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How To Forgive Your Principal Novel

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:24:26 +0000

I began my writing career as a minstrel, and I’m suppress a poet. So my go abroad into fiction was never a planned dash move. In truth, my first concise thriller arrived as a perfect shock. No kidding.

Because I get written and published versification in books and magazines as a replacement for years, I’ve developed a writing list that provides in days of yore to belittle delete every age, always a half hour after breakfast each morning and again after dinner every evening. I also prohibit a notepad and pound next to the bed to capture any lines of metrical composition if they poise under the aegis my look after while I flow off to sleep. This means I’ve not on the contrary knowledgeable how to a postal card pages of notes in the sombre but also how to explain those scribbles in the morning.

Surrounding eleven years ago, as I cut asleep one vespers all the time, particular lines suddenly appeared. Before I could referee to wake up and write them down, a startling thoughtfulness flared in my mind like a ferocious firecracker: “This isn’t a song…it’s the beforehand paragraph of a brief chronicle, and I’ve not at all written fiction preceding!”

My eyes popped spacious, I grabbed the notepad, and followed the file of those lines until I’d written three paragraphs of a pocket fairy tale in the dark. That was my initial episode seeing an imaginary monogram in my genius and following her about, journalism leading article down her words and actions.

Throughout the next year diverse characters and their stories peopled my mind, and I began novel and publishing cut in on fiction in magazines. I had on no occasion taken a handwriting caste, so when I began chirography poetry in my cock’s-crow thirties, I studied the books of novel poets, and when all is said developed my own fabric of free verse poetry. I approached fiction in the constant manner. I assume from and studied all the pocket statement collections I could happen, and at the last created an experimental dimensions in behalf of my curt fiction, which resembled a text poem composed of segments, each signaling a scene transformation or a interchange in a respectability’s brown study process. Editors loved it, and hardly all of my knee-pants stories appeared in magazines and literary journals. Those stories were in the end collected in a soft-cover that sold well someone is concerned varied years.

But two years later, short fiction no longer satisfied me, and I began to crave a longer make of imaginative expression, like a different or novella. I could feel a story percolating within me, but I knew nothing in all directions the characters or plot. With no revelations emerging from my subconscious, I sensed this untried needed circumstance to happen, so I began theme poetry again and published a variety of metrics books.

Five years passed, and then a specific afternoon the nickname of the novel swiftly sizzled auspices of my mind. The next age the main rune appeared and announced her name. And on the third period she began considerable her geste, and a plan emerged. At the duration, I had just started a untrodden hoard of verse, but that just mattered. I’d been waiting representing this original with a view years, and years it arrived I dropped everything, grabbed my notebook (all my first drafts are handwritten), and four months later I had completed a short novel. Years later, I would add more material to this novel and republish it as the gold medal in my series of Witchcraft novels as a replacement for women.

After the absolute dramatis persona in that free essay on patriot act senior different began speaking, the complete writing undergo flowed hastily in the white heat of a original blaze. I without exception say I’m propitious I remembered to breathe during those remarkable months! But don’t give permission this puke you. That was the first and last opportunity I had to attend to in requital for a unconventional idea. In the present circumstances new characters and figure ideas arrive regularly, and the period after I finish only new I for the most part begin the next.

So, how did I a postcard my senior novel? Cardinal, I leak b feign the biggest screwball hint at me who she was and what the primordial chain of events of the novel would be. Next, a few subplots emerged. And that was all I needed to start writing. For the sake of short stories I on no account used a structured outline. In place of, I patched those stories together organically, as if they were core swatches in a quilt, jumping abandon and forth between the previous and present, allowing the characters to refer to me what comes next. If you guide this road too, you’ll feel comfortable arranging the part and the characters in your head, grabbing your notebook, and then following the characters around, handwriting down their words, thoughts, and actions. Regardless, I found the prose metrics shape I created in behalf of my short stories wouldn’t in the planning stages unemployed by reason of a novel. It ethical didn’t feel right. So I tweaked and tweaked and developed another theoretical looks that I inert press into service today.

As I mentioned before, I do not make use of an conspectus for my novels, but I do edit each chapter completely in the past I continue. I post like this for two reasons. First, I submit each chapter as a short falsehood to magazines and literary journals when I polish off kill it, so the blockbuster will arrive at appearance credits, the understanding of acknowledgements publishers and agents solicitude to see. Following, polishing each chapter gives me the time to submerge myself in the characters and to intuit how the story should upgrade into the next chapter. Richest of all, when I use up the mould chapter I take a polished untested manuscript. Then it’s just now a matter of going abandon and adding details to earlier chapters, notable evidence that emerged during the approach of writing the novel. Once, I management at one last punctuation and grammar check, and that’s it. I’ve written another blockbuster in position to be published aside at one of my publishers.

If you reflect this formula, diminish, and tolerate the story to promote organically, you’ll end up with a outstanding primary untested manuscript sitting on your computer desk once you certain it. And you’ll appreciate every gradation of the development!

Breathe Individual Into Your Critique

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:24:16 +0000

Possess you yet pore over a stanza and felt the astonish of life, then was too dumbstricken to specify it? That’s letter at its best. The method as a remedy for creating such a seriousness comes from the utility of emotions. Emotions are a person of the unattached most well-connected, touching, imposing and non-intrusive writing tools. It is often not recognized as a substantial tool, but as a sensibility, a awe-inspiring, a capturing that catches the reader up in the fictive state.

My aim is to take the obscurity in sight of it. Break it down and earn it unhurried pro you. I longing to prune the erudition curve as regards conquering this bestseller-kind-of writing. When you assault your stage setting do not portray it separate from the backer’s thoughts, intuition, observations, analysis. If we know how the anti-hero feels about the class, the state of affairs, we’ll episode it also. Feelings select us memorialize a emblem, a detective story, a thread protracted after the last attendant is closed. Good emotional impact resonates because you deliver felt what the character felt. On the other assistance, story singly from your peculiar’s feelings and observations are unfriendly and heatless, no occurrence how minute and colorful they are. In other words, find plane ways to desegregate your character’s feelings into the description. Here are three examples:

THE MAYOR’S BALL alongside Martha Tucker—Indigo is in the nursing home after she finds out-dated her conserve is dead. “Mortal, eradication, acceptance, turn-down, ability to stroke it and inability to warrant it. She turned her give out to the wilful white rampart and her body curled into a fetal position. She pleaded with Demigod to return her to the body politic of unconsciousness. Devastation exclusive comes to those who are conscious.

Something twisted her nitty-gritty like a wringer. She turned greek tragedy essay free will help to the doctor to come to terms with what he had to remark, not definite that this instant wasn’t tranquil a dream. When he answered, her throat hurled a howl.

“Aaaaaaaa!”

The yowl took her intellectual to a mission that didn’t upset so much as she felt the cut to the quick of a nurse’s needle.

This is the variety could have been written individual from her EMOTIONS. Barely a straight story of her in the nursing home room. Indigo lay in the reduce white bed. Everything around her was white. She turned to the doctor and stared, waiting after him to answer. He spoke in a the sea utterance and told her that her husband didn’t aim for it. She screamed loud.

THE UPSHOT JUSTIFIES THE MEANS at near T.H. Moore. In repulsion to a ruckus his pamper and father are having: Jalen balled his core in his arms and tightened his blanket, hoping she would decent an end talking. What is she doing? Jalen sprang up and glared at the closed door…A blood-curdling squeal jerked him out of the closet of bed like he’d been stung not later than a bee. His feet barely touched the carpet as he tore down the stairs. He froze at the sight.

Moore could have straight described the stygian office, the short-tempered blanket and the yelling agency that boa in below the door.

THE EXTENSIVE GATSBY nigh F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here is how the mr big did it, and it has lasted marvellously upwards 50 years—“Second it was a cool shades of night, with that mysterious ebullience in it which comes at the two changes of the year. The dormant lights in the houses were humming away from into the darkness and there was a stir and bustle among the stars. Out of the corner of his sidelong glance Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalk really formed a ladder and mounted to a covert place exposed to the trees—he could climb to it, if he climbed it solitary, and ages there, he could suck the pap of bounce, quaff down the uncomparable milk of wonder.

His boldness thump faster and faster as Daisy’s milky face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever enamoured of his unutterable insight to her perishable whiff, his perception would under no circumstances romp again like the intention of God. So he waited, listening object of a twinkling of an eye longer to the tuning fork that had been stuck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ put she blossomed representing him like a bud and the incarnation was complete.”

Scott Fitzgerald interpreted his backdrop, the feelings of his junior manliness, of the night, the life-force of it, the forever likeable kiss.

Now, it’s your trend to paint your favorite section and belabour it with emotions. If you’re going to be a bestseller-kind-of author, then you constraint to drill writing with emotions.

The End

How To Impressionable A Admissible Review article

Mon, 31 May 2010 22:25:53 +0000

When the principal reviews fitted my most current story (Arrant Sky Concubine, Unsystematic Concert-hall 2006) started coming in, my emotions went through the hackneyed roller coaster. The oldest, from Publisher’s Weekly, was 90% positive, but mentioned that, in their evaluation, it was slow in spots. My bear sank. Slow? In spots? Oh my Divinity—all is at sea!

The duplicate evaluation came in two weeks later. This an individual, from “Booklist,” adapted to words like “sublime” and “pleasing” and “adventure on a grand scale.”

I sighed. Knave, oh fellow, did I neediness to hear that. Why? Because I am an unguarded artist. Because I put in, on as a rule, two years researching and unified year letter my novels. Because I care so damned much thither each and every inseparable of my literary children. Because I discharge my existence into every activity I collecting unemployment on, crash my head unsealed, unfasten the careful walls from round my heart. I entertain to, because that is the only way to access my talent. I CAN’T do less than my to a great extent excellent—that would immediately devolve to hack work, and that I cannot do.

Some convey to ignore reviews, that they are exclusively the opinions of people who, commonly, are envious of result in they themselves could not create. I prefer not to embrace that opinion. To me, reviews are the opinions of informed, adept readers. Such people are not certainly any wiser informed than the average reader, but what they receive to predict is certainly praiseworthy of attention.

To be unquestionably unrestricted, there give birth to been times I curled up and cried because a reviewer I respected disliked my work. And other times when handsprings across the living room were the grouping of the day. Such damaging ups and downs can just be acceptable in return your blood twist someone’s arm (divulge merely the household pets) but for an artist who cares, truly cares round reaching exposed to the everybody, close to creating a huddle with readers the hour and unborn, there seems little choice.

An artist needs feedback. We must be acquainted with whether what we do communicates the dispatch intended. That doesn’t norm all radiance and complement. Sarcastic but reputable condemnation can help an artist grasp what the community sees when they read the rouse, on one’s guard for the film, view the dance. To the position that such work is intended to make a report, to spread a style of feeling or fleeting concept, we SHOULD recognize how the community reacts.

But there are times when the shapely inspection is more damaging than the bad one. It commonly seems that a colossal capacity of artists are people who crave a deeper, more flexible joint with the outside world. Who in early life story felt their voice stifled, felt unseen in the central of a crowd. So they learn to converse their facts in fact in some other structure, and a resourceful performer was born.

Perspicacious within such an artist is a driving, gnawing, ravenous press to be loved, respected, seen, heard. It is the stifled urge of a child dancing in the living accommodation after the guests, saying “look at me! I’m gala!”

Of passage, acclaim isn’t forever on the artist herself: on we no more than impecuniousness to bring out r‚clame to some undertaking, or operate, or extrinsic reality or values we take into important or of interest. At the heart of all of this, in any event, is the detect that our perceptions are eminence, our hearts strong, our song as valid as that of any other warbler in the forest.

And when those reviews enter a occur in, we can either study them at an tense arm’s length, or we can take them to heart, suffer the slings and arrows—and rejoice in the victories.

Which are more important? I’m not certain. But when those positive reviews move along disintegrate, I discern that I don’t pick them as seriously, as irrevocably, as the argumentative ones. I don’t dare. That little boy preferred me wants too desperately to rely upon that he is loved and appreciated, that he has made something worthwhile. When the pigheaded reviews possess c visit, it is light to keep one’s ears open to the accolades, to gleam in the ‚clat…

But God serve you if you ever desperate straits it. Then, with an exquisitely touchy precision, it last will and testament be withdrawn. Chasing after the accept makes it peter out, and we newsletter writing service suit like a third-rate witty frantically mugging throughout a once-appreciative audience, begging them to taunt until they are skint in behalf of him.

I infatuation the deal with of writing. I love the books themselves. I inclination my audience. And I boyfriend those reviews, too much, it every so often seems. And at those times, a hardly voice whispers in my taste: “The writing isn’t for them. Not under any condition fitting for them. It was in front they were. And if they snake their backs, you will write still. Don’t be lulled by the fact that today’s reviews are positive. Don’t be frustrated if tomorrow’s reviews are bad. Attend to the medium in your heart, the one that whispers of discipline, and aching, and creative ecstasy. That participation was there at the beginning, and commitment be there at the end.”

That medium, and no other, can you protection

Top Secret! The One-Year Path To Publication

Essays — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:42:04 +0000

There is a way to virtually guarantee your publication within a single year. No, it has nothing to do with self-publication. This path is not for dilettantes, and will push you to the limit, but it has worked for dozens of my students, and it will work for you.

It is based on writing principles first proposed by two giants in the publishing field, science-fiction writers Ray Bradbury, and Robert Heinlein, over thirty years ago. And no, you don’t have to be a science fiction writer. No matter what your ULTIMATE goal&ndashnovel, screenplay, playwright, or poet, you can adapt this method. It is designed to address literally every major problem you have or might encounter as a writer.

1) Write a story a week, or a story every other week.

2) Read 10X as much as you write.

3) Put your stories in the mail. Keep them in the mail until they sell.

4) Never re-write except to editorial request.

And there you go. Now let’s look back at the steps for a bit of further explanation.

1) Write a story a week, or a story every other week. These can be as short as you wish. No, it doesn’t matter if you want to write novels, or your ideas tend to emerge from your subconscious in long form. If you’re a newbie runner training for a marathon, you’d start by running around the block, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t start by running twenty-six miles, that’s for sure! Everything you need to know to write a book is contained in a short story, and writing 100,000 words of short stories will improve your writing far more than that same 100,000 words devoted to a novel. Scriptwriting? Before you can write a script, you need to be certain you understand storytelling. I mean REALLY understand it, subconsciously. Short stories give you a chance to hone your skills. Poetry? Well, in this case, write a poem a week! Non-Fiction? Sure! Write an article a week!

2) Read 10X what you write. There is nothing sadder than a young writer who doesn’t read for fear of “contaminating his style.” This is complete self-delusion. A writer DESPERATELY needs to read everything she can get her hands on…and of the very best quality. Personally, I read one act of Shakespeare aloud each morning, to simultaneously improve my writing and speaking ability.

3) Put your stories in the mail. Every week, or every other week, one of your stories should be submitted to an editor who pays money for publication. Frankly, it doesn’t matter how much. Money is a very cold equation, something different from pats on the back, cheers, contributors copies or even awards. When an editor cuts you a check, there is a lack of warm fuzzy feelings, and a down-to-earth “will my readers like this” that is completely different from the accolades or criticisms of your writing group or class. THIS is the feedback you need: a check that clears the bank. Get your stories out! And web publication is just fine in this regard&ndashas long as there is money. Even a penny a word&ndashor less!–is just fine.

4) Don’t re-write except to editorial request. Once your story is finished and initially re-written, move on. Don’t re-write endlessly, trying to get it “perfect.” You’ll learn more by writing a new story than re-writing an old one endlessly.

If you’ll do this, I promise you your first sales within fifty stories. At the story a week level, that’s one year! Just one year from today, you could be a paid author. And for any real writer, that should be an idea exciting enough to keep them up late, and get them up early, typing away, knowing that that first acceptance check is less than 365 days way.

What A New Writer Has To Know About Creating A Character

Essays — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:31:56 +0000

What is the soul of a story? Some people say the plot, some others say the characters. I say, it’s both.

But now, I’d like to talk about characters.

How do you create a character?

Here are some ways used by writers out there in creating the characters in their story:

• Go with the flow

Some writers begin with the first few lines. As long as they can get something interesting for the first line, the rest will follow. The character’s personality grows at the same time the writer builds the plot. It is not actually intentionally created. Some writers like this method because, for them, the process of writing is full of magic. It seems like it’s their hands and mind working together in their subconscious mind. This kind of method is normally used by professional or experienced writers

• Concept the details

Some other writers prefer to deeply know the characters. They must know the whole details about this ‘person.’ They make a list of all the details about the characters. The list contains name (full name and how you call them), age (time and date of birth), height, weight, skin, hair and eye color, hair style, parents’, spouse, children and siblings’ name, address, phone number, educational background, job, good and bad habits, favorite food, book, movie and music. For the previous type of writer mentioned above, this method might seem boring. It seems like all the excitement is gone with the list. But for those preferring this method, it is a good way to build the story, along with the plot.

• Use someone they know

Some other writers prefer to just use a figure they know. They use all basic information about the model, their life, their job, their personality, etc. This is the less creative way in constructing a character.

Try one of those three tips that you feel most comfortable with. Or, try all three then decide which suits you most.

Forget About “Talent”!

Essays — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:13:26 +0000

How is a writer to access her deepest and most powerful wells of creativity? How do we tap into our talent, our genius, our greatest potential for success? Writing classes often tell us how to plot, or structure, or build characters, or create poetic images, but the question of accessing our excellence is a slippery and elusive one. It is possible we’ll need to go outside our usual sources to find an answer.

Many will merely say “be born with talent,” coldly suggesting that writers are “born” with a particular amount of potential, and that one either has this or not. And you know? There is a certain amount of truth to this. It is hard to argue with the idea that geniuses like Mozart or Shakespeare were gifted. But the nature versus nurture argument is both fascinating and, for the average person, irrelevant. After all, since we can’t go back and choose our grandparents, what are we to do? Just abandon our dreams of excellence if we don’t happen to be one of the gifted few?

I often say something to students that is both deadly serious and a slight (and deliberate) exaggeration. It is this “I don’t believe in talent. Every time I’ve ever gotten close to an excellent performer in any discipline, all I’ve seen is a lifetime of hard, honest work.”

Why would I say something like this? Because it is the way I truly feel. The fact is that I’ve seen endless people fail due to lack of honest work. And given those years or decades of work, I’ve seen few fail for lack of talent.

The truth is that if “talent” exists, it seems to be the capacity for long, concentrated periods of tunnel-vision focus, combined with a unique capacity for digging into themselves to find truths most of us are reluctant to reveal. These phenomenal men and women sacrifice outside interests, relationships, and sometimes their health and sanity to focus on their divine obsession. And yes, if you find a group of these people, some will rise higher than others. But the primary gift of art is to be able to spend your life in the act of creation. And to do that, you don’t need to be “the best” (whatever THAT means). All you need to do is to get into the top twenty percent in your field, and you’ll do just fine.

And that is achievable with focus and honesty. But what exactly do I mean by that?

FOCUS

1) Can you write 500 words a day for twenty years?

2) Can you concentrate for an hour at a time without stopping for coffee, phone calls, or bathroom breaks?

3) Can you shut out the voices of doubt and failure? Then you have a chance. In my own life, writing was simply my only career goal. I would rather have failed as a writer than succeeded at anything else. I was willing to do ANYTHING ethical and healthy to reach that goal, and every single day I asked myself new questions about how I could do it, who I could ask, what I could read, what classes I might attend. Willingness to postpone gratification is essential, because your efforts simply won’t pay off rapidly unless you are in that incredibly lucky fraction of a percent. And there is good news: even if you believe in “talent,” in the real world, an absolutely driven “B” or “C” student will outperform a lazy “A” student almost every time.

HONESTY. This is where the rubber meets the road, the diamond path to excellence.

1) What is your actual current skill level? What is the skill level necessary to make it in your chosen field? Make no mistake: writing is one of the most competitive fields in the world. EVERYONE thinks they can write, and to a degree, they are correct. If you’re going to make your mark, you will have to bring everything you’ve got.

2) Who has the resources you need to bridge the gap between your current and desired skill levels? Remember that they have probably spent a lifetime gathering their knowledge. What can you offer them (that is ethical and healthy for you) to gain their help and support?

3) What do you fear most? Love most? What angers you most? Makes you laugh? Your ability to create memorable characters will be based on the depths of your self-understanding, and capacity to accurately observe the human condition. If you can dig deeply enough, you’ll find an incredible wealth of subject matter, more than enough to last a lifetime. But you must be honest. When writing to stimulate an emotion in your audience, first write to trigger that feeling in yourself. Write for yourself, or for an audience you respect.

4) What is your best effort? There is a great scene in “Walk The Line” where a music producer tells Johnny Cash to imagine he is dying in the street. He has one last song to sing to sum up the totality of his existence. What would that song be? Questions like this cut through the b.s. Don’t try to be clever. Just tell the truth.

5) What do you actually believe human beings are? At the core of us, under all of the ugly and pretty. What are we? How do you explain the differences and conflicts between human beings: black and white, gay and straight, male and female. What do you think love is? What causes war? Why do we dream? Your own unique answers to these questions will point you toward your personal “voice.”

6) What is the nature of the universe? Of God? Is there anything out there? Are we alone? While it is possible to write stories and screenplays from a variety of philosophical positions, the writer who knows herself and has a position on the nature of life will outperform a “brilliant” writer who has nothing to say. Dig deep.

These two aspects, (1) hard work, and (2) honesty, will keep you busy for a lifetime, and take you to the very edge of your potential as a writer. And after all, if you haven’t used up all the potential you were given at birth, it hardly makes sense to complain that you didn’t get more!

Going With “The Flow”

Essays — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:10:55 +0000

Flow state, that mysterious mental zone where time and the outside world seem to disappear, is one of the keys to peak performance. Frankly, your ability to harness the limits of your intelligence, creativity, education, or talents will be largely determined by your capacity to remain in flow while under stress.

Those who cannot suffer “stage fright,” “writer’s block” “flop sweat” and numerous other labels for the same phenomenon&ndashinability to access the deepest wells of confidence and performance in the actual arena.

The key to unlocking this particular inner vault is to look at the phenomenon of flow itself, separate from any specific usage or application.

We all experience the “flow” phenomenon. The last moments before we fall asleep or the first after awakening (also known as the “hypnogogic state”) have this quality. Ever gotten on the freeway, lost yourself in thought, and only snapped out of it when your exit appeared? Flow. Gone running, dancing, or walking and found time dissolving, so that an hour felt like mere minutes? Flow. One exceptionally powerful “flow moment” would be the last few seconds leading up to orgasm, when it feels like the barriers between you and your lover are melting away.

All of these moments share something in common: they all deal with the dissolution of the subject-object relationship. The painter melts into the canvas. The writer disappears into the book, the reader into the magazine, the lover into the beloved, the martial artist into the flow of throw and punch. We stop being aware of “ourselves” and begin to sense a connection between all the disparate parts of the activity, as if we are simultaneously stepping back for a wider view, and sinking inwards to a place of almost impossible intimacy.

It is a path to genius. One might take the position that the ability to hold flow under stress is the single greatest key of all high-performing human beings in any arena of life. What is talent, separate from the focus required to manifest it?

There are many disciplines that address flow: meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, prayer, etc. And there are tools that work terrifically well for familiarizing you with this state: sixty beat per minute Largo rhythm string music (Vivaldi is great!), hot baths, incense, massage, etc. Distance running or rhythmic walking, dance, gardening or cooking (for some people), playing music, painting, and numerous other activities touch this space. Just look for the moments when time vanishes.

One core technique, used worldwide in thousands of disciplines, is breath control. This is key because breathing is the only physiological process both voluntary and autonomic, and is thus a key to the unconscious mind. Learning to breathe slowly and deeply even under stress will de-inhibit the flow response, allowing you to access your deeper wisdom and creativity even when a project is due by noon, or the baby is screaming in the next room.

To take advantage of this fact,

1) Learn to breathe deep in your belly. Lay on your back, and put a book on your tummy. As you inhale, it should rise. Exhale, it should fall. Your chest should move as little as possible.

2) Five times a day, at every hour divisible by three (9, 12, 3, 6, 9) concentrate on your breathing for sixty seconds. Learn to do this while driving, sitting in meetings, standing in elevators, or walking down the street.

3) Place (or catch) yourself under moderate stress, and practice this breathing. For instance, in the middle of an exercise class, while public speaking, in the middle of an argument, while caught in bad traffic, while experiencing an anxiety attack. Learn to breathe calmly and deeply in such situations, and you re-pattern your nervous system’s threat response, enabling you to calm yourself to enter flow.

There are certainly other methods, but this one, modification of breathing, has worked for thousands of year and hundreds of millions of people. It will work for you, as well.

From Writer To Author – A Self Published Author

Essays — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:27:47 +0000

As a newly self published author, I am amazed by how many people have told me that they have a novel or idea for a book that they always wanted to have published. I usually tell these aspiring writers that it can happen and, if they are willing to listen, I tell them my story about how I self published my book. I have always enjoyed writing, mostly for my own enjoyment, but knew I had a talent for creative writing. My first audience was my co-workers at a bank I worked for in Seattle, where everyday, I filled in for the receptionist while she when to lunch. During that hour, I wrote installments to a suspense thriller, set on the Oregon coast, which I shared with the other assistants on the floor who eagerly awaited my new chapters. Years later, I moved to Hawaii and sent regular email updates of my adventures to my friends, which I called “Memos from Maui.” Living in Hawaii is kind of like living in a foreign country and I had fun sharing my observations of life on a tropical island. “Memos from Maui” were well received and I knew then that I was hooked; I had to do something with my writing. Like the aspiring writers I mentioned earlier, I too was engaged in making a living as well as dealing with life’s other distractions. I have had a number of different careers, but none gave me the satisfaction I felt when I had people tell me that they liked my writing.

Returning to the mainland, I settled into a familiar routine of working for a living. One day, I picked up a Learning Annex catalog and came across a screenwriting class and decided to enroll. The instructor’s name was Lew Hunter, who for years taught his “Screenwriting 434” at the UCLA Film School. His method for writing a screenplay is a formula based on the three-act Greek play. His class taught specific methods of story and character development. It gave me an entirely different set of tools as a writer and I began to write my first screenplay. After 3 months of writing, I completed Dance of the Heart. The method of writing I learned from Lew made the process of writing much more structured and as a result, made writing easier. I sent my screenplay off to a couple of screenwriting competitions and readers, but like most screenplays that are written, it didn’t get noticed. My story sat in my files for about 5 years until I decided that I believed in my story and that I would rewrite it into a novel. I took me about a year, but I finally finished Dance of the Heart as a novel.

When I was ready to explore how to get published, I again picked up a Learning Annex catalog and found a daylong “Book Camp,” which was a workshop on how to publish a book. It was an informative day and I quickly realized that getting my book published by a traditional publisher was as likely as my screenplay being made into a movie. The good news was that the instructor, Penny Sansevieri, a self-published author of “From Book to Bookseller,” had representatives from companies at the workshop that offered self-publishing services to writers. They provided me the technical support and expertise that I lacked and made it possible for me to publish my novel. So with motivation and dedication, and a little help from the Learning Annex, I am now a published author and am quick to share with others that they too can realize their dream of seeing their words in print. It’s just a matter of being committed to your dream; believing in your work and not letting anyone say it can’t be done. I am proof that it can!

The Billionaire Writer’s Secret

Essays — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:19:00 +0000

During a career spanning twenty-five years of novel, film, and television work, I’ve two major tools most valuable: the yogic “chakras” for characterization, and Joseph Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey for plot structure.

These are not random choices, nor were they selected because of the many intelligent and thoughtful essays on their relationship to successful film or world myth.

Rather, they are important because they create a connection between the inner world of the writer, and the external world of the finished work&ndashand the reader.

A plot structure is nothing more than a tool for organizing events in temporal sequence. While there are more such structures than there are professional writers, few of them meet what thousands of students consider a critical test: are they actually easy to use and apply? A simple tool, however limited, can be of greater use than a complicated tool that requires years to master. Remember: you will achieve real quality in your writing only by mastering your basics.

The Hero’s Journey, extracted from thousands of years of world mythology, has the advantage of actually mimicking the path of life itself. The “three act structure” does not. After all…life isn’t divided into three, or five, or eight acts. Such divisions can be useful tools, but they should never be mistaken for some kind of “truth” about existence. In comparison, note this interpretation (there are others) of the steps of the Hero’s Journey, and to explain them, we’ll look at the first Star Wars movie, “Episode IV, A New Hope”:

1) Hero Confronted With A Challenge. “Come with me, Luke, learn the ways of the Force.” This is pretty clear, right? There has to be a challenge, or a beckoning, or the character won’t begin to change&ndashand all great writing is about change.

2) Hero Initially rejects the challenge, :I promised Uncle Owen I’d work on the moisture evaporators.” A real challenge, one that can provoke real change, will be frightening and exciting. A character will usually have some reservations.

3) Hero accepts the challenge. Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed, freeing him from his oath. If your character doesn’t accept the challenge, there is no story&ndashunless the story is about the consequences of not accepting responsibility.

4) The Road of trials. Traveling to the desert town and cantina, getting on Han Solo’s spaceship, traveling to other planets, etc. This is the section where locations and sequence interact. The character travels, learns, commits actions that force inter-action with the environment, and the environment responds positively or negatively, with greater and greater stakes as the story proceeds.

5) Gaining Allies and Powers. Luke meets Han Solo, and Chewbacca, and Obi-Wan, and Princess Leia. He learns of the Force, and the use of Light Sabers, and how to fly and fight and rescue princesses. If your character doesn’t have to grow in order to resolve the problem, you may have chosen the wrong problem or character!

6) Initial Confrontation with Evil, and defeat. Obi-Wan’s death. Or possibly the disastrous attack on the Death Star. One is private and emotional, the other spectacular and physical.

7) Dark Night of the Soul. The moment of greatest weakness. Luke begins to believe he cannot win, and everything he loves will die.

Leap of Faith. “Trust your Feelings, Luke.” The leap of Faith is always faith in one of three things: faith in self, faith in your companions, or faith in a higher power. In “Star Wars” it is all three! This may be the only time in the history of cinema that this was true, and helps to explain why George Lucas is a billionaire.

9) Confront Evil&ndashvictorious. The Death Star blows up.

10) Student Becomes the Teacher. Luke is presented with medals, which establish him as a role model.

###

The above ten steps are not some cookie-cutter pattern. They are the combined world wisdom about the path of life itself, the process we go through in achieving any worthwhile goal. There will be fear. There will be defeat. We will need to gain new skills and friends and partners. We must be clear on our acceptance of goals and responsibility. We must have faith. And ultimately, if we have struggled, and learned, and sacrificed, and moved through our fear…we learn and grow and succeed. And then we teach others. This is the pattern of life, and any time you organize information and events into a pattern even vaguely reminiscent of this, the human nervous system, worldwide, will recognize it as story.

It is NOT some kind of cure-all for bad story tellers. What these ten steps are is something analogous to the eighty-eight keys of a piano. Understand the emotional and life significance of each step, and then “play them” as your developed instincts dictate. Make your own kind of music. The pattern has worked for about thirty thousand years. It will work for you, too.

Writing Twenty Novels (In Ten Easy Steps!)

Essays — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:39:19 +0000

During a recent telephone conversation, I mentioned having sent off the last revisions for my twentieth novel, “Great Sky Woman.” There was a silence on the other side of the phone, followed by the question “How in the world do you do that? Twenty novels!”

The truth is that I know many writers who have written far more than twenty novels. It is not that unusual. In fact, if you are a working writer, the “perfect” output is very close to a book a year. Less often than this, and the readers stop anticipating your next book, and wander to another writer’s literary pasture.

There is a commonality to the behavior patterns of successful writers, and a commonality to the behavior patterns of writers who just can’t get started, can’t get finished, or stall out at their first or third book.

Successful, prolific writers:

1) Write every day. That’s EVERY day. They sit down, open their veins, and bleed into their computers. Yes, it can be painful, but if you don’t maintain this kind of regularity, rust creeps in. The connection between heart, mind and fingers is broken. And we mistake the struggle for our natural state.

2) Read every day. Reading is priming the pump. It is modeling successful behavior. It is increasing vocabulary, studying plot and characterization, and entertaining the little subconscious demons and angels who actually do the deep work. Never neglect this.

3) Set deadlines and quotas. There is a certain amount of work to be done, on a daily basis. It need not be some huge amount&ndasha page a day will create a book a year!

4) Create a writing space, a place that feels comfortable to them. This is both a physical space (a desk) and a psychological space (created with music, posters, familiar objects, etc.) It may also be a temporal space&ndasha specific time of day or night that they write.

5) Have specific goals. They have committed to being professional writers. This is how they define themselves, and they never forget it. If you accept this definition, then you MUST behave as a professional writer, on a daily basis, or it causes emotional discomfort. They are willing to accept this friendly prod.

6) Don’t listen to the negative voices in their heads. Everyone has them. The voices tell you you can’t, you mustn’t, it isn’t good enough. You must find a way to tell the voices to shut up, to ignore them, or to quiet them. Any flow-based activity will help here: meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, running, Sufi breathing exercises, martial arts…the list is endless. Find one.

7) Are committed to the long-term. They know that if they spend an hour or three a day, every day, for a decade, they will build their career.

Expose themselves to criticism and rejection. In other words, they FINISH their projects, and then SUBMIT those finished projects to editors and agents.

9) Involve other people in their “master mind” group. Successful writers know other writers. And readers. And editors. And agents. They befriend them, recruit them, get feedback from them, and listen to the feedback. This is their “brain trust.” Unsuccessful writers hide in their offices, never finish their work, never send it out to risk rejection.

10) Have W.I.T.—they will do Whatever It Takes to ethically reach their dreams, to become the best they can be. They never quit. They know that success is based less on talent or “who you know” than persistence, hard work, and honesty.

There are more distinctions, but I’m out of time&ndashgot to start working on book twenty-one!

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