The final day of the year, 2021, and half the country seems to be hoping, somewhat desperately, for a better year in 2022. Maybe feeling the same kind hopefulness so many were feeling at the end of 2020, as two new, innovative vaccines began to be rolled out and administered free of charge, and as a new administration prepared to take power in Washington DC.
The other half of the country seems to be angry, or depressed, or both… and expecting the whole house of cards to come falling down… if not in 2022, then at least soon thereafter.
Speaking for myself, I’m facing another blank, white page within the Pagosa Daily Post ‘backend’ and have no idea what I should be sharing with my readers, as we stand here, at the beginning of another year. Or sit, as the case may be.
The image above shows the editor’s view of the Pagosa Daily Post website — the world I visit every weekday morning, to write another editorial about life in Pagosa Springs. Typically, I recently attended this or that meeting of community leaders, and made an audio recording of the discussion, and perhaps snapped a couple of photos. The community leaders were probably discussing how to best expand their own particular agency — how to fund additional employees, or how to finance a new or remodeled facility, or which fees to increase. Government growth is seen, of course, as necessary to fulfill the agency’s primary function, which is to improve living conditions for the entire community.
Or at least, to improve the conditions for those who are sufficiently wealthy. Or for those who come as tourists. At least, that’s how it often feels, as I stare at a blank text box, thinking about my next editorial.
But then I learn about another program, or plan, that seems destined to serve those in our community who are struggling the most.
So many stories that ought to be shared, in this community. Such a small text box.
A reader wrote to me last month, asking for advice. He said he was hoping to write a book based on his numerous life experiences, and thought I might have some ideas about the best way to proceed.
After reading several examples of his writing, I responded.
Thanks for sending the samples of your writing. You appear to have fine command of the written word. I hope you don’t mind if I give you my honest “first impressions”?
You mentioned that you have wanted to write a book, but it doesn’t seem to come together. I guess I would ask, first of all: who is your audience?
I have a notebook on my bookshelf that contains several short stories written by my father, who was an excellent writer, and also a high school English teacher, and an amateur playwright… and who thought he might someday publish a book. I also have a file drawer full of children’s plays he wrote. His book never happened, and I can’t explain why not.
But I have my theories about it.
People write for various reasons, and often the main intention is to share memories or ideas or concerns with one or more persons with whom the writer feels a natural affinity — close friends, a marriage partner, children, co-workers, etc. The communication never moves outside the “circle of friends and loved ones.” And that’s okay.
Other people write to influence a wider circle, including complete strangers — maybe to move them emotionally, or make them laugh, or cause them to view a political issue from a different perspective, or share an insight into the way the world works, or convince them to buy a product or adopt a certain philosophical belief.
There are others who write because they’re trying to better understand the world… and they have found that putting thoughts into written form helps them see connections that weren’t visible before.
Some write because they have always wanted to publish a book, and they see a book as some kind of achievement, a badge of honor.
Reading your samples, and knowing absolutely nothing about you, I get the impression you are writing to better understand yourself… to access and contemplate your memories, and to ponder your expectations and fears about the future. That’s an excellent reason for being a writer, but it might not easily lead to the production of a ‘book’.
To create a meaningful book, I suspect you need to be writing for complete strangers. In a sense, your audience has to be the big, wide world… people you’ve never met and will never meet, with whom you want to share a compelling — and in some aspects, unique — story.
My father had a few experiences that struck him as remarkable, and worthy of sharing, and many of them are in the spiral-bound notebook on my office shelf. He lived a rather ordinary life, teaching in a high school, hiking and fishing in the mountains during summer break, coaching my Little League team. Maybe his life was not the right material for a book. Maybe he could have written an interesting novel… or an instructional book about teaching?
For whatever reason, his ‘book’ didn’t happen. But he lived a fine life nevertheless.
Feel free to keep the lines of communication open. As I said, you have certain kind of talent. There are probably many things you can do with it.
Like my father, I’ve often thought about writing a ‘book’. For whatever reason, that has never happened. I thoroughly enjoy books; I almost always have one sitting on the dining room table, to keep me company during breakfast… after the latest installment of the Daily Post is published, and after the rest of the family is off to work or school.
But even after posting 6,000 editorials on the Pagosa Daily Post, I still look forward to opening a blank page and wondering what it will contain.