Antoinette V. Sluytman – On The Power of Writing

Today’s post on The Creator’s Roulette is a special one. I have wondered often about myself as a writer and how, in our own unique way and mediums, bloggers too tell stories. In this post, Antoinette shares about her experiences as a writer and creator, diving deep into the power of writing. I really enjoyed each of the aspects of creative writing that she presents in this post and I hope that it will act as food for thought for you too.

First, a little bit about her – Antoinette Van Sluytman is a creative writer that writes for fiction novels, graphic novels, and film. She is also an artist, poet, character designer, student, and co-founder of multimedia studio, Broken Chalice Studios, that promotes creative diversity through graphic novels, books, fine art and animation. She is currently working on the completion of her epic fantasy novel, Kisodoh, as well as a number of other graphic novel projects like Sabbath, The Sun Who Mocks. 

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The Power of Writing

By Antoinette 

We are more than “Writers”

As a writer, or a creative visionary as I like to refer to myself, there has always been a question left from others to linger and be subconsciously acknowledged in the back of my mind. It is a question of purpose and intention, often formulated — “Why does one write?” Reflecting back, I once wrote an essay relating to this very subject, but moving forward I would like to elaborate on how I specifically interpret the creative genius of writing. A response to this would unfortunately risk a simplistic dissection of the intuitive mind of a creator, of a complex mentality still yet to be understood by even ourselves. I can only attempt to elaborate on the revelations of my own experiences. We sometimes fail to recognize the psychological empowerment the scribes mind obtains, manifested into this craft we call writing. We first step into the category of “writers” almost immediately, risking an unintentional distancing from the greater connotations of what we creatively accomplish. Distancing from our own self-worth.

We speak the creator’s cognitive dialect

What I’ve come to realize is that in this visionary field we engage in, we translate and consolidate mental entities, created from a collaboration of the human imagination and our own senses. We discern a language unseen by the eyes, and reinterpret it through our own unique perspectives, recreating reality for our inner eyes to engage. This is a human transcendence of mental boundaries that we morph into timeless narratives. Into the stories we stack on shelves. A big part of learning this technique is through engaging in these narratives from others before us. By experiencing that voyage into the creative world when we first open that book to page one. Reading plays a huge role in developing an ethereal hand.

We are evolutionary transcribers

To the hieroglyphics on temple walls to the ancient scrolls of great dynasties, what is our history but actions translated into stories? What are the religions of the world but scriptures of written traditions passed down for generations? Whether by a man or a woman from before our time, they probably held nothing but a pen in their hands. Fundamentally, we hone the skill of words, and words hold much more power than we often realize. The power to inspire generations. 

Categories aside, we create worlds from the unknown, we envision the impossible through the cognitive phenomenon of written words. Not a disconnection from, but a challenge of reality. It is freedom, this power of creating explores. Where we dictate our own destinies, destinies that we call novels. 

We only recall what was left to us on stone. From stone, we record not a beginning, but an inflation of life. A chain in a link. On paper. On rock. With our minds. With our voices. There is no beginning. Only unknown and known.

~ Kisodoh, Eye of the Pariah

We are the gatekeepers of the subconscious mind

All humans have the ability to see through the subconscious mind’s eye, to open the gates into the limitless potentiality of the imagination — this is not an escape, but a journey into the visions of humanity. And what we writers offer is the key to that gateway, we pave the way into this journey, oftentimes through the expression of our own emotions and experiences, bled onto paper in the form of ink. It is a powerful thing to take one away into a nonphysical world, and though it may not exist, it can truly inspire and empower thousands. It can even change lives. 

This is why I will always say that this world of mine is not one of fiction, it is real to me, a red hot flame of creative intention that burns within me, ignited from an undying love for my craft. I dislike categories, sometimes I feel like the term “writer” doesn’t cover half of what we go through on a daily basis. This goes for a lot of other creative fields as well. We should remember that words can harm as much as they can uplift.

We challenge the cubicle mindset

During my experiences as a writer for Broken Chalice Studios, a multi-media business I co-founded, I have discovered that the power of writing can reach universal levels of influence. Through my writing I’ve always sought to challenge stigmas, stereotypes, and to fill gaps of diversity once I discovered that one can truly write change into existence. And with that realization came the dissatisfaction with the simplicity of creator terminology, which sometimes results in this detrimental mindset towards our work and the demeaning prerequisites we sometimes feel the need to squeeze ourselves into. Words like fantasy and fiction for example, tend to detract our work from reality, dismissive of the deeper concepts that weave into the fabric of our stories. But just take a moment to realize that the world will always need stories, and those with the powers to write them. A power we all have the ability to obtain, once we unshackle ourselves from the cubicle mindset that we foolishly like to call — reality. 

We are seekers of immortality

I can only, to the best of my abilities, speak from my experiences as a creative pioneer of my own novel writing journey. To let my work speak on behalf of my inner complexities. A passage I wrote from the high fantasy novel I am writing, Kisodoh, elaborates on this subject of creative capabilities further. It is within my own writing that I translate my philosophies and tribulations through the eyes of my characters. Kisodoh is a story of self-discovery, of challenging the norms of society, seeing the shades of grey of humanity, and the power of a free mind. It is a story about a woman born from the unknown. Through the complexities of our characters, I think we can immortalize our beliefs. We can find our inner strength in the darkest corners of our minds, if we learn to embrace the unknowns before us — instead of attempting to label and categorize them. Creating from that unknown is one of the purest expressions of human ingenuity in my eyes. To me, it is one of the greatest abilities we have. As the stories go, God himself was a writer in his own right, his creations displayed before him like the beautiful disorder of our manuscripts. Some of them never see the light, and others exceed time and immortalize our legacies when we no longer live. They may stand testament to our existence, our influence, the conduct of our very being, when we no longer can.

We bridge dimensional realities

The human story will be told of words and imagery, of creative inventions, not what we leave in rubble with destruction but what we build from those ashes. This is the practice we engage in. We reach into the void and pull out worlds that your mind can see as clear as day, but your hands cannot touch. Some might call it fantasy or fiction, but I call it bridging the dimensions of our reality — a new reality that is invisible to the eye. I say dimensions because for those who have experienced this mental journey of writing, will often mention going into another world — their own world — a zone where the atmosphere around us shifts into what we write. In a way, this is like going to another place. 

A way I have previously described this state goes as follows, “When I scribe, I become the character I‘m writing, I step into their mind and see the world of my visions through their eyes. I‘m there with them in their shadows. This psychological phenomenon of transcending dimensions will always be — my greatest addiction.”

 I am certain many other writers can relate to this feeling. 

Find your answers in the darkest corners…

~ Kisodoh, Eye of the Pariah

We declare our existence

This is my philosophy, and what we at Broken Chalice Studios stand for. This is the true power of writing for me, and I would challenge more writers to recognize the greatness within themselves. I would like to end this with a line from the essay I wrote, where I speak on my specific desires to write and its meaning to me. “My declaration of existence cannot be found at the bottom of a wastebasket, it is only found by those with eyes to read the unwritten words. Imprinted, signed, and published upon my soul. I am just now realizing that creating and imagining, is not some forsaken luxury that we associate with escaping. To reach for what you can’t see does not make you blind, it makes you a visionary. We call this the future.” And so the narrative must continue on, and it is up to us to write that next chapter.

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What is the code you choose to follow that enriches your work – your creators manifesto?

Hope you found this guest post about power of writing insightful. Connect with Antoinette on Twitter and Instagram.

Banner image and image of rose from Unsplash.