Writing without borders...

It’s been long enough. Nothing added since before New Years. If I were a farmer, I could say I’m letting the ground lay fallow to replenish itself. How would that work exactly? If words were left alone, would they spontaneously self replicate? Congeal into ideas, become a self-aware message? No of course not! How bizarre. Words don’t have DNA or RNA, they’re immune to evolutionary selection pressures. Well not quite. Go, rustle up some words, gather them into a book, and send it off to an agent or a publisher. You will run into selection quick enough, called market pressures. The literary highway is strewn with discarded and disowned works. (Thank goodness, for there are many poor, substandard works out there; you wonder how they ever made it… especially as your own hasn’t, yet.)

So, I’ve been busy, buzzy, bizzi. Believe it or not, I finished two novels since the last time. Some things called Where Arrows Fly and Chance Encounters. Well, not exactly finished, got through 1st and 2nd drafts. That’s when the creative impetus dies and work has to take over. Have to finish for finishing’s sake. The stories are good, it was fun working them to see where they would take me. As always I never quite know where I’ll end up, I let the story decide. What I insist on is a plausible, logical unfolding.

So now I’m looking for the next project. I’ve been thinking of a book, just the general parameters. But I’m looking at it as a product rather than a process. Would it not be something if we would have to label each work with constituent ingredients, like on the grocery shelves. Just think of it, you could flip the book to the back and read off cholesterol, carbohydrates, fats and fiber content. Let’s see if we can break it down.

First of all calories: how rich and plush is the story line in total? This is important, for this is what really puts on the extra pounds. Then of course, fat content, how much grease is there between the lines to make it a smooth reading? And then, how much of that is trans fats, overblown imagery, unpalatable writing fetishes that get out of control. Cholesterol: literary elements that plug up the progression of the plot, distracted sideways looks that contribute little to the forward progress. Sodium, intended to enhance the taste, but if overused, can actually ruin it. Potassium, I don’t even know what that means; is it good or bad for you and why? Carbohydrates: is the story too saccharine? You have seen it, too full of self-adulation, prettied up, too ornamented, overcompensating for hidden flaws. Proteins; a strong story line, the meat and bones of the thing, the engine that drives the bus to take the reader to the next level. We must not forget fiber; character development, be consistent, let them be true to themselves, it’s the thing that allows readers to digest the work safely.

So there you have it, the general outline of what I’m thinking. You could of course add the trace elements: vitamins, iron, zinc… the little things that round out the book, take the edges off sudden turns and twist, things that by themselves aren’t much but act as catalysts in combination with the more substantial fundamentals.

And given today’s health conscious climate we can’t ignore the negatives that detract: the germs and viruses, and lists of pathogens. Spelling issues are germ-like, they infest any work and lower its literary value. Viruses likewise infest, gobble up respect and weaken the entire being. Issues of grammar, incorrect punctuation fall into this class (if you see one, there are bound to be others around, so watch out) Opportunistic pathogens wreak havoc with readers’ enjoyment. These are things that lower the health of the whole book. They take over. Have you not read a book that’s so supercharged that nothing stands out of the unremitting excess. How many movies spring to mind, mindless action, one crisis after another. How about too much sex to destroy any romance? Too much glitz, evidence of poor inner life. And so on…the immune system soon overwhelmed.

The previous leads to the next consideration, medication? Change of life style? But let that be a subject unto itself on a future blog.