Books, horses, and dogs...and, writing?

A man's experiences of life are a book. There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and tragedy.
 --Mark Twain.

The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.
--Sir Winston Churchill.

Outside of a dog, a book may be man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.
--Mark Twain.

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Well, outside of a book--I want to get into it! I've read about 25 or 26 books thus far in 2013, a tad slower pace than usual, due to a coupla huge ones, a coupla weeks of company, and currently laboring through a full length novel in Spanish. Most good writers say, "Read a lot, it'll help your writing." Most aspiring writers agree. Most lazy writers assert, "I don't have time to read." Well, then, obviously, it's not that important to you, is it, as my fellow Mainah, the acerbic Stevie, asserts.

Inside of a book--I often am more motivated to write than when I'm actually sitting here, in front of the keyboard. How odd. That said, off to do some writing...oh, but one last thought:

Inside of a dog--it's STILL too dark to read!

On (re-)Reading Tolkien

On (re-)Reading Tolkien:



Delighted...

     Transported.....

          Beguiled.... by tantalizing whiffs of a land that seems strangely familiar, as if going home and finding all my family and old friends there. Hints of Eden mingle with the stench of Mordor--yes, I live in a fallen world...but it shall be redeemed and recreated!

I opened The Hobbit after a several year hiatus (I read the tetralogy through, every few yrs, but this hiatus was greater'n usual). After the first page, I put the book down and sighed--the magic was at work once again! Not many books will do this for me, apart from Narnia series...oh, and Lewis' SPACE TRILOGY.

The pursuit of this all-enveloping sense of wonder, that sense of, like Alice, falling down a hole and finding oneself in a different world--THAT is why we read...and, I hope and wish and pray, that is my goal in writing. (Fiction-writing, that is...if you find yrself inna diff world after reading my non-fiction--WHOOPS!) The non-fiction writer has the goal of making reality more crisp and clear, of clearing up both near-focus and broad perspective. The fiction writer seeks to overwhelm reality, causing it to pale into a blurry backdrop, onto (or, into!) which a fictive universe may be projected.

Speaking of projection: I will never watch any cinematography based on Tolkien--the magic of his words and his world require no visuals for me. I am happy with the images he conjures: some are clear and concrete, others vague or changeable...but all are sufficiently vivid and are presented at my own pace. If I choose to read aloud one of Bilbo's or Strider's poems, or to slowly sift their imagery, I can do that, chewing slowly and savoring it fully. Okay, fine, call me a book-loving snob, but I think there have only been one or two books ever where the movie was as good as the book...and those were thrillers whose actions suited the big screen very well. Okay, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, based on only one or two chapters of Maria von Trapp's autobiog...that movie took a slow book and breathed life into it with a capital "L."

That's a somewhat lengthy aside. I find rereading Tolkien to be inspiring--I want to write literature that is transporting, fascinating, rich and chewy and funny and poignant and...oh, heck, simply wonderful. That said, wanting and doing oft diverge...thus, I intend to keep writing lots. The trick will be to produce alot, to throw away the gunk, and to keep the good stuff. I guess the "joys" of editing will be a topic for another day. Pruning, weeding, editing, throwing away--most of us are hoarders rather'n tossers, eh?

"Just do it." Or...not.

For all sad words of tongue or pen
the saddest of all are, 'It might have been.'
--John Greenleaf Whittier.



One famous writer reportedly stated, "I have several books complete, all in my head...I have but to write them down." (If memory serves, it was Coleridge, but I cannot find anything to confirm such. But, while searching, I came upon some interesting titles for future reading!)

27 different publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

30 publishers reject Stephen King's first novel, Carrie.

Feel bad for them? Pah! Mere pikers: Jack London accrued received six hundred rejection slips before his first story was finally accepted. White Fang and Call of the Wild, as you well know, went on to become (pardon the pun) roaring best sellers.

So, persevere, stick to it, never quit, and never listen to the critics on the sidelines. Assemble a team of friends, family, or whoever that will cheer you on AND hold your feet to the fire!

Don't simply dream big...
      don't merely set goals...
           don't have high hopes...
                unless you plan on becoming a doer rather than a dreamer.

Ready? Set...now.....GO!

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OR...be like a politician: "FIRE! Ready. Aim."

OR...just sit there, lulled by distractions on your smartphone oryour tablet computer, or sit there and let television narcotize you (legitimate word, at least in medical circles: Narcotic is the root; as in, "Television, the opiate of the masses," to update the Karl Marx quote to the 20th/21st centuries).

Creativity and Predictability

Think left and think right
      and think low and think high.
Oh the things you can think up
      if you only try.
---------Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss)

      So, should we give Dr. Seuss the credit for inventing the phrase, "Think outside the box"?
     
     When a novelist is busy "thinking outside the box," is is always a novelty (pun just happened, and I love it!)?
    
     I fear that the pursuit of novelty may result in short shrift for plotting or characters.
That said, when Tolkien wrote that wonderful tale of Middle Earth, it was indeed filled with novelties...
     ....Or, was it?
    
     Ogres and dwarves, dragons and magicians, bogeymen and giants had all been in stories since time immemorial (hey, I was born in Memorial... Hospital, that is!)...granted, hobbits are a "new" kind of little people, but folklore is filled with humanoids of all stripes and sizes.

     What's so unique about the Hobbit and Trilogy? Or, is there really anything unique? Is this just another "grail quest," where saintly do-gooders must fulfill a mission to save themselves or their kingdom or their liege-lord?
     Is Frodo in the middle of a not-so-thinly veiled allegory? (Tolkien vigorously sez, NO!)

     Or, is The Hobbit/LOTR simply a smashingly good story that takes a familiar genre to new hgts of detail and delight? And, is the "novelty" of the story just the fact that Tolkien wove a wondrously complex tapestry of characters who grew as they stumbled from one trouble into the next?

     Think about this--do we really like novelty in a protagonist, or do we love their familiar quirks, their verbal tics, their predictable outbursts of rage or humor or irony? As I reread favorites, or watch the one or two TV programs that "behave like novels," I find myself enjoying not the novelty but the familiar: the wise-cracking as two best buddies insult each other (think "Car Tawk"), or the female's preoccupation with fine dining or shoes; the recurring jokes and peculiar postures that tell you--yes, this character is real, is predictable (to just the right degree) but is also flexible and sometimes surprising.

     Got any books/stories/programs/movies that leap to mind as you read this?

Polysyllables...2/6/13

Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions some from big words? He thinks I don't know ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.

-----Ernest Hemingway, having been informed that William Faulkner "had no courage" and "had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary."

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     Personally, I love big words. When we started vigorous vocab studies in jr. high, I thought that was the cat's meow! However, as a physician, I learned to keep my words simple, direct, and colorful...and was told by patients more than once that I was the only doc that ever talked to them so's they could understand!

     More education, sadly, often teases the "erudite one" away from common sense and the ability to communicate with the public. Grandiloquency rarely augments clarity, and prolixity leads to perplexity, perturbation, and pother.

Sometimes, a big word is the only bullet that'll hit the bull's-eye.
Oft-times, not.

Do you think it is ever okay to send a reader to the dictionary? (I try not to, and consider it a failure of communication on my behalf if I cannot be understood by the reader on the first pass.)

2/4/13: Walking and looking for...what?

The GREATEST SECRET of life...we all find exactly what we're looking for...ultimately, whether our lives are good or bad, ugly or beautiful.
      --The Walk. Richard Paul Evans.

What am I looking for? Goodness and beauty and, ultimately, the Source of all goodness. Is writing a valid avenue for that search? I sure hope so. There are days when I wonder if I oughta be investing my energies in another arena...but, there are times when someone says, "David, I was just reading one of your daily devotions, and it really moved me. Thank you." That's when I remind myself that, per my theology, there is a definite adversary out there who wants to oppose anything and everything good.

How to tell when it's satanic opposition? If what we're pursuing would be something undilutedly good for self or others, then it's like spiritual forces that are working to make the way dark, the road steep, and the headwind to be numbing.

That's when that old-fashioned perseverance comes into play--gotta keep on going, walking one footstep at a time, one after the other. Whew. Hang in there gang!

If you haven't read the author cited above, I do recommend him. Some might say he's a bit schmaltzy, but I don't think he's just sugar and bubblegum--there's a core of truthful seeking and seeking of truth, and a heart that wants to do right by people and that is willing to admit that not all the answers are simple to find or enact. Refreshing.

Any books or an author that has led you to walk further down the road? Care to share?

2/2/13--Hacking Away.

Higher emotions are what separate us from the lower orders of life. Higher emotions...and table manners.
        --Deanna Troi, Star Trek Next Generation Commander.



What separates a hack from a higher order writer? I have a lot of possible answers...

--not belching at the table (sorry--my Grampa Thomas always threatened to get the Emily Post ETIQUETTE book out of the bookcase but I never saw it happen!)

--clarity

--good grammar

--characters that are believable, with quirks that make them interesting and dialogue that sparkles

--the ability to create a suspension of belief for the reader...that is, my alternative to reality is so good that the reader jumps on in with both feet and stops listening to that whining little voice that says, "It's only make-believe."

--the simplest and best answer: does the writing move the reader, eliciting empathy or action or laughter or tears or refreshed spirit or firmed-up resolve?

 I just read the third book of Richard Paul Evans' WALK series...and the author does a great job of delivering his message with simplicity, amidst a plot with enough twists and turns to hold my interest. Am also rereading THE HOBBIT--wow, talk about eliciting empathy, with a plot that lures me onward in a phantasy-land that is oh-so-believable. Tolkien, a definite hero, and the author of 4 of the 10 books I'd pack for my life-long exile on a desert isle! (I know, you'd rather be on the dessert aisle!)

Silly puns (is that a redundancy?) aside...read anything lately that moved you?