1st Person
I have wanted to be a published author for many years, but
for now I’m a writer. I’ve written two
novels and over thirty short stories – all fiction and none published. I still need a bunch of growth as a writer
before I seek publishing.
I love
birthing characters from my mind (like Zeus with Athena, only less weird). I love growing them, learning them,
predicting them, breaking them, and then raising them up again.
Sometimes I get discouraged as a writer – so few
“make it” as writers. Then I’ll pick up
a book and it will bring me to life. I’ll
meet a character that I can identify with and whose author makes me feel every
hurt and every joy along with the character. It’s in the depression that
follows finishing these rare masterpieces (depressed because they’re over),
that’s when I know what I want to be in the grand scheme of things. I want to be published and make other people feel
what I’ve felt.
In my first sentence I
said that I was a writer, but sometimes I wonder if that’s true. What is a writer? How can I be sure that I am one? I don’t know the answers, but I do know that
writing makes me stay up obscenely late.
I know that writing makes me elated, euphoric, depressed, exhausted, and
frustrated. I know that writing makes me
cry, laugh, and sometimes it even makes me want to scream.
What do I want to get out of this
course? I want to get out of my fiction
bubble and expand my horizon. I want to grow my description and observation
skills. Frankly, I want to be a better
writer.
2nd Person
So
you’re a struggling artist trying to find your voice, huh? You didn’t mention in your saga up there that your
favorite parts to write are when your characters are hurting. You love to make them suffer. That’s pretty diabolical isn’t it? But no,
you like the topic of suffering and pain because everyone can relate to it,
right? Right. Like you’ve always said,
“It easy to make
people laugh – most people want to laugh.
The hard thing is to make people really cry. Not just silly girls – but people who have their
pride at stake. That’s when you know you
have your audience.”
You love your
characters too, don’t you? They’re like
your children. Not a lot of people can relate to who you are
as a writer, but you like being one.
3rd Person
“She’s a funny bird isn’t she?”
“Who George?”
“Oh, that girl that always goes to the window seat with her laptop.”
“What’s so funny about her?”
“Nothing," he shrugged. "Everything. She comes all the time and always has her
coffee and her laptop. Some days she sits
there she’ll be typing with a vigor. But other days she opens the laptop and then
stares out the window, or drums her fingers on the table, or bites her nails and stares off into
space.”
“She’s probably in school, working on papers. You have too active an imagination.”
“Maybe. But sometimes
I am sure she’s eavesdropping on other people’s conversations. Then she’ll smile and take out her notebook
and write something else down.”
“So what?”
“So it’s different that’s all. Why are you so grouchy? Old age finally caught up with you? You going to yell at me to stay off your
grass when we get back to your place?”
“You’re too nosy, George.
Now would you order already so we can get out of here?”
I don’t know the answers, but I do know that writing makes me stay up obscenely late. I know that writing makes me elated, euphoric, depressed, exhausted, and frustrated. I know that writing makes me cry, laugh, and sometimes it even makes me want to scream.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a writer to me. The only thing anyone has to do to be a writer is to write. Very simple, at least in theory.
"But sometimes I am sure she’s eavesdropping on other people’s conversations." Aha, and now you can do it with a clean conscience since it's a recommended part of week 3!
I often find the beating heart of a piece of writing in the actual geographical center of the page, paragraph, or whatever the writer offers. Here's pretty much the center of your triptych of pieces:
“It easy to make people laugh – most people want to laugh. The hard thing is to make people really cry. Not just silly girls – but people who have their pride at stake. That’s when you know you have your audience.”
Is it the "beating heart"? I'd have to know your writing better before I could make a guess, but it does seem to have a rhythm, determination, and gloss to it.
Yeah, I've heard that simple qualification for writers, but to tell others that you are "a writer" seems to demand credentials.
ReplyDeleteI eavesdrop all the time. It's fun to imagine what's going on on the other side of a telephone too. :)
Maybe that's my beating heart. I don't really know what my heart is as a writer. But that's a recurring theme in my writing - my characters have to deal with big issues and sometimes it breaks them. And thanks, rhythm, determination, and gloss are all high compliments.
When you tell civilians you're a writer, they will always say, "Have you published anything?" If you think about it, that's a pretty rude and aggressive question, but people panic if they think the person they are talking to might actually have done something worthy of note that they couldn't do.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you have published something, they say, "Where is it? Is it in the stores?" Which really is doubling down on the rudeness. What they mean is: is it in some arty-farty magazine no one reads? Is it self-published? You're not so great!"
They have the character and souls of pygmies!