04-01-15  - Litpick's Six Minutes with Facundo Raganato:

 

 

- How did you get started writing?

 

The long answer would be a love-at-first-sight experience which involves a stranger-than-fiction romantic story . . . and then the unconditional love of writing. The short answer would be that I naturally began to be inclined to express myself through written words, and create endless worlds through stories & poems. With time, I began to see the power of words and discover ideas through the voices of literature; their words are still sharing thoughts and feelings through time and space:

 

"You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea." - Medgar Evers

 

- Who influenced you?

 

The Masters of Literature are my strongest influences. Poe, Wordsworth, Blake, Keats, Whitman, Pope, Borges, Baudelaire, Dickinson, Shelley, Shakespeare, among other favorites, they speak truthfully from their literary voices; hence, they have influenced me to go into the depth of the actual written word: “What are you reading? What are you writing?” every written word is an ode to the infinite magic of Literature. Also, Philosophic thoughts have always been asked, but yet, never answered. I have more influences than I could ever count . . .

 

- Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

 

From ‘The Characters’ Short Living Story’? I would say the setting in chapter 13 would be my favorite one. It was the key setting I wanted to create ever since I started writing that story.

 

- What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

 

If you have writing material that you really want to publish in front of the eyes of the world, do not give up when searching for the right publisher. If you seek, you shall find. Don’t you ever give up. A writer will always be a writer as long as he/she writes. Now, an ‘Author’ is someone that has ‘authority’ over the creation. Be aware of every single word you write, for they have more power than you know. Be wise.

 

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” - Norman Vincent Peale

 

- Where is your favorite place to write?

 

I rather place myself at places where inspiration or ideas come at me. For example, if I have the urge to write about trees, it is most likely that I prepare myself to have a timeless set of time around trees in order to capture their essence with words, write, revise, keep writing, revise again, etc. However, I often write at night; it is very rare for me to be inspired or be writing during daytime. There’s something very magical at the twilight of the sun when it sets, the slow approaching of the night, the moon, it really clicks that switch for me to be ready to write about anything. Deepening sleeplessly into the marvelous ocean of literature during nighttime is pure euphoria. There’s no place like a ‘state of mind.’

 

- What else would you like to tell us?

 

Artists . . . don’t you EVER give up, and do not feel discouraged by the modern world we live, and if you do, give me a call . . . or, better yet, write a poem, compose a song, create a painting about it. Art is not something we are valuing as much as we should. I mean besides the great creations we can do, and I mean besides the talents amazing artists can have. I mean the experience, the process, the ideas, the creativity, the abandoning of oneself while dancing, the vision of the color we imagine in our minds before painting, what texture we feel before creating the sculpture, the contemplating or just the feeling of flowing when writing, the unmasked masks of acting, the universal language of music, and how many mixed wonders are explored in the magic of film, etc. There’s an incredible insight in the mind when it comes to creating Art, consciously and subconsciously; just reading about Jung and Campbell reflect how much we don’t know about ourselves, how much we can discover about our divine potentials and our impressive creations, how it can stretch our perceptions beyond the things we think, how it can expand our minds with the miraculous magic of pure imagination, how it can balance the pride of what we create in our lives, but it can also keep us humble enough to know that there will always be something greater than us, and lastly, how it can really connect us. There’s a very deep mirror of spiritual development in Art, individual and collective, but it is very hard to explain all this through words, so let me just say this: it guides us to find the Truth. So ask yourself from the source of your intention: what is your creation?

 “’Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”- John Keats.

 

Facundo, thank you for spending six minutes with us. This has been a very interesting interview. Hopefully you won’t get too many phone calls from discouraged artists!