I remember clearly that day min elementary school when a teacher read to us Horacio Quiroga‘s “The Feather Pillow”. I got home to literally beat the crap out of my pillow even though it was stuffed with some artificial filler. Quiroga was a fantastic horror writer from the early 20th Century and the absolute definition of a tortured soul. Later in High School I was treated to his Decalogue of the Perfect Story Teller and I was always haunted by rule 9.(Loosely translated):

“Do not write under the empire of emotion. Let it die and evoke it later. If you are capable to revive it as it was, you have artfully reached the half way point of your road.”

No doubt I am an emotional writer. I’ve been writing on and off for many years but mostly for myself and the occasional very non-professional works. The Word Processor and the Internet has helped me expand (and seriously get in trouble) but I still write in the moment when I am exploding emotionally about something. Now that I am forced to write “seriously” (as seriously I can which ain’t that much. I don’t take myself seriously enough) I find myself again remembering Quiroga’s #9 and damming his cursed soul.