Why People Stories Matter
In the quiet moments, we're both free and captive. Those times can give us the space out of which springs our greatest stories, the people stories, the real stuff of life.
In North Korea, 'there are no magazines and no bookstores. There’s the official newspaper and the official radio,' says Adam Johnson. Radios come programmed to one state-controlled station and any tampering is grounds for incarceration. All paintings, including hundreds in the national museum, depict two things: Kim Il-sung, or Kim Jong-il, looking heroic, or a pastoral setting without people, vehicles, buildings, or anything else that might indicate individual interpretation. The novels that do exist offer only more propaganda, forever depicting the triumphant sacrifice of some martyred peasant. Knowing that “no one there is allowed to write [his or her] own story,” Johnson wanted to try. He felt “a duty to get to that darkness.” (adapted from an interview in Publisher's Weekly with Adam Johnson)
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013. The book, set in North Korea, is about a young man who rises to become a threat to the dictator Kim Jong-il, and then tries to get his wife and step children out of the country.
It's these type of stories that often come to us in the quiet, and sometimes in the darkness, but always from the heart. Occasionally, the earth is quiet for a reason, and people stories keep us grounded by helping us remember who we are and why we're here.
In North Korea, 'there are no magazines and no bookstores. There’s the official newspaper and the official radio,' says Adam Johnson. Radios come programmed to one state-controlled station and any tampering is grounds for incarceration. All paintings, including hundreds in the national museum, depict two things: Kim Il-sung, or Kim Jong-il, looking heroic, or a pastoral setting without people, vehicles, buildings, or anything else that might indicate individual interpretation. The novels that do exist offer only more propaganda, forever depicting the triumphant sacrifice of some martyred peasant. Knowing that “no one there is allowed to write [his or her] own story,” Johnson wanted to try. He felt “a duty to get to that darkness.” (adapted from an interview in Publisher's Weekly with Adam Johnson)
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013. The book, set in North Korea, is about a young man who rises to become a threat to the dictator Kim Jong-il, and then tries to get his wife and step children out of the country.
It's these type of stories that often come to us in the quiet, and sometimes in the darkness, but always from the heart. Occasionally, the earth is quiet for a reason, and people stories keep us grounded by helping us remember who we are and why we're here.
Chila ("Sheila") Woychik is the owner and managing editor of Port Yonder Press & this ezine, Beyondaries. She loves the sea and everything associated with it. Her publishing credits number in the dozens in both print and online magazines, including stories or articles in Bradbury Review, Bewildering Stories, Farther Stars Than These, Woman's Touch, War Cry, and others, some using a pseudonym. Her website, ChilaWoychik.com, is a safe haven for thought where she takes a hard look at the writing & indie press publishing world as well as Christianity and life in general. Her collection of lyric essays and poetry, On Being a Rat, snagged a December 2011 Reviewer's Choice Book recognition from Midwest Book Review.
Chila and her husband of 31 years live on a small hobby farm in the Midwest. Their grown son lives nearby and is planning a 2013 wedding.
Chila and her husband of 31 years live on a small hobby farm in the Midwest. Their grown son lives nearby and is planning a 2013 wedding.
The Creativity Around Us
I recently heard this line on one of my favorite radio stations: We're committed to new ideas and civil conversation. I loved that, and truly believe that fresh ideas are crucial if artists and authors, along with other creatives, are to excel in producing the very best, longest-lasting stories, poems, paintings, movies, music and plays ever created.
The mundane, the everyday is where we live, but even our day-to-days have something to offer us. Nothing is truly mundane to the creative. We can always see a new angle for a photo, an usual way of wording a poem or passage in a novel, an honest observation for our memoir or journalistic essay. To get stuck in a rut is to yield to the temptation of the unconcerned, the death knell of invention.
Part of my vision for BEYONDARIES is to provide a fast-paced, quick-reading little ezine that pumps you, the reader, the writer, the artist, full of vernal inspiration. I want it to haste you on your journey to do what you do better, and with your muse brimming with excitement to create. My sincere hope is that you go away from these pages knowing your life matters in the larger scope of bringing beauty to our world.
As Terence McKenna said, “The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas. It is the night sea journey, the lone fisherman on a tropical sea with his nets, and you let these nets down - sometimes, something tears through them that leaves them in shreds and you just row for shore, and put your head under your bed and pray. At other times what slips through are the minutiae, the minnows of this ichthyological metaphor of idea chasing. But, sometimes, you can actually bring home something that is food, food for the human community that we can sustain ourselves on and go forward.”
The mundane, the everyday is where we live, but even our day-to-days have something to offer us. Nothing is truly mundane to the creative. We can always see a new angle for a photo, an usual way of wording a poem or passage in a novel, an honest observation for our memoir or journalistic essay. To get stuck in a rut is to yield to the temptation of the unconcerned, the death knell of invention.
Part of my vision for BEYONDARIES is to provide a fast-paced, quick-reading little ezine that pumps you, the reader, the writer, the artist, full of vernal inspiration. I want it to haste you on your journey to do what you do better, and with your muse brimming with excitement to create. My sincere hope is that you go away from these pages knowing your life matters in the larger scope of bringing beauty to our world.
As Terence McKenna said, “The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas. It is the night sea journey, the lone fisherman on a tropical sea with his nets, and you let these nets down - sometimes, something tears through them that leaves them in shreds and you just row for shore, and put your head under your bed and pray. At other times what slips through are the minutiae, the minnows of this ichthyological metaphor of idea chasing. But, sometimes, you can actually bring home something that is food, food for the human community that we can sustain ourselves on and go forward.”
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES: 7 Marks of a True Creative
I love the diversity inherent in this first issue of the new Beyondaries. We have authors represented from not only America, but England and New Zealand. We have poets, fiction & nonfiction writers, self-published authors, traditionally published authors, and small press owners.
Most of the articles can be gotten through in 2 or 3 minutes, and the vids are a special touch.
For me personally, my challenge is to get beyond “clever” writing, beyond writing what I think others want to read, beyond formulating my feelings into neat little packages. Instead, I simply write it, my life, its pain and thrills, likes and hatreds, lessons and failures without lessening or over-emphasizing their impact. Life in precision, not perfection: it’s a black and white view of me from my own perspective. It's with that in mind I offer you my 7 Marks of a True Creative.
Most of the articles can be gotten through in 2 or 3 minutes, and the vids are a special touch.
For me personally, my challenge is to get beyond “clever” writing, beyond writing what I think others want to read, beyond formulating my feelings into neat little packages. Instead, I simply write it, my life, its pain and thrills, likes and hatreds, lessons and failures without lessening or over-emphasizing their impact. Life in precision, not perfection: it’s a black and white view of me from my own perspective. It's with that in mind I offer you my 7 Marks of a True Creative.
- A truly creative person questions & is not easily led by either majority consensus or "the way we've always done it."
- They are explorers: they consistently learn, grow, and expand their understanding of the world around them & the world inside them.
- Creative people love new perspectives and fresh observations.
- These people avoid ruts of all sizes and shapes.
- A creative welcomes differing opinions imparted in the spirit of civility.
- They work hard to make a thing work but will gladly move on when it doesn't, and sometimes even when it does, if the situation warrants it. Their motto is "Let's try something new!"
- A true creative learns deeply and well, then uses that learning as a springboard to greater creativity.
