A Writer's Moment: Keeping Them Digging

A Writer's Moment: Keeping Them Digging:   “In the end, does it really matter if newspapers physically disappear?   Probably not:   the world is always changing. ...

Keeping Them Digging

 

“In the end, does it really matter if newspapers physically disappear?  Probably not:  the world is always changing.  But does it matter if organizations independent enough and rich enough to employ journalists to do their job disappear?  Yes, that matters hugely; it affects the whole of life and society.” – Andrew Marr

 

Born this day in 1959, Andrew Marr is a British commentator, broadcaster and journalist who is former editor of The Independent and political editor of BBC News.

 

He reflects a worry shared by many of us who have started as or continue to serve as journalists – that our newer generation of readers is forgetting about the valuable role that journalists have in our society, and that funding for newspapers as we long have known them is rapidly disappearing.

 

“The business of funding digging journalists is important to encourage,” he noted.  “It cannot be replaced by bloggers who don’t have access to politicians, who don’t have easy access to official documents, who aren’t able to buttonhole people in power.”  Keeping this thought in the conversation is important for everyone who writes.

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Enriching and enhancing our lives'

A Writer's Moment: 'Enriching and enhancing our lives':   “Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them t...

'Enriching and enhancing our lives'

 

“Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Usually on Saturday I have a “Saturday’s Poem” to share.  But today, as we end July and start the trek toward summer’s end, I thought a few quotes about poetry instead might be in order – all by poets, such as Hawthorne, who were born in the month of July.    

 

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“I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places.” –  John Ashbery

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“The poetry of a people comes from the deep recesses of the unconscious, the irrational and the collective body of our ancestral memories.” –  Margaret Walker

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“Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe.” –  Adrienne Rich

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Poetry enriches and enhances all of our lives, and for writers it is a terrific way to both express yourself and to capture the essence of a subject, or the world around you. 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Fill your mind with images'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fill your mind with images':   “When I read good stories, I want to write good stories too.” –   Sharon Creech Born in Ohio on this day in 1945, Creech is the firs...

'Fill your mind with images'

 

“When I read good stories, I want to write good stories too.” –  Sharon Creech

Born in Ohio on this day in 1945, Creech is the first American to win both Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Children’s Books and America’s Newbery Medal – for her amazing Walk Two Moons.   Those two major international awards are among dozens of writing awards Creech has earned.

 

In her understated fashion she noted, “There seemed to be an audience out there who wanted to read what I wanted to write.”    

Her writing career, primarily aimed at the Young Adult market (although adults are a big audience for her works, too) has been focused on both novels and graphic books. She embeds serious topics into her stories, including themes of independence, trust, childhood, adulthood, and death, but often softening the blow with her effective use of humor. 

 

“One thing I'm interested in is what shapes us: the people?             

 The place where we live? It's both of those and more. That's what I keep coming back to,” she said. 

As for advice to new writers, she says, “Read a lot, live your life, and listen and watch, so that your mind fills up with millions of images.” 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Socially acceptable schizophrenia'

A Writer's Moment: 'Socially acceptable schizophrenia':   "Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."   - E.L. Doctorow Doctorow, whose novel Ragtime...

'Socially acceptable schizophrenia'

 

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."  - E.L. Doctorow

Doctorow, whose novel Ragtime won every major writing award and was the precursor to many other great works to follow, once said that it is the historian's place to tell us about a time in history or an era, and it is the novelist's role to tell us how we would act and feel if we lived during that time.

His characters exemplified Hemingway's admonition that when writing a novel, the writer should create living people – “... people, not characters.  A character is a caricature.”

I thought about Doctorow and his marvelous work recently while talking with a radio interviewer about my new book Rainbow Rock.  “You really put us into the time and place,” the interviewer said.  “Did you feel an obligation to make that real to us, so that we would know?”

And I used Doctorow's words above as part of my response, saying THAT is, indeed, the writer's obligation.  It is not acceptable to be “mostly right.”  We must be completely right in what we share if we are to remain true to our craft and to the great writers who have led us along the way.

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader,” Doctorow wrote.  “Not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

 

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A Writer's Moment: Inspired by Human Interactions

A Writer's Moment: Inspired by Human Interactions:   “As a novelist, I'm endlessly fascinated by human behavior and interactions.” –   Juliet Marillier   A New Zealand native who no...

Inspired by Human Interactions

 

“As a novelist, I'm endlessly fascinated by human behavior and interactions.” –  Juliet Marillier

 

A New Zealand native who now lives in Australia, Marillier was born on this date in 1948 and while she has been a lifelong self-procliamed “lover of fantasy,” she didn’t start writing her own versions until 1999.  Earlier, she focused on music, both on the performing side and in teaching and conducting.  

 

She got into writing with the book Daughter of the Forest, loosely based on the legend of the Children of Lir and "The Six Swans” (a story that has many versions, including one by the Brothers Grimm).   That book kicked off her “Sevenwaters Trilogy,” and the second in the series, Son of the Shadows, won Australia’s top fantasy fiction award.

 

Marillier’s novels combine historical fiction, folkloric fantasy, romance and family drama, and the strong elements of history and folklore in her work reflect her lifelong interest in both fields. However, her stories focus above all on human relationships and the personal journeys of the characters.  “Each of my novels features a protagonist undertaking a difficult personal journey. On the way, each of these characters - mostly female - discovers something about herself and at the same time makes an impact on other people's lives,” she said. 

                                                                                                    

She has written some two dozen novels and dozens of short stories and been selected for the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and France’s Prix Imaginales.

Noted for her great characters, she said that to write convincing characters, “You must possess the ability to think yourself into someone else's skin.” 

 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Integrity . . .doesn't blow in the wind'

A Writer's Moment: 'Integrity . . .doesn't blow in the wind':   “Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and...

'Integrity . . .doesn't blow in the wind'

 

“Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will.” – John D. MacDonald

Born on this date in 1916, crime/suspense novelist and short story writer MacDonald achieved the highest accolade in his genre, named Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America shortly before his death in 1986.   A self-proclaimed “accidental writer,” he also was the winner of a National Book Award and is perhaps best-known for his critically acclaimed Travis McGee series. 

MacDonald's literary career began in 1945 while in the Army.  Waiting in the Pacific for his ship home, he wrote a short story and mailed it to his wife Dorothy.  She loved it and submitted it to Esquire - which promptly rejected it.  So, she sent it to Story magazine, which accepted it for $25, pretty good payment for the time.

MacDonald decided to give writing a further try.  After getting hundreds of rejection slips, he had another short story accepted by Dime Detective, this time paid $40.  Encouraged, he re-worked other stories and was off and running.  Ultimately, he sold more than 
500 stories to detective, mystery and adventure magazines.                       

His first novel came out in 1950, but it was his 1957 book The Executioners that put him on the map.  An almost continuous best-seller since, it also holds the distinction of being the focus of two feature films, both box office successes.    

McGee made his first appearance in The Deep Blue Good-bye, starting a run of 21 "McGee" bestsellers.   Each title includes a color, the last being The Lonely Silver Rain.    In 2016, Nathaniel Philbrick - author of In The Heart Of The Sea and Mayflower - said:  "I recently discovered John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series … and it's as prescient and verbally precise as anyone writing today can possibly hope to be."

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Searching for Order'

A Writer's Moment: 'Searching for Order':   "For me, poetry is always a search for order.'' – Elizabeth Jennings   British poe...

'Searching for Order'

 "For me, poetry is always a search for order.'' – Elizabeth Jennings

 

British poet Jennings, born in July of 1926, won many awards for her “orderly” poems, which as it often turns out were anything but.  She won acclaim for her lyric style including the prestigious Somerset Maugham Award for her second book of poetry A Way of Looking, and the W.H. Smith Literary Award for her 1987 Collected Works - both enjoyable and thoughtful reads. 

  

For Saturday’s Poem, here is Jennings’ 

   

In A Garden

When the gardener has gone, this garden

Looks wistful and seems waiting an event.

It is so spruce, a metaphor of Eden

And even more so since the gardener went,

 

Quietly godlike, but of course, he had

Not made me promise anything and I

Had no one tempting me to make the bad

Choice.
  Yet I still felt lost and wonder why?

Even the beech tree from next door which shares

Its shadow with me, seemed a kind of threat.

Everything was too neat, and someone cares 

In the wrong way.
  I need not have stood long

Mocked by the smell of a mown lawn, and yet

I did.

  Sickness for Eden was so strong.

 

 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Write Whatever You Imagine'

A Writer's Moment: 'Write Whatever You Imagine':   “The one thing emphasized in any creative writing course is 'write what you know,' and that automatically drives a wooden stake t...

'Write Whatever You Imagine'

 

“The one thing emphasized in any creative writing course is 'write what you know,' and that automatically drives a wooden stake through the heart of imagination. If they really understood the mysterious process of creating fiction, they would say, 'You can write about anything you can imagine.'” – Tom Robbins

Born on this day in 1932, Robbins grew up (as he puts it) “as a hillbilly” in the mountains of North Carolina, the grandson of two Baptist preachers who he said were “mightily influential” in his development as a storyteller.

In addition to Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (both a bestseller and a highly popular movie) Robbins is the author of 8 novels, numerous short stories, many essays and several screenplays.  In 2000, Robbins was named one of the 100 Best Writers  

 of the 20th Century by Writer's Digest magazine.   In 2012, Robbins received the Literary Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Virginia.   

Even at age 90 Robbins maintains a regular writing schedule.  “Sometimes my muse sees fit to join me there (in his 'writing space') and sometimes she doesn't, but she always knows where I'll be. She doesn't need to go hunting in the taverns or on the beach or drag the boulevard looking for me.” 

 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Be Imaginative . . . And Read'

A Writer's Moment: 'Be Imaginative . . . And Read':   “I was encouraged to  be imaginative and re ad, and it was a great childhood for a budding writer because I had the time and the freedom ...

'Be Imaginative . . . And Read'

 

“I was encouraged to be imaginative and read, and it was a great childhood for a budding writer because I had the time and the freedom to go into a world of my own.” –  Sarah Waters

Born on this day in 1966, Waters grew up in Wales and said that while she did read, read, read and eventually become a writer, it wasn’t first on her list of aspirations. “For a long time,” she said, “I wanted to be an archaeologist.” 

She said that she thought she was headed for university at a fairly early age. “I really enjoyed learning. I remember my mother telling me that I might one day go to university and write a thesis, and explaining what a thesis was; and it seemed a very exciting prospect. I was clearly a bit of a nerd.”             

While she enjoys writing historical fiction, she also likes to shock her readers from time-to-time with some rather graphic details, “Keeping them on their toes, so to speak.”  For a great example her work, check out The Paying Guests, not only a terrific murder mystery but a detailed study of life in London right after World War I.

“I love research,” Waters said.   “Sometimes I think writing novels is just an excuse to allow myself this leisurely time of getting to know a period and reading its books and watching its films. I see it as a real treat.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Make yourself available'

A Writer's Moment: 'Make yourself available':   I remember in grammar school the teacher asked if anyone had any hobbies. I was the only one with any hobbies and I had every hobby ther...

'Make yourself available'

 

I remember in grammar school the teacher asked if anyone had any hobbies. I was the only one with any hobbies and I had every hobby there was... name anything, no matter how esoteric. I could have given everyone a hobby and still had 40 or 50 to take home.

 – Cormac McCarthy

 Born this date in 1933, McCarthy gravitated to writing early, making use of his knowledge of so many things.  In addition to many short stories, he has written a dozen novels spanning everything from the Southern Gothic to Western to Post-Apocalyptic genres.  He’s won awards in each, including a Pulitzer Prize for The Road, a book that also won him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.

Many of his books have been made into movies including No Country for Old Men.   His All the Pretty Horses won both a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award before being made into a terrific movie.  The Road and Child of God also have been adapted for films.

 

 Cormac McCarthy

One of McCarthy’s writing traits is his non-use of computers.  He’s on his second Olivetti typewriter.  His first, bought for $50 in 1963, was auctioned for over $250,000 in 2009 after he felt it needed more maintenance than he could properly administer (his “cleaning” technique was to blow the dust out with a service station air hose).   He donated the money to charity. 

He got his second Olivetti in 2009 for $11 and went right to work since he almost always has several things underway.  “Even if what you're working on doesn't go anywhere,” he said,  “it will help you with the next thing you're doing.  Make yourself available for something to happen. Give it a shot.”

 

 

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