Book Reviews, Comments & Stories, Quotes, & Poetry & More
"Connections and Why They Matter"
Most of what happens in our life will spark a connection. Life connects with what has been found in books. Books connect with what happens in life. Use the connections to help you see more clearly. A love of reading and writing is what motivated the creation of this blog. Thank you for coming to the blog.
Writers often ask themselves, “What is the point of writing if no one reads my work? Okay, yes, this sounds like the beginning of a pity party, but it is a valid question. Even so, there are a lot of high-sounding reasons why the answer is that I should indeed continue to write.
What I am looking for, however, is something original that goes to the heart of this question.
One answer, for example, is that the point of writing is to “think deeply and to inform, entertain, and communicate your insight with your readers.” Yes, I found that answer by googling this question, so okay, it still is a starting point for the question.
I can go with “thinking deeply” because just pulling sentences together requires that, and, as far as I can tell, the more we do this, the better we become. However, this benefit’s point isn’t to communicate with readers, since that is the problem. There are no readers!
We can inform and entertain ourselves, but the real problem becomes apparent when readers are required. As I previously said, there aren’t any readers.
Another point for writing is to seek the truth. It doesn't matter how you do that or whether you're writing thrillers, detective stories, comedies, website posts, or picture books for children. When you write, you often must validate what you say, which is a worthy goal for someone who writes. As Stephen Pressfield writes in The War of Art, “We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.”
Writing also forces you to open your eyes to the world to ensure your story makes sense. When you open your eyes to all around you, your ideas find new connections. You can catch up on lost time and gain insight beyond your capabilities by reading more. This opens you to new feelings and experiences. The more you learn about this world, the more you realize how much you don't know. In this way, writing keeps you humble and open to more knowledge.
Author and marketing guru Seth Godin produces blog posts daily, saying, “Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing it is clarifying, motivating, and (eventually) fun.” He adds that “after people get to posting 200 [posts] or beyond, they uniformly report that they’re glad they did it.” (Taken from Why Writing Content Is Useful, Even If Nobody Reads It - Forbes
Even when no one will likely read it, the real point of writing is that it is clear evidence for you to know that you are a writer. Writers write because they must write.
Good writing stands out; you hear a distinct voice when you read it. The agent is just right, meeting the needs of the story. The paper stays within the reader for a while and makes the reader feel richer when reading. Good writing makes the reader want to read more.
The verse below from Ecclesiastes 9:11 was used in George Orwell's book Why I Write as an example of "good writing." Then, Orwell wrote a more modern approach to the verse, saying the same thing: the current is not better.
The Ecclesiastes verse stands out as well written compared to what Orwell presented as a more modern approach of that day. It was a rewritten version written as a parody of the original verse designed to ridicule the bloated writing of his day. The important message is that simplicity is better, and it helps if you know what you mean so you can clearly say it.
See Both Verses Below.
Ecclesiastes 9:11, King James Version
“I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
George Orwell’s parody in what he called more modern prose. (not a compliment)
“Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.”
The original verse is well written and says what it says so very, very well. Then, on the other hand, is what this verse says correct? Is it true that here on earth, under the sun, the efforts of men are dependent on chance and time for those efforts to make a difference? Is it logical to draw any conclusions from “objective conclusions about contemporary phenomena”? Are not those conclusions and phenomena aggregates of experience, and do they even exist in singular form?
Many whose "stars shine bright" and who have the limelight are no better or wiser than many who do not. Some luck and timing make a lot of difference. On the other hand, so many define their journey through life as part of a "plan.” Trials are part of the plan. Setbacks are thought of as part of the plan. So what about time and chance? Does the fact that the original verse suggests that everyone will get time and chance make it all ok?
Did the writer of Ecclesiastes successfully communicate what was meant? Does it mean the writer failed if it is interpreted differently by different readers?
Quotes from Authors about the Meaning of Their Writing
“I didn't fail the test; I just found 100 ways to do it wrong” -Benjamin Franklin, 1706 -1790. Based on the quote by Franklin, I would suspect that he would come down on the side of "a plan" rather than feeling that time and chance rendered the 100 failures of no worth.
“In the depths of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer." -Albert Camus, 1913 – 1957. It looks like Camus figured there was a plan since his challenges were labeled "depths of winter," which seemed to prove something of worth to him.
The difficulty of literature is not writing but writing what you mean." -Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 - 1894.
Early in the book, he offers some insightful advice to writers:
"You must not come lightly to the blank page.”
The irony of this quote is that this book was completed after his severe accident. He was hit head-on while walking along the gravel shoulder of Maine State Road Route 5. It was his habit to walk along this same road in the country near his house. It was June 19, 1999, at about 4:30 PM, when a van coming towards him hit him; he flipped and flew through the air, landing 14 feet from the road.
When this terrible accident happened, this book was about halfway through the first draft. He offers a lot of detail on the event and his recovery. You see that he did not indeed re-approach his writing lightly.
The process of writing is tedious and often requires coming back day after day to try to produce value. Sometimes the more you come back, the harder it gets, and you reach a point where you just bore down and try to choose your words without fear and make demands on yourself that you should have started with. It would have been better not to come lightly to the project initially.
Stephen King’s book, On Writing: a memoir of the craft, in addition to being a writing guide, is an autobiography, and the part of King’s life it tells includes an incident that he would have been required not to treat lightly, and as in much of the book, he showed us what he meant by the advice to writers that he presented.
Writing Quote
“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair–the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart… but you must not come lightly to the blank page.” – Stephen King, On Writing.
