Stepping in the Write Direction

In a sermon airing Sunday, Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, used one of his father's favorite quotations: " Ah, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream; but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, "The dream is true "!" I love the sound and meaning of these words, and was curious to find the actual text source. It's been quite a treasure hunt! I don't give up easily, but fell short of finding the exact origin in a  poem or essay. I did learn some things about the man responsible for it. You might recognize one of his other poems, "Outwitted": " He drew a circle that shut me out--Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him in!" Poet Edwin Markham (1852-1940) was the youngest of 10 children when his father abandoned the family due to his belief Edwin was not his biological child. His early years were dif...

A fellow "My Book Therapy" member recently started a discussion thread using a quotation from a magazine article appearing in "Christianity Today" ("Words that Nourish"):  "The relationship between the living Word embodied in Christ and the rich gift of words that is ours to use and care for is a mystery worth much pondering.  Surely amongst our most urgent and joyful responsibilities is to tell stories, to listen well, to resist the forces that flatten and inflate and beat language into alluring lies and to stay in conversation."  This quotation does reverberate with me, as I have been thinking a lot lately about the state of language and the written word in America. Linguistics seems to have taken quite a hit with the advent of text messaging, which has a language all it's own; familiar words and expressions are transformed into abbreviations and acronyms, driving a wedge between generations, and possibly a wooden stake through the heart ...

Judging from the amount of time it took to write a handful of paragraphs for my initial blog post, I am off like a herd of turtles. I'll sooth my ego by remembering what French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1657 (in translation) " I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." Brevity in verse seems inversely proportionate to the time spent achieving it. Researching online writing resources, blogs, and related information is like standing between two mirrors reflecting each other as their dizzying duplicated images telescope endlessly in both directions. One link leads inevitably to endless other links, until you are lost in a virtual maze, time vanishes down an electronic rabbit hole, and the digital undertow pulls you further into the web. Real life conspires against you as you seek to carve time from your schedule to learn the writer's craft. I've been reading Walter Mosley's book,...

Can anyone become a writer, or do you have to be born with the "author gene"? There are countless self help books on every aspect of the writer's craft as well as seminars and retreats to polish your education.  It's enough to make you think the only things between you and a best seller are the right choice of metaphor, a "hook" that won't let readers go until the last word is savored,  and the discipline to park yourself in front of a keyboard on a daily basis.  I imagine David Baldacci, James Patterson, and Walter Mosley were born with the kind of talent that wakes them up night after night with great plotlines that must be jotted on pads, as they contemplate their next 5 novels in the midst of writing number 12, while simultaneously completing the final edits for number 11, and packing for number 10's book tour. My greatest fear is that no amount of reading, education and sheer willpower can trump raw talent...