Writing something you can put your name to

Perusing through some short films on the PBS website I found this Mike Wallace interview with  Rod Serling from 1959, just after Serling wrote several terrific television programs during TV's 'Golden Age' and before launching "The Twilight Zone." What Serling has to say about writing a story, standing up for what you believe, appreciating good writing as art even if it is a television program is all as relevant now 53 years later as it was then.

The program lasts 21 minutes. It is time well spent.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2251283302

Quick Hits No. 2

A continuation of last week’s post:

Another topic in the conversations I had focusing on writing centered on how the essence of stories are lost in the verbiage the writer wants to use when stringing sentences together.  In other words, the writer knows what he or she wants to write, and the sentences come out beautifully, but the story is hard to find among the finely turned phrases. I think what happens is the writer knows what he or she wants to say but gets caught up "in the moment" of writing and the words get in the way.

 For example, find any recent college or high school graduation story, print or viral, and see if the story includes basic information: name and location of school,  the guest speaker, valedictorian, salutatorian, what was said, how many students graduated -- you name it. Is it a speech story? Depending on the guest speaker, maybe it is. But far too much time was spent trying to come up with different adjectives and adverbs to describe a run-of-the-mill graduation story without getting in the facts, takes far too much time to write, and for the editor, takes far too much to edit.

How does this apply to writing fiction? Ideas tend to grow from the inside out, like dropping a pebble in a pond, and watching the ripples grow larger and larger. But writing is rewriting. It’s like that unruly shrub that needs to be trimmed back. So get some sharp clippers and have it.

Writers love to stand in shade and drop pebbles into ponds. Who doesn’t? But the work of the writer is standing in the sun, hot and thirsty, clipping back the shrubs to make them look like something. It isn’t easy. In fact, a lot of times it just plain sucks. But in the end it’s worth it.

See you next week!

On Writing a Letter

The other day, after an especially good phone call with someone whose friendship defies time, the notion of writing a letter to this person proved irresistible. But I waited several days, mulling over the intent, what to write, the right tone, all the things absent in this world of emails and texts. Writing a letter requires time, thought, patience, and a good pen. I wimped out and grabbed a Bic and my trusty legal pad, but that's not the point. Good stationery is fine, but the letter is the thing. And after writing a good warmup letter to my parents -- my mother loves getting letters -- it was time. And it was written before I realized I was signing my name.

So into the mailbox it went.

I just learned of its reception, satisfying to the other party, which is the aim of a letter, isn't it? As with all things these days, a mention on a social website elicited comments such as "I remember letter in a mailbox, they still do that, huh?" and "saving the envelope and keeping the letter, we should all try it" and "Oh good June, they can put it right next to the dinosaur display (at the Smithsonian)... I can't wait to see."

I used to write lots of letters to lots of people all the time. Then came the 21st Century. I've decided that phenomenon isn't a good enough reason to stop writing letters.

But finding a stamp could prove problematic, given time.