take a bow

Are you in the process of writing a poem or story or novel? Is there an unfinished canvas on your easel? Have you come up with a tune you just can't get of your head? Do you dance or sculpt or doodle just for the pleasure of it? Then you deserve some recognition.

If you were among those who raised their hands while reading last week's post--and even if you weren't--this week is your chance to stand up and take a bow.

So....please:

--Take a bow if you manage to carve out time in your busy day to indulge your inner artist.

--Take a bow if you hold down a job that pays and you still make time to write, or paint, or compose, or practice.

--If you gave up your day job on the advice of your muse, bow to her.

--If you keep house or have a family or do the yard work, and you still insist on making time to write, or draw, or sing, or dance...take an even deeper bow.

--If people you know regard you as selfish, or lazy, or irresponsible because you decided to follow your dream, smile at them...and take your bow.

--If you have been known to set a manuscript, or a sketch, or a song aside because you thought it wasn't "good enough" (even though it was the best you could do) and then, sometime later on, you went back to it and made it better...you deserve to take a bow.

--If you have ever sworn you were quitting...that you were a failure...that there was no hope for you...but found yourself back at your laptop, or canvas, or keyboard the very next day...now is the time for you to take a bow.

--Even if you haven't been published, or been featured by a gallery, or found your way onto the stage, as long as you keep trying...you should take a bow.

--If you encourage others to follow their dream...if you support their efforts...if you attend a book signing, or you're in the audience on opening night, or you join their gallery walk...take a well-earned bow...

...because you deserve a round of applause!

If you love what you're doing and wouldn't have it any other way, you deserve a standing ovation...

...because you are an inspiration to all of us!

*

"Always wish that you may find

patience enough in yourself to endure,

and simplicity enough to believe;

that you may acquire more and more confidence

in that which is difficult

in your solitude among others.

--Rainer Maria Rilke--

*





Who inspires you? Who encourages you? Who supports your artistic dream?

jan

raise your hand if...

This week I thought I'd take an informal survey of your thoughts about the creative process, whether you write, paint, sculpt, compose, sing, dance, or act--whatever it is you do to indulge your creative spirit. So...please raise your hand: 



--if you sometimes feel like you're the slowest writer (or artist, composer, choreographer, photographer...) on the face of the planet

--if you sometimes feel physically drained after writing an emotionally charged scene (or struggling with a complicated melody, or agonizing over just the right color...)

--if you ever burned a meal while trying to put the finishing touches on a chapter (or a sketch or a tune or a scene...)

http://ironfiremen.com

--if you have been known to curse at the dog (like I just did!) because the poor thing needed to go out and you were in the middle of an imaginery conversation with your character that couldn't wait

 

http://www.chaar.us

--if you sometimes make up excuses (oh, all right...if you sometimes lie) to avoiding engaging with family or friends who don't seem to understand how important your work is

http://bestwaytogetridof.com

--if, at all times, you carry at least five pens (or the eqivalent--camera cards or canvases). Six to ten is even better. Go ahead. Check your purse or briefcase now.

--if you have enough pens with you but sometimes you forget to carry paper. Therefore, sizable chunks of your manuscript (or sketches or melodies) are recorded on napkins, on the back of receipts, on cancelled envelopes…and when that fails—on the back of your hand.

--if you have perfected the ability to record plot points, dialog, and gorgeous prose (or lyrics or landscapes) whenever and wherever the muse is kind enough to share them with you…and you can do it without taking your eyes off the road.

--if Soduko makes you cringe

--if you are reluctant but willing to concede that your laptop/word processor is a convenience, but you will defend the merits of pen and paper to the end. Remember the likes of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?

--if, when you’re writing or drawing or composing you sometimes make yourself cry

--if you sometimes make yourself laugh

--if you look over what you’ve created later on…and it happens again

--if "I wasted the whole day,” is not part of your vocabulary

Raise your hand if any of this sounds like you...because next week you get to take a bow!

*

"If you cannot tell the truth about yourself,

you cannot tell it about other people."

--Virginia Woolf--

*

After you raise your hand, take a bow.

jan

setting priorities

Here's how I know I'm getting better at writing. (Note: I didn't say getting better at writing well, or writing successfully, or writing correctly--just writing.)

Dirty dishes languish in the sink. Dust bunnies--more like dust gorillas--have sought refuge in the corners of my house and under the furniture.

http://pitbulllady.blogspot.com

The unmistakable aroma of old onions and moldering coffee grounds fills the kitchen. The hamper is overflowing with dirty laundry. And I've been eating leftover leftovers for days.

I'm sitting on my new patio, in front of my laptop, on a heartachingly beautiful late summer afternoon, gazing off into the clear blue sky as if inspiration will rain down upon me with the next passing cloud.

www.dieuwkeswaindesigns.wordpress.com

And I'm writing about it.

So...I think I finally have my priorities right!

Not!

The last time I counted them, there were over seventy-five books about writing on my shelves.

How to write, why to write, when to write, where to write--all lined up to help me write better, which is a good thing, because I didn't have an MFA or a degree in journalism when I started writing and I don't have one now. I had to learn it all myself:

--Dirty dishes and laundry can wait; writing cannot.
--Anyone can haul the garbage out, but not everyone can write.
--Dust gorillas are exceptionally tame and they love it when you read to them.
--Properly refrigerated, food stays good for days.
--Life is too short (you fill in the blanks--to stay inside on a heartachingly beautiful day, to live with regret, to keep your story to yourself...).

What are your priorities in life? Where on your list does writing fit?

*

"We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves

for having slipped creative work in there

between the domestic chores and obligations.

I'm not so sure we deserve such big A-pluses for that."

--Toni Morrison--

*

By next week, I hope to be at the midpoint of my WIP, now that I have my priorities in order.

jan





plug into the power

Imagine that you have just installed an entertainment center in your home. Not just a few hi-tech add-ons, but an entire room devoted to the latest devices and innovations in home entertainment--a wall full of HD flat screen TVs, each individually programmed, stereo surround-sound, deep, reclining leather seats each with its own beverage holder, adjustable lighting--whatever is the latest and greatest in comfort and convenience. It is the envy of the neighborhood. People stop by just to see it, just to sit in one of those soft recliners.

www.fopple.com

But there's one problem. It isn't connected with a power source. Even though everything is there, nothing works. It can't perform any of the functions it was meant for.

It needs to be connected with a source of power.

This was the thought that led me to take a few days off last week to help out with a spiritual retreat http://www.harrisburg-cursillo.org.

Even though my meditation and prayer life are both solidly in place, they didn't seem to be working for me. I needed to "plug into the power." Long story short: due to a number of serendipitous happenings, I ended up leading the retreat...and I didn't know it until the day before we started.

Now, having spent three days among women of enthusiastic and unwavering faith, having been led by highly respected spiritual leaders, having laughed together and cried together in song and in prayer...I feel renewed. The "Power" has been turned back on.

http://thewingsofinspiration.blogspot.com

Similarly, as writers, we need to recharge our batteries from time to time--when our creative energy diminishes. When our motivation runs out. When the words won't come. We may have all the finest tools in place--grammar, punctuation, storyline, characters and scenes--when the power goes off. We find ourselves sitting in front of a blank screen and nothing seems to work.

This may be a good time to attend a workshop or conference, read something by a favorite author, surround ourselves with people who support us--whatever it takes to plug back in to the power...

...because when we make the effort to recharge our own batteries, we become a source of power for others.

How do you plug into the power?

What is it that drains your battery?

*

"Fulfilling our creativity

is a sacred trust."

--Julia Cameron--

*



In my next post, I'll share some thoughts about pursuing dreams later in life.

jan

embracing the essay

I'm still in recovery mode following the Mayborn Conference last weekend in Dallas! My brain is still mush. Never mind the fact that, due to weather related delays, numerous re-bookings of my flights and missed connections, I won an overnight stay in Detroit compliments of Delta Airlines...so, of course, I was sixteen hours late arriving in Dallas and two hours late for the conference on Friday morning. Mush.

If you write any kind of narrative nonfiction you should definitely consider attending this conference next year. For two days we were dazzled by Pullitzer Prize winning reporters, correspondents, film makers, and biographers including Isabel Wilkerson (The Warmth of Other Suns), Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb), and Debby Applegate (The Most Famous Man in America), as well as a host of other award winning writers.

Interestingly, the theme of this year's conference was "Crossing Genres--Using Storytelling Techniques in Narrative Nonfiction." This is a stretch for reporters and the like who were trained to tell the facts and only the facts--who, what, where, why, when--and then, only if they could prove them.

My goal in attending this conference was to learn as much as I could, as fast as I could about writing the essay. The critique and revision workshop I attended on Friday did the job. Our group was moderated by author and freelancer Bill Marvel.

Bill Marvel

I've been asked to share some of what I learned from him, so I am posting the critique questions we were asked to respond to when we reviewed one another's work. If you are writing an essay, ask yourself these questions:

          --Does your opening or "lead" draw the reader in by teasing his interest, creating a mystery, a puzzle, or a question that in some way grabs and holds his attention?

          --Is the theme of your story clearly stated; that is, does it answer the question, what's this story all about and, more importantly, why should we care? Typically, when the theme isn't clearly stated, the story will start to meander in different directions.

          --Does the opening or "lead" of your story relate to its theme? Even when a lead is clever and well written, it has to connect to the main theme of the story or readers will usually stop reading. Every writer has an assumed "contract with the reader" to deliver what's promised. If the story doesn't deliver what the lead promises, readers typically feel violated and stop reading. 

          --Have you used specific, concrete details and facts that are fresh and relevant, or did you resort to vague or abstract generalities.

          --Does your story touch the reader emotionally? Does it provoke, enrage, incite, delight, numb, make us laugh, make us cry, or in other ways, move the reader on an emotional level? If the story doesn't engage us emotionally, we're not likely to keep reading no matter how good the writing.

          --Does your story deliver sufficient proof to make it credible? Put another way, does the story demonstrate that you have done your research? Does it contain telling details, facts, statistics, quotes, and other material from a variety of primary and secondary sources to validate the main themes and sub-themes of the story?

          --Does your story provide historical context that helps illuminate the current dvelopments and the characters who are acting or being acted upon by the current development?

          --Does the story have parts and a structure that fits together into a coherent whole, with a clear beginning, middle, and end? A well-crafted story makes the reader's journey both practical and
pleasurable.

          --Have you identified and sufficiently developed the dramatic elements of the story: conflict, contention, confusion, and resolution?

          --Do the people represented in the story come axross as multi-dimensional characters or talking heads? Do they come across as human beings who think, feel, laugh, and cry? Or do they come across as flat, lifeless automatons?

          --Do you employ metaphor, scenes, dialogue, and other storytelling devices to make your story more vivid, to help it come alive on the page?

          --Does your story possess a lyrical quality? That is, does the story give the impression that you have considered the tone of the story, the sound of the language, the rhythm, rhyme, and pacing of the prose?

Each of these elements is important in the writing of cohesive, engaging, and compelling essay or narrative report. I'm already hard at work on my revisions. I hope this proves to be as helpful to you as it was for me.

*

"It always comes back to the same necessity:

go deep enough and

there is a bedrock of truth, however hard."

--Mary Sarton--

*

I'll be away on retreat next weekend, working on my faith, hope, and love.

jan

see one, do one, teach one

This week I'm getting ready to begin! Again! As I mentioned in my last post, next weekend I'll be at my first nonfiction conference--the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Dallas (http://journalism.unt.edu/).

I wanted to attend this particular conference for a couple of reasons. First, my SIL went last year, and she raved about it. In fact, she invited me to go with her this year. Am I one to turn down a visit with my family that includes southern hospitality--meaning free room and board? Not likely.

Second, I've written a couple of nonfiction pieces over the years, and I want to polish them up. But, like the novel, I suspect there are certain conventions that need to be observed in writing the essay. The problem is I have no idea what they are. When writing a novel, I have learned (the hard way...) that there are certain conventions that label you as a rank know-nothing. For example:

• Never start your novel with a funeral, or a description of the weather, or with a dream sequence.
• Show, don't tell.
• Avoid adjectives and adverbs whenever possible.
• Use active verbs, and avoid passive constructions.

When I started writing my first novel, I barely understood the terms "story arc" and "character arc."

Point of view violations are still a problem for me. But, I think I'm getting better at it. I've learned a lot.

So, my idea was to learn as much about the essay form from the best people I could, in the least amount of time, as soon as possible. Hence, I jumped at the invitation to attend this conference.

Now I'm wading through my pre-conference "homework"--critiquing the essays of nine other writers in advance of a day-long critique and revision workshop.

This is a little like signing up for your first computer class, and being required to write the program for it before you show up for the first session! 

I don't know what I'm doing! That's why I signed up for this conference in the first place!

When educator John Holt said, "We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way," I hope he knew what he was talking about. In med school, it went like this: "See one. Do one. Teach one."

I have a lifetime worth of nonfiction I would like write about, and I want to do it right. So this looks like a good place for me to begin. Again. Wish me luck.

Do you think it's easier to market nonfiction than fiction? Do you think it's easier to write non-fiction?

*

"Genuine beginnings begin within us,

even when they are brought to our attention

by external opportunities."

--William Bridges--

*

In my next post, I'll share some of what I learn at this conference.

jan

what is your story?

In just two weeks, I'll be soaking up literary nonfiction wisdom at the Mayborn Conference sponsored by the University of North Texas ( http://journalism.unt.edu/ ).

In preparation for it, I entered the writing competition with an essay I wrote a few years back. To my surprise and delight, it earned me the privilege of attending an all-day preconference critique workshop. That's the good part.


The hard part is that I now have nine other essays to critique prior to the workshop, and the critique form is three pages long! One of the participants was a professional correspondent for the Houston Chronicle for many years. Like I'm going to judge his writing!


Three of the entries are connected to the Middle and Far East--one about arranged marriage, one about the war in Vietnam, and one about a military doctor's experience in Iraq.

http://www.hanscomfamily.com/

Two of them concern medical issues--in-vitro fertilization, and bulemia.

http://bulemiainutah.blogspot.com

One is about film making and two are family memoirs.

All of them are fraught with turbulent emotional issues, as is my piece.


So...this is what I think; see if you agree:


Some memories are difficult to access when we try to put them into words. We may not be ready or able to plunge ourselves back into the experience. Memories may be blocked...or too painful for us to confront or to process. In fact, when writing a difficult memoir, the story may end up sounding superficial, a mere rattling off of events, rather than an in-depth look at our emotional reaction, the ways we coped...or failed to cope...and how that formed us as individuals. Which is what the reader aches to know...because it's how the reader learns.


In one of the essays, the writer alluded to sexual abuse but never spoke of the circumstances, or her response to it...leaving me wanting to know more. To understand her story better.


One writer witnessed the brutal murder of an elderly woman in a helicopter attack during the Vietnam war.

She described the incident but couldn't communicate her horror and how it affected her, except to say that the episode is still vivid to her as an adult.


I had the same difficulty with my piece. It is the story of my brother's hospitalization with rheumatic fever at age five. How critically ill he was. How he nearly died. How the memory of it affected him his entire life...and how I never knew it.



www.aeschylus-philanthropy.eu/
This isn't my brother, but you get the idea...



Because it is his story, I didn't feel as though it was appropriate for me to let all of his skeletons out of the closet. He probably hasn't introduced me to all of them yet, anyway. So...I had to omit the hardest part of his experience--the part that still moves me to tears.

I'm eager to hear my piece critiqued so I can make it better...truer...harder. The theme behind it is so important that we have spoken about collaborating on a book about it.

Here are a couple of short exerpts from "The Pull of Gravity":

"He taught me how mindful you must be when you care for children who are ill. You may not discover until it is too late that something you said, or something you did, or that something you failed to say or do, had a lasting impact on your young patient—a sometimes devastating impact."

"He was sure that he was going to die because no one said a word to him about it. He could read the alarm in their eyes, and hear the dread in their voices, but no one explained to him how something like that could happen, or what it might mean, and he was afraid to ask. Instead, he suffered in silence, in confusion, in terror—and he never let it show."

 "The way he explained it to me that night, part of him never emerged from the depths of despair, confusion, and fear he felt as a child. Until he told me about it, no one knew what it was like for him to have been in and out of recovery, in and out of therapy, and on and off medication all his life because of what happened to him in the hospital when he was only five-years old, and I was only three. I was too young to have understood it then, too young to have helped. And now that I know, it is too late."

"How is it, then, that one of us was caged while the other went free? How is it decreed who will be the patient, who the healer, and why? Are we at the mercy of mysterious, random forces as indifferent as fate, or luck, or chance? Is it serendipity, as capricious as the flight of one of the butterflies on the wall of the children’s ward, that brings one to despair, the other to joy? Or are we simply abandoned without hope to question the purpose of pain, the reason for suffering, the price of silence?

How are we to understand that the same illness, at the same time, in the same hospital propelled one of us into the lifelong study of medicine, the other into a lifelong quest for healing?"

...and how will you tell it?

*



"The artist is extremely lucky

who is presented with the worst possible ordeal

which will not actually kill him.

At that point, he is in business."

--John Barrymore--

*

In my next post I'll tell you how this heat wave has affected me...affected me...affected me...

jan