Sage Words From the Swami

This post was originally an attempt at changing the color of the title. It works on SOF- The People and A Voice in the Wind, but not here. Pity.

Anyway, I changed Tuesday's scheduled topic from "What's the Point of This" to "Profound Thoughts". Then, in trying to write my first profound post, I realized I was not only being vain, but foolish. I haven't anything profound to say! So I changed it to "Thoughts About Writing". Which is really lame considering that's what I posted about yesterday. I am so imaginative.

Writing is an interesting art form. And it is an art form. The ability to put words together to convey a thought is not an exact science. Give thirty students in a classroom an assignment to write about what it feels like to be lonely, happy, excited or whatever, and you will get thirty completely different results - all fulfilling the requirements.

I expect I am at odds with most people regarding my feelings on good writing. That doesn't bother me. I don't need approval to have an opinion, although I often need approval to express that opinion. Today I'm not feeling especially inhibited, so I'll tell you what I think without approval.

First, and I believe this most strongly, good writing is in the heart of the Reader. Like works of art, it is only good if the Reader likes it.

There is a picture I purchased when I was nineteen. I spent my entire paycheck to get it. (That sounds impressive, but I was earning $1.25 an hour and working 30 hours per week.) It is a picture of a girl in a frilly dress. She is turned away so her face is barely a profile. The time period could be late eighteen hundreds or early nineteen. I saw it at a department store and it captivated me. After standing and looking at it for several minutes I sighed at the price and started to leave. At that moment a woman showed up with her daughter. They picked the picture up and began examining it. I was horrified to find out their interest was not in the picture, but in the frame! Their plan was to toss the picture and use the frame for a piece of cr*p one of them had painted themself. I hung around until they left - to think about it before deciding. No sooner were they gone than I picked up the picture and bought it. (I guess you could say it was my "pearl of great price".) More than thirty years later I still have it. I just went and brought it up from my old office and put it behind my monitor where I can see it. I wonder why I never wrote a story about her. Hmm.

My point is, the picture means a lot to me, but meant nothing to the woman and her daughter. So, is it a good picture? It depends on who you're asking.

I believe it's the same with writing. More than once I have tried to read books which are acclaimed as "great". They s*ck! I've got more out of reading comic books. But most people think they are wonderfully written and great stories. I guess they are. To them. Personally, I've discovered the more a work is acclaimed by the masses, the less likely I am to be impressed. There are exceptions to that rule. Lots of them, actually.

Another quality of good writing - in my opinion - is the Author's ability to cause the Reader to care about someone/something they otherwise couldn't give a damn about. To represent something foreign as familiar is not easy. Not if one is going to be believable in the process.

Recently, I participated in an on-line discussion of the book, The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron. It's a quick and easy read of just over one hundred pages. I got a copy because it was on sale and some of the proceeds supported my son's jazz band. I read it not expecting to get much, if anything, out of it. However, by the story's climax I found myself very concerned about Lucky and the people around her. I didn't agree with everything Ms. Patron wrote, and wondered at the plausibility a couple of times. But what she did do was make me care about people and conditions I had hitherto not considered. That's good writing. To me, anyway.

It's the kind of writing I want to do. My characters: I want people to care about them. Sometimes I read what I have written (I am both an Author and a Reader of my work) and I don't care. Then I know it's time to rewrite. Sometimes I care, but no one else does. That's another cue for a rewrite. Sometimes, my Reader/s care. Then I know I've written something special.

Wish I could do that all the time.

Sigh.