Time to Write

A tail, er, tale of perseverance and success

How big a role does perseverence play in the success of artists and writers? In a newsletter from ArtYouGrewUpWith.com, I found this example, a cartoonist named Rupert Fawcett who has done very well with his cartoons about parenthood as well as his more recent "Off the Leash," about people and the dogs who own them. This is what he revealed about how he got started:

I became a professional cartoonist almost by accident when in 1989 whilstdoodling I drew a little bald man in braces and carpet slippers and named him Fred.

After receiving over 80 rejection letters I was finally offered a place in Midweek, a free magazine given away at London tube stations. This was soon followed by my first book deal and a contract for Fredgreeting cards. These proved very popular and within a short period of time were to be seen all overthe place. A range of Fred merchandise followed with a steady succession of books. The cartoons also appeared in the Mail On Sunday for four years.

When my children were small I created a new character, Daddy, which was based on my own experiences of parenthood. Three Daddy books, a greeting card range and merchandise followed.

My most recent creation is Off The Leash, which is a series of cartoon strips about dogs! It's now got a global audience thanks to the likes of Facebook and a beautifiul book release later this year.

The bit that caught my attention was the 80 rejection letters and then the placement of his strip in a giveaway magazine.

How many of us would have given up after 60 rejection letters, or 40, or 20, or even ten?

How many might have scoffed at having their work displayed in a give-away magazine rather than a "real" one?

I don't know, I only know of those who would have done that, none would have gone on to have his success. 

Below is one of Fawcett's cartoons. ArtYouGrewUpWith.com is selling limited edition prints of some of his work: 

(One key to success is using your time effectively. For some friendly guidance and right-brain methods, see my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller now.)

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3 act structure in real life : Act I

3 act structure in real life : Act 2

3 act structure in real life : Act 2

The three-act structure of films and stories applies to real life, too. Yesterday's cartoon was a glimpse of one man's Act I, today it's Act II, which often features a reversal of some kind in the middle.

(Want friendly guidance for writing your book? Get "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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How to write in your sleep

Are you a Tough Writer?

I was reading that obstacle races are big money makers these days. The most famous one is Tough Mudder, which is from ten to twelve miles long and involves getting zapped with electricity, going through an ice bath, and lots of ways of interacting with mud.

That’s all well and good, but I think we should start the Tough Writer (or maybe Tough Wridder) race. The events will include:

• Somehow getting past a wall of agents and publishers who stand with their backs to you, arms linked, pretending you’re not there;
• Going down a long chute into a vat of rejection letters;
• Climbing a steep cliff face called The First Page;
• Being sucked down into the infamous quicksand Slush Pile;
• Having a group of “friends” and “relatives” pulling on ropes to keep you away from the computer;
• Navigating the Inner Critic Dungeon where you hit yourself repeatedly on the head with a rubber mallet;
• Fighting your way through a crowd of people who are chanting, “Have you written anything I’ve heard of?”

Now that’s what I call tough!

3 act structure in real life : Act I

Screenwriters and others probably are familiar with "3 act structure" - the way many stories are organized (the story kicks in with an inciting incident in act 1, escalates with lots of conflicts in act 2 (often with a reversal of some kind in the middle) and resolves in act 3. Really it's another way of saying beginning, middle, and end. We can look at our lives in the same way, which is what led to this little series of cartoons. Today: Act I.

(for guidance on writing your book, get a copy of "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Creative people: when you can't beat the forces of convention...

This is the story of a kind of unconventional collaboration. It also illustrates the principle, "when you can't beat them, join them"...sort of.

Street artist Mobstr is used to having his graffiti painted over. He decided to tell a story one line at a time, with the next one appearing when the previous one had been painted over.

You can see the results here: 

http://designtaxi.com/news/355932/Street-Artist-Teams-Up-With-The-People-Who-Destroy-His-Work-To-Tell-A-Story/

Who or what do you consider the opposition to whatever creative projects you hope to achieve? 

Could there be a way to harness that opposition to make it work for yiou?

Can you tell a story in six seconds?

Have you read about (or experienced) the success of Vine? It’s a free  iPhone/ iTouch/ iPad app that’s like Twitter for video. You have only six seconds of screen time to tell a story and there’s no going back to edit.

The trick for many of the Vines on the site is not to record six seconds consecutively but take, for instance, six shots lasting one second each (or even less time each, for stop-motion animation).

Your video goes onto the Vines site immediately and you can share it via Twitter or Facebook, or embed it on the web. The six-second clips loop (repeat). You can follow people to see their Vines, and people can follow you.

So, what do people do with their six seconds? Here are a few examples:

A man looks uncomfortable, starts to choke and then ejects an entire orange from his mouth… (119,214 “likes”)

A dog dressed up in a robe and with (apparently) human hands feeds itself little treats…(113,110)

A hand draws an egg that then careens around the page and then turns into a real egg. (11,363)

One of the few that has a story as such shows a baby playing around with a mobile phone. It presses one of the buttons and we cut to a car blowing up (shot of a TV screen playing a scene from The Godfather, I think).

Is Vine another demonstration of our shortening attention span? (You’re still reading this, aren’t you?...Hello?) Or just a bit of fun? Or both? I don’t know, but if you want to challenge yourself to tell a story in six seconds, check it out. It's harder than it looks.

(If you need some guidance for telling a story longer then six seconds--perhaps in a book--get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Are online ads driving you crazy? Try this before Gooface gets involved.

Writers spend a lot of time sitting down which, according to several recent studies, is not good for you. That's why the other day I went online to see where I could buy a laptop stand that I could put on top of my desk so that I can spend a bit of time every day writing standing up. That's when the trouble started.

It's the internet. It thinks I'm still in the market for a laptop stand, and it won't stop hectoring me to buy.

I was looking at an article on the Psychology Today site. Off to the right side of the page there appeared a looping slide show of laptop stands. Every two seconds or so the picture changed, making it hard to concentrate on what I was trying to read.

I moved the page to the right so that the slide show was off my screen...that's when I noticed there was a banner at the top also displaying laptop stands. The images were not moving but below each one was a "buy" button. Flashing on and off. 

I felt like I was being hounded by digital Mad Men who wouldn't leave me alone until I bought at least one more laptop stand, maybe more. 

I admit that the Kafkaesque quality may have been enhanced because I have insomnia and am writing this at 5am, after waking up at 3am...but even in less stressful circumstances having what you're trying to read surrounded by dancing ads is annoying.

I use Chrome as my main search engine and I've just installed Adblock Plus. It's free and it removes ads from most sites.

The parade of laptop stands has ended. Nothing is flashing at me to buy. Sweet relief!

I believe similar plug-ins are available for the other popular search engines. If you're being dogged by over-active ads, I recommend these highly.

I know it's a stop-gap measure. Targeting us based on our internet activity is big business. Also, private companies soon are going to be able to launch their own drones. It's clear that in a few years each of us will be followed everywhere by a personal drone that exhorts you to buy stuff based on the searches you've done and the web sites you've visited. This means quite a few people will have drones following them, shouting, "Buy porn! Buy porn!"

Gooface (Google and Facebook will have merged by then) will know who your favorite movie stars are, via on the tickets you order online, so the exhortations will sound like it's Leonardo di Caprio or Emma Watson telling you to download "The Housewife Hookers of New Jersey."

For the more reluctant buyers, drones made by Blackwater will be equipped with Taser-Lite technology that administers a mild shock (guaranteed not to be fatal, usually) until you buy the item in question.

I'd better get some sleep.

(image copyright Universal Studios)

A pointless--er--selfless fun creative activity

I mis-read the name of the site I’m going to tell you about, as Pointless Portraits. Actually it’s Selfless Portraits.

To be honest, it is kind of pointless but it’s also refreshing because it’s fun and nobody’s trying to (terrible word) monetize it.

The way it works is that you allow the site to access your Facebook photo. They send it to somebody else who has registered with the Selfless Portraits site. That person draws you, based on your Facebook photo. If you want to see the result, you have to draw a picture of someone whose Facebook photo is sent to you.

See what I mean? Random and pointless, but  amusing. You can look at a gallery of the results at the site without signing up. As you’ll see some people just load the photo into Photoshop and click on a filter. Others match the face with a photo of the animal the other person most resembles. The rest draw or paint the face, with varying results...

If you want to do a variation of this that is geared to writing, you need an accomplice. You send them the name and address of someone you know but they don’t, and they do the same. Then each of you sends a cryptic postcard to the person whose information you were given. It could be a favorite quote or a reference to a surreal event, or whatever you want (avoid the temptation to refer to a fictional assignation, we’re not trying to start divorces here).

Sure, that’s kind of pointless as well, but I think everybody should have at least five minutes of intentional pointlessness a day. 

If you're a poet, be afraid! (Well, not TOO afraid ...yet)

Should poets be worried? The New York Times has built a “haiku bot” that creates haikus from stories on the home page.  If your haiku knowledge is a bit rusty, it’s a non-rhyming poem of three lines, the first five syllables long, the second seven and the third five.

Each of the New York Times haikus has a link to the original story. I’d say most of them don’t work, but judge for yourself. Here are some examples:

 

“For reasons he is

not sure of, he also adds

scallions at the end.”

 

“It says, ‘We’re accused

of something and we’re doing

something about it.”

 

“His wife was his world

and his mother was his world

and his family.”

 

Which leads me to this one, written in the traditional way:

 

Poets quake in fear!

Whirring, clanking fill the air.

Bot poetry rules!

 

As you can see, poets don't have much to fear from me, either!

(If you want to write something other than poetry,such as a novel or a non-fiction book or a screenplay, you'll find friendly, supportive and practical guidance in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

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