Last night, as I was driving to my workout, I was listening to a lady being interviewed on the radio.
Her name is Barbara Butcher, and she wrote a book entitled, What the Dead Know. Turns out she had a nasty job, going to crime scenes, where the dead bodies were not yet buried. And there she would begin an investigation, which involved… well, I’ll spare you the gory details.
Anyway, during the interview, Barbara spoke about her book, and how she worked with an editor and advisor, who read her first draft.
The editor gave it back to her and told her what needed to be fixed.
And guess what that fix was? It wasn’t the typos, the misspellings, the improper grammar or the wrong use of various words. It was this: In all of her stories, “She was not in them.”
The editor advised Barbara that she needed to insert herself into each and every story, to include her feelings, emotions and experiences.
Now what the fugg has el Furecat been telling y’all for at least 20 years? The same thing.
We got this idea from our dense English teachers, professors and other know-nothings, who are NOT published authors and are not wealthy, that YOU are not the “I” of the storm. Oh hell yes, you are – IF you want to make a pile of money and lift yourself into the stratosphere.
It isn’t all about ME, ME, ME in a totally narcissistic fashion – but the “I” needs to be in there, as they say in the northeast, “somewheres.”
Go ahead and fight me on this one all you want. I love a good battle now and then… if not daily, because I know who and what delivers the knockout blows.
Here endeth the lesson… except to say, I’m going to cover the above in great detail in the August edition of my Zen Mastery Newsletter. And this issue alone will be worth ten times what you gave me for it.
Matt Furey
Oh… and by the way, the dead writers I referenced in today’s subject line, the ones with names such as Twain and Franklin, they agree with me.
