Passing Time in New Zealand

More from the Queen about the purpose of books:

When Sir Kevin tries to understand the Queen's new love of reading:

'I can understand,' he said. 'Your Majesty's need to pass the time.'

'Pass the time?' said the Queen. 'Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, Sir Kevin, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.'

I agree with the Queen. There is never enough time for all the reading I want to do.

Though I'd love to visit New Zealand and pass the time there.
(And, of course, I'd take a book.)

Defined By The Queen

‘Yes,’ said the Queen. ‘We would make a good team. Ah, well. The road not travelled. Who’s that?’

‘Who, ma’am?’

‘The road not travelled. Look it up.’

Norman looked it up in the Dictionary of Quotations to find that it was Robert Frost.

‘I know the word for you,’ said the Queen.

‘Ma’am?’

‘You run errands, you change my library books, you look up awkward words in the dictionary and find me the quotations. Do you know what you are?’

‘I used to be a skivvy, ma’am.’

‘Well, you’re not a skivvy now. You’re my amanuensis.’

Norman looked it up in the dictionary the Queen now kept always on her desk. ‘One who writes from dictation; copies manuscripts. A literary assistant.’

I've discovered part of the time I am an amanuensis. Who knew?

Making Time - Like The Queen

More words of wisdom from the Queen:

‘Do you read, Summers?’ she said to the chauffeur en route for Northampton.

‘Read, ma’am?’

‘Books?’

‘When I get the chance, ma’am. I never seem to find the time.’

‘That’s what a lot of people say. One must make the time. Take this morning. You’re going to be sitting outside the town hall waiting for me. You could read then.’

Seems she knows about stealing.

Reading With The Queen

I just finished reading a fun novella. It was The Uncommon Reader, A Novella, by Alan Bennett. I've never read anything by him before, but apparently he's well known in Great Britain. This book is a fun read, with many parts that made me smile/laugh/grimace I'll share with you.

When the Queen had just picked up her second book from the mobile library:

“The Pursuit of Love” turned out to be a fortunate choice and in its way a momentous one. Had Her Majesty gone for another duff read, an early George Eliot, say, or a late Henry James, novice reader that she was she might have been put off reading for good and there would be no story to tell. Books, she would have thought, were work.

And a bit later, as the household began to notice her reading....

As it was, with this one she soon became engrossed, and passing her bedroom that night clutching his hot-water bottle, the duke heard her laugh out loud. He put his head round the door. “All right, old girl?”

‘Of course. I’m reading.’

‘Again?’ And off he went, shaking his head.

This novella was very entertaining. It was interesting to see inside the life of royalty, and see how reading fits/doesn't fit with the duties of being a royal.

Check it out.

And In Conclusion... (Wrapping up Coaxing the Muse)

This is the seventh - and FINAL - post in a series about Coaxing the Muse (see previous six posts).

As Lance Larson concluded his talk, he said:

He feels he has merely scratched the surface of the topic. “Last time I checked, which was this morning, taking pen in hand remains a messy, recalcitrant, but invigorating process that resists my attempts to explain it.”

Each of these principles he's covered can easily be applied to other circumstances:

• Read (immerse yourself in the literature of the field)
• Write Daily (takes us to the heart of nearly any discipline)
• Let Writing Lead You (have faith in process of creative process) (Note from me: as I was finding the painting for the last post, I came across a quote that fits so well with this -

"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things." Edgar Degas)

• Revising (revisit and improve early efforts, take advantage of perspective of others)
• Falling in Love with the World and Taking Notes (help cultivate powers of observation otherwise left dormant)
• Insights (garnered from other disciplines will help you see more clearly through your own lens)

Gordon Lish, an editor, had this strategy: He read until he hit a bad line in the submission. If that was on the first line, sorry, you had your chance. If he got to the second page of your ten-page story, you had an excellent chance of being published. He said: “I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see, instead, that perseverance, application, industry, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire.”

That's it! I hope it has inspired some of you to write more, or use his points in whatever interest you're pursuing. And, while it's been a terrific talk to listen to and integrate into my life, I'm ready to move on to other books/topics. How about you? Come with me?

By Immersion (Pt. 6 of Coaxing the Muse)

This is the sixth post in a series about Coaxing the Muse (see previous five posts).

6. Immerse yourself in other disciplines

Let other ways of seeing inflect your own vision.

He - the speaker, Lance Larson - is drawn to visual arts. Whenever they go places, they go to museums – his wife’s an artist. She provides a second, and more insightful set of eyes for his projects. They help each other. She helps him know when he’s created a "literary still-life" – not just devoid of life, but dead on the table.

He’s written some poems in response to some pieces of art, where the poem is about what he sees in the picture.

NEXT: A wrap up of his talk, putting it all together.

Fall In Love...Again (Pt. 5 of Coaxing the Muse)

This is the fifth post in a series about Coaxing the Muse (see previous four posts).

Principle 5 of Writing: Fall in love with the world, and take notes.

Most writers have an innate curiosity about surroundings, they are alive to what’s around them.

Look at Charles Darwin’s journal: As a young student studying at Cambridge, he got caught up in the national mania for collecting and cataloging beetles. The prize was not money or metals or real estate in the Lake District, but credit for discovering a rare six-legged species.

Darwin writes: One day, I’m tearing off some old bark; I saw two rare beetles and seized one in each hand. Then I saw a third, a new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one, which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas, it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue, so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one.

Lance Larson (the speaker) is not advocating a new form of protein, or that we snack on forest foragers, but to help us become alive to what’s around us.

But don’t just observe, take notes. Don’t trust your brain to hold onto things. Most writers carry around of notepad or stack of 3x5s. Old receipts, blank checks, margins of textbooks will also work in a pinch.

His family knows what it means when he reaches for a piece of paper as they’re together – something they said will be recorded for possible future use. His son said: “You be Jesus, and I’ll be the tiger, keeping the wolves away.” That one has made it into an essay, a poem, countless class discussions, and now, this forum. Came when he was four, from the car seat in the back seat of their car.

Why are close observations so important? They are clues, magical breadcrumbs into or out of the woods. Writer who seems small will often see larger connections.

On a trip to John Keats house, in London, his kids (who didn’t understand the significance of the occasion) were busy doing sit-ups on the rug. Instead of writing a “high-minded” poem about the Keats house, he wrote about them doing sit-ups in the Keats house. (It was a great poem “Sit-ups, with Mr. Johnny Keats”) It was detailed and specific, about that period in John Keats life compared to him holding his daughter’s feet while she did sit-ups on the rug.