Averyman has their time

As a class we were asked to attempt writing a John Cheever styled piece. Our terms were to write about an object and that the first line should include some description of what the character can see, feel and smell. While I didn’t quite get the description in the first line, it was there by the third. So enyoi:

Averyman took a deep breath and grasped the door handle. A thin layer of grease met his touch as he moved forward, into the Watchmaker’s abode. Like a vacuum, the stench of stale urine was sucked away upon entering and a bell chimed. Averyman noted that clocks of all shapes and sizes had once clung to the avocado walls within. Now all that remained was the impression left behind in the dust. With another deep breath, Averyman teetered and tightened his grip on his borrowed briefcase. The door creaked to a close behind him as he checked his watch – nine fifty-nine.

                Now that he was there – in the Watchmaker’s abode – Averyman wanted back on the bus he arrived on. But deep down Averyman knew there was no turning back. The bus was moving on now, continuing with its cycle. Averyman looked at his still ticking, still beating watch. He too had to move on with his. The time was ticking down to ten, but the Watchmaker’s was still empty. 

Is there a contrast between the truth of our lives and the story that we tell?

You know Hunter typed ‘The Great Gatsby’? He'd look at each page Fitzgerald wrote, and he copied it. The entire book. And more than once. Because he wanted to know what it felt like to write a masterpiece. He was so hungry, yeah. Innocent, and yearning.

 -- Johnny Depp on Hunter S. Thompson

We all have our idols, and the thing that has always gotten to me about these famous individuals is the autonomous nature of them. Their tale is often one of an underdog story in which they face diversity. Hunter S. Thompson actively fought authoritarianism, Emily Dickinson passively fought gender inequality, and J.K. Rowling fought poverty at the hands of a Conservative government.

What have I fought?

I haven’t fought gender inequality, homophobia or any war. I am turning twenty-one this year and in a generation of smart phones and social media I have passively sat back like the rest of us. Sure, I’ve read a book or two but I’ve seen no Punk movement. No revolutions. I have no historical life experience if not for this realm of perpetual monotony.

I, like them, am a victim of circumstance

While I do believe there is a link, I sincerely hope – for my sake at least – that there isn’t a contrast between the truth of our lives and the stories that we tell.

We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. 

-- Chuck Palahniuk

Prose as a mosaic

A mosaic is an image built upon thousands of intricacies, where even the most meandering and pointless speckle – if neglected – could tarnish the whole piece. Now reimagine that speckle as a word, sentence or paragraph.

-- Sam Garrett

How is it that I became a writer?

From what I can recall there were multiple avenues and intersections that led to the same roundabout of creative nuance; and contrary to popular belief, there was no metamorphosis. I didn’t form a chrysalis while in a garret and emerge a writer.

Firstly, I wanted a conversation when no one would listen. So when I was seven I wrote some bodies that would. At first they were confined to pictures forged by Berol pens and then in ink dried words on paper. However these would one day decay so they were shifted into the rhythmic strumming of the tips of my fingers against numerous plastic keyboards. But these somebodies, these listeners, didn’t listen. They spoke the words I had assigned for them. They were a looking glass.

What writing is: Telepathy, of course.

-- Stephen King

In his memoir, On Writing, King says that writing is a form of telepathy – a form of conversation. He soon elaborates that not only is writing telepathy, but also a form of time travel. Now in my case, I have this underlying fear of being forgotten; a fear so potent that it has crippled me. So I combat this by writing my legacy and I won’t stop until those somebodies live in the minds of my readers as well as the documents before me. I won't stop until that looking glass is warped into something other than a mirror, and that young person with a pen has something to converse with.

I’ll sign off with a trailer for one of my favourite films, The Words. A film that as writers I’m sure we can all connect with – you know – besides the plagiarism part.