Being understood tops the writer's list

“Anybody who writes doesn't like to be misunderstood.” – Norman MacCaig

Born on this date in 1910, MacCaig was a highly regarded teacher and poet whose writing was known for its humor, simplicity of language and (he would like this) easy understandability.

But, he didn’t start that way.  His first book, Far Cry, published in 1943, was considered difficult to read.  He listened to critics, changed his writing and went to more traditional rhyming and free verse styles that were lucid, clear-cut and filled with humor.

At the time of his death in 1996, fellow writer Ted Hughes wrote about MacCaig that, “Whenever I meet his poems, I'm always struck by their undated freshness, everything about them is alive, as new and essential, as ever.”  For enjoyable poetic reads that cover his 5 decades of writing, check out his books A Common Grace, A Man in My Position, and Ordinary Day, each presenting delightful offerings of daily life, people and the world.

“All I write about is what's happened to me                           

 and to people I know,” MacCaig wrote upon receiving The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1986.  “The better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about.”  

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Talk's cheap ... and the spice of life

“Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Born on this day in 1850, Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer Stevenson’s most famous and enduring works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verses.  The first stands up as one of the great adventure “thrillers” of all time, and the latter as one of the most delightful ways to spend time with your young child, enjoying the love of good rhyme and the great things about which the rhymes are written.

Since writing my historical novel And The Wind Whispered, I’ve enjoyed getting to know a fellow historical writer, Mark Wiederanders of Sacramento, Calif., who has further brought the remarkable Stevenson back to life for me.  If you haven’t read Wiederanders’ Stevenson’s Treasure, I highly recommend it to you.  A really terrific book.

On this date of Stevenson’s birth, I remember reading his insightful quote about writing:  “The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.”  I would say that he overcame the difficulty and affected us very well indeed.

A noted travel writer, Stevenson was a great                     

conversationalist and traveling companion.  “Talk is by far the most accessible of pleasures,” he noted.   “It costs nothing in money, it is all profit, it completes our education, founds and fosters our friendships, and can be enjoyed at any age and in almost any state of health.  All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.”

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'America's Poet' for Saturday's Poem

“I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.” –  Carl Sandburg

At the time of his death in 1967, Sandburg – the only poet ever to address a joint session of Congress – was called by President Lyndon Johnson “… more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America."

He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his amazing 6-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln.  He was widely regarded as "a major figure in contemporary literature,” especially for the many volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems, Cornhuskers, and Smoke and Steel.

                             

Sandburg grew up in this modest home in the small western Illinois city of Galesburg.  Traveling near there this summer, I stopped by to see the home, learn more about his life and history, and snap this photo.  It’s a visit I highly commend to all.

“Poetry,” Sandburg once said, “is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.”  For Saturday’s Poem here is Sandburg’s 

The Fence

Now the stone house on the lake front is finished and the
workmen are beginning the fence. 

The palings are made of iron bars with steel points that
can stab the life out of any man who falls on them.

As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off the rabble
and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering
children looking for a place to play.

Passing through the bars and over the steel points will go
nothing except Death and the Rain and Tomorrow.

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Providing 'a slice' of imagination

“Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.”—Carlos Fuentes

Born on this date in 1928, novelist and essayist Fuentes is perhaps best known for his books The Death of Artemio Cruz – often called THE seminal work of modern Spanish American literature – and The Old Gringo.  The New York Times described Fuentes as "one of the most admired writers in the Spanish-speaking world.”

The Guardian called him "Mexico's most celebrated novelist,” perhaps in part because of his being honored by his home nation with its highest civilian award, the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor.   He was often named as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, though he never won (the Nobel is only awarded to living artists and writers and he died in 2012).

Fuentes described himself as a pre-modern writer, using only pens, ink and paper. He asked, "Do words need anything else?" Fuentes said that he detested those authors who from the beginning claim to have a recipe for success. In a speech on his writing process, he related that when he began the writing process, he began by asking, "Who am I writing for?"

Translated into 24 languages with sales around the globe in the   

 many millions, Fuentes hated being pigeonholed into one classification or another.  “I'm a writer, not a genre. Don't classify me, read me.”  As for advice to young writers, he said simply, “I am not interested in slice of life, what I want (from a writer) is a slice of the imagination.”

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Setting a steady writing pace

“Inspiration comes from everywhere. From life, observing people, etc.  From movies and books you love. From research.” – Holly Black

Black, who turns 45 today, is a prolific and very diversified American writer, editor and producer.  Winner of the Newbery Medal for her novel Doll Bones, she’s also well-known for her children’s fantasy series The Spiderwick Chronicles – co- created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzo – and Young Adult trilogy The Modern Faerie Tales.  

When I say “prolific” and “diversified” that might be an understatement.  Since breaking onto the scene in 2002, she has authored nearly 30 novels and many dozens of short stories.  She’s also written so many different types of books that she’s joked about putting out a guide so that people who like a certain type of her writings can quickly locate them.  If so, she’d probably go with social media for making those connections, since she’s a major practitioner of its use.

“I think there are a lot of really positive aspects to social media                

 for novelists,” she said. “Even though our work is pretty solitary, through Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook and Instagram and blogging in general, we're better able to connect directly with readers.”

As for her advice to new writers, she says don’t be intimidated by how much you need to write.  “Can you write 200 words a day? 100? 50? In six months, 50 words a day is 9,000 words. That's 2-3 short stories,” she said.  “ If you did 200 words every day, in three months that's 36,000 words. That's half a short novel.”

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Immersed in the heart of the story

“The thing that makes vivid writing is when the reader is in the body of the story, the body of the character. Things smell like something; there's weather, there's texture, there's light.” – Janet Fitch

Born on this date in 1955, Fitch grew up in a family of voracious readers, but didn’t thonk about writing until she had completed her education at Reed College in Oregon.  As an undergraduate at Reed, she had decided to become a historian, attracted to its powerful narratives, the scope of events, the colossal personalities, and the potency and breadth of its themes.

But when she won a student exchange to Keele University in England, where her passion for Russian history led her, she awoke in the middle of the night on her 21st birthday with the revelation she wanted to write fiction, and that’s what she’s done.  Among her award-winning works are the wonderful (and intense) White Oleander, an Oprah Book Club selection and a really terrific film, too.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Fitch has now gravitated back to her old stomping grounds and is a faculty member in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, where she teaches fiction.

Among her ongoing words of advice to her                     

students is to remember that the protagonist is the reader's portal into the story. “The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you're creating,” she said.    

 As for what serves as her personal muse?  “I always read poetry before I write, to sensitize me to the rhythms and music of language.”

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Writing to illuminate conflict and triumph

“Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.” – Martha Gellhorn

Quoting the amazing journalist Martha Gellhorn just seemed like the right thing to do on this Election Day.  Besides, it’s the anniversary of her birth – in 1908 in St. Louis.  While she was born and raised in the heartland of America, she became a product of and reporter on the world; some of the finest reporting, news and feature writing ever done by an American journalist.  

And while she wrote about every topic from government to society, it was her war correspondence for which she is most noted, reporting on every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career (she died in 1998 at age 90).   In 1999 The Martha Gellhorn Prize in Journalism (given annually for reporting excellence) was established in her memory and honor.

Along the way she also became a part of the lore surrounding Ernest Hemingway, ultimately becoming his third wife.  It was a marriage that grew out of their time together covering the carnage of the Spanish Civil War.  From there they both were reporters during the Second World War II, although it may have been their competition as writers that eventually caused them to drift apart. 

Gellhorn brought new passion and depth to her war coverage stories.  Her book, The Face of War, is one of the best you’ll ever read about this remarkable reporter’s work.  It’s both a chronicle and a primer on effectively writing about conflict, its terrors, and aftermath.

Although newswriting was her career field,                    

she also published books of fiction, did travel writing and p.r., and wrote reams of correspondence.  Her selected letters were published posthumously in 2006.   In them, her fierce independence as a writer shines through.  “I have no intention,” she once stated, “of being a footnote in someone else’s life.”   Instead, many became the footnotes in hers.

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