World Series, World of Ideas.

From Cabot Wealth Advisory (free, here. I like the price and the info!)
     --------- ---------- --------- --------- ---------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------
Winning in Baseball … and the Markets I don’t know if the rest of the country is as interested in the World Series as the citizens of Red Sox Nation are, but with the Series on, I had an idea about how to explain growth investing.

Hall of Fame baseball manager Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles used to say, “You win games with good pitching and three-run home runs.” And I think that’s a pretty good analogy for the way you win at growth stock investing, too.

In growth stock investing, good pitching means keeping the other side from scoring runs, which is another way of saying that you keep losses small.

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

(and, David adds: likewise, in the world of ideas...I think you have lots of 'em and kill off the losers sooner and keep plugging with the winners. Ya never know which little one may make it, Ortiz-like, outa tha pahk! )

(Hit any outa the park lately? I'd love to hear about it...comment below or leave me a message on FB.)


 

The Story Behind the Story: part 4--the PROCESS.

CONVERSATIONS INSIDE A WRITER'S HEAD

...or...

    okay, you guessed it, the voices are at it again.

=-=-=-=-=

"Think, dream, wonder, ask..."
             Oops, stop right now and put fingers to the keyboard.

"But, I'm having some great ideas!"
             No idea is great unless it's given form and boundary.

"Some ideas are without boundaries."
             Great. Write 'em down anyhow. Anyway...but not any-when!

"But, that interferes with my creative process."
             Can't call it creative if it don't create nothin'!

"But--"
            Bum-glue. Stick yer bum in the chair, yer fingers to the keyboard, and go!

"But, I need to consult my muses for inspiration."
            We are your muse, and your muse is telling you to consult your fingers--they're 
            the only way us muses gain a voice. Right?

"Well, when you put it that way..."
            'That way,' nothing. The only way to be fair to your muses is to get us out
            where others can listen and see and wonder and judge for themselves.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Hmmph. So, when do I get to listen to my muses?

Every day. Read, walk, drive, meditate, listen to music, ponder great (or not-so-great) art and literature; watch people and birds and animals and trees and plants. Reading good poetry widens my thinking and my appreciation for many of the little daily goodnesses all around us. The "creative process" captures all those thoughts and observations and endeavors to give them focus or meaning or balance or story.

Or poem.

Or song.

Or...

Hmmph. Okay...go away. I'm writing. And leave the door closed behind you, thnx.

The Story Behind the Story, part 3: FROM IDEA TO STORY.

Idea--duly noted and written down.

Nudge--rib cage elbowed yet again, urging the body into action.

And the idea became flesh and dwelt among us...

How do I take an idea, a fleeting phantasm, and dress it in skin and sinew, bones and brains, and give it vibrancy and voice?

Some authors use outlines for the plot:
"Here's the conflict...now, how to heighten it? How to intensify it into a crisis? What does the crisis need in order to resolve it? How will the characters act and interact?"

...and, they create many-page biographies for their main characters:
"Now, this is where this character was born, what parents were like? Personal likes and dislikes? How do they dress, what do they eat, where work, how play and with whom? Relationships? Tastes in food, drink, entertainment, autos? Townie or city or rural?"

Other authors, whose approach to writing resonates with me, suggest, "Take a strong character. Throw them into a situation. Let's see how they cope and what they do to get out of it." As Stephen King says, "I'm the first reader of my stories. I have no idea of what's coming next, and I can hardly wait to see how it'll work out!" [A decent paraphrase, not quite verbatim, from ON WRITING: FOR LOVE OF THE CRAFT.]

So, I took the idea of dogs attending the Nativity. Now, what would make dogs more interesting than they already are? Howzabout these dogs having a perfect understanding of human language? And the ability to talk to other beasts? Sure, talking animals, not the first time that's been done? But, it's still fun, huh? Narnia and Middle Earth don't have a monopoly on the notion--altho I don't expect to see it done better than Lewis and Tolkien!

What do dogs do? Eat, play, interact with humans...duh. Just because they can understand human speech, they're still dogs and they gotta act like dogs or else they have no integrity, they become something less believable if they don't chase their tails, right? What dog travels from point A to point B directly? Of course not, they travel thru X, M, T, and U whilst sniffing, wagging, and panting, and then pause only to go racing in yet another direction. Just because my dogs add on dialog such as, "Hey, lookit over here! C'mon...this smells great!" doesn't take away from their intrinsic dogginess...in fact, come to think of it, I hope it actually adds to their native canine cool!

That's a little peek under the creative hood of story writing and how it works for me. Woof!

The Story Behind the Story, part 2: IMAGINATION, INSPIRATION, RECEPTIVITY & SERENDIPITY.

SERENDIPITY--Lady Luck or Still Small Voice?

When an inane idea wends its way out of the murky recesses of your mind, what do you do with it? Laugh and dismiss it? Shake your head in dismay? Tell someone? Write it down? Too kooky for words...sez you, or sez who?--  too often, there's someone ELSE'S voice in our head, a critical relative/friend/teacher/tormentor, who delights in shooting holes in any and all ideas.

When someone says, "Oh, I don't have any imagination," I argue: I think it's an affront to yourself and your Maker to claim zero imagination!

"Sure you do! You just have been on the receiving end of the squelch button too many times, and now you've given up on creativity...or, you've learned, over the years, to squelch for yourself all those fun ideas that have wahoo-wide boundaries!"

Ideas for stories? Endless. Ability to sit me down and construct something out of that first flicker of an idea? Oof...that's why writing and the other creative pursuits require hard work and perseverance.

Okay, back to the story behind the story...after I wrote about the sloths of Christmas, another little nudge landed, on the same tender rib--HEY! WRITE ABOUT ANOTHER ANIMAL IN THE NATIVITY STORY!

Some nudges in the ribcage are all-caps, bold. Some nudges come with barely a size-5 font whisper. And some nudges are only perceived during times of meditation and prayer.

Others occur at very busy times and must be heeded immediately........

Oops! Buh-bye, gotta write!

=-=-=-=-=

"Imagination: the unsupervised mind at play."

DLS, 2013

The Story Behind the Story, part 1: INSPIRATION--DON'T SQUELCH IT.

     Once upon a time, there were grandchildren, young and innocent. Their exposure to books--sweeping; to television--sparse.

     They were invited to be part of the Christmas pageant at church.

     "What animals would you like to be?" they were asked.

     Being well-read youngsters, they instantly replied, "Sloths!"

     Now, I don't know what the pageant director's response was--but I think the reply would reflect a great deal about the character of the adult, don't you?

     How badly we all need what I like to call the "edit function," where there's a little pause for rumination before blurting out, "Sloths weren't there. I need sheep and goats, or you could be a donkey," ...squelching the child's delightfully-imagined attendees at Christ's Nativity!

     How much better to say, "[Pause...hmm, why not?] Great idea! I bet this will be the best Christmas pageant ever, since no one has ever had the sloth family come visit the baby Jesus!"

     Now, I'll bet we've all been on the receiving end of the "skwellllchhh"...and, sadly, we've probably all been on the giving end, too. Alas. Let's vow to not stomp someone else's notions just cuz theirs don't conform to our own, preconceived answers! Oh, and, by the way--Thou Shalt Not Squelch Thyself! I think we're our own worst enemy when comes to stomping out our own eccentricities, non-conformities, and other CREATIVE answers!

     Back to the story behind the story--it was this little incident that gave birth to the first story I wrote for THE ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS. The Sloths of Christmas were out in the boonies where the angels were announcing the birth of the baby Jesus. After hearing that wonderful new, the sloths just had to go to Bethlehem, but, being sloths, well...they met up with some difficulties along the way.

     What inspired the other stories? The sloths, of course! Frankly, the other animals just wandered on-stage and ker-plunked into place: camels, mourning doves, dogs, goats, and mice. Where would they have been w/o the germ of that idea, that little anecdote? Unborn. Squelched--an idea that never saw the light, the tragedy of an untold good story! Glad that I noticed that quiet little nudge of the Spirit.

*  *  *  *
 

     Thou Shalt Not Squelch Thyself. Or anyone else.

*
(Earlier blog posts may be accessed by clicking on the right-hand column...you may need to scroll down a bit. )

The writing process: ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS

The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

 

--Aristotle. (anticipating modern art by a coupla millennia!)

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

     Being neither Aristotle nor a modern artist...hmm, why do I like this quote? Because...oh, before I go there--if you have a thought or a response to this quote, why not pause for a moment and phrase it in terms of a comment at the bottom of this posting?

     Okay, I like this quote because it indeed applies to art, but also poetry and prose, where significance is the goal. Not for my writing to be significant (although that'd be nice!) but for my ability to enhance or clarify the significance of the underlying truth. Great poetry explores truth from unique angles, offering the reader a different way of looking at, or through, reality. Story-telling is expected to be entertaining, of course, but if the characters don't bump up against some profound truths now and again, well, what kinda story is it that doesn't involve love or death or heroism or the clash of ideals and reality?

     I wrote THE ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS to be, primarily, entertaining. Along the way, as should have been no surprise to me...the characters started to take on life of their own. The animals revealed their unique insights into events around the time of Jesus' birth. Was this intentional, like writing an allegory or a moralistic tale? Not at all, I just set out to have a whopping good time writing stories for my grandkids' enjoyment. But as I mentioned--encounters with truth will occur--and that's what happened in these stories.

     In the next few posts, I'll talk about my writing process. Inspiration and perspiration, Spirit and serendipity--big themes for me.

=======================

 

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

 

Winston Churchill