So 2002 is now 2 minutes old. A quick glance at the headlines shows Pakistan and India on the brink of war, Afghans angry that the US bombing of their country is still ongoing. A small plane carrying only the pilot crashed into the IBM headquarters on its way from Porstmouth NH to Philadelphia. The Euro is at last born. Antartica is drawing more and more attention. And monkey brains are finally off the menu in central Africa. It must be an entirely other world south of the equator, thinking about it.
There was a gentleman in Philadeliphia, a wise elder man, who once congratulated me on my choice to follow fiction writing. He said, “It's so great to be able to take what we all think and to be able to write it down. To not only think it, but to be able to express it in words, written language.” I misunderstood. I thought he was referring to creativity and being original. I now think that he was referring to the understanding that the reader and the writer must share. Something more than just spill what's in your brain (for the writer). It's the ability to convince. To persuade your point of view as the seemingly best, enough for the reader to buy into heart and soul. And for that to happen, you must have the most honest voice they have ever heard. I've heard some say that it's not so much a matter of trust as it is a matter of respect (again on the part of the writer). I must reply by saying, “huh?” AS far as respect goes, no writer has it until a reader agrees, either with the message, or with the means by which the thinking was done that influenced the decision (and also given that such action be regarded positively in the reader's realm of mores). It cannot be a matter of something that has not occurred yet. And if that is so, the best a writer can start out with is a blank slate. You've just got to be honest. If you're concerned about alienating your audience, you're not being honest anymore. You're being greedy. The last thing to remember is that morality is unique to you.