Philosophy And Writing

Art is one of the most important game changers and is a reflection of our creativity in human life. In my own life, Salvador Dali is the artist who made me wonder more about ourselves and the World we live in. The first time I saw his paintings, I was so young. I can still remember how much I was impressed and amused by his way of expressing the concepts in his mind. I wondered about the secrets of his magical works. “What kind of a mind could ever express such ideas in the way he did?” was the question in my young and naive mind.

Naturally, I wanted to learn more about him and his creativity. The more I found out about him, the more I wanted to learn about creativity and connecting concepts. My research took me to these quotes, one by great Scottish philosopher Hume, the other one is one of the well known psychiatrists, Arieti:

“All this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting or diminishing the materials afforded us the by senses and experience”

David Hume

“Human creativity uses what is already existing and available and changes it in unpredictable ways.”

Silvano Arieti

Experiencing and learning are the sources of creativity, that was the idea that I embraced. Reading and learning new things drives us to search for more and inevitably starts a chain reaction. One answer causes another question and curiosity develops even if we don’t realize. That’s the evolution of the mind. 

Throughout our lives, either because of art or an experience we have, we want to learn more about something. In my case a chain reaction occurred with philosophy. First I wondered about the human mind, then societies and common life, and soon I was captured by the ideas that shaped human perception, moral philosophy. To be honest my writing adventure was caused by my interest in philosophy and research and love of writing. In the process of learning, I found myself creating different World structures to judge or embrace the ideas I learned.

Maybe that’s why reading, traveling and observing more are always recommended to the authors all the time— it exposes them to a new World. There must be input to create the output. In short isn’t creativity all about how a person discovers new inputs that will become the output? It makes all the difference among pieces of art. I knew no matter what genre that every novel requires a good research or well embraced experience. Whether it is romantic, thriller or fantasy, even in the simplest story, the author has to observe, evaluate and reinterpret human behaviours, characters or events. 

Due to my interest in philosophy, I always prefer writing in fantasy or sci-fi genre. I like building races, societies and Worlds that may show us ourselves from the outside. The story of Balance of the 12 hit me when I was searching about molecules, atoms and quantum. From that research, I started to think about the history of belief. Usually miracles happen right in front of us yet we can’t see them unless we believe and that belief eventually shapes us and our history. So I wanted to learn or remember all the miracles that have been told through history that I may not have seen before. Our stories show our way of thinking, and our miracles show our beliefs. Eventually when we combine them we can see the evolution of mind and society. 

At the beginning I started searching for myself, I just wanted to develop the story of Balance of the 12 to learn more about the World I live in. My first stop was ancient mythologies and beliefs. Then I read any religious books I could find. They were all telling different stories with the similar aim: creation. So the real miracle is our creation, and since the beginning it has been a main focus of the human mind. To know where to go, we have been trying to figure out where we have come from. Unfortunately that question hasn’t been properly answered by science. So we have been left with one choice: to believe. 

Meanwhile I was still interested in science to rejudge or re-evaluate old ideas. Then in time the story of Balance of the 12 improved. I was creating my own World with the ideas of our World.  I knew I had to do more research to complete the holes in my story. To create a system, everything must be set in a consistent way. I reshaped the knowledge I learned and experiences I had in a systematic way. I wanted to tell people a story that has something to say or at least create curiosity about things they may have never heard before.

The same questions that made me start to explore the world around us are still pop up in my mind from time to time. What if all the mysteries had a reasonable explanation? What if everything told to us throughout the mythologies were a real part of our lives and our minds are not capable of imagining something it never experienced before? What if all the conspiracies of the World would lead us to one point of view? 

After creating 12 races with 12 different characteristics, I tried to answer these questions I was having in my fantasy World. It has been so much fun, learning all these theories, reinterpreting them and creating a different World than the ones that have been created before. The first book of the series, Balance of the 12 is a fictional reinterpretation of the World’s past, today and future.

I still keep on searching for more for the next books of the series and answers to my questions. Salvador Dali helped me improve my point of view and although he would never know, his paintings changed my life. I hope Balance of the 12 may do something similar to someone one day. That’s my main focus on writing this book. Creating was so much fun for me, I do hope readers will have fun too. 

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Ania is a translator, author of Balance of the 12, and mother of twin girls. She has spent the past decade studying philosophy and now holds a degree in the field, working especially in the philosophy of politics and existentialism. Watching her children grow up has inspired her interest in human nature, perception, and learning systems. A passionate traveler, her work is influenced by the different locations she travels to and the cultures she encounters. To learn more about Ania and her books, please visit www.aniabooks.com, or connect with her on Facebook or Instagram @ania_author.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips