About Passion "Write
what you are passionate
about!" Writer's are told this a thousand times a conference. Personal
passion can be an elusive concept.
I'm not passionate about world history. I'm not wild about politics. I
appreciate what the military does, and I make a point of thanking any
of the members of the armed forces I meet, for doing the job they do so
that I don't have to and get to live in this country. But that doesn't
make me a thriller writer. What the
leaders have the miliatry do? Well, that's a different issue. I have
some definite thoughts on that.
I'm a big fan of nursing our ecosystem called "Earth" along. The house
I designed and built around the turn of the century (kind of fun to say
that) is mostly solar-powered. Our family drives fuel-efficient cars
and even
more fuel-efficient scooters.
And I love to cook.
Scientists fighting for the good of the planet. Men
and women laying their lives on the line. The
government doing what it does best, confusing the good it does with the
bad it can do. And
the chefs keeping us fed.
Okay, stories of passionate chefs embroiled in events far beyond the
kitchen may not the most straight-forward combination, but it's
definitely one I'm
passionate about.
The Hard Part of Writing It evloves with time.
Early on it is getting in front of the keyboard on a daily basis.
Eventually, that becomes an ingrained habit. (Go buy reading glasses
after a while.) The next challenge are the basics of craft: grammar,
getting a character to have no more than three arms, unless they're
aliens or something, choreographing your first bar brawl is a challenge
not to be reckoned with lightly. (Don't do meals around dinner tables,
what is there exciting about watching people eat and talk? They can
cook, talk, have food fights, clean up, but eating is pretty dull
unless you're a better author than I am.)
The hurdles begin to mount up at this time. Story, pacing, character
relationships, voice all start crowding in at once. Soon the family
piles on and having to work for a living (really gets in the way of
writing let me tell you), now you're off to the races. The life rolls
roll in. Plugged toilets, trees smashing the propane tank, leaky
faucets, your spouse's business needs a new computer, and the friends
are in town.
Finally you have some control of the craft. You know what you want to
write. You even have a fair idea of how to go about it. And you realize
the truly hard part of writing is getting in front of the keyboard on a
daily basis.
The Easy Part of Writing
Getting your butt in the chair on a daily basis. There is a little
pewter ring-shaped paperweight on my desk that states: "The secret of
success is constancy to purpose. --Benjamin Disraeli." If you don't
know
who he is, he'd worth looking up. Sitting at the keyboard has
eventually unraveled every problem I've had with my books. Not sitting
at the keyboard, that's the hard way of writing, because nothing gets
done without me there.
The Joy of Writing Walking through the living room and hearing your wife
laugh and realize she's reading your book . . . again. Meeting a reader
who can't tell you how wonderful your book was. Knowing that somehow,
somewhere, a piece of my thoughts, of my care, of what I feel is
important and that I am passionate about has made it onto the page.
