[stylist] Good writing-firewood cutting

Wed Feb 25 05:19:39 UTC 2009

you cut your own firewood?  what an excellent woman,

I did that too.  no fireplace in homes I've lived in in the city.
jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 09:57 PM 2/24/2009, you wrote:
>Good article, Lori. Yes, as Judith said, blind people are just people. We
>laugh, cry, get mad and experience happiness just like everyone else. We are
>writing to people's perception however. The majority of people don't know
>what Judith, I, and so many of you know without thinking about it. We write
>to educate people without their knowing they're being educated. It is the
>implicit education we engage in every time someone sees us doing something
>they didn't think a blind person could do. When we go to college we achieve
>this education. When we get a job, raise our kids, cook, clean, cut
>firewood, on and on and on. When we write realistic stories about blind
>people we educate the imaginative part of people which drove them to the
>story in the first place. When we write true stories about ourselves and our
>lives, all so much the better.
>         So what am I, an editorial and analysis writer for the most part,
>doing espousing the value of writing stories about blind people? I know the
>value of the anecdote, as I use it in my own writing. It appeals to the
>emotion, grabs the heart, and so, if used judicially, is a powerful tool of
>persuasion.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of LoriStay at aol.com
>Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 5:08 PM
>To: stylist at nfbnet.org
>Subject: [stylist] Good writing
>
> >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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