Ask the Author: Robert M. Fisher
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Robert M. Fisher
I got the idea for writing "Field of Gourds: A Guide to Intellectual Rebellion" from a conversation with a close friend--a friend who is very accomplished, intelligent and creative I might add. In the midst of a debate with this friend, I came to two conclusions about his perspective and how it differed from mine. First, I noticed that he tended to have much more faith in experts than I do, and tended to equate trusting what experts have to say with rationality. Second, and separately, he seemed to conclude from the successes of science that there is little possibility of there being a God. (Of course, he might not characterize his own thinking this way.) I realized that these propositions were at the core of much of modern thought, and I also realized how viscerally I disagreed with them. I view these perspectives as intellectual traps that have little to do with true rationality. I thought to myself: I don't want my own children caught in these traps. Thus, I wrote the book for my children and as an antidote to the impoverishing aspects of what passes for modern thinking, which I think can be debilitating both on an individual basis as well as on a collective basis. Now, of course, this is not to say that experts are not often right and that, in many circumstances, it is very important to follow what they have to say. But … well … read the book!
Robert M. Fisher
There are different causes of writer's block, depending on the writer and the context. I think one of the most common causes is a muddling of two aspects of the writing process. Inside of us, we have a "speaker" and we also have a "critic"; they should be thought of as two different and distinct aspects of a given writer. When you are trying to get words down on paper, you have to tell your internal critic to shut up for awhile. That is, just force yourself to write, as if you were chatting with a friend or your intended audience, and you are on-the-spot to speak, and there is neither time nor occasion for self-criticism. Just say what you have to say in your own words. After having done that, you can then permit your internal critic to wake up. It is in the editing process that you give the internal critic its voice. You wrestle with what you have written, and you are ruthless in your editing. And then, subsequently, you go back to free-writing when it is time to generate some more substantial text. In sum, I think writer's block often comes from muddling those two processes, and trying to do both at once. The same is true for life. There are times and places and moments to set that little internal critic aside and just be in the moment--and allow yourself to be vulnerable within that moment in that you have indeed set aside the internal critic--and then again there are other times when the internal critic needs to come to the fore. Wisdom lies in knowing the difference.
Robert M. Fisher
You have to find a way to force yourself to write regularly. I think what works may be different for different people. What works for me is a two-fold process. First, I have to promise to myself that I will finish whatever the project is, no matter what, and mean it. I know that sounds silly, but I tend to have a lot of ideas, and I find the key thing is to make an actual decision that I will follow-through on a particular idea. Second, for me, it is very important to set up a regular time slot in which I sit down to write, and then really try to stick to that. With my book "Field of Gourds", I would get up a couple hours early every day, and sit down to do my writing before I went to work. I think I wrote about two-and-a-half times the amount of material I actually ended up using--but you can't really judge your writing until you get it out of your head and down on paper. I was dedicated to finishing the book, because it was important to me to convey the ideas to my children--so I had a motivation.
Robert M. Fisher
Am I a writer? I am a writer in that I have written a couple of books and enjoy the process of writing, but I do not make my living at it. Nonetheless, I think writing is great, because it helps you develop your thoughts, and, in turn, the further development of your thoughts connects you to the world around you in deeper ways. Writing is paradoxical, in that it is an isolated activity that removes you from society, and yet the process itself also brings you back to society and re-connects you. By putting things on paper (or, I guess, in a computer these days) you can start to see the gaps in your own thinking or viewpoint. You grow from that.
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