Time to Write

Why we'll never figure it out...but we have to move forward anyway

"There is this illusion that somehow

you can get to a stable place, figure it all out." 

In a recent article in Fast Company magazine, Pixar President Ed Catmull points out, "The underlying technology continues to change, successful people are always getting older and aging out, and everyone is drawing new conclusions about what works. There is no stable place. But there is this illusion that somehow you can get to a stable place, figure it all out.

People have their fear: they want to be told what to do; they want people to tell them what to do. And there isn't anything that can remove that underlying piece of human nature. It is when we try to avoid, stop, or control change that we get into trouble."

I think that creative people are less inclined to want to be told what to do, and less resistant to change, but we still have the underlying fear. The difference is that--at least on good days--we move forward despite the fear. 

On the bad days, when the fear seems to be the one in control, it's good to remind ourselves that there are no victories from giving in to it. I haven't figure out how to avoid the bad days (in fact, I had one very recently), but at least I've learned that one day like that doesn't mean all days will be like that. Maybe that's about as much control as we're likely to get. 

(For useful methods for getting into a creative mindset, generating ideas, and turning ideas into action, get a copy of my book, Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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How to get better at writing description

Being a scriptwriter allowed me to get by without going into a lot of description but now that I'm also writing prose I need to get better at it. Here's a method I'm finding helpful:

1. Figure out which of your senses you tend to favor.

For me, it's visual. That's why in prose most of my descriptions are about what things look like.

You may find that sound predominates--that is, you tend to focus on what people are saying as well as the tone of their voice and how loudly or quietly they speak. You will also be very aware of music and of the background sounds associated with a setting.

Less common is a tendency to be most aware of smells. People who are especially sensitive to smell may be affected by people wearing very strong perfume or cologne. It may also affect their perception of how certain foods taste.

Finally, some people are most tuned in to how things feel--in terms of their texture, weight, and so forth. Again, this may affect how they feel about certain foods as well. Also, they may choose certain items like mobile phones not only by their functions and how they look but also how they feel in your hand.

Another sensitivity some people have is to the moods and emotions of other people. They may perceive these through all of the above senses. Being unusually empathetic is useful for a writer but it can also be stressful. If you genuinely do feel other people's pain, you'll be in pain quite a lot of the time!

2. The next time you go to a place you've not visited before, pick one of your less dominant senses and think about how you would describe that place in terms of that sense.

For instance, when I go to a street market I tend to notice people's faces, the colors of the things for sale, details of how the stalls look, and so forth. Therefore I might make it my assignment to pay  more attention to the smells of the food at the food stalls, the spices or vegetables, the perfumes or colognes of the people there, and so forth. 

Focusing on the sounds would sensitize you on the sales pitches of the various stall holders, the comments of the other people shopping there, the background noises, any music, etc.

If you pay attention to how things feel you could consider the textures of the vegetables and the fabrics and other items for sale. 

If it's more the emotions you want to make the center of your attention you'd think about what moods or emotions people seem to be experiencing and how those are reflected in their appearance, their body language, their actions, what they say and how they say it, and even how they dress.

3. Take a few minutes later to write a description using the sense you were emphasizing.

At first getting better at attending to a particular sense will take conscious effort but after a while you may find you're noticing more of these details without trying and that it enriches your writing and also your appreciation of your day to day experiences.

(If you want helpful tips on how to write, get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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What to do when you're drowning in good advice

Thanks to the internet there's no shortage of good advice flooding into your life. In fact, sometimes there are so many articles about "Ten ways to..." or "What you can learn about something or other from..." that it's overwhelming. It all turns into advice sludge.

One way to deal with that is to pick one bit of advice that resonates with you and turn the idea into a specific action. Decide what you're going to do differently, when you're going to do it, and if it takes more than a few mintues, what you're going to stop doing in order to buy that time.

For instance, one I see a lot is "be grateful for what you have." Another is "live with an abundant mindset." Both good ideas but easy to register and forget almost instantly. Let's say you agree that being grateful is an idea that hits home for you. What specific actions could you take, and when? Here are a few:

* At the start of every day jot down ten things/people for which you are grateful. This shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

* Once a week think about what someone has done for you for which you are grateful. Send them a thank you note--an email is OK, a physical note or postcard is better. Pick a time when you won't feel rushed--maybe Sunday afternoon? Allocate about fifteen minutes.

* Every Monday (or whichever day works best for you) set out to do something nice for somebody else--a friend, family member or stranger. During that day watch for an opportunity and take it. It might be doing a chore that someone else in the family normally has to do, complimenting someone, anonymously paying for the coffee of the next person in line at the coffee shop, etc. Giving someone else something to be grateful for is very satisfying, too. At the end of the day, jot down what you did and how it made you feel. 

I'm sure you can think of others. The same process works for any advice--go from the principle to an action, schedule it, do it, enjoy it. Keep doing the ones that enrich your life.

Write it write: convene or commune?

A USA Today article written by Hilary Billings included this sentence: "Whether it's hiking in Red Rock Canyon or dirt biking through the desert, you're most likely to find Eric [Trump] convening with nature."

Convening: to come together or assemble, usually for some public purpose. verb (used with object), convened, convening. 2. to cause to assemble; convoke. 3. to summon

I think the author probably meant communing with nature. 

Communing: To be in a state of intimate, heightened sensitivity and receptivity, as with one's surroundings: hikers communing with nature.

There's also a wonky referent: "You can have your own dirt bike adventure with American Adventure Tours. Priding itself on offering the only extreme dirt bike experience in the valley, riders can enjoy three hours of cruising over 100 miles of desert trails and legendary off-road races." Phrased this way, it's the riders who are "priding itself." A better version: "You can have your own dirt bike adventure with American Adventure Tours, which prides itself on offering..."

A couple of quotes from her subject raise the question whether or not to correct someone's grammar when you quote them. He said, "The amount of fun things I've done in Vegas is numerous" and [his girlfriend] "enjoys laying on our pool deck." If you were the editor (not that this article seems to have had one) would you have been tempted to change either of these, or would you consider them part of giving an accurate portrait of the subject?

USA Today is partial to my current grammatical pet peeve, writing "sneak peak" when they mean "sneak peek," so it's probably unwise to expect much from them but it's still jarring to see these kinds of lapses in a national newspaper. 

 

 

Writers' (and others') success factors: 2 - stop procrastinating

We all do it, right--procrastinate? I'm writing this blog post when probably I should be working on my tax return right now. I tell myself that at least I'm doing something useful in place of the most important thing, that's better than watching TV, right?

Well, up to a point. But when we do that for too long it catches up with us. When the most important thing we could be doing isn't getting most of our attention, we suffer the consequences. 

I've written lots of posts about how to overcome procrastination and a fair share of the time I'm able to do it myself, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Here's what I've found that works:

1. Chunking down the big tasks into small pieces and committing to doing at least one small piece per day. Sometimes that results in momentum that carries you past your commitment. For instance, deciding you'll write at least 500 words in a session may get you into the flow enough that you end up writing two or three times that many.

2. Making a commitment to somebody to whom it would embarrass you if you had to admit failing to do the task. Right now the members of my Massive Action Day group and I have entered into a pact to choose one thing every day that we have been avoiding and do it--and tell each other about it (or about not doing it, if that's the case). I'm only on Day 4, but so far so good. (If you want to find out more about Massive Action Days and our group, see www.MassiveActionDay.com--if you sign up for the annual plan you also get 24/7 access to our group chat room 365 days a year.)

3. Keeping track of your success.

4. If you fail on one day, starting over again the next day. 

That's it, there's no magic and the temptation to put off what is dificult, boring, or risky will never go away--but you can overcome it every day and reap the rewards.

(This article was inspired by a lifehack post. You'll find many creative ways to manage your time better in my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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Writers' (and others') success factors: 1 - take responsibility

I was impressed by a blog post at Lifehack.org called 13 Reasons Why You Will Not be Successful.

I understand that it was phrased that way to capture attention but I prefer to turn them around to the positive and to relate them specifically to writing or other creative endeavors. 

1. YOU ACCEPT RESPONSIBLITY

I don't think I'm a whiner but when I pay attention to what I say I do hear myself complaining more than I want to. Recently an online venture went wrong. It's easy and not entirely incorrect to blame it on my partner on that project, but it's not the most productive thing to do. There's a great saying I forgot:

"Don't expect. Inspect."

In other words, don't assume that others will do what they are supposed to do or even what they have said they will do.

In this instance when I ask myself what I could have done that would have prevented the problem, I can't honestly say 'nothing.' I could have confirmed and checked and insisted, and I didn't. 

Looking at this in the context of writing, if we are not successful it's easy to blame the economy, agents or publishers, the poor taste of readers, and on and on. But ultimately it's up to us to find a way to write that gets people excited, without giving up our integrity. If we can't do that we are lacking an essential skill and we have to take responsibility for acquiring it...or finding something else to do with our creative drive.

When I take a hard look at various aspects of my life I can find a number of things for which I haven't accepted full responsibility...how about you?

ps: Maybe "You are willing to take a hard look at your life," should actually be the first reason that you will succeed. 

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Do you have Seasonal Writing Disorder?

I read a fascinating post by novelist Lydia Sharp in which she described having what she calls Seasonal Writing Disorder. It's well worth reading the entire post, but in a nutshell she said she used to beat herself up because not only does she not write every day, she goes weeks without writing.

Then she realized that if she stepped back and looked at her ouput in the context of a year, she was just as productive as other writers, if not more so. Like me, she suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is characterized by depression and low energy during the darker months. I use a bright light in the mornings during the winter, which helps a bit.

Sharp is most productive in Spring--that's when she has written six of her seven novels. Spring and early Summer are also my favorite times and probably my most productive times. 

Your cycles may be different. The point is that when you discover what they are you can work in synch with them rather than fighting them or feeling bad about not working in some supposedly ideal manner. 

This doesn't mean that you can move forward only a few months of the year. The times during which you don't feel as inspired can be great for editing, marketing, and learning new skills. 

Of course the same is true of getting in tune with your daily cycle, doing the most important tasks during the time you have the most energy. Especially if morning is your prime time, it's a shame to spend it on catching up with email, for instance. 

It's in line with a sayig I like: "Make reality your friend."

(There are time management tips you can use all the year around in my book, Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done. It's published by Pearson and avialable from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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To give up or not to give up on a project?

The problem is that sometimes apparent failure and discouragement is followed by actual failure.

Often there's no way to know whether you're heading for a fall or for a bonanza.

The thing is, that doubt usually comes when you've already invested a lot of time and effort in the project and you might as well keep going and see how it all comes out.

That's hard to do when you've had a lot of rejection. I've had this experience with a novel I wrote a few years ago. It was rejected by several publishers for being too controversial and I decided to put it aside for a while. That while has stretched out to much longer than I planned, probably because my inner critic (whom I fired but who sometimes shows up for work anyway) whispers in my ear that sending it out again would just result in more rejection. 

These inner critics do their work so sneakily that we don't even notice it. Now that I've noticed it I'm going to put that manuscript out into the marketplace again and hope that it'll be Florence Scovel Shinn, and not my inner critic, whose quote applies. 

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How you can tell your story...and why

At South by Southwest, Lena Dunham said:

"The best advice I can muster after exactly four years in this business [is]... don't wait around for someone else to tell your story. Do it yourself by whatever means necessary."

This was echoed by Jason Blum:

"The advice I give for filmmakers starting out is don't wait for me. Don't wait for the industry... It's a mistake to wait for Hollywood to tell you you have a good idea. If you have a good idea, try to make it on your own as cheaply as possible… on your phone." 

That goes equally for any of the creative arts. There are now so many avenues for creating something to share:

* A movie; as Blum suggests, you can do it on your phone. If you have more money, the new Black Magic camera, which comes in around $5000/ £3000 with a good lens, creates fantastic looking images.

* A book you self-publish as a regular book, an ebook, or even one told in Tweets.

* A story you tell via sending readers/viewers to a series of web sites

* A vdeo web series

* A graphic novel or comic book

* An audio book

* Live storytelling

* An audio serial you distribute as a podcast or an audio play

* A play you produce--if you can't find or afford a theater, you can have it take place outside in a public space for a small audience. Or it could be a play/movie hybrid, with parts of the story projected and parts playing live.

If you can do this only if what you produce makes money, that can change the situation. Even then, does it have to make only enough money to pay for your out-of-pocket expenses or do you expect to be able to live off the proceeds? Those are two very differnt numbers.

If you remove the demand that your creative project pay all the bills, it frees you up enormously. Could the satisfaction of creating and sharing that creation with a modest number of people be enough?

That works for my friend Charles Dayton, who is semi-retired and has written three novels featuring the 72-year-old detective Lew Travis ("Come Hell or High Water," Hell Hath No Fury," and "Hell to Pay"). The books are available for the Kindle or as pubished-on-demand paperbacks. They haven't hit any best-seller lists but that was never his goal. 

 

He says, "After 40 years in academia, including the last 14 at Berkeley, I wanted to do something less academic. I also wanted to capture some of the history, landscape, and lifestyle here in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in a way that would hopefully be fun to read. Plus I've always loved mysteries. I think all good works of fiction are infused with a certain amount of mystery; it's what motivates the reader to keep going." 

He number his readers in the tends of thousands, and giving pleasure to that number of people is a nice accomplishment.

The word "hobby" is seen as negative in the context of the arts; it suggests you are not serious. However, the definition is "an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure." I can't see anything wrong with that.

(for friendly guidance in writing your novel or screenplay, see my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

The writer and solitude: the upside and the downside

In an interview, one of my favorite illustrator/authors, Shaun Tan (“Tales from Outer Suburbia,” “The Arrival”) talked about creative people and solitude:

 “It’s always this thing where people have got good ideas and people are great artists, but it takes a certain kind of personality to be able to sit still for that long. People often overlook that when they talk about creativity.

Skill is one aspect, but the other aspect is sheer doggedness and ability to work through the tedium…This sort of work can be quite introverted and you can spiral into it…

That’s one thing that’s bad about the job sometimes—the lack of interaction with people. I think humans are designed to interact with other people on a regular basis.”

If, like me, you sometimes tend to get a bit too isolated, schedule some days out interacting with people. 

One great way to find people who share your interests is to go to Meetup.com. There are groups all around the world based on just about any topic you can think of. Most of them are free or have a token charge to help pay for a meeting venue. 

A thought about productivity (and what it's not)

Obviously I'm showing my age, but I can remember a time when only doctors on call felt they had to be connected to the outside world while at the theater. The other night I'd say about 70% of the audience whipped out their phones before the intermission curtain reached the floor.

I'm sure some were just playing a game to kill the time and probably it beats re-reading the almost content-free program several times, but some were checking something relating to their work, considering two hours too long a time to be out of touch. These were not just the people there by themselves, in the case of pairs quite a few each spent most of the interval looking at their phones...meaningless bustle also gets in the way of being in touch with the moment and the people you are with. 

Not that I'm complaining--these days I'm happy when nobody checks their phone DURING the performance.

What's stopping you? (The secret of Elvis)

One of the key obstacles to people expressing themselves, says Sir Ken Robinson in his book Elements, is that we worry too much about what other people will think.

We fear they will judge us negatively.

What's more, sometimes they do. Robinson mentions that Elvis Presley was not allowed into his school's glee club because they  thought  he  was ruining their sound. So he gave up on music...oh wait, no he didn't...he actually went on to have a bit of success.

What are you stopping yourself from doing because people might think it's silly, a waste of time, or unlikely to succeed?

Do you really want to let them determine what you do? 

If you hear negativity from a family member or friend, well, that's not loving you.

Ignore other people's suspicious minds.

If they tell you it can't be done, have a little less conversation.

If you get a discouraging email, return to sender. 

Will it leave them all shook up? That's all right! 

Just say to yourself, "Elvis!" and do it--it's now or never!

(Want friendly help in writing your book or script? You'll find it in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Should you create something revolutionary--or evolutionary?

Are most successes something totally different...or something a bit better than what existed already?

Marketing guru Michael Masterson says his experience shows that the real successes tend to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. As a mentor in the publishing industry he was directly involved in the development of at least 50 publications. He says, "In the beginning, I made an effort to create something new - something the market didn't have. In every case, I failed."

Instead he suggests a new application of the 80/20 principle:"Give them 80 percent of what they are already buying and only 20 percent of something new. The 20 percent matters. But the 80 percent keeps you in business."

If you already have a winning product or service, what's the 20% you can change or add to make it more exciting to clients or customers and stay ahead of the competition? If you don't, what's out there now that you can improve by 20% to come up with a winner?

For writers, what would make your novel or screenplay 20% different in a good way?

The same applies to marketing what you've written--how can you use existing marketing channels like Twitter and Facebook and Youtube in a somewhat different way?

(For inspiration for marketing your work in a creative and inexpensive way, see the 100 case studies of innovative marketing in my book, Do Something Different, published by Virgin Books. The examples come from people with all kinds of products and services, your task is to adapt them to what you are offering. The result is that yours will stand out.)

Two ways to overcome procrastination

When trying to overcome procrastination should you focus on the outcome of the task or the details of the task? According to several research studies, it depends on the kind of task and where you are in the process.

 If it's something you know you are going to do but you're just putting off getting to it, focus on the details. Chunk it down and decide on a deadline for each bit.

If it's something you'd like to do but haven't yet committed to, focus on the outcomes. As soon as you start, shift focus to the steps. When you near the end and want to be sure to finish, shift focus back to the big picture.

One additional finding: when things get difficult in the middle of the task, the temporary difficulty or failure can "infect" the bigger picture and push you toward giving up. Keep your focus tight on overcoming the obstacle.

(You'll find an innovative approach to time management in 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.)

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How to make brainstorming more effective

Brainstorming sessions have gotten a lot of bad press lately, but there are way around the problems. 

A study at Texas A & M University suggests that brainstorming in a group may limit the diversity of ideas that come up. According to lead researcher Nicholas Kohn, "Fixation to other people's ideas can occur unconsciously and lead you to suggesting ideas that mimic your brainstorming partners. Thus, you potentially become less creative."

I've found it useful to encourage as many "crazy" ideas as possible up front, to get people over their instinct to judge every idea immediately and to widen the scope of thinking.

You can do the same thing when you're brainstorming by yourself - start with the most outlandish ideas you can think of and it'll help the flow of ideas that later turn out to be useful.

When's  the  last  time  you  had a solo or group brainstorming session to come up with new ideas? Would today be a good time?

(You'll find lots more methods for coming up with bright ideas in my book, Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)