'Pieces' of our lives

“It's been my experience that most writers don't talk about their craft--they just do it.” – Alfred Lansing

I like this quote by Lansing, who wrote one of the lasting books with his bestseller Endurance, the wrenching story of the failed 1914 attempt of explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew to reach the South Pole.    Always a matter-of-fact writer, Lansing wrote for many years for the old United Press International after earlier serving as a small town editor and journalist.

He deeply valued the keeping of journals and diaries, which is what he utilized extensively in his one and only book.   Keeping track of the little things that surround us in everyday life is what can make or break a final piece of writing.  Remember, he once said, it’s those “pieces” of lives that can bring a book to life.  And, of course, become our writers’ moments.

 

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