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A Trip Down Memory Lane

6/14/2014

With three children all under the age of six, our family moved from the USA to Germany for a few years (eight, to be exact). As our mode of transportation we chose a Polish cargo ocean liner. Why? you may ask. Simply because we needed to move a lot of our household goods, toys, books, etc., that we couldn't have crammed into our suitcases and carried on an airplane.

The freighter was equipped with several passenger cabins accommodating eleven passengers. Our family occupied an entire cabin suite (two double cabins, one single cabin and a foyer).

Because the ship didn't supply any entertainment for the passengers, we gratefully accepted the invitation to view a movie every Wednesday and Sunday evening in the crew's mess hall. These movies were of US or French origin with Polish subtitles. Of course, we didn't understand a word of Polish, and we more or less guessed at the story line.

The highlights of our ten days at sea were the delicious meals: several kinds of fresh baked breads for breakfast, wonderful dishes for lunch and dinner, afternoon tea and a well-stocked pantry available any time of the day or night.

We arrived at our destination relaxed and ready to tackle our next adventure.

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Writing, a Lonesome Art

6/6/2014

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The first step in writing a story is to know what you want to write about. Once the storyline has been defined, it helps to develop an outline showing the logical sequence of events. So far so good. Now you need to people your story with believable characters, some loveable, some despicable, some in between. You give them strengths and weaknesses, quirks, idiosyncrasies and faults. How do they look? Are they tall and slender, rotund, with freckles, a potbelly, blond, brunette or dark? What about their eyes? Blue, brown, deep set?

After your characters are fleshed out and you have breathed life into them, you live with them, talk to them, laugh and cry with them. They become your family as you sit at your computer hour after hour honing and shaping them. Is it any wonder that writers often walk around smiling to themselves, or daydreaming? Instead of daydreaming or smiling for no apparent reason, they hold conversations with their characters, watch them interact with each other or get into scrapes. Writers observe people around them to glean ideas for their stories.

Does that mean that every writer is an introvert? Not at all. Some writers may be introverts, silent observers, while others may find balance in their lives by socializing. Writers are people with a talent and passion for writing, just like someone else who may have a talent for cooking or gardening or fixing things, etc. The difference is that a writer’s art is a lonesome one. Nobody sees the finished product until the story hopefully gets published.

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A Trip Down Memory Lane

Writing, a Lonesome Art

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