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. Writer says success is in the telling Workshop leader says subject of tale is secondary . Wednesday, June 16, 2004 by ANNA THIBODEAUX for the Madison Spirit section . |
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A good writer can write about anything and everything. That's something Birmingham writer Jimmy Carl Harris said he tries to teach in his workshops. Harris held one of his workshops Tuesday at the Madison Public Library. . "The secret is in the writing, not the subject of the tale, but the telling of the tale," Harris said. For example, consider how a writer might handle this historical account: "The 13th Light Dragoons and the 17th Lancers led the attack. The distance from the point of departure to the objective was about 1.2 miles. During the attack, they came under significant artillery fire." A poet handled it this way: Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward. All in the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred. . Most people have that special something that makes them potential writers, he said. But Harris added that's where the work is just beginning. "We are social animals. We communicate. Creative writing is one our best ways of communicating," he said. "The greatest demand in writing is not in getting a thought on paper, that is only the beginning point," Harris said. "The real test of the writer is in the rewriting. Any piece of creative writing, a poem, a song, a story, a play, anything, must be rewritten and then rewritten again. It must be cut and expanded. It must be changed and polished. It is this process, this persistence, that defeats many prospective writers. Inspiration may be the beginning point, but it is mostly perspiration that leads to a marketable piece of work." . It's also important that writers know they need to be part of a writing community, he said. "We writers need our own kind to support us, especially when our muse goes into hibernation or the rejection slips greatly outnumber the letters of acceptance." . Harris said he can't make anyone a writer, but he gets great satisfaction from challenging and encouraging those who aspire to become one. Because workshops and seminars helped his writing, he said he created a couple of workshops to pass on what he has learned. . Harris' work has been published in Appalachian Heritage, Birmingham Arts Journal, Byline, and The Louisville Review. Three of his stories have been published in Australia and one in Ireland. His literary awards include four Hackney Literary awards, ten Southeastern Writers Association prizes, the Harriette Arnow Award of the Appalachian Writers Association, five Alabama Writers' Conclave prizes and more. . "I spent my early childhood years on a 40-acres-and-a-mule farm in North Alabama," Harris said. "My family moved to Birmingham after World War II, where my father made steel. Four good years at Fairfield High School were followed by a couple of highly unfocused years at the University of Alabama. Having thus fallen from grace, I did as honor demanded. I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps." . Thirty years later, he retired from the Marine Corps as a Sergeant Major. During those years, he earned 16 ribbons from two wars and two degrees from Chapman College in California. He returned to the University of Alabama and earned a doctoral degree in education. . Harris went on to become an assistant professor of critical thinking at Southeastern Louisiana University for three years. He retired and returned to Birmingham, where he "managed to summon up enough courage to scratch a lifelong itch" and began writing fiction. . |