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Stephen Pickering

Category: Literature

  • Literary Writer’s Word of the Day: Forecourt

    I just realized that in the example I just read it’s mostly a British English usage. “Garage forecourt” is simply the area in front of a gas station where the pumps are. Of course it sounds better in the British version. I was going to try and use it in something I’m working on now, and maybe I will force it in somewhere just for fun, but I realized most of what I was visualizing in my own story are areas we refer to simply as “courtyards.” Still, if the area is large enough, such as the areas in front of government or university buildings, it’s tough to refer to those places as courtyards. “Courtyard” has a more intimate connotation, and really more of an inside the building feel to it than out front.

    The second time was a bunch of posies—pink carnations—from the garage forecourt, a spontaneous gesture after a cheap but fun restaurant date.”

    ‘Floriography: The Meaning of Flowers’ by Sarah McPherson

    The ‘forecourt’ hashtag on Instagram

  • Writer’s Word of the Day: Owlish

    I settled into it until I was certain, then upped the tempo and went on by her in a long sprint finish, was clinging to the ladder when she arrived, feeling less like a beached blowfish than on other days. “Well now!” she gasped, looking startled and owlish.”

    John D. MacDonald, “Bright Orange for the Shroud: A Travis McGee Novel” page 66 of 288 on Kindle, first paragraph of Chapter 5.

    I don’t think the dictionary definition does this one justice. “Wise and solemn” is not the sense of it here nor in a way you may want to use it literarily. To me it’s the subtle widening of the whole circle of the eyes yet simultaneously keeping the rest of the face frozen. I feel like I’ve gotten and given spontaneously without thinking this subtle yet powerful expression a million times in my life without ever having been able to put it into words. I don’t think I would have gotten it here if John hadn’t added the world “startled.” When the expression of surprise comes only through the eyes, ironically, because the expression is trying to be hidden, it’s more powerfully and deeply felt. Normally when people are trying to woo or flatter you, they consciously add in the facial expressions. Ironically it loses effect. You know it’s not emergent from the heart in a spontaneous way. It’s when they really do feel surprise (I think mostly in the positive sense at something you’ve done or how you look) that you could describe their face as “looking owlish.” It’s a neat and fun word to use. And a very common experience. It’s power comes from its spontaneity, and “owlish” is a great way to describe it.

  • Fiction Writer’s Resources

    I’m spending most of my time and focus on writing a novel right now. So, hence this.

    “Words to Use instead of Said”

    http://www.spwickstrom.com/said/
    This was the top result when I googled: what are some words you can use to describe dialogue besides said

    I created an “Alter-Ego” Twitter (@ottersransom) for solely for my artistic endeavors. My main personal account (@Pickering) which I’ve had since 2007 just seems to messed up and cluttered.
    I got this next resource from googling: what’s a good hashtag on twitter for fiction writers and novelists

    http://www.authormedia.com/44-essential-twitter-hashtags-every-author-should-know/

  • Uses of the Word Wry and Wryly

    “To her friends in law or medical school she would declare wryly: I’m downwardly mobile.” – Best American Short Stories 2016, “Gifted” by Sharon Solwitz, p. 241

    “She applied and was admitted to art school and earned not only her degree in design but the love of her department head, twelve years older than she was, but trim and sweet-natured with a warm, wry delivery.” – ibid, pg. 241

  • The Basic Theme of All Mythology

    Opening the world to the dimension of mystery. To realize the mystery that underlies all forms.

    “That’s the message of the myth: you as you know yourself are not the final term of your being.”

    Joseph Campbell: The indication is of a notion of a plane of being that’s behind the visible plane and which is somehow supportive of the visible one to which we have to relate. I would say that’s the basic theme of all mythology… That there is an invisible plane supporting the visible one. Now, whether it is thought of as a world or simply an energy, uh, that differs from time to time and place to place.

    Bill Moyers: What we don’t know supports what we do know.
    JC: That’s right.

    *About the 11:30 mark in the Power of Myth, the First Storytellers.

    Ritual is one way of relating to this invisible plane.

    JC: “Through the ritual that dimension is struck which transcends temporality and out of which Life comes and back into which it goes.” – 24:16

    “What all the myths have to deal with is transformation of consciousness, that you’re thinking in this way and you have now to think in that way.” – JC – 16:10 Power of Myth, The Hero’s Journey.

  • The Essence of Zen

    I just got through reading Alan Watts’ “The Way of Zen” which is just awesome, by the way. I didn’t really know who he was, other than, I heard Joseph Campbell mention him a couple times, and in the back of my mind I thought, “Oh, he was just some sort of 60’s new age guy who was sort of in Joseph’s ‘Entourage’.”

    Wrong! This guy was the real deal. He was so “in it” so “grounded” that hearing him speak, which may be even better than his great books, you know you are listening to someone who was “transparent to transcendence.”

    That’s what draws you to someone who is or has really followed their bliss, is that the ground is so speaking through them, that you can just feel there’s no Ego agenda that’s going to try to fool you, no editing out of anything, even competitive forces, because it’s like the ground of being speaking ‘through’ this person. That’s a paradox in itself, and as you get more into this world, you know you’re headed in the right direction as more of these paradoxes, oxymorons, anamorphuses, start popping up, and not only do you not mind, but they have a delicious quality to them.

    Anyway, back to my main point. One thing that strikes me that may be the essence of Zen, especially when it comes to some sort of skill is that the practice isn’t what is making you better. The practice, which is of course required, is rather putting you in tune to receive the genius. The practice, the honest practice, sort of makes you worthy, like an initiation, to receive the message from the Gods. And then it becomes almost effortless, like the craft is working through you. You become a conduit for this genius. So the practice puts you “in tune” to be a conduit for manifesting the eternal.