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!)

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     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.

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

 

Winston Churchill

"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.