Nothin But Darkness

Do you ever wonder if anyone is paying attention to you, or what you have to say? The truth is, everything we say matters. Whether it's a fact, or embelished truth, or a flat out lie, what we say affects something or someone around us. And if you are a writer, what you wish for more than anything else, is to be heard. It's the old addage: If a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it does it make a noise? Of course it does. And when you blog about something--which in the old days meant offering your opinion about something--it DOES make a noise even if no one reads it. The problem is, we WANT others to hear the 'tree fall', to acknowledge that they have at least laid eyes on the words that stumbled from our subconscience onto the blank page. For those of you that think it's easy, try putting together several paragraphs of witty banter or a short piece of intilectual gold worthy of someone elses time. And do this WITHOUT your english teacher looking over your shoulder pointing out your overuse of adverbs and your frequent run-on sentences. Go ahead! Impress me.


I'm in the process of getting my book formated for publication and was informed by the publisher that it would be 326 pages. Holy Mother of Jesus! Please excuse my language here. But just think about it. How many of you have written more than say, a ten page essay? How about fifty pages? Anyone for a hundred? 326 pages is in the neiborhood of 91, 365 words, give or take a hundred. It's months of work! And the truth is, I probably trashed or rewrote another 10,000 words trying to get it perfect, which I never will according to the editors and agents that keep telling me it's not good enough. I know what your thinking; SO WHY DO IT? The answer is simple: I LOVE to write. Love it!
I was recently watching the remake of TRUE GRIT and had to write down a line in the movie that caught my attention. When the Sheriff was describing Rooster Cogburn to the teenage girl, he warmed her that Rooster "liked to pull a cork now and then". He didn't say, "He's a drunk." or say, "He's a drunken loser." For those of you who aren't aware of this, a movie has to be written--by a writer or team of writers--before the video camera is ever pulled out of its case. I wonder if this script writer would like to know that one of the lines he or she so carefully crafted made me stop and smile. I think I'll find them and let them know. I bet they'll be thrilled. What do you think?