An Experiment in Writing – Part 45: Drinking the Sand
Joseph Carrabis -
August 20, 2025
Experiments in WritingFor AuthorsMarketing
“People want leadership Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it that they’ll crawl through the desert towards a mirage and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.” – Lewis

“We’ve had Presidents who were beloved but couldn’t find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.” –President
(from The American President

 
I attended a meeting yesterday in which an amazingly talented individual bemoaned the lack of interest in their work.

Let me correct that.

They vented about people’s willingness to pay $60 for crap rather than $500 for something recognizably worth $500 or more.

One reaction could be “Yeah? Get over it.”

Another could be “Yeah? Get use to it.”

To me, it was the situation being described. Someone asked the talented individual if they would take some art photographs of their customized car for inclusion in a marketing piece. The talented individual came up with a quote based on travel, editing, estimated number of shots required, production, … which was 500$US.

The asker laughed and walked away. “Why should I pay $500 when I can get some AI to do it for $60?”

Here’s the important part (again, to me): The person didn’t question the work involved. Didn’t question, didn’t balk, didn’t haggle. They knew the talented individual and knew the quality of their work (it’s why they asked the talented individual in the first place). Their deciding factor was price!

Not quality, not skill, not ability.

None of that came into question.

Purely price.

That, folks, is someone willing to drink sand.

So let’s rewrite The American President quote above:

“People want entertainment, and in the absence of quality entertainment they’ll take whatever’s in front of them. They want distractions. They’re so thirsty for distractions they’ll crawl through the desert towards a mirage and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.” – Lewis

““We’ve had creatives who were brilliant but couldn’t find an audience with two hands and a flashlight. People don’t take crap distractions because they want crap. They take crap because they don’t know the difference. People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.” –President
(from The American President)

 
and now, for your viewing pleasure…

 
Remember folks, fish don’t know they live in water.

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me, schedule a critique of your work, or buy me a coffee.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.

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Experiments in Writing
1 – This is How It Begins
2 – Openings
3 – More on Openings, Closings
4 – More on Closings
5 – More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, and Narrator
6 – Authenticity
7 – Inciting Incidents
8 – Worthy Antagonists
9 – Final Conflicts Worth Reading
10 – Action Scenes (finally)
11 – Language and Word Choice
12 – Overwriting, Toing and Froing
13 – Exposition via Dialogue
14 – Exposition via Character Revelation via Deep POV
15 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 1 – Character Voice
16 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 2 – Author as Character
17 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 3 – Author IS Character
18 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 4 – Author Voice
19 – Plotlines, Timeslines, Throughlines
20 – Plotting, Pantzing, and Procrastinating – The 3Ps Every Author Should Know and Love
21 – More on Exposition via Dialogue – Holmeses&Watsons
22 – More on Plotlines, Timelines, and Throughlines
23 – Into the Mythic
24 – A Little More Into The Mythic, and The Rule of Three
25 – Accidental POV Shifts
26 – World-Building via 1stPPOV
27 – How to read as an author
28 – Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone Teaches Writing
29 – Character via Exposition
30 – What Happens Next?
31 – Who Haven’t I Written About Lately?
32 – Let the Characters Do the Work
33 – Writer’s Block versus Writer Stuck
34 – Editing
35 – Write Moments and Feelings
36 – Timeline and Plotline Convergence (an Example)
37 – Time Manglement
38 – Subjectively Objective and Objectively Subjective
39 – The First Word
40 – Blurbs, Pitches, and But-Then-Except
41 – An Example of “The First Word”
42 – Technique versus Craft
43 – A Humbling Experience – Robin Wilkey Gregory’s Killing Time
44 – What’s a ‘Flaknoc’? (revealing anything through character interactions)
45 – Drinking the Sand
46 – Atrribution via Action (and a little bit more)
47 – Overwhelmedness
48 – An Experiment in Writing – Part 48: Eating My Own Dogfood (more on reading like an editor, critiquing your own work)
49 – An Experiment in Writing – Part 49: Write/Be/Do What Interests You
50 – Match Narrative Voice to Character Voice
51 – Marketing is a Four-Letter Word
52 – Subtlety
53 – An Example of Poor Story Crafting
54 – You’re not Stephen King, Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, Dan Brown, … so get over it
55 – Backcover copy and Blurbs (again)
56 – Creating Tension, Building Tension
57 – More on Character Voice (Showing Change through Tone, Language, Behavior)
58 – Interesting to Whom? (keeping it interesting for author and reader)
59 – Unreliable Witnesses
60 – HELP! (I need somebody)
61 – Pitching Events (or Marketing, again)
62 – Man From Earth, MindWalk (Conflict Without Conflict)
63 – Eating My Own Dogfood (more on reading like an editor, critiquing your own work)
64 – Recognizing My Worth