Eating Cake

As it is not my field of study and I haven’t raised any children, I’m not as versed in the area of children’s literature as most parents. It turns out that there’s a series of books by an author named David Shannon for early readers, one of them titled, “No, David!” In my previous post, I commented on the humor I found in the young boy going on-and-on about “No this and No that” and always referring to the name David that I was certain his name was David. A friend from high school alerted me to this book and the most likely origin of this young boy’s comedic material. Now, I felt that I remembered exactly what that little boy had said, some of it in a specific order and some of it repeated. I had to know if he was just reading the book and I didn’t see him reading it or if there was more to it than that.

So I read, “No, David!” Thankfully I was able to complete it in the confines of the library and not have to add that book to my historical record of checked out material. I found some of the passages he said, but couldn’t find all of them. I also don’t remember him flipping pages while I heard him performing his diatribe. What still stays with me though is his inflection and tone, he was clearly familiar with the proper intonation to deliver the lines whether he was reading or reciting from memory. I suppose I owe my school friend those five bucks for pointing this series of books out to me. Although I could hold out on the technicality that I can neither confirm nor deny whether his name might actually have been David. Maybe that’s why he was so good at delivering the lines! [smirk]

It’s been over a month since my last entry. Perhaps I should have started that with, “Forgive me readers…” Some travel back to Minnesota, holiday visits and normal challenges of writing have all contributed to my absence here. I thought I might share some of the things I’ve learned as this process continues for me. Some of it is about writing a book, some of it about the specific content, but some of it is just about life in general.

I believe I’ve spoken previously in a post about motivation now that I’m writing for myself. If not, I certainly implied about the challenges. In the absence of a boss or even a paycheck, I opted to structure a different type of payment system to keep me producing and writing… the classic carrot approach. Tied to my daily word-count goals there now exist milestones that represent “paydays.” When I meet the milestone, I get to collect the payday. I actually came up with this by realizing there’s something that I do enjoy but also think of as slightly decadent. If you happened to be attached to my Facebook page you can probably guess what I’m talking about. I do love a good massage.

Another realization came when I connected two related facts. I receive motivation to write by reading related material. This is pretty standard, as my friend Maureen has shared many times, “To be a writer, you must be a reader.” It also became clear that I receive even more motivation when discussing this material with other people. Again this should not come as a surprise. Why do we all accept that paying tens of thousands and now hundreds of thousands of dollars for college educations as necessary if we didn’t think it was more effective than just buying the requisite text books and reading them? Surely part of that is for the structure and the accreditation of it, but also because the interaction of a classroom and teacher is likely more impactful than the straight written word.

That should be simple enough then, just talk to people about your work. Interestingly, I didn’t really think about how much of a conversation stopper telling people that you’re writing a book on the meaning of life actually is. Seriously, I would say at least 9 out of 10 times, that statement ends the line of questioning and probably the entire conversation half of the time. [laughing] In truth though, I understand that for so many reasons. First, the statement “meaning of life” typically implies some spiritual and religious context. Those are incredibly personal topics. Just because I’m writing a book about it doesn’t mean the other person is interested in hearing my thoughts, sharing their own or even prepared to think about the topic at all. In recognizing this fact, I almost never initiate or press a conversation about my book, often soft-peddling it when questioned to avoid potential theological debates especially in casual social settings. Second, there’s a precedent set by people of strong beliefs that for me was never exactly positive. I suppose the best word I can come up with for it is righteous. There’s been more than one occasion where I can claim I’ve personally avoided conversations of that nature… including every time someone rang my doorbell to discuss their views on religion. I’m quite certain I could write a 15-minute comedy skit on that topic alone.

So I find myself in an interesting conundrum. I benefit from conversations with people regarding the topic of my book, sometimes the most when engaged with people of differing beliefs. However, I respect people entirely too much to engage in those conversations for my own benefit. Happily I’ve found a few willing participants to share their viewpoints with me on various topics and I’ve started to consider venturing out to other venues where there might be additional banter to be found. Without turning this blog into a recruiting forum, if you find yourself interested and motivated enough to inquire more as to what I mean, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Lastly, I’ll share a quick mantra that I’ve used whenever I think of it. Each morning, I say to myself, “Every day is an opportunity to improve your writing.” Whether that improvement comes in the form of more words, edited words or just new ideas is what makes each day interesting. But on a grander scale, perhaps a more universal application of that thought would be,

“Every day is an opportunity to improve your life.”

Happy Holidays and Be Well!