Three Secrets

Secret #1

 

Bill sat at the head of the class with his skinny arms outstretched like Christ. 

 

“Fiction,” Bill said, with his milky Southern voice, letting the word linger in the air, as he had a habit of doing. 

 

We waited.

 

We waited some more.

 

Then I noticed a wild sparkle in his eye.  We were all still hanging on that one word.

 

Bill suddenly swung his fists together.  Full speed. 

 

His knuckles crashed into each other, making a loud knock.

 

Our class sat in silence.

 

It was as if someone had slammed a gavel.

 

“Fiction,” Bill said again, louder this time. 

 

He paused.

 

“Fiction.  Needs.  Conflict.”   

 

Secret #2

 

Bill wrote my all-time favorite line of fiction.  First sentence of his first novel.  Goes like this: 

 

God, our lives.

 

That’s it:  God, our lives.

 

Pretty simple. 

 

Bill talked a lot about passion and urgency.  “Write as if you were on your deathbed,” he’d say. 

 

“Write with the honesty the world desperately needs.  Give ‘em the gems.  Leave out the rest.”

 

Secret #3

 

Another thing Bill said that stuck with me:

 

“Most writers,” he said, “are gonna reach a point where they cannot discuss the subject they really want to discuss.” 

 

“Whatever that thing is—that thing they really want to write about, but they feel too scared…that’s precisely the thing they should write about."  

"You cannot fall into that same trap," Bill said.  "You must write it.”

~

- David Bonck