Have you ever walked through the aisles of a library late at night, hearing whispers, only to turn around and see that you are alone? If you have, then you're scaring me. If you haven't, then you really need to get a clue. Here's what I mean: Books not only speak to us but they speak to each other. Of course there are no audible voices, but on paper they speak volumes. It is something known as the on-going conversation on the shelf. And if you are planning to be a writer, the quicker you learn the conversation the better.

When I was in college, I came to this new bit of knowledge with a fair amount of frustration. As naïve as I was, I didn't realize that books were groping as I was to come to conclusions about the structure of our lives. I didn't realize that academics wrote to each other, and in this way they keep the conversation alive and moving forward. I didn't realize that each book was not the final answer. What I began to see, for example, was that author #1 wrote about the soul, and author #2 wrote back through his own book to say that if we have a soul then let's find it, and author #3 wrote to the first two authors with a book that says we can't find it because it is not physical and then author #1 comes back with his answer in a book that says it is physical and the brain holds the functions of the soul and author #2 comes back with yet another book that says it is findable but it is not the brain and so on and so on. You get the idea.

New writers are notorious for not realizing that books talk among themselves. Books carry on a conversation that gets bigger with more voices and better (hopefully) with new information as we mature. Especially frustrating is when we write a book only to realize that that part of the conversation took place three years ago! Imagine walking into a cocktail party an hour late with this really great piece of information and you are so excited you can't wait to tell the whole room so even before the pleasantries and a glass of wine you start spewing your information loud enough so that everyone stops to listen. Your friend tugs at your sleeve but you wave him off because you know what you are doing of course and it isn't until you are home still glowing in your own warmth that you receive a phone call telling you that not only had your information been shared at the start of the party but yet another guest had even more information that turned out to be more true and more current than the first piece of information which you so embarrassingly repeated like a bad burp. You are stunned, and humiliated. Had you done your research, had you been humble enough to take a deep breath and listen to the conversation in the room before butting in, you could have saved face, time, and credibility.

As a beginning writer, be humble enough and smart enough to know the conversation you are entering. Listen to those that have come before you. You don't have to agree with them, but that doesn't mean that you can't learn from them. There is much wisdom in learning from the successes and failures of others. So go to the library on a quiet evening, walk up and down the aisles, and listen for the whispers; you might just learn something.