“Sometimes, in the night I feel it
Near as my next breath
and yet, untouchable
Silently the past comes stealing
Like the taste of some forbidden sweet
“Along the walls; in shadowed rafters
Moving like a thought through haunted atmospheres
Muted cries and echoed laughter
Banished dreams that never sank in sleep”
Lyrics by Dan Fogelberg from his song “Ghosts”
THE HEART AND SOUL OF A WRITER
That song is not about writers, but it has always spoken to me. I think of my muse when I listen to it, how she speaks to me constantly, demanding of me that I record memories from my past, insisting that I create new stories, stories which will capture sixty-eight years of experience, pleading with me to choose just the right words so that my story becomes a story every reader can relate to.
We’ve all heard it said that there is a bestselling novel inside each of us. That may be so, but not everyone can tell it properly. A writer can. A writer has the ability to take seemingly mundane occurrences and turn them into a captivating story. A writer understands the common threads which weave through all human beings, and a writer uses those threads as connective tissue, bringing us all together, cementing our bonds, and adding to our common history.
It is magical when it happens, as you all know, and I feel blessed that it has happened to me, as you all surely understand.
SOMETHING REMARKABLE HAPPENED RECENTLY
I know a young man who recently took care of his father-in-law in a hospice situation. He sat by the dying man’s side for two days, seeing to his needs, taking care of some really disgusting bodily discharges, and generally provided invaluable comfort to the man. It was a remarkable display of humanness, an example of empathy we all could learn from.
I mention that because I believe the really good writers have such empathy. They understand the raw emotions inherent in our species, and they find a way, through words, to awaken those emotions. This is the connective tissue I mentioned earlier. We all have, and understand, emotions. We all have, and understand, the five senses. These are the things we, as writers, must use in order for our stories to be truly memorable to the reading public. Without empathy, without an intense understanding of emotions, our words will fall short of our goal.
Remember that the next time you sit down to write. Your words are not meant for a vacuum. They are meant to be injected into the subconscious of the reader, and the only way you can accomplish that is to find the common thread we all share.
A FINAL NOTE
I’ll leave you with something my dad told me once which has stayed with me for fifty years.
My dad and his parents
“Everything you do matters, Bill,” he told me.
I try to remember that when I sit down to write.
Bill
“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 