Word Strumpet

The China Cabinet Syndrome

A couple weeks ago my dining room table was covered with china, cut glass, pitchers, and an odd assortment of knick-knacks.  This was all stuff brought over from my Mom's house, which we were cleaning out before an estate sale.

I was really happy with all the things I'd claimed but the problem was that I needed to find room for them in my china cabinets.  A quick glance at the already bulging cabinets let me know that finding room was going to be quite the chore.  So I procrastinated.

I'd walk through the dining room, pause, look at the table, look at the china cabinets, and not see any way to make this happen.  It was going to take a massive reorganization and I simply didn't know where to begin.  So I procrastinated more.

Finally, as is so often the case, I was backed up against the wall.  We were having people over for dinner and so I absolutely had to get the china put away.  I opened the cabinet door and figured out a plan of action.  But then a funny thing happened.  Once I started working and putting the china away, I realized that my plan wasn't going to work after all.  However, by then it didn't matter because another, better, plan, revealed itself to me.  And all the china got put away with relative ease.

As I arranged tea cups and stacked plates, I thought about how often this happens in writing.  You start out desirous of writing something--a novel, an essay, a short story--but don't know how to begin.   You finally come up with a plan of action, and then you labor under the delusion that you will actually follow that plan.  But once you get going on the work, once you are in the china cabinet, so to speak, you realize that the writing wants to go a completely different way.

But here's the key: you would never have found that way if you hadn't just waded in.  Found a place to start and began.  My dining room table would still be covered with china if I hadn't begun following my initial plan of action.  Many a piece of writing would still be left unwritten if we all waited for the grand plan to reveal itself.

So remember the China Cabinet Syndrome and plunge in.  You'll find room in that cabinet for everything you need.

Writing and Resting: The Winter Solstice

A theme is emerging as we near the official start of winter.

A friend emails that she's tired, depressed and depleted, the end result of consistent beating herself up for not writing.  Never mind that a beloved friend of hers recently died, her business, like so many others, is rapidly changing, and she suddenly finds herself back in touch with people she's not heard from in years.  (Facebook, ya gotta love it.)  Stress much?  Ya think?

A family member tells me she's not going out much these days, hasn't seen friends for awhile.  Never mind that she's got a new love with whom she is deliriously happy and that she doesn't really want to go out.  She worries about it all the same.

And I myself spent much of December wringing my hands and flopping about the office, sighing dramatically as I resisted the new ideas that so desperately wanted to take up residence in my brain.  In a session with my very wise coach yesterday, I voiced the thought that I'd been feeling the urge to reinvent myself.  Yet at the same time I felt stagnant and unmotivated.  Plus I hurt my knee and there's been ice all over the streets and sidewalks so I couldn't get out and run.  And my computer is failing fast and my 92-year-old mother's furnace broke on the coldest day of the year.

I-yi-yi, what a season.  Oh right--it is an official season, the holiday season,  when we are all supposed to be of good cheer.  Nothing like a little forced gaiety to ramp up the resistance.

In the aforementioned session with my very wise coach, she reminded me that December and January are traditionally times to rest and take stock.  To eat healthy food and go to bed early and take care of ourselves so that we have energy for the more active seasons to come.  Yet we, in our modern society, resist the idea of slowing down, of being passive, of storing up, of resting.  We feel the need to go, go, go and when we feel the urge our automatic response is to resist it and keep going. 

And thus resulteth the running injury, the negativity turned in ourselves, the constant shoulding.  Conversely, giving yourself the time to relax opens up space--room in your brain for that new writing project to finally take shape, for the fresh idea to bubble to the surface, or simply for your whole being to just say, "ahhhhhh" and do nothing.

So just remember, to everything, even writing, there is a season.  If you're struggling with the desire to rest, quit resisting and let yourself go.  And report back to me when you awaken again in April.  Kidding!  You only get until March.

Ah, LA....

where it is illegal to look different from anyone else.

It is a requirement here that you be thin, tan, have long hair, wear sunglasses and pout, AND be young.  Thus if you are not young it is required that you go get plastic surgery really, really fast.  And then you look like you are trying hard to look like everyone else, even though everyone knows that you went under the knife to do it.

Ah, LA.  I love it so, and I'm not even sure why.

Being here always makes me muse on the nature of identity and true self.  These are important topics for writers because letting that ole true self out in words is pretty much the key to it all.  You will find success only when you find your voice and you find your voice by writing enough that you can let it rip, and open a direct line from your deepest inner being, through the arm, out the fingers, and onto the page.  Or keyboard.  Or digital recorder.

My friend Deidre, who lives in Silver Lake, says that everyone in LA strives to look alike and act alike and be alike and then the one person who is not like everyone else arrives and they are the one who makes it.  So why does everyone else persist in attempting to be like everyone else?

And once you hit 40, forget it.  Actually, it might even be 30.  Soon it will probably be 20.

Lat night I had drinks with a friend who is an entertainment attorney and he says its a hellish culture of youth here  (my words, not his, but they have a ring to them, no?)  As an attorney, he is expected to be wise and mature so he doesn't have to worry about the the age thing, but if you are flailing about on the creative side trying to make it, you gotta be young.

The hell part is, of course, that everyone ages.  Even Hollywood Goldenboys.  Then they have to dye their hair and pretend they are still young.

I realize that none of this is news, yet it continually perplexes me every time I come down here. Why do we all persist in trying to make ourselves just like everyone else, when there's only one of each of us in this whole world?  I'm veering dangerously close to getting teary eyed and talking about snowflakes here so forgive me, or better yet, explain it to me.

I'm reading Harriet Rubin's latest book, The Mona Lisa Stratagem: The Art of Women, Age, and Power, and she talks about how if a famous actor is on stage and a cat is on stage, all eyes will be on the cat. Why?  Because the cat is uniquely, gloriously, himself, no matter what.  Animals just are.  (This might help to explain why the most popular photos on my yahoo home page are always of animals.  So we're not as simple minded as I feared.)  Its the same thing with babies.  Ever notice how nobody can keep their eyes off them? 

Somebody ought to tell all the 20-something wannabe actresses that story.

And yet, despite my horror at the preponderance of clones everywhere and the cult of youth here, there is something about this place that keeps luring me back.  Maybe I like coming here so much because I can flee back north to Portland, where everybody seems desperately determined to not look like anyone else, ever. 

Or maybe its just the palm trees.

Hollywood of Comic Books

My son went through a long comic book phase when he was a pre-teen, which involved me driving him to comic book stores and conventions and then standing around waiting for him.  Having nothing better to do, I picked up comic books and began to read and in this way grew to love the form.  One of my early attempts at novel writing actually was set in the world of comics--a sure sign something holds a lot of interest to me, cause I won't write about it unless I really love it.  (Except for ghostwriting.  I'll write about anything if you pay me enough.)

For the record, as far as I'm concerned the best comic ever is Concrete, written by Paul Chadwick, and published by Dark Horse comics which just so happens to be located in Portland, along with all the other hot comic companies.  Concrete is the story of speechwriter Ron Lithgow whose brain was transplanted into a huge body of concrete by aliens.  But the series is far more than what it sounds like, as Concrete muses on all kinds of things such as the nature of people's passions and so forth.  And, as I recall, there's this sort of tragic The Sun Also Rises thing going on, with Concrete in love with a woman that he can of course never have.  For an interview with Chadwick, click here.  And to see what looks like a pretty complete list of the Concrete oeuvre, click here.  Check it out, its worth it, I promise.

I've been thinking about comics because of the success this summer of Hellboy II, a Dark Horse project, and, of course, The Dark Knight, which I've not yet seen.  Recently my local newspaper ran an article about how Portland truly is the Hollywood of the Comics world and you can read that article here.

So when I was looking at the ads that run alongside my gmail inbox (it fascinates and scares me how they are so keyed to whatever is being talking about in an email) and saw an ad for a comic book called The Elves of Iax, I had to click on it, just to check it out.  Turns out the comic is produced by Jeremy Kayes, who apparently lives in Seattle, which we'll have to forgive him for as he might not be able to help it. Anyway, Jeremy is giving away Chapter 1 of his comic until August 11, 2008.  (You can give him a donation at the end of the process.) 

I deeply admire people who do things like this, because it implies that he cares not so much about making money, but getting his work out in the world.  He cares not so much about what the world can do for him as what he can do for the world.  Excellent karma.  So go check it out.  The elves look intriguing and I can't wait for my copy.  And do check out Concrete, too.

Ah, But Here's the Rub

A couple months ago I wrote a post titled Write Three Pages a Day and You'll Be Happy.

This command, and the post I wrote about it, are all true.  I believe this statement with all my heart, because I believe that as writers, we must write regularly to be happy.

However....

Upon rare occasion, there may come a day, when you realize, as youmdutifully write your three pages a day on a daily basis, that you are lost and meandering.  In a dark wood, wandering, so to speak.  Unsure where those three pages a day are taking you, if anywhere.

Not that this has ever happened to me, mind you.  Just sayin' it might happen.  It just might.

And you will need to be prepared if it does.  Because when if this happens you might inadvertently feel worse for having written your three pages then if you'd not written at all.  Here you are, diligently writing, yet you seem to be wandering far afield.  No plot appears.  Your characters are aimless, boring creatures.  Your words like dead and flat on the page.

What to do when this happens?

I don't know, really.  The truth is, nobody does.  Feeling lost and uncertain where you are going in a project is an occupational hazard.  Rare are the writing projects that write themselves.  Wonderful as they are, they can be a curse, too, because if that happens to you even once, you'll spend the rest of your life wishing and hoping that it will happen again.  It might.  But then again, it might not.

But even though I don't really have the answer, I've managed to muster some suggestions.  So here we go:

What To Do When You Don't Have a Clue What You're Writing

1. Cry.  I am sort of kidding about this, but sort of not.  Crying is very cathartic.

2.  Remember that the only way out is through.  You know what this means. Keep writing.

3.  Trust.  This is related to #2.  You must trust that the story will out, that the cream will rise to the crop, that the....you get the idea.

4.  Go back to the basics and plan.  Ask yourself questions about the characters, or interview them.  Put scenes on 3 by 5 cards and arrange and rearrange them.  Make a plot outline--work fast and just write down everything you know about what happens next.  Or write up some scene guides--noting all the physical details of the scene, who is in it, where it takes place, what will happen, what the scene needs to accomplish and so forth.

5. Take a break.  I know, I know, I'm forever harping about writing regularly.  But once in awhile you can let yourself off the hook and take a little break.  As long as it is the pause that refreshes and not the time you quit working on the novel or screenplay forever.

6.  And finally, for some fresh inspiration, download Chris Guillebeau's free ebook called, The Art of Nonconformity: A Brief Guide to World Domination.  I think you'll enjoy it and find it useful.

Writing is Enough

I may have already written about this before--and I reserve the right to write about it again.  Does anyone else have that thing where you forget what you've written?  It's not age, or fading brain cells, it comes from writing a lot and being so present with what I'm writing that I forget everything that has come before.  Or so I tell myself.

But back to the subject at hand, in my continuing effort to master the art of letting go, I've been thinking about things I need to let go of in my writing career.  (New age/self-help/energy primer 101--letting go does NOT mean you want to get rid of it, but that you want to get rid of fussing over it, expecting it to happen, requiring it to happen.)  I love every aspect of my writing.  I love writing blog posts, coaching, teaching, and directing the Writer's Loft.

Most of all, I love writing fiction.  Love, love, love it.  I love every aspect of writing fiction, from brainstorming the initial idea for a novel, to writing the rough draft, rewriting, revising, fussing over it, talking about it--every bit of it.   The most important goal in my life right now is to publish my novel.

But that goal must be secondary to the writing itself or I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.

My wise friend Sue told me on my most recent trip to Nashville that she had realized that writing was in and of itself enough.  That writing is a useful activity that should be encouraged in the world, even if what we write never gets published.  (It is possible to believe this and still desire to get published.)

Sitting down to write is enough.   Doing this is a useful activity that improves the world, even if not one word of what you write ever sees publication.  Why?  To wit:

• Writing centers you
• Writing helps you make sense of the world
• Writing orders your mind
• Writing helps you to organize your thoughts
• Writing helps you process emotions

Further, creating stories:

• Helps you figure out who you are
• Helps you figure out your world
• Helps you to find your place in it
• Helps you to understand others
• Gives you a moral compass

I've often said that I don't understand how people who don't write survive in the world.  And it is for all of the above reasons that this is true--writing is a tool, a friend, a habit, a career, and more. 

And using writing for any and all of these activities is, quite simply, enough.

It's Hot in LA

I flew down to LA on Friday and at the moment I'm staying in Pasadena.  It is probably in the mid to high 90s at the moment, but yesterday and Friday, the temps were around 106-107.  Gee-zus.  This is way too hot for an Oregon native like me, especially given that we've not had much of a spring in Portland.  (I know, I know, its now summer.  We kinda went right from winter to summer.)

Even though Suzanne's house is air-conditioned, it still gets hot.  And yesterday my Vaio just couldn't take it, and kept blue-screening on me.   Poor little thing is over three years old, which must be like over 100 in computer years.  And so yesterday I ended up getting nothing done.  Suzanne and I tried to have a yard sale, hauling stuff out front to sell, but nobody came by.  It was too damn hot.

So today I was determined to get some writing done and this morning I got up and worked on the novel.   I did what I always tell people not to do, which was fuss over the beginning.  (I reserve the right to give contradictory advice.  And at least for me, the rest of the piece, no matter what it is, simply won't flow until I've got the beginning right.  I wrote about that somewhere.  Let me see...ah yes, here it is.) 

I fussed over the beginning and then wrote a wee bit more.  By a wee bit more I mean maybe a paragraph or so more.  But it doesn't matter.  Cuz I loved getting up and getting to the novel first thing.  I had a good bit of momentum going on that last week, but what with the need to hop on an airplane, work on a yard sale, and survive the heat wave, I had lost it.  Now its back.

Of course, the hell part is that I'm going to lose it again, as tomorrow I'm going down to Laguna Beach to stay with my mentor and friend Julie.  I'm stopping in Silver Lake to pick up another good friend, Deidre.
Together the three of us make up the west coast contingent of the Novel Goddesses, a group which also includes Linda, and two writers who do not yet have websites but will need them soon because Maryann is about to have her first novel published and Katy is working on a kick-ass one.

Losing momentum on the novel is going to be well worth it.  I'll get back to it when I return here on Wednesday. 

By the way, I'm working on the new book review site, which I don't even have a link for yet but will soon, and if you are interested in reviewing, please email me or leave a comment.

Collecting as Fertilizer

I'm working on a workshop called Writing Abundance that I'll be presenting in September at the Path and Pen conference in Nashville.  It's also going to be an E-book, for sale on this very site. 

Conveniently enough, all the elements of writing abundance fall into categories that all start with C.  How cool is that?  It reminds me of the Portland nurseryman who had seven children and named them all with names that started with the letter D.  Then he named the nursery after his kids--7 Dees Nursery.  The ad in the phone book had photos of every single one of them.  My sister and I thought that was hysterical and we were damn glad our photo didn't appear in the phone book.  Though come to think of it, we were both named names that start with C--Christine and Charlotte.  When I was in college, I actually met one of the 7 Dees at a bar and we ended up at the Rose Test Gardens and I believe he picked one of the roses for me.  He owns the nursery now and its even bigger and more successful than when his father owned it, and I'm sure he'd be very unhappy with me telling how he picked a rose from a public garden.  (Actually, I just read the story of the nursery on the website, and he doesn't own the nursery now, but his brothers do.)

Anyway, the writing abundance Cs are two qualities and four activities, kind of like the game Two Truths and a Lie, but that is yet another story.  The two qualities are commitment and consistency, both of which you gotta have to be a writer.  And the four activities are clearing, connecting, collecting, and creating--the point of it all.

But today I'm writing about collecting, as in gathering ideas and input and snippets of this and that as you go through you daily life.  I always recommend that people who want to write keep a journal, and into this journal should not only go daily reflections but ideas and bits of dialogue you've overheard, a nice description that popped into your head and so on.

As you write more and more, all of these things will become more intuitive and you won't need to be quite so rabid about writing them down, because instead they'll go directly from your brain to whatever story or article or essay you are working on.  But that takes awhile, like years, so I don't advise messing with it.  If you have an idea, write it down.

At first this may seem like overkill.  But ideas need coddling and tending, and if you do that, they'll multiple in this magical way that I don't understand.   As I've mentioned before, energy breeds energy and ideas breed more ideas. 

Collecting is the cure for the fear of the blank page.  So many of us open a notebook or turn on the computer and then gasp in shock when we actually have to write something on said blank page.  But if you've been collecting ideas, then you can turn to your journal, read that great description you jotted down, and use it as the basis of a scene.

Years ago, in another life, I used to design and sew children's clothes.  These days, the writing gods have demanded full fealty so I don't do that anymore, but I still like to fancy that I could design something to knit or stitch should the mood strike.  But the mood has struck, and I open a sketchbook and I don't have the least clue what I might want to design.  Why?  Because I've not been open and receptive to ideas.  I've not been collecting.

I've recently heard two fiber artists speak.  Kaffe Fassett (thumbs down--love his work, but he spoke at a graduation, and just metpahorically phoned in a slide show and self-congratulatory speech) and Fiona Ellis (thumbs up, a lovely, gracious, and funny designer) and both of them talked about where they get their inspiration.  They gather and collect it, from nature, from museums, from urbanscapes.  But they actively go out and look for pattern, for color, for design.  Which is what we writers need to be doing, only we're looking for character, for dialogue, for location, for the telling detail.

Birdsong

There's nothing better than sleeping with the windows open, and last night was one of the first nights that's been possible here. 

This morning I woke at 5:30 to the sound of birdsong.  This is without a doubt the best possible way to wake up in the world, even if it was half an hour earlier than I wanted to get up.  I lay in bed and listened to the birds singing and I remembered a quote that I read somewhere or heard someone say. 

The gist of it was that birds sing just because that's what they do.  They don't worry if their song sounds right, or if its any good.  They don't worry about what the other birds think. And they for sure don't give a rip what humans think of their bird songs.

They just sing.

Birds don't worry about if they'll get paid for singing or not, or if they look okay while they are singing.  They don't think about how the other birds might get jealous of how good there song is, or perhaps make fun of their song because its stupid.

Birds don't worry about taking too much time to sing.  Or giving up their household chores to sing.

They just sing.  All the time, from the crack of dawn until dusk.  I can hear one outside my window at this very moment.

You know where I'm going with this.  So many times we shun our creativity for all of the above reasons, which are really silly when you look at them through the eyes of a bird.  One of my favorite insights from the Artist's Way is Julia Cameron's bit about how the Creator created us, and thus we are most in his or her image when we are creating.  That's always made a long of sense to me, and I'm pretty sure it makes sense to the birds, too, except they don't even have to think about it because they are too busy singing.

Write Three Pages a Day and You'll Be Happy

I am not the first person to say this, and I won't be the last.   And, you won't be the first person to ignore this stellar advice, nor the last.  But ignore it at your own peril, because it is the key to happiness, to writing success, to world peace, um....maybe even to natural disasters. No, scratch that last bit.   But well and truly, the practice I am about to recommend is, for a writing, the key to everything. 

What is this miraculous practice?

Writing three pages a day.

It is that simple and that complicated. 

All you have to do is just write.  Get out of the way of your ego and your complaints and your ideas about why you can't write and just go do it. 

What I'm advocating here is not morning pages or journaling, though those are both worthy endeavors which I recommend.  What I'm advocating is committing to write three pages a day on whatever your current creative project is.   It could be a novel, or a short story, or a memoir, or a screenplay.  Doesn't matter. 

Whatever it is, write three pages.  Go do it right now and then come back.  Honestly, I believe that we make it way harder than it really is. 

If you are a Type A, high achiever, you'll probably be thinking, but three pages a day is nothing, not even worth my time.  To the contrary.   If you write three pages a day, at the end of the month you have 90 pages, unless my math is wrong.  90 pages!  That is one-third of a book!  It's huge.

Now, granted, I'm not expecting these three pages to be  in finished draft, worthy of publication shape.  You're going to be writing, and if you're like me, you're going to be writing fast so that you can say you've done it and move on. 

But I'm willing to bet that in that fast three pages you'll end up keeping quite a bit of it.  Oh, there will be successive drafts, to be sure.  But what writing this way gives you is direct access to your inner source, which is, of course, directly connected to the outer source, or creator, or God, or goddess, or the universe--call it whatever you like.  And it is from this direct access that voice and style and all the good stuff that makes you unique comes from.

It won't be hard.  It will be exhilarating and exciting and wonderful.  Trust me.  Its as good as a spiritual practice.  In truth it is a spiritual practice.

Writing Inspiration From an Unlikely Source

You never know where you will find inspiration for writing.

Last night I went to a knitting lecture by Fiona Ellis at my LYS (local yarn store, for you non-knitters), Twisted, which is my new favorite place.

I love knitting and stitching and sewing and anything to do with textiles or fiber arts.  Throughout my young adult years (does that mean I'm now an old adult? apparently so) it was always a toss up as to which way my career would go--towards writing or some sort of designing with textiles.   While I've always written, I've also always done needlework in one form or another.  I sold children's clothing that I designed and sewed for awhile and after that I thought maybe I'd combine my loves and be a craft writer.   While that never panned out, I did eventually begin my free-lance career by writing about art.   

Gradually, though, writing won out, which leads us to the current day, where mostly all I do is write.    Lately, it has been a rare day when my hands have held needles of any kind--though I did sew a button back on my shirt when I was in Nashville. 

But lately I've realized that I missed knitting and stitching, and that rather than being a distraction to my writing, it's actually an enhancement.  One form of creativity bleeds into and informs another, and actually bolsters your creative muscle.  We tend to think in an exclusive, dualistic way--if I do this, than I can't do that, when in reality the opposite is true.  The more kinds of creative projects you allow yourself to pursue, the more creative you will be.

So I decided I needed some inspiration and when I heard that Fiona Ellis was speaking on her knitting muses, I made reservations for the lecture and convinced my friend Leigh to attend.

Fiona was great.  She's a Brit living in Canada, and quite an accomplished designer.  She showed us slides of her various inspirations--travel, urban landscapes, nature, museums, the everyday, and so forth.  I was totally content, sitting on a couch at the back of the room, next to a woman knitting socks, who was a knitting soul sister because we both admitted that we never finished our projects.

But Fiona really got me thinking when she answered a question about how to get started designing.  "Start from where you are and move forward," she advised.  "I never sit down thinking this design will the my Sistine chapel."

I love that advice.  And also this:  "Don't spend all your time organizing the files on your desk."  In other words, get to it.  Just do it.  "It's not brain surgery or rocket science.  You don't die from it.  People aren't going to lose their sense of smell (from a botched surgery) if  you have to rip your stitches out."

Same thing with writing.  Nobody's going to suffer or die if the words you put on paper the first time aren't perfect.  Or if, shudder, you have to delete them and start over. 

One of the other things that Fiona said was about how she convinced herself to go to University, as they say across the pond.  She was nearing the age of thirty, and had done her A levels, but gone straight into the working world.  When a friend died of brain cancer, she reassessed her life and made a list of all the things that were obstacles to returning to school--and then she dealt with them, one by one.

Isn't that a great way to approach life?  Do you have obstacles in your way to writing? Make a list of them and then deal with them, one by one. 

How to Learn to Write

Reading as a Writer

Last night Terry Price and I hosted a dinner for the new students entering the Loft, and, big surprise, the conversation was all about writing.

One of the things that Terry talked about was how, in the past, some of his students would complain that they didn't have time to read, that trying to write took such a big chunk of their time that there was no time left for reading.

This is a shame.

Actually, it is more than a shame.  It is a crime.  Because, honestly?  If you are a writer, you should be reading.  There's just no two ways about it.  Reading the kinds of books that you want to write immerses you in the tropes and techniques and traditions of that genre, whether that genre is the novel, or the short story, or creative non-fiction.  The only way to figure out where you want to go is to look at where others have gone before you.

MFA programs, particularly brief-residency MFA programs, are based on this very idea, and emphasize the value of writers reading to learn how to write.  We emphasize the same thing in the Loft.

Words In, Words Out

I have this theory that, when I'm writing a lot, I need to replenish those words.  Just as when you exercise a lot, you need to drink a lot of water to replenish what you've lost through sweat, so too, with writing, you must restock your words.

Some writers will tell you that if they don't like to read whatever it is they are writing for fear that reading will somehow influence them.  Um, of course its going to influence you, because that is why we read.

Because you know better than to plagiarize, you are not going to copy an author word for word.  You're just going to absorb the way that author writes, note how he uses dialogue, study how she writes description.  In this way you learn techniques you can apply to your own writing.

No Time to Read?

You make time to watch TV, don't you?  You make time to surf the internet.  When you stop to think about it, you can probably think of several time-suckers that you can rid your life of.  Throw your TV out the window.  Will you really miss it?  You'll have more time to write that way, too.

Inspiration

I started thinking about this post last night, when we were all at dinner, talking about writing and reading.  And thought more about it this morning, because I'm going to have a phone meeting with my new student, Jillyn, who is wonderful not the least of which because she is from Portland.  And then I read Basic Ways to Improve Your Writing (its the April 21st entry, scroll down a little to find it) on the blog of the Mad Hermit and that was the final piece.  (By the way, the Mad Hermit is doing some really interesting things in terms of marrying the technology of the internet with literature--video reviews and video readings of poetry and classics.  Really cool.)

So go read.  And write some, too.

Writing Away From Home

I'm in Nashville, which is beautiful and warm (although pretty much anything is probably warm compared to Portland) and would be perfect in every way except for....the pollen.

Which has me sneezing and my eyes running and itching in a way I've never quite experienced before.  It still does not affect my love for this city, however (just don't tell Nashville that I had a brief fling with Asheville, okay?)

The beginning of the week was full of Loft-related activities, and the past two days I've been at Sue and Walt's, dog sitting the beloved Juni, who sleeps on my bed every night.  She is about twice as big as my pug, so she takes up a bit more of it than I am used to, but I don't mind.  I love having her with me, and she makes the best security system in the world.  (Note to Sue and Walt: the non-canine alarm does seem to be working).

While tonight and tomorrow night are taken up with more Loft-related activities, the past two days have been mine.  And, when not busy corralling four other writers so that I could submit a proposal for a panel for the AWP conference next year, I've been writing.

But it strikes me that writing is different when one is away from home.  I feel like I'm getting a lot done, like I have more time and more freedom.  The truth of the matter is I have just as many things pulling at me here--the AWP proposal, a forced marched into downtown Nashville yesterday to see my friend Suzanne, dinner with Melinda last night, manuscripts to critique and so on and so forth.  And there are dishes and clothes to wash and Juni to walk.  Life is nearly as complicated as it is at home, and yet it doesn't seem so.

For some reason it feels like the day flows easier when I'm away from home.  I eat at different times, and walk at different times, and eat different things and walk different places (of course).  And so the writing seems to flow easier, too.

I suppose this is in part the psychology of a writing retreat--minus the responsibility to do anything but write.  But even being here, still with responsibilities, it feels easier to write.  So I guess the moral of the story is to travel whenever you can--especially if it give you time to write.

Loft-y Tennessee

I am in beautiful Springfield, Tennessee, where there are rolling green fields and the air feels totally different than it does in beautiful Portland, Oregon--mostly because it is warm.  I'm staying at the home of Terry Price, and we are theoretically working on the Loft.

No, we are really working on it--we have been chatting all morning about it and millions of other things, while also eating Monkey Bread, monitoring the process of the log cabin which is being built in the backyard, and listening to Van Morrison.

I'm here for the opening semester of the Loft, at least the opening semester with Terry and me at the helm.  This is only the beginning, folks, and we are very excited about our five hardy students.  The program has actually been up and running for five years but it had fallen on hard times before Terry and I, who have both been with the program since the beginning, decided to petition to take it over.   

Next fall we'll have an official orientation weekend, complete with opening reception and other exciting events, so stay tuned.  And though the Loft is centered around Nashville, TN, please keep in mind that we are also working on plans for true distance learning. 

Go the Loft page at MTSU here, or read about it on the page I wrote.

Best of Wordstrumpet: Power Writing and Creativity

Welcome to a new series on creativity and how to unleash it in your writing. Today I’ll be presenting the 15 crucial keys to consistently accessing your creativity.

First, though, I want to talk about creativity in general. I consider it to be one branch of the Three-Fold Writer’s Path, and in many ways, it is the most crucial. You can be the most talented writer in the world, but if you are not sitting down and using that talent, what use is it? If you don’t develop ways to convince yourself to return to the computer, over and over, on bad days and good, your talent will lay fallow, never to see the light of day.

And in my book there are few things sadder. Well, war and starving children in Africa, but you know what I mean. In developed countries, I’m convinced that the cause of much of our contemporary angst stems from people not exercising their creativity. Unexpressed creativity starts as a longing and turns into depression, or worse, perhaps, rage.

It is hard to be creative on a regular basis. Creativity is active. It requires us to think, to do, to act, to, well, create. These days, there are so many wonderful passive activities available to us that do not require action—surfing the internet, watching one of 500 available channels on TV, to name only a couple—that creating is practically a radical act.

Which makes it all the more important to do it regularly.

Creativity is a muscle. It gets stronger as you use it. When you go to the gym regularly and lift weights you build your physical muscles. So, too, with creativity. When you express yourself regularly, it becomes easier and more comfortable. The words flow and you develop a facility with them. The paint glides across the canvas. It doesn’t take you hours to find all your supplies. Ideas come as if by magic.

The opposite is true, too. Once you get away from the habit of creativity, it becomes ever more difficult to return. You have no idea where your drawing pencils are. You can’t, for the life of you, recall where you intended to go next in your novel. And what on earth were you trying to evoke with that mess of color on the canvas?

It only gets harder. And that longing inside you will grow and grow…until it becomes something else, something you probably really don’t want to allow to fester. So why not take the path that seems harder at first but is actually the easiest?

It is ultimately the easiest path because it leads you home to your heart and your soul and the very essence of your being. Which, in the end, is really all there is.

So here, ta-da, are the fifteen keys:

1. Be A Beginner.

The Zen Buddhists talk a lot about beginner's mind. I am a buddhism slacker, but this concept is called Shoshin, and it is a good one. The idea of it is to be eager. Be open. Don’t have expectations. Don’t think, do. Have a sense of wonder. This is an especially vital key for the professional, who may develop a mind-set that everything he does must be perfect the first time out. Banish those thoughts. A beginner wouldn’t expect to be perfect. Nor should you—no matter where you fall on the beginner to expert scale.

2. There Are No Rules (but make some for yourself if it makes you feel better).

Who says you can't write a novel in 100 viewpoints? The result may not work, and it may not be particularly publishable, but it might lead to something that is. Forget everything you know about the rules (see #1) and just go for it. See what happens. Sometimes this key is a bit much for people. The lack of rules is scary. So make some up for yourself--like, every sentence must start with a word that is capitalized. There, does that make you feel better?

3. Do It Badly.

The idea that everything has to be perfect is a huge creativity killer. So, go for the opposite. Write one bad page. Draw one crappy sketch. Sing a song off-key. The world didn't stop, did it? And go back and take a look at that dreadful page you just wrote. Hmmm, might you not be able to use that first sentence? With a few changes, does the third paragraph work fairly well for the opening? I thought so. Writing badly is an entry point into your work. Put something, anything, down on the page. Then you have words to work with. And that is a wonderful thing.

4. Just Do It.

This goes hand in hand with Key #3: Do It Badly. The truth of the matter is, you gotta just do it. And do it again and again. It is that simple and that difficult. Sometimes just doing it is the easiest thing in the world, and sometimes it is the hardest. I do not know why this is so. Sometimes I wring my hands and emote and pace and get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floor, all in an attempt to not just do it. And then when I finally get around to doing it, I wonder why on earth I whined and moaned for so long. Because once I'm in the middle of doing it, I love it more than anything on earth. So why I have to re-convince myself to go back to it over and over again, I do not know. If this happens to you, take heart and know that it is normal, at least in the realm of writer normal. Which, I have to say is not the same as normal normal, if you know what I mean.

5. Process, Not Product

When my daughter was getting her post-bacc certificate in photography, which was close to getting a MFA, this was one of her mantras. It has always been one of my mantras, too, and I have the hand-painted pillow to prove it. I actually wrote about this in another post recently, but it is such a bedrock tenet of creativity that I have to mention it again. Just remind yourself that it is not about the finished product, it is about the process of doing it. It really is. Trust me. Ironically, by focusing on the process, you'll end up with a much better product. It's another one of those mysterious creativity things. I don't pretend to understand them, I just obey them.

6. Do The Work, Don't Judge It

Goes along with #5. If you are focused on product while you are in the process of writing, you are likely to be judging it. Don't do that. Just do the work. It is akin to learning to be in the moment. I will confess here that I am a meditation slacker (I know, I know, I've got a slacker list a mile long--Buddhism and yoga and meditation being tops on it. What does that say about me?). But when it comes to writing, there's nothing I love better than kicking into that flow and being so in the moment that time passes without me even noticing it. That is only possible, my friends, when you are in the moment, one with the words, and Not Judging them. Judging is for later. Its hell when its judging time, but we are not talking about that now.

7. Small Steps

Rome wasn't built in a day. Rome really wasn't built in a day, and your creative projects won't be either. Don't get so caught up in the big picture that you forget to take the small, repeated steps. Make them as small as possible. Don't think about the entire novel, think about the next scene. Don't obsess about the entire canvas, focus on the next color of paint. Break things down into their smallest components. This seems so obvious--and yet I have to remind myself of it again and again.

8. Make It A Habit

The self-help experts say it takes 21 days to create a new habit. Thus, if you make a date with yourself to write your novel or plan that garden, or work on that song you're writing, and keep the date every day for 21 days, at the end of it you'll have established a new habit. Don't know if the 21 day thing is true or not, as I always forget to keep track, but I do know that consistency and the dreaded D word, discipline, are actually bedrock elements of creativity. This is counter-intuitive, but true. As I've said (over and over, to the point of causing retching) creativity is active. You've got to just do it. And the more you just do it, the easiest it gets.

9. Use the Power of Momentum

The really cool thing is that once you are consistently using your creativity, critical mass kicks in and you get momentum on your side. Momentum is what happens when you get the perfect idea for chapter ten when you're in the middle of writing chapter nine. It's what happens when you "hear" the perfect line of dialogue for your screenplay while you are writing the description for the scene. Once your mind is engaged with the work on a regular basis, it will help you by sending you messages and ideas. Apparently, the mind likes to be kept busy. The flip side of this is familiar to anyone who has set aside a creative project--it takes awhile to get back into it. You have to go back and re-read the entire novel in order to remember what you wrote, or you have to go back and review all the instructions on that sweater you are knitting. It is ever so much easier to just stick to it.

10. Use Your Subconscious

Put your subconscious mind to work for you. Think about your project or read a few pages from it right before you go to sleep--then prepare to pay attention to your dreams when you wake up. Command your subconscious (you won't hurt its feelings, promise, it likes to work for you) to figure out the details of the next scene you have to write. Once you get in the habit of allowing your subconscious to work for you, you'll be amazed at how helpful it can be. I wrote an earlier post that goes into this in much more detail. You can read that here.

11. Don't Talk About It, Do It

Too many people talk about the novel they are going to write, or the art they are going to produce. Too many people relate the whole damn story of the screenplay they play to get down on paper. But I believe talking about it too much is a big mistake. It dissipates the energy of the project, takes the air out of it. So don't talk about it. Do it.

12. Refill the Well

This is especially important when you are finishing a long project. Working on an extended creative piece takes not only time but energy. Have you ever had the experience of intensely focusing on your writing for a few hours and suddenly realizing you are starving? That's because using your brain burns calories. It takes energy. You need to keep yourself going by constantly refilling the well. Julia Cameron advises taking Artist's Dates, which are scheduled times when you consciously do something that pleases and replenishes you. When I'm writing a lot, I like to read a lot--words out, words in. Its as if I need to replenish the supply. It is vitally important that you figure out what nourishes you and commit to doing it often. Its not selfish, because it is paving the way for you to bring your creative gifts to the world.

13. Keep going.

I know. Duh. But it is depressingly easy to quit when a block arises or a rejection comes in the mail or someone says something mean about your work. But don't let the bastards get you down--writing all the time is the best revenge. Not writing well, or publishing well. Just writing. So keep at it. You'll break through that block, the next letter will be an acceptance to a prestigious publication and the mean person will get hit by a car--not injured, because we can't wish ill on people. Just shaken up enough so that they are no longer mean.

14. Take a break.

Just the wee-est bit contradictory today, aren't I? Well creativity is a contradictory activity, too. While you must commit to keeping going in the face of all odds, you must also learn to take breaks once in awhile. Let the work compost. Don't force it. Sometimes walking away for a few minutes or even a whole day (see Anne Wayman's post on taking time off here) can be the pause that refreshes. Just don't let a break turn into procrastination.

15. Let it go.

Ah, how good it feels to finish a piece of work, know that you've done all that you can do, and then release it out to the world with no attachments or expectations. At least that is the ideal. Doesn't always happen that way, but we can continue to try. It is all too easy to hang on to a creative project and not let it take its rightful journey into the world--whether it is a novel seeking a publisher, an essay needing a home in a magazine, or a blog post. It is all too easy to find yourself slowing down as you near the end of the project, or for blocks to suddenly appear when all was smooth sailing before. Sometimes this can happen because of a reluctance to let the pages go. But what good are they going to do the world locked away on your computer, or in a drawer where nobody can find them? Send your babies out and let them find their homes. The energy of that will come back to you in surprising ways.

Letting go is a suitable stopping point for this series on creativity. And now that you know everything there is to know about creativity, go forth and do it.

Earth Day

It's Earth Day and I'm in an airplane winging my way across the country, wasting resources, specifically, very expensive jet fuel.  Guess they haven't yet figured out how to make airplanes run on bio-diesel.  I'd buy carbon offsets but I just read that they are pretty much b.s. 

Anyway, having written a long ebook on Global Warming last year about this time, I take environmental issues very seriously.  Besides I live in Portland, the greenest city in the country, where it is a law that every citizen take environmental issues very seriously.

Not really, but we all do recycle.  You do too, don't you?

Actually, I made myself feel so guilty I just went and signed up for a monthly carbon offset of 5 tons at Carbonfund.org.  I don't care if its b.s., at least it made me feel better.  (Now if I could just solve all those problems in Africa.....)

To make up for the fact I'm burning jet fuel above your very heads as you read this, I leave you with this cool link:  Connecting A Million Hearts.

Happy Earth Day, y'all!  (I'm on my way to Nashville, in case you hadn't guessed.  It always brings out the y'alls in me.)

In the Department of Odds and Ends: Monday Round-up

Clearing things off my plate, or more to the point, my ongoing list of blogging topics today:

1. Last month's Atlantic had a great article on the paparazzi and how they are changing journalism.  I've mentioned several times on this site that I have a perverse fascination with the paparazzi, even going so far as to watch TMZ on TV at times--and I don't watch anything on TV, except American Idol.  This whole thing started as a time waster, a way to take a break without really getting up from my computer.  But it turns out that the paparrazzi culture has had a serious effect on today's journalism.

David Samuels talks about "the evolution of Hollywood paparazzi from a marginal nuisance to one of the most powerful and lucrative forces in the American news-gathering industry" in the article and it is fascinating.  Did you know, for instance, that on any given night there are 30 to 45 paps covering Britney?  Amazing.

Here's the link:  Shooting Britney.

2.  I am leaving town tomorrow.  Heading first to Asheville for Wordfest, though I'm a little nervous about hanging out with all those poets.   I heard about it from my friend Nave, who runs a writing salon  there and in other points around the world.   Nave and I first met in Taos, when he was running creativity camps for Julia Cameron, and we run into each other in odd places like Chicago and New York, where neither of us live.    Candace and I are driving over there from Nashville in her #$%^ little car, which means I can't take my usual overload of clothes, because she also has some business to attend to surrounding mysterious issues of the place where she grew up.  I can't wait. 

Then I'll be in Nashville for the exciting beginning of the semester of the Writing Loft at MTSU.  My co-director Terry Price and  I are planning a dinner for new students, as well as an evening for mentors and alumni to get together.  We've still got room if you are interested in studying writing in a focused way, with a supportive and helpful mentor.  Read about the program on our website, or on the page I made on this site.

3.  Even though I'm leaving town, my blog will continue through the magic of technology.  I've got a post for Earth Day set up, and for the few days of my absence, as I wander the south looking for a wireless connection, I'm doing a Best of Wordstrumpet series.  Here are the posts you will enjoy for the rest of this week:

Tuesday--Earth Day
Wednesday--Writing in Coffee Shops
Thursday--Planet of Unwritten Novels

And finally, for my favorite post of all time (well it was actually a series, but I'm turning it into one long post):

Friday--Power Writing: 15 Keys to Unleashing your Creativity.

I've got my handy purple Polaroid digital camera, even though I'm angry with the people at Polaroid for discontinuing instant cameras, and I hope to take lots of photos and be able to post a poetry-infused travelogue by Saturday.

Have a good week, everyone, and don't forget to celebrate Earth Day.

Survey Results and Winner Announcement

This is going to be a bit of an American Idol-ish post, as in, I'm going to imitate the annoying Ryan Seacrest and keep you guessing until the very end who won.

As a brief aside, writing that line reminded me of something.  I just heard one of the all-time best Crosby, Stills & Nash songs, Wooden Ships, and it has that line in it:  "Can you tell me, please, who won?"  I think half the cadences in my writing come from all the songs that play in my head.

Anyway, I've been going through the results of my survey, and I want to thank Jen, Jenny, BellaVida, Denise, and Lin for all participating in it.

What I've gotten from going through your comments is that you are confused.  (Me, too.)  You want specifics about writing, such as how to structure a novel, how to know when a story is done, and by the way, what is a story, anyway?  Also ideas on creating story arcs and building momentum.

Momentum is an issue when it comes to creativity as well, with overcoming resistance, finding time to write, and keeping going the number one issues. 

I also asked what potential ebooks people would be most interested in and I'm pleased to report that Set the Words Free, a book about how to get writing and stay writing, came in first.  I'm pleased because it is the book I really want to write!

Second was The Three-Fold Writer's Path, which was, you guessed it, the book I second most wanted to write. 

Elements of Fiction came in third, and, thank you God, Make Money Writing Online came in last.   Other people have written excellent books on the subject, and if my once-in-awhile boss Clark ever gets his butt in gear, I'll be offering his book for sale on this site.

My path is clear:  I'm going to start writing Set the Words Free right away.  I'm also thinking it might be cool to write some shorter mini-ebooks on elements of fictions such as structuring the novel and what constitutes a short story.  But, one thing at a time.

It is very gratifying to read these comments and learn that my readers are so on the same page as I am.  I guess you wouldn't be here if you weren't, but you know what I mean.  So thank you all for being my wonderful readers!

And was there something else I was supposed to do?  Contest?  We're having a contest?  Oh right....I guess I'm not very good at being Ryan Seacrest, am I?  Maybe that's a good thing.  Okay, no more stalling, the winner of a free coaching session is.....

BellaVida, who writes the wonderful blog, For the Love of House Music. 

I am excited about this, because maybe I'll learn something about house music. 

I'm so happy that all of you contributed and I thank you.  Lin--take care of yourself and get well soon.  I'm sending you good thoughts and prayers (and everyone else reading this, should, too).

How to Write a Book

Yesterday I finished the final corrections on my most recent ghost-written book, which, I have to say, turned out to be a wonderful project, working with great people who communicated clearly and paid quickly.  Best of all, they have more books they want me to write!

While writing a bio for the Loft today I started counting up how many books I've written and realized it is close to a dozen.  Three of them I can name: Beautiful America's Oregon Coast, Beautiful America's Wyoming, and a forthcoming book on writing successful fundraising letters from Atlantic Publishing.  The rest of them are ghostwritten projects on subjects such as global warming, Voodoo, your digestive system,  public speaking, marketing ebooks , dementia, and more that I can't think of at this moment.

I wrote several of the books in very short periods of time, and I'm not kidding when I say that.  Three of them were 50 pages, single spaced (the web standard, unlike the traditional double spacing on manuscripts), and I wrote each of them in five days.  Yes, five days.  Let me also add that I started cold--with no knowledge of the topic beforehand.

So I've learned a little bit about writing a book along the way. 

These days, everyone needs a book.  If you want to speak to promote your business, you'll find that everyone will ask you if you have a book.  If not, they won't be interested.  A book is a sign of credibility.
So, if you have a non-fiction book you want to write (fiction is a whole different story), here are some tips:

1.  Gather your information.  If it is your information, say, from your business, go find all those scraps of paper and throw them in a box.  If you are working on an assignment, go look around the web or wherever you're getting your info and get your sources lined up. 

2.  Organize it.  I know, duh.  But you'd be surprised how many people launch in before completing this vital step.  I'm a big fan of keeping organization as simple as possible.  If you simply made piles of papers that were all on the same topic and paper-clipped it together, I'd consider you organized.  Don't get bogged down in this step. 

3.  Write an outline.  Come out from under your desk where you are cringing in horror at the thought.  Its not that bad.  Again, it can be a very loose outline.  It actually should be a very loose outline, because it will probably change along the way.  Take a legal pad and write the numbers one through ten (as a rough starting point), leaving room in between, and then beneath each number, the letters A through E.  Now take your piles of paper and assign each one a number, in order if you like but it doesn't have to be.    Now you have 10 topics.  Go through your stacks of paper and organize the info into five sub-topics, which you write in the A through E slots.  Now you have your chapters fleshed out.

4.  Assign research.  Go through your research and make notes as to where it fits on your outline.

5. Write a rough draft.  And when I say rough, I mean rough.  Write fast, and don't worry about writing pretty.  Get the information down on paper.  When you get to the end, stop and then go fix yourself a martini.  Because guess what?  You have a book.  All  that is left to do is....

6. Rewrite it!

Woo-hoo!  You're done.  Wasn't that easy? 

A couple notes:

Please, please, please make careful notes for your research and be sure to cite your resources.  Plagiarism is not cool.  You also need to rephrase and rewrite things.  Don't take anything verbatim unless you have permission.  I know you know all this, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded of it.

If you are having issues getting your book written, even with this stellar run-down, I can help you.  I'm in the process of setting up my coaching website, and one of my packages is going to be a Book Writing Boot Camp.   Email me at the address listed on this blog, or leave a comment.

By the way, stay tuned, because tomorrow I announce the results of my survey and the lucky winner of a free coaching session.

Keyword Research for Writing

In my ongoing attempts to takeover secure a spot for myself in the writing corner of the internet, I've been researching keywords.    This fun little endeavor is part of my effort to find out what y'all want when it comes to writing and writing coaching.

(Brief, but very important aside:  Tomorrow is the LAST day to take part in the survey I posted last week.  Here's the link: Another Contest: What Are Your Writing Problems?  I had a flurry of activity when I first posted the contest, but since then nada.  Zip. Zilch.  Its depressing me, people.  I'm looking for a last minute surge in entries here, so help me out.  The prize is a free coaching session.)

Anybody who has ever done SEO (Search Engine Optimized) writing for the web is familiar with keywords.   You'll get a list of words which are usually very similar, like this:

Kitchen Sink
kitchen sink
Kitchen sinks
Porcelain kitchen sinks
porcelain kitchen sinks
stainless steel kitchen sinks
steel kitchen sink

Usually there would be 10 or more, but enough already, you get the idea.  Note the very subtle differences, for instance, kitchen is sometimes capitalized and sink is sometimes plural.  This is because some intrepid soul has been going through and trying to figure out what the top search terms are for kitchen sinks.

This is a tedious process.  I know because I spent last week doing it (in and around the ghostwriting).  The best place to go for keyword research is Wordtracker. They are pretty cool--they give you a free seven-day trial and they make it really easy to cancel if you don't want to pay them $59 a month to keep the service. 

Amazingly enough, I was not researching kitchen sink words, but writing and coaching words.  After about the 5,000th time I fed a word through I began to see some similar themes, mostly that people put really strange phrases into the search engines. 

For instance, "novel writing priest."  Does this mean anything to anyone?  I actually googled it myself to see if there was some famous novel writing priest that I hadn't heard about.  But not as far as I could tell.  However, "novel writing priest" has a KEI of 200, which is very good.  (The KEI is the number of searches compared to websites the word appears on.  You can get a word that has a ton of searches but also has a ton of websites devoted to it, and then its not a good keyword.  The KEI uses some arcane formula to figure this out.)

Besides getting me mildly upset about the state of knowledge in this country ("tips for writing fiction novels," is one of my favorites--um, last time I checked all novels were fiction) this process also makes me feel like I'm missing out on stuff that everyone else knows.  For instance, "101 very funny short stories," comes up very high.  As does "nifty stories" and "exotic short stories."  Is there some popular short story series that I've missed?

(And do not even get me started on sex stories.  I finally gave up putting anything remotely related to the word story in the search engine because it only returned 50 thousand variations on searches for sex stories.)

But the cool thing about it is that you really can start to get a sense of what kind of information people are looking for.  They seem to be desperate for info on writing feature stories, for instance.  And there is great clamoring for advice on writing outlines for plot.

So, you'll be seeing more basic articles on this blog in the near future, as I attempt to stake out my corner of the writing world. 

I promise, though, I will not write an article about a novel writing priest.  Unless someone wants to introduce me to one.  The phrase has an awfully high KEI.