Some of you may feel you can’t write a novel because you haven’t had the opportunity, for whatever reason, to go to college or to any type of technical school. Some of you may not have had the opportunity to complete high school.
When we want to learn, then we are diligent learners. We are teachable and may be taught without resentment. If you’re a reluctant student (no matter your age) then you limit your opportunity for growth and progress. Listening is a very important part of learning. It’s important to listen to what’s said, and also what is not said. Each of these is important.
Paying attention to the world around you is an excellent way to learn; Mother Nature is one of the best teachers on the planet, if you pay attention and learn the lessons she has to teach you. Lessons of the same sort may be learned in cities, also. One of my favorite authors is Robert Heinlein. No matter where his stories were set, he had an innate understanding of human beings. He knew people, and what they were likely to do in any given situation. He was able to write about his characters so you believed they were real, and you cared about their fate. He wasn’t a trained psychologist, but a man who paid attention to the people, places, and cultures around him, and then made use of that learning in writing his novels.
A very important part of learning is to organize what you’ve learned, write it down, and then teach it to someone else. If you can’t actually express what you’ve learned, you really haven’t learned it. In the long run, it will be well worth the time you spend to do these extra steps.
Dr. Louis Agassiz, a distinguished naturalist, spoke to audiences all over the world. Following his lecture one evening, he was approached by an old spinster woman. She told him she’d never had a chance for learning because of her life situation. He asked her to consider the chances for learning she already had. She insisted she didn’t have any, because she had to help her sister run an old-folks’ home.
When he asked what she did there, she said she skinned potatoes and chopped onions. He looked directly at her and asked her where she sat during these interesting but homely duties. She said she sat on the bottom step of the kitchen stairs. He asked where her feet rested. ‘On the glazed brick,’ was her answer. ‘What is glazed brick?’ he asked. ‘I don’t know, sir,’ she replied.
‘How long have you been sitting there?’ he asked. ‘15 years,’ she said. ‘Madam, here is my personal card,’ said Dr. Agassiz. ‘Would you kindly write me a letter concerning the nature of a glazed brick?’ The woman took the challenge seriously. She read all she could find about brick and tile and then sent Dr. Agassiz a 36-page paper on the subject.
Dr. Agassiz answered her in a letter which said, ‘Dear Madam, this is the best article I have ever seen on the subject. If you will kindly change the three words marked with asterisks, I will have it published and pay you for it.’ The woman changed the words and a short time later another letter brought $250, and penciled on the bottom of this letter was this question; ‘What was under those bricks?’ ‘Ants,’ she wrote. ‘Tell me about the ants…’ She read, studied them under a microscope and then sat down and wrote Dr. Agassiz 360 pages about ants. He published the book and sent her the money. She went to visit all the lands of her dreams on the proceeds of her work.
Don’t be content with mediocrity. Become a diligent learner and you will also become better at everything you do in your life.
Your assignment is to go sit in a park and watch the people there. Take careful notes, and describe both the people and the scenery you see in front of you.