Crafting Authentic Hope: Writing in a Post-Apocalyptic World

What do you feel and think when you see someone doing something, it could be a hobby, a job, or other activity, when they are truly positively engaged in the process? I am drawn to it and I feel a sense of subtle awe, especially if they are a master of their craft. I see their involvement, whether or not they are a master, and take quiet joy. Involvement does not necessarily imply mastery. When someone genuinely wants to be better and is totally committed to that moment there is an excellence in the attempt even if that excellence is missing in the execution.

In one of my past lives I borrowed a saying from a great man, “Perfection is expected, excellence will be tolerated.” I first heard it from Gene Schnell, but the internet wants to attribute it to a mysterious J. Yahl, I will attribute it to Gene. He was a great friend and I aspire to many of his traits. He said it jocularly, but with a sense of authenticity too. He was a track coach and outdoorsman who I came to know in the Autumn and Winter of his long life in a different context. He had high expectations for himself and those around him, so I saw his statement as a great personal motivator for himself and those around him for whom he cared very much.

Authenticity is a word I’ve been hearing and reading a lot lately. There’s a growing chorus of creators who claim that it is the future of books and movies. What is authenticity though? According to Merriam Webster online dictionary the first couple of definitions are “1)not false or imitation : real, actual and 2)

: true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.” That certainly is a start. This clamor for authenticity must come from somewhere. In many ways the large volume of creative content we are seeing seems inauthentic, performative, or corporate. In any case it doesn’t come across as genuine and that makes for a hollow experience for the viewers or readers.

How do we create an authentic fiction though? It must be grounded in a real sense of who we are as humans and in our experience in life. Science fiction and fantasy are often rather fantastical, but can feel authentic if written well and with a sense of having experienced life first-hand and not through only reading or viewing it thorough a screen. Often we point to The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, or the juvenile works of Robert A. Heinlein for the fantastic, but authentic, and these are just two of many authors and their creative cousins in the film industry. If you read the personal histories of these men they are full of first-hand experiences, which translates onto the page.

When we read a book or watch a video, how ever long, produced recently, more often than not, the experience leaves us hollow. Much of it comes from the fact that many of these people have gone from college to their creative endeavor with little to no work or life experience outside of their chosen field. We sense that. Also, we aren’t holding these people to high standards, which also translates into their finished works, and that just underscores their practical naivete.

I’ve already used the phrase, “write what you know,” in a previous blog and I am trying to do that as much as the fictional worlds I create can allow. My goal and promise to you as a writer is to write as authentically, as genuinely, as possible. I may not be fourteen years old any longer, but I have experienced a lot of really awesome experiences and have high expectations of myself personally and as a writer. I hope that all of that translates to the written page that you get to read.