PUTTING NEWS INTO THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE!

We are daily receiving myriad of news, all competing for our attention. Sometimes they are somehow connected and we only discover this when taking notice of them and delving into their background.

For example, when the U.S. weather report announces that it had hurricane Edward has been downgraded to strength 3 and later on it was announced that the president assures the people that the mistake of hurricane Katrina will not be repeated…….well there seems to be a connection there! It is easy to make this statement when the hurricane is obviously ‘only’ strength 3 whereas Katrina was strength 6!

Other news show blatant duplicity as is the case quite often in politics as a recent event will highlight.

Early in the morning, when just getting up and feeling more or less fortified to face the day, I was confronted on television with the sensational news clip of a dying baby whale, trapped in an Australian bay.

It showed how concerned people were with rescuing the cute little creature which somehow had become separated from its mother who was nowhere to be seen.

Reporters and animal activists milled around this calf in little boats, trying to find a way out of its entrapment and into the realms of the free, wide oceans. There, they pondered, it would find a mother whale willing to suckle and nourish it back to health and into becoming a great, proud creature of the wide-open, watery spaces.

And all the time, a magnitude of press, reporters and other media were swarming around the poor and helpless creature, were excitedly fluttering around, chattering into their microphones or looking concerned into their cameras. Newspaper circulations have increased and television channels intensified their ratings war.

Eventually, the hapless creature started to suffer and a compassionate veterinary surgeon had to put it out of its misery.

Now, there is a bit of after-kerfuffle by politicians, especially from the opposition party, about what should have been done and wasn’t done by the heartless people in government and a few more points have been scored by political parties, back and forth.

Now, everything seems to have dyed down and other, so-called newsworthy news, have replaced this event and very soon people will have to rake their brains to remember this tragic incident. .

Now comes my main point: forgotten by all this is the fact that we are having a whaling fleet in our Southern ocean waters, with killer ships constantly bringing in large numbers of wale carcasses, for study purposes, as the Japanese euphemise their senseless slaughter.

They do this with seeming impunity as we are too cowardly accepting this action of illegality and inhumanity. After all, we do not wish to confront an important trading partner – do we?

And for this reason, the clamour had been directed to an incident and sentiment plus publicity are exuded over a cute little baby whale where it can do us no harm!

Which, again, necessitates the careful examination of any news we receive, lest we be misled and misinformed of the true situation of our world we live in!

Peter Frederick

http://www.peterfrederick.org

http://www.life-on-the-road.com

A NEW WRITING TECHNIQUE

Dear Friend,

It is a kind of love that keeps us writers producing outpourings of exudations, always trying to find the most descriptive words and concise grammar.

Especially, when we have a story to follow, that is, our chapter outline, it is sometimes difficult to concentrate on dealing with an incident whilst our mind is already racing away, far ahead of your story.

Labouring under the requirements of strict discipline, I have developed a method that works very well for me: that of using ‘snippets’.

Still perusing the chapter outline of our future book, I have the habit of writing in script mode any detail I just feel like writing. Whatever comes to my mind and in whatever mood I am at the time. This is what I term the ‘creative moment’ and this should not be resisted or subliminated by writing about something else as we would lose what I term ‘Quality’.

Having finished my writing, I state on top of the paper the name ‘snippet number 1, underneath the subject or topic and the result of my word count. After which I file it away in a document file called ‘snippets’.

These snippets do not need to filed in any particular order, however, they will arraign themselves numerically in their folder.

After which I write about the next subject I feel in the mood for.

Of course, I mark off my chapter outline the incident I have just put on paper and it always gives me satisfaction to see the marked sections grow and the subjects I still have to write about slowly diminish.

Once every incident and chapter is dealt with, I then start with the actual manuscript. After establishing my header and footer and take care of page numbering, I simply paste the snippets in the correct sequence into my manuscript. This done, I read through everything and sometimes discover the need to ‘cement’ the various snippets together with the correct words and phrases.

An improvement of this method is to note down first a list of incidents, happenings or subjects you wish to write about. This list of snippets needs to be ticked-off as you deal with them.

And the word count will inform you whether your publication is voluminous enough for your planned end result.

This method of working with snippets stands me in good stead and I can only recommend it to anybody who wishes to establish a kind of order or system in the creation of a valued piece of literature!

Peter Frederick

http://www.peterfrederick.org

http://www.life-on-the-road.com

CREATIVITY - WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?

Welcome, dear Friend,

When do authors of books, short stories and poems get their best ideas?Is there a technique that turns on this tap of creativity?

These are often asked questions and the answer is not an easy one. In the absence of any rules and regulations, I can only speak about my own situation and hope that the following may be applicable to anybody who is creative.

Ideas and sentiments cannot be turned on and off at will, but we are able to condition ourselves to recognise this creative moment when it presents itself. To be ready for this, it is always advisable to have a notice book handy, a clip board or a voice recording device to give permanency to these fleeting thoughts.

Sometimes, it is a vivid dream I wake up with and, recognising it as a good story, I note it down, still in a drowsy state of twilight. This is important because once awake sets in, it is obliterated from consciousness. Sometimes I am able to return to my twilight state and retrieve some more details, noting them down carefully, for proper grammar and wording to be worked on later!

This way, I am able to achieve wonderful poetry, stories with a twist I would have never thought of during the day, or even an interesting idea for another book may present itself. It is wonderful to harness this world of sub-consciousness as it is inexhaustible and everlasting.

Another source of lyrical expression is derived from a state of depression. Deeply depressed people are able to compose poetry or other literary works with remarkable depth and feeling which they are normally not capable of. The danger here is that whilst writing down their feelings, they may be emotionally in a downwards spiral, a very dangerous situation!

During the day, really creative people are able to sit relaxed and shut themselves off from their surroundings and sink in a kind of trance. With pen and paper ready, thoughts are recorded in no particular order and will be worked later into a piece of literature.

These principles, of course, would also apply to cartoonists, comedians, speechwriters, in other words, anybody who needs originality and creativity.

In addition to this, there are other helpful tools to assist a writer. For example, learning new words is a daily must as it increases expression and descriptiveness.

Reading other peoples works is important for mind expansion and increased comprehension. They may be masterpieces or from unknown authors, we will constantly learn and absorb in an ongoing process.

Of great assistance is to have one’s outpouring edited by another, qualified, person to ensure universal acceptance of one’s train of thoughts.

There are of course many more sources of inspirations and I shall mention them in later publications. My book ‘Life on the Road’, for example, is a hilarious recording of real life situations, some are too crazy to be invented,

and I have written them down with an alert ear and eager pen!

Peter Frederick

http://www.peterfrederick.org

http://www.life-on-the-road.com

peter-frederick@life-on-the-road.com