All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.
• Ernest HemingwayPoor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
• Ernest Hemingway
This post comes with a guarantee- many of my fellow Triberr Tribesmen won’t share this post because the headline will scare them off. We won’t talk about whether they’ll actually read the damn thing first or not.
The second thing you need to know is that I am what they call stone cold sober. I thought about grabbing a beer to accompany me but it is after midnight and that seems like a poor time to begin drinking.
In the days that once were I might have chosen to pop open a bottle, take a hard pull and then try to bleed here at the keyboard but I am not that kid anymore. Don’t need to pretend to be like the man I heard old Uncle Ernie was. I just need to be me.
Hell, I prefer that. It is easier in every way.
Read The Quotes Above…Again
If you haven’t read the quotes I used to open this post I am going to ask you to do so now. They resonate with me and I take more from them than I can possibly express.
Not unlike most people I am on a journey, a spiritual quest of sorts and I feel like I am doing the two steps forwards, one step backwards dance. It is sort of an awkward and ugly shuffle but I am not built for grace.
That is ok with me because I know who I am and what I am about. I have a goal in mind and a general idea for how to get there. That is my way of saying I see the spot on the mountaintop I want to reach but I don’t see the fucking trail.
Not that it makes much difference, I walk, I hike and I climb. Doesn’t much matter whether there is a path or not because while I may not climb like a monkey or mountain goat I get where I am going.
I Stopped Trying To Figure It Out
Some of you have asked me to provide the back story behind posts in this series. You read posts like:
- Lightning Strikes Twice
- Timing
- Johnny Was A Hero
- Echoes of The Future
- Dancing In The Fire
- These Pictures of You
and then you move on to things like:
and try to figure out what is fact and what is fiction.
Sometimes you send me emails telling me that you have figured it out and ask for confirmation but I never give it. That is because it is not important.
What is important to me is trying to figure out why I seem to focus on the same sort of theme/stories or at least it used to be. It used to make me scratch my head how I could go from being a sportswriter who dabbled in fiction to this sort of thing.
And then I just stopped trying to figure it out.
I stopped trying to understand why songs like this and this worked so damn well for these stories. That’s because I see a connection between them and that place I am trying to reach.
Dreams
The long term goal is to make a living from writing stories and those posts above are always among my most popular. People read and re-read them. They pull in new readers and make the older ones come back.
And if you if you believe that the universe provides a guide or road map to follow you’ll understand that it makes sense to pay attention to the signs that keep flashing red.
It doesn’t really matter to me whether that connection is real or imagined because either way I see it as pointing me towards opportunity.
So I am just doing my best to try to recognize when possibility turns into opportunity so that I can take advantage of it.
And there you have my few words about drunk blogging for amateurs.
Write to be read and read so that you can write.
I don’t need to think about Tribbering your stuff Jack. You’re an auto share from me 😉 Great stuff man, I hope you find that dream gig you are looking for.
@twitter-310893251:disqus Thank you. I really appreciate that. Hope you are enjoying the last few days of summer.
OK, I must need some special training, because even after Mark Harai explained the whole Triberr global commenting thing to me, I still don’t get it. I saw your post over on Mark’s site, didn’t know whether to comment in the triberr boxes or the comment box (I did the latter), and am thoroughly confused by it all. I don’t get responses to my questions re: triberr, even when I post them directly to parties involved. Basically, I go to my stream, hope that everyone’s posts are in there (but I know they’re not, because when I go to my tribemates’ sites directly, I know that not all posts are showing), READ the posts and then decide whether or not to approve. But this whole new triberr commenting thing? I don’t get it.
OH yeah…my comment on the post? You had me at Ernest Hemingway:) Cheers! Kaarina
@kaarinadillabough:disqus If it would be helpful I would be happy to try to walk you through it via a G+ hangout. Might be easier to talk it through instead of write.
That would be great…that is, if you think “triberr commenting system” is, in fact, a good idea. Thx
I just wish you would show up in my Triberr stream; for some reason I seen none of Jen’s tribe in my stream. Never have…..
Pulling your first beer after midnight…………alone………….not a good sign. But then again, who cares, right?
You did drop the F bomb however; I know, I read it.
I got called out on my post for dropping one, but it was crossed out, by my president no less. I am too closely tied corporately to my account so I have to be sensitive to what I write. You just never know who is reading this stuff, huh?
@twitter-34985693:disqus Billy Defense,
Triberr is hinky. I am in two tribes where no one sees any of my stuff. I used to mention it in the tribal councils but just stopped because for whatever reason we couldn’t get it fixed and I didn’t want to be that guy.
Stayed up until around 3 so that beer wouldn’t have been so bad. I really had a taste for a cold one but figured it was a bad time to start so…
And yep, I curse on this blog. Fact is I tend to do it on most of them because I can, but if I was in your situation I might not. I understand how it could get a bit hairy.
Hey @thejackb (hmmm…no resolution on your name) I read your post. You are right though, I did think twice about tweeting it but I did anyway and I decided to Facebook it but not on Linked In. No way, sir. Not THAT.
Read so that you can write! Exactly. Brilliant line.
Hey, BTW, two steps forward, one step back still means forward motion (I know you know that) to me. It seems worth it to say that. That and the fact that the trail doesn’t matter as much as the mountain top except that the trail is where the memories are made.
@twitter-229922134:disqus Progress is progress. It might not be as fast as I want it to be but I am getting somewhere and I agree that it is important to take joy in the journey.
I don’t blame you for not sharing it on LinkedIn I might not do it either. On this particular blog I only know how to do it one way and that is what works best for me.
Reading is a critical part of blogging and writing in general so it stands to reason we have to do it.
Ah yes, the “only one breadcrumb at a time” theory. That seems to be how those that are on the track get their information. It’s like being a tiny person on a really big staircase.
Yep, I am on that damn staircase but I don’t give up easily, I am still climbing.