It helps when something big happens like the Number One Boogeyman in the World is captured and executed or a band of loser politicians bends the President of the United States over a budget barrel as a government shutdown looms.
It also helps, I’ve found, to read other writers. Good ones, especially. Writers like Matt Taibbi, my current favorite, and Christopher Hitchens (god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) and Sam Harris (The End of Faith) and Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning) and Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness) always get my own juices flowing.
I’ve already plugged Taibbi’s Smells like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire. Do yourself a favor and read his other stuff too. The results of the guy’s investigative journalism are guaranteed to piss you off, and he writes in a colorful, easily-understandable style. Taibbi’s a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine whose most recent book, Griftopia, is about the economic meltdown. (I haven’t read it yet.) He’s written “Why isn’t Wall Street in Jail?” and “The Real Housewives of Wall Street” for the magazine; recent blog posts include “Best Way to Raise Campaign Money? Investigate Banks.” and “Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls.”
Speaking of Christopher Hitchens, this guy would make a great subject for a book himself if it hasn’t happened already. A Marxist and atheist, the controversial writer is a fan of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and George Orwell and a critical foe, at least on paper, of the Clintons, Kissinger, St. Ronnie of Reagan and even Mother Teresa. Although by no means a liberal, Hitchens – who’s written for Vanity Fair, The Nation and The Atlantic Monthly, among other publications – supported Nader in 2000 and opposes the War on Drugs. He’s had to cancel recent appearances due to esophageal cancer but I doubt he'd want us to pray for him.
There was a time, briefly, when I entertained the idea of writing poetry but when I shared a few pages with an honest friend who was a poet, I learned I should probably leave this genre to the professionals. Reading the words of Charles Bukowski and Langston Hughes and Wisława Szymborska and Walt Whitman and Robert Frost and Seamus Heaney is a whole lot more fulfilling than trying to write like them.
I’m always moved by something I read in The Sun magazine, an independent, ad-free monthly with top-notch, provocative writing. The magazine’s editor, Sy Safransky, is on my list of "Top Ten People with whom I’d like to Dine and Drink." (Notice how I didn’t end that with a preposition? Yeah, I’m that good.) One of my best memories is of being with Anita in our kitchen, drinking Port wine and reading out loud to her from the latest issue which had just arrived. The magazine’s “Readers Write” feature is one of our favorites.
My kids gave me a subscription to Harper’s magazine for my birthday; it’s good that few people are around in my neighborhood at noon because I can’t help skipping and jumping when I check my mailbox and Harper’s is waiting. Check out the article in last month’s issue entitled, “Democracy 101: Mark Twain’s Farewell Address” by Lewis H. Lapham, the magazine’s former editor who’s credited with creating the fun and interesting "Harper’s Index." Now that’s some good writing.
I used to make a nice income through my writing, but being a grantwriter for a major environmental organization or a state employee are different than being a blogger/freelance writer. Anita presented me with a copy of the 90th anniversary edition of Writer’s Market a few weeks ago. The book contains “over 3,000 updated listings to help me sell what I write including literary agents, book publishers, magazines, newspapers, production companies, theatres, greeting card companies and more.” I think she wants me to start getting paid again.
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