The title quote is from the late Roger Ebert, who was one of America's foremost movie critics and who had more than his share of health issues the last decade of his life.
In an interview with Esquire magazine in 2010 he said, "When I am writing, my problems become invisible."
I think that's true for a lot of people, if we let it.
What breaks the spell is when we think too much about whether it's good enough, what others will think of it, whether it'll be published or produced, whether it's going exactly in the direction we intended.
If we trust the process it can be healing, at least for the time during which we are in its spell.
Donal Ryan had 30 rejections before a publisher accepted his first novel, The Spinning Heart, which has been longlisted for the Booker Prize.
How was it finally chosen? An intern at Lilliput Press in Dublin took it out of the slush pile, loved it, and recommended it to the publisher, Anthony Farrell.
MediaBistro.com reported Ryan's comments at the Dublin Book Festival site, and they reflect an unusual attitude toward form rejections, which most writers resent:
"I had around thirty rejections in the bag before Daniel Caffrey from the The Lilliput Press rang me one evening and everything changed. They were mostly what I think of as out of hand rejections, though, so weren’t quite as wounding as someone saying, look, we’ve read your book, it’s not good. Form rejections hurt a little bit less, I think. It’s less personal."
Naturally any rejection is unwelcome, but they're an inevitable part of the process and we need to come up with a strategy for coping with them. The moral of the story, of course, is that persistence pays.
(For guidance on writing your book, get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
As writers our treasure is imagination and one of the things that feeds it is memory. Unfortunately we forget (at least consciously) most of what happens to us.
A few
months ago I started using an iOS app called “Collect,” which has a calendar on which you save one photo per day. Looking back even over a relatively short time I’ve been surprised by how it brings back little memories that would otherwise be lost.
This came to mind when I read a blog post headlined “Why Productive People Take Better Notes” on the Fast Company web site. The writer, Drake Baer, pointed out that our memory can hold only so many things at once and when we’re reading or listening or just experiencing, most of what happens will not be remembered.
The act of taking notes--in whatever format you prefer--by itself makes it more likely the information will make a lasting impression, as well as giving you something to refer to later if you wish.
If school turned you off to note-taking, try some other methods like:
mind-mapping
drawing pictures along with key words
recording audio notes
taking photos or videos
You may find you also begin to make more connections between various ideas--another key aspect of creativity. Plus, of course, it can be fun to look back and relive some of the good times.
(Want to write? Get guidance from the greatest writers of all time. Their advice is collected in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
When i was a kid and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area I used to listen to a morning radio personality named Don Sherwood. He signed off his broadcasts with the saying, "Out of the mud grows a lotus."
I got the meaning even though it was much later that I discovered that it's a Zen saying.
Like a lot of kids I had a fair amount of mud in my life, and there wasn't yet much sign of any lotuses. The motto gave me a bit of hope.
So did Don Sherwood himself. Even though he was on the air from 6am to 9am, he hated mornings. He was often late and sometimes he didn't show up at all. He made fun of the commercials that indirectly paid his wage. He was sharp-tongued and funny and cynical. He had a smoker's cough and hangovers.
In short, he represented a spirit of rebellion I wasn't encountering much anywhere else in American culture. Listening to him in the mornings and watching the Steve Allen Show on TV at night when I should have been asleep suggested there might be more to life than the stifling Norman Rockwell world held up as the ideal. I was a boy with dark thoughts, but these things gave me some motive for hanging in there to see if that was true that it gets better. (It did.)
How does this relate to writing? Radio personalities and writers, among others, get to spread their message more than most. We'll never know what impact they may be having but if we're lucky there's somebody somewhere who reads our book or our blog and finds a spark of hope.
Don Sherwood passed away in 1983. I wonder whether he ever knew that he was kind of a lifeline for some of his listeners. I hope so.
And if anything we write can ever do that for somebody it makes it worth slogging through quite a bit of mud.
In my survey of writers' biggest challenges, this one came up:
"My greatest problem is deciding on the structure for
my project, because there are so many different approaches that can be adopted.
I don't want to waste time going down what may turn out to be a blind alley."
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but blind alleys are inevitable if you want to be a writer. I doubt that any writer, including the greats like Dickens and Twain and Austen, didn't venture down quite a few in their time. In fact if you read their autobiographies or biographies you'll find most of them had projects they abandoned because they realized they'd gone in the wrong direction or written themselves into a corner. Sometimes they figured out later--at times, years later--how to salvage or fix those stories, other times those tales remained unfinished.
This desire to have a guaranteed structure leads many writers--especially scriptwriters--to search for a formula or template that fits all stories. There isn't one. Yes, the hero's journey fits a lot of stories, but by no means all of them.
WHAT DO YOU WANT THE READERS TO FEEL?
So how do you find the right structure for your story? By delving deeply into the story yourself, figuring out which part of it you want to tell, and letting the characters lead you. That's not the same as not planning the story. I do suggest having at least a rough idea of where you're going before you start writing.
One important question is what's the emotional story you want to tell? What do you want your readers to feel?
Let's look at one story that you might choose to tell: a woman kidnapped when she was a teen-ager and held a prisoner by a man until, after ten years, she escaped.
Do you want the reader to feel what it's like to be wrenched from a happy life to one of terror and uncertainty?
Do you want them to feel what it's like to forget who you were and become the person your captor wants you to be?
Do you want them to feel what it's like to be a prisoner even though you've done nothing wrong?
Each of these would call for a different structure although they'd have elements in common.
For the first one you'd want to include quite a bit about the life of the girl before she was taken.
For the second one you'd focus on the time when she gives up fighting and comes to believe that she has to accept the new life forced on her.
For the last one you might focus on the minute details of her imprisonment.
There are still many ways each of these could be handled but each one has clues as to the structure it wants. That may sound like a funny way of putting it, but I do think that you have to make the story the boss and the structure the servant.
And when you find yourself having to choose between several ways to go, you won't go wrong if you revisit that question: what do you want your reader to feel?
There will still be times when you go down blind alleys, but this strategy may help you do so less often.
(Classic authors like Dickens, Twain and Austen, as well as modern writers like Vonnegut and Amis had advice for writers. I've compiled it and added guidance on how to apply it, in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
A while back I asked people what their biggest challenges were relating to writing. There were a number, but I'd say this one represents the issue that came up most often:
"The biggest problem or challenge I face that relates
to writing is my own laziness. I rarely get blocked or run out of ideas, but
writing is damn hard work for me at times, and during those times I find it
much easier to watch a film, read a book or just stare out the bloody window.
I've found that accountability, i.e., deadlines (imposed by others) and the
knowledge that others will soon be reading what I've written keeps me going.
But that has only worked for shorter pieces. Writing a novel is the hardest
work I've ever done because, assuming the unlikely chance of any financial
reward, the reward of at least having people read my work seems to be
perpetually somewhere over the horizon. It's hard to make such a tough slog
every single day, without knowing when, where or even if anything will come of
it."
The key to this issue is in the last sentence: how to keep going when we don't know whether we will arrive at the destination we have in mind?
I can't guarantee that anybody, including me, will have the success they want, but I ask you to consider a different question:
How will making this journey affect you?
I don't mean the riches or fame you might get, or the lack of same, but the actual process of writing. For most of us it's not only a way to (we hope) make some money, it's also about creating something that comes from the heart. That's true whether it's a novel, a book of recipes, or a memoir about surviving cancer.
The personal effects of writing vary, of course, but some common ones include figuring out what we really think and feel about the world, thinking more clearly because we have to express what we think, going on journeys in our imagination that we'll never make in real life, and getting to share something that only we can write, whether that's with three friends to whom we send our manuscript or millions who buy our book or see our movie.
If nothing of that sort is important to you, if you'll consider the journey worthwhile only if it ends in massive financial success, it might be better to investigate other ways to spend your time.
However, if you believe that writing is a way of life and a way to grow, then I can guarantee that something will come of it, something important and valuable regardless of whether or not what you write ever ends up on any best-seller list.
What will come of it is you.
(My book, Your Writing Coach, may help you on the journey. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Here we are, halfway through 2013. Do you know where your resolutions are? If not, don't worry, it's not too late, today is a new day. Here are some questions I invited you to consider a month into the year:
ARE YOU ON TRACK FOR YOUR WRITING OR OTHER GOALS?
If you haven’t set any goals for your writing (for instance,
writing a novel, getting an agent, or self-publishing your book) or other parts
of your life, you might find it useful to do that now.
If you did set some goals for yourself, take a few minutes
to ask yourself these questions now:
Have you been moving
toward your most important goals?
If not, what has
stopped you or slowed you down?
What are the things
you can do to get yourself back on track? (If you have trouble
brainstorming ideas, see my book, ‘Creativity Now,” published by Pearson and
available from Amazon).
What’s the first step
you can take today or tomorrow?
As soon as you have taken the first step, select the next
step and keep going until you find that you’re making progress.
If you can join me on July 27 for our New Half-Year's Resolution sessions please do--even if you can spare only a few hours, you'll be able to build momentum toward your most important goal. If you can't join me, choose a day soon when you'll be able to go over the questions above and renew your committment to moving in the direction of your dreams. For more info:www.MassiveActionDay.com
This has nothing to do with writing, but I just finished a visit to Las Vegas, a great place to people watch. This is one of the sketches I did...I call it "The Joy of Gambling"
There is also an M&M World in Las Vegas, where you can buy the candy and a LOT of merchandise, if you wish to show your kinship with the brand. I noticed it tended to attract a certain type of person...
(Instead, just write. You're also allowed to read "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Yes, it's our old friend "sneak peak." This one wins as the most common word choice mistake being made these days, based on a totally unscientific survey of one person who reads a lot (me). Anyway, unless you have in mind a crafty moutaintop, it's "sneak peek."
Here's one I ran across the other day: "standing on principal." The author meant "principle," I assume.
The 'pal' version refers to that chap (or chapess) you are sent to see if you have been chewing gum or, these days, assaulting a teacher with a semi-automatic weapon during math class.
It can also refer to a sum of money that is earning you interest (although not much at the moment).
Finally, another one that seems to be proliferating: "I was pouring over your manuscript..." Not unless you were watering it. Otherwise it's "poring over."
I've written about some of these common errors in word choice before, but they keep popping up and this time I thought it might be fun to illustrate them. Here's the first one:
"This book is literally explosive!"
No, unless it goes boom it is figuratively explosive. You don't need to add the "figuratively" because people will know that's what you mean. It's adding "literally" as though it means "very" or "extremely" that is the problem.
Want to follow in Oscar's pawprints? You can take part even if you're not associated with Raindance. Check out the MAD - go to http://www.MassiveActionDay.com.
Frank Mouse, above, is convinced that what's held him back is that he's not as cute as Mickey Mouse. His ears are too small, so are his pupils, and his hand is badly drawn. He believes that's why he's not famous and he's pretty bitter about it.
Is he right? I don't know, but I do know that excuses are the easiest thing in the world to find.
I'm an expert. I can give you plenty of reasons why I'm not farther along in reviving my Spanish, my transmedia project is on hold, and my script rewrite isn't done.
But, as I said in my last post, we do what we really consider most important at the time, so this post isn't about doing more.
It's about giving up excuses. I've found that when I accept my excuses they get stronger and more persistent. It's harder to give them up even when I don't need them any more. They seem to have become facts rather than useful temporary fictions. And, worst of all, they shift responsiblity away from where it belongs--with us.
We can do a lot with what we have, even if our ears are too small (or too big) as long as we don't let our excuses convince us otherwise.
I might even animate Frank some time, small ears and all. He will never be Mickey but he might be an interesting Frank.
What about you? Do you have excuses it might be good to give up?
Because I've written quite a bit, sometimes people tell me that they would write, too, if they only had the time.
Some of them ask for tips on how to find the time.
You'll find quite a few practical suggestions for that in my books (especially "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson).
However, there's really only one crucial, fool-proof way:
Want it more.
The proof of what we really want isn't in what we say, it's in what we do.
If you want to write, you'll find ways to do it.
You'll always have a notebook (or a smart phone) with you and you'll note any ideas you have.
When your friends call you and suggest going out for the evening, you'll say no thanks (at least sometimes) and stay home and write.
When you feel like sleeping in, you'll get up early and fit in 30 minutes of writing.
The specific ways you can find are almost endless. What they all have in common is that you discover them when you want it strongly enough.
On the other hand, maybe you work hard and what you want is to have time to relax and the way you get that is to watch talent contests or people making cupcakes or detectives chasing serial killers.
Maybe you have young kids and you want to be as much a part of their lives as you can before they turn into teen-agers.
There's nothing wrong with that and you don't have to beat yourself up over it. Maybe writing isn't what you want most at this point in your life. Maybe it will be in the future, maybe not.
If so, you'll know...because you'll be doing it.
(You'll find helpful guidance in my book, "Your Writing Coach." You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
