New Notes from the Hilltop: Breaking the Rules

New Notes from the Hilltop: Breaking the Rules:             Have you ever taken a writing class? I can remember several books and the odd lecture on how to write a “compellin...

Breaking the Rules

            Have you ever taken a writing class? I can remember several books and the odd lecture on how to write a “compelling,” “suspenseful,” “true to life” story. You’re enjoined to begin in the middle, just as the real conflict is about to begin, to be sure there are clear protagonist and antagonist. You must create the physical setting to make the reader feel and see what the characters do. Even if you never thought of writing yourself, I’ll bet a good deal you’ve heard the Number One Rule of fiction writing:  Show, don’t tell.

            I recently reread a Hemingway short story. (Yes, I mean Ernest.) The title is “The Old Soldier.” To my amusement and amazement, as I got to the halfway point (in terms of number of pages), I realized that every one of those standard commands had been ignored.

            There was a fair amount of backstory-—all narrated, and not by the main character, but by the author. Minimal setting; we knew it had to be a small town in America’s heartland, but that was implied, not described. If there’s conflict, it’s between the “old” (he’s obviously very young in years) soldier’s damaged, pathetic persona and the reality of the peace he has come home to.

            As it happens, this is the kind of story I like best: a searching look into the depths of someone’s mind and emotions. Now I have a sense that if Hemingway can get away with it, I should be able to as well. [Don’t say it! Of course I can’t say it as well, but at least it’s legitimate to try.]

Just when you think...

Just when you think... you've got that figured out, when you think there'll be a lull, when you think the perfect solution has finally revealed itself...reality makes a fool of you again. Oh, I don't mean it's always earth-shaking, just confoundedly annoying.



Sometimes, however, it's neither. Our state until a very few years ago didn't have single osteopathic physician listed online. Recently (within a year or so) one joined the practice I use for primary care. One day this week, I went to him about resistant pain. He prescribed and administered a steroid shot in the hip that hurt. For over six months, I haven't put weight on that leg, let alone walking or climbing, without pretty bad pain. It's gone! Just as I was prepared to bow to my age and infirmity, I'm walking as well as I did ten years ago--minus the strength that now I can imagine regaining.

Just when I was thinking... that I had some really free days coming up that would let me try to concentrate on writing some new poems, I was asked to do an interview for Mountain Views, our newsletter. Without going into detail, this is of interest not just for me, so I accepted the assignment. Then I read several of the proposed questions to be answered (thank goodness someone besides me thought them up!) and I realize I have a real task on my hands. I guess it could be touched lightly and satisfy the request, but now I see how involved it could be, and now I want to make it what the media like to call "in depth." So just when I thought I wasn't going to have to try anything really difficult...

If there's a lesson here, there must be more than one: things change when you don't expect them to (check); things look up when you don't expect them to (check); but maybe most of all, you better not decide to say "never" unless you really mean it. You can go on with that thought quite a long way...

More Moaning for the Muse

They say that to get readers for a blog, the author has to offer something. The agents who drop hints about how to approach them, what not to put in a query letter, the salesmen pitching consumer merchandise, the teacher expounding--all these offer something. It seems to me, though, that some of the most intriguing blogs are those that supply some kind of insight either into the authors, or the work of other writers.

My old blog said it was about writing and aging, and this is too. Since it's supposed to put me in some tiny way on some huge map, I'm willing to give it a try, but the reason is that I want some readers. The old blog provided some, of course (not many), but they read the blog. I wanted them to read my books and the essays and reviews and poems published online.

On a bad day (of which there are a great many, since I read a lot ) I wonder why I should spend any effort on my own stuff. I've just read a novel, an essay, a poem that puts my best efforts in a shadow so deep, even by groveling figuratively,  I know I'll never be able to be seen. You have to ask yourself how those authors managed with such apparent ease to put something so perfectly in precisely the way you've been struggling to do for the past five or ten years. In my case, for a good many more than that!

Still, I can't make myself feel satisfied with the thought that some day my children will run across all those pages.
I've given them copies of my books, and only by asking have I ever elicited a comment from any of them. It was acceptably non-committal--something to the effect of, "I enjoyed it," or more likely, "I haven't read it yet." Hence the drive to find someone who will. As time marches on, I'm becoming cynically convinced that if you don't have pull in the right places, there's no way to get into print with a traditional house or even a small press. That leaves the alternative of self-publishing, and there we are, back again to that demon dollar.

If I put a short poem on this blog, it will be considered published, and therefore be automatically disqualified for publication in 99% of places I might find to offer it to. So, I guess I'll just plug along like this, trying to think of something, anything that might catch the eye of someone looking for manuscripts. Unfortunately, half the places I check out are overloaded and not accepting anything new for the time being.

C'est la vie.

 NEW NOTES from the HILLTOP

 

 Will the Lion Lie Down with the Lamb?

I live in a retirement community with a monthly newsletter. This month, the editor is seeking opinion pieces "about something - anything non-controversial." (Underline is his.)

A friend perused the list of possible topics and frowned. "There’s nothing non-controversial on this list," she said.

  

Here’s the list:  "Your opinion

                        about (town’s name’s) weather,

                        about the anticipated demise of newspapers,

                        about computers,

                        about seniors having pets,

                        about the impact of television on society,

                        or any subject about which you are passionate."

Initially I thought the first item was probably safe, but my friend pointed out the opening for discussions of global warming. I confess that this friend is a specialist at detecting opportunities for argument, but still... The last three defy any excuse I can imagine to say they're free of controversy.

As it happens, our community forbids pets in apartments. Some people agree ferociously with this policy, and others think it cruel and unnecessary, and point out statistics to prove increased longevity for the humans, and repeatedly refer to how they miss their pets. Non-controversial?

How many Luddites and how many geeks are among your friends and relatives? You can almost see neon lights around the word COMPUTER. Very few people are on the fence; most either love and depend on computers or hate and mistrust them.

Impact of television? Where’s the foregone conclusion there? From polluting public morals to assisting with early reading and informing the public, the arguments would take up volumes.

Finally, the very descriptive adjective "passionate" almost guarantees conflict. How passionate is the human animal about something (if there is anything) about which everyone agrees? Unanimity almost guarantees lack of passion.

Writing what my English teacher used to call “personal” essays is something I do often, not just on this blog. Except for the weather, in every one of these I see a subject for, if not a rant, at least a statement, complete with all kinds of qualifiers on varying sides of each of these non-controversial topics. I can’t wait to see what turns up in the newsletter’s In box!

                         

                         

When at first...

I  know four months have passed, but not how many attempts I've made to regain access to my old blog as its author, but Google finally beat me. Just because I changed my e-mail! Everything was fine until then, or seemed to be.

Because I've had some more poetry published, and some more articles on Senior Women Web, and because I'm trying to follow the advice of the pros, I gave in, struggled to find another title, and an acceptable address (what a job that is!) so I could begin to make a remark once in a while.

This post (if it works) will be by way of a test--a sort of cyber "testing, 1, 2, 3" to find out if there will be any point.