The Art of Never Having Enough Time In The Day

Long suffering...

Isn't that what we are speaking about, as writers, who want to produce works of art that will go down as history as the greatest story ever told to mankind? Patience is a virtue and some of us just don't have any patience.  Some of us have no virtues at all.  I tend to break the forth wall when I write. I'm not sure if that is Ok or not, but it can be amusing, in the sense that in today's world of reading about concepts and ideas, it catches the reader off guard.

You, yes you!!!

Off guard.

Oh, now I don't do it in my important pieces, which, I must admit, I edit continuously to make sure that I haven't. Traditionally, when breaking the forth wall in theater, the actor SPEAKS with the audience, creating a metafictional connection with people whom you would probably never speak with otherwise. You do it for their comfort and yours. They know nothing about you and you know nothing about them, and neither party is really sure that they want to ever know that much. What is that phrase they use today? Too Much Information? TMI?

Yes, that is the one, and here is my point when it comes to writing about subjects that normally go past the reader and end up in Never-Never Land, to be maligned by the seemingly intelligent agents or reviewers, then one has to ask themselves: What was the purpose of my birth for anyway? It's not really that severe, but it feels like it is. In a world filled with young adult (YA) fan fiction, or looking for the next J.K. Rowlings hit series, an agent's migraine must be a never-ending story.

One can only imagine the competition for new writing talent comparable to a Ultimate Fighting Champion, no-holds-bar death match, being held on some little known island in the Bikini Atoll, where the radiation is more dangerous than the fight itself: but the money is too good to pass up, so let the blood pour from their agent inflicted wounds. 10% is 10%, bitch... so don't get it twisted. These YA hawks are in it for the long haul. They take no enemies and leave a trail of dead writer's bodies in a ocean of query letters.

For this reason, I do not write Young Adult Fan fiction. Until such a time as the youth of today read Chaucer's "Troilus and Creside", and Henryson's "The Testament of Cresside", then I'd just be waiting MY valuable time, wouldn't I? When was the last time you heard an adolescent speak about Shakespeare's 'The Tempest" when referring to Star Trek. So, we have a reoccurring theme--that has roots, but no tree.

The truth is, I like FF (Fan Fiction), I just don't write it. Aye, and there's the rub.

The query letter is your foot in the door. And I've heard tell that the agent is a voracious reader of sorts. I've yet to put this to the test, but when you speak about LOVING historical fiction or science fiction, you'd better have a grasp of both HISTORY and SCIENCE, to the point of plausibility, probability, and possibility, or your assessment may be unfounded.

What I mean is... before you pull out your little red pen--ask the question.

It's a simple request.

Ask the question, before you revise or think something needs revision.

Being a writer is a lot of things, and one cannot assume we are all alike. Very few writers write like I do. This is not to say I write better than them. I write different than them. I have a different approach than them. I break the rules of convention, because I've studied the rules of conventions. I don't write for the money, I write because my thoughts refuse to let me do otherwise. I research my work before I lay it on the paper. I may even choose to live in the world I write about as best as I can.

How many writers today want to write literature? That is a tough question to answer, but I would assume very few even think about leaving a work of art for future generations to ponder over. Literature is different than just writing a book. Literature has a purpose. It not only enlightens, it inspires, it engrosses, it moves, it breathes, it buck the system. It may confuse, until it is understood.

It's soul purpose is to illuminate the dark, where light has never been shed before.

Death By The Blue Oak is such a book.

It has not been published, as of yet, and it will one day... once it is understood. It is a challenge to all those who've written on the subject of the Father of Motion Picture. It is not to take away from their work, but to fill in certain gaps of the life of Eadweard J. Muybridge. It is historical fiction and I do use literary license, because without using it, the same old story is told over and over again, regardless if it's written by Brian Clegg, Rebecca Solnit, Marta Braun or Edward Ball. They are unfulfilling, semi-biographical works that repeat the incidents of infidelity, premeditated murder, and acquittal in that order, without ever telling you how any of it might have even occurred, or the reasons why such things happen in life.

These characters are disconnected from their own stories in such a manner that it makes no sense to have mentioned them at all. Why so many simple details are left out their books make no sense to me, as a writer. Then again, I'm not in this game for the money, even though my book is probably more marketable to universities and art schools on an annual basis as a way of showing that some stories actually have a starting point.

Even Richard the III had worms.  

Could it have been the reason he was an insufferable prick?

Would Shakespeare written his play differently having had knowledge of this?

The question is, will an agent have the time, the long suffering patience to understand the relevance of Death By The Blue Oak as a piece of literature, with many different layers, beyond the advancement of technology vs. brain damage to the frontal lobes?

Do they want to represent someone who sees this particular work as project of love, on many different levels, for if not Muybridge's life, then who's? Who is responsible for your ability to see the world in motion, as in motion pictures? Who took the art of photography to a whole other level? Who was so connected with government that he was acquitted for the crime of premeditated murder, even after confessing to the crime? Who's trial was rigged, based on the need for his works in progress?

Never having enough time in the day to see a work of art is not acceptable. Never having enough time in the day to expand one's visions beyond the normal reaches the world we live in today and the one we'd like to live in, is not acceptable. Never having the time in the day to reach outside of the norm, to find answers within the allegory, is fear of the revolution placed at your feet.

And to think, years ago, when I was writing on TIBU and having major arguments about studying language and its use, I angered people so much, that I became a pariah among the uninitiated writing nazis in the world of non-Urban speak, that I was cast out into the wilderness, left to start my own writing colony (hand picked), called the Found Generation.

Now all of the world is using 140 characters or less on twitter, to express their deepest most intimate thoughts, shared by the world, in their conquest for fifteen minutes of recycled fame. In Time Magazine's September 9th, 2013 issue, the Media section has a article on a subject I broached years ago, yet was made fun of for having done so. "The Linguistic's Mother Lode. What Twitter revels about slang, gender, and no-nose emoticons." More agents need to read such articles, because it applies directly to their future. How people speak, is how they live. Have we as a society reached a point of diminishing returns when to comes to language and its uses? Years ago, I said that we had, and that a new form of speech/use of language was being created on a daily basis on the internet.

Such a radical idea for a writer,.. and not a formal Linguistics Professor...huh?

If Janelle Monáe can be eclectic, inspired by a thousand unrelated things, till she finds their core essence, then why shouldn't I be entitled to the same monastic enlightenment?

The booty don't lie!!!

Which reminds me, I've always wanted to stage Man In The Iron Mask and The Three Musketeers from Black Man's perspective, the way Dumas intended it to be done. After all, I am the 21st century Mark Twain, and what could be more irreverent than that, you ask? My staging of (it's a secret, and I can't tell you more than this) Albee's Seascape at the Riverwalk Theater in Lansing, or staging Fuller's Zooman And The Sign with an all white cast.

It's how I roll.


It gives a whole new perspective of "eat wang" and "throw 'dem bone on tha ground".

And now as I write, I write to save literature, by using language to the fullest. I write so that this generation can say someone cared about the past, present and future. I'm not all that good at dinner parties, drinking white wine spritzers, and schmoozing the VIP's of any business. I'm writing this blog at 4:00 PM EST, and I'm about to break open a bottle of Bulliet's 95 Rye, and feel the period of Death By The Blue Oak.

Sipping whiskey, for the uninitiated.

See, I have enough time in the day... to do it the right way. The only deadlines I have are self imposed ones. I've lived a full life; some of it has been exciting as hell, while at other times its been boring as fuck... but all of it true to its core. I have no illusions about who I am or what I've done, most of which has been unbelievable. So much so, I have no idea why I was even placed on this Earth as God's cruel joke to life's ups and downs. My integrity has gotten me in more trouble than any of my most insincere moments.

So when you consider shadows and technological advancements, or time standing still, or paupers and princes in the gilded age, consider things rarely considered by the average writer, called immersion.

Have enough time in the day to know the subject your writing about or representing.