Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Flying and Writing

I’m amazed how much writing and my RC model airplane hobby have in common. Another similarity came to mind yesterday when I went to the flying field to test an airplane that Don (the flight instructor) had flight tested but I hadn’t flown.

Actually I snuck out to the flying field wanting to arrive early, while some stillness was in the air but more importantly to make sure nobody was around in case I made a mess of things. I remember in the car feeling very confident... was I ever in for a letdown.

I got my Crop Duster out of the trailer, attached the wing and hooked up the servos. Then I flight-tested the rudder, elevator and ailerons making sure they were working properly and set the throttle to just a crack open. With that, I spun the propeller and the engine sprang to life. Hmmm, I thought to myself, this is going entirely too well.

I set the model on the grass and taxied to the end of the flightline. "What the Heck," I said out loud and gave it the gas. The model sprinted down the runway, lifted off, and to my horror banked hard down and hit a table in the service area. The engine and firewall flew off and the prop shattered. Fortunately there was nobody about and I breathed a sigh of relief while at the same time my brain screamed out in frustration. Why it flew into the ground I'll never know. Perhaps I was too aggressive on the throttle and should have let it accelerate slower and take a longer run before pulling back on the elevator. Whatever I did wrong the results were disheartening.

Now I know you must be thinking what this has to do with writing. Here is my take. If everything isn’t right with a novel, it might take off but the reader will, after a few pages, set the manuscript aside. This is analogous to what happened with my airplane yesterday. It not only didn’t fly... it flopped. The physics were pretty dramatic and nobody can argue that it sheered left after takeoff and crashed into a workbench. The facts speak for themselves. The same can be said for a manuscript. Sometimes they fly badly and land hard! The author is left to wonder why. Sometimes we blame a publisher, sometimes ourselves but mostly we just can’t figure out what happened.

For an airplane to fly it must be well made, the pilot skilled and the conditions right. For my part sometimes I go back to the basics and make sure I did a good job with the “build.” Did the plane check out as being straight, aerodynamic, with all systems being a “GO?” For a writer this means understanding that good writing is more than pounding keys trying to keep pace with our muse. There is no substitute for a good imagination, enthusiasm, passion and persistence, however this alone is not enough to get a writer where they want to go. There is also an operational and strategic dimension to writing that plays an important part. Do the chapters tie in to the Dramatic Premise. Are there recurring themes that spring off the premise and give it shape and substance? Do the chapters have the components of dialog, exposition, foreshadowing, a metering of backstory, and unforgettably characters? Does the novel begin at the “Good Part” with a Life Changing Event? These are questions a writer needs to ask and they are not provided on a silver platter by that elusive muse. Muses are a great thing to have but they are untrustworthy. Behind every great spirit is the science of process.

If an RC model airplane is not well crafted it will simply not fly and the same can be said for a novel. It is one thing to string a bunch of words together and quite another to craft them in a way that captures a reader's imagination and leads them breathless from one scene to the next.

This brings us to the skill of the pilot and of course a writer needs to be able to write. If a writer can’t write good short pieces, there isn’t much hope that piling insult upon injury is going to lead anywhere. Then if the conditions aren’t right, for example, the subject isn’t of much interest, its like trying to fly on a windy day. The airplane might be airworthy and the pilot have yeoman’s skills but if the conditions aren't right the chances for a successful outcome diminish.

So why do we do it? Why do we struggle in the face of what amounts to an almost impossible adversity? The answer I think is because we're authors and we like to write... and maybe, just maybe if we give our talent, some time and discipline, we'll become the consummate craftsmen we need to become... and with a few breaks... hit the big time. How cool would that be?