In Today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Catalysts, and What’s Coming
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“No one cares if you write – So you’d better.” Anne Lamott
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” Anne Lamott
Thanks to Dave T for the quotes of the day.
Catalysts, and What’s Coming
This post and the next few were predicated by two emails from two writer friends: Dave and Andrew.
I received the first email a couple of weeks ago from Dave, and something he wrote in that email inadvertently slapped my nostalgia button. It was one of those unintentional but consequential twists of fate.
I’ve revisited Dave’s email several times, and I’m still not sure what he said that served as a catalyst, but in responding to him I wrote in part
“My feet have always been itchy with the wanderlust. When I was in the Corps, I was gone often enough to satisfy most of that, and after that pretty much everything has been writing or writing related.”
Spontaneous thought is most often the truth, warts and all. It’s an understatement to say that the italicized last half of the second sentence in the preceding paragraph was a bit of a personal epiphany for me.
Even though I’ve occasionally joked that I must’ve been dipped in the Language River at birth, I’d never realized before that “pretty much everything” in my life has been writing or writing related.
Even seventy-three years in, I’d never thought of my life in that way. So I decided to test the veracity of that notion (and maybe my own veracity as a writing instructor) by going back to the beginning.
From there, I mentally searched for writing or writing-related stuff that I’ve actually done. I didn’t have to dig much at all, and the result was a ‘flash autobiography’ that might serve a dual purpose:
- It might inform curious TNDJ readers a little more about why I feel competent to hold forth on all this writing stuff, and
- it might serve as the skeleton for an actual autobiography, albeit mostly for any interested relatives.
You know, kind of a lifelong memoir. Well, IF I decide to flesh it out and actually write it. I’ve already written some autobiographical fiction, especially in Confessions of a Professional Psychopath and the Maldito series of magic realism stories.
I’d intended to use the little flash autobiography (about 1400 words) as a post here. Then I thought Wait a minute, you moron. Nobody wants’a read all that crap.
Yup, that’s critical voice, but in this case it had at least some foundation in reality. TNDJ readers ostensibly come here to learn about writing, not to listen to me blather on about my past. So I set it aside.
Then I received a second email a couple of days ago.
In that one, Andrew talked about my nonfiction writing, specifically in Writing Realistic Dialogue and Flash Fiction and this blog.
He mentioned that “the simplicity of explanation was great to read.” He also said he’s mostly writing essays and articles now and that he actually studies my nonfiction as he strives to improve his own.
Hey, that’s a couple of pretty big compliments. (Thanks, Andrew.) In passing, he even compared my nonfiction favorably with Kurt Vonnegut’s nonfiction. That’s a huge compliment.
Then he wrote, “I really enjoy your nonfiction writing style. It is clear, humorous, and it has great advice.” Finally, he asked for advice on writing “short, pithy, quality articles.”
Now then, I’m not repeating all of that to beat my own drum. I’m repeating it because I believe things happen for a reason and there are no coincidences.
So whereas the first email spurred me to explore my own history and write a flash autobiography, the second email convinced me to write this post, and to go ahead and publish that flash autobiography here in TNDJ.
Who knows, maybe somebody will get some use from it. Or maybe publishing it here will only lend a little extra credence to what I’ve published here before and will publish here in the future about various writing topics.
So up next, I’ll lay the groundwork for why I feel qualified (and even compelled) to dole out writing advice with “A Flash Autobiography.”
Then, having laid that groundwork, in other posts I’ll give you my thoughts on writing “short, pithy, quality articles” and/or teaching nonfiction topics live—the advice is roughly the same for both—and then a bit on submitting manuscripts to magazine publishers.
So as not to overwhelm anyone, although I’ll post those back to back, I’ll try to leave a ‘blank’ day between posts.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
The Reluctant Spammer’s Field Guide Not vetted.