A Writer's Moment: Simply 'Begin at the Beginning'

A Writer's Moment: Simply 'Begin at the Beginning': “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Best known...

Simply 'Begin at the Beginning'

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

Best known by his pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, Dodgson was born this date in 1832 in the small English village of Daresbury   The eldest in a family of 11 children, he grew adept at an early age of entertaining both himself and his siblings with his storytelling ability.

As a babysitting aide, he made up stories for his siblings and their friends, something he continued doing into his 20s and 30s, including for the children of good friend Henry George Liddell.   It was Alice Liddell who can be credited with his pinnacle inspiration. On a picnic with the Liddell family, he told Alice and her sisters an amazing tale of a dream world.  Alice was so enamored she insisted Carroll write the story down so she could both relive it and share it with her friends.

Through a series of coincidences, the story fell into the hands of novelist Henry Kingsley, who urged Carroll to publish it. And in 1865 the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was born.  It would become the most popular children’s book in England, then America, and then throughout the world before Carroll’s death in 1898. 

How did a professional mathematician and photographer spin such a yarn?  Perhaps two of his lasting quotes will suffice: “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”  And, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”   And always write things down.

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A Writer's Moment: Those 'Spontaneous' Scribblings

A Writer's Moment: Those 'Spontaneous' Scribblings:   “I like the idea that you can jar a moment, capture it like a photograph.   Overworking poetry can have terrible res...

Those 'Spontaneous' Scribblings

 “I like the idea that you can jar a moment, capture it like a photograph.  Overworking poetry can have terrible results. If we all just scribbled down a poem whilst on the bus, the world would be a better place.” – Liam Wilkinson 

Yorkshire poet, songwriter and singer Wilkinson,      born in 1981, is a great example of how spontaneity can lead to interesting writing, especially poetry.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Wilkinson’s,

                 Sunday

I.

Sunday is made of crisp paper
and coffee
so I’m happy to be here
out in the world
carrying the news
home
and savoring
the Americano on my tongue.

II.

The shop assistant
had no idea
how much I loved her today.
Or how much
I loved the gorgeous line
of fresh orange juice
in the fridge
and the low low price
of economy cat litter.


III.

The stillness of the seventh day
is only beautiful in things
as it happens.
Sad
to think Monday
will soon be here
in the tears
of tomorrow’s frozen vegetables. 

A Writer's Moment: Solving the 'Mystery' of Writing

A Writer's Moment: Solving the 'Mystery' of Writing: “There’s a mystery to writing, and you don’t really know where most of it comes from.”— Neil Diamond Diamond, born...

Solving the 'Mystery' of Writing

“There’s a mystery to writing, and you don’t really know where most of it comes from.”—Neil Diamond

Diamond, born on this date in 1941 and raised in Brooklyn, NY, is arguably one of the world’s best-known singer-songwriters. He’s authored hundreds of songs, had 11 number one hits, and sold some $150 million records around the globe.   And, yet, this great musician almost took his talents in a different direction.

A terrific athlete, he attended New York University on a fencing scholarship and was a member of the 1960 NCAA championship team.  But he said his life ambition was to be a laboratory biologist “and find a cure for cancer  (his grandmother died of the disease); I sincerely thought I could discover the cure,” he said.  But during his senior year, a music publishing company made him a dream offer he couldn’t refuse – writing songs at $50 each, a huge amount in those days. 

  

A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a Kennedy Center honoree, his Number One hits include Cracklin’ Rosie, Heartlight, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers and Sweet Caroline, which has become a standard for almost every sporting venue.  The “bah, bah, bah” refrain may be the most sung phrase in the world, next to Happy Birthday, of course.  And, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

“The main objective in any song I write has always been that it reflect the way I feel, that it touches me when I’m finished with it; that it moves me, that it can take me along with it and involve me in what it’s saying.  Songs are life – in 80 words or less.”

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A Writer's Moment: The Desire To Write

A Writer's Moment: The Desire To Write: “If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire must be not to write.” – Hugh Prather ...