In The Way of Story, Catherine Ann Jones says that when we write, we should “listen to that inner voice – it’s usually right.” Even, she says when it makes no logical sense. To illustrate, she cites the films, Edward Scissorhands, Whale Rider, The Wizard of Oz, and Harry Potter.
I thought of some of my favorite books, as further examples:
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, about a man who learned so well to disappear he didn’t show up in photographs.
Or The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr., about a Rooster who leads the farm animals in Matins, Lauds and Complines, and into an Epic battle against the source of Evil itself.
Imagine sitting down to scribble out a concept for a story, and coming up with this:
A pilot lands his disabled plane into the remotest reach of the Sahara Desert and meets a small boy, who, in order to escape a failed love affair with a rose, tethered himself to a flock of birds and flew to Earth from a distant planet, to learn here the true meaning and purpose of love.
Would you throw the paper away and think up something more marketable? Less crazy? Or would you write The Little Prince as did Antoine de Saint Exupery?
God bless the brave writers, who write the nonsense no one else could ever dare to write.
