Write in the Moment and Connect it to a Bigger Story →
What does saying you are “writing in the moment” mean? Sometimes, it means that what you are writing about is something you can observe happening around you at the very moment you are writing. This makes it easier to capture details like a slow-motion camera’s input gives focus, and the writing is true to life and a reflection of the “here and now.”
In addition to your particular moment, a moment in time for the characters in the plot can be captured.
“In good writing, words become one with things.”
What is happening around you right now involves many things, and a choice as to what to include and not include has to be made. Some events stand out in the moment, and you can sense them, almost breathing them in, and then using the reasons to direct your thoughts at the details, you capture what the moment can be about.
A life story can be a series of chosen references to past moments. As you tell or write the story, you choose the particular moments and interpret them differently than when they happened. Seldom do you hear a person tell their own life story the same way each time they tell it unless they are reading it because, in a different moment, more experiences filter the memories and conclusions?
The conclusions we draw from past events and in those cases where those events strongly influence our self-image, then re-looking at events can change parts or all of our self-image and lead to reinventing our self-image. You can write at the moment when the subject of your story is happening, or you can reach back for specific moments, but those moments change each time you reach back for them.
Fiction brings the reader experiences that they would have never expected to have. Instead, we step into a new reality (both the reader and author can feel they are there in the moment) where all our beliefs can be set aside, and we meet new people who can inspire or terrify us.
Will these fictional characters and experiences influence your self-identity? I think they will. Do they play a role in the narrative of how you see your life story? Again, they do. Does fiction have any redeeming value? Will its influence raise or lower our intelligence? There is plenty of evidence that it increases it.
You can talk to them about various subjects and new ideas, and different perspectives can be found. It sounds like opening a book of fiction.
The first time I read William Faulkner’s fictional story, As I Lay Dying, it took me by surprise. I expected to enter a unique storyline and learn about the people in Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, during the 1920s. Yet the conversation's language, tone, and sound were a surprise. How the characters interacted and spoke to each other differed from anything I expected, and I knew I was in a different place seeing life differently.
Einstein suggested, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Neil Gaiman is a writer of fantasy and fiction, and in his book The View from the Cheap Seats, he wrote about attending a meeting for fiction writers in China. In previous years, China didn’t allow fairy tales and fiction in their schools, so he was surprised to learn of this invitation. He asked an official what had changed and was told, off the record, that they had toured all the big companies they did outsourcing work for in the United States and asked those they met what they read. The resounding answer was science fiction. The officials then began to understand the connection of invention with creativity. (I guess it took a random event for them to figure this out.)
There are good and bad guys in fiction, fairy tales, and horror stories. For some, the “Force” in Star Wars might represent the goodness in the universe, but what about that goodness? Will it reaffirm our beliefs while seeing our beliefs as an element of a fictional plot; does it make the fiction more believable? The bigger question is, can we really step out of our world, or are we just going always to view things through the lens of our experience?
Good Writing Doesn't Just Happen: Don't just file it in a notebook →
If you consider yourself a good writer or just a writer wannabe, you probably have a place to save your good ideas of started but not finished work. Notebooks serve this purpose, or perhaps folders and files on your computer.
Stephen King says good ideas don't have to go in a notebook. You can use your good ideas to get started, but if that doesn't lead you to where those good ideas can help, just put them away and revisit them later. The good stuff will stay with you.
This seems like good advice, but we still face the question of what to do if the good ideas don’t lead somewhere; where do you store them? My vote is still for a notebook.
King’s advice fits well with his other writing advice about ensuring the good stuff makes it to publication. He said that even as an established writer, he depends on a good editor and listens closely to them so he won’t hang himself in times square, figuratively. He also added it was Hemmingway that said you have to be ready to kill your darlings. He said he is cautious and tries to limit it to a few of them. Good writing advice is great to read.
Writing a book requires several steps and the one that can be the hardest is the last one
With the recent release of my book, “Work Matters Insights and Strategies for Job Seekers in this Rapidly Changing Economy,” I have reflected on the most challenging part of writing and selling a book. I have listed items that qualify for this list.
Step one is pulling your thoughts and notes together. Most will find this a time-consuming step. A recent book I wrote at the time of this post was “Work Matters, Insights and Strategies for Job Seekers in this Rapidly Changing Economy,” This first step took over a year.
Editing, formatting, finding the right cover design, and production are challenging. Using KDP to produce the books requires learning their system. This is challenging.
Learning how to set up a book on Amazon so it has a chance of selling is very challenging, and it will take a long time and trial and error to figure this out.
Getting book reviews placed on Amazon is a very challenging process. People read the book and tell you they like it but don’t write a review.
Marketing the book, including all efforts to get people to buy the book, is the most important, and it isn’t easy. You can help by purchasing the book and writing a review if you have read this overview.
A conclusion from this Overview
The work required to market a book can far exceed all the other items listed in this overview.
Do Authors reflect their way of thinking and reading to their own readers? →
Do authors reflect their way of thinking and reading? It seems apparent that they would, and for that matter, that anyone would, but is a person who calls himself an author any different?
It becomes more apparent how much influence a person’s reading can create when we learn about their reading habits and books. I can see the results from my reading and past writing and the changes that have taken place in my writing. For example, I have often been asked if I have read all of the books in our house, which is about 2000, or if I have read all of those on the shelves in the library room, which is about 1500. I may have read nearly 1000 of them and some of them several times.
The alphabetical listing of books reviewed on this blog, “Brent M.. Jones - Connected Events Matter”, is around 400. I have tried not to include political books, books on religion, and many that I had read before 1998 on this site. I thought it best not to list books that might label me too close.
So yes, I have read many books, but compared to many people, maybe not so many. Stephen King said in an article that he had about 17,000 books in his library, and I’d bet he has read many of them.
My frequency of reading each year went up in 1998 when a friend told me the best book he had read was Louis L’Amour's "Education of a Wandering Man.” Before that, I had never read any of L’Amour’s books and had looked down on Western novels.
I read that book and was surprised at how much I learned from it. It was his autobiography and told of his travels as a young man and all the books he had read during that time. Wow! He read the most profound texts, and it just really surprised me. It inspired me. From that day forward, I kept closer tabs on what I was reading and started a list. Since then, I have read and liked some of Lamour’s Western novels.
When I consider the authors I admire, I can only guess what is in their libraries and how and why their reading habits have changed.
Einstein said that if you want your kids to be smart when they grow up, read them fairy tales. Pondering that opened another door in reading for me. I had yet to read a lot of fantasy or fiction.
I have to admit I now love reading Stephen King. He scares me at times, but I keep going back. With all of the fiction he has written, it is a little surprising that his book, "On Writing," is one of the best I have read on that subject. This book changed the way I saw his books. The writing skill of this author jumps out at you in all his books.
Can I remember what is in all of the books in that section? No, but I find that they come back just looking at them, and thinking about one, brings several others back.
Some authors are so familiar that they become labels for us. For example: Darwinian, Shakespearean, or Orwellian imply things that most understand. Harold Bloom is a literary critic that knows all the older authors very well and likely could indicate labels of influence for them all. My goal is to be able to do the same and, in that way, have them come alive and even talk to me.
C.S. Lewis said, “The good of literature is that we want to become more than ourselves; we want to see with others’ eyes, to imagine with others’ imaginations, to feel with others’ hearts, as well as our own.”
He also said we become a thousand men and yet remain ourselves. When it happens, you will feel renewed and reinvented.
What does seem clear is that reading opens our eyes, and we see ourselves and others more clearly.