This weekend, I attended the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Seattle, Washington.
I went to panels about finding an agent, what to expect from a publisher contract, signing a book deal, launching a publicity campaign, social media strategies, adapting a novel for the screen, and more.
I was able to meet several literary magazines at the Book Fair, including Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR), Image, One Story, and Story.
On the final day, I attended a breakfast for AWP members and had a brief but important conversation with one of my fellow conference attendees, Judith van Praag.
I told her about my recent efforts to build up L. H. Smith. She asked the natural question: What is L. H. Smith all about?
“I’m dedicated to meaningful stories,” I said.
“That’s a little broad,” said Judith.
I agreed with her, but I found it challenging to get more specific. It got me thinking.
This journal is an attempt to explore exactly what I mean by “meaningful stories.” In other words, the root of my philosophy as a writer.
In Viktor E. Fankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, he explains that “happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself…”
The same holds true for meaning and is an extension of what Frankl meant. Meaning cannot be pursued; it must ensue.
Life has inherent meaning. Humans don’t create meaning, we embody it.
Stories embody us. They reflect life. The greatest stories are considered the best reflections of what it means to live. They have a transcendent quality which has captured the human condition and lives beyond one individual’s experience, spanning lifetimes.
If there was a collective lens out of which humanity saw the world, it would be stories. Existence is story. Stories are as much a part of us as we are of them.
Truth is not relative. Human perspective is. Truth exists outside of us. Like meaning, Truth is woven into the fabric of the world. Truth and meaning are woven into each other, which is woven into us, and when we read or tell stories that revolve around Truth, meaning emerges.
The result cannot come without the pursuit. To pursue Truth is to allow meaning to ensue.
I’m dedicated to stories which pursue that Truth. Stories that seek to understand the world, and people, in the deepest sense. Stories that show us what it means to live, and by living, allow us to tell more meaningful stories.
Onward and upward,
Lee
