Rob Sutherland

I have always written, even as kid, and have long been fascinated by what makes narrative tick. Creating worlds and populating them with characters that act in ways both surprising and realistic is a passion, and a challenge unlike any other. I am also aware of a kind of love-hate relationship I have with writing, the sense of writing being a great blessing and a curse. What a blessing and a privilege to be able to create entire worlds out of nothing, and populate them with people and beings as we see fit, to manufacture characters and situations that generate emotion and visual impact, maybe even to have a profound impact on the reader / viewer. But also, what a curse to be burdened with the constant need to do so, to wrestle with the tangled threads of narrative, theme, character, and plot, wondering how to make them work together in a coherent whole, wondering if they even belong in any given story, and knowing that even if the whole thing eventually comes together, it may take years, decades even, and is even then never going to live up to what you know it could be if only you had the talent / skill / awareness / guidance to make it so. And to wonder about the infinite, abundant, rich, narrative possibilities, which may be more meaningful, more insightful, more heart-opening, more career- and story-enhancing and all-round better in every possible way than the path taken, that are forfeited with every micro-choice made along the way – treasures untold, coherence and congruence, earth-shattering insights, depths of emotional and intellectual resonance, moments of transformative beauty, all left behind in the dark corners of the narrative maze left unexplored … But also knowing it’s time to just get on with it anyway and come up with something.