Karinwritesdangerously

“Dive deep, that’s where the big fish are.”
Christopher Denise, illustrator

“You can’t push the river.” Whenever I start trying too hard with my writing, this old river-rafting adage comes to my aid. You know the feeling: You are really “efforting” — straining so hard to get something right, or to figure out a thorny plot or character problem, that instead of getting a positive result, all you encounter is resistance. 

Often this happens when we’re operating with our conscious, controlling mind rather than diving deeper into depths of our unconscious — that playful, imaginative part of ourselves that’s our true creative wellspring.

When things start feeling forced, superficial instead of natural and organic — when they seem to skim the surface of things rather than bubbling up from somewhere deep and authentic — what can we do to jump start a more creative response? A few ideas I came across recently may help:

Stop straining: If pushing the river isn’t working, then stop pushing the river! Recognize that you’ve hit an impasse or a plateau. Adjust your attitude: see it as not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity, an invitation to be more open and adventurous, to try something fresh and new.

Go treasure hunting: Instead of condemning yourself for your lack of imagination, invite yourself to have fun, get messy, play around — think of the new path you’re exploring as an adventure, a game. Have fun!

Just “freelax” gently: Give up trying to muscle your mind into giving you want you want and engage your imagination by allowing yourself to enter a relaxed, pleasant state where you’re free to wander and explore. Opt for creative flow rather than linear, logical thinking.

Slow down: Quit trying to drive forward: take your foot off the gas. Daydream, listen to your inner voice, and have the courage to simply wait to see what emerges. Don’t push for results, just wait and see what’s revealed. And write on!

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Dr. Edward Hallowell is a bestselling author, psychiatrist, and ADD expert. I interviewed him once and I’ll never forget how compassionate and insightful he was. In a blog post, he offered 10 very helpful 3-word tips on focus we can all use:

1.  Do The Impossible. People focus most intently when they take on a challenge, when they are working in an area where they are skilled, but where they are also stretched. Often, amazingly enough, what seemed impossible becomes possible.

2.  Trust Your Way. Perhaps the single most clichéd song lyric ever, “I did it my way,” became so clichéd because its message is so powerful. We focus best, we do our best, when we do it our way. We all have our routines, our own individualized process, or way, for producing our best work. Trust yours. When you don’t know where you’re headed, your process, your way, will allow your unconscious to enter in. It will guide you and often surprise you with your most valuable discoveries and unexpected solutions. Don’t work against your grain, but with it.

3.  Take A Break. When you start to glaze over or feel frantic, stop what you are doing. Stand up, walk around, get a glass of water, stretch. Just 60 seconds can do the trick.

4.  T.I.O. Turn It Off. Turn off your electronic devices during periods of your day when you want uninterrupted, focused time.

5.  Ask For Help. Don’t feel it is sign of weakness to ask for help when you hit a snag. Just the opposite. It is a sign of strength and can get you out of a confused place and back on track.

6.  Take Your Time. It’s one of truest rules of modern life is: If you don’t take your time, someone or something else will take it from you. Guard your time jealously. It is your most prized possession. Do not give it away easily.

7.  Close Your Eyes. When you are losing focus or feeling confused, the simple act of sitting back in your chair and closing your eyes can, oddly enough, allow you to see clearly. It can restore focus and provide a new direction.

8.  Draw A Picture. Visuals clarify thinking. Draw a diagram, construct a table, cover a page with zig-zags like a child finger painting, cover a page with phrases and arrows, use colored pencils or markers, do it on poster paper on an easel or on the floor, just get past words and blow up the frame to accommodate visuals of any and all kinds. You may soon see the bigger picture you’d been looking for coming into focus.

9.  Talk To Yourself. Talking out loud to yourself can lead you out of confusion. Assuming you are in a setting that allows for this, simply talk, out loud, about the issue you are grappling with. Talking out loud engages a different part of the brain than thinking in silence. It can clear out the fog.

10.  Do What Works. Don’t worry about convention, or what’s supposed to work. Some people focus better with music playing or in a noisy room. Some people focus better when walking or running. Some people focus best in early morning, others at night. There is no right way, only the best way for you. Experiment to discover what works best for you.

Wonderful advice on harnessing our focus power! Write on! 

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In terms of narrative … there’s nothing but the Bible for sheer storytelling. How do you get at something that has already been done so perfectly? I suppose that explains my ‘fixation’…”   Herman Wouk

Some time ago, a New York Times story by Brooks Barnes sported this jaunty headline: “At 97, He has a Book (or 2) Left.” The story was about Herman Wouk, whose birthday would have been this week, on May 27. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Caine Mutiny, Marjorie Morningstar, and The Winds of War, Herman was almost hitting 100 at the time the Times story appeared, but he was still going strong.

So strong, in fact, that, even as he was aproaching 100, he had just come out with a brand-new novel. It was published by Simon & Schuster, the same firm that published his very first book, Aurora Dawn, which hit the shelves in 1947 — more than 70 years before.

Herman’s novel, The Lawgiver, wove a lighthearted tale told via social media. Yup, that’s right. Hermie was be almost a century old, but he was no slouch with his head in the sand! His novel featured an innovative format that used text messages, memos, e-mails, and even Skype transcripts to corral a subject he had wanted to tackle for decades: Moses.

In a zany literary escapade, Herman decided to take a fresh approach to Moses by building a story around a fictional group of modern media types who are making a movie about him. Woven into the story were some ambitious themes. According to the Times interview, Herman touched on “rekindled love, religious heritage, and familial ties.”

It also gave a moving look at Herman’s 66-year marriage to Betty Sarah Wouk, who served as his agent and creative supporter. Betty Sarah never entered his office, but she played a “mighty” role in his writing life. He read every chapter of The Caine Mutiny to her as he was creating it. At one point, she told him to dump a character. Says Herman: “Pouf. Six months of work gone in an instant.” She was always right, he adds.

Well into his ’90s, Herman was practicing yoga and working with a personal trainer — and still writing away. “Sometimes, when I’m down, I feel like I’ve shot my bolt. But it passes, and I go back to the computer.” Now that’s writing dangerously! Write on!

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« Don’t tell readers what to feel. Show them the situation, and that feeling will awaken in them. Writing is not psychology. We do not talk ‘about’ feelings. Instead, the writer feels and through her words awakens those feelings in the reader. The writer takes the reader’s hands and guides him through the valley of sorrows and joy without ever having to mention those words.”  Natalie Goldberg, writing coach

Wise advice!

In my playwriting class, our instructor Mick would say, action precedes explanation—another way of saying, “show don’t tell.” A play unfolds in time and space: it’s action oriented. It doesn’t have a narrative flow, so you have to use action to convey information.

Even if you’re working on a novel, where narrative drive carries the story forward, it’s still important to go for drama rather than too much exposition. How can you master moments through drama? A few ideas:

Don’t sit outside your story: As writers, we’re observers; we stand outside the action and we describe it. And because we’re omniscient observers, we’re bigger than the action we describe — we encompass it. But we also have to step inside the action and describe what’s happening, not just from the outside in, but from the inside out. As Natalie Goldberg puts it, we need to “breathe the life into it.”

Don’t edit: When you’re in draft mode, stay with your first ideas, the first flashes of word play and inspiration. These flashes come from the deep-feeling part of you and they have emotional energy a reader will connect with.

Be there: Put yourself in the moment you’re writing about — see it, taste it, touch it, hear it. Use the language of the senses to capture its emotional flavor.

As we bring more immediacy to our writing through showing, take heed of Lee Child’s advice about not getting too hung up on the “show, don’t tell” writing rule. Showing too much can slow a story down. Strike a balance between the two in a way that feels right. And write on!

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Let’s launch this Memorial Day weekend early with a moving meditation about heroism:

American Hero
by Mary West Jorgensen

“Our history is studded with heroic names. These names compose a world roster from which almost every nation may choose one and say: He is ours! We produced the clan from which he sprung. See how he spells his name! That is how his family spelled their name years ago, here, in this land.

“The tale of heroism runs true from Valley Forge to Gettysburg, from
the Argonne to Guadalcanal. How is it possible to select one and say
of him: He is the bravest of all?

“Therefore, I choose one who lies in Arlington beneath the inscription: ‘Here rests in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God.’

“Of him we know three things: he was an American, he died for freedom, he sleeps in the comfortable keeping of the Lord of Hosts.

“He is a symbol of heroic qualities, of the vision of Washington, of the humanity of Lincoln, of the courage of MacArthur, of the faith of Rickenbacker, of the sacrifice of Kelly. He is, moreover, a symbol of the common man who dies daily in order that freedom may not perish from the earth.”

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded every minute of every hour of every day. Blessings upon those who keep this silent hero safe and upon all those who have protected us and who even now stand watch and face danger to keep us and America safe. Their tales are so important to share and remember.

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« 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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