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I'm suffering from
"Writer's Block.
You
often hear writers speak of the dreaded affliction
known as writers block, a state of mind that even
sometimes manifests itself beyond the realm of the
mental and into the physical. Faced with a deadline
imposed by editors, publishers, or from even a
responsibility to one's readers, the writer,
sometimes finds him or herself, for some
unfathomable reason, completely unable to compose
two or more words in a coherent manner, or at a
total loss of ideas or inspiration regarding what
to write about.
An
artist might run out of paint, but he can purchase
additional oils, acrylics, or watercolor. A
carpenter can exhaust his supply of materials, but
there is always more at the lumberyard. But what
does the writer do when he finds himself scraping
the bottom of the proverbial barrel that resides
between his ears?
I
remember reading, sometime ago, an article in which
an accomplished author made several suggestions for
overcoming writers block, one of those ideas was to
begin a composition as if writing a letter to the
folks back home, then build upon and reedit that
work until it was of use. With that thought in
mind, I set back and recall those wonderful,
simple, communiqués that have been treasured
by so many that find themselves away from home, be
it in a distant city, a far off land, or on the
field of battle.
I
am even willing to wager that you, have set down
and either received or wrote a letter that might
have opened with a line that read something to the
effect of, "Hope this finds you in the best of
health, we are all OK, that is except for 'Uncle
Joe' who has a touch of newmonia
(pneumonia)."
When
writing letters to friends and family, my dear old
Mother always kept close at hand a copy of "The New
Third Edition Instant Spelling Dictionary," just
for such emergencies, not wanting to write a letter
and misspell those "sixty-four dollar words." I
still have this little pocket sized dictionary, the
corners of the cover worn from time, pages dog
eared, and words commonly used in family
correspondence, written in Mother's long hand,
carefully noted inside the back cover, words like
pneumonia, diarrhea,……. well you probably
know the rest of the list of words descriptive of
common ailments that one might write close family
and complain of.
A
quick glance inside the cover of this reference
work, reveals a publication date of 1967, but
despite the fact that it is now 37 years old, it
still resides close at hand next to the computer
that I am composing this discourse on, as it has
come to my attention that modern computer word
processors, even though they have quite advanced
"Spell Checkers" do not always work as well as we
would like.
When I pick up that little dictionary, I wonder
what if Mother had not passed on back in '84 and
was still with us, what would she think of our
modern computers, our e-mail, or even the ability
to compose a letter, check the spelling with a
click of the mouse, print the text and even an
envelope, all without the necessity of a pen or
pencil.
"Oh darn this Writer's
Block! What am I going to write
about?"
O.K.
starting with a essay that is similar to a letter
from the folks back home, seems to work. Although I
still haven't yet developed any bright ideas about
what this month's "Under The Message Tree" column
should be about, I have managed to write 580 words
so far. Maybe I should tell you'all about some of
the things that have been happening "Under" The
Message Tree this past month. Yeah, just like a
letter from home.
Gary
Gray visited with us a couple of weeks ago. Gary
who now is a regular contributor to The Message
Tree, spent a couple of days in the Ozarks doing
background research for a forthcoming novel, and we
were delighted to spend an afternoon with Gary
giving him the "50 cent" tour of Ozark Mountain
Country, or at least those parts that were relevant
to his research as well as those areas that he has
read about so many times in The Message Tree. In
fact it was this "research" that lead Gary to The
Message Tree and kindled our friendship. He was
searching the web for information about the Ozarks
when he discovered our little "e-zine" and
subsequently e-mailed us for help and suggestions
about possible locations for use in his fictional
novel. Through these e-mails that took place over a
several month period, we became friends and he even
volunteered to submit some of his short stories for
our use and your enjoyment.
You
might ask why an Internet based magazine about the
Ozarks features short stories based on
recollections of Gary's childhood in Kentucky, and
to answer that question, I would have to say that
the rural experience, the growing up in the
country, is remarkably universal. Consider the
story that Gary wrote and we featured in the June
issue titled "The Osage Orange Tree" a tale that
could have taken place anywhere here in the Ozarks,
but actually happened in Kentucky.
Gary's
work has been well received and well read not only
in this web based magazine but in similar
publications elsewhere, even in England. We feel
very fortunate, not only to have made a lasting
friendship with Gary but also to be able to feature
his writings.
What am I going to do
about this dog gone writers block?
Well
anyway, background research is so very important
when writing, even a work of fiction. A few years
ago an internationally known writer that
specializes in spy type thrillers, authored a
fictional novel with a large portion of the plot,
taking place in Eastern Kansas just west of Kansas
City. This particular author is said to boast of
how he thoroughly researches his settings, so as to
be as realistic and as credible as possible.
However a critic for the Kansas City Star wrote a
scathing review of the book, pointing out to the
readers of the Star how that author could not have
possibly visited the region or acquainted himself
with the locals due to obvious mistakes in
geography and a lack of understanding of the
mindset of the residents of the area.
For
example when writing a story about the Ozarks, a
writer in some far off part of the world, might
look at a map of Missouri and note that Branson is
on a lake and that Table Rock is near Branson. Now
if that writer was to say in their story that
Branson is a lakefront city located on the shores
of Table Rock, those of us reading that novel would
immediately know that the author had never visited
the area. We know that Branson is located on a lake
but that lake is Taneycomo not Table Rock. So you
can see how important it is to visit an area when
writing about it, getting the lay of the land so to
speak, in your mind. Which explains why Gary took a
few days of vacation from his job with the Wall
Street Journal and drove all the way here from his
home in Denver Colorado, so we could show him
around the central Ozarks, thereby affording him
the opportunity to better acquaint himself with the
area, and not to make the same mistake as the
author did that the Star "raked over the
coals."
We
caught up with Gary on the afternoon of July 23rd,
and he explained how he had spent the morning
exploring over in the Clever and Boaz areas. Also
being a Civil War buff, he had visited Wilson's
Creek National Battlefield taking time to tour the
historic Ray house, leaving very impressed with the
park, a national treasure that preserves the scene
of a battle that was important in deciding the
outcome of that bloody war.
After
beginning our "guided tour" one of our first stops
was at Ponce de Leon, the one time bustling mineral
water resort . Of course we admonished Gary that
should he mention that town in his novel, he should
refer to it as "Ponce" (Pon-cee) as everyone knows
a true Ozarker would never refer to it by its
proper name. We then proceeded on south pointing
out the location of landmarks such as the Old
Spanish Cave, then spending a few minutes allowing
Gary to photograph the unique store fronts found in
Reed Springs.
Commenting
on wanting to see Joe Bald Road and the one time
location of the message tree that is the namesake
of this magazine, we drove out the old road that
our friend Jim Barrett has wrote about so many
times during the last forty odd years, to that fork
in the road where the old tree once stood.
Naturally Gary wanted to meet "J.B." after reading
so many of his columns in The Message Tree, so we
tracked Jim down, finding him preparing for that
evening's performance at his dinner theater in
Kimberling City.
Of
course, no tour of the Central Ozarks would be
complete without a visit to The Shepherd Of The
Hills farm and "old Matt's cabin" where that great,
early twentieth century author, Harold Bell Wright,
created the setting for his novel that was to
become a major catalyst in creating the tourist
industry of the Ozarks and promoting the growth of
the region. And just like a letter from home, we
took the time to pose for photographs at Old Matt's
and have included them with this "Letter."
Finally
before dropping Gary off at his hotel, we drove
through Ozark so he could take some pictures of the
historic square and the monument that marks the
approximate location of the last public hanging in
which a Baldknobber was executed.
What
a trip, in just one afternoon, we drove over a
hundred miles and covered over 200 years of Ozarks
history. Obviously we didn't even scratch the
surface of all of the colorful history and lore of
these old hills, but we hit a few of the high
points including some locations the tourists never
see.
We
visited springs that were the source of mineral
water for 1890's era health spas, marveled at the
fragile ecosystem of an Ozarks mountain top glade,
drove past archeological ruins of ghost towns once
populated by people whose names are forever
enshrined in the annuals of Ozark history, and
discussed our writing projects over tall glasses of
ice tea with the historian emeritus of southern
Stone county. What an afternoon!
Now if I could just get
past this writer's block, and think of something to
write about for this months
column……………
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