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STRUGGLING TO GET IT WRITE: WHY WE WRITE
Over the course of our writing careers the answer to this question may, and probably will, change. With age and success, or the lack there of, our mindset will morph until that final realization that we have done all we can do. Let history be the judge of our effort. We cast our lot to time.
I feel there is a spectrum to our need to write, spanning the need to leave our footprints in the sands of time to pursuing the almighty buck. Most of us lie somewhere in-between, with the love of art or existence our goal. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with wanting to exist, and if you have the art and it pays the bills, so be it. Each of us is unique to their purpose. And only at the end of our time can we can we reflect on all we have accomplished. For some of us, success may come after we are gone. We can just do our best and hope for the best. The important thing to consider when the end.
How many of us write, spend countless hours completing a work we feel important and no one responds to our effort. We get no feedback, good or bad, from friends asked to read our work or agents and publishers where our writing has sought a home, just an awesome silence as our writing goes into the world. Now, if your purpose in is to obtain profit, better known as paying the bills this hurts. But your goal is just as noble as those whose sole purpose is the goal of longevity of their existence.
As mentioned above, if your goal in writing is to leave your mark on history, and you lack success, all is not lost. How many of us know the authors of fiction whose work was not appreciated during their lifetime but discovered after they were gone. We all know writers of fiction who fit the mold. Struggling to leave their mark, yet their major work going unrecognized during their life. Think of Herman Melville and his masterpiece, Moby Dick.
So many of us pursue this profession with little reward. Leaving this life never knowing if our voice will be heard. Put down your words. Fate may find you.
To be continued with a look at your life and history.
I am once again going to ‘allow’ you to buy my work.
Here are some links where you may purchase my work.
Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Barnes & Noble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/walt-trizna?store=book&keyword=walt+trizna
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=walt+trizna
ARTHUR C. CLARK AND I: WE THINK THE SAME BUT HE IS THE BETTER WRITER
I’m sure you’ve read multiple blogs and messages wishing you ‘Happy New Year’. Well of course I wish you that, but I also wish you a ‘Productive New Year’. Whatever you do, do more of it and do it well. Make this a year you’re proud of and can look back on with happiness. I’m going to try to accomplish those goal. We’ll see what happens.
He is the better writer by about 100 orders of magnitude, but I’m trying to catch up.
But seriously, I am in the process of reading his novel, The Songs of Distant Earth. I was lucky enough to be able to search a mass of science fiction novels donated to a small local library. Books for which no room existed. When I saw this novel in the boxes of donations, I immediately acquired the book to bring home. I’m happy I did for now a novel I planned to write, formally on the back burner, is now going into the incinerator.
Let me explain.
I had written a short story, December Omen, as yet unpublished. I will try to find this work a home in the coming year. The work dealt with the end of the world, not a unique subject, but I thought I had a lock on a new scenario. Turns out, Clark beat me to it. We both end the world, but by different means. We both send mankind into the cosmos in order to survive. I through frozen embryos; Clark through genetic material and robotic factories to manufacture mankind on some remote Earth-like planet.
At this point, let me include a fact I know I read somewhere. Whether it is reality or conjecture I do not remember. Chalk that up to maturity (senility). The article dealt with DNA, a very stable molecule, and the possibility to incorporate information using its structure. What a concept! How much information could reside in a gram of DNA?
However, what inspired this piece was a common scenario in both our stories. In the new planet was created no religions would exist. For reasons look at today’s newspaper or read a little history. I could not believe Arthur C. Clark and I had the same thoughts. The commonality, unfortunately, ends in that single instant.
HOPE
I don’t like to get too personal in my blog, but here it goes.
On this Christmas Eve, I’m reviewing the year and it hasn’t been very good. First a divorce, and now my best friend is dying. I’m trying to stay positive but it’s hard. Then I watched once again this video. The little girl is my great niece and the death they mention was my sister.
I wanted to share this video to show that there is still good in the world. Hope and kindness still exist.shttp://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lady-antebellum-surprises-9-year-old-new-jersey-fan-today-for-third-7for7-installment-277805761.html
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SUICIDE BOMBERS: WHY DO THEY EXIST?
As predicted, here I go off subject, but current events force me to speak.
I’ve been considering this piece for some time. The recent outrage in Paris has spurred me on to put pencil to paper and fingers to keyboard.
My thinking on this article began by considering the Japanese kamikaze pilot, of course, the current wave of suicide bombers followed. The Japanese were also known for their fanatical charges with little hope of success. I’m a World War II nut and am fairly certain I relate facts. The Japanese culture, at that time, was that suicide was preferred rather than accept defeat. That is why, with the dropping of the atomic bombs, lives on both sides were saved.
On a side note, I once read an article about the birth of the Japanese kamikaze idea. The concept was suggested by a Japanese soldier. I don’t remember if he was a pilot, but probably was. Then, during the 1990’s, someone recognized this same individual sitting on a park bench. Apparently the suggestion of self-sacrifice was not followed by action. I mention this, for I feel the idea of self-destruction is instilled in the weak with no future, and through manipulation, no choice.
I remember learning that during World War II, the American public could not understand or relate to the concept of an organized approach to suicide. In war, heroics cost the soldier his life when their backs are against the wall. But the concept of voluntarily committing suicide, to make a point is not present in our thinking. However, that attitude, in some societies and political groups exists today. We have become numbed by the almost daily report of suicide bombers doing their deed somewhere in the world.
We are now confronted with a world where men, women and even children are sent to their deaths. Manipulated to take their lives by those with an agenda of hate masked by religion.
I thought about this topic a great deal, as I’m sure many of us have. How could an individual’s world, with no threat immediately present, be hopeless enough to choose to leave it? How cheap is the value of a human life to those who have an agenda requiring the spread of terror?
STRUGGLING TO GET IT WRITE: CRITICISM AND CRITIQUE
Lately, I have strayed from the purpose of this blog, writing. I beg your forgiveness, although I promise it will happen again. For I live in a world which I understand less and less, and however much off the mark, I have opinions.
For now, however, I am back on course and thoughts of writing flow from my pen. The subject of this piece, as you can see from above, is criticism and critique.
In the early stages of your career, and it never ceases, criticism is its life’s blood, for with other’s help and guidance, that is how your work grows and matures. Although, always remember you are the creator of the work and the final ‘say’ is yours. As a writer it is essential that you believe in yourself and your work, but be able to take criticism and judge it for what it is worth. It is your task to sort through other’s opinions and select which are valid and which are not. It is important to share your work with other, and people you know and respect. But consider their credentials.
I know your mother most likely meets these two requirements, and wants to read your earliest draft. But when she raves, understand that she has a bit of a bias. Then there is your close friend who dropped out of high school and has read nothing but comic books since. Need I say more?
What I suggest as a source of criticism and support is a writers group, for in addition of reviewing your work they can empathize with your journey to becoming and author. But most important, find a group that offers constructive criticism and able to provide suggestions which improve your work.
Research the local writing groups. You will be amazed at how many writers live in your community. If you are unsuccessful in locating other writers, do not give up hope. There exists a host of online sites serving the same purpose. What follows is a sample of what is available.
The first is Critters Workshop.
Next, Absolute Write, less than critique, more and essential for writers.
My Writers Circle
The Young Writers Society
I’m not sure about this site, but obviously never used it. Be careful! https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/?forums
Critique Circle
http://www.critiquecircle.com/
Marketing to writers sometimes feeds as an ‘ego centric’ scam, promising but never delivering. As in all things in life, be careful. If it is too good to be true, walk away. I say this for the sites here appeared in Writers Digest. Some years ago, I checked Preditors & Editors for a list of agents appearing in their classified section. Preditors & Editors suggested you stay away from all of them.
STRUGGLING TO GET IT WRITE: THE SCIENCE FICTION LANDSCAPE
I write from southeastern Pennsylvania, approximately ten miles from Valley Forge, 100 miles from Gettysburg and, perhaps, thousands of years into the future. I am a science fiction writer living in a land of history. In my area, people hold firmly to the past, tenaciously some might say. Preserving houses built hundreds of years ago and land once walked by soldiers in long ago wars.
Yet I, a writer of science fiction, deal in a future denied of the past, where structures gleam of metal and glass and little of the past kept sacred. Perhaps it is time for a reality check. Often, science fiction book covers depict futuristic cities gleaming in their modernism. Yet the reality does not conform to this image, the present truth. The year is 2015, yet how many of us readers of science fiction, the timeline has already past. Think of the years 1984, 2001, 2010, to name but a few of the significant dates in science fiction. Now, look around you and compare the story to the reality.
Nineteen eighty-four is one date which rings most true. In our ever-increasing need for technology and connection to the communication grid, we have given up our freedom as an individual. Barely a day goes by without the revelation of immense security breaches, all our personal information gone. What I find frightening is that we live in a world where we don’t know who ‘big brother’ is. Is he a computer genius youth, a foreign government, or some criminal out to make a buck? In the end, except for monetary loss, what difference does it make? The difference is, our life is revealed.
Sorry, my mind wondered, back on topic, the futuristic element of science fiction and the fact that some of that future is already here.
As mentioned earlier, the area where I live is steeped in history and clings to the past. How does the need to hold onto the past meld with science fiction? I think that connection of the past and science fiction is kept alive in the relatively new genre of steampunk, a sub-genre of science fiction which I will not attempt. My mind does not twist in that direction. However, steampunk is alive and growing and I’ve included a link to further your understanding of the genre.
Interestingly, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are referred to in this article as authors writing in the imagery of steampunk.
This piece is just my thinking of the world of science fiction, keeping the past alive, and what direction reality is taking.
Local Author Event
My great writer friend, Sherrie Palmer, was great in making this event possible.
You never know how much talent there is in your own back yard. I discovered this last Saturday when Erin McCole Cupp and I invited local authors to come and spend the afternoon at the Atglen Public Library.
We ended up with a dozen authors coming. Many authors had more than one book available. Some of them are also performing storytellers, historians, educators, scientists, lawyers, journalists and more. Many are available for school visits and offer workshops.
I was both nervous and excited about the day. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great and I was afraid that would keep people from coming. I was afraid it would be quiet and sad that the weather kept people away. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that the day was upbeat and fun!
The authors arrived mostly one at a time which was great because then Erin and I could meet them and…
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THE LOOKING GLASS WAR by JOHN LeCARRE’
My reading volume has increased since becoming a fulltime writer, as it should. Also, because I’m a fulltime writer with minimal sales and retired, I haunt the Goodwill store and local library where books can be obtained, hardback for one dollar and paperbacks for fifty cents. I love bringing home an armful of books for next to nothing. My piles of books grow and I feel I’m surrounded by, soon to be, old friends.
During my book-buying adventures I stumbled upon books by John LeCarre’. I put them aside for I thought they would be too dated, spies and the cold war. But when I finally went to read the novels, I was in for a treat I did not expect.
The Looking Glass War, published in 1965, is a spy novel. Because of its publication date, I thought it might not offer much, instead, it was a book I could not put down.
We are all familiar with the James Bond character and the adventures described in Mission Impossible movies where the characters succeed in everything they attempt and nothing goes wrong.
Give me a break!
In LeClarre’s spy novel, the spies make mistakes, their frailties play into their work – they are human. Not only does everything not go right, little does. As they try to do their job they worry about cost and budgets.
If you want an entertaining read, try to find some of this author’s books.
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