RON'S FRIEND GIVES WRITING ADVICE

Nancy:
Here's that eMail from Dr. Stephen Badsey I read out at todays meeting (September 24,11). All the best Ron.

This is a copy of an eMail to Ron Lehman from Dr. Stephen Badsey, Reader in Conflict Studies University of Wolverhampton in the UK on March 25, 2011. Dr Badsey is a personal friend of Ron and shares his writers learning experiences with all members of Headwaters Writers Guild. He is the author of over 80 books. Enjoy!
Ron.

Dear Ron,

I've been wrapped up writing a book of my own (I still am, and will be for several months), so my apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I'm glad you liked the 'suit of armour' comparison, because I stole it from a writer I admire, the English poet Ian MacMillan (who is still very much alive).

You asked me in your last paragraph about all the material you've got, and what to do with it all. My best piece of advice on what to put in a book or leave out is the same advice that was given to me at the start of my own writing career, and which I have found in many variants. Here are a few:

"If you feel you have written a phrase or passage of particular elegance - cross it out" (John Bourne, historian)

"When what you think is your best scene is lying on the cutting room floor, your movie is finished" (Hollywood maxim)

"Start with a plain block of marble, and then just chip away everything that doesn't look like the statue you have in your mind" (Michaelangelo, attributed)

"If you are almost in tears because of all the good material that you have had to leave out or can find no room for in this book, then you might just have written something worth publishing" (Martin Middlebrook, historian)

Never throw anything away, all material is valuable, if not this time then next time; but a book has a shape of its own. The story tells itself; the first duty of the storyteller (or, in a different way, of the translator) is to get yourself out of the way. My one exception to this in writing, I think, is good poetry because it is essentially personal (although bad poetry is just a way of learning how to write better). Poets draw their subject matter entirely from themselves and so depend on how much of themselves they can reveal. (And I have published a few poems too, over the years; although my poetry wasn't as good as my history because I don't have that big an ego; I may go back to it one day.)

All this sounds very Zen, and it should because it is a process common to many activities. Do you remember Bruce Lee in "Enter The Dragon" saying "when there is an opportunity I do not hit. It hits all by itself"? Just so it doesn't get to mystical, I should add that a lot of luck helps as well, often dressed up by words like "inspiration" or "my muse"; but even then, if you work hard and seize chances as they come, it's amazing how lucky you get. I hardly need to tell you that. But I hope that you have found this useful.
Steve.