Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 508

Think twice, write (or draw) once

“Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think faster than we speak. Probably so we can think twice.”– Bill Watterson

When Bill Watterson was creating names for the characters in his award-winning comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, he supposedly decided upon Calvin (after the Protestant reformer John Calvin) and Hobbes (after the social philosopher Thomas Hobbes), allegedly as a "tip of the hat" to the Political Science Department at Kenyon College in Ohio, where he studied political science - even though he said he always knew he wanted to be a cartoonist.
 In The Complete Calvin And Hobbes – of which I am a proud owner – Watterson stated that Calvin is named for "a 16th-century theologian who believed in predestination,” and Hobbes for "a 17th-century philosopher with a dim view of human nature."  Either way the words he wrote for the wise little boy with a talking stuffed tiger as his best friend stand the test of time – something every writer and artist hopes his or her work will achieve. 
Born on this day in 1958, Watterson created Calvin and Hobbes after first trying his hand at political cartooning.   He said he incorporated elements of his life, interests, beliefs and values into his work—for example, his hobby as a cyclist, and memories of his father's speeches about "building character."  For his efforts he has been awarded virtually every major prize in cartooning, often writing thoughtful and provocative statements in the process.
 [image error] He stopped his comic strip when he felt it was becoming too commercialized and has focused mostly on art since 2000.  But, after being honored with an international prize for his life’s work in 2014, he says he has many things left to do, including some writing.  “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things,” he said.  “Right now, I am so far behind that I will never die.” 
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Saluting a writing watchdog

“We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.” – Helen Thomas
One evening in 1999, my wife and I picked Helen Thomas up at the Twin Cities airport. With time to kill until she was to do a keynote speech at a scholarship event, she asked us to drive around, show her the area, and talk about reporting.
It was among the fastest two hours I ever spent.  She regaled us with stories about time in the White House Press Corps, her work at home and abroad with the United Press, and how journalism was changing, some for the better, but much to her chagrin, much for the worse.  She worried about where things might be headed and how as writers we needed to be diligent in telling the whole story and not caving in to the ever-growing pressure that many in the profession were feeling from the growing influence of the internet.
Thomas, who would’ve turned 95 today (she died in 2013), plowed new ground for women in journalism and spoke eloquently that night about staying the course and being true to the term “Watchdogs for Democracy.”  It was just when her new book Front Row at the White House came onto the market, and at evening’s end she gracefully took a copy from her bag and signed it to us as we returned her for a redeye flight home.
Author and news reporter for 60 years, she covered the administrations of 11 U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Obama.  She was the first female officer of the National Press Club, and the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.  She wrote thousands of articles for the UPI, for radio broadcasts, and for newspapers, literally beginning in the trenches as a copygirl and ending at the highest echelon, earning every major newswriting award and 30 honorary doctorate degrees along the way. 
 [image error]Helen Thomas
Her starting salary for the United Press in 1943, by the way, was $24 – a week.  “I wasn’t in it for the money,” she quipped.  When she handed me that signed book, I was flabbergasted.  “I don’t know how to thank you,” I stammered.  “That’s so unexpected.”   Her response:  “When you’re in the news business, always expect the unexpected.”  It’s a line I’ve never forgotten.    

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Write the relationships first

“Writing, basically breaks down to relationships between people and that is what you write about.” – Leon Uris

I first read Leon Uris when I was in junior high, geting a beaten up copy of his World War II novel Battle Cry when my mother found it at a garage sale and brought it home to our South Dakota farm.  After reading that book, I knew I had found an author who wrote things I enjoyed so the next time we went to Sioux Falls (which was nearly 80 miles away), I asked Mom to go find another garage sale and see if he had written anything else.
That was 1959 and his book Exodus was now on the market, and – as luck would have it – at a garage sale.  She bought it for me and I have since read every book this amazing author wrote, many actually purchased in book shops.  [image error]Leon Uris
Born this day in 1924, Uris started his own reading at age 3, writing by 4 and writing creatively by age 8.  But it wasn’t until after he came out of World War II (he enlisted at age 17 and spent 4 years in the service) that he started his successful career, first writing for newspapers and then doing short stories before writing Battle Cryin 1951.  Known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels, he wrote 20 novels and many nonfiction works.
Both Exodus and Trinity (the first work that really helped me understand what was going on in Northern Ireland) were mega-bestsellers, and many, many more were on the New York Times Bestsellers List.   Also a screenwriter, he had three of his own books – Battle Cry, Exodus and The Haj – made into successful movies.
Uris wrote continuously for 50 years until he was struck down by kidney failure in 2003.  He said he always was proud that the work he wrote in 1950 was just as much read as that written 30 or 40 years later.   “You can try to reach an audience, but you just write what comes out of you and hope that it is accepted,” he said.   “You do not – and should not – write specifically to a generation.”  Good advice for every writer.


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A 'delicious' legacy for the world

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.” – Beatrix Potter
This past week was the anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s most beloved writer/illustrators, Beatrix Potter. 
Potter wrote and illustrated The Tale of Peter Rabbit, self-published first in 1901 just for herself, family and close friends.  But those who read and saw it urged her to do more and in 1902 the 3-color edition was published by Frederick Warne & Company. 
Although the book obviously should have been published for all to see, her editor Norman Warne had a bit of an ulterior motive, since he was wooing Beatrix to become his fiancée, which she did after the book’s broader release.  Unfortunately Warne developed leukemia and died before they could wed.  
She married in her later years and with the earnings from her books – she had done 23 by then – she and husband William Heelis purchased a large farm in Lancashire where she became a prize-winning breeder of Herdwick sheep and a prosperous farmer keenly interested in land preservation. She continued to write and illustrate, and to design spin-off merchandise based on her children's books for Warne, until the duties of land management and her diminishing eyesight made it difficult to continue.   [image error][image error] Beatrix Potter and her most famous creation Peter
Potter died at age 77 in December, 1943, willing most of her property to the National Trust.  Much of the land comprises the Lake District National Preserve, which includes a replica of Farmer McGregor’s Garden and small statues of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and, of course, Peter.


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The 'self' - a story we all share

"Novelists are in the business of constructing consciousness out of words, and that's what we all do, cradle to grave.  The Self is a story we tell." -- James Gleick


An American author, historian of science, and sometimes internet pioneer, James Gleick, whose birthday is today, is a "sometime" internet pioneer whose work has chronicled the cultural impact of modern technology on our lives. I first read and somewhat interacted with his work as a member of the Science Writers of America -- a somewhat dubious designation for me, although I do like writing science features from time-to-time and was honored to be accepted into their clan.


Winner of many awards for his writing and critical reviews, he has been a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and finalist for the National Book Award for his most recent work  The Information:  A History, a Theory, a Flood.  And, he holds the distinction of being the first editor of "The Best American Science Writing Series."

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On a side note, today marks the start of my second year of writing this daily blog.  It's been a great adventure and a definite "kick start" to each writing day.  I'm looking forward to continuing and thank the loyal readers who have followed me since the beginning and to welcome those of you who have only recently found these posts and chosen to come back for further looks at them from time-to-time.  Happy writing (and reading) to all.



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Crucial to 'the life' of society

“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 now political editor of BBC News.
 [image error]Andrew MarrHe 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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Bringing images into view

“Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it before the digital age.  The photograph, as it was printed in the darkroom, became visible bit by bit.  As you read your way through a novel, the same chemical process takes place.”– Patrick Modiano
French novelist and 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Modiano turns 70 today and his analogy of the development of the novel “before our eyes” is a remarkable one that also gives us a bit of a look into his writing style.  He lets the picture slowly unfold, sometimes leaving us startled, sometimes satisfied, sometimes angry, but always interested in what’s coming next.
His novels delve into the puzzle of identity in ways seldom seen.   And, he tackles a time in France – the German occupation during World War II – that evokes both heroism and shame depending on whose point of view his tale is being told.    [image error]Modiano 

The winner of almost every major European and French writing award, he was honored for his life’s body of work even prior to winning the Nobel and was – up until that award – one of the few international writers whose work had never been translated into English.   Until now, and I highly commend his many works and writer’s moments to all.


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Taking a 'rash' leap

Part of writing a novel is being willing to leap into the blackness. You have very little idea, really, of what's going to happen. You have a broad sense, maybe, but it's this rash leap. – Chang-Rae Lee
Chang-Rae Lee is a Korean American novelist and professor of creative writing at Princeton University where he has headed up that program for many years.  Born in Korea on this date in 1965 he emigrated to the U.S. with his family and has used the Korean immigrant experience as the primary focus for his award-winning writing.  But, while that is HIS primary focus, he stresses with his students that they should be aware of the broad spectrum of writing and writing styles.
“I'll offer them stories from Anton Chekhov to Denis Johnson, from Flannery O'Connor to A.M. Homes, and perhaps investigating all that strange variation of beauty has rubbed off on me. Or perhaps that's why I enjoy teaching literature,” he said.
  Lee's first novel in 1995, Native Speaker, jump-started his own career as it won numerous awards, including the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The novel centers around a Korean American industrial spy, and explores themes of alienation and betrayal as felt or perpetrated by immigrants and first-generation citizens, something he’s repeated in other works. 
Often, he said, he isn’t sure where he’s headed when he starts, but that’s not a bad thing.   As for what's the most challenging aspect of teaching, he said it's convincing younger writers of the importance of reading widely and passionately.
 [image error]Chang-Rae Lee
“I often think that the prime directive for me as a teacher of writing is akin to that for a physician, which is this: do no harm.”
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Putting us in their place

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


We lost one of our greatest crafters of historical fiction this past week with the death of novelist and historian E.L. Doctorow, whose novel Ragtime won every major writing award and was the precursor of many other great works to follow.


Doctorow said that it is the historian's place to tell us about a time in history or an era, but it is the novelist's role to tell us how we would act and feel if we lived in that time or era.


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 yesterday while talking with a radio interviewer sbout my book And The Wind Whispered.  "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 it IS 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 the great writers like him 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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Intensifying the experiences

Good fiction reveals feeling, refines events, locates importance and, though its methods are as mysterious as they are varied, intensifies the experience of living our own lives. – Vincent Canby
Born this date in 1924, Vincent Canby had the distinction of being both the chief film critic AND the chief theater critic for the New York Times – the only person to ever do so.  As film critic from 1969-93 he reviewed more than 1,000 films.  He then turned his critical eye to the theater where he did the theater reviews until his death in 2000.   He was such a respected writer and reviewer that Bob Hope requested that Canby be the one to write his obituary, but Canby died first.  However, he still received the byline on Hope’s story since he had crafted most of the story prior to his own death and the Times didn’t think it could be topped. 
 [image error]Vincent CanbyThe career of Vincent Canby is discussed in the film For the Love of Movies:  The Story of American Film Criticism, a wonderful and insightful piece of writing and movie-making that I highly recommend for all who love the silver screen and those who comment upon it.