"There is a Jewish saying that I love. What is truer than truth? Answer? The story."
Showing posts with label writing tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing tips. Show all posts
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Your But Is Too Big
No, not that kind of butt.
I mean the kind of "but" that slows you down and prevents you from reaching your full potential.
To all those writers out there who need a bit of inspiration, get off your butts and check out Nathan Branford's guest blogger Jon Gibb and what he has to say about Writers' Buts.
I mean the kind of "but" that slows you down and prevents you from reaching your full potential.
To all those writers out there who need a bit of inspiration, get off your butts and check out Nathan Branford's guest blogger Jon Gibb and what he has to say about Writers' Buts.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Amy Tan - Where does creativity hide?
Another great TED lecture. While you can just listen to it, you'll miss a lot if you can't see her clever slideshow. (Check out the TED COMMANDMENTS.)
She begins by asking the question "How do we create?"
The following words are Amy's but the emphasis is mine:
We all have intentions when we're faced with a situation, any situation. All of us have a response. We have intentions, what we think we should do. There's ambiguity. What we actually do, and what we think we should do. Do we justify by saying my intentions were good? That's the ambiguity.
You notice disturbing hints from the universe.
They were always there.
When I identify the question, distill the hints, clues, there's focus.
When you're writing, those hints, those clues have always been there. They've been obvious, yet not been. You need a focus. When I have a question, random things, all the flotsam and jetsam, become relevant, become obvious. There's no coincidence, serendipity, in which you're getting all this help from the universe, but you may also explain it by saying you now have focus.
This leads to the question "why am I here?" What is the meaning of my life, what is my place in the universe. We all hate moral ambiguity in some sense, yet it's necessary in writing a story. It's the place where I begin.
Sometimes we get help from the universe. There's the arrival of luck and random chance. Serendipity. Accidents.
I go back to the question, of how do I create my own life? It is by questioning. There are no absolute truths. I believe in specifics, the specifics of story, the specifics of that past and what is happening in this story at that point. By thinking about luck and faith, and coincidences and accidents, God's will, the synchrony of mysterious forces, I will come to some notion of what that is, how we create. I have to think of my role, where I am in the universe, and did somebody intend for me to be that way or is it just something I came up with.
And I also can find that by imagining fully and becoming what is imagined and yet is in that real world, the fictional world, and that is how I find particles of truth not the absolute truth, or the whole truth. And they have to be in all possibilities, including those I never considered before. So there are never complete answers, or rather, if there is an answer, it is to remind myself that there is uncertainty in everything and that is good, because then I will discover something new. And if there is a partial answer, a more complete answer for me, it is to simply imagine. And to imagine is to put myself in that story, until there is a transparency between me and the story that I am creating and that's how I've discovered that if I feel what is in the story, in one story, then I come the closest to feeling compassion. Because for everything in that question of how things happen, it has to do with a feeling. I have to become the story in order to understand a lot of that.
Imagination is the closest thing to feeling compassion. Become that story.
She begins by asking the question "How do we create?"
The following words are Amy's but the emphasis is mine:
We all have intentions when we're faced with a situation, any situation. All of us have a response. We have intentions, what we think we should do. There's ambiguity. What we actually do, and what we think we should do. Do we justify by saying my intentions were good? That's the ambiguity.
You notice disturbing hints from the universe.
They were always there.
When I identify the question, distill the hints, clues, there's focus.
When you're writing, those hints, those clues have always been there. They've been obvious, yet not been. You need a focus. When I have a question, random things, all the flotsam and jetsam, become relevant, become obvious. There's no coincidence, serendipity, in which you're getting all this help from the universe, but you may also explain it by saying you now have focus.
This leads to the question "why am I here?" What is the meaning of my life, what is my place in the universe. We all hate moral ambiguity in some sense, yet it's necessary in writing a story. It's the place where I begin.
Sometimes we get help from the universe. There's the arrival of luck and random chance. Serendipity. Accidents.
I go back to the question, of how do I create my own life? It is by questioning. There are no absolute truths. I believe in specifics, the specifics of story, the specifics of that past and what is happening in this story at that point. By thinking about luck and faith, and coincidences and accidents, God's will, the synchrony of mysterious forces, I will come to some notion of what that is, how we create. I have to think of my role, where I am in the universe, and did somebody intend for me to be that way or is it just something I came up with.
And I also can find that by imagining fully and becoming what is imagined and yet is in that real world, the fictional world, and that is how I find particles of truth not the absolute truth, or the whole truth. And they have to be in all possibilities, including those I never considered before. So there are never complete answers, or rather, if there is an answer, it is to remind myself that there is uncertainty in everything and that is good, because then I will discover something new. And if there is a partial answer, a more complete answer for me, it is to simply imagine. And to imagine is to put myself in that story, until there is a transparency between me and the story that I am creating and that's how I've discovered that if I feel what is in the story, in one story, then I come the closest to feeling compassion. Because for everything in that question of how things happen, it has to do with a feeling. I have to become the story in order to understand a lot of that.
Imagination is the closest thing to feeling compassion. Become that story.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A different way to think about creative genius
Another great TED lecture on creativity, this one by Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote EAT, PRAY, LOVE. She talks about success and the impossible expectations we impose on artists. It's inspiring and really funny and smart and spiritual, just like Elizabeth herself.
Sometimes what follows a brilliant performance in dance, say, or an author's first novel hitting the bestsellers list, is anguish. There is a belief secretly harboured by the artist that maybe once executed this thing can't ever again be duplicated, that expectations can never again be met. Elizabeth says that maybe one doesn't have to be quite so full of despair. That perhaps there is a glimpse of the divine (or at least, a "divine cockeyed genius") in all great creative work, and we just have to view it in a different light.
"If you never happen to believe in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you, but maybe if you just believed they were on loan to you, you know, from some unimaginable source, for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along, when you're finished with somebody else."
Dance. Write. You might be touched by the divine, or not.
But just do it. And don't ever stop.
Sometimes what follows a brilliant performance in dance, say, or an author's first novel hitting the bestsellers list, is anguish. There is a belief secretly harboured by the artist that maybe once executed this thing can't ever again be duplicated, that expectations can never again be met. Elizabeth says that maybe one doesn't have to be quite so full of despair. That perhaps there is a glimpse of the divine (or at least, a "divine cockeyed genius") in all great creative work, and we just have to view it in a different light.
"If you never happen to believe in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you, but maybe if you just believed they were on loan to you, you know, from some unimaginable source, for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along, when you're finished with somebody else."
Dance. Write. You might be touched by the divine, or not.
But just do it. And don't ever stop.
Another great post by Daphne Gray-Grant
PW #162 - Moving lessons for writers
I opened the freezer door and a sea of green goo puddled towards me. What on earth was this stuff?
Turns out it wasn't pond sludge or paint, it was my kids' favourite ice cream -- mint chocolate chip. And it had oozed down to the bottom of the freezer because it had melted. This was a result of the freezer's death, right alongside its guilty partner, the dead fridge nestled below.
Under normal circumstances, I'd have uttered a few curse words and called a repair person. But our situation was anything but normal. We'd just moved into a rental house -- a move made necessary by plans to renovate our own home. And since we didn't actually own the freezer/fridge, I couldn't do anything except call the landlord.
Day three of our move was not shaping up to be a great one.
What's more, the dead fridge was not our only problem. The rental house was too cold -- you practically needed long underwear to survive the family room. The kitchen was too small -- more suited to a family of two who ate out a lot rather than our family of five who mostly eats in. And the movers (who moved only furniture -- we heroically and cheaply did most of the boxes ourselves) had managed to take a chunk out of my pine armoire.
In short, everything sucked.
Do you ever feel that way when you're writing? You stare at the computer monitor, not knowing what to say. Every sentence you write is tedious and dull. You overuse the verb "to be." You go crazy with audacious adjectives and you use adverbs disadvantageously. (Aside: that last sentence was a joke.)
Or perhaps, worse, you don't write at all and you do other things but you don't do them well or with any particular joy because you feel guilty . . . for not writing.
In other words, your writing life sucks. So what's a person to do? Give up? Sorry, no!
We all need to recognize that not every writing day is going to be a winner. After all, athletes are familiar with "poor performance" days, and recognize that this doesn't, by definition, make them poor athletes. Most chefs have baked cakes that have fallen flat or produced main courses that were less than stellar -- but that doesn't make them any less cooking savvy. Movers have terrible moving days. And so it is with writers. Some days are always going to be better than others. Don't let your inexperience or some bad luck define you.
You are a writer because you are a person who chooses to put words on paper. If you judge yourself too harshly that judgment will simply make the wonderful, creative part of your brain -- the part that writes -- want to hide.
Remember: things go wrong; it happens all the time. But in the end, life usually sorts itself out. With writing, we all improve with practice and a measure of calm.
As for my move, we settled in fairly quickly. I told my landlords we hadn't managed to sell the much-loved fridge in our own house, so they could take it for the cost of moving it to us. We bought an inexpensive space heater for the family room. We decided to eat only in the dining room and turned our kitchen table into a work surface. And I've concluded my armoire looks more antique with a few dings and scrapes.
Stuff happens. Get over it. Keep writing.
A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of the popular book 8½ Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a brief and free weekly newsletter on her website. Subscribe by going to the Publication Coach.
I opened the freezer door and a sea of green goo puddled towards me. What on earth was this stuff?
Turns out it wasn't pond sludge or paint, it was my kids' favourite ice cream -- mint chocolate chip. And it had oozed down to the bottom of the freezer because it had melted. This was a result of the freezer's death, right alongside its guilty partner, the dead fridge nestled below.
Under normal circumstances, I'd have uttered a few curse words and called a repair person. But our situation was anything but normal. We'd just moved into a rental house -- a move made necessary by plans to renovate our own home. And since we didn't actually own the freezer/fridge, I couldn't do anything except call the landlord.
Day three of our move was not shaping up to be a great one.
What's more, the dead fridge was not our only problem. The rental house was too cold -- you practically needed long underwear to survive the family room. The kitchen was too small -- more suited to a family of two who ate out a lot rather than our family of five who mostly eats in. And the movers (who moved only furniture -- we heroically and cheaply did most of the boxes ourselves) had managed to take a chunk out of my pine armoire.
In short, everything sucked.
Do you ever feel that way when you're writing? You stare at the computer monitor, not knowing what to say. Every sentence you write is tedious and dull. You overuse the verb "to be." You go crazy with audacious adjectives and you use adverbs disadvantageously. (Aside: that last sentence was a joke.)
Or perhaps, worse, you don't write at all and you do other things but you don't do them well or with any particular joy because you feel guilty . . . for not writing.
In other words, your writing life sucks. So what's a person to do? Give up? Sorry, no!
We all need to recognize that not every writing day is going to be a winner. After all, athletes are familiar with "poor performance" days, and recognize that this doesn't, by definition, make them poor athletes. Most chefs have baked cakes that have fallen flat or produced main courses that were less than stellar -- but that doesn't make them any less cooking savvy. Movers have terrible moving days. And so it is with writers. Some days are always going to be better than others. Don't let your inexperience or some bad luck define you.
You are a writer because you are a person who chooses to put words on paper. If you judge yourself too harshly that judgment will simply make the wonderful, creative part of your brain -- the part that writes -- want to hide.
Remember: things go wrong; it happens all the time. But in the end, life usually sorts itself out. With writing, we all improve with practice and a measure of calm.
As for my move, we settled in fairly quickly. I told my landlords we hadn't managed to sell the much-loved fridge in our own house, so they could take it for the cost of moving it to us. We bought an inexpensive space heater for the family room. We decided to eat only in the dining room and turned our kitchen table into a work surface. And I've concluded my armoire looks more antique with a few dings and scrapes.
Stuff happens. Get over it. Keep writing.
A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of the popular book 8½ Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a brief and free weekly newsletter on her website. Subscribe by going to the Publication Coach.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Never Give Up
I am a subscriber to Darren Rowse's wonderful, online Digital Photography School. If you have an interest in learning how to use a digital camera, or simply want to learn how to take better shots, this is a great resource. There are lessons on every subject - lighting, portraiture, composition, exposure - and a forum to post photos for critique or ask your questions. Everything is explained in a simple, straightforward manner and beginners are encouraged to just jump right in.
Although the post linked below was written for budding photographers, it can also be applied to those writers out there who are struggling to stay positive and focused. Remember you're not alone, be free to make mistakes, accept criticism and reflect on it so that you can improve, find others who share your passion, embrace your successes big and small, and never, ever give up.
Go Here to read it.
Have a glorious weekend everyone. Remember, miracles can happen.
Although the post linked below was written for budding photographers, it can also be applied to those writers out there who are struggling to stay positive and focused. Remember you're not alone, be free to make mistakes, accept criticism and reflect on it so that you can improve, find others who share your passion, embrace your successes big and small, and never, ever give up.
Go Here to read it.
Have a glorious weekend everyone. Remember, miracles can happen.
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