Author and authority

For a long time, my manuscripts remained in my drawer, awaiting an authority that would consider them sufficiently good to be printed. Why? Because I kept them secret. Before I had ever submitted them to an editor, I imagined this “authority” would certainly refuse my texts, so I condemned them to silence in advance. And yet, author and authority come from the same Latin word auctor which has many meanings, including “that which makes something grow; founder, creator, instigator and… authority.” Thus, was I the authority?

Yes, it is I, the author, who decides what is worthy or not, what will be shown, shared or not. I give myself this approval, this imprimatur that I formerly sought outside myself, because I am the one who sows a seed on the paper, who grows words, paragraphs, books. To create is to accept that the course of the writing is not known in advance, since it is not copied from any other; it is entirely new. Ah, and I forgot, auctor also means "one who approves."  I would say I approve.