Writing and Reading
I often hear people say, “I’ve always wanted to write,” or “I’d write, if only I could find the time.” The second comment is the easiest to address. Let me tell you, you do have the time. Can you spare 15 minutes, one day a week? If not, you will probably die of anxiety or exhaustion, or are so completely fulfilled that you really don’t need, or want, to write after all.
Consider: Grab a Composition Book at the local supermarket in the school supplies section. Or just use your Word Processor. During those 15 minutes, once a week, write one hundred words. I think a prose writer can do that. Do the math. In one year you will have written 5200 words. That’s a nice short story. I Married a Butterfly is only 3000 words and is, while short, a complete story. The year will pass in any event and, barring death, you will finish it either with a piece of writing or without one. So, do you want to write or don’t you? We’ve established that you have the time.
The arithmetic is simpler, but the process harder for poetry. I can vouch for this, since I’ve written some poems; though I am clearly not a poet. Novels, of course, require more of a time commitment, either in terms of hours per week or as the sum of months or years.
We can, and will I hope, talk about all kinds of things with one another in the Blog: how the creative process varies for each individual, writer’s block (assuming that’s a problem), development as a writer, using college courses, writers’ groups, book doctors (editors) and any other useful resources. We will talk about writing and editing. Some writers prefer one task over the other, or may love or hate both. And we’ll talk about publishing your work so that you can share your ideas and/or actually make money! Agents. Direct submission to publishing houses. Self-publishing, including the great resource of Kindle/Create Space for new writers no one else will touch. Which is probably most of us.
One thing that is absolutely necessary is to have a good grasp of the fundamentals of modern exposition. Unless you are a bona-fide genius with a revolutionary style that resonates with a large audience, you have to observe current conventions: Point of View, dialogue tags, well defined genre. Then again, since I fail utterly on genre, I should probably say you need to be aware of modern conventions.
But before you begin to write, make sure you have a good grasp of usage, grammar and syntax. Even if you got A’s in English, you may have forgotten some basic rules after years of plumbing houses, slinging hash or writing memos. So, “Get the little book!”
Read and keep handy at all times ‘Elements of Style’
As for Reading. Since we’ve mentioned ‘Elements of Style’, as a general reference, and recommended further background works in “Philosophy and Phantasy”, we should also cite a few works of literature that are relevant to Sun Valley, Moon Mountains . While I promised ‘no elves’ in the novel, there are elements of “Swordplay and Sorcery” common to straight- ahead Fantasy. However, in SVMM I do a riff on The Iliad. The main protagonist, Jaq, while a Wall Street trader by vocation and a Philosopher by avocation, is a Classicist by training. So it’s no surprise that the world which he ‘shapes’ with his mind draws inspiration from Classical texts, like ‘The Iliad’, and ancient sources, such as the Sumerian Creation Epic. ‘The Iliad’ is one of my all-time favorite works of literature. With the exception of the genealogies, it’s fast paced and filled with complex characters. It’s bloody. Gory, actually, and surprisingly so. But the most interesting aspect, I think, is the unpredictable and ephemeral nature of both courage and cowardice in every one of us.
While there are numerous translations, I’ll cite links to my two favorites: Lattimore’s and Pope’s. Read Lattimore first; or if you believe a different translation superior, shoot it in. Pope is just plain fun to read. And brilliant. I’m not a huge fan of Rhyme, but Little Sandy does a masterful job.
Richard Lattimore: ‘The Iliad’
Alexander Pope: Pope’s Iliad
James B. Pritchard: Sumerian Creation Epic Vol. 1 and other Fun Stuff
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