Christmas Belongs to Dickens

No author trumps Charles Dickens for finding the essence of Christmas. It's not just endless versions of A Christmas Carol that earn him such distinction. In many other works Dickens played with the themes that lie at the heart of Christmas. His great novels often feature poor parents seeking shelter and safety for their children. Nearly every plot highlights a shivering child cleaving to the moral path despite local hostilities.

A literary landscape without the likes of Oliver Twist and Pip would be barren. Each of these characters has to navigate mean, cold streets, searching for a next meal or temporary home, while foes are bent on destroying them. Dickensian villains suffer a range of resentments that cripple their hearts like emotional arthritis. But the author made sure his young heroes would discover that the world's kindness is as vast as its evil. In most of his tales, compassion is the victor and morality triumphs.

If writers had their own literary Christmas, I'd put a tree in the reading room covered with ornaments named for great characters. Imagine green glass wreathes and golden angels etched with words like Bob Cratchit, Uncle Pumblechook, and Miss Havisham. There'd be trinkets for bad guys like Uriah Heep, Quilp, and Fagin. Honestly, you could decorate a tree the size of the White House with the great names and plots that Dickens gave us. Can't leave out Jarndyce and Jarndyce or the Artful Dodger. Maybe a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge could play angel at the top of the tree. Of course, there'd have to be candles and strings of light...and a great big holiday goose. And, please sir, some porridge.

Add Water and Clouds, Get Stirred

Gloom has the power to stir the creative process. Rainy skies and thick clouds make a cozy envelope for the imagination. Add a cup of tea and some geographic isolation, and you've got the perfect set-up for writing a masterpiece. This recipe worked wonders for the Bronte sisters who grew up at Haworth, a parsonage on the bleak moors of Yorkshire, England.

Once their mother died, the Bronte children spent much of their time reading and doing household chores. Emily Bronte attended school only sporadically, but her family's reading culture provided her with a strong literary foundation. By combining her knowledge of the classics with rich childhood imaginings, Emily was able to create "Wuthering Heights", one of the greatest novels in the English language.

The story of Cathy and Heathcliff mixes fact and illusion so skillfully the reader needs an occasional pinch from the narrator to remind us which generation of Earnshaws we're watching. The ultimate effect of the book is to create a seamless tale that moves from past to present, ghost to flesh, and dream to reality without losing our interest.

Emily Bronte's book is a monument to the power of gloom. She uses it to blur the edges of her story, making it more intriguing. Next time the skies darken and the mist rises, milk that moment for its mystery. Then pour yourself into your writing.

The Stunning Sound of Truth

When writers capture truth in all its facets, their work has a different ring. Authentic voices can make a believer of the most skeptical reader. The narrator’s voice in Sapphire’s novel “Push” -- the basis of the wrenching film “Precious” -- sounded so real, it convinced many people that the author had suffered the same tortures endured by her main character. Lee Daniels, the film‘s director, said, “When you read it, it’s so honest….that you begin to wonder whether or not this is real…[the author couldn’t] have written it with such authenticity for it not to be lived.…Then when I found out that this was a combination of many lives, it was staggering.”

Sapphire explains how she achieved this remarkable effect: “There was a lot of verite, a lot of reality. There’s also a lot of fantasy. I created a world for Precious where she’s redeemed and saved and touched because that never happened for me.”

The author drew many of her character’s features from observing young people during her years as a teacher in Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Bronx. She said, “If I had twenty people, sometimes I could see who was gonna make it. It wasn’t always the smartest one…it certainly was almost NEVER the toughest one.” According to Sapphire, the successful students were usually the ones who were creative. After all, she says, “What is creativity but the ability to see what’s not there? In order to have a life different from the one you have, you have to have the ability to visualize something different.”

Although Precious survives a hideous series of events, she emerges from her story as the victor. Sapphire felt that this positive outcome was essential. She remarked, “You can read these horror stories [about what happens to kids] in the Daily News [but] learning to read and write changes reality [for Precious].” The power of literacy is sacrament for most writers. And for those wondering how to change a life, count creativity as the best tool in the box.