Writer’s “Cramp”

Reviewing this blog, I’ve noticed that I haven’t been very faithful.  So, I thought that, perhaps, you’d like to know how I myself am doing at this fiction writing exercise.  I’m interested in knowing what my readers are doing.  Are you writing?  Has the challenge tickled your imagination yet?

I admit, I haven’t written daily.  Out of all of my resources of books to grab sentences from, they all seemed to identify the book itself.  I know that, should I pursue any intentions, too, I have to rewrite that first sentence, so as to not to plagarize.

Here is what has happened so far…

The story of a small boy sitting in a tree, deciding the things that should be…

Houses shuttering their windows against the dust of the hot dry summer sun, taking their nap…

The rain set in early that night…

He picked up a copy of the early edition and studied the front page…

What I find most interesting is that each of the stories ended up with an entirely different take than what I had thought they’d end up being.  Then I wonder how in the world I came up with THAT?

These are all rough (very rough) drafts, but eventually I will come up, I believe, with something to construct my very own novel with.  Even if I don’t, the exercise is a lot of fun.  But like all exercise, it does take discipline and consistency in order to get results!

 

 

Emerson-ism

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think…you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after our own, but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

Lessons from Years of Learning

I’ve learned a lot.  I’m learning more every day.  These are not necessarily in the order of importance, just what comes to mind:

• Just because you read it in the internet, doesn’t make it true.  People post, people edit all the time here.
• Just because it’s on the news, whether it’s CNBC, CNN or FOX, doesn’t make it true.  Reporters report, but just like everyone else, it’s a personal slant, they filter out what they want to, that’s just the way it is.  Why else would there be so many different takes on the same news?  You can refute this, but just think about it.  How many times have I myself wanted to write something, and I take the time to find out, only to discard facts I won’t be using, or won’t do credit to my theme paper?
• Just because you read it in the history books, doesn’t make it true.  People write new books all the time.  Remember, authors write books.  It is written from their perspective, based on facts.  Is there any such thing as “just the facts?”   Only in the court system…
• Check snopes.com before you post.  Just in case.  Then again:  are they really committed to the truth?  Or are they just another propaganda tool, based on someone’s thoughts and commitment to personal truth?

I have chosen not to grant opinion here on a lot of things, I just like to “put them out there.”  I think people need to learn to think for themselves.  I think we need to watch and listen.

One more thing:

• Learn love.

Jon Katz writes:

“when the soul awakens, the search begins and there is no turning back…you are on fire, and the world is suddenly ablaze with light and love…you will sing a different song…the sleeping souls will not hear you, understand you, and you cannot hear or understand them, their news and anger and ritual is a babble, a mystical tongue, a distant roar.  You will live your life outside of the tent, listening to the sounds of the circus…you are on the spiritual path.  And it can never end, only catch a different train to eternity.”

 

 

Nature, My Way

 

Life on the Pond

 

Some of us go to the lunchroom to dine.  I go to the pond.  I love to see what the leaping frogs are up to.  They hear me coming.  Listen and hear the last one “chirrip!”  The scene is never boring, and it brings me back to realizing what is important.

Journaling vs. Writing

Is there a difference?  I suppose there is, but it’s all that is inside just waiting to get out.  Whether you write about the boring subjects (self, as posted by one writer), or a mystical fiction book with suspense and/or action written all through it, it really is about SELF, and what happens inside of you, events that twist and turn your thinking around and develop story lines.

I am a writer of nonfiction.  I just cannot seem to develop the fictional story line, no matter how hard I try.  I love historical fiction, but lack the discipline to find out everything I need to find out about an era, the time and effort it takes to check and see if I can use famous names and/or places within my book, or do I have to change the names every time?

Benjamin Disraeli said, “When I want to read a good book, I write one.”  Amazing!  Astounding!  I wish I had said that!  Moreover, I wish I’d written that!  But I didn’t.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Lay this volume down.  You had better never see my essays than to be warped by their attraction out of your own orbit and made my satellite.”  Yet how many, including me, have become his satellite?  I think, what he did not realize, was the power he has, a master of words, to liven the soul, bring it out of the woodwork of my body, enlightening and challenging.

I’m encouraged, on a daily basis, to live to the best of my ability on this pale blue dot, Carl Sagan’s name for the planet, Earth.  We are here but a short while and we think we count.  We count to the generations living only about 100 years, beyond that we become merely a name with two dates separated by a hyphen.  Unless we are a ruler, an explorer with the backing of Spain, or a heretic, this is the only thing people will see on ancestry sites, and the pages that they carry to prove their worth, and that of me, a name that their seed comes from.

Live in the moment, for the moment, do the job you need to do in that moment, or relax, if that is what the moment deems.

Eat.  There is no chocolate in the grave.  Drink more milk, or your favored beverage of the gods.  Do both in moderation, for moderation is the key to our sustenance.

And while you photographers (finger points straight at you, while the thumb points right back at me) are out there preserving the memory, take the moment to reserve it in your mind.  Apples fall, make the applesauce while enjoying the moment of the work, cutting and cooking, and filling the jars, and remember this harvest and the activity and laughter in it’s creation, for this is the life we have.  It may be simple, it may be boring to another, but it is your life, and it is not boring to live it.  (For the sake of this article, I did NOT take any pictures, although my fingers were itching to do so.  Like a good book, we can place it in our minds eye and create it with our own imagination.)

Magazine Recommendation

HARPERS.  I love it!  My girlfriend subscribes.  I happened to pick up her April issue and found an article by Fenton Johnson called, “Going It Alone,” with the subtitle, “The dignity and challenge of solitude.”  I’m living my life alone, and I grabbed the title and absorbed the story.  What a fascinating story!  It spoke of the many people who had chosen (or chosen for them) solitude, celibacy, and to roam with the stars of the sky, climbing deep inside of their own caves and spelunking, with results.  We have Eudora Welty (oh my favorite of favorites!), Thomas Merton, William James and Henry David Thoreau, to only name a few.  A few quotes, if I but dare, “Only in solitude could these solitaries fulfil their destinies–become not partial but whole…Like Jesus, bachelor for the ages, they keep ever before us the ideal toward which we may strive.  They raise the bar of what it means to be alive.”

So, now I am going to research and read more of Fenton Johnson!

The Very Thought of You

http://blog.wbu.com/2013/03/04/why-do-birds-sing-so-early-in-the-morning/

Early each morning, about 4:50 a.m., actually, the birds start their morning song.  For me, this is a song of faith for today.  We have enough strength to deal with today and today only, that is why (in my mind) the bird sings each morning, to remind me that a new day is at hand.  I get to take advantage of this day, the only day that I have left.  I defend my territory, claim it as mine, I do my best to attract others by being only who I am, not what someone else wants.  It’s called self love.

I’ve done a lot of reading and thinking about self love.  This needs to be promoted.  Releasing the burdens of our life on a daily basis, until the recording stops inside, and we have forgiven ourselves for experiences that perhaps were not the wisest, but with our primitive tools was all we had to use at that time.  Like magic, a new tool has appeared.  Why didn’t I have that tool before?  Because you didn’t.  You did the best you could.  It’s okay.

Soul acceptance is important.  My soul knows exactly what it is doing, I need to acknowledge that and love me.  And continue to seek the best.  On a daily basis.  Reflecting yesterday, I wrote these words: “Smile when I think of me.  I smile when I think of someone who gives me pleasure.  I need to smile at the thought of me.” 

Waking Up

I may have used these before, but they truly woke me up this morning, so I feel compelled to share.  I’d written it on a piece of paper and found it in my work bag:

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Certain stars open before us, certain stars close up behind us…good and great actions are made up of these blank days.

Flintshire County, Wales

http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/the-a-z-of-curious-flintshire-26247.html

For you history lovers out there.  This is David Rowe’s third book about this northeastern countryside of Wales.  I have had the opportunity to visit Wales under David’s guidance.  Wonderful!

Never forbid the opportunity to travel.  Travel affords GROWTH.