Skip to main content

The King or the People

  "...they may take our lives, but they'll never take OUR FREEDOM!" Mel Gibson in Braveheart (1995)  

     Jill, on Go Teen Writers, was talking this week about the unpredictability involved in "making it big."  You can write flawlessly and still never be a well-known author.  Maybe you didn't find the right publisher.  Maybe you didn't pick the hot topic of the year.  There's a certain elusiveness in fame that has nothing to do with the skill of the writer.

      Her topic tied into one that I have been thinking about lately.  What makes a great leader?  We've all seen the stories...and, on a smaller scale, we've seen it in real life. 

The dynamic leader

The band of men who swear allegiance to him, willing to follow him to their deaths if need be.

It's an inspiring story.  But what makes that leader?  Is it his own charisma?  People cannot help but rally to his cause?  Perhaps he has the skill of the Pied Piper, no?
Or is it the people?  Are they the ones who decide what cause they will rally to defend and what man they feel comfortable following? 

Leaders come in different shapes and sizes.  Some are great orators.  Others are men of action -- "not much good at giving speeches."  Some are strong.  Some are brainy intelligent.  Some are calm.  Some are volatile.  Some are good.  Some are wicked.

I could see how people are the ones to pick the leaders.  Imagine a battle in front of you.  Two men stand up.  One starts a speech.  The other one picks up his weapon and says "Stick with me, men."  Which would you follow?  Do you see how you get to pick your leader?

But, before we decide that it is entirely up to the people, let's look at who they are picking.  All of those leaders, in spite of their different approaches, are indeed leaders.  And maybe the orator can give such a rousing, inspiring speech before the battle that I would follow him?  Or maybe the man of action could convince me with his dynamic attack that he is the best leader for the job.  We are back to my Pied Piper scenario, with the leaders being powerful enough to convince people of their ability to lead.

We could go on arguing this in circles, but we come back to one basic idea.  It's an idea that agrees with Jill's assessment of worldly writing success.

It takes both.

If you are an unskilled author and if you do not pursue the right channels with enough force, your story won't be popular.
But, at the same time, if the people do not let themselves be swayed by your words...if they do not place value on your work...then even a beautiful piece of prose will lie in obscurity.

It takes both.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye and God Be With You

It's rather fitting that some things come to a close on this day -- the last day of the year. I submitted my last entry into the Rooglewood contest this morning.  I can hardly believe it took me until the day of the deadline to send it in because I'm usually earlier than that.  And, even with the extra time I took, I still felt a little bit like maybe I could have done better if I had more time. But there was no feeling of regret when I hit "send."  Mostly it was just a prayer that Rooglewood would hear the heart of the message when they read it and that maybe, if I win, they could help me bring the full potential out of my little story.  And there was also a feeling, after working on these stories for more than six months, that it felt good to close that chapter and move on to the next one. I did it.  I wrote them.  And I'm really proud of them. Last year, the act of hitting "send" on my contest entry catapulted me into an anticipatory state....

Wherein I Still Have My Nose and Ears

     I decided to take the plunge.  I was going to chop a plot thread out of AAM so the story would fit in the contest word length restrictions.  I saved my old version and set up a copy for me to modify.      Stories are like woven cloth.  Each plot thread is woven into the entire story.  So if I decide to cut a character or a side-theme, I have to go through the whole book, chopping out the references to it.  This leaves gaping holes and sometimes it looks like the whole story is going to unravel.  Everywhere I chop, I have to readjust the whole scene to keep the flow.  It's a rather ticklish procedure.      Over the dinner table, I mentioned that I was chopping a sub-plot.  My younger sister protested loudly (she hasn't read it, but I previously told her the general idea).  Then my mom (who also hasn't read it) offered to read it and tell me what she thought could and couldn't be chopped. ...

Rooglewood Countdown: 12 days

     For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection.      There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest.  Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray!  Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo!  Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome!      So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners.      Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection?  Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective?  A story from Snow White's p...