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Allaya Cooks
Allaya Cooks is an emerging novelist, freelance writer and editor who is excited to be joining the community of writers, readers, and all around awesome people on Lit Drift.
Her recent projects include a novel, scheduled for release in 2011, and the launch of her blog. She is a native Brooklynite, and has not seen her floor or her bed in a month.
“Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and ‘fall into a vortex’, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace… She did not think herself a genius by any means, but when the writing fit came on, she gave herself up to it with entire abandon, and led a blissful life, unconscious of want, care, or bad weather, while she sat safe and happy in an imaginary world, full of friends almost as real and dear to her as any in the flesh… The divine afflatus usually lasted a week or two, and then she emerged from her ‘vortex’, hungry, sleepy, cross, or despondent.”
Sooner or later, every writer comes face to face and does battle with the vicious monster known as perfectionism. Now, I know that you’re probably shaking your head at your messy apartment, your half-finished novel, and your stained coffee mug, thinking, “I’m anything but perfect.” Read on, my friend. Read on.
When I think of perfect, I think of a beautiful Hollywood actress or that kid we all hated in school that seemed to be in every single club photo. I absolutely don’t think of my writing, or what there actually is of it. Every New Year, tons of writers swear to anyone who is listening that they will Write More and Write Better, but our own desire to write amazing works can be what hampers our progress.
Let’s face it, not many people love to write. What we love is having written. When you look back at the beautifully typed, flawless sheet of prose that sprung out of the depths of your mind, you feel awesome. You don’t think about how it felt to stare at that blank screen, utterly convinced that everything you want to write about is boring or unoriginal. You just can’t believe what a bubbling well of genius you are, you sexy writer you.
With so many different styles of writing in the world, it’s completely possible that two people can call themselves writers and not even be in the same ballpark. There are poets, essayists, journalists, novelists and bloggers, not to mention reporters, short-story writers, reviewers, and playwrights.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses; I personally love writing fiction, although it’s sometimes difficult for me to create it. My sister is excellent at writing blurbs. Another friend of mine is great at spoken word poems. I consider myself to be good at a few things, but blurbs and spoken word poetry aren’t part of them.
But it’s the new year, and we’re all about challenges! So, I want to know what your literary kryptonite is.
What writing style makes you curl up with fear and cry?
Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to come up with something in that style and post it below. I’m going to come up with something too. Winner gets my love, and the satisfaction of knowing that you are awesome enough to break through everything you ever thought about yourself. Right on!
Someone said that art reveals much more of the artist than it ever does of the subject. That is especially true when it comes down to writers. Being that literature is not a visual art, every sentence that we read or write, every place, every character is ultimately filtered through the author’s own unique perspective. We may look at a painting and find it ugly, boring, or see no meaning in it whatsoever. However, in literature, we find whatever the author describes as beautiful, beautiful. No matter how plain the thing may actually be, once it is put into words, we have never known or experienced it any other way. As words are laid out on the page, the writer has exposed a piece of their own heart, by showing us the things that they find are the most valuable.
For that reason, writing is the truest, most direct form of communication. Every single person who has read Lord of the Rings knows Frodo’s exhaustion as he climbs Mount Doom, and every Harry Potter fan knows the slippery, silky feel of an invisibility cloak. Even if you’ve never had Turkish Delight, you know after reading The Chronicles of Narnia that it’s pretty much the most delicious thing ever. Writing is the great equalizer in art; it creates an experience that everyone can share, something that we can all understand the same way. Most importantly, it connects our hearts to everyone who has ever held the same book in their hands. So while writing, as an art, does expose the heart and mind of the writer, it also provides an experience that connects all of its readers. The subject, the truth of the story itself, lies somewhere between the perception of the writer and the interpretation of the reader.
“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet, what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?”
There’s an old New Year’s superstition that whatever you do on January 1st will set the theme of what you do for the entire year. The truth of this has yet to be determined; however, on the first of every year I have faithfully avoided touching the laundry, doing the dishes, or paying any outstanding parking tickets.
This January 1st, I’ve decided that I’m going to spend as much time as I can writing, and recommitting to my goals as a writer and as a person. I’m absolutely committed to finishing the revision of my novel. I may still have to do laundry this year, but I do believe that by determining now, you can set a new tone for the approaching twelve months. That starts today, with you deciding to make a change, no matter how small it is.
“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
—Oscar Wilde
There is something just unmistakably awesome about books. They love you unconditionally and give to you without ever asking for anything in return. Something about them gets down deep into your soul, like a favorite relative or a tapeworm. Plus, they make you smarter.
So, which book is it that changed your life, with exactly the right words at the right time?
