It recently occurred to me that writing is a lot like that old story about those three portly brothers venturing out on their own. Let's call the first one Lazy, because he was always trying to find the easy way out. Let's call the second one Vain, because it was all about the looks. And the last one, we'll call Coach because he was dedicated to doing stuff the right way.
Well, here's what happened. One-day mama put them all out the house. They had reached the ripe age of 18 and they had to go. So, they all set out to the forest to claim some land for themselves. Lazy stopped at the first opening he could find and started putting together some scraps of hay and straw that were lying around. Vain stopped a little further into the woods near a stream and thought, "I'll build my house right here. The ladies will love this!" He used some sticks that sat alone the banks to make some walls and immediate went to Best Buy and bought a leather couch and a 40" flat panel TV. Well, Coach went deep into the woods and found a piece of land on the highest hill. He spent days clearing a few acres and used the wood to build a house that resembled an HGTV Dream Home.
Late in the fall, Hurricane Katrina came and blew down Lazy's house and washed away Vain's new color TV. They both ended up living with Coach in the west wing for several months.
Here's the lesson for us as writers. It is in our best interest to find the most suitable topic to write about and spend the time and labor developing our thoughts into a timeless statement to the world. Yes, it is easier to pull together the stuff we already have and throw together something fast, but that will blow away in the wind just as quickly. And it is just as true that when we tell people what they want to hear that we are like the water that ebbs and flows with no clear ground or identity. Yet for us, we are eagles that perch high and look low. So, we build our homes high in the bluffs. We labor in our thoughts and find themes that are universal and timeless. We preach about the truths of our mothers and grandmothers. We retell the stories of our fathers and grandfathers. We update and upgrade that which works. And when necessary, we create new stories and devise new methods to reach more people.
Writer, teacher, preacher, speaker, singer, presenter here's what I want you to do. Identify your fertile ground. What subject is so close to you that you could consider it fertile ground, a place that you could cultivate and develop a unique statement to the world? Start writing about that topic. Describe it in detail. Make a list of stories you could tell about that topic. Identify the lessons that you have learned. And list some tips that you would give about navigating through that place.
This is the beginning of your endeavors to build a Dream Home. Send me an outline; I'd love to read it. If you need help, let me know.
Coach Hodge.
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