WRITING TOOLS: THE SHORT LIST

Writing tools were easy in the beginning.

Either write something worth reading.

Or, do something worth writing about.

Is there more? There’s always more.

The idea is to fill up with enough confidence to write something worth reading like Robert Frost:

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

 

Do it like Scotty Fitzgerald:

 

”And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

 

 

The last line of The Great Gatsby is unfair without context:

 

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

 

Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing about.

 

Don’t so this.

Doing something worth writing about needn’t kill you. That’s called a suicide note.

Think of Jack London in the freezing north, Zane Grey in the old west, Jack Reacher walking down the road to a new town with an undercurrent of evil he needs to fight.

 

Something Worth Writing About

This is Pablo Picasso the painter.

I walked past his door in the Paris neighborhood of Montmartre with a Rick Steves’ guided tour.

Our guide said the place was full of artists who wouldn’t let Picasso into their studios.

They didn’t want him to see what they were working on because he could do the same thing, do it faster, better, and have it on the market sooner than them.

Our dude had his painting tools at the ready, like a writer with writing tools, ready to beg, borrow, or steal, which brings up another point:

Everything worth doing has already been done? Not if you didn’t say it, write it, paint it, or record it.

The part about writer’s confidence is thinking a thing isn’t done until you say it’s done.

 

That Tool Fits Me Just Right, You Too

It’s not screwed down enough until you screw it.

 

It’s not tight enough until you clamp it.

 

Not sharp enough until you file it.

 

Not smooth enough until you work it.

You try one:

 

 

PS:

My writing tools began with taking notes with a pen and paper. Then ink. Then a typewriter.

The tools were portable, dependable, and carried a kick.

 

PSS:

Painting takes a lot of gear, the right light, the right feeling, the right space.

Music takes the right time.

Writing takes the belief that the time it takes to get something down is time well spent.

I’m a believer.

If you have a writing habit, you believe too.

Remind yourself regularly.

“I believe.”