Z is for Zephyr in the A to Z of revising

Sometimes we must let the cool breeze of a Zephyr wind blow over us  - we need to be refreshed in our Zealous journey to create a novel, we need to put aside our Zest for the word, Zip our mouths and understand that there is Zilch that we need to do. We need  to steal some much needed ZZZZZs - stand back from our manuscript and with a cool Zinger, tell ourselves that there is no need for us to become Zowerswopped!*  

* grumpy or ill-natured, from old English.

Y is for Yoked to the Story in the A to Z of revising

Yoked to the story - when we hear the word yoked, we usually hear it as a bad thing. It is to be enslaved, to be bound tight with a force you do not want. But sometimes we pick up the yoke and put its harness on our own shoulders. If I want to turn the mill to grind the flour and my poor mule has died, well then, I may freely choose to put the yoke's harness upon myself and do the work.

Sometimes, during the arduous process of revising, I want someone else to wear the yoke - but it is mine and it is best if I fully acknowledge that. No one needs my story - there are plenty of them out there - it was my choice to begin this venture and if I want others to be able to read this story (and I do) then I must yoke myself to it until it is finished. In this case, I surrender to its needs, not my own. How to make this story live? Not by abandoning it before it breathes.

X marks the spot in the A to Z of revising

X marks the spot and it is marked on the chair in front of your desk, and it is where your bum goes. Do not wait for the muse. Mark an x on your chair and sit down. If you sit there every day - your revision will get done, if only through pure boredom. Make it so!


Here is my 2016 version of X in revising:

X is for using your x-ray vision

Oh! Remember Superman and how he wouldn't use his x-ray vision for most of the things we would? Well now I want you to use yours. I know you have it  -  at least with your own manuscripts. I want you to remember to look below your words. Our words are like a skin on the body of the work. Like our own skin - our outer organ - it is often mistaken for the whole thing.

What? If my novel isn't words what is it?

It is what the words are protecting and transporting. And that my friend is emotion, insight, and intention. It has to be there or your words won't ring authentic. If we write at all we write to move others - to get them to understand what we understand, to feel what we feel, to see what we see.

When we think of our loved ones, our babies, our lovers, our friends, our family - do we think 'my oh my they have such lovely exteriors that I don't care if they are empty inside!' ? No - or not at least when we are over 14 years old (or reluctant adults holding on to a view of the world that isn't of interest to most of us).

If I feel my interest starting to flag, my eyes drooping, when I'm reading or listening to someone tell a story, I know there is a lie in there. It has ceased to be authentic. That is my x-ray vision at work. If I'm with a client (I'm a psychotherapist) I will jerk myself awake and say to the client 'hey what are you telling me? Something isn't right."  Nine times out of ten I am right. We locate the truth (usually hidden behind fear) and get it out. You must use your x-ray vision on your manuscript. When you feel bored or duped - stop and fix or at least mark it for a later fix (but if not now- when?)

So fire up your super powers of observation and x-ray your ms.  Here is Bella for no reason!

Q is for quixotic in the A to Z of revising

QUIXOTIC is such a delightful word. Here is one dictionary definition -

quixotic (adj.)

"extravagantly chivalrous," 1791, from Don Quixote, romantic, impractical hero of Cervantes' satirical novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (1605; English translation by 1620). Don Quixote as the type of anyone attempting the impossible or holding impossible ideals is in English from 1670s. His name literally means "thigh," also "a cuisse" (a piece of armor for the thigh), in Modern Spanish quijote, from Latin coxa "hip" (see coxa). Related: Quixotical; quixotically.

and here's the Cambridge one -  having or showing ideas that are different and unusual but not practical or likely to succeed.

The definition of quixotic is romantic behavior or following beliefs even though they are foolish or unreachable goals.

Well, you get the idea.

And why should a writer be quixotic in her revision? Because the whole notion of writing a novel is inherently quixotic. Give in to it, I say. Also - Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes is considered the first modern novel. If trying to tell a story within the form of a novel isn't attempting the impossible, I don't know what is. Yet, we do it, and succeed from time to time. What if we didn't give darn foolish things a chance? Where would this world be? 

Revision is hard work and in the midst of it many feel like chucking the whole venture. If I accept from the beginning that I am tilting against windmills, well then my energy won't flag. Instead, I'll think to myself, they say it can't be done, but I'm going to prove them wrong.

O is for open in the A to Z of revising

Open for anything...

This is a great way to think right now, in this time of world pandemic. We all need to keep ourselves open to whatever might happen. And that needs to be the same when revising. I need  to stay open for surprises, obstacles that need another approach, the story not unfolding how I want it to. I know this is true when I'm in the white-hot heat of creating the first draft - but it also needs to be true now. When I get scared and think that I have to revise this manuscript to fit some solid notion of how a "good" story goes, I lose my nerve, and I lose the ability to swerve and dance and play with what is before me.  Yesterday I lost my nerve for a bit. I went into the wonderful resource The Writer's Knowledge Base and looked up plot structure. I found a great article by Jami Gold  that has Elizabeth Davis' spread sheet on  the 'Save the Cat Beat Sheets Spread Sheets for Novelists' . I plunked in my info - mainly word count and page numbers and let it tell me when things 'should' happen. Things like 'All is Lost' should happen on page #'s xxx to xxy. I usually don't do that, because I mostly trust my intuition. And if I was way off would I want to know? But I was freaked out. Would I have to undo the whole thing? Start over? Deep-six the thing?
Well, guess what? I don't need to do any of this - because my intuition is still working. My beats are hitting pretty much when they are supposed to and I can use the spreadsheet to fine tune what I've got and help me sail into the ending I want for my story. Whew! If I hadn't been open to trying something different I would really have been churning in the mud of despair.

Now, excuse me, but I've got work to do!

N is for Navigating Your Course in the A to Z of revising

Navigating Your Course

What do I mean by navigating your course? Well, not sure about you, but because I'm a pantser my first draft is all over the place. I have characters who need to find a job or get lost; plot bits that are like symbols in a dream (I know there is a reason they came out of my head but what?); and a structure that needs real shoring up. To do so I must constantly be checking where it is I want to get to in this revision. I need to keep checking my co-ordinates to make sure I'm on course to have a draft that tells the whole story and in the right order. I do that in a number of ways - I keep checking my beat sheet to see that I'm paying attention to changes that I marked or questions that I had in various scenes. I check my back story - the one that I wrote after the first draft about what has been happening behind the scenes. I check my character studies to make sure I'm being true to their desires, thwarts and discoveries. And lastly, I write a synopsis. Yep, I do my synopsis late in the game - but the simple telling of the story really helps me make sure I'm sailing in the right direction. That's what I'm doing today. I'm stalled again near the end of my first draft - because the ending isn't right. I thought of writing my ending now and then going back to weave it in, but my intuition is that I'll be forcing something - so instead I'm going to try the synopsis approach. I'm so close - and I have thirty days of revising left - so really want this part done - the ending I mean - so I can go back and attend to a myriad of details both macro and micro. 

A Side Note about writing in the time of the plague 
As I said yesterday, I am struggling to stay focused. I want to watch the Great Canadian Baking Show and play a zillion games of solitaire (not online - haven't fallen into that hole yet). I'm trying to be both strict and kind with my self, but it is a tricky dance. This A to Z helps even if I only usually have one reader! (hi dear Margot!)  I was going to stop it because I realize that although I've signed up for it several times, I'm not on Lee's list (Lee is Arlee Bird who created the A to Z challenge over at Tossing It Out . Not sure what the hitch is, but I decided I would carry on anyway. The day to day checking in with my own revising process is working out well. Walking helps and I'm so glad we live in the country where I get to see deer and rabbits almost every day. But today it is raining and even the dog doesn't seem that interested. I will go forward with all my projects, the revision being the main one, but it feels like I'm walking through mud most days.

M is for macro and micro views in the A to Z of revising

Macro- view  Micro-view

What are these editing processes, you may ask. One of my most relied upon books during the revision process is Susan Bell's The Artful Edit. She talks about the process under two broad topics - macro and micro views. Macro is the big picture and micro is the details. Another way to think about it is when a scene is considered from the balcony (macro) or the floor (micro).  It would be great to say that you go through one process (macro) first and then follow it up with a close micro look. But that ain't how most folks do it. We go back and forth between the two - sometimes to our own peril, but nonetheless. 

The macro-view involves looking at intention, character, structure, foreshadowing, theme and continuity of tone.  

The micro-view involves language, repetition, redundancy, clarity, authenticity, continuity, show and tell, beginnings, endings,transitions. Whew! Just reading that made my head swim. 

I'm putting most of my attention right now on macro type things - mainly the structure and intention. I, of course, can't help but look at the language while I do so and try to clear up repetitions and produce a clarity with how I say things. Sometimes I think of this like building a house (my fella is a house builder, so it comes naturally). There is no point in decorating walls that might not be in the building once it is done. Sometimes I can't help it - I might not know that something in the plot doesn't serve my story until I've tinkered about with it - moving a scene here and there, strengthening the language, layering in the themes - but at some point I will realize that the pig won't fly, no matter what sort of tutu I force it into, and I'll let it go. 


Pandemic journal: I cannot just pretend  this is another April and share these ideas of mine and others as if everything is just ticking along. So...hello in there, whatever in you happen to be in. I'm having a tough time focusing on my revision - these little posts are actually quite helpful in reminding me of what I want to get done - all the same, it is rough sledding. I hope whatever you and yours are up to that you remember what is important on the planet now and forevermore. For me it is my spiritual practice, the love I feel for everyone, and my creative life. Falling into despair will not help others and it sure won't help me - so I keep on truckin' with a few more breaks than I'd normally give myself. 

Be well good people!

J is for journaling in the A to Z of revising

ournaling

I have been attempting (not always successfully) to journal during this revision process. It seems odd to use free writing as a tool in such a left-brain exercise, but it truly helps when I get stuck. It isn't for anyone but me, and I rarely look back at it. At the beginning of this revision I tried journaling every day. That was good for a bit, then I stopped for some reason I cannot remember. I probably just forgot and then going back to remember what it was that had happened became a rather wasteful exercise. But, I'm still journaling - only more organically. How does it help? It is like a conversation with a really good friend, who understands the whole project so far, and is (fairly) non-judgmental. Like all free writing, it allows thoughts to push to the surface that I've ignored for some reason. There are no stupid ideas in journaling - so the cascade of thoughts can pour out - like a waterfall that hasn't been dammed. Sometimes that torrent releases the blocks that have been stopping me - blocks usually comprised of fear.  Because no one will see this but me, I allow myself to penetrate those fears without censure. Once released on the page they lose their ability to stop my work. 

I is for irrational in the A to Z of revising

rrational

Irrational? Yep. It is without a doubt a completely irrational move to attempt a novel at all, let alone taking an unwieldy mess and trying to revise it. One must be mad to attempt something so crazy. And yet millions do, and boy, as a reader am I glad they do. So when I get feeling like tossing the whole thing in the bin, I say to myself - let's just do this - it is crazy - a long-shot, a bad bet, clearly a waste of time - but hey - let's do it anyway. Irrational? You betcha!

G is for gratitude in the A to Z of revising

rateful

At this point in my revision I definitely need to employ my sense of gratefulness.  For whom or what am I most grateful? Well, to my partner who knows if I drift off in the middle of a conversation, it is because the fairies have stolen me. No, it's because I'm considering my manuscript and wondering if I just...  And I'm grateful to my pals who must be sick of hearing about my writing but still ask how it's going. I'm grateful to my writing pal of over twenty years, Gwen, who will listen to me go on and on - as I will her. And I'm grateful to my online pals, who know what this is like and support me with good cheer again and again. Big shout out to Margot who is simply the best!!!

I'm also grateful to all the writers who have written so many words about the process I'm undergoing - who have written about beat cheats and dialogue and character development and how to do micro-edits and how to do macro-edits and where to turn to for help if I get into a swamp and the crocodiles are coming. I'm grateful for their generosity at sharing their craft and their word of encouragement and truth. I have a deep appreciation for Anne Lamott, Mary Karr, Susan Bell, Elizabeth George, James Scott Bell, Stephen King, Renni Browne, Dave King, Stephen Koch, Joseph Sestito, Ursula K. Le Guin, Strunk and White, Natalie Goldberg, John Gardner, and Victoria Nelson.

I'm grateful to my Buddhist teachers, who, even in this time of terrible turmoil, remind me to stay kind, and to ignore the demands of my poor little ego - who wants to rush ahead for glory instead of staying the course because I have a story to tell. 

And I'm grateful to be in a good home, with a loving partner, my mind and body still functioning, and able to plug along.

E is for endurance

ndurance

Endurance you say! Yes, revising is an endurance sport. Like long-distance running or lake swimming (as in swimming across a lake - a wonderful sport beyond my ken at this point). Once begun, one must endure, even if you feel your energy lagging. It helps massively to have a deadline, even if self-imposed and without any threat to health or property. I have one, this time around, as I've engaged an editor to help me get this ms in ship-shape for selling. I will have had roughly seventy days to get this from first draft and details (beat sheets, character analysis, and back story)  to 2nd draft. I have about forty days to go. Eep. At that point I will send it off to the editor and she will go through it with a comprehensive edit. Then back to me for changes, and I have a few worthy types who will give it a copy edit. Then, hopefully, out! During these few months of the revision, I have to keep plugging, day by day, making sure I'm not spinning my wheels in the mud of weird plot points, and moving towards that finish line. 

I did the Dublin marathon when I was fifty - walking, but it is just as long. the main struggle is with your mind. My body can walk that long, but my mind tries to convince me it can't. Working on a novel altogether is an endurance sport. I can write a poem in a couple of days - maybe revise it a few times and done. Even a full-length play can be done fairly quickly. A short-story takes awhile, but truly - no comparison. With this novel I got 80 thousand words done in two months. But it has been simply years of frigging around since then. Now I can see the finish line and I must keep my pace steady - work in my splits - I know near the end I'll have more energy, not less, so might get more done. I've figured it out intuitively so far - that I will slowly build up to working longer each day, and give myself time to fall, get stuck on a plot point, etc... by building in more time than I need. Endurance is a mental game - not panicking and working too hard and burning out, but developing a pace that suits my temperament, age and desire!  

Here is a photo of the Dublin 2002 race. I'm in there somewhere. I'm wearing green if that helps!

R is for Radical

R is for Radical

And what might radical mean? The American Heritage says -

Radical 

 adjective 

1.of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference.
2. thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms:a radical change in the policy of a company.

3.favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms: radical ideas; radical and anarchistic ideologues.
4.forming a basis or foundation.
5.existing inherently in a thing or person: radical defects of character.

noun

6. a person who holds or follows strong convictions or extreme principles; extremist.
7.a person who advocates fundamental political, economic, and social reforms by direct and often uncompromising methods.

I like the connection between radical and root. To be truly radical one must go to the root. Surface radical changes are not truly radical - they are just optics. 

How does this pertain to my quest for balance? Being a radical or making radical changes doesn't seem so balanced you might think. I believe differently. I must go to the root of the question here - my life is more than my art or from a radical point of view - it is all art. Everything I do whether it is rock a baby, make a meal, or write a poem. All art.  I don't believe I am #6 above but I do believe I am #7. My art and my life must support this. If I am not advocating for social reforms I am not existing. This world is in the dark ages - we are living in a sea of materialistic muck - we have forgotten the wild, the wonderful world of nature, the rhythms of the seasons and the fundamental, radical roots of existence - of understanding the interdependence of it all. 

So wear your radical flag proudly. Form a basis or foundation of difference - it is part of your inherent nature.

Refelections on the A to Zed Challenge

Arlee and his wonderful troupe of assistants asked those of us who participated in the A to Z challenge to give some reflection back and I'm a good doobie so here goes:

It was a positive experience for me. As long time readers will know, I like the carrot and stick approach to discipline and this was that. I said I'd do it and even if no one gave a care or even noticed - I'd darn well do it. Once I figured on a theme I was good to go. My theme was the abcedaria of a writer and it made life fairly easy for me. I thought of other themes but the reason I have this blog is that I want to explore my writing life so I thought I would just stay with that. Within those parameters the sky was the limit. I wrote on such divergent ideas as discipline, knitting, lamé and quiddity.

Getting around was a tough one. I had a lot going on in April - I went to the other coast for a visit and also had a more local trip going on. I know, I know, everyone had their thingy. I did manage to meet lots of lovely bloggers but I didn't manage to keep up my energy in order to visit the amount of them I wanted. But that was OK too. Sure, part of the exercise was to increase followers and get more people reading your blog BUT I'm not all together both of those things are the same. Let me explain.

I think, even in this virtual world, friends are not someone who says I'll sign on to be your friend. Friends actually friend (yes as a verb). For instance, when I was distraught about a rejection, I emailed the Tartlette (Confessions of a Watery Tart) so I could moan without censure. I know I can do that with her nakedness because she and I are actually friends, although we've never met. I know her mind and she knows mind. I'd let her take care of my grandchildren. Get it? I think I met a few more of those on this blogfest but just a few. Because being a friend means both parties need to spend some time building trust, learning about each other and then that magical other - that recognition of essence.

So, once I'd made my two hundredth follower I did slow down. I lost that panicky urgency to connect connect connect. I still did the 'surprize me' button but I didn't stop to join or comment if I felt no simpatico with the blogger (or it was light writing on black - I'm old, people).

And, I must admit, I was searching for those folks who had something similar to me going on - someone who was writing or at least thinking about it, someone who had lived a bit though that wasn't firm, and someone who had turned their word verification program off!!! GAWD THAT WAS ANNOYING! And there are subjects I'm not much interested in - I'm sure it is the same for you. I won't mention them because I've decided I'm going to be nothing but nice for the month of May but I just don't have the equipose for some topics that I might have at an earlier age.

I also, as always, loved being surprised - like when I discovered the Queen of English on my trips around - or she discovered me! What fun - someone who knows about commas and can make it interesting. Or when I found Sue at Jumping Aground with her crazy posts and her dear heart. And Rae at Fresh with her wonderful descriptions of family life and a recipe for vinegar pie!  Well, I could go on - and I will in future posts - about the lovely new friends I've met. And the ones who weren't doing the challenge but came by anyway or the ones that were and still managed to visit me, their ole pal.

This blogfest does remind me, as Arlee says, of a party. And it took me a while to remember what I always tell myself when going to a big ole 'do' - if I have one or two really good conversations then the getting ready was worth it!

So April flew by - visits to the t'other coast, learning to knit socks and making new friends. All good. I'll do it again but my priorities might be slightly different going in!

Zeitgeist - the abcedaria of a writer

Zeitgeist  is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age." [1] Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.

this building typifies the zeigeist of the hippy era in Vancouver for me...Gas Town was a mad scene in those days

The term zeitgeist is from German Zeit- 'time' (cognate with English tide and "time") and Geist- 'spirit' (cognate with English ghost, without being really translatable into English - this is why the German term is used).

Note that last bit - we use the German word because we haven't an English one that means even close to this. to capture the spirit - the geist - of a time is something all writers must be able to do. It is hard enough to capture that of another era it is even trickier to capture the spirit of our OWN time. This seems counter-intuitive but it is true if you ponder it. So how do we capture with words the timespirit? We pay attention, we wake-up, we listen, we engage with whatever time period we want to represent in our prose or poetry. The reason that it is harder to represent the time period of our time or close to our time is that there are folks living it who will tell you that you do not have the right verisimilitude - you've missed something - you've put a heroine in the right clothes but you have the wrong slang coming out of her mouth. The thing, the very tricky thing, is that it doesn't have to be exact, in fact exactness would be a problem. Just like with dialogue - exactness would bore or irritate beyond any worthiness it might hold. We need the gesture, the slight phrase that represents the era, the time, the politics, mores and spirit of the time.

We don't need to write down every tune on the jukebox in the diner in 1959 or every item of clothing that was worn by the teens that hung around there after school. Maybe just that Fats Dominoe was wailing out about finding a thrill on blueberry hill, while a hint of pink crinoline pooked out below Brenda's poodle skirt as she twirled her straw in her cherry coke. Too much detail and we see the man behind the curtain, too little or the wrong kind and we put the book down in disgust.

And I'm not talking about writing about what you know. That old idea needs the boot. If we'd had that enforced there are so many fantastic books that never would've seen the light of day. But getting the zeitgeist right - that's an art.

And so endeth the fun ride that many of us have been on for the past month. I've had a ball - how about you? And I can think of a million other words I want to explore ...may have to just keep going.

The abcedaria of a writer

Attitude, Bums in Seats, Compassion, Discipline, Elegance, Friends, Generosity, Heck, Imagination, Jealousy, Knitting, Lamé , Meditation, Nothing, Outlaw, Poetry, Quiddity, Rhythm, Solitude, Turquoise, Understand, Verity, Walking, X-Chromosome, Yes and finally, Zeitgeist!

Yes - the abcedaria of a writer

Yes and Yes and Yes and Yes - yes is the best word we writers can keep and spend. Say yes outloud right now - notice what happens - your whole face appears to lift and open - your eyes take it all in, everything lights up.

Now, say no. What happens then? You know what happens - you close, you stop, you become an obdurate block of negation. And I'm not saying you need to say Yes when you mean No or that you need to be an agreeable nincompoop. Absolutely not. But to life, to experience, to travel, to learning - why YES you do!

A writer must write with Yes and perhaps edit with a bit of No but definitely polish with Yes. You must dance with Yes and love with Yes and eat and cook and walk with Yes. Your Friday Challenge is to take a recent piece of work and give it the yes test. Run through it saying yes and yes and yes and see what happens. I double-dog dare ya!

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

e. e. cummings

And then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will yes.

James Joyce , Ulysses

X Chromosome - the abcedaria of a writer

X Chromosome - if you only have one, you poor thing, you're a guy. If you have two, then you my friend, are a gal!

to the gals ~ It is important to remember that we, we gals that is, aren't missing a Y, we've got double of the good stuff. So when guys come whinging around saying they're better because they have a Y - you just jump up and say "we don't want your stooooopid Y - we have double kisses - you have double nothing!" Remember Y is for Y-front, and X is for kisses, and Jesus, and where the treasure is buried. They are JEALOUS. But best not say anything, just give them that quiet Mona Lisa (double x there!) smile and that will be enough said.

to the boys ~ no point getting all huffy and righteous about it. You can't make babies and I'm sorry about that but it isn't my fault. And yes, it is true you can't find anything. Ever. And. That. Is. Tedious. But again, not our double x'er's fault. Just suck it up, buttercup. And hope that on your next life, you'll get to be a woman and not a cockroach or another guy or something.

Now, as to writing, here is the thing when it comes to this chromosome business. It doesn't matter. Wally Lamb proved that for once and all. We can all write for each other - boy, girl, boy-y girl and girl-y boy. So when you're writing and someone (like your partner who might have a different number of x's but I'm not saying necessarily) says 'how will you get the voice of a woman/man when you're not a woman/man - you just answer, as sweet as you can be, "doesn't matter, honey. How about that b**wj*b I promised you and that will be that. Because you don't want to talk about it. It'll hex it - it'll put you off your game. You'll lose your mojo. You need to have the confidence that you can get that voice otherwise you'll be second-guessing all your characters - how can I write about the past when it is the present? Or - how can I write about a rich person with towels and everything when I'm a writer and have to use my mother-in-law's thread-bare ones that don't really towel when that's all they are supposed to do? And like that. And you'll be crazy. So just distract your partner with brownies or other delectables.

And that's all you need to know about the X Chromosome dilemma. Really.

Walking - the abcedaria of a writer

Walking - I'm a walker. If I could I'd walk across the country and down the west coast of North America all the way to Mexico, then up again and across the US spending a great deal of time in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. When I go to a great city (London, Dublin, New York, Montreal, Vancouver) I get to know it by walking. When I'm messed up, no money in the bank, wars breaking out, heart sore and weary - I walk. I walk then in the healing trees, the trees that offer balm to a sorry heart.

And when I'm writing, I absolutely have to walk. I walk my way through plot tangles, through wanting to really understand a character, through a desert of thoughts and to replenish that well where the mystery arises from (and I don't mean the genre - I mean the great unknown mystery of creativity).

No one writes better about walking than Bruce Chatwin - especially in his book 'Songlines' which is a bit of a bible for me.

I haven't got any special religion this morning. My God is the God of Walkers. If you walk hard enough, you probably don't need any other god. ~Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia, 1977

And here are some more:

I represent what is left of a vanishing race, and that is the pedestrian.... That I am still able to be here, I owe to a keen eye and a nimble pair of legs. But I know they'll get me someday. ~Will Rogers


After dinner sit awhile, after supper walk a mile. ~English Proverb

If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish. ~Charles Dickens

And finally -

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. ~Raymond Inmon

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. ~Henry David Thoreau

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~Wallace Stevens

Thoughts come clearly while one walks. ~Thomas Mann

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~John Muir

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. ~Soren Kierkegaard

Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird. ~Jules Renard

How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky? Anyone knows they are. How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute? No, you cannot explain. So you walk. ~Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, "The Walk," 25 October 1967

Make your feet your friend. ~J.M. Barrie

Now shall I walk or shall I ride?
"Ride," Pleasure said:
"Walk," Joy replied.
~W.H. Davies

Ever wonder where you'd end up if you took your dog for a walk and never once pulled back on the leash? ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast. ~Paul Scott Mowrer, The House of Europe

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-three today and we don't know where the hell she is. ~Ellen DeGeneres

I stroll along serenely, with my eyes, my shoes my rage, forgetting everything.
~Pablo Neruda, translated

LATE BREAKING NEWS - The Watery Tart has done it - she's beat the odds with her entry into the Amazon Contest and made it to the semi finals. She is one of 100 authors to do so - out of a field of 10,000! Get it? She's in the one percent who got this far and she's my friend and I'm a bursting with pride! Go to her site if you don't already and give her a big virtual squishy!
Now I've got to go vacuum. Really.

Verity - the abcedaria of a writer

Verity is a simple word. It means true. Sounds straight-forward but I can assure you that nothing is simple in the English language (or, most likely, in any other language).  I often counsel couples in my work as a psychotherapist and people rarely agree on the meanings of common-place words.  Verity is our work as writers is very important.

Hemingway on verity - "That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best --make it all up --but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.”

Just like the notion of rhythm, we need to take our idea of what is verity in our work and go over every inch of it to see where we have gone off the truth track and on to deception. But, you scream, we make up ALL of it! No, you don't. You don't make up the truth of it. Every story has its own world with absolute reality in it. Even if you write fantasy or science fiction, your world has its verity. It is true to itself and you must make sure all of it is within that consistent truth.
Here is the Hemingway quote I was initially looking for-

"I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." A Moveable Feast, Hemingway

and here is Mr. Wilde on verity -

"The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope. When the Verities become acrobats we can judge them." Oscar Wilde

Understand - the abcedaria of a writer

Understand - Word Origin & History

O.E. understandan "comprehend, grasp the idea of," probably lit. "stand in the midst of," from under + standan "to stand" (see stand). If this is the meaning, the under is not the usual word meaning "beneath," but from O.E. under , from PIE *nter- "between, among" (cf. Skt. antar "among, between," L. inter "between, among," Gk. enteraepistamai "I know how, I know," lit. "I stand upon." Similar formations are found in O.Fris. ( understonda ), M.Dan. ( understande ), while other Gmc. languages use compounds meaning "stand before" (cf. Ger. verstehen , represented in O.E. by forstanden ). For this concept, most I.E. languages use fig. extensions of compounds that lit. mean "put together," or "separate," or "take, grasp."

OK - this might seem boring to many of you and I would 'understand' but it is riveting to me. I want to understand how words came to be. And this is one that has bothered me for years - how can I be 'under' something to get it? suddenly when I read this I am in a grove of trees - cedar trees - with scholars. I'm probably a man because otherwise I'd be too busy serving mead or what have you to be able to 'grok' what is happening. I'm between and among others who want me to grasp - to take their meaning.

And isn't that what we are doing when we write? I want my reader to fully get the ungettable. Because as lovely as language is, as primal as it may be, it is still the symbol and not the thing. This I understand. My work as a writer is not to become disillusioned and cranky about this but to keep on attempting to come as close as possible. Metaphors are the way we do this - metaphors beat the hell out of definitions for getting readers to grasp what you mean. In my last post, I took the word turquoise to represent the mysterious other, the richness of story. It was probably a stretch but I like stretching and as long as it is true for me I think I can stretch credibly. Using the word 'stretch' right there is another metaphor. I'm not physically stretching. Our language is built on metaphor. It has to be - language itself represents something that is not itself - why the pomo's are having such fun in university. Take it apart and try and put it back together. What could be more essential while useless than that?
So...I am standing in a grove of cedars with scholars. I'm getting a bit warm (it is July in Greece after all). Costa, who is a bit of a bore, is puncturing the air in front of his face with his hoary old finger - thinking that'll help with his argument no doubt. I sigh as I think of my wife and how her arm looks like a fine bow when she reaches for a cluster of grapes on the vine.  My mind goes to whether I can leave the grove without anyone commenting, for I'm young and I don't want to offend my elders, when Niko turns to me and whispers, 'your sigh is louder than even this blowhard's rant - be off to your new wife and I'll say I sent you on an errand'. Ah, he understands. I flee.

turquoise - the abcedaria of a writer

Turquoise - just the word. Just the word brings up so much in my mind. I could stay with that word for five hundred pages. Following turquoise paths through history. From China to Tibet to the southwest of the Americas. Down turquoise waterways through canyons or out to the brilliant turquoise of the Caribbean. I could load my neck and wrist and waist and ankles with turquoise and silver. I could dream in turquoise and drink turquoise and sweat tiny drops of turquoise.

I am a horsewoman in ancient Persia. I consult my turquoise for it will tell me if my life is in danger.

I am a healer in what is now New Mexico and I carry a chunk of turquoise in my medicine bundle.

I wear my family's fortune around my neck in the mountains of Tibet, twisted cords of carnelian and turquoise shine against my skin.

I am an Egyptian queen and know that my spiritual power is protected by turquoise.

To follow the path of turquoise would take me to many places around the world - it would introduce me to story after story after story.
And what is it to me as a writer? It represents the mysterious other than causes me to want to write in the first place. It symbolizes the richness in stories, of lore, of magic, of how if we see a strange colour gleaming in a landscape of grey stone - a vein of preciousness - we can carefully dig around it - loosen it from its prison of stone and release it. We can find those stories and excavate them with some care and reverence and then place them in settings that show off their brilliance, their richness, their complicated and subtle worth.
We can  place ourselves in such a way that we resonate with the vibrations of stories - the ones that are so humbly placed but true and good. Turquoise is not strong like a diamond or a ruby - it needs a delicate hand to bring it to light. Just like those good stories.