The Tao of Creativity

I posted this on my personal blog about two weeks ago and had such great feedback from other writers that I thought I’d share it with the Chrysalis crowd.

From The Tao of Webfoot, January 7, 2010

As I peruse blogs and read other people’s books, I struggle daily with a list of shoulds. I should strike every “was” and adverb from my prose. I should add a bunch of controversial subject matter to my stories. I should enter every writing contest that I can. I should build a huge web presence. I should come up with some brilliant ploy to drive rush-hour volume traffic to my blog.

Or should I? Let’s face it—my voice wants to come out more conversational than literary. Edginess is not something that feels natural to my stories, and I don’t think my target audience would like it. I’m not a contest person; words don’t immediately drip from my fingers. In fact, for me, initial ideas are the hardest part of being creative. I am not a daily blogger. Marketing doesn’t come as naturally to me as breathing, the way it does for Shelli Johannes-Wells, and I haven’t been blindsided by any genius inspirations, like Casey McCormick’s Agent Spotlight.

I don’t think I can change these things. Not easily. And the fact is, I shouldn’t. While the writing process takes dedication and hard work, it should also be organic to who you are. If you’re doing what you’re meant to be doing, the creativity will flow. The work won’t seem like work, because your passion and talent will carry you. All these people who I envy and admire aren’t finding their success because they’re trying to be something they’re not. They’re finding it because they’re following their true nature.

The philosophy of Taoism has a name for this: Wei wu wei, “doing without doing”. If you can’t wrap your mind around that, think of water, which is soft and weak, yet can wear away stone. A second concept goes hand in hand with this: P’u, the Uncarved Block. P’u, is a person’s natural state, their innate self, free of prejudices and misconceptions. The idea is that things are most perfect in this state. When you put these concepts together you come up with the following philosophy: By being true to ourselves, rather than striving to be something we’re not, things will come with less effort, and we will be happier.

The uncarved block

A lot of envy and self-doubt comes with writing. Not just for the un-published crowd, but for established, award-winning authors. These feelings are a fallacy. A time sink that robs our creativity and distracts us from our work.  We all have our unique strengths, and that’s how it should be. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted from your path by the glitter of someone else’s gifts. Your own are just as dazzling.

The First Step of a Novel: Get ‘Er Down

Welcome to the new writers who have joined our group.

A frequent question that has come up is: How should I start writing a novel? We’ll answer that question, but first, raise your hand and repeat after me:

My basic goal is to get the story down on paper.

Now for the different approaches:

Let ‘er Rip:

Sit down, tell the editor in your brain to shut up and write. Now is not the time to fuss over the intro hook, a cliff hanger for every scene, and punctuation. Simply tell your story. Yes, it probably isn’t Pulitzer worthy. Then edit it.  Go through it a couple of times, at least. You’ll find the beginning is usually weaker than the ending because you’ve become a better writer by the time you reached the end.  Edit the beginning several times.

You’ll want to make it the best you can before bringing it to critique. Why would you want folks to tell you things you already know how to do? Use the critique time to gain new insights and info into technique.

Let ‘er Flow(chart)

A story proceeds across my wall in sticky notes.  Different characters’ storylines are in colors, while the main story flows down the center. So, I know the plot, character development, and pacing before I start.  I also know how it begins, ends and where the turning point falls in between. Armed with this information, I’ll follow the Let-er-Rip technique and get the story on paper.  Miss editor-in-my-mind will come by later and make snarky comments.

Let ‘er Be Plotted

This includes not only a visual chart of the characters’ development and story events, but notecards.

*Character notecards (color coded) Contain description, fears, relationships, history, family, nicknames, etc.

*Chapter notecards: Goals for each chapter, Action within chapter; notes about foreshadowing;

YOu may even break chapters into scene notecards.

*Pacing Chart. The action of each chapter or scene can be graphed to give you  visual evidence that your story is not flat-lining.

This technique requires a lot more prep, but the benefit is that you’ll have developed your characters so throughly and the story so deeply that writing will go much more quickly (and usually the editing will too.)

When I first started, I just wanted to write. Phooey on all that planning stuff. There are some very accomplished writers who use this technique successfully.  For me, I  ended up editing the manuscript at least 15 times.  It could probably STILL use some work.

That’s okay. I’ve accomplished my basic goal. Little steps.

Get ‘er Down on Paper.

Chrysalis Holiday Party

Did you miss the festivities? Hurry on over to Rose’s blog. She posted a review and lots of great photos.

If you have  a holiday post on your blog let us know in the comments so we can come visit.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Lisa

From the IN Box

*****Congratulations to Roxie.  I read all the hook entries to a room full of Thanksgiving pre-guests without showing them the picture.  Many of the entries had votes and brought a lot of comments. Roxie’s hook had the most people wanting to keep reading and find out what happens next.

True, the results might have been different if I’d shown the picture, but like a book, I wanted the listeners to be influenced only by the words.

Thanks to everyone for playing, we’ll have more contests. So stay tuned.

By MykReeve

NanoWriMo is finished.

6 Chrysalis writers participated.

Here are some great thoughts from Ruth R. about the experience.

Once I set my mind to begin, the Nanowrimo discipline kicked in and I made a chose to write so many words a day until I completed. That was only a goal. As I met myself each day to write, discipline reinforced my attitude, attitude reinforced my discipline… and I was on a writing roll. Another plus of writing a story is that visiting there each day is like going on a vacation (an escape). I enjoyed going there each day to see what would happen, and reveled in the license I had as a writer to say and do what I wanted! (Sometimes a character told me different.

As I wrote I noted pieces I would revise.  In fact, my story was sandwiched between musings about starting nanawrimo and self analysis at the end. I have left it (anticlimatic) and will come back to it later. As for continuing writing I have set the goal of writing, revising, and accomplishing some stage of the writing process for poems and prose… each day.

I thank Chrysalis,again, for information about opportunities and encouragement.

Funny thing…after I hit 51,350 at 9:20PM on the 29th I decided NOT to send it to nanowrimo. I wrote my piece, set next steps and told my writing pals about it (I did it!)..what more did I need for gratification!

The cheering sound you hear, Ruth  comes from your fellow writers, applauding and saying, “Well done.”

Anyone else want to share their experience?

Winner Announced Next Chrysalis

Thanks everyone who posted.  We had some very clever hooks.

Some of you got hung up in the “pending file”, but you’re posted now and your entries are in the hopper.

Visit Chrysalis on Wednesday, (Thanksgiving Eve) to hear who the winner of the hook contest is.

What?

You didn’t think I’d tell you, did you?  right now?  You knew I’d keep you on the HOOK.

Everyone had their humor and brilliance shining. It was fun and we’ll have more contests.

From the Beginning…

Okay,  Put your thinking caps on.

Your job is to come up with a simple sentence. The beginning hook for a story. It must be based off the picture below. Funny, sad…whatever.

Post your one sentence hooks in the comments. Enter as often as you wish.

We’ll announce the winner in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure what the prize is yet, but you’ll have to come to Chrysalis to get it.

Have fun. Get Creative.

Keep Entering Those Contests

Congratulations to Chrysalis’s very own Rose L. (see members’ bio).

She won a prestigious poetry competion, and netted fame, honor, and best of all….

a by-line and cash.

Rose was gracious enough to share the site, so you, too can enter those contests.

Click here for the Winning Writers link that gives you numerous contest options.

Good Luck.

Writing Unblocked

How do you unblock your ideas and get them onto paper?

Here are a few things I’ve tried with varying degrees  of success.

• Typing with the  monitor turned off.

• That way I can resist the urge to go back and read what I just wrote.

• Typing with out editing

Same principle. My goal is to get it on paper anyway I can, then go back and fix it.

Writing a few pages from a great novel in longhand

Sounds weird, but if I’m really stuck, there seems to be a kinesthetic connection between handwriting movement and jump starting the brain.  It reminds me of my first VW.  Sometimes I had to get it rolling and pop the clutch with it in gear to get the engine to turn over.

Music

You’ll kick yourself if you haven’t used this technique. The trick is to use the right kind of music. I have to use tunes without words because I find the lyrics distracting, but you may not. If it’s an action scene I use wild flamingo music or rah-rah fight tunes. If it’s a  pensive piece, then Enya.

Read a good book

Well, you should ALWAYS be reading a good book. But do more than read. Pay attention to the things that make you sad, happy, interested.  (I’ve tried reading really crappy books, thinking that I’d come away feeling that I could do better, but mostly I was disgusted that I’d wasted my time)

Take a long walk

I’ve walked a lot of  my characters’ problems away.  Sometimes I carry a small recorder with me, because I have the memory of a gnat and the brillant solution I found at Mile 1 is unavailable to my brain cells by Mile 4.

Yoga

This is part of the  mind/body connection. But there is something about opening your body that will unclog creativity.

There are more…lots more…

What do you do to keep the words rolling onto the page?

When Did It Pay to Sing in The Rain?

So….

In a chapter that I’m writing, I have  2 characters gazing at  Orion at 2 in the morning.

Wait a minute.

Is Orion still overhead at that time?

I’d better go to:     http://www.wolframalpha.com/    and check it out.

This is a computational website. It gives you encyclopedic details that a writer would love to have, without spending hours in research.

No more plotting on old calendars. Now you know if April 14, 1982 was on a Wednesday or a Thursday. It will also tell you the weather on that day.

Do you need a growth chart for a child? Want to know the signal for “G” in morse code? Compare an SAT score?

How about some data on deaths for that murder mystery you’re concocting?

Need some research info for the freelance article you’re putting together?

Give it a try. It’ll have you “Singing in the Rain.” [ by Adlolph Green and Betty Comden; released 1952.  The Movie made $120,420]

Wolframalpha told me that computes to 235.1 million in today’s dollars (in case you wanted to know).

Information for Writers

gadl's thesis

Hi lady writers,

I’m copying and pasting some important information from Terripatrick.  She put it in a comment that got hung up in a post, and I don’t want you to miss it.

“Here’s two wonderful agents that blog – and they really do love writers.
Jenny Bent: http://www.thebentagency.com/ and here’s a link to her take on conferences: http://www.thebentagency.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=60

“Kristen Nelson: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/ There’s tons of great information on this blog, she’s been posting for a long time and covers all kinds of publishing business topics.

I agree with Terri.  I like to set aside a few moments to read agent’s blogs. It keens one’s ability to keep up with what agents/publishers are searching for.

And Yes, they are still looking for crisp language with an inciting plot and memorable characters. But with 10-30 seconds to review your submission, your brilliance may be overlooked unless you have some help.

Check this out. Does anyone have other helpful blogs they’d like to add to this share?