Who Writes Anyway

  The notion of "agency" is in sore need of revision when it comes to writing. We tend to think it is "I" that is the writer (at least there is a clear agency) when in fact it's often only when we get out of the way of the I altogether that real writing actually gets accomplished.

  When I come to writing with the thought that I need to do something to get the wheels in motion, then I am putting this undue pressure on myself to create. Writing is more playful than that and needn't start so somberly. The truth is, what we call "the self" is hardly in charge of the writing process at all. It's usually this very same self that is so horridly critical that it doesn't get things started at all.

   When we stop fixating on who writes, we allow other elements to enter into the writing, such as the spontaenous, uncanny and mysterious. These are the things that can even surprise us because they come from parts of ourselves that we only partly understand, such as the unconscious. When we allow these forces to come out in writing, we are bound to feel more surprised.