Last week I checked a book out of the library without knowing anything about the book nor the author, Anthony Doerr.  I thought that the title gave a good hint as to what the book was about - four seasons in Rome - and I thought how nice it would be to escape the late-winter blahs with a literary trip to Italy. Yes, the book covers Anthony Doerr's one year writing fellowship in Rome.  It is a lovely book - an impressionistic view of Rome and a funny, down-to-earth description of new parenting. But, the book contained something a bit more hidden, a bit more random, a bit more rare - a few heartfelt gems about the art of writing. I consider Mr. Doerr's thoughts on writing worth sharing - 
 
"For the past sixteen years, pretty much every single day, I've penciled a journal entry into a spiral notebook.  It is a practice field, an exercise bike; I write in it to try to stay in writing shape.  In Boise, most mornings, I sit over a blank pad and squeeze out a paragraph, then start writing fiction.  During this first month in Italy, I sit down and two hours disappear and I've filled five pages."

"A  good journal entry - like a good song, or sketch, or photograph - ought to break up the habitual and lift away the film that forms over the eye, the finger, the tongue, the heart.  A good journal entry ought  to be a love letter to the world."

"And doesn't a writer do the same thing?  Isn't she knitting together scraps of dreams? She hunts down the most vivid details and links them in sequences that will let a reader see, smell, and hear a world that seems complete in itself; she builds a stage set and painstakingly hides all the struts and wires and nail holes, then stands back and hopes whoever might come to see it will believe."

"As I work on yet another draft of my story, I try to remember these lessons. A journal entry is for its writer; it helps its writer refine, perceive, and process the world.  But a story - a finished piece of writing - is for its reader; it should help its reader refine, perceive, and process the world - the one particular world of the story, which is an invention, a dream.  A writer manufactures a dream; and each draft should present a version of that dream that is more precisely rendered and more consistently sustained than the last. Every morning I try to remind myself to give unreservedly, to pore over everything, to test each sentence for fractures in the dream."


Real Estate Hint #6 - When your house is on the Market do everything in your power to let the prospective buyers in to see your property.  Too often Sellers find reasons not to let buyers into their homes - too early, too late, the beds aren't made, the baby is napping, the kitchen isn't swept.  Let the Buyers in!!!  Too often you do not get a second chance to let these particular buyers see your house - they are often from out of town and have a very limited and tight schedule.  No buyer will purchase a house they have not seen; make sure they see your home!