Writing is Magic.

Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. 

The water is free. 

So drink. 

Drink and be filled up.

 Stephen King, On Writing.

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To paint a picture or to write a story or to compose a song is an incarnational activity. The artist is a servant who is willing to be a birth giver. In a very real sense the artist should be like Mary who, when the angel told her that she was to bear the Messiah, was obedient to the command. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, 'Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.'

Madeline l'Engle. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art.

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Art gives me life. It is the deepest expression of the human soul. 

I make it because I have no other choice.

T. C. Boyle, author.

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 Sheesh, I'm thinking I have something to add to these voices? They're too brilliant...but, I can observe that these three different authors offer us powerful insights into the creative act. All three seem to see creativity as something that pulls them forward or lifts them up, something bigger than themselves...frankly, is something that transcends reality.

Cart? Horse? Cart-horse? Horse-cart?

Okay, weird title, but, Elizabeth tells me I've got a weird sense of humor...


The following is a quote from Dan Blank, writing for Writer Unboxed:

There is No Horse and Cart. On Finding Success as a Writer

I worry that the cart & horse analogy is exactly the type of social contract that has long since broken, if it ever existed at all. That you do well in grade school and high school to get into a good college to get a good internship to get a good job which leads to a good promotion which leads to a good salary which leads to a nice house which leads to retirement savings which leads to…this concept that there is a basic, safe, linear order to things that leads to “success.” 

Instead, what I have found from my friends and colleagues: life is complex; trusting relationships are the core of everything; great work is highly respected, but not always rewarded; persistence is key; luck is necessary, but unpredictable; ‘best practices’ are often illusions sold to you so that others can feel like gurus. 

Scott Berkun puts this nicely when we consider actions based on the odds of them working:

“They say most businesses fail in the two years. That most books don’t sell many copies. Why is this surprising? The interesting things in life are hard. Do you want an interesting life? Then you have to accept different odds.”

[end quote.]

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 My only point of disagreement would be to cut the title to..."On Finding Success." The "as a Writer" is unnecessary, eh?

So, what do I need to do differently in order to write more and sell more? Hmmmmm, I am going to pump up my relationships, get a tad more pushy in selling, and write more, every day. I've done a great job this yr of sticking with my "Poem a Day" writing, but the fiction-writing needs more time. So....

buh-bye, gotta hitch my wagon to my horse...or, my horse to my wagon...oh, whatever......gotta go write.

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https://www.facebook.com/AnimalsOfChristmas

RESTARTING

 

The blogger has been "on hiatus" for a bit, due to relocation...some 2700 miles across the country. I rather missed this discipline of writing something with (I hope) a bit of substance to it on a regular basis.

While not a huge fan of the Bronte sisters, I find myself in agreement with the graphic!




RESTARTING

Restart.
   Closed door.
     Open door.

Ensconced in Maine once again,
   wondering what the future holds?

The future flows to the brave and bold.
   (Thus, per my parents told)
Fortune favors those who work
   Not the ones whose duty shirk.

This yr, I'll be working on marketing the books that are occupying closet space...
...anyone for a good book? Gifts? For yourself?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-lTxbB6dhY711OvAcoP7JH7e7aKTqMcOeWd0dF0fXM0/edit?usp=sharing

and...
--working on more stories for my grand kids,
--continuing to write a poem a day,
--plugging away at reading "the great books" using the sample list toward the bottom of this Wikipedia page,
--working on a fictionalized biography of King Solomon,

and, listening to the Still, Small Voice.

Endless Possibilities.

cited in THE YELLOW-LIGHTED BOOKSHOP by Lewis Buzbee, p. 3.

   Standing in the middle of [any bookshop]...I can't help but feel the possibility of the universe unfolding a little, once upon a time.

   Or, as Stephen King stated, on being told by his Mom, "Stevie, write your own stories..."

  --I saw a world of endless possibilities open up before me. [S.K.]

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That, to me, is the essence of both writing and of reading--it's open-ended. Completely and utterly full of potential. Reach in with both hands and grab!

Only one problem...shall I read now, or shall I write?

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!

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!)



Reading, writing, and "The Dark Side."

I'm reading a book I truly dislike. Better yet, I just stopped reading it. I usually can plow through most everything I commence reading--only 2 or 3 books per year achieve this level of demerit...out of 125-135 books read per year!

When an author is so taken by their cunning turn of phrase, by the inclusion of "telling details" that put you right into the "dusty street with only the sound of the dry tumbleweed clunking off the abandoned storefronts," when they fail to develop plot or character--sorry, when I gave you forty pages worth of attention and my only feeling was of the need to recruit all my speed-reading tools...we're done. Really, have you ever met a knight who was never angry but always in "high dudgeon"? Makes one to wonder, what's low dudgeon? And, of course, the knight's armor is always "glinting with brilliance under the low wintry sun just rising over the gloomy ramparts of the evil duke's turreted castle." Pah!

Now, lest you think that this is merely a rant, my intent was to explore the world of writing from the dark side. Or, as I often told my kids, "They are setting you a horrible example--just do exactly the opposite and you'll be in good shape!" I truly learn a lot about writing from works that I consider sub-par. Okay, deplorable! (And, I wonder, WHERE was their editor, and how did such a poorly-written, flowery and vague, typo-ridden book ever meet up with a printing press?)

Characters that you hate, you cannot wait for them to get their just reward--that's a well-limned character. Characters who charm you, whom you hope won't step over that creaking threshold and into the cobwebbed darkness--again, you've bought into the author's world; success! When you get sweaty pits and you cannot put the book down--YES! THAT is the response to good writing, whether it's Dean Koontz, Shakespeare, or whomever. Characters who bore you, playing against other characters who have nothing to love or hate or laugh at, characters who trundle on through a story line that doesn't make you marvel at that last strange twist or wonder what's next...bah!

As Truman Capote is alleged to say of Jack Kerouac, "That's not writing, that's typing."

May our life's work be "writing" rather than "typing"!

Surprise?

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A NICE BLEND OF PREDICTION AND SURPRISE SEEMS TO BE AT THE HEART OF THE BEST ART.
--Wendy Carlos, composer.
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  Sometimes it's just the very idea that is the surprise--what on earth made Andy Warhol come up with the idea of a painting of a Campbell's soup can?
   Sometimes the surprise is held close to the chest till the bitter end: witness Dame Agatha's mysteries (if you've never read Agatha Christie, pick one up, and travel back into a slower, quieter, antiquated time...a time when murder was sneaky and the unveiling was slow.)
   Sometimes a surprise pops up early, or in the middle of things: Haydn's SURPRISE SYMPHONY! (a quiet recording, so turn the volume up...the one and only surprise is at about 32 seconds. Papa Haydn's sense of humor was simple but irrepressible!)
   A good story is filled with little surprises, balanced by little predictabilities: don't you love it when a character is highly idiosyncratic--okay, when they're just plain odd, with several verbal or behavioral tics? Trumpkin, the dwarf doesn't ever offer the same exclamation twice, but he is always alliterative, e.g., "Tubs and tortoise-shells!", "Beards and bedsteads!", and the like. Predictable, yet fresh each time...I love him!
   How true of life, with its predictable routines, but routines that are only a breath away from disruption. One phone call, one misplaced sock, a missed call, and the day is irretrievably altered.
   Been surprised lately? C. S. Lewis was "Surprised by Joy." The other day, I was surprised by a prematurely dying battery in my scooter...except, that still, small voice had whispered, just as I was zipping out the garage, "Hey, Davio, why dontcha bring along your battery charger/cable, just in case." One mile later, I was asking a new friend if I could plug in and recharge. Thanks, Still, Small, Voice...I'll try to listen to you with keen attention, altho I sure can be a doofus when it comes to listening!