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“Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.”---Catherine Drinker Bowen
“The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: the power to see, to sense, and to say. That is, he is perceptive, he is feeling, and he has the power to express in language what he observes and reacts to.”--Lawrence Clark Powell
“The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough”---William Saroyan
"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."—Robert Frost
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I met the poet Robert Frost the summer I was 9 years old. I was spending the summer with my grandmother in Vermont and he lived just down the road apiece. It was the summer I discovered that I loved to read...anything and everything, but especially poetry. It was also the summer I decided that when I grew up, I would absolutely, positively be a writer.
My grandmother spent the summer reading poetry with me and having me memorize poem after poem which we would discuss during picnics in the back field. I memorized 'The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere' and 'O Captain, My Captain.' I memorized 'Jaberwocky. I spent hours on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, John Donne and Robert Frost. Words that I couldn't read yet, I learned to read. My favorite poem was this one by Robert Frost:
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing Gold can stay.
I remember talking about it with my grandmother and her explaining how the seasons come and go and how when plants were budding they were yellow gold and then turned green and then gold again as they were dying in the fall. Then they'd wither away to brown. My grandmother Annie told me I was still little, still gold. I liked being gold and wasn't sure then that I wanted to grow older if it meant that I wouldn't stay golden. She told me that I'd be golden again one day when I was as old as she was.
One day I was out exploring when I came across an old man sitting in the shade of my favorite climbing tree: the one with a stone fence running beneath it, that made it easy to get to the lowest branch.
We talked a bit about the pretty day and climbing trees and then he asked me what I was doing that summer. I told him I was memorizing poetry. He asked me what my favorite poem was, and why. I told him which one was my favorite and then recited it.
As he had asked me to, I explained why and told him that he and I were both in the golden stage. He asked if I knew who he was and I said that I didn't because he hadn't told me. Well, he was Robert Frost.
That summer he came over or we all met by the tree and talked about writing. He read what I wrote and then would have me write it again. And again. And again. He said he was always rewriting his poetry. He also told me that some of his poetry was very famous and that if people saw the revised poems they might not recognize them.
But that he revised even his published works because it made him happier with the results even if no one ever saw them.
He also told me that my grandmother was right in having me learn about the great poets and writers. Read, he told me. Everyday. He told me that reading and writing go hand in hand, and if I wanted to ever become a writer then that's what I had to do. He also talked of finding the beauty in simple, everyday things: The overlooked, mundane, 'yesterday, tomorrow and today' things.
The last day I saw him, he told me that he liked my interpretation of 'Nothing Gold Can Stay.' That he liked being my 'Golden Man' which was what I'd taken to calling him. He had a deep, gravel-y voice and I loved lying back in the tall grasses listening to him recite poetry. That day he recited my favorite poem of his to me. And then recited his favorite of mine!
I never saw him again after that day. I never forgot him, even though it was many years before I realized just how special a summer it had truly been and how fortunate I had been to learn from the master!
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I have decided to highlight some articles, essays or papers on various aspects of writing by the writers here at WDC. These are excellent sources for information!
And just some really awesome work as well!
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Fyn, I've known you for 2 1/2 years, having met you as a fellow competitor in a multi-round poetry contest way back when. I was raw, unskilled, and really had no focus in what I wrote. You inspired and drew out my very best, even then. You've encouraged, guided, insisted, pushed and just about everything else I can imagine to help me, a person you decided one day was your friend. I continue to relish the depths or your knowledge. WDC is very lucky to have your efforts here in the For Authors newsletter. Thank you my friend, for this, and for all you do, and have done.Mark 
Thank you Mark! But then, it works both ways...you, too, have a knack for getting folks to the point (by shoving, pushing, cajoling and putting up with reading endless revisions) that their writing is the best it can be. That is the beauty of WDC...we are all here to help each other get where we want to be!
Thank you for this wonderful newsletter. As I continue to read and become more active on WDC, I learn more and more what it takes to create a good story. Thank you for this informative and inspiring newsletter.freestyle.poet
Thank you! All the newsletters here at WDC are a wealth of information, ideas and inspiration!
Very inspiring! Although I've never gone so far as to attend such a fair in costume, I've gone many times. I love people watching and many of my characters have been created from people I see when I am out and about!raeburk01
People watching is a marvelous way to gain inspiration for characters.
I absolutely loved your newsletter, first for the entertaining way you teach about character development and secondly because I once went to an event like you described and throughly enjoyed reliving my memories sparked by your experience.collins96
I'm so glad you enjoyed!
Thanks for writing this newsletter. It was very helpful. I often have a hard time fully fleshing out my characters which makes it hard for me to focus on the story. I thought the editor's letter was very interesting. Keep up the good work. :) Ash
Always happy to hear I've been helpful *smile*
Here's hoping you've enjoyed this newsletter...fyn |
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For Authors: October 24, 2007 Issue [#2023]
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