3/24/2005 09:29:33 AM|||Larry||| I have thought of a career in writing at different times, especially when discussions with the Redhead (my wife) center around books and opinions of books. "I can write something that good" is the normal statement followed by the discussion and ultimate realization that I could not.
I think one reason for the appeal of a career in writing, is the possibility of being a nomad. Let me explain...there are certain professions that require dedication and self discipline for you to succeed, but otherwise require no physical location to get done. Writing (as the example) can be done at your kitchen table, in the car, at relatives, or in a cabin in the mountains in the summer and at a cottage by the ocean in the winter. Now I ask, what could be better than this? Nothing I can think of...It is not a 9 to 5 or any other set of hours, but as stated, self discipline an important key to self employment. This is one talent I do have.
A long time ago and far, far away, the Redhead was a newspaper editor. This is probably the beginning of my desire to write for a living. Even in a small-town newspaper, there were really creative people and good wordsmiths. I was fascinated by them from the start. Not the newspaper part, but getting to write...
That probably has something to do with why I started writing this blog. It is a way to make the brain think things through and codify them, in order to put those thoughts in writing. There in lies part of the problem, with writing something like a novel. You could write a blog that was verbose and unruly, but what would be the fun in that.
Editing is a cruel mistress and can make for really bright and crisp prose. It can also bring a 500 page novel to barely a short story. Even this post has been edited multiple times to bring a certain clarity to the thoughts. It has also made it shorter in length.
Example:
It was a dark and storm night when suddenly a shot rang out. A body slumped over the steering wheel without a sound being made. Around the corner, a tall, statuesque, blond got into a red Thunderbird convertible and sped away.
Edited example:
Tom was shot and around the corner, a blond sped away in a red Thunderbird.
or
Tom was shot and a female left in a car.
Now with this example, you can see how a novel could be turned into a short story, fast. Extra words are eliminated and sentences are cleaned to within an inch of their lives. All a sentence needs is a subject and a verb. Right! There is no need for all those adjectives, adverbs and other english matters, they just get in the way.
I guess for now, I will have to continue with the blog and put my writing career on hold for a while. However, this is good practice by making me think it through and try to make sense of each sentence.
But, in the United States, we can dream and dream anything we want. What a country...
|||111167817394716165|||Life and Its Mysteries