Little Steps

This is the perfect time to start. The pitter-patter of rain adds to whatever we are up to. And it gives me a feeling that no action is a struggle,but a thing of beauty.

Here I'm trying to weave some letters to this white sheet in the backdrop of a shower. Of course I can see that there is dearth of words, but the effort looks pleasant and promising.

Writing has always been like this for me. It has mad the journey so far very exciting. I must say nothing significant has turned up yet, but everything has been sublime. Every joy had a story, every tears gave growth, every journey became an adventure and moments were created out of whatever being confronted. What more one can ask for!

Stories always fascinated me. It is not the content or the emotion part, but the ability to create a world out of a situation which is meaningless otherwise. The possibility that we can add beauty to any given plot. Isn't it the purpose of life- to leave everything a little more beautiful than when we found it!

As a child, I remember that we made a story out of everything. We waited for our parents to come back to a world full of stories. Nothing significant, yet a day embracing wonder and curiosity. And that boy never had a dull day. How a being who makes stories for others to listen to can ever have a boring life!

And as he grew up, creating stories became a process. Now he spends hours in order to begin one. Losing curiosity and sense of wonder can be so disheartening for a creative person for he only analyses the life journey as a mean to better himself. 

How rightly someone said that in the problem itself lies the solution! The key to creation is to never lose your sense of wonder. Look at everything as if a new story is unfolding in front. Whatever life throws at you, weave letters out of it.

And that exactly is the plan. We don't need anything extra-ordinary to set-up a plot.The little things, small steps, tiny victories, sorrows can be written well. It gives lessons of growth. With that we can make this world a little more beautiful. 

Love.

Author's Note

Feel free to come up

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I have reading poetry at Poetry reading for 40 years and I try to get people to write. I tell everyone. You have a story to be written. I like when I can have long conversations about life with a stranger. I liked the logic of your thoughts. We need more writers and we need to listen to the person near us. Hell Vin. I hope you are doing well.
Coyote

[JayG]

• This is the perfect time to start. The pitter-patter of rain adds to whatever we are up to.

You need to take into account that this is meaningless to a reader. “This” is the time to start? Your time or mine? You know, but the reader has no meaningful reference. They don’t know who’s speaking or why, so what’s personally meaningful to you is opaque to the reader. Remember, they have only what the words suggest to them, and no access to your intent for the meaning they’re to take.

• The pitter-patter of rain adds to whatever we are up to.

Can’t agree. If what I’m up to is changing a tire the pitter-patter of rain is a definite downer. And if my house's roof leaks it’s not a happy event. Be careful of projecting your own viewpoint on the reader unless you motivate them to feel as you do.

• And it gives me a feeling that no action is a struggle,but a thing of beauty.

You believe that doing nothing is a thing of beauty? I’m glad you don’t work for me. 🙄

Again, the reader has no context for your intent.

• Here I'm trying to weave some letters to this white sheet in the backdrop of a shower.

Look at this as a reader who just arrived must:

1. “Here?” As in on this page, where you are, or...? You know what it means to you, but the reader can’t. We can’t say, “You know what I mean,” because the reader doesn’t.

2. "White sheet?" This isn’t a white sheet, I’m reading, it’s a computer screen. And, readers have no clue of where you were as you wrote this, or your intended meaning. So as they read, to the reader, the words “white sheet” suggest what’s on their bed. Not what you meant, true, but it is what you said. Be careful to ensure that the reader has context, as-they-read.

3. “The backdrop of a shower? In the backdrop of my shower is a tile wall, so without context, this is confusing. And if you’re trying to write, the sound of rain is the backdrop, not the page. That’s in the foreground. Think of the meaning of the term “background music” and you’ll see what I mean.

• Writing has always been like this for me.

“Like this?” You only write when it’s raining? Again, it is what you said—as the reader views it.

Here’s the thing: You’re focused on what’s meaningful to you, but not making the reader know that in terms meaningful to THEM. And as someone who critiqued manuscripts I have to comment that "Story," which you seem focused on, isn't what matters. The writing is. Unless you make the reader WANT to turn to the next page because of what happened on the present page, and do that on every page, they won’t. Story is something to be savored in retrospect. But writing—your ability to make the action seem so real that if someone punches the protagonist the reader feels it—is what matters, page-by-page. Without the skills of doing that it won't happen. But if the reader turns away on page one you’ve wasted the time it took to write the rest.

Why I mention that so strongly is that the knowledge of how to hook and keep the reader is something not only not taught us in our school days, the very existence of those skills existance wasn’t mentioned. But still, they're skills every hopeful writer needs.

Give the best story ever conceived to a hopeful writer and the result will be rejected before the end of page one, because they’ll use the nonfiction writing skills we’re given in school, and the result will be, in publisher’s terms, unreadable. But give a lousy plot to a pro and they’ll have you turning pages till it says, “the end.”

In fact, the single greatest cause of rejection is a belief that the writing techniques we’re given in our school-days is useful for fiction. The reason we don’t see that for ourselves is that we forget that ALL professions are learned IN ADDITION TO the set of general skills employers want us to have.

I know this isn’t what you hoped to hear. Who would? But you did ask, and if we want to please people used to reading professionally written fiction, picking up the tricks the pros feel necessary isn’t optional. So visit the library’s fiction-writing section, or pick up a good book on technique, like James Scott Bell’s, Elements of Fiction Writing. It’s filled with things that will make you say, “But…that’s so obvious. Why didn’t I see it for myself?”

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/

[barleygirl]

You have found an artful way to say something I'm often hammering on with writers: Take your judgement out of the situation . . . don't deem things good or bad, just tell the story. You've SHOWN how a writer can suspend the need to over-manipulate a story, just let the story tell itself. When you have a strong storyline, you don't need artificial drama. I've thought & preached this so often, yet you are putting this into a lyrical journey of words here. Nice job! This is how to tempt your audience into taking a journey with you, rather than leading them with a heavy hand! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Fairy Khan]

Such a sweet little memoir. Nicely penned.

P.S. There is a spelling mistake in the second paragraph’s second line. You have misspelled ‘made’ as ‘mad’.

[Vin]

Thank u for reading and pointing out the error. I will keep improving.
Regards