Writing makes an exact man exact in thought and speech.

Writing makes an exact man exact in thought and speech.

--Francis Bacon--

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Sir Franny is correct, or...is he. Whatta you think?...Right, think about it,

 

 

before

 

you

 

scroll

 

down

 

here

because my opinion matters more than yours only in the fact that, at this moment, it is my hand on the controls, not yours!

I think Sir Franny is correct on one level: in order to write well enough to satisfy an exacting task-master, the work must be more than just orthographically and grammatically correct. Good writing should also have a smoothness of flow that takes into account not only logic but ear.

That is, my above paragraph is grammatical and logical, but it sure doesn't flow--oops, it just got better--I broke one long sentence into two! There, the deed testifies to Bacon's words.

So, I agree: exact writing demands exact vocab, linear flow of thoughts, and adherence to the rules of the language. That's all correct, as far as it goes. But I think one also needs to pay attention to more than rules, but to the art of writing. Namely, is there a word that the author understands and that fills the bill perfectly, but that word is sufficiently out of the ordinary that the average reader will be given pause? Are the sentences all the same length? If they're all short, it'll feel choppy. All long? There's risk for frustrating the reader--the task of the writer is to distill, to clarify, to bring the reader along, not to impress you with euphonious exhalations of polysyllabic pomposity, or to mightily divert you with my amusing twists of thought that ultimately serve to obfuscate.

So, I also disagree with Bacon: there's much more to good writing than mere exactitude. A little sloppiness in the first draft, in particular--great idea. Keeps me moving fast and not worrying so much about perfection that I over-criticize myself and choke off the flow of ideas.

And, the exact writer may be driven to perfectionistic paralysis--will it ever be just right? Will every reader follow my every word and my every thought?

Pish. Chuck Swindoll said something about going over every line, word by word, to ensure that everything said precisely what he intended. But, NO paralysis for him--Wikipedia's Swindoll entry lists 57 books under the heading, "selected publications," suggesting that there are more out there. Oh, and 12 ECPA Christian Book awards.

Okay, he's one of my heroes. So, after inspiring myself, if no one else...off I got to write.

Your comments welcomed below.

Reading, etymology, and Latin. (Latin? Gotta be kidding!)

I love to read. Whether for entertainment or for learning, it's a good thing. Generally, that is.

I just laid aside a book about etymology. I plowed thru 60 pages or so, but with no real narrative line...I'll be honest, I've had more fun reading the dictionary or the encyclopedia. (Oops, those are fun...bad comparison.) I've had more fun weeding the yard.

This despite the fact that the author was very careful to clarify that entomology was for bugs that bug people, not about words that bug people!) Still, I COULD put the book down. In fact, it joins the roughly one or two books per year that I can put down...and never pick back up again!

I'd rather learn Latin than listen to someone babble on about a word's roots, "The word 'gnaw' is one of many that begin with 'gn-' and may be linked by..."

When I hear, "...it may be", the educator in me immediately responds, "Thus, it also may NOT be." Phooey.

Actually, I have subscribed to the email "Latin Word of the Day," and am enjoying broadening my vocab/etymology...here's the page where one could subscribe. Subscription is, BTW, an overt confession of abject geekhood.
http://www.transparent.com/word-of-the-day/today/latin.html#.UfRjBD3n9PA

Also, English word of the day: http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html

Okay, that was a lengthy digression. Basically, I enjoy non-fiction, but it needs to be written with a better narrative line than my high-school history textbook (spontaneous yawn at the memory!) The autobiography that I just read, Louis Zamperini's DEVIL AT MY HEELS, flowed like a well-written novel, with suspense, theme, rise and fall of tension within each chapter....yeah! I think non-fiction has come a long way since I was in high school. Whatta you think? Any fav non-fiction works you'd like to share with the legions reading this? Comment below or back on FB, pls.

Carrying the Torch.

Most everybody has heard that little saying by William Purkey,

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”

 

 

But do we live that out? Or, is it even possible to live like that? Guess we'll never know unless we try, eh?

 

While we all need regular doses of encouragement and re-encouragement and re-re-.... I think it helps us when we try to visualize our personal heroes and imitate them. For me, people like my mom and dad, Pastor Bob Frederich, Morine Cheney, Pastor Kori Hagen, Pastor Arlo Janssen, Pastor John Lindsay, and my daughter Carrie are inspirations. When I conjure up their faces, I want to bear the banner, carry the torch that these people have or are still carrying, and point my body/mind/heart/soul/strength at bringing glory to the most high God...and, if may I ask...may I have the next dance?

 

King David's wife, Michal, scorned him for dancing like nobody was watching. He didn't care and he didn't stop and neither will I! Join in the dance, the song, the loving and the living, for heaven's sake!

 

 

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Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face at all times.

Psalm 105:4.

 

Folly delights a man who lacks judgment, but a man of understanding keeps a straight course.

Prov. 15: 21.





“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.”

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.”

--Ken Robinson.

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How's your curiosity? I'll be you've got more than you reckon. Let me ask a few questions and you keep track:

1. How often do you look at your watch/phone/computer/other device to check the time? More than once an hour?

2. Do you watch the TV news regularly? Weather?

3. Do you enjoy Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune on TV?

4. Do you read a newspaper regularly?

5. Do you read anything regularly?

If you answered yes to any three of these questions, I'm here to say--I think you have a good sense of curiosity.

Now for the real question: are you curious about things that matter? Truly matter, to you and your family and your friends? Things that aren't fads, celebs, media-driven, or trivia, but instead are do you want to know more about big issues, about trends that may last for years or decades? About issues that effect your quality of life now and for the rest of your life? About the hereafter?

I think of those scientific minds of yesteryear: Ben Franklin, Kekule, Copernicus, Isaac Newton...never satisfied with the status quo. Closer to our times: Watson and Crick, Robert Goddard, Steve Jobs and his ilk...nobody could convince them, "Everything worthwhile is known/invented"!

Is your curiosity well-invested? Poking yer nose into stuff best left unpoked?

Just some suggestions...I know that I'm often curious about mere or mostly trivia, so these questions are as much for me as for ye!

I think curiosity is indeed the engine of achievement and of creativity. And, like any engine, it can be well-cared for, retuned, rebuilt...and with certain tools and add-ons, a whole lot more horsepower can be elicited.

What revs up your curiosity? Vroom-vroom!

Creativity--in education, and in you and me.

I feel like a late bloomer in the garden of creativity. How much of my creative spark was quenched by, "Let's draw a flower--here's how to do it...No, no, Jamie, flowers aren't those colors...or, ahem, shapes. See how Billy did it--they look just like the one that I drew."

In public school, I wrote many more book reports than I did stories...granted, reading is a deep foundation for learning and for writing, but there was a huge over-emphasis on reporting and underemphasis on creating.

My niece, Shaelin, just told me about this guy:

Ken Robinson, If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.

• Watch this talk »

Watch it. It's 19 minutes long, funny, and convicting!

[It's a choppy post today...but, that's the story, morning glory!]

Length, Width, and Depth...

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.

--H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956).

 

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I was talking with a (rising) high school freshman today, and told her that I was still excited about reading more history books. Kudos to Dr. Askew @ Gordon College many moons ago--he was such a great teacher that Elizabeth would sit in on his lectures when she visiting.

Something that has emerged among authors of history books aimed at the lay audience is to organize about a theme. A favorite was WATER, by Stephen Solomon, 2010. He looked at societies (ancient thru modern) that harnessed rivers for irrigation, by canals for transport, mills for grain and machines, sea for transport...it made for a fascinating framework upon which to hang a 500 page history of the world. Simply stated, water for food, transport, and machines provided simple yet major themes that naturally run thru human history.
...also: Jared Diamond's

Guns, Germs, & Steel...and his COLLAPSE.

Freese, Barbara..............

Coal: a Human History.

.....dittoes for major theme.

[Sorry, as I'm pasting in titles and authors, the formatting is going nutso.]

I asked myself why history was never taught like this in el-hi schooling? Sure makes it more interesting, as well as more digestible!

Any historical titles that've fascinated you lately? Or other non-fiction? To me, writing fiction that holds one's attention feels easier than penning superb non-fiction that grabs the reader...hmm, now that I think it over, since I've written both genres, I guess both are amenable to humor, asides, literary devices like alliteration and figurative language, varied pace, and varying points of view.

Love writing this blog...it helps me think about things from a different perspective....that whole breadth/depth/length (which, multiplied, equals volume, btw!)Thnx for reading and commenting. Right. Just click on the leetle yaller pencil icon below and scribe away. Remember that older blog entries can be accessed in the right-hand column, labeled by month.

Tapestries, loose threads, and loose screws.

We here are on the wrong side of the tapestry. The things that happen here do not seem to mean anything; they mean something somewhere else.

--Chesterton, GK. Father Brown Mystery Stories.

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I wonder how often a writer, thru creative art, actually manages to crane their neck around to get a glimpse of "the other side of the tapestry"? And, is that the result of a bold and stunning imagination? Divine gift? Or both?

Does a writer lend meaning to the meaningless? Discover patterns that are truly present or merely imagined?

This, I think, is the delight and dilemma for the writer...am I seeing something real and making it more clear for my readers? Or, is this just, as Solomon said, a "vanity," the product of a fertile imagination?

To answer this question...well, I'm going to point in the direction where I think answers await...I suggest Narnia and Middle Earth. Whattaya think?

Did Lewis and Tolkien see something new? Or the old in new and exciting and memorable ways?

That's my question for the day...

PS: whilst I used the term "writer," perhaps better would be, "honest seeker of truth via the creative arts."

PPS: Tapestry--NOT the place to go tugging at loose threads. Art and littyature--oh yeah. Sometimes I think it's fun to go looking for a thread that, while not exactly loose, isn't quite aligned with its neighbors. Tug and run, what fun!

PPPS: Some creative pursuits may look like the loose thread isn't loose at all--it's the artist's screws that are a little loose! I think creativity and eccentricity and loosey-goosey-ness are pretty close together on a continuum that ends with --van Gogh? Jack Kerouac? Your candidate(s)?

PPPPS: I think sometimes "the other side of the tapestry" is hiding in plain sight, and we try to make things too complicated, look for "the big answers" when meaning and purpose and value is right in front of us...in the little things. Such as? Children and their absolute joy in discovering something new to them. A dog at play--is there a more clear and direct demonstration of joy than that? Sunsets, sugar maple trees bedecked in their regimental colors in September, a mountain range, chocolate, Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms! Ahhhhhhh.


There is no element of genius without some form of madness.
--Leonardo DiCaprio (I hated attributing it to him. Even though I found the quote attached to his name, I had a hard time giving a Hollywood feller credit...so I looked it up...shure 'nuff, also attrib to Seneca and Aristotle!)



A Blast from the Past.

The monumental ruins left behind by past societies hold a romantic fascination for all...we marvel at them as children. When we grow up, many of us plan vacations so we can experience them first-hand.
--Jarod Diamond in COLLAPSE.

But, courtesy of your local independent bookstore or library, you can visit those haunting relics of the past in the comfort of your own recliner! Courtesy of your favorite author, you can enter a make-believe world that will transport you back in time, to when those were not monumental ruins but the focal points of vibrant societies. Here let's try it:

Tzikal lugged another bundle of firewood to the top of the pyramid, muttering about his aging knees and back with every steep step. Why they had to build these temples so steep I'll never understand. Typical priests, not thinking about the realities of life. Still, he mumbled, it's better to be a lowly bundle-bearer for the priests than having my daughter sacrificed to these insatiable 'gods,' ay-ay-ay, may they and their greedy attendants all vanish in a cloud of smoke from this bundle of wood. He paused on the forty-fifth steep step, turning to rest the heavy load on the second step above him. As always, he tried to look out over the temple complex to the vast expanse of cultivated land beyond. That could be her, he muttered, knowing that the tiny figure in the distance could be an elderly grandmama just as likely as his lively seventeen-year-old daughter.

"Up, up, you lazy donkey!" the overseer shouted down from the priests' platform. "That's your second stop already! You can sight-see on your way down," he yelled, shaking his gold-covered staff that flared in the sunlight as if it were on fire.

Tzikal laughed nervously as he deposited his bundle on the heap that he'd lugged up on his previous trips. "I'm sorry, Pak-Tziki, but my old knees can no longer run up these steep steps the way we did when you and were playful and young and--"

"Quetzal-Prokzi-Pak-Tziki to you, old man! You will show respect or I will show you the quickest way down those stairs!"

"Yes, I am sorry Quetzal-Prokzi-Pak-Tziki, on whom may the gods smile forever. I will be going for another load for the sacred fires, if that is all, sir," Tzikal said, his hand clasped over his heart and head bowed. But my heart does not bow to you, he thought.

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      So, how was your trip to the Mayan ruins? Mine was vivid, although I quite wanted to take Tzikal's childhood chum and show him the quickest route down those stairs, which are indeed steep, so steep as to be nigh-giddying on the way down! So steep that they've installed a chain for us tourists to hold onto...back when my muscular dystrophy was more a nuisance rather than a life-altering constant presence.
     See, I wrote about something I knew--91 steps on each side of the four-sided pyramid plus the priests' platform on top...do the math for the number of steps, or trust me that it adds up to 365. Cool, huh?
     As Stephen King said in ON WRITING..."See, books are magical. I thought it, and you saw it." [DLS paraphrase, but that's the gist f'shure!] So, tell me, to when and to where did you last time-travel?

Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley...

The odd things that come to mind. Today I had to refresh my memory--I'm ashamed, I couldn't remember that the sarcoplasmic reticulum was a specialized form of the endoplasmic reticulum. I know, I know--how could I let that slip?

And, I had to refresh my memory of the lyrics for Tom Dooley...

I think the real tragedy isn't forgetting. Or, having to look up a fact. Tragedy lies in a young man like Tom Dooley who didn't live up to his potential. Threw his life away on his passions. Or, did he go with the simpler/basic/animal passions and ignore the higher calling, for I am certain that the gifts of logic, imagination, and creativity are universal--yes, universal, I'll go out on a limb and assert that every conscious human has all three of those gifts. Sure, in varying degrees, and some are more or less responsive to cultivation...but my traditional education did very little to foster imagination/creativity. Oddballs were ostracized. Dreaming be dashed!--we've got seatwork/busywork/homework to do! Even our art projects were sorta, "see this, this is how to do it" in many cases. Other art stuff was open-ended, I'm happy to say. Not much room for a wide-open, "Write about something that wowed you!" but, "Write about your summer vacation."

Okay, back to the tragic part: feeling not very creative? I find lots of adults who claim they're not imaginative or creative...and I respectfully disagree. I think the opiate of the masses (TV and other mass-media) weave a cocoon around us, dense and nigh-impenetrable, hindering us from our own imaginative works by drowning us in sensory input--sound, sight, dialogue, feelings toyed with...but none of that our own true feelings or imaginings. So, shut off the media and make/do/write/paint/sing/draw/sketch/garden...we have a friend who had made the map of the USA out of rocks. Not satisfied with that, she made a map of the world! Whenever she hikes, she's finding things to put to creative use. Cool, huh?

So, what's it gonna be? Cocoon or creativity?

As for me and my house,
   we will serve the mouse
over the net in center court
   Oh, blast, I hit it short!

(In honor of Wimbledon, now in session!)

;-p