Today I was reading Jimmy Buffett's novel Where is Joe Merchant? and he had a sentence that jumped right out to me. The narrator is a seaplane pilot, and is describing how everything feels on the water until you take to the sky. This is part of the passage:
Twenty seconds of salt spray, bounces, and lunges later, the boat is a bird, and you feel the hull slip away. Suddenly your vocabulary changes from depth to altitude.
My immediate connection was to the writing life. Many times we have ideas to get on the page, but it starts a bit bouncy. We are seeking the depth of what we have to say, and it can mean some discomfort. But once the writing takes off, the vocabulary changes. Now we have to keep the idea aloft.
I know there are as many interpretations of this as there are thinking people on the planet. But that is mine.
By the way, Jimmy Buffett is a master storyteller, and his characters and settings and situations mirror a life well-lived. There are songs of his that are horribly overplayed, which gives a false impression of the artistry of this man. He is definitely a blue space/ green space artist in every way. When you're looking for a light read, but one that is well-written in the Carl Hiassen vein, I highly recommend picking up his novels and short stories.
By the way, I have also discovered that a lot of the characters in this book have a song counterpart. I'm just not sure yet which came first! That kind of overlap appeals to me as a writer. Here is a song about one of the characters who believes she's in contact with the ancient Mayans.
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