What makes a good writer?

Well, that is of course, subjective and all an opinion. There are no good or bad writers as with anything else in life. It is only our mind, or the collective mind, that makes anything good or bad.

However, like all things that we do, the more we do it, the more we get even better at it. That does not mean that each time we write it will be utterly amazing, more often, it will not be that great. That is the point though, we have to do some less than brilliant work in order to hone our skills and get to the work that is the best we can do. 

If we think about what to write then it does not come from our true essence, not from our heart and soul, but from the mind. We start to guess what others might like to read…an act of complete futility, no one can guess what others want, they often do not even know themselves. As Henry Ford famously said, “if I’d asked my customers what they had wanted they would have said ‘faster horses'”.

Therefore, the way to get better at writing is to keep writing no matter what, to keep putting the words down and to just let the words flow and not think it but do it. That means that eventually, the best words will come from the authentic you.

Just keep writing and writing and writing. Much of it will never be shared but the very best will be and that is how we become better writers.

Write for you not them.

What is art?

All art is useless, I think Oscar Wilde said that.

A fork is useful but I could live without a fork. Art is use-less but I couldn’t live without it.

We slave away in our so called ‘proper’ jobs doing very important stuff to earn lots of money. We’re told at school and by parents that the arts aren’t important and we need to focus on math, science etc so we can get those ‘proper’ jobs.

Then what do we spend our money on from our proper jobs? Well, art for the house, music to listen to, we go to watch a play, we go to the cinema to watch a film, we watch TV, we watch YouTube, we buy a beautifully designed and crafted piece of furniture, we pay an architect to design our new house, we buy a beautifully designed fancy car that looks amazing and so on.

Yep, we work hard to spend our money on stuff that artists, musicians, actresses, designers, architects, creative writers, and so on, who have worked tirelessly as an artist to bring you their art to entertain you or for your enjoyment.

Art is imperfect and it is the imperfect that we love in life, the cracks are how the light gets in.

Useful things are just that, utilitarian and functional. Art is the life and soul of the party, the reason to be alive.

Art is life and without it life would be just useful. I want a use-less life filled with art.