Weekly Writer’s Quote: An alternative world

There are many reasons why novelists write – but they all have one thing in common: a need to create an alternative world. ~ John Fowles

I think this quote sums up my week. This has been an interesting and stressful week. Come to think of it all my interesting weeks are stressful and my uninteresting weeks contain no stress. I do not get much writing accomplished during the uninteresting week. However, I have not had an uninteresting week in a long time.

You may ask, “What does an interesting week have to do with creating an alternative world?” The alternative world is one in which I do not have two doctor’s appointments in the same week. This week the appointments were on Wednesday and Thursday, next week the appointments are on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Doctor’s waiting room

Cold enough for a sweater

Too hot for a coat

One positive aspect of this week is that I could wear my new red sweater.  I have had the sweater for about two months, but it was too cold to wear the sweater. It was also too warm to wear both the sweater and the coat. This year the weather has been weird, so weird that sometimes it seems like this is an alternative world.

Weekly Writer's Quote: My Self and My Own Time

“The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all times.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

I don’t like to write about myself, most of the time. I do write about my mother. Mom has Alzheimer’s disease and short-term memory issues. One of the results of this is that she forgets she ate and therefore, she wants to eat again about ten to thirty minutes after a meal. I have to admit this does make life interesting because on Saturday and Sunday, when she is home all day, she wants to eat all the time.

There is plenty of food in the house; the problem is finding something for her to eat that is low in dietary fiber (she is on a low fiber diet) and not fattening. Mom now weighs 130 lbs. When she began going to the Adult Daycare center last year she weighed 95 lbs.

I fixed a macaroni and spaghetti sauce for us this weekend. All right, I know its probably high in calories, but its supposed to be filling. At least, that is what I thought. I added a can of green beans and heated it in the microwave. Mom still wanted to eat again ten minutes after she finished eating two bowls of the macaroni. The food either was not as filling as I thought or Mom forgot she ate and this made her hunger again. Perhaps I should put this incident in a short story.

Weekly Writer’s Quote: Thoughts on a Perfectly Happy Childhood

"Those of us who had a perfectly happy childhood should be able to sue for deprivation of literary royalties." ~ Chris Patten

I am not convinced there is such a thing as a “perfectly happy childhood”, any more then I am convinced that a “perfectly” unhappy childhood exists. Life and growing up is a combination of events that lead to happiness and unhappiness.

Happiness depends on an individual’s definition of the word. It depends upon the individual’s perception of an event occurring in one life. A person or writer can be happy despite the occurrences in his or her life. Unhappiness works the same way.

Whatever events occurred in a writer’s childhood, whether those events led to happiness or unhappiness, the author needs to attempt to incorporate then into his or her works. It does not matter whether the person is writing slices of life, romance, science fiction or fantasy, these the events and emotions give depth to the stories, novel, and poems. Even when the reader does not realize that, the writer is basing some of the items on his or her experiences.