Receiving one of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association’s highest awards for Journalistic Excellence, DL Tolleson also garnered awards for Feature Writing and News Photography from the Texas Community College Press Association. A one-time Fine Arts Consultant/Instructor under a state grant program to ARC of Texas, he has also taught Creative Photography in the College for Kids program at Tarrant County College and writing at the elementary level in an after school program under a federal grant to the Fort Worth Independent School District.
A former member of the Texas State Bar’s Legal Assistant’s Division he spent over 14 years in litigation support. As a Paralegal Specialist in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Disaster Assistance Office he was awarded recognition for creating a method to merge Disaster Credit Management System data with loan modification documents. For six years he was one of the four-member team overseeing compliance of Dealer Franchise cellular contracts at the RadioShack Corporation headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.
As a photographer/videographer, Tolleson’s portfolio of work covers a wide spectrum: News, litigation, depositions, surveillance, evidentiary documentation, accident/incidence scenes, personal injury, property damage, postmortem evidence, modeling, portraits, events and weddings. He now primarily photographs wildlife and nature for pleasure, predominantly focusing on the Big Bend region of Texas.
In addition to authoring the atypical espionage thriller, The Gray Stopgap, Tolleson’s novella, Socials, will soon be re-published as an Amazon.com e-book and print edition. A sequel to The Gray Stopgap is also planned for publication.
He holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences from the University of North Texas. He also holds an Associate in Arts and an Associate in Applied Science from Tarrant County College. A freelance writer/photographer, Tolleson resides in the north central region of Texas referred to by locals as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
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Answers to most often-asked questions. Read straight through or click hyperlinks that jump your browser to the indicated topic on this page. Return to the top of the page by clicking the text link “Top” that follows each Answer. Every link in this list is also available in a nested, dropdown list at the Navigation Link “About” atop this page and on the Map page of this website.
Q&A || Advice Or Pointers For The Would-Be Writer
Q&A || Artificial/Synthetic Intelligence
Q&A || Author Photographs And Images
Q&A || Bildungsroman Or Roman à Clef
Q&A || Book Signings And Personal Appearances
Q&A || Book/Reading List Suggestions
Q&A || Matrimonial Status and Children
Q&A || Middle Eastern Themes, Iraq, Etc
Q&A || The Gray Stopgap For $500.00 to $2,104.55
Q&A || The Gray Stopgap: How It All Started
Q&A || The Gray Stopgap Sequel
Q&A || Vietnam War Veterans And Fact Vs. Fiction
Q&A || Web Site Design And Maintenance
Q&A || Working, Prior Employment And Jobs
Anyway, I was able to urge The Lighthouse Press, Inc. to ditch their amateurish web site and institute changes regarding what was expected of author web sites with which they would link and work. No sites hosted on “free servers,” no cutesy animation and no hobby or “non-author” related sites are just a few of the things unacceptable. In return they will link to an author’s web site and offer about as much content and oversight as the writer desires. Since I was integral to those changes—that both the company and its writers loved—my subsequent design input still carries a lot of weight with Lighthouse. This couldn’t have happened with a monster-sized publishing company that employs hundreds of people, image consultants and design departments up the ying-yang. But Lighthouse is small—a micro-sized publishing concern—and so by rendering them web site guidance (that’s generally utilized) I constrain my own website to adhere to the Lighthouse policy. That’s why Lighthouse items will show up in the “news bytes” on my site and the Lighthouse “narrative voice” is sprinkled throughout this site. It’s a, “give and take,” you might say.
If I wanted to use this site to sell, oh, say, exotic adult toys, Lighthouse would drop me like a wet sock, de-link me at their site and instruct me to remove any Lighthouse affiliation or face prosecution. I could run the exotic adult toys site separate from this one and MAYBE be perfectly good to go (that is, aside from the weirdness of selling the toys in the first place).
And then, in early 2016, I moved DLTolleson.com to a sub-domain of my publisher’s web site, TheLighthousePress.com. Just look at the web site URL above and you’ll see what I mean.
Why? The abbreviated story involves my prior web hosting service losing their ICANN status and an adversarial relationship with a company that essentially barred my domain renewal. But I did, finally, renew the domain. Shortly thereafter, I hit upon discussing the matter with my publisher. That discussion culminated with the migration of my web site to where it is now.
As for who designed, laid out and did the actual web site work... It was me.
So there it is—the Who, What, Where, When and How of this web site. My ultimate goal is the same as the publisher’s, which might loosely be described as the intent to make a living by entertaining, educating and informing while not besotting myself with an unprofessional or cheaply amateurish image. I am very hands-on involved with this web site.
Well, a few years back I contacted one of the sellers, explained who I was and asked if he was insane. According to that guy, the edition was being offered at an outrageous price because it was signed by the author and no longer in print. I explained to the deluded fool that I was an absolute nobody and that a book with a cover price of around $17 was in no way worth $300 (the price at that time). The guy held his ground, saying that I would be “surprised” at how much people would pay for a book that was no longer available. Since then, every once in a while, I’ll see one of those crazy listings. The most outlandish price I saw was for the 3
Now it is true that the Lighthouse 3
I would also like to take a moment to address the vagrancies of Amazon’s book listings—over which neither I nor my publisher have any control. As of May 2020, the 4
Don’t be hornswoggled into spending your money this way. Without going into the details of the lesson I learn, the short of it is that Amazon saves on shipping costs by shoving books off onto those third party vendors. The only winner is Amazon.
But Amazon isn’t the only fish in the sea. Unless you’re after the e-book (which is available only at Amazon), you can go to Barnes and Noble (their actual brick and mortar stores or their web site) to purchase the novel. You’ll be able to buy the novel at its listed cover price and have it delivered to the store or your home (ordering and picking it up at the store will save you the shipping cost—if that is still an available option). And again, here’s the link for Barnes&Noble.com.
I’ve not planned any further plots concerning Arab or Middle Eastern themes.
But I’m not suggesting that my narrative concerning the experiences and treatment of Vietnam Veterans is inaccurate. Quite the opposite, in fact. For the most part these were men who were heroic under mind-boggling conditions and yet when back in America, were treated like gum on the bottom of shoes. That was a tragedy even exceeding our national misunderstanding of what was at stake.
As far as the CIA’s employment of mercenaries… Well, this minor part of the novel’s back-story, in one guise or another (be they mercenaries, middle men or countries) is not exclusive to American history. It also has some basis in fact. However, the key word here is, “novel.” Meaning, “fiction.” The basis of this concept will make an appearance in The Gray Stopgap sequel.
The next photo was specifically for the cover of the 3rd edition of The Gray Stopgap. The third photograph (from 2004) was an off-the-cuff number shot at a local college for a feature story. The 2009 image was taken for inclusion with my novella, Socials (the publisher’s limited released e-book edition).
The “semi-official,” complicated and less accurate answers are, “no, no, no and no.”
However, nothing is ever so surprising as reality and the more accurate answers are “Yes, no, yes and an official ceremony would be nice.”
So first, Marriage. I’ve never had an official matrimonial ceremony. In Texas (my home state) the common law marriage (referred to in Vernon’s Statutes as an “informal marriage”) requires three elements: An agreement to be husband and wife, living together as husband and wife and holding yourself out (representing yourselves) as husband and wife. That’s it: there is no time limits or percentage of comingled assets or any other baloney some may say is required. If you meet the three elements I’ve just outlined, you’re toast—uh, I mean married.
So how am I doing? Well, I am over twelve years into the best relationship of my life to date. (My “relationship record” is tied twice before at fourteen years). For financial and official purposes we have occasionally represented ourselves as husband and wife. Others have automatically assumed we are husband and wife. Having to clarify and explain the legal difference every time the topic arises is tiresome. And in my sphere of acquaintances and family (such as one of my sisters) I’ve been told, “I don’t care what you say, I say she’s your wife.”
What was it Shakespeare wrote… “A rose by any other name would still be a wife…?”
Children… Well, here’s a story for you. Back in 1985 I and my good friend were both photographers tasked with (and paid for) photographing dance contests at a night club called Southfork. We were headed there one weekend when police re-rerouted us around a highway accident and onto the access road. My friend was driving and we were both trying to look over to our left, and down to the highway, to see what had happened.
That’s when we rear-ended a pickup (a small, baby blue Ford or Toyota, I think it was). It turned out the girl we hit was visiting the area to go to Southfork. Of course we had her follow us. By evening’s end, my friend had a date lined-up and I invited our “accident victim” to accompany us to the home of his vacationing mother and stepfather (making their hot tub a perfect get-away).
Our “accident victim” and I got along nicely and thereafter we dated. At some point we just stopped seeing one another. I later ran into her at a mall and learned she had begun a relationship with another chap and subsequently gave birth to their child. She asked if I would photograph her and her new daughter. So we made arrangements and I did just that. Unfortunately something went wrong with the film and I ended-up with only one image (that is still in my photography files).
Now flash forward to July 23, 2021 at five minutes after noon. I received a Facebook message from someone asking if had ever known a woman by the name of the “accident victim” in 1985. Of course I did and the response was, “… here's a bit of a shocker...you might be my father.”
Remember the sister who referred to my matrimonial status by saying, “I don’t care what you say, I say she’s your wife?” The following June, ten months after my shocking Facebook correspondence, my sister’s DNA test confirmed she was 50% related to the girl who contacted me on Facebook. It was official. Without even knowing it I had been one of the first to photograph what was now my own 36-year-old bouncing baby girl.
So, yes, I have a daughter. She and I are pictured together in the second to last image on this web page. Feel free to check out her “children’s activity books” under the name Kayli Chetoni. These were inspired by her children and self-published before I knew she existed. She even did the artwork herself—something else in which I've occasionally dabbled (see the last image on this page, of a painting I did for my mother).
I like to think that Newton’s apple—or rather Tolleson’s apple—didn't fall far from the tree. And yes, a daughter was a total shocker for me. I spent at least a year just getting used to the idea! In fact, it still boggles me.
Besides, the specialized knowledge I have regarding photography is of little value in this digital age. Chemical processing, push/pulling film development, F-stops, metering—all that and so much more is pretty much out the window these days. Once a person knows composition, the camera and computer pretty much take care of the rest (I’ll now get e-mail from irate photographers, no doubt).
The Lighthouse Press tested an e-book version of a novella I wrote and we hope to turn that into a printed book. In 2016 the 4th edition of The Gray Stopgap was released and included some introductory and afterword text as well as a few tweaks throughout.
I have also been hampered by work that failed to reach publication. For example, a few years ago the publisher approached me about another “writer” and his novel that they both wanted to publish. The problem was that the novel was not anywhere near suitable for publishing. So we arranged a deal wherein I invested over a half-year of re-writing the novel. It was to be published as “co-authored” and I was to write all the “co-authored” sequels. I finished the rewrite but the writer’s ego got in the way and the book never was published by The Lighthhouse Press.
And then there was a film treatment and a screenplay for The Gray Stopgap that took chunks of time (and both of which I tossed aside before finishing).
I’ve had one or two other projects including about three years of very intense, one-on-one, editorial work with author Stuart Tower and his novel Branko (released in late 2014). I also was responsible for the novel’s physical design appearanece and layout (for which it won the Beverly Hills International Book Award for overall excellence in presentation, cover design, interior layout and aesthetic components as key to an overall outstanding printed book).
Then there has been a couple of major web site expansions and redesigns, as well as another story I’m hoping will run novel length. And of course, life has had a habit of getting in the way.
As for the next Karns Gray novel... Here’s the skinny on what I can tell you: Karns Gray is indeed back, as well as most of the characters from the first go-around. And while there is very little in the way of flashback sequences as used in the first novel, reality in the sequel is somewhat multi-layered—and it is multi-layered even for those in the story who think they know their own reality.
I expect that half the fun of reading the next Karns Gray novel will be in plot development. I recall an Amazon.com customer review of The Gray Stopgap wherein a guy wrote that it was as if I caught him reading ahead and “tweaked” the story so that he had no idea as to where the novel was going. Exponentially speaking, I’m hoping that this applies to the sequel.
After so many setbacks, I cringe at speculating on an anticipated release date.
As for other new work... Ideas on which I am working (but are on hold for the time being): A novel tentatively titled Vapor, a Science Fiction piece, and La tour Eiffel, which is a potential short story or novel based upon a lithograph given to me as a gift some time ago. While I’ve considered nonfiction, it doesn’t provide the intellectual and emotional gratification (or therapy) that writing fiction provides.
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel.
The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel.
The Hollywood Standard: The Complete & Authoritative Guide to Script format And Style by Christopher Riley. The best book/guide of its kind, bar none. If the goal is to produce a screenplay, this book will plainly show the formatting that other books are too inadequate to address. Example topics: How to get into and out of POV shots, types of and ways into/out of flashbacks, what is and isn’t appropriate in scene headings, quick cuts, time cuts, hard cuts, match cuts, etc., etc., etc.
John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman. John Wayne worked his way to the top, learning during nearly 20 years of 12 to 18 hour days of filming, stunts and prop work in movies he knew were throw-aways. We always hear about what a man’s man he was (and make no mistake about it, he was that), but he was not a knuckle dragging cowboy without an ounce of brains. He learned to portray the John Wayne we wanted (which just happened to fit his idea of what a person should be). But that man, that John Wayne, was someone so well-acted that we as the viewers came to know him while not really knowing him. By nearly every account of people who knew—or interacted—with Wayne, he was thoughtful, intelligent, humble and respectful. And this was the opinion held by people who originally thought the polar opposite of the man. All this and more is in this awesome book about the iconic John Wayne and I’ve read it a couple of times! You’ll come away with a greater appreciation for Wayne and his movies.
Once a Warrior King by David Donovan.
Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir by A. E. Hotchner.
The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss.
The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
The Sea Hunters by Clive Cussler. The Board of Governors from the Maritime College, State University of New York considered this first non-fiction Cussler title in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded the author a Doctor of Letters degree in May, 1997.
The Sea Hunters II by Clive Cussler.
The Secret of Atlantis (1976) by Otto Muck. Translated by Fred Bradley (1978). Introduction by Peter Tompkins. I’ve written about this book. At the Writing page, see the drop-down menu item, “The Secret of Atlantis: An Examination.”
Vindicating Lincoln by Thomas L. Krannawitter.
The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin. Originally published in 1994, this is an eye-opener regarding, “the grand illusion called money.” I admit I've most skimmed this one.
I also recommend nearly anything political by Mark Levin.
The Adventures of Vin Fiz by Clive Cussler. I don’t even recall how I learned of this book, but it was a gift and a surprisingly fun read. Why do I say “surprisingly?” Because this particular Clive Cussler novel is a children’s book. Yeah, really!
The Ashes of Eden by William Shatner. One of the very best Trek novels I’ve ever read—and I’ve read a boatload of them and there’s been some excellent novels. The follow-ups to Shatner’s novel were good, but this one was something else. A friend of mine described it as one of the best Star Trek movies he had ever read. But don’t go looking for the movie—it was never made.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This is a fictional portrayal of the author’s political philosophy, carried out to its natural conclusion. It is an imposing tome but rings as true today as when it was first published in 1957. The only drawback to the novel comes near the end when one of the main characters delivers a radio speech that runs a solid, uninterrupted, 56 pages. I would have broken it up with a chapter break or with a few character reactions. Nonetheless, it is still a fantastically more engaging novel than I would have thought—I’ve read it twice.
The Chronicles of Narnia (including The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe) by C.S. Lewis. This refers to the 2004 Harper Collins edition that contains the C. S. Lewis essay, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children,” and all seven novels, arranged in the order that Lewis said that they should be read.
Cyborg by Martin Caidin. This novel shaped my desire to be a writer and I’ve read it numerous times. You will more readily recognize it by its television name, The Six Million Dollar Man. Author Martin Caidin wrote fiction and non-fiction, both scientifically detailed and accurate while dealing with aviation/aeronautics, space travel, war and, of course, cybernetics (bionics). He was an active pilot and considered an aerospace expert who actively participated in the race into space. And the kicker is, he was unschooled and self-educated.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. An all-time great work of fiction and personal favorite. Buy the “Authorized Text” as it is restored to Fitzgerald’s original version—em dashes and all. It is a masterpiece beautifully worded. Fitzgerald’s short stories are great to read, especially those coming on the back half of his career. One that particularly stands out to me is “Babylon Revisited.” Like Hemingway, Fitzgerald’s eye for detail is spectacular. And whereas I can almost feel the dirt and grit in a Hemingway narrative, in a Fitzgerald story I can almost see the colors and feel the alienation of people from their wealth.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I’ve re-read this novel about 5 times and watched the 6-hour miniseries at least a couple of times. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner that moves me to appreciate life’s simple things—as does the French film Amélie. The Fort Worth Star Telegram quoted UCLA Professor of English Carolyn See as saying, “If anybody had any sense they’d throw out Moby Dick and put Lonesome Dove in the center as the great American epic novel. No question about it. His heroes in that book are just terrific. His women are just terrific. And he sustains it for 800 pages.” —Star Telegram, 01/08/2003, p. 6F.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. This short novel was a Nobel Prize winner and exemplifies the kind of work Hemingway was known for. He claims to have never set out to write a novel, but rather short stories. His short stories, like those of F. Scott Fitzgerald, are just fabulous to read—in particularly, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”
Raise the Titanic, Vixen 03, Iceberg and other Dirk Pitt adventure novels by Clive Cussler. As any entertaining author, Cussler mixes fact and fiction to create a rip-roaring read. He differs from typical authors in that he actually discovers many of the shipwrecks and items of historical significance featured in his novels. Raise the Titanic, written before the ship was found, was a bestseller and an enormously entertaining read. With the publication of Black Wind, Cussler began co-authoring the Dirk Pitt series along with his son, Dirk Cussler. I’ve re-read some of these up to two or three times each.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Great descriptions of school life during the period of the novel and so well done you can almost see it. Excellent story that is open to some esoteric interpretation.
Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler. Another in the Dirk Pitt series, separately mentioned here because it includes as part of the plot the unusual (and actual) theory that the battle for Troy, as set forth in Homer’s Odyssey, was not about Greeks and the Mediterranean but about Celts in England. See Iman Wilken’s Where Troy Once Stood for more about this.
The World According to Garp by John Irving. The movie was really good, but nowhere near as involving as the novel.
Other books would include nearly anything written by Tom Clancy (as long as it isn’t co-authored). It isn’t that Clancy is excellent insofar as the well-written word, but rather that he knows how to capture the moment and put you in a particular time in history. He writes about military tech and men who aren’t gushing with emotions, so don’t go looking for a subtlety that isn’t inherent to his subject matter.
By the way, have I mention a novel called The Gray Stopgap?
I attended the 2002 Los Angeles Book Festival in California, where the occasion called for me to sign a book or two, but nothing really beyond that.
I’m not opposed to signing books, mind you—I’m honored to do so. But due to my “non-public profile” it just usually doesn’t come up all that often.
I suppose the oddest incident occurred during a commercial airline flight I took. Thrilled by a pre-flight tour of the cockpit I gave the pilot and copilot copies of my novel. About an hour later the flight attendant casually mentioned the pilot was enjoying the book. “That’ll sound interesting on the black box,” I responded, “especially when we plow into the ground.” She then assured me that the pilot wasn’t actually reading the novel, but looking forward to doing so. However, after reaching our destination the pilot waved me into the cockpit to autograph their books. The pilot then reported having enjoyed what he had read thus far. I signed the books while remarking: “Well that explains the turbulence...”
All that being said, my initial foray into writing was the effort eventually culminating with my novel, The Gray Stopgap. I was 12 or 13 years-of-age and enamored with the novel Cyborg (as well as its television incarnation, The Six Million Dollar Man). My idea was simple enough: I wanted to create a story about someone similar to that of Cyborg. I began the effort on a Delta flight while accompanying my father to Las Vegas. Many-many years, four titles and 8 drafts later Karns Gray had been born. Along the way life, education and repetition provided the experience and learning necessary to bring the task to fruition—a task with goals that had expanded and intensified. So, while I affirmatively wanted to write a novel, my intention wasn’t to become a novelist or writer, per se. It just sort of happened.
On a related note; my mother often told the story from my childhood that I rarely wanted to go out or play with others. She said that at one point I had memorized human anatomy from our encyclopedias and that — along with medical testing—reassured her of my mental capacity. But her concern over my introverted nature prompted her to question the doctor about it. She reported that the doctor responded, “ Don’t worry about it. Kids like this usually become doctors or writers.”
My longest employment was about two months shy of a 14-year stint in litigation support. In looking back, I did enjoy the versatility of my duties and the fact that I often worked outside the office. The job I think was equally meaningful and fulfilling—if not more so—was my Special Excepted Service Appointment as a Paralegal Specialist to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Disaster Assistance Office.
I’ve done and do some website support work, freelance litigation support, teaching and government work (see the bio above). I’ve not reached the level of unabashed fame and filthy riches (I’d settle for moderate success and mere unwashed wealth) necessary to remain out of the workforce. I know it might be a “ bubble buster” for some people, but the books you see in bookstores are not all written by writers who are sustained by writing. It’s a tough business (during and after the actual writing effort).
I am reminded of what Earnest Hemingway reportedly said to A.E. Hotcher (and who later wrote of it in his biography Papa Hemingway (Random House, 1966 and previewed in The Saturday Evening Post of the same year): “It’s all so beautiful in this misty light. Mr. Degas could have painted it and gotten the light so that it would be truer on his canvas than what we now see. That is what the artist must do. On canvas or on printed page he must capture the thing so truly that its magnification will endure. That is the difference between journalism and literature. There is very little literature. Much less than we think.”
When you read the introduction for the 4th edition of The Gray Stopgap, you’ll have a little deeper insight with regard to what went into the story behind the plot.
With regard to “ fact-based” material in The Gray Stopgap, there are four categories to address: Hardware, people, politics and places. The “Note From The Author” section at the back of the book addresses hardware and only four clarifications come to mind: The Dodge Dart was based upon a car I had purchased to refurbish, the red MGB was written into the story before I even owned a white one, Gray’s yacht existed insofar as Elco actually built a model of that design and Gray’s .22 caliber pistol was one belonging to my dad. With those caveats in mind, any hardware not listed in that “Note” section is either fiction or a fictionalized extrapolation of existing hardware.
With regard to “people” I utilized a few “real world” names to varying degrees, but the characterizations portrayed are, of course, fictional.
The “Note” section also addresses politics and I’ve nothing to add about that.
The places—or settings—in The Gray Stopgap are most nearly always fictionalized buildings occupying actual locations. Specifically, the Professional Building is a generalization of an area containing several similar buildings; the OSCTO airplane hangar is a fictionalized building on an actual site, as is the Nova Complex, Sam’s Boat Yard and all the private residences. However, I actually took a trip into Mexico that VERY closely approximates Blake and Gray’s road trip—right down to the pig, the water, the “unexpected government agent,” the route and destination. And lastly, Aysien Island is completely fictional, its name derived from someone I photographed while taking high school senior portraits somewhere in Texas (Houston, I seem to recall it being).
However, from a practical point of view, a job or occupation outside of writing is not something that should be viewed as merely “ancillary” to writing. In other words, don’t give up your day (or night) job just to write: And don’t treat your “real world” employment as though it exist only as a layover. You may actually be a writer—meaning that is what defines who and what you are—but this doesn’t preclude being a fine employee for an employer. Write like nothing else is important, but work like writing is unimportant.
I think it is very important to not fall prey to the idea that writers are inspired by some Muse, or are “born” rather than “made.” I am not (yet) a Pulitzer (and by the way, that’s pronounced like the bird) or Nobel Prize winning author, but I am qualified to say that writing is a skill. Whether you have a propensity toward writing, it is best learned through doing and even better learned under the tutelage of journalism (if possible). Inspiration—or the Muse—is nothing more than the second wind or “groove” a writer falls into after being at it awhile. If you want to know what writing is and how to “get going at it,” I suggest reading Thinking on Paper by V. A. Howard Ph.D. and J. H. Barton, M. A. (the 1st edition was published by William Morrow and Company in 1986). It’s a great “myth” breaker and had I encountered it sooner would have realized why I wrote my scholastic papers in ways not recommended by the instructors.
The admonishment that, “Pride cometh before a downfall,” is nowhere more true than for the person who wants to be perceived as a writer. Nearly everyone has a preconceived notion of what a writer is, what a writer does, what a writer should be doing and how a writer should live. Those notions usually involve details that are glossier than reality.
The truth is that writing is a lonely, labor-intensive, detail-oriented life that non-writers do not appreciate. You spend months of your life immersed in hundreds of details that, if fictional, must mesh without plot contradiction. And all of this is for naught if, in the end, readers become aware of you or your morality instead of each character and his or her morality. What’s more, the details of any accomplishment about which you feel pride may not be understood by people with whom you may wish to share your joy. Just like the details of photography, or the code when writing html or even the repair of a car, sharing with people who do not understand the work involved is usually a letdown.
Writing is an effort in making yourself invisible through your work. Subsequent to that any self-characterization in contradiction to perception is a reality falling upon ears made deaf in proportion to the success of your effort.
—DL Tolleson
