My father says, "Anyone can be an editor. Try writing." This is a fairly accurate assessment. With ease we can look at another artist's work and find what resonates with our taste. Easier still we can redline or mark another persons copy with changes and additions. Our need to critique what lies outside of our sphere often is a result of writer's block or an inability of a writer to set words on paper, often lasting a long time. In life we can find ourselves stuck, often lasting a long time. When we finally produce what can result is a theme that repeats itself no matter how inspired or healthy or dysfunctional. Our life's work can have a "running head" or a title that is repeated at the top of every page in our book. Often this header becomes something that no longer serves us yet we can't seem to write anything new. We become attached to our story and repeat the narrative with only slight variations.
The most difficult thing to do is to truly write a brand new rough draft - The initial version of a new work. One that departs from our old patterns. A deeply inspired version of our lives. One that does not seem our own. Traditionally a ghostwriter is a writer paid to write a book for another person; normally not acknowledged as the author. If I can just get myself out of the way, my life can become a work of art perhaps divinely conducted as if I were guided by a more skilled author. Despite my father's assertion, it takes great skill and courage to edit my past from the record and open myself to a new creator to write my new story.
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