Tag : General

…but half will.

Posted by tomleveen at 11:10 pm

One of my favorite movies is Teachers with Nick Nolte, Ralph Macchio, a teeny tiny Laura Dern, JoBeth Williams…ah, anyway, a bunch of good actors.  It has one of my favorite set of movie lines ever and is the topic of this evening’s post.  Ralph Macchio’s character has set off the school fire alarm, and the entire high school empties out into the parking lot, thrilled to be out of class, smoking in the parking lot, etc.  Nolte, a teacher, has this exchange with Judd Hirsch, a vice principal (paraphrased):

HIRSCH:  Alex, half those kids won’t come back after the fire alarm.

NOLTE: But half will.  I think they’re worth it.

They are.  They’re all worth it.  Lookit, trust me, there’s a whole lot of teachers and other grown-uppy types out there who were probably certain where my future was, and it sure as hell wasn’t where I ended up (thank God).  I wouldn’t say I was a bad kid, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.  What I do know is this: A small but dedicated group of those grown-uppy types didn’t give up on me.  They were hard sometimes, they lost patience with me, yes, and some of ‘em I went out of my way to make miserable.  (Apologies for that, if any of you are out there.) 

But when all was said and done, they said, in effect, “He’s worth it.”  They didn’t have to.  They chose to.  And in about six weeks, my first novel is going to be on the shelves as a result.  I was one of the half that came back.  So were most of my friends.  Where might we be if not for those teachers and leaders who didn’t let us give up on ourselves?  (Not blogging on my author website, for one…)

I can’t take back a lot of the evil, vile crap I did to some of my teachers over the years.  But I can and I will do my best to pick up where they left off.  Fact is, a pretty large percentage of teens only needs one thing: for one adult to stand up, to fight for them, to be there.  Yeah, they’re gonna mess up, make mistakes, pull fire alarms.  That’s what teenagers do.  (And I get to write books about it!) They also care tremendously - about a lot of different things.  They have the time and energy to devote to change things that  a lot of us grown-uppy types don’t.  Or won’t.

This applies equally to adults and teens:  Don’t let anyone ever, ever tell you can’t do something, and don’t ever give up on going after what you want.  Make choices today, even small ones, that will bring you closer to your goals.  Because half the people you know today aren’t coming back after the alarm.  But half will.  The only question is, which group do you belong to?

I think you’re worth it. 

Chao.

On Writing

Posted by admin at 11:11 am

With apologies to Stephen King for use of the title.

My wife once asked me, “What is it about writers that they see things that other people don’t? How does your mind work to grab these conversations or images or people, and then turn them into stories?”

A fair question, and one I’d not thought of before. She asked this on the I-10 on our way to one of many trips to either Pasadena or Santa Barbara.

So I told her, “Well, I think writers just ask questions. Like that burned out old bus we just passed, sitting there all by itself in the desert. How did it get there? Was there a crash or something? Why was it abandoned so far off the highway? What happened to the driver? Were there any students in it? I could write a story answering any one of those questions. I think that’s the difference.”

Joy said: “. . .What burned out bus?”

And, well, there it is. I suppose writers see things that are incongruous, and we have to know the answer to how they became such. Lacking the truth, we write fiction to answer the question to our satisfaction. But we’re always honest in our lies; good fiction should never lie to you.

So there’s a writing prompt, if you’re looking for one: There’s an abandoned, burned-out bus shell out in the boonies somewhere. What happened? How long has it been there, what happened to the occupants? Who knows – it might be the beginning (or end!) of your next book!
~ Tom