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

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"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!"

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"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."

 

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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?"

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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

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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

visual language

Artists choose to communicate in a visual language, possibly because they find it hard to order their own thoughts via the written or spoken word.
(Anon.)


--What's your take on that quote?


Gutless Anonymous, that's what I say. Unless that person is also an artist, I think they're terribly presumptuous. When I communicate in visual language, it's because I've chosen to use the vocabulary of color and line and form.

In defense of Anonymous, when I enter into the visual/manual arts, I may be thinking different thoughts than when I'm tapping away merrily on my computer. But, is it because I find it hard to order 'em, or because the visual is best?

Right now, I'm thinking of a crimson arc on a bone white background, arising from just inside the lower left corner and thinning as it makes its way up to the right. It finds its own height and starts to descend--do I keep it on the canvas and have a completed act/thought/deed? Or, do I fly off the right side, who knows where, leaving a hint of where I've headed but begging the viewer to involve themselves in the not-yet-completeness?

See, Mr./Ms. Anonymous, I just painted with words. Duh. Can you see the image? I sure can...but is that at all unique or do most of you see what I just painted?

And when I'm writing, prose or poetry, how much do I leave to the reader to interpolate or extrapolate? Do I tie everything up with a pretty little ribbon and present the done deed, or do I leave strands here and there that are frankly unfinished...little dangling loose ends that, hmmm, are just like reality?

Summer Reading

Whenever summer rolls around I begin to realize that I'm a complete and utter book snob. In relation to reading, I have absolutely no guilty pleasure at all. No graphic novels. No murder mysteries. My summer read is really no different from my winter read. I know many bookshops and magazines would have me believe that our summer forays are different, but literature is literature, and unfortunately snobbery is snobbery.
     --Colum McCann, author.

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There are good books, even great books, that you read happily but with a faint feeling of duty. Then there are the books, often less pedigreed, that you read in a haze of compulsion, as if their pages emitted a drug. Summer is the season for the latter.
     --Ben Dolnick, author.


Where do you fit? Snob? Rut? Compulsion?

Me? Not a snob, nope--I'll read anything and everything.

Fluffy mystery? Sure.

History of mankind? Right-o.

Biography of a WWII prisoner of war? Bring it.

The Hobbit (for the 10th time!) YEAH!

As an author, I think I learn more about writing from the mediocre than from the excellent--the truly excellent doesn't make you think about the mechanics of writing, because it transports you!

Beam me up Scotty--I've read everything there is to read on this planet! Where to next?

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What is the best book you've read this summer?

Idealist? Pessimist? Realist?

An idealist believes the short run doesn't really matter.

A cynic believes that the long run doesn't count.

A realist knows that what's done or left undone in the short run determines the outcome in the long run!

--journalist Sydney Harris.

The true realist has to look at the above quote with a grain of salt. I think Mr. journalist was going for a sound bite.

The short run doesn't matter to an idealist? Tell it to Beethoven: "Buh-buh-buh-bumm."

The long run? Howzabout Churchill's famed speech: "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." [While modern mythology has Sir Winnie uttering this as the full text, it was actually on the 2nd page of a 2-page speech.]

What I'm doing today is what any writer does--grabs self by the scruff of the neck, sits down, and writes. And, doesn't give up. Short run, long run, intermediate...just keep plugging. Keep a long enough perspective so that the number of tiny steps along the way doesn't overwhelm. Keep a short enough perspective that the long haul doesn't daunt. How do you walk all the way across the USA? One step atta time, sure...but one needs a vision of the rolling waves on that distant short to make every step feel worth the effort.

Don't feel like it? Tough.

Love it? Great, but don't expect to coast on good feelings alone.

Feedback, positive or negative? Gotta decide if that matters a little, a lot, or NOT.

Goal.
Plan.
Action.
Persistence.