Our identities keep us tethered to a certain perspective—one that’s composed of certain viewpoints based on certain experiences. But in order to jump from perspective to perspective, to jump from world to world, it’s necessary to loosen that identity.
That’s where writers come in.
I don’t know that it’s necessarily about loosening your own identity, so much as opening yourself up to the possibility of other identities. I guess it is more like temporarily assuming another identity and allowing yourself (opening yourself to other perspectives and ways of thought) to be that person for a bit. You still have to revert back to YOU to accomplish the goal of recording the experience for the story. It’s your identity that drives you to write and be creative. If you loosen that too much, isn’t there a possibility of losing the part that drives you to do that?
I take kind of a Buddhist approach to this, so here’s my take on it: What is “I?” Did “I” start on my birthday? Or nine months before that? Or in my parent’s bodies? You can trace the chain of causal elements all the way back to exploding stars and the expansion of the universe. It may be that “I” doesn’t even exist; “I” may just be a molecular machine. A fair thing to say would be that if “I” does exist, then “I” is simply an idea instantiated in a temporary configuration of matter and energy. That being the case, I say be whatever identity you find fulfilling, because identity itself may be something that doesn’t even exist. By default, I’m a different person than I was ten years ago. So what I find fulfilling and functional is ethical and productive, which is what our external environment also rewards. As far as the fear of losing the part of you that drives you to write, you will lose that when you die, you will lose everything of course, so I guess it could be a risk, but one that only pertains to the individual. I could take or leave writing; it’s something I stumbled on that I’m okay at and it brings me a measure of fulfillment, but who’s to say I couldn’t find those things in other endeavors? Maybe I’d find something better. I guess what I’m saying is that in the end, it doesn’t matter, and in the present, it’s about using your gut and external clues to do what’s most fulfilling. It may be that means that I stop writing, but that’s okay with me. I think it actually allows me to be a better writer.
Well hey…I LOVE pieces of my identity! I tend to be routine, I tend to be spartan, I tend to be okay with creativity and audacity, and I love working out and eating well, and I LOVE cheat days! I see no reason to kill these pieces of myself off, as they propagate fulfillment. I think that’s what it all comes down to: what is most fulfilling. 🙂
Kent Wayne 
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