Writers Dreaming

Angelou says that she does not like talking about her bad dreams because it gives them too much power.  This is true, the more someone talks about something the more power it gives the bad thing.  If someone continues to talk about something bad, then the bad thing will stick with them longer, instead of being forgotten.  Talking about a bad thing just makes it more present in someone’s day,  if someone keeps talking about something it gives it more power.

Nathaniel West says, “Easy reading is damned hard writing.”  This is also true.  It takes awhile to make the sentences flow together, and put thought into it.  If a book is good then people will forget where they are and the troubles they have.  It is hard to pull someone into a different time period or a different perspective.  Each sentence has to have meaning.  It has to have a reason to be in the story, if there is not a meaning then their will just be rambling, gibberish that no one wants to read.  Every word is important.  Especially, when the words are dealing with emotions, the right words are key to this.  Which reminds me of a quote from Dead Poets Society, “Avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use the word very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys -to woo women- and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.”  There has to be thought into each word and each character.  If not then the character will be flat and have no character development, which makes the story boring and no one will want to read it.  The plot has to have a lot of thought in it.   If the story builds up to a dramatic ending and then the ending is a failure then no one will be pleased with the book.  To have a good book the author must think about the characters, plot, words, and sentence flow.  This all makes an easy read. So writing an easy read is damned hard work.

“One can’t really learn after one is twenty-five.” This is not true.  It is just like saying you can’t teach a dog new tricks.  The person must be willing to learn.  My parents for an example are both sides of this. My mom is willing to learn new things, she is trying to learn how to use her phone and different types of social media.  While my dad, will slam his finger to the screen if it is not working and repeatedly calls his phone a piece of junk.  A old dog can learn new tricks if they are willing to do so.