Thoughts on Writing
As I continue writing In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day I'm thinking out loud via my blog. I'm really viewing this first published book as a learning curve. I think every writer wants every book to be a best-seller :) But I'm trying to manage my expectations. And I'm being hyper-vigilant about learning along the way. Because I feel called to write I know this is one small step that will hopefully be one giant leap. I hope the first few books sell well and bless lots of people, but they are also about trying to find my voice. And I don't think that happens in one book.
Anywho.
Novelist John Updike said that books externalize our brains. I think they also externalize our souls.
In so many ways, I feel like In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is an externalization of my soul. And baring your soul can be an unnerving. It's a little scary thinking about reading what I wrote ten years now. Have you ever seen an old picture of yourself that makes you grimmace? Hopefully I won't look back on this book like I do on my zoot suit, huge glasses that covered 2/3rds of my face and required two hands to adjust, or mullet hairdo in college.
While I wrote the better part of In a Pit in one month, it really took ten years to write. I think writing comes in two stages. Stage one is living. Stage two is writing. I've read books that have bypassed stage one and they lack authenticity. A book is always part autobiography. There is a difference between writing what you're thinking and writing what you're living. The best books are the byproduct of a life well-lived.
In a sense, writing a book is sort of like making a model airplane. You painstakingly glue it together and hope it flies. But you also know it might crash :) So you tentatively launch the plane into mid-air. That's how it feels. The final edits are the final checklist before takeoff. And then you let her fly!
Anywho.
Novelist John Updike said that books externalize our brains. I think they also externalize our souls.
In so many ways, I feel like In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is an externalization of my soul. And baring your soul can be an unnerving. It's a little scary thinking about reading what I wrote ten years now. Have you ever seen an old picture of yourself that makes you grimmace? Hopefully I won't look back on this book like I do on my zoot suit, huge glasses that covered 2/3rds of my face and required two hands to adjust, or mullet hairdo in college.
While I wrote the better part of In a Pit in one month, it really took ten years to write. I think writing comes in two stages. Stage one is living. Stage two is writing. I've read books that have bypassed stage one and they lack authenticity. A book is always part autobiography. There is a difference between writing what you're thinking and writing what you're living. The best books are the byproduct of a life well-lived.
In a sense, writing a book is sort of like making a model airplane. You painstakingly glue it together and hope it flies. But you also know it might crash :) So you tentatively launch the plane into mid-air. That's how it feels. The final edits are the final checklist before takeoff. And then you let her fly!
5 Comments:
Good thoughts brotha!
You're so right about living it before you write it. I think the power behind any book or message is the life behind it that's living it out.
I appreciate you letting us in on the process. I am hoping someday to tackle a book but have no idea how to even start, where to go, who to talk to, or even what to write about.....which would probably be helpful.
Looking forward to the book, Mark.
...book, Mark? Bookmark? Ok, this isn't going where I intended...
Yeah... well anyway... press on, man! You're inspiring all of us who have stories to tell to get busy living and telling them.
And it's great to hear how you're working through the process and thinking [blogging] out loud as you go!
Hmm... Now I'm wondering. Will there be a bookmark for the Book, Mark? A "Mark bookmark to mark the Book" in some way?
Ok, I'll stop. :-D
Johnny,
If I had a nickel for everytime I've heard the bookmark line :)
Actually I like that bookmark idea, but would it actually be a markbookmark?
Mark
I think you should write a book about writing books.
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