Manifesto - Stuart

When it comes to writing, there is nothing I hate more than to see myself in my own work. This isn’t a derogatory statement and in no way reflects how I feel about myself. In fact, I feel that I’m a fairly likable person and have even been told so from time to time, and seeing as I don’t consider the sources of these statements to be liars, I’m tempted to believe it, just so long as I stay the hell out of my stories. This may seem like an odd thing to say, considering that every artist is, in some shape or form, in their work. It is inevitable that in creating a work of fiction that the writer will somehow leak into what they are writing, but the type of presence I am talking about is much different.

What I mean in saying I hate seeing myself in my own writing is that my stories are not the place to talk about me. I don’t ever want a character to be my “fictional” self, the space where I can live out every fantasy and wet dream. Furthermore, I don’t want to use my characters as actors who stand in and vomit up my own views and agendas. I don’t want my hand to be seen moving my characters around like pawns as a way to arrive at some grand statement.

Fiction isn’t about what I think. It’s about the story of the characters on the page, not some grand statement being made by the author, which more times than not isn’t worth shit. I don’t believe in such statements and am much more interested in what my characters think.

In the end, I think that a part of me comes out. But this side is hidden, masked behind the more important things and subservient to the story. I’m forced to live with myself on a day-to-day basis and writing is an escape from that. Writing plays a huge role in my life, but I never want my life to play a role in my writing.