AUTHOR'S CORNER;

DELICATE DILEMMA

Being a writer is a great honour; it is a platform which is only afforded to the few lucky people who have figured out how to put thought to pen, pen to paper and come out with something that fires up the imagination.  Being a writer means that your voice is heard, your views shared and that story (that age old story) that resides in each person, gets to be told, by you!  Being a writer means that you can temporarily hold the hearts and emotions of people, influence the reader, play with their senses and ignite their urges!  Being a writer means that you have the power to put thought into your reader's mind, awaken feelings in their hearts and (if only for a short time) change their morals!  Being a writer is making the reader fall in love with you, loath you, need you, even want to kill you; because for that short space of time which you reside upon the pages, you are the world at which they look at!

It feels brilliant knowing that you, you...you have that power over the minds of other people.  You get to make them imagine, make them think, make them see a point of view that perhaps they had not seen before!

For a short time you are Doctor Who, Time Lord and master of the Tardis; which is the mind of the poor unsuspecting reader.  Make a prostitute seem glamorous and immediately she becomes a heroin in your readers' eyes.  Make a murderer seem victimised and he immediately becomes justified in his actions.  Your page is your world and the morals, manners, behaviours and even logic that govern the real world no longer become relevant; only your morals, your ideas, your perceptions upon the page that engage your reader.  What power!  Think of the responsibility!

The Misfortunes of Ellie-May; a novel about a prostitute who plotted and schemed and killed.  Was she the villain?  Far from it.  Was she the horrible scheming bitch who destroyed lives, killed men and hurt her own family?  No, she was a sweet, misunderstood, quite mistreated by life, and deep down inside, quite decent really!  Do I want the readers to think that all murderess women of the trade are quite sweet and justified?  Not really; I was trying to show how a perfectly ordinary, sweet girl could find herself in unfortunate circumstances, how life could take her down a path which forces her to fight her way back up...was she evil?  No, she was backed up, misunderstood and very much alone.  The moral; don't judge a person by their last action, because there is good and bad in everyone and circumstances dictate the outcome!  Yet I have been questioned relentlessly by friends and family; why glorify a prostitute, why make such a woman the subject of pity, did I want my daughters growing up thinking that it was right to be like this?  

The Devil's Truth; a funny devil who seeks to corrupt three unsuspecting families whilst holidaying in Spain. In my novel, he is a humorous devil, a devil with feelings and often self-pity.  He corrupts and influences people who have over inflated egos, some may say they deserved it.  The moral; people who are influenced are not necessarily bad, do not necessarily mean to hurt those around them, but if we as humans allow our egos to lead us, then downfall is our path, for The Devil is cunning and comes to us with part truths to influence us to his ways.  Am I glorifying Satan?  Am I somehow trying to make him seem less harmful?  No, I used humour and human emotions to put the story across.  

All writers write to make a point; all writers have insightful observations they want to get across to their readers. However, writing a moral manual, or a book on noble behaviour does not make an interesting read, nor does it get the reader to think or even learn anything from your story.  We are writers and writers have to write the world as it is - good and bad.  Writers have to write what makes up the world and not how people would like to see the world. Thus, dilemma comes into it; how far is too far?  How seedy is too seedy and when do the scales tip from a story which makes the reader think to a story which influences young minds?  Therefore it becomes a delicate dilemma that a writer finds himself in; because as a writer, you should not shy away from any aspect of life, but you should never overstep the line which makes us human and dignified. A writer should be able to write the world in verses and describe humanity for what it really is, yet maintain the civility of right and wrong; even if the subject of the story is wrong....it's called the moral of the story!