on-writing-well

284 ON WRITING WELL
When you get such a message from your material—when
your story tells you it's over, regardless of what subsequently
happened—look for the door. I got out fast, pausing only long
enough to make sure that the unities were intact: that the
writer-guide who started the trip was the same person who was
ending it. The playful reference to Lawrence preserves the persona,
wraps up a multitude of associations and brings the journey
full circle. The realization that I could just stop was a terrific
feeling, not only because my labors were over—the jigsaw puzzle
solved—but because the ending felt right. It was the correct
decision.
As a postscript, there's one last decision I'd like to mention.
It has to do with the nonfiction writers need to make his or her
own luck. An exhortation I often use to keep myself going is
"Get on the plane." Two of the most emotional moments of my
life came as a result of getting on the plane in connection with
my book Willie and Dwike. First I went to Shanghai with the
musicians Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell when they introduced
jazz to China at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. A
year later I went to Venice with Ruff to hear him play Gregorian
chants on his French horn in St. Mark's basilica at night, when
nobody else was there, to test its unique acoustics. In both cases
Ruff had no assurance that he would be allowed to play; I might
have wasted my time and money by deciding to go along. But I
got on the plane, and those two long pieces, which originally ran
in The New Yorker, are probably my two best articles. I got on
the plane to Timbuktu to look for a camel caravan that was an
even bet not to materialize, and I got on the plane to Bradenton
for spring training not knowing whether I would be welcomed
or rebuffed. My book Writing to Learn was born because of one
phone call from a stranger. It raised an educational idea so interesting
that I got on the plane to Minnesota to pursue it.
Getting on the plane has taken me to unusual stories all over
the world and all over America, and it still does. That isn't to say