The Readers Responsibility

 The discovery that my readers have a responsibility when they read my or anyones writing was an epiphany. I had always thought that I needed to tell every detail so my reader would understand. The color and setting and even the mindset of the person telling the story needed to be put on the paper. Then it occurred to me as a writer that the reader is also responsible.

In blog reading there are rules. 

    -If you are a troll that controls your world by tearing it down, go away. Bringing the writer down with you is not right. It is mean and hurtful. 

    -Every reader needs to bring to writing a willing and imaginative mind. Not all writers write "literally". The words should allow you to create your own color and location. If I give you a recipe with exact measurements, that is one thing. If I am writing philosophically, exploring thoughts, or telling a story, that is different. 

    - Many writer need encouragement to grow with the reader. Comments are appreciated.

Having said that, I for one recognize that each person brings their own meaning to the words. The story I wrote about Frog lately required you to just go with the concept of "talent". It was not specific in the "who what where when" and I did received feedback. When I wrote about being Perfect, some thought that striving for perfect was too much. In my mind Perfect was very different from Perfection. But you bring your own meaning to words so that is what I want you to do.

If I were to tell the whole story you would have had to see the world through the eyes of a small, dusty, well used village located in a small valley in Oregon. Streets would have been unpaved with potholes filled with water. Coal fired stream engines would have filled the air with coal smoke and cinders that appeared in the laundry hung on the lines. Dogs would be mating in the streets and the teacher that lived beneath the hill would be entertaining her very handsome husband. It would be Saturday night.

I would tell you about my Swedish great-grandmother that came to live in a tent house before she had her 4 children and a great-grandfather that signed his name with an X. You would know that he had helped build the bridges on the railroad, those same railroad bridges that are still in use. The year would be 1953.

My husband's parents. The hills 
behind them are the hills I grew
up climbing.

The story would have begun with a small house that I came home to as a boby just 5 miles away from that dusty little town. It would have included a company town built around a mine. 

Yet, in the story with thoughts about two characters that grew up in that world, you didn't need to know that. You could have found those characters in the deep south of the USA or in the outback of Australia. It was up to you.

So, dear readers, are you working at living up to your responsibility so I can write for you? Is this the year, 2024, when you will let your imagination run wild? I certainly hope so.

b+

On Being "PERFECT"...this year we will get it right!!!

                                                                                                                                                                                    

I use that word quite a bit. In the world that I live in, pictures, people,

The perfect Palo Verde bloom.

and life are at any given moment perfect. And yet here I am...making resolutions, again! Didn't I do that last year and the year before? 

Yet the notion is so wonderfully hopeful. This year I will get it right...maybe. 

It all goes back to that writing class I took at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Arizona. Optimism springs eternally from my breast and I continue to hope to improve. I licked my wounds after writing for that group of writers. I need to be not exactly perfect but the best I can be at what I love to do. I want to write with other writers again.

In that class, we were challenged to describe what "voice" means to us. Anthony Horowitz should have been the example I used. He is a genius at using the first-person position as though it could be his voice. I want to be able to do that. He packs action, conversation, and authentic emotion into what he writes. If you listen and watch carefully, he is truly there.

The Word is Murder felt almost autobiographic yet I don't believe it was. For example, another character reacts strongly and offensively to a gay. Horowitz as the storyteller is greatly insulted. It turns out Horowitz bills himself as "a defender of gays and alternative lifestyles, a moderate on abortion, and a civil rights activist". It is all in the story much like Chekov's gun on the table. 

The Word... is written in the first person voice as though he were telling his story to you verbally. What an inspiration it was for someone like me who does write that way yet is in the process of making the stories...well...almost acceptable. I am daring to dream I suppose.

What do you think? 

So, for 2024 the resolution is to get better at whatever I set out to do. Perfect would be the goal, but I would settle for just getting a notch better at life. 

What do you hope for? 

Happy New Year everyone!

b+