Find a Penny...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before...

About fifteen years ago I met and, for awhile, hung around an old man whom I highly respected and admired. He had a full life without me, and I was merely one of a number who enjoyed his company. His name was Hal, not that that matters, and he was a gentle soul, lively and laughing and full of the wisdom one acquires after a long time looking, thinking, and experiencing.

One day we were walking along the street and I spotted a penny laying in the gutter. He saw it too, or saw me looking at it, and told me to pick it up. I think I said something like "it's just a penny" or something like that and he gave me a broad smile, stooped down and retrieved it, and handed it to me.

"It's not worth it," he said. "But you are."

About a week later I called him up and left a message on his machine. Two days later my phone rang, and the lady he rented his room from was calling to let me know he'd died. Mine was the last message on his machine, the last one he'd heard.

In our short time together he gave me everything any person can ever give another: support and caring. He didn't make a big deal of my mountains, just took them all in stride and assured me always that "it will be okay." I don't know how he never tired of me, but when i wanted or needed him he was there, if only for a moment. Just to let me know he cared, just to let me know I mattered.

Now, years later, I still remember him. Whenever I see a penny on the street I pick it up and it's a reminder of him, of what people can be and how they live on even after death.


This may or may not have anything to do with writing, but it's a test of seeing how (or if) extended entries get picked up by my feed generator.

I watched a movie this weekend, one I've seen a few times (Groundhog Day) and not for the first time I was struck by how quickly a movie goes the second or third time I see it. It flies from plot point to plot point with hardly any wasted frames.

I know when I write I sometimes (often?) postpone the next point. When writing I do that consciously, not always knowing what the next plot point is, and it's something I think I need to keep an eye out for when editing. What's funny, to me, is how languid I think a novel should be, how I think I'm generating suspense by holding off for a chapter or paragraph, the next reveal, but that isn't the way to tell a story.

Yes, a certain amount of rest and downtime is needed, but I think every one of my stories can be speeded up, and that's probably how they should be written. Like seeing a movie for the first time, it will come across more slowly to the reader as they're focusing on the plot, wondering what happens next. But if you can look at the work without worrying about that, you should be able to see that there's no wasted paragraphs, and that the pace is much more brisk than it seems.