Karinwritesdangerously

« The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole… » Honore de Balzac

Born today, May 20, back in 1799, Honore de Balzac is still read and relished for his keen character studies and observations on the human condition. May his words of wisdom light our way today:

“All happiness depends on courage and work. I have had many periods of wretchedness, but with energy and above all with illusions, I pulled through them all.”

“God is the poet; men are but the actors. The great dramas of earth were written in heaven.”

“There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.”

“When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.”

“There are two histories: the official history, lying, and then secret history, where you find the real causes of events.”

“All human power is a compound of time and patience.”

“Life is simply what our feelings do to us.”

“Forgetting is the secret of strong and creative lives.”

“An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man’s existence.”

“One hour of love has a whole life in it.”

“Talent is a flame, but genius is a fire.”

“Love is the poetry of the senses.”

And now, inspired and emboldened, let’s all write on!

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« You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world. » Sheila Graham 

« Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. » Pamela Vaull Stark

It’s 2010, and Scott Rudin, the Tony award-winning theater and film producer, is worried. He’s developing a new musical called The Book of Mormon, and things are going wrong, horribly wrong. A week-long workshop reveals some show-stopping flaws in the production: the main character is stuffy and unlikable; the story line is weak and confusing; the humor lacks wit and verve. The show’s writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the two minds behind the popular South Park series), seem to be out of creative gas. 

It’s crisis time. The show is adrift and seems headed toward Off Broadway and a lackluster run. What to do? What to do? 

Instead of running for cover, Scott Rudin took the more dangerous, far riskier path. “Since the guys work best when the stakes are highest,” he decided the show should go straight to Broadway without a tryout. It was a decision with a multimillion dollar price tag.

Here’s Scott’s rationale: “In most of the things that I’ve been involved with that turn out to be good, there is a moment when you have to face your maker. You either sink or swim. This was the moment.”

So the show’s creative team turned its back on Off Broadway and aimed for the brass ring: a Broadway opening. Galvanized by this make-or-break decision to shoot for the stars, the creators pushed relentlessly to ready the show by making much-needed changes. Less than a year later, it opened to rave reviews and garnered 14 Tony nominations!

What’s our takeaway here? Sometimes, when a project is losing steam, the only solution is to turn up the heat: to put yourself under pressure, aim higher than you ever dreamed you could, and then push yourself until you get there. Write on!

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“Writing is visual — it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.” William Zinsser, On Writing Well

On Writing Well a classic writing guide. While it focuses on nonfiction, it also offers wisdom aplenty for those of us creating fictional worlds. A section devoted to paragraphing was full of useful tips for us all:

Ponder length carefully: As a long-time journalist, our boy William is fond of short paragraphs. As he puts it, “Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a big chunk of uninterrupted type can discourage a reader from even starting to read.” Gadzooks! The last thing we want to do is to “discourage a reader!” And yet, William is quick to add: “A succession of tiny paragraphs is as annoying as a paragraph that’s too long….Actually, they make a reader’s job harder by chopping up a natural train of thought.” So choose your paragraph length carefully: let the thoughts you’re conveying dictate how long or short you go.

View paragraphs as building blocks: According to William, “good nonfiction writers…think in paragraph units, not sentence units. Each paragraph has its own integrity of content and is rounded off to serve as both an end and a springboard to what’s coming next.” I love the idea of thinking of the ending of one paragraph as a “springboard” to the next — what a dynamic, forward-driving concept! 

Use paragraphing as a dynamic tool: In William’s view, paragraphing is a “road map” — a way of constantly orienting your readers and showing them the path that your thoughts are taking. Think of each paragraph as a “logical unit” — one that carries the reader along on a smooth, satisfying mini-journey. 

Not surprisingly, William suggests that we analyze the prose of elegant nonfiction writers, E.B. White among them, to see how they marshal their paragraphs into fulsome, satisfying stories. Surely a fruitful idea — and one that we can bring to our fiction reading — and writing — as well. In the midst of reading O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, one of my all-time favorite authors, I’ve been struck anew by how lean, yet emotionally charged, her writing is. I’m going to check out her paragraphing more closely — might offer some clues to her style. Write on!

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Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

—Rumi

Commitment. Confidence. Consistency. In a Success Hotline message (973.743.4690), my friend and mentor Rob Gilbert identified these three C’s as the building blocks of a successful endeavor. Let’s explore their meaning to us as writers:

Commitment: In my mind, a commitment is a promise we make to ourselves — something we take a stand on that’s important and motivating to us. We reach deep into ourselves and decide that whatever we choose to do simply has to be done, without exception. We say to ourselves, “I can, I will, I must” — and we make it happen.

Confidence: This “can do” feeling springs from our belief in our work. Whatever the challenges, we feel equal to them. Confidence is a belief in our innate ability to achieve what we set out to do — to find our way. Yes, there will be obstacles. Yes, doubts will assail us — but like the wind that blows through the branches of a tree, our doubts may shake us, but we will stand strong and they will pass away. 

Consistency: Staying power — the willingness and steadiness of purpose to sustain our commitment through the daily rounds of life. To fulfill our commitment and bolster our confidence, we need to persevere and build momentum through sustained action.

I’d add three C’s to this list:

Concentration: One-pointedness. The ability to screen out distractions and turn all our mental powers to the job at hand. When we concentrate fully, we are in flow: Time stops and there is only now.

Creativity: We have everything we need inside us — a boundless wellspring of ideas we can tap into when we are relaxed yet focused, when we let our work lead us where it wants to go. Relaxed alertness is the open door to creativity.

Courage: The strength and resolve to be bigger than our fears — to see them as paper tigers and break through the self-imposed barriers we build for ourselves. The courage to both dream and do, to fuel our passion with discipline.

When we bring all these to our work consistently, we create “C” Changes—we magically transform ourselves into the writers we want to be. These six qualities and the changes they trigger are the coin of the realm for us. Let’s seek them and spend them wisely as we all write on!

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Whether we’re crafting a short story, novel or play, one of the most powerful — and trickiest tools — in our kit bag is dialogue. Dynamic dialogue makes a story sizzle and gives it forward momentum; lackluster dialogue limps along. How can we inject drive in our dialogue and avoid rookie mistakes? An online story offers some tips:

Keep speeches short: If a character is delivering a pivotal speech, then an extended chunk of dialogue makes sense. But dialogue blocks should usually be pithy and concise — often no more than a few sentences. You can say a lot with a few well-chosen words.

Make each voice unique: Well developed characters will usually have subtle speech patterns that make them distinctive. While you can go overboard in giving each character a verbal tic, it’s important that the reader can easily spot a character’s way of speaking. 

Use dialogue to suggest action: Instead of interrupting a chunk of dialogue with stage directions, you can use a snippet of dialogue to indicate actions. This keeps the story moving and doesn’t interrupt your story or readers’ attention.

Be dramatic: Dialogue is often the perfect vehicle for delivering a big insight or surprising confession, so use it to amp up the emotional drama in your story. But don’t make every speech a “To be or not to be” moment or you’ll wear out your readers. Make those big moments stand out and sparkle.

A few “don’ts” to steer clear of: 

Too many adverbs: They can undercut your dialogue. Avoid sentences like, “I hate my life!” she said gloomily: You’re saying the same thing twice.

Getting creative with dialogue tags: In most cases, you want dialogue tags to just melt away, not attract attention. That’s why it can be best to stick with he or she “said” most of the time. Using tags like “moaned” or “laughed” can be problematic because people can’t talk and moan or laugh at the same time. You are either doing one or the other. On the flip side, using “said” constantly can be annoying. A reader should be able to figure out from the dialogue who’s saying what most of the time.

Using dialect: Unless you’re a master at this, it can backfire. Use it sparingly. A quick turn of phrase may be all you need to signal a speech pattern.

The words we put in our character’s mouths matter. So let’s choose them with care as we all write on!

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“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” Daphne Du Maurer

Today, May 13, is Daphne Du Maurier’s birthday—she was born in 1907. Perhaps best known for her amazing novel, Rebecca, she also penned other well-known novels and short stories that have stood the test of time. Reading Rebecca after seeing the classic movie, was quite an experience. A few thoughts on it that might spark your own muse.

The story begins at the end: The novel begins with several pages of description just dripping with decay. Du Maurer describes Manderley, not in its glory, but in its decline. Naturally as readers, we want to know what happened. Why is Nature encroaching on a place that was once alive with human activity?

Place becomes a character: As we are taken back in time and visit Manderley in its heyday, it quickly becomes clear that it is not just a setting, but also a character in the novel. It seems to live and breathe and have a life on its own, and to affect the people who live there in strange and unexpected ways.

A sense of foreboding creates confusion: From the very beginning of the novel, people begin doing and saying things that seem jarring and disquieting. They seem to be living on the surface of life, while all sorts of emotions roil around just below the surface. This keeps you as the reader, fascinated and engaged. Who are they really? What do they really want? Why aren’t they being honest? As a reader, these are some of the questions you ask yourself. Naturally, you keep on reading.

Everyone has something to hide: As the story unfolds, you realize that everything, even the naive heroine, has something to hide. Nothing is really as it seems. You begin to wonder when the truth will surface, when what’s really happening will be revealed. This keeps you off balance as a reader, which is both enticing and unsettling.

The plot twist at the end is earned: When the story shifts at the end and we see more clearly what’s really going on, we don’t feel cheated. We feel as if the writer earned that ending, because she dropped clues all along the way. And now, as we look back, we see everything in a different light. We see what we didn’t see before. Masterful plotting!

It’s so much fun to read the novels of a masterful writer! There’s so much to admire and to learn. Check out Rebecca—what an amazing, atmospheric novel. Write on!

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“Train Your Brain to Thrive from Nine to Five from the CenterforBrainHealth.org offers some techniques for venturing into our day with “renewed mental vigor.” Renewed mental vigor — sounds great, doesn’t it? Here is a simple strategy for getting the most from a day. It’s an approach we can easily apply to the writing life:

• The night before, identify one or two of the most pivotal tasks you’re facing — tasks that will require deep thinking and advance your longer term goals/vision. (Note: I do this all the time. I have a small pad by my bed and before going to sleep, I jot down a question about a scene or thorny plot point I need help with.)

• Then simply “sleep on” the question or priorities without any effort, relaxing into the belief that it’s in “good hands” and the answer will come to you. By priming your brain the night before notes the report, “you are likely to have unanticipated, new, and productive ideas. Our brain is always working for us especially during sleep when our rhythms slow down. Your brain consolidates your previous ideas into flashes of new insights that can jump-start your big goals for the day.” In short, “just sleep on it” really works!

• In the morning, as you get ready to begin your day, make it a point to keep your environment quiet except for meaningful conversations. Don’t turn on the TV or radio. Try not to make any calls or even listen to music. Just let your brain continue focusing without interruption on the tasks you gave it the night before. 

• When you start to work, don’t get distracted with email or other small tasks. Jump right into the ones you set for yourself the night before. Give them “prime brain time and stick to these top one or two priorities until you make progress.” Start with 15-minute intervals of concentration and work up from there. “You will achieve more in 20 to 30 minutes uninterrupted than you will in over two hours when constantly interrupted.’

• Give yourself regular “brain breaks.” “When working on “mentally challenging activities for more than 25 minutes at a time, take a five-minute break. Your brain quickly resets and recovers from fatigue when you step back. As an added bonus, new visions are likely to arise regarding your task.”

What a promising approach! It works! Just by jotting down a question before I go to bed and then just relaxing and trusting that my mind will work on it, I’ve awakened with some great ideas and solutions. A relaxed mind is a creative mind — this is so true. Why not try this technique? I’d love to have you share the results. Write on! 

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“Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.”
David McCullough

“Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it. Success is shy. It won’t come out while you’re watching.”
Tennessee Williams

“Success is shy” — this intriguing idea prompted me to search my author quotes for other thoughts on success. Here are some to ponder:

“Your success and happiness lie within you.”
Helen Keller

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
Woody Allen

“Everything bows to success, even grammar.”
Victor Hugo

“I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Henry David Thoreau

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates a talented individual from a successful one is a lot of hard work.”
Stephen King

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill

“To love what you do and feel that it matters — how could anything be more fun?
Katherine Graham”

“There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
Christopher Morley

“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.”
Julia Cameron 

“Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.”
Tom Clancy

May a spark here catch fire for you today as we all write on!

For Mother’s Day, a beautiful bouquet of words full of hope and love:

“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness.
If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.”
Stevie Wonder

“This heart, my own dear mother, bends, with love’s true instinct, back to thee!”
Thomas Moore

“God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.”

Twilight

Of all the hours of day or night
Give me the twilight hour,
When little birds hide out of sight
And every sylvan bower
Is filled with their sweet good night song,
While darkness creeps apace
O’er all the bright blue sky along
And hides the sun’s gold face.

That is the hour when Mother dear
Says, “Come, sweetheart,” to me,
“And of the earth’s great heroes hear
While sitting on my knee.”
Upon her arm I rest my hand
And wondrous stories hear,
Until it’s time to go to bed,
Tucked in by Mother dear.

—Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr.

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