The Hard Part of Art

I am an artist. My art is writing fiction and illustrating the covers. I create the title fonts.

Making art is always work, easy or not. When it is easy, I write or render a lot rather quickly. When it is hard, I struggle. I can have an idea either way. Sometimes having a clear idea is the problem: I cannot match what I envision.

Like every artist, I am never satisfied with the product. There is always something I wish I could do better. I am only finished when I realize if I do not stop I shall ruin what I already have. Even then, I fret.

My thematic specialty is uninteresting to most people. I never lose interest but I do not write and render to keep my work to myself. I need to incorporate universal themes. I must minimize my core fancy or my work shall prove boring.

I like my work better because of what I do to make it interesting to other people. I share an interest in those universal themes. They complement my specialty, giving it depth it would otherwise lack.

Themes and ideas are never enough, however. Turning them into words requires economy and eloquence. Rendering them as images is a matter of shapes and colors. Finding the words or drawing the shapes and choosing the right colors is the artistry of the art. The themes and ideas are merely context.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Shawn-OToole/author/B07C28S75Z?isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Without the Boring

What if speech was never confounded into languages? What if contagions were unheard of? What if weapons of mass destruction were obsolete?

People less imaginative than myself tell me that the world would be boring without languages. It would be overpopulated without disease. To render weapons of mass destruction obsolete can only mean to replace them with even more destructive weapons.

I can only imagine what the world would be like if my questions were answered. It is already boring with its countless languages. Take a marker and put a dot on a globe and that shows me how “overpopulated” the world is. Weapons of mass destruction are not obsolete if replaced with weapons of mass destruction… and destroying everything is as bad as they can get, no matter what.

We have the world the way it already is. The unimaginative already have languages, contagions and weapons of mass destruction. What comes of these needlessly needful things? We need not imagine. We can see for ourselves.

I write fiction. I answer the questions I asked. The worlds I imagine are not boring. On the contrary: They thrive quite well without gibberish, sickness and apocalypse. I do mean as settings for stories. Unlike in our real world, the problems are fun.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/477393

Storytelling in all Sincerity

I write fiction.

What distinguishes my work from all others is not my ideas. I am inspired by things that already exist, as fiction or otherwise.

Creating a new language does not make ideas new. It simply confuses what would otherwise be intelligible. A style of writing is gibberish regardless of the language if it is truly unique. Weirdness is ridiculous if not somewhat grounded in reality.

As a writer, I avoid creating new words. If I must, I strive to make them up by combining real words or by modifying real words using prefixes and suffixes already in the language.

I am uninterested in subverting conventions. I have never been limited by the genres and archetypes as they already are. The old ideas are easily made new by simply bothering to give them thoughtful context.

My SINCERITY is what distinguishes my work. The heroes are not to glorify what I believe in. The villains are not to shame what I despise. The stories are not to convince anyone of anything. The dialog is not me speaking through characters.

It is unlikely you understand what I mean. You assume writers are sincere when they truly believe what they write. Take heed: their beliefs are what suit them. Their thoughts are used to shape how they feel more to their liking. The cynical and nihilistic are not exceptions. On the contrary: They are the epitome of insincerity.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Shawn-OToole/author/B07C28S75Z?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Orwellian Sincerity

The novel 1984 is dystopian science fiction. The setting is a world like our own but different. The countries are familiar but different. The empires fight each other through limited actions in disputed territories.

My Sorcerer books are entirely like 1984 in these regards. They are very distinct, however. The social commentary is entirely the point of 1984. It is supplementary in the Sorcerer books.

George Orwell wrote 1984 to make a point about the insignificance of individuals. The world is ruled by impersonal forces. Even the supposed villain, Big Brother is but a face for an actually faceless government.

I wrote the Sorcerer books to make a point about the significance of individuals. The world is ruled by masterminds. They control the otherwise impersonal forces. The heroes are the individuals not in charge yet they still influence events… and sometimes decide the very outcome.

George Orwell created characters to humanize his story about history and politics. I crafted history and politics to provide a setting for characters.

George Orwell looked to systems to make life worthwhile. He was disappointed. I look to individuals. I found one, and that is what an individual is… and I was satisfied. Yes, the world is horrible. Its every system falls short… but so what? Sincerity is real. It cannot be corrupted. It thrives, of itself, whether the world languishes or not.