The inner pig dog visits Thrillerfest XVIII in NYC
/The Inner Pigdog
I was a panel member at this past weekend’s Thrillerfest https://thrillerfest.com on Keeping Creative Juices Flowing.
The panel master was the incredible Jamie Mason https://www.jamie-mason.com , and fellow panelists were the amazing Dr. Alexia Gordon https://alexiagordon.net and super-lawyer Bonnie Kistler https://bonniekistler.com. The rest of the panel was composed of Kent Lester http://www.kentlester.com with his superb southern drawl, and the ever-entertaining D.J. Palmer http://www.djpalmerauthor.com.
They were all thoughtful, kind authors with great insight into the creative aspect of writing - and then there was the pitbull in the China shop doing zoomies – yup, me. I blame my northern German upbringing for everything… they all indulged me. Thank you and thank you for not calling animal control on me.
The only thing I genuinely contributed was introducing to my fellow Americans the concept of Der Innere Schweinehund (the inner pigdog https://www.thelocal.de/20181019/german-word-of-the-day-innere-schweinehund ). It’s a concept which, in many ways, is what the panel was also about – the challenges of Writer’s Block, Impostor Syndrome, and much more. I annoyed everyone by declaring I don’t have any of the more common issues a number of writers experience such as self-doubt, for example. My many failures in life have taught me that self-doubt is a waste of time, since I’m likely to fail anyway. And discovering something I love – fiction writing – has given me enough joy in the actual process that I don’t waste time worrying about the future of whatever I produce. The only time I doubt myself these days is when it comes to choosing my next writing effort. That is when the inner pigdog demands food. But once a decision is made I write without doubt or hesitation until the work is finished. I have written a dozen non-fiction books and over a dozen of TV/film scripts and the only way you get things done is to sit down and JUST WRITE and DO NOT FEED THE PIGDOG.
Non-fiction is grinding writing… no matter how much I love some of the topics I cover.
But writing fiction, to me, is liberating - no longer confined to excessive research with a billion footnotes - it is wonderful. Time flies and YOU pick the size of the canvas you wish to paint on - be that a small one to Cristo & Jeanne Claude’s epic sized ones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude - it is up to you. You also choose charcoal or oil or whatever and you create your own world, limited only by your desire to do so and to finish the new and brilliant piece of art you have created. Sometimes you even get paid and published – hahaha…
In any event, writing fiction is wonderful and the community is generous and welcoming, sometimes even of the inner pigdog, and sometimes even of this pitbull doing zoomies in a China shop.
I thank you all for indulging me and I also wish to thank all of you all who attended.
Next year’s panel will hear about Ein Harter Hund…
Don’t mistake the inner pigdog with this pig of a dog…
