Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Real Deal

As a writer it is natural to want to stay focused, indeed imperative that you do so if you ever expect to get anything done. At the same time you are not likely to get anything qualitatively done if you don’t refill the pitcher. This is done by reading and what writing.com offers is a diversity of taps to fill from. Most are not the elegant brew you get from something commercially packaged but what is often deficient in finesse is more than made up for in raw power. You don’t see the unwrapped power outside in the bookstores the way it’s wrapped inside this site.

Conversely I also see here the elegance without the substance to go underneath. This is very disconcerting because there is some very elegant smoke without the red hot core to take it over the top. Elegance is a prerequisite but no assurance of success. Then there is the red hot core without the elegance either. Frankly it takes both and its not just that but the synthesis of the two. The whole must be greater than the sum to the parts and that requires a delicate juggling and coaxing to birth a piece of literature that makes you step back and say wow!

I have this contest to try and encourage this but alas, no takers…I see the possibilities but most of the power is like a flash in a pan, and will never amount to much. There are simply two many things that have to happen for a writer to take root and commercially blossom. Please don’t think I consider myself someone who is all knowing. If I were that I’d be a successfully published author…but if I can’t always produce it I know it when I see it….see the components that is, scattered through someone’s portfolio.

I saw it in a submission to a contest and it led me to a port with some poetry which I showed my wife. I told her, “if you were a poet this is something I could envision you writing.” My wife is extremely bright, smarter than I am, but not an artist.” Like me she knows it when she sees it. This too is excellence as Hesiod insisted. Anyway this author I was showing her is the real deal.

A writer who is the real deal is like a minister who is the real deal…they aren’t just mouthing words, they are bigger (deeper) than the words. More than just glib…authentic. To be a successful writer you have to be able to create excellence not just know it when you see it. That’s part of the dilemma. There is a sea of Real Deals who never get to the shore, and the beach is littered with the drift wood of Pretenders who do. What separates them is that the Pretender looks into themselves and the Real Deal is connected to something outside. Connected by a spirit that can network the cyber rather than alone with a pen light catching reflections from inside a chamber pot.