Uncertainty, Destination, and the Need to Know…

We are ruled by uncertainty. The need to know shapes our motives, what we ask for, desire, fear and seek to claim.

And so it is in writing that we encounter a somewhat safe haven.

The writer has a general idea of the destination of her or his story if not, how it shall end.

But this is an illusion too.

For in reaching the end of our tale, we have often traveled a different, if not completely uncharted path on the route to conclusion.

Transformation is as much a product of the journey as character development relates to and lies rooted in personality.

We can travel only as far as our mind, more specifically our imagination, will allow.

The escape into writing is but one more adventure wherein we seek to cross the boundaries, reach beyond the threshold of our fears, our doubts, the unconscious motives shaped in the darkness of thought by the need to know and understand, the roots of which for both stand in uncertainty.

What startles and shakes us so about uncertainty?

For me it is the fear of losing order, a grasp of reality that comes only in knowing what is ahead.

And yet the truth of is that I really never know what awaits me around the corner or upon the path ever how straight and narrow.

So why hope, and wish and strive to attain what does not exist–the unattainable?

Is the task in seeking such but journey of futility?

Perhaps.

And what of our writing, so heavily carved and planned, for those of us who outline our stories–craft blueprints of the journey–in preparation for writing?

Do we really know that much more of our story than if we had not sketched the journey?

Perhaps the axiom, “The map is not the terrain,” is most appropriate here.

My experience is that when having outlined my novel or story, the journey extends farther, sinks deeper than I had anticipated or thought possible.

It is a lively one for I have notes upon which to fall back.