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With a Ph.D. in American literature, Marc D. Baldwin has been writing, editing and teaching for 37 years. He’s published a scholarly study of Ernest Hemingway and numerous articles in various literary journals, and is president of Edit911, Inc.

Grow Up, Harry Potter: Maturity in Literacy

Literacy refers to reading and writing, but is actually much more complex than it sounds. It requires use of cognitive processes such as critical thinking, various forms of memory and attention, problem solving, planning, and the ability to carry out a plan. Literacy is based on language ability; the more mature that base and the cognitive processes involved, the more that can be accomplished through reading and writing.

We are obviously not born mature readers and writers. Research has shown that the best predictor of early reading success is whether the child is exposed to literacy in the home. This can mean getting out books and talking about them, actually reading the stories, and being exposed to television programs that are literacy-rich. After that early period, genetics and practice play large roles in whether one will become a proficient reader.

Prevailing wisdom used to be that brain development was mostly complete much earlier than the age 25 or so that we now believe. More recent studies have shown that mature thought is not achieved until frontal lobe connections, or white matter pathways, are complete. This occurs sometime during young adulthood. The implications of research into neural development are very significant for literacy, writing in particular. Writing requires planning, reasoning, and seeing the connections between ideas, along with many other cognitive processes. These functions generally take place in various parts of the frontal lobes, whereas information is primarily stored elsewhere in the brain (I say “generally” and “primarily” because of the complexity of the human brain). This makes connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain critical. Neuroimaging studies have revealed that those white matter pathways continue to develop through late adolescence and into early adulthood. Until then, the cognitive processes needed to be a mature, literate individual are relatively isolated from the information stored in other areas of the brain.

Writing can continue to improve throughout one’s life with practice in the writing process itself and in the use of critical thinking skills, as well as with increased knowledge. The more we learn, the more information that is stored in our brains and that our now-connected frontal lobes can access, process, manipulate, and use to create a novel written product.

–Dr. Sarah, www.edit911.com

Keeping It Simple: Billy Graham’s Life & Sermons Inspire Purity and Simplicity in Religious Writings

I grew up on a farm in North Carolina, and my mom always reminded me of the simple beginnings that North Carolina native Billy Graham came from. His life and message can inspire and inform your writing. Graham’s simple message gives a helpful model for writing, thinking theologically, connecting to the biblical text, and living out the truths you hold dear. Check out the following.

1. Heart and integrity matter. Billy Graham is evidence that God can use those of humble state to do great things. This theme is found throughout the Bible, describing the type of person God uses. Look at David; his own father did not summon him to meet Samuel when asked to gather them to anoint one as the next king. Jesse may not have considered David to be kingly material, but God did. God saw through the ruddy exterior to David’s heart. David focused on his relationship with God, again and again, through mistakes and great moments alike. Your heart and integrity matter in your writing. It will enable you to write with authenticity and passion.

2. Keep it simple. Billy Graham focused on a simple gospel message in his evangelistic sermons and crusades. Every sermon had a clear presentation of the Christian gospel, founded upon the message of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” That message was the heart and soul of every evangelistic crusade, everywhere he went. There was no need to reinvent himself every so often. Sometimes the best writing avoids contrivances, complex language, and complicated research. Certainly not all writing can be simplified for a popular audience but don’t think that complex subjects always require complex presentation.

3. Don’t overlook the biblical text. Listen to any sermon that Billy Graham ever preached and count the number of times he said, “The Bible says … .” He didn’t begin many sentences with “I think” or “I feel” or “I believe.” In that regard, Billy Graham, like the Reformers before him, believed Sola Scriptura. He spoke it, lived it, and preached it. Jews and Christians have longed been called “people of the book” because of the importance placed upon the scriptures held dear. Theological thinking should always deal first with an examination of biblical text. Not to do so ignores a huge portion of the Christian community.

4. Don’t get sidetracked by tradition and popular opinion. Billy Graham was a student of the Bible and was not swayed by opinion polls or church traditions that didn’t match biblical content. I have seen this error too many times in my own Understanding the Bible classes. Undergraduates know what they have been taught about the Bible, what others think about it, especially how others have used it in outrageous and terrible ways to justify actions that were anything but godly, yet so rarely know what the Bible actually says. Many times we look specifically at famous stories from the Bible, such as Genesis 1-3 or Jesus’ birth accounts in Matthew and Luke. Students are looking for Eve to bite an apple or wise men to show up at the manger and are often surprised as much by what the Bible does not say. Popular portrayals and church traditions do not always match what a fresh read of the Bible will reveal. Set aside your preconceived notions and hermeneutic of the moment. Anchor your writing to the biblical text first before moving to tradition, then evaluate tradition in light of the biblical text.

5. It’s about God. Graham was not just armed with biblical authority (The Bible says …) but a clear systematic theology grounded in the God of the Bible. To Graham, the Bible is indeed a message of God’s love, God’s invitation, God’s searching for lost coins and lost sheep, waiting with open arms like the father of the prodigal. You did not find God, but God found you and offered an invitation to join Him and become an adopted son or daughter in His kingdom.  Those invitations at the end of his crusades were not marked by extreme use of emotion, drama, or sales pitches. Graham thought that a clear understanding of God, His love, and His sacrifice would move people to respond. His invitations reflected this thinking. He most often used the hymn Just As I Am for the time people were given to respond to the message, which reflects the invitation to respond to God just as you are. Writing that responds to others in their current life situations will similarly be on target every time.

6. Emphasize freedom. In that regard, Graham taught that the message of God brings freedom based on your identity in God and the salvation work of Jesus. Graham preached and lived and breathed this message. Seek knowledge and truth in the same way. God is pleased with those who do so, recognizing the search is pleasing, not just an end goal. Graham’s argument clearly taught that a relationship with God frees one from bondage. If your writing liberates, empowers, and transforms, that is the highest goal you can attain—to connect with readers in a way that changes their lives.

7. Personal purity strengthens a simple message. Bringing this discussion full circle, Graham’s life reflected what he thought, believed, and preached, bringing power to his message through living it out every day. I remember hearing about how Graham had rules about not riding elevators or having a meal with a woman alone other than his wife. His purpose was to avoid any appearance or possibility of anything inappropriate. He kept a close circle of friends who kept each other accountable. Likewise, his children and spouse testify of his godliness and life and its consistency with his message. Living out your passions brings life to your writing and will inspire others to share in your journey.

Review of Rework

Rework is written by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson,  the co-founders of 37 Signals, a great client and company management system. They define 37Signals as : “Frustration-free web-based apps for collaboration, sharing information, and making decisions.” I can testify to that being the case. Baldwin Book Publishing is currently being developed using the 37Signals suite of products. They’re efficient, streamlined, intuitive and brilliant platforms for managing employees, projects, and client interaction.

So it’s no wonder that their book is exactly the same: fast, efficient, insightful, easy to read, and brilliantly applicable to not just business but life itself.

Loaded with insights on every page, this book is highlight-proof: forget about using a pen or highlighter to mark up important lines or passages. Every line and every paragraph is worthy of highlighting. It’s that good.

Here’s just a few of their main points, all of which, as I said, can apply to life, as well as business:

  • Companies should focus on building an audience, not customers. Speak, write, blog, and tweet the truth about yourself. Spread the word. Share information that’s valuable and you’ll slowly build a loyal audience.
  • Out teach the competition. Teaching forms a bond of trust because people appreciate your knowledge and begin to appreciate your credibility and authority.
  • By the same token, share everything you know. Be open and generous with your expertise. Be like a chef who shares her recipes. Compose your company’s cookbook, so to speak, and give it away, free of charge.
  • Take people behind the scenes by being transparent and exposing the “secrets” of your success. Give people a backstage pass. People are curious about how things work. They want to know how and why people make decisions
  • Above all, communicate genuinely: talk like you really talk; write like you talk; and don’t put on a phony, not-yourself voice for the public. Be real and you’ll be rewarded for it.

Those are just a few snippets from this great book. There’s so much more about starting a business, launching your products or services, choosing employees, and making decisions. Every chapter is quick, entertaining, instructive, and inspiring.

How Freud Helps Writers: Keeping Objections in Mind

How do you really learn the ins and outs of your subject matter? Nothing makes you know material better than teaching it. That’s why Freud’s Introductory Lectures makes such an interesting read. They are his lectures presented on psycho-analysis (Freud’s original spelling), which would have been fascinating anyway. But Freud keeps in his writing a key aspect of this lecture, literally interrupting the flow of his explanation with key questions that others may be thinking (and may have actually asked him in objection or skepticism). Discover how this book is more than a transcript but captures an introduction of the subject matter in a way that is helpful for your writing.

1. Intrigue your audience. Freud found an interesting way to delve into the subject of psycho-analysis. He started with some the most common and perhaps most interesting mysteries of human behavior and experience: parapraxes and dreams. Parapraxes literally are “faulty acts,” including the infamous Freudian slip or slip of the tongue. Freud presented these common mistakes and dreams, offering a fascinating theory for why they happen. Freud used these common mistakes as a doorway into the subject matter and built on this theory to construct a methodology for the treatment of neurotic disorders. So from the most simple, everyday experiences that are intriguing to people, he grabbed attention of listeners and readers alike and did not let go.

Likewise writers can grab their audience with this level of interest. Writers are often told to hook the writer with an interesting story, put them at ease with a joke, or involve them conversationally to win them over. Freud intrigues the reader with examples of slips of the tongue, which is a mystery that can leave even the person uttering the comment scratching his head as to why he said those very words. I wanted to know Freud’s answer as I read. Leave your readers wanting more and turning the page for the next nugget!

Along the way, listeners had to apply Freud’s theories to their human experience. Everyone has slips of the tongue. Everyone has dreams. Readers cannot help but start thinking, do Freud’s theories fit my reality? Why did I have that slip of the tongue? What does that dream mean? Freud’s theory became the subject matter of conversation about the topic, whether people agreed with him or not.

2. Identify possible objections. Freud had already experienced criticism for psycho-analysis as his treatment model. Perhaps this criticism put him on guard. Perhaps he had carefully debated all of these objections previously. In any case, with each point of his discourse Freud dealt with objections that people might be thinking among his audience. With humor at times, Freud took on possible critiques and made a stronger argument as a result.

In years of answering critical letters of the publishing products I work with, I have learned that sometimes people just want to be heard, understood, and validated as having a noteworthy argument, even if the discussion ends with both sides agreeing to disagree. Freud truly had a talent for noting objections in a way that validated questions and arguments just before he dismantled the argument.

For all of these reasons, I would argue Freud thought through his theories and their implications to a greater degree than most writers spend thinking about their topic. Every writer can learn from this type of clear thinking, noting grey areas or possible objections, and addressing them head on. Perhaps the possibility of being asked a question or being faced with an objection is the reason why every teacher learns his subject matter better. Anticipating objections and questions may actually cause you as a writer to think more clearly and succinctly in how you present your material and make your argument.

3. Provide examples to illustrate truths. Freud was the master of the case study. Freud’s case studies illustrated both his methods and the successful use of those methods in curing neurotic behavior. Freud’s case studies made his theory and treatment come alive. On a smaller level, Freud gave memorable examples of parapraxes and dreams that beautifully illustrated the heart of each type of slip and its connection to his model of interpretation.

There is a reason why most cultures told stories to pass down their history and beliefs from generation to generation. They are powerful tools in teaching and bringing alive truths that would otherwise be missed. Even in the most theoretical paper, your argument will be strengthened with examples. Illustrations give a concrete example of the theoretical.

4. Examine your deepest thoughts and dreams. Most people do not realize that Freud’s first patient was himself! He psycho-analyzed himself to discover the reasons for his behavior and actions. There is some validation in theories that powerfully help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, especially those areas of life that trouble you, where you can’t explain your own behavior. Freud specialized in those areas of life. Literally, he delved into the world of dreams to help free people from the obstacles that held them enslaved.

Some of the best writers explore their own issues, thoughts, hopes, dreams, difficulties, and successes to infuse their writing with emotion and reality. Don’t be afraid to go places in your writing that others consider taboo. Sometimes taking on one’s greatest fears and areas of frustration turn out to be the most freeing experiences.

5. Be willing to apply concepts to other areas of life and learning. Freud did not stop at the development of psycho-analysis and the examination of the human psyche. He used his methodology to explore group psychology, cultural anthropology, the development of art and religion, and the birth of the consciousness of the human species. Freud was a master at using his theory to other studies and areas of life.

Likewise never limit your thoughts and writing to one field of study. In today’s race to specialize in a specific field, we sometimes overlook areas that overlap and connections that naturally occur outside of our area of study. Similarly, don’t limit your writing and expertise. Life is a journey much like writing is a journey. Enjoy each step along the way!

Myers-Briggs for Writers: Why Knowing Personality Types Is Crucial for Your Writing

Personality inventories likes the Myers-Briggs are tools. They are not exhaustive, don’t typecast, and don’t limit your growth. In fact, many people identify their weaknesses and learn to compensate for them as a result of the inventory. They offer a glimpse into why you approach the world the way you do and can benefit you greatly in determining how you work with others. Check out this quick guide to the 8 personality types from the Myers-Briggs and some writing tips that are important for each one.

Favorite World: What gives you energy? Would you rather live more in the world of others, experiencing a burst of energy from other people? Or would you prefer to reside with your own thoughts, gaining energy through time alone to think and reflect?

Introverts get their energy from time spent in thought alone. I was surprised when I first inventoried as an introvert. I took it more like a bad diagnosis or personal offense. I considered myself an outgoing person and good speaker. Surely it had to be a mistake. After all, I took the inventory after a day full of student teaching in a local high school during my senior year of college. But the more times I took the inventory and continued to score as an introvert, I realized that introversion is not about friendliness or being outgoing but about where you receive your energy. Are you energized by time alone with your thoughts? Do people drain you? Then you are probably an introvert! The introverts in your audience will take time to read over each page, and maybe word, of your writing. They will take the time to respond, ask questions, and even argue with you (via e-mail of course). The more you write, the more you want introverts on your side!

Extroverts gain energy through time spent with others. They love to be around people, talk on the phone, and are the life of the party. They almost absorb energy from those around them. Extroverts love to read too but may not read as long. But you want to reach your extroverts. They are the ones who will be talking about your writing tomorrow at the water cooler! Give them something to talk about.

Information: People are either Sensing or Intuitive in the way they process information. They either take in information in a hands on way through their five senses, or they prefer to look for patterns and meanings that are greater than the here and now.

Sensing people experience the world through their primary senses and experience and live through those practical observations. They will notice if you change your magazine from glossy to matte because it “just doesn’t feel right!” They want concrete examples of things they can see, touch, smell, hear, and taste. Use descriptive words they place the reader inside your story. That’s the way to pull in those Sensing people in your audience. Give them a way to participate that is hands on. Inspire them to take action.

Intuitives see patterns and connections between the lines. They will think about ideas and meanings and find relationships in different areas of life. You want Intuitives reading your work to pick up on inconsistencies, gray areas, faulty thinking, or illogical conclusions. Let an Intuitive read your work before you turn it in to your editor. If you are writing a mystery, give them so many twists and turns that they try to see patterns and figure out where you are headed. They will love to figure it out!

Decisions: People are either Thinking or Sensing in how they make decisions and choices in life. Do you make decisions based on principles, values, and guidelines or do you think about the people and relationships that will be impacted by your decisions?

Feelers make decisions based on the people around them, taking into consideration their points of view and how decisions will impact them. Feeling is not indicative of emotion but making decisions based on personal relationships is. You will want feelers to read your work for inconsistencies based on motives and decisions that different characters make. Feelers may not like the ending of your book based on what happens to key people and relationships. But make a personal connection with your reader, and you will keep him forever.

Thinkers are able to look upon decisions with logic and consistency. They make great rule followers, thrive upon following principles in daily living, and make logical decisions. Thinkers also see cause and effect relationships and plan accordingly. Set your writing with clear principles of right and wrong. Challenge those principles in ways that are engaging to the reader.

Structure: People tend to be either Judging or Perceiving personalities, which describes someone’s basic approach to organizing and experiencing the world around them. Are you more structured and like to check things off your list or are you more flexible and spontaneous?

Perceivers are spur-of-the-moment, fun, and live-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-type people. They prefer to take in information and gather it to make decisions and often let the world come to them rather than to organize it and control it. Perceivers will tell you if your book is fun, exciting, and engaging. If you hook a Perceiver, then you have written a fascinating work. He may just go out and buy 10 copies to share with all of his friends!

Judging personalities are orderly, enjoying control of their world and responding to it in an orderly fashion. A reader who is Judging probably wants your book to be organized. He may read your book at the same time everyday. He will make a top ten list of the reasons why he likes your writing.

Use a variety of writing styles to draw in personalities. Don’t stereotype or pigeon hole your readers. Don’t write always from your personality type. The wider range of personalities you appeal to will only enhance your writing as well as your reader base. Have fun writing with personality!

How to Write a Classic Novel: 5 Elements That Will Turn Your Book into a Masterpiece

Want to write a novel that doesn’t just sell well but is also a classic, one that people are reading 100 years from now? Who doesn’t, right? Well, if you have some talent and try to include these 5 elements, your words—if not you yourself–might become immortal.

#1 Develop a strong narrative voice

You’ve got to have a powerful, sure-footed narrative voice. Your prose must percolate with life, full of energy and drive. Easy to say and easy to spot when you read it, but how exactly does a writer pull that off? How do you develop a unique, strong voice?

  • Read the classics and observe how the great ones did it. I don’t necessarily mean Plato, Virgil, and Shakespeare—though they couldn’t hurt you—but the more recent English language classic novelists, such as Faulkner, Hemingway, Wharton, Melville, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne…the list goes on. Throw in some late-20th century writers who may well pass the test of time, such as Updike, Bellow, Vonnegut, Cheever, and Malamud.
  • Just read good, solid novels in general. If you’re not sure which books are just good and which may be great, Google for lists of classics.
  • Study their techniques—their vocabulary, phrases, and sentences. See how they use point of view, tone, diction, figurative language, and the like.
  • If you’re not even sure who those writers or what those literary terms are, then you have a lot of homework to do.
  • Note that I said “develop a strong narrative voice.” Don’t be discouraged if you don’t have it right off the bat. Not many do. It takes total dedication to your writing craft and upwards of 10,000 hours of reading and writing before you get it.

#2 Dream up a new and interesting story—your story

Who wants to read the same old thing over and over again? Well, some people do, I guess, but most readers want to be surprised and delighted by a story that is unlike anything they’ve ever read before.

All the classics broke new ground. How can you tell a story no one’s ever read before? Why not look at your own life rather than, say, dragons and wizards and vampires? Those creatures populate some great books, but can you really tell a fresh, new story about subjects that have already been written about so often and so well? The really amazing fantasies, the truly wondrous stories left to be told are those about your own life.

You are a great story. Aren’t you? Haven’t you often thought and even told people, “My life would make a really strange (or great or weird or dope) book.” So…what are you waiting for? Sit down and tell some real life stories. Stories about you. Change the names, probably. Do some plotting and condensing and other essential novelistic tasks. And shape those episodic experiences of yours into a plotted novel, one with a conflict, a beginning, middle, and end, an arc, plot points, and resolutions.

Melville went to sea for years and wrote Moby Dick. Fitzgerald partied for years and wrote The Great Gatsby. Hemingway went to war and wrote A Farewell to Arms. Vonnegut was a prisoner-of-war and wrote Slaughterhouse-5. Almost all the classics were based on true stories—crafted, morphed, or mashed-up in one fantastic new way or another.

#3 Make it all fresh: style, plot, characters…everything as fresh as tomorrow’s tweets

Here’s what bores readers:

  • clichés or stereotypes
  • stock plots
  • a feeling that we’ve read or heard this all before
  • vague, lazy diction
  • one-dimensional, unsurprising characters and action

Here’s what thrills and amazes readers:

  • universality: a story that transcends time and place and could happen anywhere, anytime
  • being surprised by what characters say and do
  • defamiliarization: stories and characters that go against the grain, making the familiar seem strange. For Milan Kundera, one of the purposes of the novel is to question the commonplace, making it seem surprising, enigmatic: “It doesn’t just represent situations–jealousy, say, or tenderness or the taste for power–it arrests them, comes to a halt by them, looks closely at them, ponders them; interrogates them, asks questions of them, understands them as enigmas.”

# 4 Create metaphoric magic

Weave a tapestry of images, resonating motifs, tropes, and threads of figurative language throughout your novel. Again, if you don’t know what these terms mean, do your homework and learn. They’re essential elements of great fiction. Without them, your novel will seem dry, stale, somehow empty and unfulfilling. Readers might not even notice they’re missing, but they’ll feel that something is missing as they read.

#5 Think thematically: make it deep

Likewise with themes: without them, the readers will be left with a sense of “Is that all there is?” Books without rich, thematic content are like stomachs full of candy. What’s your point, moral, meaning, lesson? What did we learn, garner, get from the book? How did it enrich, teach, instruct us? What does it say about human nature, society, culture, issues, the world, the universe, life? Be sure to show the book’s theme through the plot points and characters’ trials. Don’t talk about the themes; don’t preach or pontificate. Make the story resonate with rich insights and moments of eureka-like crystallization. But never explain or draw blunt attention to the theme/s. Stop the readers in their tracks, making them pause to mull over and think about what just happened. If you can do that, you’ll have the makings of a classic.

“Eminem Never Graduated From College” and 9 Other Things Never to Say to a Professor

Every professor will tell you that there are two types of students he remembers: the students who are sharp, attentive, or thoughtful but also the ones who are unpredictable, rude, and apathetic. So that you will be remembered for the right reasons, the following are the top 10 things never to say to a professor.

10. Eminem never graduated from college and he did OK.

(Professor Hears: I don’t need to know anything from your class in real life.)

Eminem also stands out because there are so few people with that type of success story. Don’t imply that a class is not important or that you have been made to take the course.

9. Is this going to be on the exam?

(Professor Hears: I only care about making a good grade in your class.)

Professors want you to be engaged beyond the calculation of your GPA.

8. This isn’t English class. Why do you take off points for grammar?

(Professor Hears: I’m lazy and don’t apply what I learn outside the classroom.)

If you speak English, you should be able to write English. But that is a more difficult task for some students than others. Don’t be hesitant to use a good editing service for your work.

7. I know the essay is due tomorrow, but I want to change my topic.

(Professor Hears: I am the biggest procrastinator in the history of the world!)

I did this once … once. I ended up going with what I worked on anyway, so the only thing I accomplished was letting the professor know how much I procrastinated.

6. Oh, that’s in the syllabus?

(Professor Hears: I have not looked at the syllabus since the first day of class.)

Before you ask about an assignment, please check what the syllabus says about it!

5. That’s not true!

(Professor Hears: I am going to attack so you better defend yourself.)

There is a good way to challenge something you think the professor said incorrectly and a wrong way. Try the Jeopardy approach: state your concern in the form of a question.

4. May I turn this in late?

(Professor Hears: I deserve special treatment.)

Instead send a note to the professor telling why you are going to be late and apologize for doing so. Most professors have late policies clearly defined in their syllabus anyway.

3. Wah wah wah, wah wah wah, wah wah (think Charlie Brown “adult speak” but said to a friend during your lecture).

(Professor Hears: I am showing disrespect to you.)

There’s always time after class to chat. Your professor deserves your attention.

2. Sorry, I need to take this phone call.

(Professor Hears: I planned someone to call me so I could take a break from your class.)

Really? It is better to sit near the door and leave discreetly as possible than say anything during class. Texting during class? Read number 3!

1. Zzzzz! (Think sleep sounds!)

(Professor Hears: You are boring me out of my mind.)

This is a huge no-no. You may have a really good reason to be tired but opt for a Mountain Dew rather than a bad impression.

The 7 Sides of Writers and Their Characters: Hawthorne’s Just Like You

Another one of literature’s great prose stylists, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote darkly beautiful and haunting stories about sin, guilt, and personal redemption earned through humiliation under the glaring gaze of the hypocritical and self-righteous, the “pure and innocent” accusers. Writers have great material like that all around them.

Who hasn’t “sinned”? Who doesn’t have some secret they don’t want anyone to know about?

Go to any church where congregations consider themselves the “saved” and holy ones. Not that they aren’t. Many of those folks are truly good. Perhaps I go to one of those churches too. But a closer look at everyone’s life reveals sin and bad stuff they’re guilty of doing that makes for universal and timeless tales.

Here’s just a Hawthorne handful of ways to mine and develop great story ideas.

#1: What’s your haunted history?

Hawthorne’s great‑grandfather was a judge in the Salem witch trials. So that led him to write symbolic tales about the guilt of sin as a psychological burden. He had a Puritan heritage. So the strictures of that rigid religious sect troubled and informed his stories.

Everyone’s a haunted house. What ghosts and goblins haunt your mind or your family? How is the past still alive in you or your characters’ present?

#2: What are your dark secrets?

His friend Melville said that Hawthorne’s works have the “power of blackness” about them—a dark secret past or present dominates everything.

  • Is there any “blackness” in your life or world?
  • Any conflicts of disturbed moral and psychological conditions?
  • Any hidden depravity?
  • Any rebellious impulses?
  • Any morbid thoughts?

 

#3: What’s your psychological tension?

Hawthorne’s stories are tense and suspenseful because of the psychological forces ripping and tearing at the characters’ hearts. Read any of his books or short stories and you’ll be gripped by their oppositions, their conflicts, their ambiguities, such as:

  • Between wanting solitude and wanting company
  • Between dependence and independence
  • Between secretiveness and disclosure
  • Between talking and silence
  • Between forgiveness or vengeance
  • Between accepting or rejecting

Craft characters and stories that resonate with readers because tensions are explored.

#4: What’s your lonely and solitary disposition?

Do you ever feel out of place, like a stranger in your own world? This sense of isolation and alienation—where does it come from? Is it real or imagined? Are you actually being ignored and talked about behind your back—excluded and ostracized—or are you paranoid and delusional?

Hawthorne—and all of the mid-19th century writers—dwelt long and deep on these subjects.

  • Hester and Goodman Brown lost in the forests—both real and of their own imaginings
  • Poe’s Pym in the caverns near the South Pole
  • Melville’s Ahab in his stark lunacy, madly pursuing the white whale across the 7 Seas
  • Whitman on the westward trail seeking himself
  • Twain’s Huck Finn drifting on a raft down the mighty Mississippi
  • Thoreau in self-imposed hermitage on Walden’s pond

#5: Your life comes down to this question: “What would happen if…?”

Here’s a gem of a story-starting tip: many of Hawthorne’s stories are plotted around an outlandish, outrageous, even bizarre event or set of circumstances. Something happens or something is a certain way. The characters are thrust into it or create it for themselves somehow. Then, the rest of the story takes place as a reaction to these events or circumstances. Just as if Hawthorne had dreamed it up by thinking to himself: “Hmm….I wonder what would happen if…?”

Wow. We jump in before looking. We go for it when don’t even know what it is, really. Damn the consequences when we want something.

#6: Who’s the allegorical you?

You are an allegory. Yes, you are. Don’t try to deny it. You have attitudes and ideas, don’t you? You live in the material world but have some kind of spiritual side, right? At least occasionally, you spout off about moral truths and lessons of life, right? If so, you’re a living, breathing allegory. And so is everyone you know.

Make your characters stand for something.

Symbols are related to allegory: they’re things that stand for something else. Back to the mid-19th century we go for classic examples:

  • Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter “A”
  • Melville’s white whale Moby Dick
  • Poe’s Raven
  • Twain’s Mississippi River
  • Whitman’s Leave of Grass
  • Thoreau’s pond at Walden

There are symbols all around you. In my own dark and distant past, I sold cars. Car lots symbolize my hardcore salesman side. I also played hard rock music in hard rock bands—even today they symbolize my wild side. What do you do? Where do you hang out? What material objects mean something to you? They’re all symbols you can infuse with resonant meaning.

#7: Where’s your Romantic side?

Here’s Hawthorne’s classic definition of a Romance: “…a neutral territory somewhere between the real world and fairy‑land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet…” (from “Custom-House”, his preface to The Scarlet Letter).

You’ve got a room in your brain just like that. Unlock it and use it in your writing:

  • Explore the realm midway between the objective world and your private thoughts.
  • Let your imagination run wild on the page by writing fast and getting into a zone, perhaps by starting with something that really happened and letting what you wanted to happen or fantasized about happening actually happen on the page or screen.
  • Live large through your writing.
  • Dig deep into the depths of your characters’ reasons and motivations for doing what they do.
  • Show life in all its complexity and ambiguity.

Ah, Hawthorne. What a writer: haunted, dark, tense, alienated, wondering, wandering, allegorical, symbolic, and romantic. Just like you.

5 Fabulous Takeaways for Writers from Robert Frost

Robert Frost has written some of the most quoted poems ever. What writer hasn’t heard of” “The Road Less Traveled By” (“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—/ I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference”)?  Or “Stopping by Woods” (“But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep/And miles to go before I sleep”)? Or “Mending Wall” (“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…”)?

His poetry is deceptively simple: simple because he’s easy to understand (on the surface) but deceptive because there’s a lot of undercurrents and crosscurrents going on. Lots of irony, sarcasm, paradox, and even bitter cynicism.

He created a nice grandfatherly image for himself, but some bios suggest he was far from the “nice grandfather.” But, bios aside, we’ll have a look at his attributes, ideas, and style. There’s a boatload of takeaways a writer can get from studying Frost. Here’s 5 main ones, each with many parts.

Frost’s appeal

Work on finding an “appeal”—making your writing “appealing” in some way, to some audience.

Frost aimed, as you can, to appeal to the masses and not the esoteric few. In simple, unaffected language he wrote of familiar objects and the “character” of New England.

His poetry paints pictures of an idyllic America of the past. It’s an escape from the overly complex, anxious, urbanized society of some of his peers, such as T.S. Eliot.

Frost has four attributes from the 19th century

It might seem strange to suggest to a 21st century writer that looking back at and modeling some 19th century strategies and ways of seeing the world would be helpful. But some ideas are timeless, some attributes universal.

  • As Emerson put it, Frost has “an original relation to the universe”
    • He stressed the benefits of physical labor
    • He communed with the environment
      • eg. “Two Tramps in Mud Time”; “After Apple Picking”; etc.
      • For other examples, read Whitman’s “To a Learned Astronomer”…
  • Use your intuition. Frost seldom proceeded from reasoning or thinking. As Melville said: “I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head!”
  • Develop a sense of your own national identity in literature. Emerson had demanded that American poets seek independence. Frost knew he was good and knew he was carving out an American niche in his poetry.
  • Be self‑reliant. Emerson enthroned the complete mental and spiritual independence of each individual. Frost’s self‑reliance manifests itself in a total immersion in the daily activities of country life.

Frost’s theories of poetry

Never interrupt a master when he’s speaking. I’ll just post these quotes from Frost without elaborating. They should give you plenty of food for thought about your own poetry or writing in general.

  • “A poem must not begin with thought first. It begins with a lump in the throat.”
  • “Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.”
  • Composition is a process of letting the poem take over: “like a piece of ice on a hot stove, the poem must ride on its own melting.”
  • “Art strips life to form.”
  • “Poetry makes you remember what you didn’t know that you knew.”
  • “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”
  • “A poem is a momentary stay against confusion.”

Frost’s style

  • Frost composes for the ear, loving the sound of words: “They are always there, living in the cave of the mouth. They are real cave things: they were before words were. They are as definitely things as images of sight.”
  • There’s a taut, muscle‑bound quality to his poetry. A real economy of expression.
  • He doesn’t write in free verse, saying that’s “like playing tennis without a net.” His blank verse provides the flavor of idiomatic American speech. He transposes accents at will, adding or subtracting feet whenever he likes. Frost’s blank verse is very regular and careful but appears casual.
  • He usually starts with a simple concrete event or action—such as apple picking, repairing a wall, swinging in a tree, or wielding an axe—that leads to a philosophical observation or insight.
  • He’s the modern master of dramatic narratives, such as “Home Burial” and “Death of the Hired Man.” He’s been compared to Chekov in how he captures subtle changes in emotion through dialogue.

Frost’s subjects and themes

Don’t approach Frost with any preconception of his system or overall vision of reality because he deconstructs himself.

  • Try deconstructing yourself:
    • Be unpredictable
    • Compose stories or poems with conflicting or multiple viewpoints
    • Never settle for clichés or stereotypes
    • Be fresh and original or don’t bother to write at all. Find another profession. Seriously.
    • Read my blog on deconstruction for more details.
  • Man in conflict with a chaotic world, searching for order while everything around him is changing and decaying.
  • Frost called himself a “synechdochist”: by exploring one representative corner of humanity, he was probing a sample of the larger crowd (ala Wm. Faulkner).
  • The individual’s relationship with himself, his fellow man, his world, and God. Man is an entity—one among many—yet alone with his fate.
  • Mutability: spring and autumn; new life, dying life; everything changes: “nothing gold can stay,” he wrote. And in his darkest, most troubling poem of all—”Out, Out‑‑”—an entire family brushes off a boy’s death almost immediately: “And they, since they/Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” Life goes on for those still alive.

A Modernist to the core, Frost he found new ways to be new. So should you.

Review of Poke the Box

Poke the Box by Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com) could just be the coolest, most inspirational little book this side of…let’s see…I can’t think of one as good except maybe Tribes, one of Godin’s earlier books. That’s saying something, since I’ve been a literature teacher since 75 (1975 for you youngsters). I’ve read a lot of books and heard about thousands more. Hands down, Godin is the man for manning up, going for it, and just doing it.

Not just about business or success or entrepreneurial enterprising—though those are the primary subjects—Poke is about taking life by the horns, about carpe diem (seizing the day), manhandling your fears and resistance, starting, innovating, taking charge, leading, demanding the most from yourself and others, and just plain getting the job done, whatever it is.

“All around you,” Godin pokes, “are platforms, opportunities, and entire organizations that will come to life once you are driven enough and brave enough to contribute the initiative they are missing.”

One of the main problems with the world that he sagely identifies—saging is what Godin does best—is that very few people take the initiative, poke the box, draw the map, start something!  “Almost no one says, ‘I start stuff.’…Where is the VP of starting?”

Putting his money where his mouth is, Godin has started many wonderful things, including Squidoo.com, 12 books (that have become best sellers), and now The Domino Project (www.thedominoproject.com). Powered by Amazon, “The Domino Project is named after the domino effect—one powerful idea spreads down the line, pushing from person to person. The Project represents a fundamental shift in the way books (and digital media based on books) have always been published. Eventually consisting of a small cadre of stellar authors, this is a publishing house organized around a new distribution channel, one that wasn’t even a fantasy when most publishers began. We are reinventing what it means to be a publisher, and along the way, spreading ideas that we’re proud to spread.”

Very exciting stuff! As is this entire book—full of empowering, inspirational ideas, techniques, strategies, and encouragement for companies and people, large and small, ready or not. “You must make a difference or you squander the opportunity.”