I couldn’t have been more than ten, and we were reading short stories in my class at school. I don’t remember the name of the story, or who wrote it. All I know is that it affected me so deeply that I’m writing about it now, forty-five years later.
It was about a boy that somehow got trapped in a sewer pipe. You know the ones you can barely glimpse when you look down a grate in the street. I was a hostage of that story; the author described it so well that for a short time, I was that terrified kid. The boy knew he had to keep going forward to find a way out. He ended up in a pipe just barely larger than he was, unable to back up, a wall of mud in front of him. He started to panic and scrabble, afraid he was going to smother in that dark place. But by making himself be still and just breathe, he realized that the mud’s weight shifted, and he could move forward. Inch by inch, through patience and self-control, he got himself out of that pipe.
Finding my way through a novel is, for me, like that kid’s journey through the pipe. What seems like such a great adventure at the beginning, morphs into panic and desperation, then triumph when I pull myself out of the end into the sunshine.
Probably a few of you can relate to the analogy. So why do we do it? I know why I do.
I believe that every human seeks connection – to make someone else see exactly how you feel about something. When it happens, that rare click of understanding, it is such an incredible rush.
Writing is my way of it, but there are many more and, I suspect, what resonates with you may be different than what touches me. Just a few of mine are:
In music / performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q
In art, there’s
There are many so ways to reach out.
When I write the ‘perfect’ line – when I actually manage to capture what is in my mind and get it on the page, it’s worth it. That’s what I write for, not the search for the illusive sale that distracts me from time to time.
Laura Drake
Hi, Laura. Wonderful post. Great way to start a writing day!
Laura, great blog. I’m concentrating on writing the best book I can. That’s all we have control over. But before I write it, I do try to have a premise is interesting and will catch an agent/editor’s attention.
Laura, I woke up this morning to read your “Shifting Mud”. What really hit me was your reason for writing – to make someone else see exactly how I feel about something. When my sister, (who is the only person outside of my editor who I let read my two novels), told me that she cried when one of my main characters was shot and fell into a coma, that really did something for me. I knew I had done something right when she was able to see (and feel) what I had written.
Thanks for the morning inspiration.
Patti
Excellent essay with more than one lesson. The analogy is great, but I also loved how you jumped into the beginning of your story – exactly how to grab a reader. Nice work
Shifting mud, sifting sand, rolling rocks up the mountain, yup – writing isn’t for sissies!
Thanks so much for linking to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah chorus. It went great with my morning coffee, and now I feel ready to write!
I loved the story of this story, and it’s so true; it takes a huge effort to write a book, and it often feels like you’re trapped in the pages.
Thanks for a great post, Laura!
Laura, what a great post. Thank you so much, and I find that so many of the stories I was read in class when I was ten have stuck with me. Either it is a time of feeling things very strongly, or I had a wonderful teacher (she was wonderful, actually). The books we read that year are all highly regarded classics now, and I still love every one.
Lovely post, Laura. And yes! For me, too, it’s the addiction to achieving that “perfect line” that has me coming back to the computer day after day. Glad I’m not the only one who needs medication for this illness. LOL.
Thank goodness for those special teachers who brought the magic and passion of storytelling into our lives.