On the importance of Art

I’m writing this after I checked my beta-readers opinions about my post on feminism. They are just two, but they appreciated it. Both of them inspired that article, and that’s why I’ve chosen them to read it before I published it.

First rule of a writer: always have beta readers. Always.

Now, let’s talk about art again. We, the artists, are the ones born with the privilege of a deep connection with our emotions. If you’d read my post on feminism, you could see the emotion that fueled me: rage.

Emotions, for artists, are just emotions: we know that we have to accept them as a part of our brain chemical process, and we also know how to use them.

Or better, we learn.

Here’s what I learned about rage.

When that rage was born, fear was the mother.

That moment is what I call inspiration.

When rage was a toddler (my first draft), it screamed and kicked to be heard. I just couldn’t ignore it, and I started vomiting words on my screen.

When rage was bit older I saw all the typos, the mistakes, the lacking of structure of rage itself in my story. So I changed it, little by little, editing and cutting out parts that didn’t look that necessary anymore.

I think this is a hard thing to do. It was hard for me, at least.

And here comes the discipline and sacrifice that art requires. In writing, this means you have to spend many hours researching, checking facts, reading again and again, and so on.

Second rule of a writer: treat your writing as if it was a city, and remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

For me, art is important because it delivers a message. Art has an impact on people, always had. For us, the artists, is all about letting that particular message leave our body and reach someone else. And in that contact, even if you reach one single person, is the success of your opera.

You have to believe in it first. No one will believe in it, if you don’t.

I really appreciate art, of course, even when I’m part of the public. It happens sometimes, when the opera is really good, that it resonates in me as if I were a musical instrument. It makes me feel less alone.

If you feel like you’re an artist or you want to become one, try it. There’s always someone who will feel less alone, thanks to you.

EDIT: I’ve erased my article on the history of feminism to learn to ‘kill my darlings’.