[Originally written Tuesday 08 April, 2014]
It's past 9:00 in the morning, and even though my body is fighting a cold or virus, my brain has a moment to reflect. That is what writers do. Right? Well, they craft together stories, compose them in many ways, ultimately being read by audiences, small or great. It helps to sit down, to have some peace or quiet moments, or whatever is required for writers to do. I like to write; usually the things that I produce I would like to think have a significant or intrinsic value. Possibly intelligent, possibly profound. Adding to human knowledge. This is possible. Every person has their own perspective, and mine is but one more of millions. But the US Army teaches every soldier is a sensor. This is true. I am another sensor.
I an not sure that I am the most gifted when it comes to pure writing, observation, understanding, style, or a dozen other attributes that make some writers noble or noteworthy. But when it comes to interest, that could be where my forte lies. I am interested. About many things: so that is where I must draw up lines and discover where the stories must flow.
With me, certain sports are prime topics for writing. Perhaps these are low hanging fruits to scoop up and squeeze some juice from. Sports show us a lot, and perhaps at times, more of nothing. Like some wars. We analyze, we evaluate, we reflect, we question and pontificate, what it all means. Sports, wars, and other fields of study where there are multiple factors, such as economics, physics, international affairs, geographical sciences, etc. Perhaps all fields are similar in this way of complexity. Whatever the case, very often we learn what we know about subjects is that we do not know much.
Writing, for me, is a way to take stock of a few things that I do know, and recognize other unknowns. Identifying unknowns maybe where we fill in the knowledge gaps. Writing, documenting, fills in things. But how far to publish it? How much to share?
But some of those things are very personal, very private, very tender or even painful. And yet there is a huge market, and therefore perhaps human necessity for explicating these things. For some of us, anyway.
Perhaps such as in many, scientific fields, it adds up to nothing. But at least it's on paper. Documented. It exists in one fashion.
Writing down personal things about real people is tricky, especially those who are still alive. There are warts in our lives, and those things that are ugly or painful can affect the living, potentially in a painful way, which is not good. However, some of the discoveries and realizations that we make in this life are good to arrive at while we are living. Therefore, the trickiness of writing what we think of as the"truth" is at times a very relative proposition, when related to more personal people and matters. Then again, when we are writing about more distant subject-matter of a less personal nature, it is possible to have less of the truth based on the fact that we know less about the matter at hand, since there is less personal connection to it.
"Write about what you know."
Good luck with that!
If you know about false stories with elements of real life coherence, then write fiction!
Well, I should qualify that: write very interesting stories that are verisimilar to the truth. These stories still reach our psyches, whether based on real facts or not.
However, the more I discover the world, the more I am convinced that truth is stranger than fiction. Therefore, write the truth!
And the truth will make you free. And that does come with pain, and doses of remorse. Regret. Anguish. Uncomfortable realities. Which in the end, may not even be true.
So: was that worthwhile?
Blog on. EMC.
It's past 9:00 in the morning, and even though my body is fighting a cold or virus, my brain has a moment to reflect. That is what writers do. Right? Well, they craft together stories, compose them in many ways, ultimately being read by audiences, small or great. It helps to sit down, to have some peace or quiet moments, or whatever is required for writers to do. I like to write; usually the things that I produce I would like to think have a significant or intrinsic value. Possibly intelligent, possibly profound. Adding to human knowledge. This is possible. Every person has their own perspective, and mine is but one more of millions. But the US Army teaches every soldier is a sensor. This is true. I am another sensor.
I an not sure that I am the most gifted when it comes to pure writing, observation, understanding, style, or a dozen other attributes that make some writers noble or noteworthy. But when it comes to interest, that could be where my forte lies. I am interested. About many things: so that is where I must draw up lines and discover where the stories must flow.
With me, certain sports are prime topics for writing. Perhaps these are low hanging fruits to scoop up and squeeze some juice from. Sports show us a lot, and perhaps at times, more of nothing. Like some wars. We analyze, we evaluate, we reflect, we question and pontificate, what it all means. Sports, wars, and other fields of study where there are multiple factors, such as economics, physics, international affairs, geographical sciences, etc. Perhaps all fields are similar in this way of complexity. Whatever the case, very often we learn what we know about subjects is that we do not know much.
Writing, for me, is a way to take stock of a few things that I do know, and recognize other unknowns. Identifying unknowns maybe where we fill in the knowledge gaps. Writing, documenting, fills in things. But how far to publish it? How much to share?
But some of those things are very personal, very private, very tender or even painful. And yet there is a huge market, and therefore perhaps human necessity for explicating these things. For some of us, anyway.
Perhaps such as in many, scientific fields, it adds up to nothing. But at least it's on paper. Documented. It exists in one fashion.
Writing down personal things about real people is tricky, especially those who are still alive. There are warts in our lives, and those things that are ugly or painful can affect the living, potentially in a painful way, which is not good. However, some of the discoveries and realizations that we make in this life are good to arrive at while we are living. Therefore, the trickiness of writing what we think of as the"truth" is at times a very relative proposition, when related to more personal people and matters. Then again, when we are writing about more distant subject-matter of a less personal nature, it is possible to have less of the truth based on the fact that we know less about the matter at hand, since there is less personal connection to it.
"Write about what you know."
Good luck with that!
If you know about false stories with elements of real life coherence, then write fiction!
Well, I should qualify that: write very interesting stories that are verisimilar to the truth. These stories still reach our psyches, whether based on real facts or not.
However, the more I discover the world, the more I am convinced that truth is stranger than fiction. Therefore, write the truth!
And the truth will make you free. And that does come with pain, and doses of remorse. Regret. Anguish. Uncomfortable realities. Which in the end, may not even be true.
So: was that worthwhile?
Blog on. EMC.
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