~Words Matter~

Tropical Storm Isaac was about to reach hurricane status.With everything outdoors secured, food and water on hand, radio and flashlight batteries checked, candles and matches at the ready, the wait-and-see time had begun.

Hour after hour. Isaac, master of the waiting game, crawled up the Gulf of Mexico, keeping all  of us in it miles-wide range in suspended animation. When it moved a little westward and its projected path was still uncertain, I decided to make an evacuation contingency list, just in case. It can be hard to think straight in a crisis. What would you take?

Something about the world we live in is reflected in what I put on my list. Without any hesitation I wrote : (1) large memory stick (it contains all my computer files) and (2) cell phone and charger. First things first, after all.

As it turned out, Isaac's back edge barely brushed by. Unlike some others, we got lucky again. I'll keep  those lists handy, though. Hurricane season has 6 or 7 weeks to go.

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A category in the game the other day called for contestants to change the meaning of a word by adding one letter. Playing around with the notion later I thought for some reason how adding an 's' to the word comic makes it cosmic. At first that sounds like a big stretch, but maybe it isn't.

Too often I think we writers get carried away with grand ideas, striving for greatness if not fame (i.e. the cosmic) when real genius lies in the familiar ordinary (the seemingly trivial or comic.)

Granted, it takes a certain amount of ego to write. Still, we need to remember to take the work seriously. . ..but not ourselves.

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Browsing the 'S' section in the downtown library I came across a novel by one of the famous twentieth century British mystery writers, Dorothy Sayers. When I saw where it was set, I couldn't resist. Oxford has always held a fascination for me and ever since a stay there researching my "Campion!" screenplay, I've been a sucker for all things Oxfordian. The scenes in the "Inspector Lewis" series on PBS make me sigh with nostalgia.

But back to Sayers' book. Several things struck me. Let me say her manuscript would never make it past the desk of one of today's grad student publishing house readers. Too slow, too wordy, too many characters. What a difference a few decades and technology make. We're impatient and haven't time now for plots to unravel slowly, much less for lush description.

As the British might say, more's the pity. Sayers was a master at both.

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"Writing is thinking on paper."

Or on a screen, on your palm, a linen napkin or whatever is handy.

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"Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind; it forces you to stretch your own." Charles Scribner, Jr.

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