When you write you are way out there on a limb and you're sawing and you're not quite sure where the

cut is. When I'm out there on a limb with my keyboard sawing these are pep-talks I give myself.

Tell a good story, I say. The story must entertain, you don't want folks walking out before they've

finished the popcorn, for cripe sake. And while we're at it, adjust your writers cap and be sure the story reveals

insights. The best story has meaning beneath the meaning. And this will be the best story.

You must tell an honest story, I say. "Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, truer." These are borrowed

words. They've evolved and been passed on from writer to writer. Clear your throat, I tell myself and make your

storyteller's voice a strong; unique and powerful voice, but above all else make sure it is an honest, authentic voice.

No BS. Please.

Since you're writing, I say, may as well use beautiful language. Make the language sing. Use the

language to grab the reader by the emotional lapels and don't let go until the last page. Revel in the words, roll

in the rhythms, play with the syntax, and make the spirit soar. Put a feather in your writer's cap and think of a

bard.

While you're at it you may as well think big. You're at your first reading, Q & A time, and someone in

the third row says, "Where do you get your ideas?" "You're a plant, right?" you say. Your story is everywhere,

look around, be a sponge, soak it up and remember it. Then gossip. The story is you, your family, your neighbor,

the guy on the bus, the gal in the laundromat, for cripe sake. Narrative is the string of events these characters

experience and how you forge a connection by linking what seems unrelated. It's how the characters responsd to

the events and to each other. Heartbreak comes from dashed expectations. Report on the heartbreak, how it

happens. It's important. Don't forget to reveal how joy and triumph come into the characters lives. Joy and

triumph are important too.

But all these characters are you. You are the one out on the limb with the keyboard, wearing the writer's

cap with the poets feather in it, and your sawing, remember. And you don't know exactly where the cut is. That's

what makes it exciting, for cripe sake.

Rodger Larson