“There are consequences to being hasty, Bill.”
Words spoken by my Uncle Jim when I was, gosh, maybe eight years old.
My Uncle Jim was a dredger by trade and a carpenter in his spare time. Carpentry was his love; dredging put food on the table. He would be gone to Alaska for three or four months each year, helping to dredge out harbors for the towns up there, and then he would return to Tacoma and build things in his garage.
Sometimes I’d go in the garage and watch him.
I loved the smell of newly-cut wood. Loved watching him work with the grain, and listening to him talk to me about lumber being a living thing, and watching him take pieces of wood and create something beautiful from them.
One day I asked him if I could build a toy boat and he said his garage was my garage, as long as I remembered to put all the tools away where they belonged . . . very important to him, returning those tools.
Well I was in a hurry to slap that boat together, so I did the job as quickly as possible, finished it, put the tools away, rode my bike down to the waterfront, and set it in the water for its maiden voyage.
I think it might have sailed ten feet before a wave capsized it and it sunk.
Back to my Uncle Jim I went, totally pissed and swearing to never again try my hand at carpentry.
“There are consequences to being hasty, Bill,” he said. “The key to a sea-worthy boat is not in what you see but rather in what you don’t see.” He then went on to explain ballast and how it works, how a ship’s hull is not solid wood but rather it is the air inside the hull which actually keeps a ship upright and functioning properly.
“You would have known these things, Bill, if you had taken the time to ask. Don’t be in such a hurry to learn. Take your time and learn properly. There’s joy in the process if you are willing.”
I was thinking about that time last week when someone asked me what was the secret to success in writing? My answer to that person is the same as my uncle’s answer many years ago. Don’t be hasty! Take the time to learn the craft of writing. Learn how good writing works. You can’t fake it. You can’t pretend. Good writing is good writing is good writing, and fakers, and those in love with shortcuts, need not apply.
Bill
My new book is out, “Shadows Fall On Rosarito“….check it out!
“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 