PERSONAL STUDY LED TO COMBAT! (Part I)

Dennis L.Peterson  

Independent Author, Historian and Editor

             Writers get ideas for their work from a variety of sources, including overheard conversations, watching children at play (or adults arguing), commonplace events in the routines of daily life, and even their own fertile imaginations. The idea that led to the book Combat! Spiritual Lessons from Military History came from the intersection of the personal study of my two favorite subjects, the Bible and military history.

            While reading during a period of several months a few books on military strategy and tactics used during World War II, I began to realize that in many ways what I was reading dovetailed with what I was reading in the Bible. Desiring to share what I was learning; I began to organize various points for what I thought might grow into an article. Over time, however, as I continued to read and study the subjects, I realized that such writing would involve something much longer and more detailed than a mere article. It might even develop into a book!

Fiction, Imagination, and Empathy: Part 2

By Rebecca Dwight Bruff

Fiction requires imagination. Fiction demands that we imagine the lives and experiences of other people, people who are not us, and not like us. And even though we’re “making it up”, we want to get it right. We want, and our readers want, our characters to be believable, and to be appropriately represented.

I discovered, almost as soon as I began working on Trouble the Water, that there were innumerable things I didn’t know about my characters. I knew a few dates and places and lineages and accomplishments. But their lives and mine were separated by more than a century. Their experiences, perspectives, motivations, world-views, family systems, hygiene habits, vernacular – and a thousand other things – vastly different from my own.

So how do we bridge such historical and contextual distance? How do we write what we don’t know?

Check your assumptions and presumptions. I had to acknowledge from the start that I don’t know what it’s like to be male. Or illiterate. Or enslaved. And even though I (vaguely) remember being 22 years old, I don’t know what it was like to be 22 years old in 1862 in Charleston.

Pay attention to what you do know. Most of us do know what it’s like to long for something, to love someone, to grieve deeply. Most of us have been inexpressibly angry, or frightened, or passionate, or ecstatic or envious. Our deepest personal emotions are, paradoxically, universal. Tap into what you know about human emotion, and bring it to the page.

Ask good questions. “What is like to…?” “ How does it feel when…?”  I had several long and enlightening conversations with a 30 year-old African American man; he knew I was working on a book and I asked him to tell me about some of his experience. We learned about one another’s lives, and we’re better for it.

Read. Read periodicals and journals from the time period you’re writing about. Read the history. Read first-hand accounts if they exist; I read slave narratives, and diaries of slave-holders, and journals of abolitionists. Read outside of your own experience, interests, and biases.

Learn about personality types. What makes people tick? What motivates a humanitarian, or a narcissist, or an adventurer? How and why do people change or not change their opinions and behaviors over time? Explore the disorders; surely at least one of your characters will benefit from your research.

Be bold! Imagine. Stretch your mind and your capacity and your reach. Give a damn about what matters to your characters, and give them the life to pursue it!

_______________________________ 

Rebecca Dwight Bruff is the author of the award-winning Trouble the Water: A Novel, inspired by the life of Robert Smalls: http://www.koehlerbooks.com/book/trouble-the-water   Rebecca heard Smalls’ story on her first visit to South Carolina. She was so captivated that she left her job in Dallas, TX and moved across the country to research and write this book. Bruff earned her Bachelors degree in education (Texas A&M) and Master and Doctorate degrees in theology (Southern Methodist University).  In 2017, she was a scholarship recipient for the prestigious Key West Literary Seminar. She volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina.  She’s published non-fiction, plays a little tennis, travels when she can, and loves life in the lowcountry with her husband and an exuberant golden retriever.  Visit Rebecca at her website: https://rebeccabruff.com and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertsmallsnovel, Twitter: https://twitter.com/RebeccaBruff or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertSmallsBook

Fiction, Imagination, and Empathy: Part 1

By Rebecca Dwight Bruff

How do we become empathetic beings? And how do writers help that to happen? I believe fiction, perhaps more than anything else, fosters and cultivates this essential human capacity.

Fiction, by definition, is imaginative invention. If we only read about people like ourselves, we simply reinforce what we already know or believe about ourselves and others. And if we only write about people like ourselves, people with our own characteristics and experiences, then it’s neither imaginative nor inventive. It’s also not very interesting.

When I began writing Trouble the Water, I tried to follow the common advice, “Write what you know.”

But the story is Historical Fiction. What did I know about living in South Carolina in the 19^th century? What did I know about the life of the enslaved, or the motivations of the slave-holder? What could I possibly know about feelings, motivations, challenges, hopes and fears of a 20 year-old enslaved African American male?

Imagination – the extraordinary human capacity to explore ideas or concepts external to ourselves – invites us to consider what it’s like to be another person. Imagination opens us to wander through another person’s world and ask the important questions: What is this person feeling, thinking, hoping?

Imagination opens the door to empathy.

Empathy is the ability to sense or consider other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.

Stories teach us, shape us, inspire us, warn us, and stretch us. Literature gives us empathy for those unlike ourselves.

Can a novelist legitimately tell the story of a person from another place, time, culture, nationality, religion, ethos, sexual orientation? Of course. If, as an author, I fail to explore the depths of human nature – motivations and emotions, desires and dark secrets, hurts and hopes, fears, loves, lusts, all of it – then I’ve not given my best; I’ve failed to honor the story.

Fiction is essential, a critical and necessary door into the otherwise walled-off world of thinking about “other” – other places or times or possibilities, other ideas, other people, other ways of being human together. Fiction and its requisite imaginative endeavor foster our shared humanity.

Sue Monk Kidd said that in writing Invention of Wings, she was inspired by the words of Professor Julius Lester, which she kept on her desk: “History is not just the facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another’s pain in the heart our own.”

Empathy connects us across emotional and cultural distances. This is the privilege of the writing life. Part Two will appear on Monday, October 28, 2019.

______________________________________________________ 

Rebecca Dwight Bruff is the author of the award-winning Trouble the Water: A Novel, inspired by the life of Robert Smalls: http://www.koehlerbooks.com/book/trouble-the-water   Rebecca heard Smalls’ story on her first visit to South Carolina. She was so captivated that she left her job in Dallas, TX and moved across the country to research and write this book. Bruff earned her Bachelors degree in education (Texas A&M) and Master and Doctorate degrees in theology (Southern Methodist University).  In 2017, she was a scholarship recipient for the prestigious Key West Literary Seminar. She volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina.  She’s published non-fiction, plays a little tennis, travels when she can, and loves life in the lowcountry with her husband and an exuberant golden retriever.  Visit Rebecca at her website: https://rebeccabruff.com and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertsmallsnovel, Twitter: https://twitter.com/RebeccaBruff or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertSmallsBook

Fortunately/Unfortunately

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

Perhaps you've heard of (or played) a game called "Fortunately/Unfortunately".  It's been around since the 80s, although I only learned of it recently. Apparently I travel in the wrong playgroups.

This verbal game requires nothing more than people to play it. You simply take turns making up a story, alternating sentences with the first words "fortunately" and "unfortunately".  For example:

"Fortunately, I won a trip to Paris."
"Unfortunately, my car had a flat tire on the way to the airport."
"Fortunately, a friend picked me up and I made it just in time."
"Unfortunately, I forgot my ticket."
...and so on.

It's a creative way to fill time, like on a long car ride.  It's also good exercise for both sides of the brain, since logic and imagination must work together in order to keep the game going.

But this concept has even greater possibilities for a writer.  Isn't "fortunately/unfortunately" the pattern followed by the classic stories?  For example:

The Wizard of Oz
(skipping ahead to the good parts:)

Fortunately, a good witch gives Dorothy magic shoes to protect her.
Unfortunately, a wicked witch wants the magic shoes.
Fortunately, the Wizard of Oz can help Dorothy return home to Kansas.
Unfortunately, it's a long walk to the Emerald City.
Fortunately, there's a yellow brick road to guide her.
Unfortunately, she gets lost at a crossroad.
Fortunately, she meets a scarecrow who points the way.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have a brain.
...and so on.

Following this pattern of "I have good news and bad news", the audience enjoys a roller coaster of ups and downs to keep things interesting.  And, as I elaborated on in a previous post, it's helpful if the writer knows how it's all going to end so that each scene furthers the plot in the proper direction.

It's not uncommon for a writer to insert several "unfortunatelys" between each "fortunately". Problem may pile upon problem before a reprieve temporarily breaks the tension.  This is especially common in a dark tale or an action drama.

I get this a lot (bad news/good news from Firefox).

And the "unfortunately" doesn't always have to be the direct antithesis to what comes before. It can be something completely unpredictable that turns everything on a dime. Who would have anticipated that a cyclone would interfere with Dorothy's running away from home?  Any roadblock to the overall goal can do the trick.

Just as when playing the game itself, allow your imagination to come up with fortunately/unfortunately scenarios spontaneously and without overthinking.  Let the muse do the work, and in no time at all you could have a working outline for your next novel.

Misfits!

by Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor

In every aspect of our society there are misfits, those that just don’t fit the mold. We have seen this is in sports, arts, music and writing. 

In sports we saw this in the 1968 Olympics with a competitor in the high jump named Dick Fosbury.  Fosbury chose not to use the three common styles of high jump and came up with what was called the Fosbury Flop. Dick Fosbury flopped right into the record books with a Gold Medal.

In the art world we have Vincent Van Gogh. We look back at what we now recognize as a great artist and yet at his death at age 37, his accomplishments were known only to a small group and appreciated by even fewer. Many of his 2100 works are now priceless.

 

Music has many examples. The most famous was the little studio in Memphis called Sun Studios, owned by Sam Phillips. Sam created a studio where those who were unacceptable elsewhere were welcomed. Sam was recording at the time what was known as “race” music. In 1951 Sam recorded a Clarksville MS group called the Delta Cats with a piano player named Ike Turner. The song recorded was “Rocket 88” which is considered the granddaddy of rock n’ roll.

This led to a migration of many misfits from across the region. Musicians who didn’t fit the mold of southern blues, gospel, or country found their way to Memphis to record where they were accepted. Artists like Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Sam Phillips’ self-proclaimed greatest discovery Chester Arthur Burnett better known as Howlin’ Wolf, all came to follow their dream. 

And now we come to writing. Maybe you have yet to find your fit in the literary world. Maybe you have been told that your work does not fit the category or the category the agent or publisher represent. Maybe you have been told you don’t fit the mold. If so look at you potential. The misfits mentioned above went on to become very successful in their field. They kept on until they found the right fit. You must continue on until you find your right fit.

  

If you have an example of a writer that was a misfit and found their fit let me know. I would love to share their success with others. I am looking forward to hearing from you and I hope to hear that misfit that overcame was you.         

     

The Apple of My Eye

by Shannon Milholland, Social Media Director

The passing of Steve Jobs has made a profound mark on our country. Few individuals effect as much change in as few years as he. He revolutionized the way we interact and made our planet several sizes smaller through radical technological advances.

I wonder if we've contemplated our ability to go radical. Do we want to leave an indelible imprint like Steve Jobs? Or will we be a mere ripple in the waters that vanishes as quickly as it appears? As writers, we can take several cues from Steve Jobs which will catapult our impact from marginal to Apple.

Imagine

Steve saw the world from a different perspective. He contemplated things as they could be instead of how they are. We can read a book on platform growth and implement every strategy but if we don't know why we're doing the things we are, it's fruitless. 

Imagination is valuable for far more than characters and plot lines. We must envision our goal. Once we know where we are headed, our tweets, blog entries and Facebook posts take on purpose that reflects our passion. Imagine your writing career as you desire it to be and then plot a straightline path to it.

Innovate

Steve didn't just see the world different, he made the world different. As I survey the blogosphere and the book market in general I see a lot of the same. Everyone wants to write in the hot new genre. Writers flock to the latest posting trend. What if we decided to innovate instead of imitate?

Could you create a new writing niche? Might you be the first to crown Sundays as Soze Sundays and start a trend of concocting an entire story line in 30 minutes or less from a single object of inspiration? (Side note: Reference here the 1995 movie hit The Usual Suspects, in which the main character creates an elaborate lie on the fly based on the name Soze printed on the china cup the detective is holding.) 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. How would you like to be the one flattered for a change? Become an innovator.

Inspire

Steve Job's most significant impact might be his ability to inspire. Not only did he create and design the inconceivable, he influenced others to implement his dreams.

We wield the mightiest of weapons - the written word. It is powerful and effective but only when used to inspire others. Throughout history novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin have shaped the course of history. It wasn't enough for Harriet Beecher Stowe to dream of a climate shift in America, she had to write the words that enacted change.

You may be like me and be tempted by the low-hanging fruit of a one-size-fits-all platform. When we choose to imagine, innovate and inspire we spring from bottom dweller to top picker. In other words, we become the apple of our eyes.