"THAT'S FAR ENOUGH!"

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T. S. Eliot

 

 

 

Only those who go too far

risk getting their hand slapped

repeatedly.

D.S.

(ouch!)

 

Gone too far? Been told you were just being ridiculous--that the chances of your success were slimmer than none?

 

Good, welcome to the world of endless possibilities. Whether in art, poetry, fiction, or entrepreneurism--there is no end in sight.

 

Push your boundaries, clamber out of your "comfort zone," turn off the television (please!), and go and make and do and become! Bored?--it's only because you're not trying very hard. Seriously. Turn off the endless chattering media and engage with people and things first-hand. Or, at least, dialogue via the media--dialogue doesn't mean forwarding the latest joke or pic or gossip, though. It's nice when someone thinks of me that much, but it is in a personal reply or comment, that is when the magic of friendship starts.

 

So, when was the last time you tried something that wasn't routine, cut-and-dried, been-there-done-that? Studied a new subject? Read a non-fiction book that was outside your normal world? Tried a new craft or hobby or musical style or instrument? Painted with watercolors or oils or sketched? Spent time outdoors identifying rocks or birds or plants or trees? Tinkered with a something: a recipe, a gadget?

 

Keep in mind that Patent Office worker, who suggested shutting down the department, "...since everything worth inventing already has been"?

 

[Even better: the quote is likely bogus in its initial attribution: somebody in the patent office said words to that effect some 60 years earlier! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Holland_Duell ]

 

So, there are endless possibilities out there...and sometimes it is merely a wandering path that'll help you stumble onto a gem. Some endless possibilities are only met by those who, like Thomas Edison and Ben Franklin, don't hear the words "NO" and "you cannot."

For a writer...endless opportunities await both the aimless and the industrious--oops, they gotta overlap a whole lot if one is actually gonna write and not merely have Technicolor daydreams.

Oh, then there's the whole opportunity to not invent one's own reality, but to (thinly or not-so-thinly) fictionalize the truth. What a wonderful world...where people will actually PAY to buy a work of fiction.

 

Hope you'll pay to buy mine! Coming soon, to a website near you...THE ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS! Buy direct from the publisher.

 

Oh, there's a dialogue box below. Don't use it...spontaneous personal combustion may occur.

 



Laugh or Cry or Gape in Amazement: what great writing is all about.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

-Robert Frost

- - = = - - = = - - = = - -

"No fun in the writer, no fun in for the reader" would be my little addendum, if I dare to camp onto the Poet Laureate's words. Not that life is all fun and light and sweetness...but don't we crave moments of light and sweetness and fun and fulfillment? I think those kind of yearnings are there to remind us to fix our eyes on something bigger and better'n we ourselves are.

So, do I cry when I write? Nope. (Sometimes, reading what I've written--oh yeah!)

Am I surprised when I write? Oh, certainly. I adhere to one famous author's suggestion: Take strong characters, throw them into difficult circumstances, and see what they do! Then, throw them into more difficulties...add tension, stir, and repeat.

The critical ingredient in that recipe is STRONG characters. Or, characters who are becoming strong. Or, characters who used to be strong and we wonder--do they still have it? Are they gonna reach way down deep inside and do it, or will they choke? Stay tuned, because, as Scarlett reminds us, "Tomorrah is anothah day!"

..............

"I want to make you laugh.

I want to make you cry.

Even better, both at the same time."

 

(from Stephen King's lapidary opus, ON WRITING: For Love of the Craft.)

 

Stay calm, and write a page a day.

"Slow but steady wins the race."

 

----------------------

How many of life's dilemmas could be solved by generalizing today's blog title?

"Stay calm."

Easily said, not easy for some of us. Of course, worrying or getting fretful doesn't enhance anyone's productivity...but, some folks need a calming influence. I'll bet you know exactly what calms you...so, duh, do it!

"...and write a page a day."

Most projects will be done and done well when we plug away at them, a bite-sized morsel at a time. Remember, there's some (crazy!) person in the Guinness Book of World Records who ground up and ate...an entire school bus. When asked how he did it, he replied, "One mouthful at a time."

(Note, there's not a record of anyone asking WHY???????????????)

So, I'll write my page a day, and you do what you need to do, and we'll compare notes, eh?

Slow but steady still wins a lot of races, but most runners say that the cheers of the crowd give them a second wind, especially when facing a hill. Having a support team is good--they can function as cheerleaders; they can also check in with a "Howz it going?" or "Slacking, again?"

=-=-=-=-=-=--=

So, does the average writer do a page a day? Some do, some don't. Some strive for 1000-2000 words a day, which would actually be around 3-6pp/day! If we look at popular writers, many are turning out 300 page books pretty much one a year--sounds like about a page a day to me!

Howzabout me? Some days I'm lucky to get a ppgh. Other days, one or two pages...but, the trick is, I just keep plugging whether I'm moving faster or slower, the deal is to just keep myself goin!

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
― Plutarch

"But, once kindled, it must continue to be fueled."

― DLS

=--=-=-=-=-=-=-

I have to agree strongly with one of my favorite writers, that refueling at the "glass teat" is not nourishing. And if Stephen King sez it...

He says to unplug your television, or for even more fun, take a hammer to it!

Now, I know you're already rushing to defend this channel or that program...but the point is, reading is generally more stretching to the mind than is mere watching. Reading involves many more brain circuits, as you need to generate the images and sounds (and other senses) awl by youw're wittle wonesome sewlf...without a director/producer/etc deciding exactly what you will see or hear. And, and what you won't!

Really, I don't hate everything about TV, but I do lament that the AVERAGE American household consumes some 30 hours of programming per week....and, how much of that do you think is fuel for the mind? Just put your best guess in the comments section below! 

I've yet to hear a writer or visual artist say, "Yes, this work was inspired by xyz-program."

What does inspire this writer? Other books, to be sure. Talking with real, live people who dialogue with me, people whose warts and witticisms are obvious and occurring live, in real-time...ahem, just as are mine!

What else inspires me? Music! Outdoors! Vistas. Did I mention books? More books. Magazines. Kids of all ages. Museums. A sense of the divine.

What inspires you, keeps your fires well-fueled?



Inspiration, Recognition, and the Proper Use of the Club.

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Jack London

Dear Jack,

You took me to new places, places that I saw through different eyes. I felt brave, daring, adventurous. In short, you inspired me.

Odd, that--I wasn't out hunting with a club...your stories rather clubbed me, in fact. Same for the inspiration to write my own book of animal stories. (Next to yours, mine are tame, but to compare our writings isn't why I'm writing to you today.) No, the inspiration came to me, as most ideas do, a little eddy current that swirled amid the mild hurly-burly of ordinary, non-linear-thinking life.

So, I am writing because I mostly disagree with you--I think inspiration often ambles on by, unremarked and unremembered. However, those who are aware, who are thinking, who are using their senses for more than just animal-level pleasures or survival, for them the inspiration is seen/heard/felt/grabbed/tamed/used....or, in your terminology--the inspiration was out there, and I grabbed it, clubbed it into submission, and brung that sucker home.

Hmmm, I guess, after all that, we are in complete agreement.

Happy clubbing,

David