European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Paga 18 column the stars and stripes monday november 30,1987 today s crossword writing test How does it sound by James Kilpatrick a Fine new Sci took on the writing Art has just come to hand. It is called " caving Home a collection of Lake Wobegon stories by Garrison Keillor. Every writer who wants to master inc gift or narrative can learn something from it. Keillor 5 Cloncs Are taken directly from his memorable series of radio broadcast a series he abruptly suspended earlier his year. He fell his vein of rustic Ore was running thin and lit wanted so try some i new tic s in new York now after living briefly in Copenhagen Denmark but he has left his admirers a Book to cherish. Lesson one May be drawn from he circumstances in which the stories were created they were nol Rome to he read. They were made to be heard o be listened to. And they thus take us Back to the ban n of a thousand Yean ago. One of the Icsis of effective writing As i have suggested Many times before is a simple one How docs this read aloud if your piece of writing listens Well if the sentences flow smoothly through the car you can be certain the piece will read Well. Lesson two will Leach us an essential technique Keillor has Learned the Art of using his senses not just casualty but intently n his introduction he Speaks of inc sense of smell that returned d a magically when he gave up smoking i Small cd creamed peas and onions Wood smells dirt smells. Walked into an old garage and a Hundred smells jumped out the spirits of a Hundred old men in undershirts mixing shellac and sanding a screen door and oiling a Rifle and Patching an Keillor looked at his Minnesota Milieu and listened to ill sounds with total absorption. I emphasize that word he was like the Little girl in a Lee Smith novel who concentrated on her world so intently that things would May in her mind Keil Lor s dialogue thus rings with authenticity. His Hus bands and wives quarrel in fiction exactly us couples quarrel in life. One Story has to do Wilh Roger and Betty Hedlund. They Are lying in bed on a Rainy night when a Large chunk of plaster Falls from the ceiling immediately overhead. The spot on the Selling had teen growing for two years. She said if you a just done it when you said you were going to he knew better than to reply. She said kept telling you she said Well maybe you la listen 10 me the next time i m not Wrons about everything you know " perfect. Lesson three is yet another old lesson. By concentrating our senses and storing useful images we build an inventory of simile and metaphor. In Church on sunday mornings Keillor recalls fidgety kids were put Between two grown ups usually your parents or sometimes a Large aunt. Like tying a boat to a on a monday in Spring a flowering crab bursts into Blossom suddenly in the morning when everyone turned their backs for a minute she tree threw off ill Bathrobe and stood trembling purple naked reveal ing All its innermost Flowers. Keillor had looked at children at boats and docks and Large Nunu he had seen a woman throw off her Bathrobe on a Chilly morning and he had Pill the images tidily in his Bam. When he needed them they were Here. Lesson four is like unto the third. Keillor s camera Eye is always on. He writes As Andrew Wyeth paints so you can Sec every hair on Helga s head. One Story turns in part on a broken vase but this is nol just a vase or even a Crystal vase. In is a Blue bavarian Crystal vase and Many readers May suddenly be overwhelmed by remembrance. Keillor s characters Don t get in cars or automobiles we see them in a Blue Pontiac a 78 rambler Wagon a Brand new red Ford Bronte ii. Thus we Sec thing exactly Down inc Block at the feed v seed Harold has set up the old wooden bins to put seed packets in that have arrived from the Milton seed co. In Northrop . Big com and bean packets Plain yellow Enve Lopes Keillor writes about the things he knows Best. He writes about truck stops of Ydes floor was mince meat pies and smoking chimneys. He writes about Frozen pipes Wood stoves aluminium siding a parlor with an upright piano and a set of encyclopedias. He goes to the Minnesota state fair and smells Cotton Candy com dogs diesel smoke and sawdust. At the fair we won a Roll of linoleum by guessing the num Ber of agates in a toilet bowl this is not High Alilin prose. Keillor does not Deal in metaphysics but he writes with a i find pen. Read the Lake Wobegon stories and watch How a writer performs the tricks of his Trade. If the class in homophones 101 will kindly come to order and if All of you will Stop snickering about the classified and offering a slightly used wench in Good condition we will consider a few horrid examples thai have accumulated since last we met. Peak and pique continue to give trouble. The Fairchild tropical Garden bulletin Speaks of the Reader s interest that is peaked by Bonsai. In modern railroads Magazine flood water in a Lake piqued at 12 feet above sea level. The writers had inc verbs backward. Interests were piqued the flood Waters peaked. When in doubt peek in a dictionary. The Savannah a morning news noted a reunion of men who worked in the 1930s to restore fort Pulaski on cockspur Island some of the old hands who lifted the Fine old tort from the ravished of time have remained close through the those were ravages that time wrought. The Wall Street journal reported that the internal Revenue service has bated out Farmers who re deemed their crops with payment in kind certificates. You can Bale Hay but those Farmers were bailed. Headline in the san Antonio Light thousands of Al Pasons Send Blue jeans through the there they must have been rung out. A dress shop advertising in a West Texas newspaper offered a 1999 bridal gown trimmed Wilh beaded pearls and those were sequins adapted from old turkish and italian coins of the same name. Homophones 101 will now stand in recess until some time in 1988. Meanwhile let us cultivate a Strong sense of doubt about words that sound alike but take different Spellings. Look pm up look pm up look pm up c uror trial pros achos9 fool Piej tires no new 9 Nana 12barnbr mom e.g.13 uncanny 14 israeli City 15 punch drunk 17 inspire reverence18 pm 19 Clowd 21 shoe part24 caresses 25 East Indian sauce 20 Uva some wines 2bravt Shankar b instrument 31 oct. Stone33 Houston Ray him 36 missile housing39 Lazuli 38sca up 40 Loving murmur 41 Nurnath Down it Al t newspapers 43 Cut run them in Way 2 impresario 45 wins do hunk 47 pig s 3 neptune1 Eye milieu48 Circle 4 regard part a from 49 rebukes runners 64 no Orso. S5 author Zols 6 Painter Jean 7 acrobatic feat John poet Maynard g7 certain b pratfalls railways a 88 had 10 sewing gumption machine59suech inventor Solo Tjon time 24 Man atm. I Isaih Enias Rara us mrs Hohah Ranns Hemish Rifet saturday1 Ai Uwar 11 Capitol of yemen16 country club employee 20 mlis regrets Al object of 17 across 2z wine volley23 pancakes 27 tuberous root29 Healing Plant 3d cross32 famous Lahr role34 thu Neil 37 felt38 used a 42 Alabama City 44 Bounder 46 nephrite46 or. Roberta to broadcast51 Saturn s wife g2 miseryb3 what s pussycat 11-30 the far Side
