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Hunting Muskie Countdown: Confessions of a Creation Addict

September 9th, 2017 by Michael Dyet

Hunting Muskie

Hmmm, as I countdown to the release of Hunting Muskie: Rites of Passage, it seems like the right time to pull back the veil on the mysteries of the creative process.

Several decades ago, when I was a student, Margaret Atwood did a reading from her most recent work at York University. She also kindly consented to be interviewed by the university student newspaper.

I imagine the student who interviewed her was very intimidated. He no doubt agonized over his interview preparation to come up with what he deemed to be safe questions. But he hit an off-key note when he asked: What made you decide to become a writer? Atwood’s response was classic: A big thumb came down out of the sky, pointed at me and said YOU.

I believe her sarcastic response was meant to convey two messages. 1) I am very tired of answering that question! 2) No one decides to become a writer – or any type or artist, for that matter. At some point, you realize that it is what you were born to do and that you cannot be psychologically, emotionally or spiritually healthy unless you answer the call.

This is certainly true for me. From a young age, I fell in love with books. I recall regularly scouring the shelves of the Hagersville library which was appropriately housed in a musty old building in the middle of town. I would probably have spent the night there if permitted.

But a love of books does not always translate into the compulsion to be a writer. So what is the tipping point? Quite honestly, I believe it is encoded into my DNA. Writing is how I process what happens to me and around me. It is how I understand and interact with the world at large.

All forms of art are an act of audacious creation – an attempt to invent a new reality and live inside it for a period of time. When the act of creation is complete, the artist bequeaths the work as a gift to the world and moves on to the next act of creation.

Confession: I am a creation addict. I crave that rarefied state of mind where I can step outside the bounds of reality and wrap myself in a world of my own making. I perpetually exist with one foot in the real world and the other in the limitless world of my imagination.

So, you well may ask, are you one of those pie in the sky dreamers? Yes and no. I conjure worlds of my own making but I draw from real life as I conjure. I live inside my own head a great deal. But I always search for touchpoints with reality.

The sixteen stories in Hunting Muskie: Rites of Passage were written over a period of eight years. Each one was a simultaneous process of looking inward and looking outward. So what connects the two?

If you follow this blog regularly, you can probably guess the answer. The metaphors of life, that I am programmed at the DNA level to perceive, are the connecting threads that empower me to coexist in parallel worlds. Yes, it is a bit disorienting. But such is the destiny of those of us who answer the call to be a writer.

In upcoming posts, I will let some of the characters from Hunting Muskie: Rites of Passage emerge to speak on my behalf.

~ Coming in October 2017: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

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