Unfortunate Publicity

Having visited the beautiful seaside villages in Southern Maine this past summer, hearing the news of the Zumba teacher who allegedly ran a prostitution business on the side and the scandal it has caused in the Kennebunks was disheartening. Our society feeds its voracious appetite for salacious news on the backs of good and decent people, who all too often get caught up in the dirty business of others (for example, all of the current and former students and faculty of Penn State). And now, once again, our 24/7 media cycle is revved up into a frenzy to bring us all of the Zumba news that is unfit to print.

Kennebunkport is a beautiful, quaint village and its people could not be more down-to-earth or friendlier. Although our trip was more of a gourmande adventure (we managed to spend most of our time eating and drinking our way up and down the coast), the area is pure small town Americana, and so are its people. And thus, the public’s curiosity with the Zumba teacher/prostitute and her Johns.

Our society is obsessed with the rich and famous and the downtrodden (the middle seems to not garner much attention). And when the spotlight shines on a sex scandal in a Mayberry-esque locale, those who think Judge Judy and Dr. Phil represent anything resembling a real Judge or a real…whatever kind of “Dr.” he claims to be, pull up their chairs and break out the popcorn.

So, what about the other 99.999+% of the people from the Kennebunks? They feel that they are under siege, and they feel that all the good they do is being lost amidst the prurient details. The truth is that among the lobster shacks and the tourist stores, the fishing boats and the iconic Bush compound on Walker’s Point, there also exists a seedier element. Which is the case in every village or town or city in America. And it is unfortunate that all of the beauty and good gets overlooked due to the overwhelming tidal wave of focus on the bad. I prefer to focus on the positive.

Labor of Love, Or Fool’s Errand?

October 18, 2012 By Steven Recht in Writing Tags: Writers, writing 5 Comments

What do you call something that is years in the making, gives you no immediate tangible reward, and ultimately opens you up to widespread criticism? Torture? Or nirvana? I call it doing what you were meant to do.

I once read about a math wiz, a savant, who didn’t know how he was able to do what he did–it was just a part of him. To him, it was normal. To everyone else, it was remarkable.

I can’t sing or write songs or draw or paint, and I’m smart enough to know not to even try. But I can write. Don’t get me wrong: I’m no savant–at anything. But I’ve always been complimented on my writing. Whether a short story, a letter or a simple (to me) email, I’ve received unsolicited praise, but I’ve never really understood what the big deal is–it’s just me and it’s just writing. So, I thought, maybe that’s my calling, and maybe I should do something with it–I’ll write a book. I just didn’t realize the time and effort and sacrifice that writing a book would entail.

In hindsight, mine was a thoughtless leap of faith. Just because you can string a couple of sentences together doesn’t mean you can make up a compelling story or write good dialogue. And maybe I can’t, at least not well. But I did enjoy the process. Even though it took me years, without reward, and that now, it may open me up to ridicule.

My words are my brush, my keyboard my canvas. Time to paint.

Write or Wrong

October 14, 2012 By Steven Recht in Writing Tags: books, literature, Writer, writing Leave a comment

Can I start calling myself a writer? Or an author? Have I earned it yet?

Some background: A long time ago, on an uneventful day at work, in the days of the poingo poingo of internet connections (read as the internet was not readily accessible), I sat at my desk pondering a scene that had popped into my brain with complete clarity. I mean, every sensory nuance of the scene, sights and sounds and smells, was fully developed. And I didn’t know what to do with it. So I started writing, evicting from my brain this complete thought that was almost painful to ignore until it was purged. And what appeared on the screen in front of me was that scene, final draft, no additions, changes or rewriting necessary.

It was the opening scene for a story–a book–but I didn’t know where to go from there. So I showed it to my wife, and after she read it (and initially looked at me as if I was from another planet), she told me to write the book. She might as well have told me to jump off a bridge. But naive person that I was, I tried, and it went fairly well–at first. Then I got to that certain point in the story that I now know as the line in the sand. That point in time where you think it’s all garbage and a waste of time and oh my God, what was I thinking? And at that point you can either push through and have faith in your ability, or you can punt. I punted. I put what I had printed into a drawer, and moved on with my life.

Fast forward ten years and endless entreaties by my wife to start writing again, to not push aside those scenes of clarity that kept popping into my head. And one day, once again, I just had to purge one of those scenes from my brain. But this time, I decided that good or bad, I was going to finish what I had started, and the surprising thing was that each day that I sat down to write, new thoughts did come into my head, and new scenes and characters and new story lines developed from thin air (i.e. the recesses of my brain).

Everybody writes differently. Someone once told me that I had to have the whole story outlined and every character’s profile fully developed before I could write the first paragraph. Wrong advice for me. Some people, like me, just sit down and start writing and somehow, a story begins to flow forth. I may have some mis-steps, I may go down a path that ends with the worst thing ever–the delete button. But that’s how it works for me.

So I’ve completed book one and I’m well into book two. Book one is getting published–my way, which is the subject for another day.

Have I earned the title Writer? Author? Have I?