What's Your Slogan?

Slogan

The slogan for Hallmark Cards is,” When you Care Enough to send the Very Best.”

As a writer I’ve long believed that slogan needs only minor changes to apply to what I do.  “When I Care Enough about my Writing to Steal from the Very Best.”

I recently read The Dream of Scipio by Iaian Pears. It is a very good book. I recommend it highly along with his, An instance of the Finger Post, that may be the best historical mystery I have ever read. 

At the time I had been contemplating responding to a call for short stories in an upcoming anthology. I wanted to submit in part because I really like the editor.  I like getting published and I also like getting paid. However, after I read the description of what the editor wanted, I had no idea how to combine elements that seemed contradictory to me.

It happened that Delta Airlines unexpectedly provided me with a block of time, i.e., a five-hour wait in an airport with little to do during the delay.  My ninety-year old mother was with me. She was a trooper and a good sport throughout.  As I read through The Dream of Scipio at a leisurely pace between strolls through the concourse, I was able to enjoy the book, the author’s style and the author’s writing techniques. Had the flight left on time, I don’t know if I would have noticed the mechanics of the book.

I was able to suss out one approach Pears used fairly frequently that added to my enjoyment of the book.  In brief, the author wrote about what might have happened as well as what did happen. Later I tried to use it in my short story. It worked for about half a page, but it was not enough by itself to provide sufficient structure for an entire short story. As Stephen King has said, a story requires two or three moving parts.  One idea does not lead to a story.  In continuing to read The Dream of Scipio after my first attempt to structure my story, I also noticed variations of the method. They reminded me of a jazz musician playing riffs to vary the melody before returning to the underlying stream of music.  When I incorporated the variations, I was able to provide a skeleton for the short story that was not unduly repetitive but was structurally supportive of the theme of the work.

  

I certainly do not mean my short story uses everything Pears was able to employ in The Dream of Scipio. Pears’ novel goes back and forth in time. He writes beautifully about three protagonists living in different historical periods that never overlap.  Yet their lives are tied together in ways the characters do not realize. 

My story? We’ll have to wait to see if it gets accepted.

Do you have a personal writing slogan?