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Every creative man must have in mind that his experience is the greatest resource for his work. In writing especially, experience is what makes the book. My personal opinion is that accumulated experience in the life of a individual can produce the best piece.
Of course this does not mean that you have to be sentenced to death to write better, it only means that a person, an individual should develop self-consciousness which will, let us say, properly adept itself to the given experience in life.
Suffering, I believe is inevitable in human life, and in critical situations a man is often condemned with thoughts of revenge, hatred, self-deception, self-incrimination, even self-destruction. There are ways out, many ways sometimes, but sometimes there are none. In such conditions, considering the individual history of the person, many succumb to lesser emotions. This is normal, it is expected. But I have always believed that in some moments of that terrible war with others, or with yourself there will appear a point of relief where a person chooses, either to take it's revenge or to forgive. I know that such a point exists, and above all that it must exist because life would seem almost impossible to us mortals. Of course, I don't say that almost every moment of our existence is pain and torment, I'm just saying that there were, and there are people who truly live these lives. But, no doubt, there are in every persons life those moments when darkness really prevails, it lasts for days, months, or even years. That suffering could also be product of someone else's pain, death. Then what? Almost every human being will feel uncomfortable or unbearable feelings, and in that way many things will arose in him or her. But after the impact (if there is after) a man who is above the certain point aware of his experience may come to a decision to implement itself (emotions, thoughts) and also the experience which brought to all that, in one way or another in a form of a, for example, book or an art piece. It is said that only in a direct contact with experience true ideas are born. This is (in most cases) true. My opinion is that there has to be one developed psychological system so that experience could really be put in context that is suitable to it, or at least a awareness of that past events (I talk about self-consciousness, knowing your own emotions, judging them or even perception them from a point of view of someone who would simply laughed at them). Only in that way, I believe one can give them meaning. That usually happens in those moments of relief, when a person is in a position to do that kind of, great and demanding work. But, on the other side, what if that point sometimes does not exists?
I've always wondered how was Dostoevsky able to produce such great, invaluable material in such terrible conditions he lived in. When his wife was dying in the bed he still wrote, more then ever. What drove him to write? He, indeed was one of many people in history who truly lived their books before writing them. Still, we must abandon all illusions: his goal was financial, he wanted to get out from the under city, to become one of the non-poor folk. But, putting that aside, it is certain that some greater inner power was at the helm of his will. Let us not forget that plain knowledge about what is right and what is wrong does not make us competent to act in a course of proper action. For knowledge, theoretical, is almost useless if it isn't applied through adequate work, and for that, I know, willpower is required. I believe that Dostoevsky has transformed his books into confessions. His only way to persist the brutal faith that was upon him was to write, for giving his own experience the required meaning, he add meaning to his own life and his own suffering.
I think the will that drived this great man was the question his life presented before him: What is the source of such evil, of such misfortune that destroys the man, creating out him some kind of a moral monster? Where is it? The answer is that is in the human nature itself. And that is the place where he started his great search. Because of that his characters possess such dept, they are so much human. And some people must understand that those characters are not only words on paper, they have roots in the writer himself, in sole life that he experienced, in his memories, thoughts... The little boy who was tear apart by general's dogs is very much real, he lives today.
Every writer should at least keep in mind then one of his goals must be to conscientiously incorporate his own life experience into a piece, and in that way to really take his revenge upon that and those who brought him pain; or on the other hand to punish himself, to acknowledge his sins, to confess in this form, because in that way he will pass his message to others, to future generations, teaching them not to act as those who are, in their own way, partly or entirely responsible for that which writer had written.
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