My Resonator, My Muse

January 14, 2009

The first real collection of words is complete - almost five hundred words! The book is underway and it is starting with a preface. I am so excited, but no one else has seen it yet. I don't want to hear that it is no good. If it is no good, then I'm done. Such was the fragile state of my psyche at the time. Remember that I had just failed miserably in the 'real' business world and I needed this to work. So of course I sent it to Jeanie, my wife and partner for over thirty years. If anyone could read it and cage a negative response, spin it in a positive way, it was her.

Her response was "I love it and I want to read more". I had found my muse.

It was around this time that I picked up and read another book entitled The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. This is a must read for first time writers. Three others that really helped me along: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, Elements of Style by Strunk, White and Angell, and Story by Robert McKee.

It was The Company They Keep that let me in on the need to surround myself with three different sets of people: Resonators, Opponents and Editors. The Resonators are the ones who support your efforts as you move along. The Opponents - as you may have already guessed - challenge your every move. The Editors fix all the things you did wrong. In the book, you get to see how it worked for some of the greatest fiction writers of all time. It helped me and I am one of the most obscure writers of all time.

Jeanie became my first Resonator and her positive influence cannot be quantified. Lesson number two is find a Resonator. A first time writer cannot do it alone. You simply won't get it done.