Posts filed under ‘WALT’S OBSERVATIONS’
MY WRITING STYLE
Presently, I’m in a quandary about the subject of this piece, my writing style.
Every writer has his or her own style, the way of expressing in word the thoughts they are trying to convey. How does this characteristic of the author originate? Is it some deep-seated voice that represents your essence, or is it merely a manufacture of all the authors whose works you have read?
My reason for pondering this question is that I am in the process of editing my novel, Sweet Depression, and in this endeavor I am attempting to cure what others have pointed out to me as a major fault – my brevity. I tend to concentrate on the core of the story and leave out details that would give the story more life. But where is the line you must be careful not to cross when that life would morph into a boring existence?
Take a look at your bookshelves. If you’re as voracious a reader as I and share my fault of not being able to part with a book once read, those shelves are overflowing. Science fiction and horror are my writing genres, but lately some of my stories have spilled into the murky boundaries of the thriller. But back to science fiction. I look at the science fiction novels of fifty or more years ago and those of today and see a distinct difference. Older science fiction is more concise, more to the point. Of course, you have the epic series Dune written by Frank Herbert and continued by his son which are massive in length, tomes of a complex series. But I look at H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds which is little more than a novella and see the more typical length of science fiction of a bygone era.
Recently I have talked to writers whose work are massive and needed to be cut for publication. My work doe not require deletion but rather addition. But how much to add without diluting down the story or slowing the action, that’s the quandary.
While thinking this piece through I may have come up with the answer to my problem. It is not the length that is important, rather the content and the skill of the writer. Talent is the bottom line. The writer must take the readers by the hand and lead them down a path without detours causing them to lose their way. And when the readers reach the end of that path, if the writer has been successful, they are left with a treasure.
WHILE GETTING IT FAST AND GETTING IT FIRST PLEASE GET IT RIGHT
I’m sure I’m not the only news junkie that has become aware of a growing trend, especially in the local news broadcasts. The rush to report breaking news well before all the relevant facts are known. The source does not matter nor are the facts checked. This may be a major assumption on my part, but I have seen a story reported and 12 to24 hours later, when the story is reported again, the first set of facts are at odds with the well-developed story. The news is becoming a victim of the growing rapidity of technology.
In the past, and I mean maybe thirty years ago, news events were reported in the most recent edition of newspapers or the latest scheduled broadcast. If there was a break in programming, what was reported was what was verifiable.
Today, with the vast majority of us plugged into the electronic grid of information, hardly anything goes by without someone recording it. Images are captured by the ever-present cell phone. But pictures do not necessarily reveal facts. The need to get it fast has replaced the need to get it right.
MY MIND AT WORK
As my readers know by now, I’m a news junkie. But that is not the only type of junkie I’m guilty of being, no there are no track marks involved. I’m also a weather junkie.
Long before the weather channel morphed into broadcasting weather related series and documentaries, it was all weather 24/7. I would watch the weather channel for hours, back then. Now, I rarely tune in.
I’ve lived in and visited a great deal of this county. I enjoy knowing the weather in those locations so I can picture what the area looks like under the current weather conditions. Also, there are places I have yet to visit but I’m drawn to their weather. On a winter’s day, look up the weather in Fairbanks, Alaska. I see their weather and imagine how life is and endurance test compared to the weather conditions I experience. My imagination grows muscles in pursuits such as this and that can only help a writer.
So what brings me to this piece?
As I sit here the sky is blue and the sun is out. Tomorrow it will start to rain and then snow. By Monday night we may have twelve inches of the white stuff. This will be about our thirteenth storm of varying size this winter. (Read my poem, Snow https://walttriznastories.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/snow/, at this point and then please return.)
Currently California, after a prolonged drought, is being deluged causing mud slides, and also causing growth which will provide fuel for fires which will set up mud slides etc… As Kurt V. would muse: And so it goes.
I know a great deal of this moisture will eventually find its way back to the ocean from where it came, but there’s a hell of a lot of water that stays behind, water absorbed by the parched earth and coursing into rivers.
I should mention at this point that one of my novels I am currently editing and hope to publish, The Beast Awaits, has a significant weather component.
Now back to this piece.
Global warming, or the term becoming more popular, climate change, is responsible for melting vast amounts of ice, at both poles along with a host of other historically ice-bound areas. Due to this melting, we’re told that the level of the oceans will rise so many inches in so many years.
At the same time, storms seem to becoming larger and more numerous, think Hurricane Sandy and Katrina.
I wonder if anyone has done the math correlating the increasing storm activity and the vast amount of moisture involved against the rise in sea level due to melting ice. As a side note, I see all kinds of plots here perhaps worthy of a story.
That leads me to genetics. See how my mind works.
I read an article some time ago where a question was posed: Is the evolution of man still taking place? The answer was: Yes, and at an increasing rate. How is that possible? Advances in our knowledge make it possible.
Think of the advances in medicine and our genetics. To an increasing extent our abilities are cancelling out the natural law of Survival of the Fittest.
Consider the progress made by medicine and genetics where flaws in man can be cured or deleted. But who determines what a ‘flaw’ is? That is the rub and as we gain more and more knowledge in the control of these aspects will determine the course of our future.
For those who have read this far, I’m about to tie this all together.
Look in the mirror. That’s what ties it all together. We tie it all together. We have a profound influence on the weather. A growing body of knowledge examines human activity and how it relates to climate change along with an awareness of how to alter our activities to slow that influence. But here’s a reality check: How can billions of us exist of this beloved rock and not cause a change? Sure, we can perhaps slow it, first we have to believe it, but change is inevitable. This planet has undergone fantastic change in its history without our help, now those changes are increasing with our input.
Same thing with evolution. We evolved along the bumpy road of time, but now with our hand in the mix and with our increasing control, who knows what lies ahead.
IN THE HEART OF THE SEA THE VOYAGE OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX And THE LAST STAND by NATHANIEL PHILBRICK
The subjects of this piece are a recently read book and a book I read in the past by the same author.
The Last Stand deals with an historical event etched in the American psyche, Custer’s Last Stand. This is an extremely informative and well-written book tracing, with remarkable detail, the events leading up to the battle and the confrontation between the cavalry under Custer’s command and the Indians led by Sitting Bull.
The root causes of this disaster are many. Custer’s overconfidence in his abilities as a military tactician along with the incompetence of some of the officers in his command played a major part in the outcome, along with the underestimation of the number of Indians he faced on that fateful day, June 25, 1875. This was a tragedy that did not have to happen.
As the soldiers approached, Sitting Bull was expecting to discuss peace when his village was attacked by some of Custer’s forces who had no idea of the size of the Indian village.
Custer had 650 men under his command. The population of the village was 8000.
It is my lack of historical knowledge that makes this book so interesting to me. I thought Custer’s entire command was destroyed. Custer divided his command into three parts, one commanded by Major Marcus Reno, one commanded by Captain Fredrick Benteen and one commanded by him. Reno’s group made the initial attack on the village before Custer engaged in battle. When Custer was attacked, he sent a message to the rest of his command to come to his aid, but the made no effort to help and only learned of Custer’s demise when told by and Indian scout.
Philbrick handles this remarkable piece of history with skill and thoroughness that brings the characters and events to life.
I want to mention the other book by this author that I read some time ago dealing with an event in maritime history that gave birth to a classic novel.
In the Heart of the Sea, The Voyage of the Whaleship Essex is a fascinating read. The Essex set sail from Nantucket in 1819 in search of whales. I thought all whaling was done in the Atlantic, and initially it was, but by 1819 the whale population was greatly depleted and whaling was done in the Pacific. This made for a long and hazardous voyage around the tip of South America.
Fifteen months after the Essex set sail it was rammed by a sperm whale and eventually sunk. Twenty men sought survival in three boats. Of the 20, only six survived resorting to cannibalism by the end of their ordeal.
Guess which famous author worked this tale into a classic of fiction.
GROWING OLD WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
I’m getting older. Okay, we’re all getting older. But I’m already old getting older, and I’m a writer.
In the future I plan to write a piece looking at science fiction writers and the gadgets they envisioned long before they came into existence. That led me to consider my present situation, an older science fiction writer trying to keep up with the current bounty of new devices.
Recently I attended a talk given by an author describing her work and during the presentation she mentioned how she made sure her characters used a cell phone. For that is what we all do now, except for me. I considered all my stories. None of my characters ever use a cell phone. Perhaps it’s because I do not own a cell phone, never have.
I’m kind of a private person, substitute introverted for private, so if I had a cell phone and it rang, I probably wouldn’t answer it. That’s normal, right?
I look at the world around me and am amazed at the devices in daily use that we take for granted, especially the younger ‘we’. Look at the increasing power of the personal computer, to say nothing of the various tablets and such. To give a feel for the changes I’ve witnessed, when I was in college I used a slide rule to calculate. I’ll give the younger of my readers a chance to reach for their dictionary.
Technology is changing at a tremendous rate, knowledge gained faster than ever before. For example, and this is ancient history, man stepped on the moon just 66 years after he first flew. You had people alive who knew a sky containing only birds. Those same people got to see and hear rockets setting off into space. That is truly remarkable.
The point is, it is difficult for an ‘older’ writer to keep up with the current technology and weave that technology into their stories. At least it is for this ‘older’ writer.
As a side note, Jim Butcher creator of the Dresden Files, a writer I admire and whose work I devour, uses an interesting device to overcome this problem in his urban fantasy series. His character, Harry Dresden, is a wizard, and any time he comes near a modern electrical device that device self-destructs. What a great backdoor!
As for my work, I guess I’ll just have to invent my own technology. After all, that’s what we science fiction writers do.
COMMAND AND CONTROL by ERIC SCHLOSSER
Having just completed reading the above book, I’m consumed by memories which I’ll discuss later in this piece.
This work deals with the birth of the nuclear weapon and its subsequent proliferation in both this country and others. I found the early proliferation of these weapons in the U.S. to be extremely interesting. One of the aspects at the beginning of deployment was which agency should control them, the military or the government. The safety of these weapons is also discussed in detail along with the measures necessary in handling these weapons is covered in depth. After reading this book, one wonders how some of the newly emerging nuclear powers, North Korea and Pakistan for instance, safeguards and controls their arsenal. Having these weapons, they may be prone to blowing themselves up rather than their enemies.
Past accidents with nuclear weapons are also discussed. To say we have been lucky thus far is to put it mildly.
The memories stirred by this work were the result of one accident the book follows in great detail. That accident was the explosive destruction of a Titan II missile complex located near Little Rock, Arkansas in 1980. My interest was due to the fact I served, from 1970 to 1973, as first a deputy commander and then commander of a Titan II missile complex outside of Wichita, Kansas.
For three years, every three or four days I would pull 24 hour alerts. I knew the layout of the complex and the hazards involved and that’s why reading this book induced a flood of memories.
I highly recommend this book. It is an outstanding history of the safety and development of nuclear weapons.
THE TEARS OF NEWARK
At times, I don’t know if my thoughts are just of an old man out of rhythm with the times or valid observations. You, my friends, must be the judge.
Over the years I’ve noticed a trend, the intent of which is either for the betterment of mankind or yet another means of making money. I’m talking about the discovery of new diseases, not life threatening ailments, to be sure. But ailments for which products have been developed, afflictions such as dry eye and restless leg syndrome. The syndrome from which I draw a great deal of humor is ‘dry eye’.
For this malady, a host of artificial tear products are on the market, and if these products do not work there are heavy duty products such as Restasis, a heavily advertized remedy. Every time I see their ads I think of my late dad. I’ll tell you why.
When I was a kid my dad had a cure for dry eye. If he were alive I could see him opening up a ‘dry eye clinic’. His remedy was really cheap. All he would do was say, “You want something to cry about? I’ll give you something to cry about.”
It worked every time.
While I was a kid living in Newark during the 50’s and 60’s there was little need for artificial tears. There was always plenty of the real thing to go around. In fact, we had a surplus of tears. We could have exported tears. Compared to today’s problems, we were pretty well off.
Then there is ‘dry mouth’ cured by hydration, something we used to call drinking.
FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY: BOWL GAMES
In a previous piece I wrote about how everything in a writer’s world affects his or her writing to some extent. I feel what we produce is a product of our environment.
This piece results primarily from my past experience, but more importantly from my values.
As you can see from the title I will focus on college bowl games but not from the sports aspect. I prefer to look a little deeper, focusing on the direction so many aspects of our lives take nowadays. Traditions diluted for the sake of how much money can be made. At first this trend was more insidious. Now it is becoming more and more blatant.
I can remember when there were only four bowl games. I could be wrong about the number. If I am, someone let me know. I’m talking about maybe fifty or more years ago. They were the Rose, Cotton, Orange and Sugar Bowls and they were all played on January 1st, a full day of football.
In a recent edition of our local paper I counted 35 bowl games now being played over the course of weeks providing a minimum of overlap for the greatest viewing audience. There are probably more.
Now we have such titles as the Little Caesar Pizza Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Chick-fil-A Bowl just to name a few. With at least 35 bowls that means at least 70 teams played in a bowl game. To me, the honor of participating in a bowl game is greatly diluted these days. I think the four above mentioned games still garnish the most honor. But really, do we need all these games? The avid sports fan I’m sure will say yes, but it seems to me that pride of saying your team participated in a bowl game has greatly diminished.
My cynical self tends to look at this trend as just a blatant way to make more money. Another example of one of our institutions diluted in the quest for the almighty dollar.
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