Writing: July 2008 Archives

Like other kinds of intelligence, the storyteller's is partly natural, partly trained. It is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility: wit, (a tendency to make irreverent connections); obstinacy and a tendency towards churlishness (a refusal to believe what all sensible people know is true); childishness (an apparent lack of mental focus and serious life purpose, a fondness for daydreaming and telling pointless lies, a lack of proper respect, mischievousness, and unseemly propensity for crying over nothing); remarkable powers of eidetic recall, or visual memory (a usual feature of early adolescence and mental retardation); a strange admixture of shameless playfulness and embarrassing earnestness, the latter often heightened by irrationally intense feelings for or against religion; patience like a cat's; a criminal streak of cunning; psychological instability; recklessness, impulsiveness, and improvidence; and finally, an inexplicable and incurable addiction to stories, written or oral, bad or good. Not all writers have exactly these same virtues, of course. Occasionally one finds one who is not abnormally improvident.

John Gardner
On Becoming a Novelist

"You have to say 'this is what I intend; this is what I will do if the universe is willing for me to do it.' So an intention is not a wish, and it is not a hope, it is the conscious use of your will." ~Gary Zukav

The words above are taken from what Gary Zukav told me when I asked him how people achieve fame. First, he taught me an important lesson. Being famous, he said, is not important. Not in the slightest. Being a positive influence in the world is important. Then if the universe wants you to be famous it will make you famous.

At the time I didn't know if I believed him. I was 17 years old. Mind you this was years before Oprah popularized The Secret, although she was friends with Mr. Zukav. For years motivational speakers have espoused the benefits of positive thinking. Mind over matter. Intention. But is any of it true? Although I deplore that some would capitalize on it as self-help authors and self-appointed gurus, I have come to believe it is true.

Years later, when I revisited the interview, I began to understand what Gary Zukav meant. This is what people speak of when they talk about the Law of Attraction, or about things seeming 'meant to be.'

Almost everyone I know can think of a time when things started to fall into place. When the pins and tumblers clicked and the locks opened. When things were going right. I would wager everyone who reads this can think of some time like that, and, probably, the feeling of rightness will be coupled with extraordinary coincidences.

It isn't magic. It is what it is. And, as Alexander Pope said, "What is, is right."

Many people don't believe in the law of attraction, even though they succeed by it. There is no need to. The universe doesn't care whether or not you believe. It cares about what you do. The key is posture, and -- you guessed it -- intention. Not to mention, I think, humility. Being humble may be the most important component of all.

And one more thing...

To make dreams a reality, something more is needed by the dreamer. Some internal harmony. Intentions within and without must coincide. And there must exist a drive. I will call this force Torque (known as intrinsic motivation to psychologists). Without torque, intention is nothing. If intention is a conscious use of your will, then torque is the energy that translates into willpower.

For my intention,

I will write as well as I can, as much as I can. People will read my stories for mindfulness; I will communicate with them. In the Fall of 2009 I will, if the universe is willing, attend a writer's workshop at the University of California - Irvine, or at the University of Iowa. I will be a positive influence in the world. I will be mindful. Above all, I will try my hardest every day to reach these goals, especially watching, as my father reminds me, for signs that I'm traveling the right path.

This is what I will do, if the universe is willing for me to do it.

In the final chapter of his book On Becoming a Novelist, John Gardner addresses a question often asked by aspiring writers. "Do you write with a pen, a pencil, a typewriter, or what?" He says, and I agree, that the question is more important than it appears.

It calls to mind the kind of things professional gamblers are said to worry about, Gardner writes. Should one where a lucky hat? Which color of shirt is best when playing poker? And so on. It asks (without asking) if there is any hope at all for the beginning writer.

Desktop computers and blogs have made writing fast and easy. Is this a good thing? Yes and no.

Remember, just because you can write easily doesn't mean you should. Our world is fast-paced, chaotic, and always has been. But writing is not. It shouldn't be. Writing requires slow, careful concentration. This is as true for you writing e-mails in the 21st century as it was for Lev Tolstoy writing War and Peace.

I compose my stories, articles, syllabus, and  blogs on a Sony Vaio laptop computer. Usually I write in Microsoft Word 2008, and I keep the files on a titanium jump drive that, if not on my person, is usually close to me (on my desk, my bookshelf, something like that). Most people write on computers, these days, whether in the library or at home or at work.

It's important to remember (this is a friendly reminder) that writing is a process, a habit, and an act of mindfulness. It is not a physical process. Writing with a pen may be different in some ways than writing on a laptop. The important difference in the physical process, or the actual activity of writing, is a difference, too often, of quality.

Pencils and pens force us to go slowly. To think, compose in our heads, and to move forward with ideas instead of going backwards. Who wants to rewrite the first chapter of a novel 100 times in ink?

Yet computers are important. Remain mindful of computers and research venues (Google Scholar, Lexis Nexus, etc.) as tools. Only tools. A computer may help you write a novel faster, and it may even be good, but in some ways it may also harm your ability to write.

The best artists in this age of technology (and here I mean graphic designers, painters, sketch artists, photographers, and writers, too) understand the power of tools like Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, but they never forget that the programs cannot make the art for them. They still pour in the attention of Tolstoy or Picasso, and the new technology takes them in different directions. In all its complexity, this is the one element that will never, ever become digitized.