Happy Birthday George!

 

Today is the 336th birthday of German/British composer George Frideric Handel, according to the old Julian calendar. March 5th is his birthday according to our current calendar.

In my opinion, Handel was one of the greatest composers ever. His music was impressionistic before there was any Impressionism movement. In an age of patronage, Handel was a businessman and his own boss for most of his career. In the course of his life he made and lost several fortunes, and died a millionaire by today’s standards.

David Vickers has given us a colorful synopsis of the great composer’s life and you can read it here: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/the-mysteries-myths-and-truths-about-mr-handel

However, what is not generally known about Handel is that he was a consummate philosopher. He wrote one philosophical treatise: his last oratorio, Jephthah. The musical drama was a rebuttal to Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man.

An Essay on Man, published 1733-34, is a poetic philosophical treatise vindicating the ways of God vis-a-vis His interactions with humans (line 16). The poem presents the natural order of things that God has decreed for human beings.

Pope goes on to argue that since it is impossible for finite humans to know the purposes of the infinite God, human beings have no right to complain about their lot in the Great Chain of Being (lines 33-34). Instead of complaining, people should simply accept the premise that “Whatever is, is right.” (line 292)

An Essay on Man found great acceptance and admiration throughout Europe. Among it’s admirers were Rousseau, Voltaire, and Kant. In fact, Kant used to read the poem to his students; and Pope’s philosophy was an important contributor to Kant’s own philosophy of religion.

While an early admirer, Voltaire later rejected Pope’s deterministic optimism and lampooned it in his book Candide.

However, Handel beat Voltaire’s rebuttal by 8 years — publishing, in 1751, his own rejection in the form of the magnificent oratorio, Jephthah.

In Jephthah, Handel questions, with biting sarcasm, that is brilliantly portrayed in the musical interpretation of the text, Pope’s assertion that “Whatever is, is right.”

The Biblical account of Jephthah is fairly short. He sets out to fight Israel’s enemies and vows to God that if God honors him with victory he will sacrifice to God the first thing he sees upon his return from the battlefield.

Foreshadowing is nothing new, writers and readers. And low and behold, what is the first thing Jephthah sees? Why, of course, his only daughter. The Biblical account clearly implies Jephthah kept his vow, after allowing his daughter a year’s reprieve.

However, such an interpretation wouldn’t fly in 18th century London. So the librettist, the Reverend Thomas Morell, took a page from the story of Abraham and Isaac and had an angel spare Iphis, Jephthah’s daughter, from death — but to honor the vow, she could not marry and had to remain a virgin her entire life.

And of course, Iphis has a lover, Hamor. Talk about star-crossed lovers!

Through the musical interpretation of the text, Handel roundly damns Pope’s sentiment, “Whatever is, is right.”

Whatever is, is not always right. The punishment for Jephthah’s misguided and witless vow falls squarely on two  innocents: Iphis and Hamor, the young lovers who have their whole lives ahead of them. And according to Handel, that is definitely not right. Those two should not have to suffer for Jephthah’s misguided zeal.

It’s as if Handel was saying, no loving and fair God would ever commit such a travesty of justice. Spare Iphis from death, but commit her to the lifelong death of separation from the one she loves? Bah! Humbug! And no father should have to honor such a vow based on belief in religious duty that flies in the face of religious common sense. Jephthah had just defeated the followers of Moloch — who practiced human sacrifice!

Pope and his absurd position be damned!

You can listen to the oratorio here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N0N-o3KAsk

The performance is 2 hours and 40 minutes of some of the most poignant and sublime music you will ever hear. Never has philosophy been so easy to enjoy!

George Frideric Handel was and is a giant among composers. He wrote French music better then the French, Italian music better than the Italians, and German music better than the Germans (although some would cite JS Bach as the exception). No British composer until Ralph Vaughan Williams could even come close to Handel.

Handel was a great musician and a great philosopher. Happy birthday, George!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading! (And listening!)

It Starts With Need

The need of your character gives you a goal, a destination, an ending to your story. How your character achieves or does not achieve that goal becomes the action of our story.

—Syd Field, Screenplay (Revised and updated edition)

A story is a fairly simple thing. As Field notes, you have a character. That character has a need. The need provides the ending of the story. How the character achieves, or fails to achieve , his or her need provides the action of the story.

The plot is not the thing. The focal point character is the thing. The character provides everything to make the story the story.

Of course the essential nature of all drama is conflict. If there is no conflict, there is no story. Knowing the main character’s need, enables you the writer to throw obstacles in the character’s path.

If the character overcomes the obstacles, he wins. He satisfies his need. If the obstacles win, the character fails.

So, you have an idea. How do you turn that idea into a story? I suggest you start with a person. The person will become your main character.

Write a brief sketch of your character and give him or her a need. The character’s need is going to provide you with the rest of the story. It’s Bradbury’s principle: create your character, have him do his thing, and there’s your story.

For example, my character Pierce Mostyn works for the uber-secret federal Office of Unidentified Phenomena. The agency’s mission is to stop monsters from destroying earth.

Mostyn’s need in each story is to discover what the monster is, the threat it poses, and to eliminate it if possible. That need provides the story’s ending, and all the action getting to the end of the story.

Another example: in The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne needs to know who wants him dead and why. That need drives the action of the movie and provides the ending.

Knowing your character and his need gives you the kernel of your story. It is then your job as the writer to grow that kernel, that seed, into a full-fledged story.

I hope you found that useful.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy writing!

The Power of Negative Thinking

 The other week I got an email from a writing guru that actually made some sense.

I call what he had to say — The Power of Negative Thinking.

Now you might be asking yourself, what the heck is The Power of Negative Thinking? And if you are, continue reading and I’ll explain.

We all know the importance of setting goals. We also know the importance of setting up steps to achieve those goals.

Our goal might be to write a novel in one year. To achieve that goal, we might set a secondary goal of writing 190 words a day. Now that doesn’t seem like much, but we work full-time; have a spouse, kids, dog, relatives, friends; there’s mowing the lawn and taking care of things around the house; and what have you. And all of those things want a piece of our time.

The standard advice is to set aside a block of time at the same time every day to write, and to write a certain amount of words. In our example, that would be 190. So, say, we decide to set aside 1 hour at 5 am to write those 190 words. Easy peasy, right?

So how many of us have done just that — and not gotten our book written?

C’mon now, raise your hand with me. Yep. Just as I thought. We’ve all been there.

Setting up a writing goal often is no different than making new year resolutions or resolving to lose those extra pounds: our resolve has gone out the window by week three. Or maybe earlier.

This is where The Power of Negative Thinking can help us. It turns on its head the conventional wisdom and often exposes the real reason we don’t achieve our goals.

The Power of Negative Thinking works like this. You set your goal of writing that novel in one year.

Then you ask yourself: how can I not reach my goal?

Go ahead, make a list of all the things that you can do to not write that novel in a year. By doing this, you have now identified your goal killers. The things that you subconsciously let derail you. The things that you subconsciously let stop you from reaching your goal.

Now, once these have been identified, you strategize on how to eliminate them. You plan how you will not let those things defeat you. Stop you from achieving your goal of writing that novel in a year.

By focusing on what is hindering you, you can very  often identify hidden fears that are short circuiting your success. That happened to me. By analyzing why I kept putting other things before writing, I came to realize that I was afraid of failing. And by failing I’d prove my parents right. That I was a failure. Once I realized that, I also realized I didn’t need their approval and I was free to write. Yippee! :)

Or you might discover that there are things more important to you than writing a novel. And that’s okay. Writing isn’t for everyone. Just like fishing, or tennis, or video games.

But you may also discover that you simply fritter away much of your time. That you let other things occupy you. In which case, you can then schedule those other things to be done in some other time frame than your time to write. Knowing that they will get attention when it’s their turn, will enable you to focus on writing.

Since I retired, my biggest time sucks are 

• other people demanding my attention in real life 
• social media
• TV
• Computer games

To get my books written, I minimize those hindrances. I schedule them away from my writing time. I avoid going to the living room, for example, during writing time so the TV doesn’t tempt me. Another is that I write long hand, in part, so I don’t have to have the computer on.

The Power of Negative Thinking is actually an old Stoic recommendation for dealing with all the crap life sends our way. And it works! Give it a try.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy Negative Thinking! 

No Cost Editing

Indie writers get a lot of flak for their lack of proofreading. And quite honestly, some of it is justified. Although, the big corporate publishers have released proofreading horrors as well. I’ve read those books and am glad I bought them used and not at full price.

But no writer need have a problem with producing a clean text. And I’m going to tell you a very simple solution to your proofreading and line editing headache.

Read Out Loud

My writing method dates back to high school and college. I write my story longhand. Then I type it, and make corrections as I type. Once typed, I read the story, catch the typos, and maybe make a line edit or two. Then comes the trick that I read about years ago, but took a long time to put into practice.

I read the story out loud. Reading out loud brings your ear into play. Your ear will catch those clunky sentences that you thought looked okay, but they don’t read okay.

Reading out loud, also helps to catch typos and wrong words. Those things your eye glossed over, but of which your tongue and ear are less forgiving.

When I started reading out loud, I began getting a much smoother text than just letting my eyes catch things.

The ear and the tongue are invaluable assistants to the eye. Use them to get a cleaner text.

The Computer Reads

Yep. I let my MacBook read the text to me — while I visually follow along. Don’t close your eyes here!

By listening to someone else read your story (yes, you could use a human to read your story to you), you catch things that sound off. 

The advantage of the computer over a human is that the computer reads exactly what is on the page. It doesn’t have a brain that compensates for your mistakes. And if you are reading the text as the computer reads, you will catch even more goofs you made.

No Money

Neither of the above editing tips cost a cent. They are available to everyone. Yet, I’m surprised how few writers use them! 

By bringing in your other senses and by using the technology you already paid for, you can get a very clean text. Which will make your readers happy.

There’s no reason to write a good story and then ruin the reader’s experience with a sloppy text. None.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy editing!