[stylist] Good writing

[LoriStay at aol.com]

>From Slate & Style, volume 18, #2, July 2000

The Purpose of Writing
 by Loraine Stayer

Why do you write?   I've no doubt that we each have different reasons for 
wanting to put words on paper.   For some, writing is a means to earn money.   
Those lucky souls who earn their livelihood at the computer have under their 
belts all the tricks of the trade, including marketing, research, the proper 
contacts, and a way with words.

I recently read a short article about genre writing.   This involves 
tailoring your work to a genre that has a niche already carved out.   People will buy 
your work.   They will, in fact, clamor for it.   On the other hand, writing 
to a formula rarely satisfies the soul.   It's a means to an end, not the end 
itself.

But good writing is an end in itself.   Timeless writing will stay in the 
minds of the readers, becoming tomorrow's oft quoted nuggets of wisdom, or if one 
is lucky, tomorrow's cliches.   What would be an example of good writing? The 
Gettysburg Address springs to mind.  The Twenty Third Psalm is another.   
Most of the work of Shakespeare falls under this category.

If you can sell your work, more power to you.   If you can produce good 
writing and sell yur work, even better.   But if you can produce good writing, sell 
your work, and change the world for the better, that would be best of all.

Members of the NFB Writers' Division are in the best position to write about 
blindness, and to write well enough so that what we write can be published and 
sold.   If one searches through the literature for images of blindness, 
accuracy is difficult to find.   Dr. Jernigan told us in his banquet speech at the 
NFB National Convention in 1974 (Blindness, Is Literature Against Us?) that 
damaging stereotypes of blindness abound in published fiction.   Here and there 
one can find exceptions, but one needs to search.

We need to change this.   The way to do it is to sit down and list situations 
in our own lives and write about them honestly.   Were they funny?   Were 
they painful?   Do they illustrate some truth about blindness that doesn't fall 
into a stereotype?   What did the situations lead to?   This isn't genre 
writing, and it may not make us a great deal of hard cash, but writing truth that 
springs from our lives will produce work that is original and honest.

Where can we publish our stories?  Slate & Style will consider them under 
2000 words.   NFB's Kernel Book series (now ended, sorry folks) such stories.   
If we were lucky enough to get into a Kernel Book, our stories would be read by 
many more people than the number who read Slate & Style.   It's even possible 
that the story will appear in The Braille Monitor, or in Future Reflections.

Is the story universal enough?   Blindness alone won't interest commercial 
publishers, sad to say.   Is there romance, or adventure?   Is there danger?   
Did we solve problems that anyone might have?   Will our stories interest 
people who are not blind?

I think sometimes a danger exists that in the interest of getting published, 
or piquing the imagintion of the average reader, we may buy into fantasies 
that in the long run can be damaging.   The blind person as super-man, for 
example:   A super sense of hearing, or a super sense of smell.   Sure, some people 
have great hearing, and some people have sensitive noses, but blindness 
doesn't cause these characteristics.

Some year ago, I read a story about a blind detective named Longstreet.   His 
abilities were phenomenal.   They were not, however, realistic.   Could a 
blind person be a private detective?   Certainly, bearing in mind that 
alternative techniques would be brought into play.   But rarely do these alternative 
techniques have supernatural qualities.

Would such a story sell?   Yes it would.   Are you a real life detective?   
For heaven's sake, write about it!   How do you do your work?   Inquiring minds 
want to know.

At a recent NFB chapter meeting, one of our members asked, "How do we 
educated the public?"   My answer was, "One person at a time."   That is true of 
personal contact.   But if we can write, then we can educate the public in bulk.

It's not a genre.   It may not make you rich.   But I bet it will be good 
writing.   It certainly will serve a purpose.   It certainly will improve our 
lives.

What are you waiting for?
**



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