Σίσυφος, or Sisyphus, was a character of ancient Greek mythology. He was a king of old and a tricky, scheming, knavish one at that. He was so good at fooling the gods, he even cheated them out of death. Finally, Zeus and the other Greek gods had enough and condemned him. For all eternity Sisyphus was cursed, forced to push an immense boulder up a hill. This may not seem to be that bad, however the gods added their own Sisyphusian twist. Just before he reached the top of the hill, before he was able to rest and be at ease, the boulder would wobble and fight against him, until it was happily rolling back  to level ground. Then, he’d climb down after it and begin the process all over again. 

Writing can be like this. We struggle and toil at our own little schemes we have created. At times we have progressed and have momentum and may very well reach our goal. There are those other times, however, when we see our novel, poem, or novelette, back down at the bottom of our artistic hill.

Is it worth it? Yes! But also, no.

Sometimes it is a long period of writing and deleting, rewriting and writing again. We may be fooling ourselves that we will ever reach the top.

Lately, I have been focusing my efforts into my own final push. I know that as I race to finish this present draft before the end of the year, that, as the calendar turns its page, I will once again be at the bottom of the hill looking upwards at yet another draft. You may think that, like Sisyphus, another trip to the top may not be worth it. As a writer writing about the writing life, I submit that is all we can do. And, though we have yet to reach the top, we know we are closer to our goal having finished a draft, than if we had never started in the first place.

Keep writing my friends.

Cheers,

Bob

For us part timers, writing can be something that gets pushed aside and otherwise edited out of our busy schedules. I believe it is detrimental to the survival of our stories to both develop habits that advance us as story tellers (250 words a day?) and also have reminders set up around our house or work space that help us focus our minds on the task of writing. You know what I mean. All of a sudden, a month goes by and you are struck with a horrifying thought. I’ve only written about 50 words! Below are a few things that I have placed around my apartment to remind me of my goal everyday, no matter how busy my schedule can become. Welcome to my world.

First and foremost. My Moleskine journal and Parker Pen. These go with me everywhere and I’ve went through several. No matter if its the grocery store, a traffic jam, or a walk to the mailbox, I have a place to write down ideas when they strike or when I have a spare moment.

Okay, I am not trying to point out the obvious here, but this one should come as no surprise to any of you. Bookshelves filled with books. If this is not a given when pondering what inspires you to write I don’t know what is. After all, you are trying to write one of these.

If you did not already think I was a nerd, here is, once again, an obvious clue that I am one. I keep a collection of words in the back of my journals -complete with definitions- so as to expand my vocabulary. Not quite as fancy as laminated flash cards, but they do the trick. I collect expressions that hit a mood perfectly, and words I either do not know or have never thought of using before.

This next picture is of my L.C. Smith & Corona Typewriter. I see it everyday as it sits on my dresser with a paragraph from Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon.This behemoth weighs about 40lbs. You may think, “Why would you keep a cast iron typewriter around?” My response, “Does cool need a reason?”. It is also another reminder of what I want to do.

Journals. I CANNOT stress enough how important it is to journal. Not just about writing, but about life. These particular journals span my college years to now (10 years). I hope to be able to keep going. It is tremendously satisfying to finish one. Also, if you are going to start a journal, remember to date your entries.

Ah, now these are things to be proud of. Here are books I have written. Some are novelettes (25,000 words or less) and my current novel (89,000+ words). I have my wife, writers group, and many many friends to thank for their completion.I am grateful to you all.

Ever wonder how a chapter takes form? Does it come out cleanly like a white shirt in a Tide commercial? No, no, no, and emphatically no. Most of the time its fools gold with bits of gold hidden inside. But its nice to have a place to organize it all beside my forgetful mind. This sits on the wall, right by my bed, so I will remember every night before I go to sleep that I am writing a novel.

So there’s a little insight into my writing life. I hope this can inspire you to get a notebook to always keep with you, a poster board from your local grocery store to start outlining, or to purchase a journal to help remember important life events. Writing is a thrilling thing, however fickle it can be.

Keep writing my friends.

Cheers,

Bob

Last fall, one of my friends in my writer’s group told me he was trying to read 40 books in a year. That inspired me to do the same this year. I tried to add some variation so as to not become complacent in my reading. This survey has taken me from popular books like The Hunger Games, classics like Of Mice and Men, to the poetry of A.E Houseman, and finally to this book, Tolkien Man and Myth A Literary Life by Joseph Pearce, which is a thorough study of J.R.R. Tolkien and the famous writing group the Inklings. It also centers around the idea of “myth” in the Tolkien sense. Here is what Pearce has to say about the idea of myth in the preface:

“For most modern critics a myth is merely another word for a lie or a falsehood, something which is intrinsically not true. For Tolkien, myth had virtually the opposite meaning. It was the only way that certain transcendent truths could be expressed in intelligible form,” (Pearce, XIII).

I would even go as far as to say myths validate other truths like, fathers should be good, rulers should be stewards and not tyrants of their people, and that individuals should not put limits on following what is right and good – can be best expressed in fiction. The reason is, when we see something as it should be in reality we immediately become suspicious. “They must have dark secrets they keep well hidden,” some may say. “They cannot actually enjoy being a father, or a husband, they are waiting for the right time to bolt,”. However, if you show the very same thing in a story of fiction or “myth”, we can believe it.

Indeed, I am writing fiction and cannot help but think that, although I am not moving into the realm of allegory, the reason we writers write is important. There is usually something being said about something even in the simplest of stories. Even if you did not deliberately mean to, and I can say that I certainly did not start out with philosophical underpinnings, you find as you step back and get outside of your work, you are not just writing about people, but significant things of the human experience. If I were to examine my own writing it would be obviously about revenge, and the importance of remembering history so as not to repeat it, and lastly, and more subtly, forgiveness in the profound sense.

Understanding what you write and why you write may not be significant to you. However, I find it helpful to always be orienting myself to my story, and where my characters are going and what sort of “myths” I am telling. Critics are always going to be looking for themes, and they genuinely sprout up along the way, it might be good to identify them as you work out your stories.

Novel/ Family Update:

On September 24th at 11:48am, Clara Mae was born, my second daughter. Some writers out there might be lamenting the fact that my time to write may be obliterated for the next few months (that very well could be true) and the novel I wished to finish may now be on a permanent hold. Not so. In fact, I don’t think I would have the idea for the next chapter in my book had I not visited the hospital. This lends to my suspicion that as the deepness of life grows (college, marriage, family, etc.) the more your well of creativity is stretched wider and is able to be filled with even more life, enabling the writer to draw from more experiences to be better equipped to share their magnificent stories.

When a writer says, “I just can’t find the groove,” anyone who has every written a novel, short story, or article of any sort knows exactly what they are talking about. It has been called many things: rhythm, pulse, tempo – whatever it is that keeps the writer moving, keeps their fingers to the keyboard or pen to the page in a way that is both satisfying and liberating. It flows, like waters breaking through a dam, surging, cascading, dancing all over the countryside in your mind. It is the culmination of your idea, your story, your characters, your plot, your unequivocal love for language, unleashed.

Unfortunately, for me, and perhaps for you, it is a hard thing to find. Writing time has the tendency to evaporate, and there are only so many mornings you can force yourself out of the bed in the wee hours before the thrill of your tale becomes dull. It is no longer easy. It is no longer joyful. If there was a surge of ideas somewhere in your being you lost the key to that place a long, long time ago. I think it is okay to admit this. It is alright to say that you are in a rut. It is not writers block that I am talking about, I am talking about a loss of energy or gumption and, it might be shameful to admit, desire.

You may find, as I have, that releasing these thoughts to a journal or blog can very well be a way through all of this. Just to have gained traction in any sort of writing, helps, and it helps a lot. It is like stretching your muscles before a game, or going over note cards before a test. It puts you in a mode. It prepares you for the mental battle.

It is important to understand how we work, and more importantly how we can overcome these stoppages in our work. For me, its just to find some way to continue the writing process. For you it might not be writing but reading something different than what you normally read or going through thewriter, Writer’s Digest, Poet’s & Writers, or some other writing magazine or book to be inspired. Or it could be  filling your creativity well by doing what the Artist’s Way by Julie Cameron instructs, by taking yourself on a writer’s date. Whatever it is, find it. Meet head on. Battle through it, keep going, keep moving, keep your story pressing on and don’t give up. It may be, just as you thought you were at the end of your story, you burst through the clouds and find yourself in the glorious light of another finished page.