Drive your ship to new lands: the importance of discovery

I enjoy puzzles, and that in part defines my love for the practice of medicine – the intellectual challenge of solving medical puzzles (the other part defined by the satisfaction of patient care…but that’s another story).  Fiction writing also provides an intellectual and creative test but goes one step further: it requires not only that you solve the puzzle but that you create it as well. That challenge involves characters that don’t exist and their stories that don’t exist until you sit down and develop them.

Keep in mind that straight lines are boring, and the stick figures they create are equally without the complexity that intrigues us. We no more want to read about a “straight-line character” than we would want to marry one. We may want full disclosure on food labels, but in truth we don’t want that in the people with whom we live. Let me be clear: I am not speaking of honesty or fidelity here. I am speaking of depth of character. Someone who knows himself fully at any point in his life can by definition only possess a shallow depth of character and existence. The state of complete knowledge precludes growth and development, prohibits discovery, and eliminates epiphany, inspiration, and the mystery of life. The act of discovery dies when all places, parts and thoughts have been previously explored, mined, and laid bare.

To know everything obviates the need to adapt to new circumstances and, more importantly, makes one impervious to experience. And experience, growth and change are the marrow of life. They sustain us as real, so when we look behind the face we see more than the façade of a movie set. No one wants to live with a two dimensional person, and no one wants to read about one either. We want puzzles. We want mystery. We want maze-like characters whose inner workings and outer appearances are not fully discovered, whose paths forward are not set in stone because they are not set in stone. We are all clay figures being molded by the hands of Fate and Circumstance, never fired in the kiln, continuously being made and remade, tweaked and altered in ways both subtle and great. And even upon death, we are not fired into a permanent, unalterable state because those who live on will take up the remaking of our images. So too must our characters be always malleable, to us the writer and to the readers. We should always relish the possibility of discovery even once the character is defined, his words and deeds set on the page, his story told, and his Fate set. Therein lies the wonder and beauty of a great piece of art and the characters that inhabit it – the eternal prospect of discovery.

Cheers,

JGN

Our Personal Big Bang

Where are you from? Where were you born? These are questions routinely asked of us and that we ask of others when we first meet. Origins inform our lives from birth to death, often in ways of which we are unaware––subtly, below the conspicuous currents of our daily lives. Well then, what about the origins of our creative lives? Of course, the obvious “parents” come to mind immediately––the literary fathers and mothers who birthed our fascination with writing. For me, they include Joseph Conrad, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Poe, Tolkien and Andre Norton. But we shouldn’t stop there. Go back farther. Explore possibilities for the origins of our creative engine that lie deeper, that precede our introduction to great writers­­––that predate our ability to read. Consider genetics as part of our creative heritage. We hear of musicians spawning musicians, of painters birthing writers, of writer parents of painter children and so on. Dig and one may find that some ancestor possessed a creative streak. My grandfather was a writer: I remember as a teenager my father giving me a treatise on women’s suffrage written by his father years before women achieved the right to vote in the U.S. My grandmother, a Shakespearean scholar, taught English literature in her home state of Kerala, India. They both died before I was born so I was not influenced directly by their creative talents. Nevertheless, connections exist that we cannot see. Our present location in time and space––our personal coordinate in life––is inextricably linked to where we began. Discovering our creative origins––our Big Bang––and following the trajectory of our journey to the present may help us understand where we are going in the future. And if not, well, so be it, but it’s still interesting to consider that we are part of a larger creative arc.

Cheers,

JGN

Feb 16, 2012

On Writing and Righting, John and GMX, and Andre (not the Giant) and me

John Patrick Lowrie and I met in October of this year at Geek Media Expo, Nashville’s up and coming comic-book-and-everything-geek convention. Both of us were promoting our literary endeavors – John’s new book “Dancing with Eternity” and my first sci-fi novel, “The Healer: The Phantom Limb,” and the first issue of my serialized graphic novel, “Gezlinger’s Knot.” By luck, I was roped into two panels both of which featured John as the principal guest. If you haven’t met him, let me start by saying that John’s a funny guy. Keen sense of humor aside, he knows how to tell a story, how to deliver a punch line, and how to engage an audience and keep them interested. And those are all skills we want to hone as writers.

Unfortunately, writing involves far more than being a good writer. Just as I would prefer to solely focus on patients in my pediatric practice and ignore the business side of the profession, so too as a writer I would like to write stories and ignore publishing. But we cannot. The good news is that there’s no logic associated with what book, movie, song or app will become a hit. Where success lands is less akin to an angel bestowing good luck upon those who work hard and have talent and more akin to a bus slamming into a random pedestrian stupid enough to walk out in front of it. So, I say, go for it. Be stupid, walk out into traffic – if that means taking a risk and believing in your unpublished novel.

Now, although there may be no way of righting the wrongs in writing (well, mostly publishing), I still recommend getting help wherever you can find it. As one who chose to take the independent publishing path (I am not a fan of the term “self-publishing”), I can tell you that I’ve dug a lot of holes and promptly fallen into them. John’s a veteran actor and a talented writer, and at GMX he was very generous with his knowledge and advice on how to get published. I admire those who are willing to help others. Watch for them, seek them out, and listen to them. They will help you avoid falling into holes, will encourage you to follow your passion, and will serve as guides to improving your work.

I will end off by saying a few words about Andre Norton. In my youth I read more of her books than of any other author. As a “newly minted” pediatrician in the early 00’s who aspired to pursue a life-long desire to write, I met with Andre many times at her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She read and enjoyed my first novel, an as yet unpublished fantasy work, and suggested that a novel would better serve the central character in a group of sci-fi short stories that I gave her. The first book in the resulting series, “The Healer: the Phantom Limb,” I dedicated to her. Why so effusive? The answer is straightforward: she, a Grande Dame of sci-fi, took the time to read and critique the writing of a “guy off the street.” Her friendship and mentoring serve as a legacy of her contributions to sci-fi and fantasy as much as her written works. True distinction lies not in elevating oneself but in helping to elevate those around you. 


One last thing, there was an article written about myself, John and another writer entitled "Making things happen on your own terms as a writer", have a look if you have a chance.

There you go. I’m outta here. Gotta bus to catch – or get run over by.

JGN  December 1, 2011
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Edited by my publicist Chris Pope - SocialStarsWeb.com