealth and money and success, etc. What is your why?

Next is the flesh. Unrelated, but it's ironic because I'm highlighting the flesh as the main content that is good here, but as a writer with a Christian worldview, spiritually speaking the flesh symbolises useless worldy stuff that in the end doesn't matter. For the purpose of this blog, while using the apple metaphor, the flesh (of the apple) is good. It's pretty much everything contained in our works that our audiences consume, from characters, voice and narrative, beats, notes, chords, structure, language, twists and turns, imagery, literary devices, settings, colour, products, allusions, politics, and more.

Finally, the skin. That's what the audience sees as first glance: the blurb, cover, reviews, trailer, shots, patterns, faces, places, fonts, titles.

We have all been there as the audience, browsing a bookstore, perusing a record store, drifting around art galleries, scrolling the local theatre company's website for upcoming plays. It's the snippets of ads on the radio, the covers on Bookfunnel, the reviews in the newspaper. All of these can and usually are invaluable - I mean, hell, it's the bait on the hook! Need I explain further?

When you properly analyse a certain works, you begin to form connections between the creation and the author. It can be fun to draw our own perceptions of the creator's WHY, and then actually research what it is. When we go even deeper, we might be able to see connecting between the core and skin - the WHY and what we see on first glance. It's like a full circle moment!

Yellow and Mellow

As Amelia says in my debut novel The Chasm Between Us:

'"This apple,” she began, “represents your lives. At its core is a motivation - that could be a thought; a feeling; a dream; a physical thing. It’s the reason why you’re pursuing something.” She was looking out over the cohort, keeping the apple up, like she was the Statue of Liberty clutching the torch. Every now and then her eyes would flick toward me and a spark would show in them. “The flesh of the fruit around it are mini-motivations that root from the core - that could be family; lifestyle; wellbeing. They’re the things that benefit or change as a result of the core motivation.” At that point, the sunlight through the window was angled towards her , so she was in the spotlight, poised like a goddess. It shone through her and nothing bad showed, only goodness. I’m positive if I went up there, the light would reveal my messiness, my scars, my past. “If there’s no motivation, there’s no progress. We plateau and the apple rots. My fellow students, we’re leaving this place and going out into the world that is going to blossom before us and offer numerous opportunities.” And her eyes were locked on me. Only on me. “But there will be a time when circumstances change, and suddenly what we’re pursuing may seem futile. It can happen in the blink of an eye. So, I leave you with two pieces of advice: ask yourself if what you’re following is genuine, worthwhile and realistic, even if it takes a while and determination. Secondly, have a motivation that’s keeping you going and supports your growth as you journey, whether it be a person, the thought of something good coming up, or a reward for your effort. You’ll see hundreds of scattered pieces now, but when all is complete, so will the puzzle be whole.”'

I wrote the book as a way to express myself, for myself, then to carry across the message to others that their pasts, no matter how broken, do not define them.

This why can be seen in my cover with the bright orange Gladiolus flowers contrasting the stormy backdrop. Despite the vase being cracked, the flowers are still blooming. It's a nod towards my own past, when I believed that love was something I had to earn. Sam is a mouthpiece for the a seed from the core of my WHY.

Granny Smith

Taken as an excerpt from the Cardiff family dinner in the book:

'I'm ashamed of how I acted toward my parents then, so now I try to make it up to them through little sprouts of kindness, such as the flowers.'

There's a name for it: legalism - trying to earn reward from doing good works. Maybe I can do a post on that another time. But that's what I was doing: trying to earn love from my family that they were already giving me, but I thought it would diminish if I stopped doing good works. It didn't.

As a final thought, in New Zealand when performing the Haka (traditional Māori war cry), we keep in mind ihi, wehi and wana.

Translation: ihi is the energy that ignites the performance; wehi is the respect from the audience; wana is the inspiring effect the performance has on the audience as an engagement.

So, everyone has a WHY. It's the core motivation of their works. You may have more than one, and usually it influences what the flesh is and the flesh shapes the skin, or what we see at first glance.

Before embarking on a new project and at different stages throughout the project, it's a good idea to write down and remember why you're doing what you're doing/am going to do.

Keep that star and don't be afraid to let your WHY shine, because chances are it won't drive audiences away but compell them and encourage them to do the same: reflect in the mirror