Dangerous Times

 

Copyright Glo Lewis 7/14/2023

 

Dear Readers of My Blog, 💟

 

Living with Danger:

Thomas M. Nichols said, “These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything.” Mr. Nichols is an American writer and a professor emeritus of national security affairs at the United States Naval War College. He’s also a contributing writer at The Atlantic. So, here’s a fellow writer stating that “these are dangerous times.” Another quote that comes to mind from a fellow writer was crafted by JFK’s speechwriter—in this case, commonly held to have been Theodore Sorensen: In Kennedy’s Moon speech, Kennedy declared, “we do these things not because they are easy, we do these things because they are hard….”

I trust that as senior citizens, who have the advantage of an extensive view of history, we clearly know that we are living in dangerous times. The words that Kennedy’s speechwriter, Sorensen, for the Moon speech, embedded into the American psyche, I believe, is to continue to be what makes us uniquely American in that we don’t shrink from “looking the tiger in the eye.” This is not to say that courage under fire is easy. Yet, we do things as a writer, and as an American, because they are hard.

Therefore, when you write, challenge yourself to write at your peak level, which may come either when you are creating or when you are revising. Either way, stretch your talent to reach for greatness. Have a bold belief in yourself. And know that greatness lies within your grasp, if only you will maintain your integrity and strive for your best work.

In a prior blog post, I mentioned the maxim that in fiction, “we lie to tell the truth.” What this expression means is that in fiction, we can write what we know (and another adage is to “write what you know”), without claiming it or being defined by it. A writer’s fictional character can “pack the heat,” while the author sits in the shadows, drawing from the light of their knowledge, including memories, and crafts the fictional (or not-so-actually-fictional) events. Of course, one can write memoirs and bring their own “heat” of memory to the discourse. But if you want to write fiction, you can disclose your heart’s pain without owning it. Your characters can shoulder every significant victory and defeat of your life, while you artfully draw them to form. Just remember to “show, don’t tell.” For example, examine for yourself, which is better—to say, he cried, or to have the character stand stony-faced, while tears stream down their cheeks, or their eyes flood with salty water that splashes onto their lips. Or they cry out, their voice breaking, “God, I loved them so much! How could this happen?” and then burst into tears, holding their stomach and reaching for the bed….

And remember to use “Editor” in Word up in the top right of your document, and read its suggestions for areas of your text, and click on any suggested change that you wish to authorize.

I also want to call your attention to your copyright. At the top of your document, type “Copyright, then your name, and then the date.” That’s all that you need to do to indicate that your intellectual property is yours, and you own it. If you have a button on your keyboard that represents a C within a circle, that is the icon for copyright, and you can use that ahead of your name and the date. According to copyright law, however, one can’t copyright an idea or a title, so be advised. And once you have finished writing and editing a book, then you can contact the U.S. Copyright Office and pay to copyright your book in your name; the cost is quite minimal; and for works created after January 1, 1978, your copyright lasts for your lifetime plus 70 years. Beyond that, you can leave your copyright and your copyrighted works to your heirs in your last will and testament.

Characters should express emotions:

Today, I wish to point out that when we create characters in fiction, it’s important to have them express emotions; this can be done by either using the third-person limited point of view in that instance, and allowing the reader to get inside of a character’s thoughts, or, we can write in the first person and create thought or dialogue that expresses the character’s feelings. But as with anything, don’t overdo it. We normally only want to understand the main characters. We don’t want to be exposed to the feelings of anyone and everyone. By way of example, I have crafted the following paragraph:

 

Joe didn’t like these people. He knew they had power so vast that they could annihilate him from his own life and bring him to such a level of ruination that he would want to put a grisly end to himself. In his mind, he saw himself loading a well-oiled gun. Yet, a tiny flame of wildness flickered in his ragged heart. He knew he’d lived through worse. Maybe not what these people would view as more dangerous, but in his own soul, even as a four-year-old child in the back alleyways and avenues of New York, he’d had to cope with his own demise and possess the street smarts of an adult. He knew how to keep his mouth shut. How to look out for his older brother without being noticed. Right now, he would play ball, because the flashing reminder of early terror hissed its wisdom from behind the mask of his face. “Sure,” he whispered— “sounds good.” But deeper, beyond the stone of his dark eyes, revenge began to take shape.

 

The Old Woman in a Fire Paragraph of Our Last Discussion:

 

Only moments before, she had still been under the blankets, drinking her morning coffee, Starbucks's Christmas blend that her husband had brought up from the kitchen below, and laughing on her cell phone in an animated conversation with her younger sister, when suddenly, she had exclaimed, “Is that smoke? Oh, Rue, I smell smoke. I’d better go investigate!” She had flung her covers over to the other side of the bed and lurched across the enormous room, when suddenly there was a terrifying crack of wood in the hall, and a support beam split in half, releasing a beast of raging heat and orange fire that lunged for her, hissing, snapping, and popping. The carpet, covered in wood debris, felt hot and ragged to her bare feet. She grabbed the banister, which gave way, and she fell, helplessly, crying out in her panic and dread, “Oh, dear God!”

 

At the end of my last blog post (Blog Post 8), I stated that I would create a second paragraph to the start of this story, or even more paragraphs, for those writers who have trouble getting started on a story—just to present some options. Now, remember, this is probably an important character, so we should include how she feels and what she experiences. Get inside of the character to accomplish this. Allow yourself to strip away your own walls and masks as you create. Ask yourself how you would feel in this situation. Later, at revision, you can cut out anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, but while creating, be bold! In this vein, here are paragraphs two, three, and four:

Paragraphs Two, Three, and Four of The Old Woman in a Fire Story:

 

As she tumbled down the stairs, the fire extending its dancing scarlet fingers at her, she saw that the house was now almost fully engulfed in roaring, crackling flames, and she felt the intense heat. The wood of the staircase broke open like a goblet of claret, and she could see part of the kitchen below. Suddenly, with a shockingly hard fall, she was on the stone tiles of the kitchen floor, aching in a depth of pain that she had never experienced before. Her face crumpled into tears, but some unbendable cord of inner strength summoned her to rise. “I will not die here!” she screamed, grabbing onto the steel legs of the massive stove, and standing at last, she raced, bent over, for the patio door.

Outside, in the sunny December day, fire trucks clanged in the distance. Shortly, her long driveway was a mass of fire men and women and their red trucks and black hoses. Bootzen wasn’t even wearing a nightgown. She had hurriedly pulled her oversized bubblegum pink robe over her naked body as she had fled the bedroom, so now, amidst all this commotion, she was nude under her robe, shoeless, and without benefit of her sunglasses in the bright light of the morning.

Son-of-a-bitch! she thought, embarrassed by her lack of makeup, eyewear, and shoes, not to mention her extremely frizzy morning hair, which hung in auburn ringlets on her shoulders.

 

I would ask you to notice the continuing metaphor of the fire “extending its dancing scarlet fingers…” Additionally, you want to always include sound in your writing, e.g., here: “…in roaring, crackling flames.” And the character feels the intense heat of the fire. Further, notice similes, such as “The wood of the staircase broke open like a goblet of claret.” Note the character’s inner strength conveyed via her outburst, “I will not die here!” See that we don’t name the character until the third paragraph, when we understand that she is Bootzen. Of course, an author can name their characters whenever they see fit. My point is that you never have to begin with the character’s name. My personal preference, however, is to give a main character a name early on, because I believe that when we know someone’s name, we become more invested in them. That’s a wrap on today’s tutorial. Keep writing!

 

God bless, and more to come soon…Glo