It can be frustrating to keep on writing while waiting for your break. Sometimes we wonder whether we're just wasting our time. All those days, weeks, months, years with nothing happening.
Of course, it's not really that nothing is happening. You're constantly learning, improving, and bringing new stories to life. The part that hasn't happened yet is the recognition from others, like editors or producers, of the value of what you're creating. And that hurts.
I have experienced this myself, and at times it has put me off even submitting material. I love the process of creating. The process of marketing? Not so much. But, of course, we have to do both. Both call for patience. Here's what the poet Rilke wrote about that:
"Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly still and wide. I learn it daily, learn it with pain to which I am grateful: patience is everything!"
That's the lesson I have to learn and re-learn. Maybe it'll help you, too.
It's always interesting to me how much writers and artists have in common. In the video below, animator Gil Keane ("The Little Mermaid," "Tarzan," Beauty and the Beast") draws characters in space using a virtual reality headset and talks about what art represents: freedom. Here are a few quotes:
'When you draw, you're expressing something that's real, visceral."
"By making a line, it's sort of a seismograph of your soul."
"When I animate, there's a frustration I have, wishing that the flatness of the paper would go away and I could actually dive in."
"I would draw not to do a drawing but so I could step in and live in that world."
I wonder what new options virtual reality will open up not only for artists, but also for writers.
Psyblog reports on a study that showed positive memories can help overcome depression...at least if you're a mouse.
Yes, this study was conducted with mice. They gave male mice a positive experience--exposure to a female mouse. They were able to locate this experience in the brain so they could access it again later.
Next, the mice were given a stressful experience that put them into a depression-like state. The article doesn't say exactly what this was. Maybe a researcher read them the news headlines.
Then they used light to stimulate the part of the brain that held the positive memory of the female mouse. The male mice quickly recovered from their depression.
Knowing how the male brain works, this didn't surprise me all that much. I wonder whether it would work as well with female mice who are exposed to a handsome male mouse.
When I felt a bit down, I decided to give it a try. My first attempt failed because exposing myself to a female mouse didn't make me happy and it seemed to frighten the mouse. Then I realized I already had happy memories, none involving rodents, I could call upon.
I think this is a bit more complicated in humans than in mice. For instance, remembering a happy time with another person can come attached with all kinds of negative thoughts as well, particularly if you're already in a down mood.
Thoughts like, "Yes, that was a happy time, but she's not in my life anymore!" or "Yes, but stupid me, I should have appreciated him at the time," or "Yes, we had a great time on that vacation, but now I don't have enough money to do that kind of thing," etc.
The positive memory would have to be unencumbered by any of those kinds of additions. A depressed person is really good at finding the "yes, but" view.
My non-scientific conclusion is that this could work when you're feeling slightly down in the dumps, but could actually backfire if you're seriously depressed. (If you are, please get some help. You may think your view of reality is accurate but when you're depressed you're seeing things through a deceptive filter.)
Want to increase your happiness? Are there any strategies that have been shown to work--not just anecdotally, but scientifically?
Yes, and I'm finding them in an excellent book, :59 seconds, written by Richard Wiseman. It's named that because at the end of each chapter he gives you tips for things you can accomplish in about a minute.
First, what doesn't work:
Attempting to think yourself happy by suppressing negative thoughts (it tends to make you think about them even more);
Winning the lottery (long-term, people return to about the same level as they had before they won);
Buying things (they give us a brief boost but then the thing loses its novelty and we go back to our earlier level--although I think there's an exception to this that I'll address in a future post);
If you've had a traumatic or extremely stressful experience, talking about it to a sympathetic but untrained person.
Your happiness level is determined by genetics (50%) and your general circumstances (10%). That leaves 40% we can influence because it comes from our behaviour, our thoughts, and our relationships.
In the next post, we'll look at the first of several almost-instant ways to boost your happiness.
What brought this on was reading two books by Shirley Jackson, who is best known for her short novel, The Lottery. I read The Haunting of Hill House, which is a horror tale but the source of the horror is as much the people who decide to stay in the house as it is in the house itself, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The latter is a first-person narrative by a young woman who is delusional and quite evil, yet Jackson skillfully gets us to like her anyway.
I didn't know anything about Jackson, but it turns out she died at the age of 48 of heart failure probably brought on by a combination of alcoholism, obesity, and addiction to speed. The Wikipedia entry for her says she suffered from various neuroses throughout her life. Toward the end, she was agoraphobic and wouldn't leave her bedroom. At least she was able to turn her experience with misery into books that live on.
She joins a number of other outstanding writers who were unhappy, depressed, or ill, and certainly it seems that alcoholics are over-represented in the world of authors. However, there are also plenty who had less traumatic lives and wrote well...although it's harder to think of as many examples.
Maybe the secret is being able to mine such unhappiness as we have had, whether it was dished out to us in quantities large or small (as well as mining the happy times as well, of course). Probably you have had enough unhappiness to work with already, now you can be happy. If you're not sure how, starting tomorrow I'm starting a series of posts on just that topic.
People generally think of satire as a pretty weak weapon, but it still scares or at least annoys despots. The Art Newspaper reports:
"A court in Tehran has sentenced an Iranian artist to 12 years and nine months in prison for criticising the government and 'spreading propaganda against the system'. Atena Farghadani was arrested in August last year for drawing a cartoon that mocked members of parliament...Farghadani depicted Iranian parliamentarians as monkeys and goats..."
Her crime is insulting members of Parliament through her paintings, and insulting the Supreme Leader.
If insulting members of Parliament were a crime in the UK, half the country would be behind bars, not least the members of Parliament themselves.
If you live in a country where the person running things refers to himself as the Supreme Leader, it might be a good idea to start packing your bags.
I just read that a number of small literary magazines are now charging a reading fee. If you want them to consider your story or poem you have to pay them a fee (in one case, $3).
If they reject your material they keep the money and use it to pay the contributors whose work is accepted. The pay for accepted material usually is very low, sometimes a few dollars and a few copies, so I suspect some of the money will go toward their other expenses.
Their rationale for this: they get too many submissions and they don't have enough paying subscribers to pay the bills.
So, in sum, you can now pay to be rejected by publications that don't have many readers in the first place.
Of course nobody forces you to submit material to these publications, and I wonder how many people will continue to do so, and what effect this policy may have on the quality of the material submitted.
There's an interesting new book out from the US about the (self) censorship that takes place with textbooks in an effort not to offend anybody (and therefore not lose any potential sales). The book is called The Language Police. The following is not a parody...unfortunately. Here's a part of a review--the committee they talk about was made up of counselors, diversity experts, etc:
"The committee flagged many seemingly innocuous passages gathered by the Board as potentially offensive or biased: an essay on peanuts because some children are allergic to peanuts; a biography of the designer of the Mount Rushmore monument because the site is considered sacred by some Native Americans; a legend about dolphins because it reflects a regional bias against children who don't live near the sea; an inspirational story about a blind mountain climber because it suggests that a blind person might find it harder to climb a mountain than a sighted one. The examples go on. Even Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Crow", was flagged as sexist because a male fox flatters a female crow; to gain approval, the gender of the animals had to be changed. The review committee also gave the Board a list of topics to be avoided. These included abortion, evolution, expensive consumer goods, magic, personal appearance, politics, religion, unemployment, unsafe situations, weapons and violence -- among others."
In the midst of this huge heap of ridiculousness, the bit I highlighted strikes me as the most ridiculous...so now having kids read about something with which they may not be personally familiar is discrimination? I think we used to call it "learning." We were so insensitive!
If you write at night you may also find yourself snacking more during that time (unfortunately, I'm speaking from experience). I assumed this might be a distraction gambit--a trip to the fridge gives you time to think about what to write next. However, a new study reveals that something else may be happening.
As reported in Science Daily, researcher Travis Masterson said, "You might over-consume at night because food is not as rewarding, at least visually, at that time of day. It may not be as satisfying to eat at night so you eat more to try to get satisfied."
The study also showed that we are more preoccupied with food at night, even if we don't feel any less full than at other times of day.
The researchers used MRI scans to see how the brain reacts to images of food. They found lower reward-related brain response to food images in the evening. Not surprisingly, they also found that the brain gets more excited when it registers images of high-calorie food (ice cream, baked goods...oh oh, I'm getting hungry...) than when it is presented with pictures of low-calorie foods (vegetables, grains, fish).
The practical value of the findings may be limited. We can tell ourselves that we don't need these snacks and that our brain is tricking us, but logic doesn't stand much of a chance when pitted against a big bowl of ice cream. Probably the best solution still is not to have that kind of food in the house in the first place.
Keeping our brains and bodies working well doesn't always require a huge effort. Here are a few tips I've run across lately that might be worth your attention:
NUTS!
A handful of walnuts every day can help improve your concentration and memory, according to a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging. This seemed to apply to people in all age groups. If you're watching your weight, don't go for more than about half an ounce---one ounce of walnuts contains 185 calories.
GOT MILK?
Another study showed that older individuals who consumed three servings of milk per day had higher levels of glutathione, which is believed to stave off the effects of oxidative stress on the brain. Oxidative stress may be involved in developing Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
FLEX YOUR WILLPOWER
You know you should resist eating that big piece of cake but you feel your willpower draining away fast. Try tensing your muscles. A series of studies found that when you tense your muscles you are better at resisting temptation, withstanding pain, and paying attention to disturbing information. In the case of the cake, follow up by walking away quickly. And remember to tense the next time you start down the snacks aisle at the supermarket.
STICK TO IT!
Another posture tip: if you want to increase your persistence in solving a problem, cross your arms. A study showed that people trying to solve anagrams worked at it twice as long and solved more of them, when they crossed their arms than when they didn't. Does this translate to other tasks that require perseverance? Seems worth a try.
What happens when you encounter a setback? Don't assume there's nothing you can do. On the American Express Open Forum site, entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran tells the story of a near-failure that turned into a triumph:
Today I’m a Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank. When I first got a call from an L.A. producer asking if I’d have any interest in being on the new show, I couldn’t believe my good luck. I was headed to Hollywood! I signed the contract immediately and ran out and bought myself two new swanky outfits at Bergdorf Goodman, just for signing autographs. But a few days before leaving, the producer’s assistant called to say they had changed their mind and had given the lone female seat to someone else.
Ten minutes later, instead of getting sad, I got mad and shot the producer an email. I told him I considered his rejection a lucky charm because everything good that ever happened to me happened on the heels of failure. I ticked off a list of all my triumphant rejections. I ended the email by suggesting the producer fly me out to compete with the other woman for the spot. It was my stand-up-and-be-counted-for email that got me on that plane, and I’ve been a Shark/Investor on Shark Tank ever since.
Presumably either there was an 'out'' clause in the contract or they would have paid her but not used her, which wasn't her goal. She created an alternative that contained an advantage for the other side as well as for herself.
In improvisation, they always stress that a good way to keep a story going is to add "yes, and"--meaning you accept whatever the previous person said, and build on it. As the story above proves, it can also work to say "no, and..." In essence, Corcoran was saying, 'I think you're making a wrong decision and I have a way to prove it to you.'
That "and' is vital; otherwise you're just saying 'no' when they say 'yes', or vice versa. If we step back from the situation, sometimes we can reframe it or offer another alternative that can turn things back our way.
(If you'd like some guidance on marketing what you create, get a copy of my book, Marketing for Entrepreneurs. It's published by Pearson and available from your favorite bookseller.)
The excellent Hoax Slayer newsletter reminds us of a few scams that are currently harvesting lots of suckers. Here are a few reminders:
* Nobody is giving away iPhones. Especially not iPhone 6's.
* Nobody is buying iPhones at auction for $5 or £5.
* There is no "one weird trick" that makes you lose weight instantly
* There is no "one weird trick" that made a 70-year-old woman look like 40.
* There are no dying widows looking for strangers to whom to give their fortune.
* There are plenty of Nigerian crooks but they want you to give them money, not the other way around.
* More specifically, it's not true that a 3-year-old girl named Lilly was snatched from the Surrey area of the UK, even though the message features a photo of her and the registration number of the fictional car she was last (not) seen in. Don't pass along this bogus message.
* You don't owe an EZ Pass toll that you forgot to pay. Do not open the attached invoice, it contains malware.
* Your Netflix account probably has not been cancelled. If you get a notice to that effect, do not click anything within that email. Instead, type in the Netflix address on your browser and then log in.
* Your PayPal account probably has not been limited "due to login from unknown advice." If you get a notice to that effect, do not click anything within it. Otherwise, you may enable the scammers to hijack your PayPal account. I nearly fell for one of these because it happened to arrive shortly after I was made aware of an actual issue with my PayPal account.
* If you get a notice from American Express regarding unusual activity on your account, don't click on anything within it, just go to the real American Express site and log in as usual.
TIP: When in doubt, always check the address from which the email came. Sometimes they do use one that resembles the name of the apparent source, but you may be surprised to find how often they're from an obviously bogus address.
I'll add a few scams that target writers:
* Traditional publishers are not desperate to be sent manuscripts, they get plenty without advertising. Generally these are companies that will publish anything they are sent, providing the author is willing to put up the money. There are some legitimate companies who assist you with publishing for a fee, but do your research before you sign any contract. Look them up on the web, contact authors whose books they have published, etc.
* Be especially careful if a publisher says they are eager to publish books of poetry because they sell well. Unfortunately, books of poetry (at least by unknown writers) almost never make any money. That's not to say you shouldn't publish them anyway, to give to friends and relatives, but be aware that your chances of making a profit are close to nil.
* Legitimate agents do not charge a reading fee. They make a percentage of what you make, usually 12-15%. Legitimate agents also do not insist that you use the services of editors or writing coaches they recommend.
* Legitimate contests do not charge a large entry fee when the prize awards are relatively small.
Is there such a thing as getting out of writing shape? I read the other day that if you exercise regularly and then stop, it takes three to five weeks before you lose general strength but specialized (sport-specific) strength diminishes in as little as two weeks.
There's no doubt that taking a break from anything you do a lot can be beneficial, but if you stop writing for an extended period is there a danger that you'll lose "writing strength"? Well, I doubt that you will suddenly not be able to string words together, but I think there is a danger that you'll lose momentum and some of the passion you had for the project you were working on when you stopped.
After all, the writing habit is like any other, it gets stronger the more we do it, but weakens when we stop. Of course sometimes life gets in our way and we have to stop. In that case, a few strategies might help:
1. Schedule your re-start. Put it in your calendar and clear the time needed on that date and afterward. It may be that you'll have to change this date and that's fine, but at least this way you have a specific target.
2. When you stop, jot down the next few things you'll write when you resume. For instance, this could be a note about what happens next in your novel or screenplay.
3. Unless you want or need a total break (when you go on vacation, for example) take a few minutes each day to think about the project and note any new ideas. When you resume, these ideas will help you get started again.
So you've published a book and nobody's reading it and you haven't made any money?You're writing the wrong things! You should be writing reports for the government. Nobody reads those, either, but the money is great.
You should be writing reports for the government. Nobody reads those, either, but the money is great.
Case in point: According to the Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security commissioned a report on why morale is so low. The report cost $1 million. It went into a drawer. A second report was commissioned, duplicating the first. It also went into a drawer. Last year DHS commissioned two more studies. One of them cost $420,000.
The article describes another study, this one done 3 years ago:
"A committee of 11 experts visited about 25 DHS locations in Texas, New York and the Washington area. It produced a 268-page report under a contract, which allocated $588,000 for the work. About $500,000 in additional funds for the study came out of another line item in the contract, according to contracting documents and a source familiar with them."
The result: virtually nothing.
'It was not a very good light to shine on any of us, so we just hid it,' said one DHS employee familiar with the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation by supervisors."
Cool! You get almost $600,000 and then you charge an additional half million, and you don't even need to worry about grammar or spelling because nobody is going to read it anyway. DHS, call me! I can crank out a 268-page report for half that much.
The DHS says they did take action as a result of the study--embarking on further research! And drafting a five-year strategic plan that was supposed to be presented by May 2014. The Post got a copy and reports that it's a draft full of phrases like "add introduction," "add conclusion" and "insert photos."
Guys, I can give you a nice 500 pages with "insert report" on each page, for $250,000. You can tell Congress you've cut your research expenses by more than 50%!
By the way, the draft does identify one source of low morale: survey fatigue.
The rest of the reasons for low morale are not that mysterious. The article says, "Many DHS employees have said in the annual government 'viewpoint' survey of federal employees that their senior leaders are ineffective; that the department discourages innovation, and that promotions and raises are not based on merit. Others have described in interviews how a stifling bureaucracy and relentless congressional criticism makes DHS an exhausting, even infuriating, place to work."
Homeland Security, here's my final offer: for only $100,000 I will give you a lengthy study, which may at times coincidentally resemble random pages from the novel I'm writing, and a four-point action plan to improve morale. I'll even give you a hint as to one of the points: Friday afternoons...free pizzas.
The interpretation of these rules is mine, not the Dalai Lama’s, but I hope I’ve stayed within the spirit of his intention.
1: Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk
Yes, there’s a chance nobody will want to publish your book or buy your screenplay. If you self-publish, there’s a possibility few will buy your book. But if you are passionate about writing, these risks are worth it.
2: When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
Rejection is part of the writing process. Sometimes it doesn’t even take someone else to reject our work, we may realize when a project is done that it’s not our best work and put it aside. But there are lessons within each rejection, whether they be about writing or marketing, and if we can gain those, we’ve not lost.
3: Follow the three Rs:
Respect for self
If writing is important to you, go for it even if others are sceptical or unsupportive. Respect your dream.
Respect for others
There will always be people who don’t get it. These could be family members who don’t understand why you’re spending so much time on something they can’t relate to, or editors who fail to appreciate your work, or people who make rude or stupid comments on your blog or in a review. Don’t waste time trying to win them over. Respect their right to have an opinion…and your right to ignore it. But also be open to the possibility that sometimes criticism stated the wrong way may still have something useful at its core.
Responsibility for all your actions
If you’re not writing, it’s nobody else’s fault. Yes, you have pressures and demands but many who have had as many or more obstacles have managed to write books and scripts and plays.
4: Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
There are many successful writers who desperately wanted their first novel to be published and it wasn’t. Years later they look back and say thank goodness, because it wasn’t good enough. Had it been published, probably it would have failed and delayed their eventual success.
5: Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
The so-called rules of writing have evolved from the experience of many writers over many years, and they will stand you in good stead most of the time. Once you understand them, you can feel free to experiment and break them.
6: Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
Never ask for anyone's opinion about your work unless you're ready to hear it--good or bad--and not let negative feedback affect your relationship. As I said above, some people in your life won't get it. If you value those people for other reasons, keep your writing life as separate as possible from your interactions with them.
