Karinwritesdangerously

« What greater wisdom can there be than kindness? » Jean Jacques Rousseau

Some time ago, I was scrolling through my emails when one headlined  “Productivity Tips,” caught my eye. Since I wasn’t feeling productive, I decided to check out the video it featured. I’m so glad I did! Because it wasn’t about productivity at all. It was about not feeling productive.

It was an honest, candid admission by a writing coach who prides herself on being a highly productive, overachiever about how she’d run into a technical snafu on a project and was feeling overwhelmed.

She really had only one bit of advice to give: Be kind to yourself. And that’s what she was going to do herself that day: Instead of a forced march toward a goal she’d set for herself, she was going to give herself a different day. She was going to take a break — and later that evening, she was going to call an old friend and watch a movie with her and they were going to talk about it over the phone and just have fun. How wise!

In this same spirit, along with doing our best to help each other through these trying times, let’s also be kind to ourselves, let’s also help ourselves as we would a friend:

Let’s be kind to ourselves when we’re not feeling all that productive. If we can’t push through it, let’s just give ourselves permission to take a break and go back later. More often than not, just relaxing and having a little fun will help us get back on track.

Let’s be kind to ourselves when we’re feeling forgetful. Focusing takes a lot more energy these days, doesn’t it? So if you are not on top of everything — if you’re scattered and forgetful, simply be OK with it and go on. It’s OK, Karin. It’s OK, I tell myself.

Let’s be kind to ourselves when we our usual strategies for keeping anxiety at bay don’t seem to be working. Keeping busy is a way of coping with anxiety for many of us, including myself. And maybe you, too. But sometimes these tools we use don’t work. When that happens, why not admit it and try again later? And then, renewed, write on!

For those of you celebrating Easter – Happy Easter — have a joyous holiday!! And for those of you celebrating Passover – Happy Pesach! Here’s a lovely poem by A.E. Houseman from A Shropshire Lad:

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It leaves me only fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

« Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. »
Washington Irving

« Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. »
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodson Burnett

Amazing story department: When Bishop Curry, an 11-year old boy from Texas, learned about the deathly dangers of babies being left in hot cars, he knew he had to do something. So he invented “Oasis” — a device that sits on a car seat. If a baby is left in the car, it blows cold air and calls emergency responders. Brilliant!

With his dad’s help, Bishop prototyped his idea. Then they set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of a patent and initial manufacturing and raised almost $50,000. Business students heard about the project and volunteered to help the young inventor.

When asked about the next step after securing a patent, feisty Bishop said, “After that we gotta work with the manufacturers, which I don’t know a lot about that stage, but I will learn about it.”

What an inspiring tale! It speaks to me as a writer on a few fronts:

First, Bishop acted on his idea. He didn’t just let it flit away. He thought about it and talked about it. He didn’t just have a wish — he had a purpose: to save little kids. Our takeaway: Wishes can be wispy and fleeting; a purpose has drive and energy. Animating our projects with purpose — improving our craft and/or sharing what we’ve learned in a memoir or novel — can keep us moving forward.

Second, Bishop got help, not just from his family and friends, but from the universe. He and his dad created a GoFundMe campaign.  The idea attracted family and friends, but also strangers. Our takeaway: As writers we need help to bring our stories to fruition: encouragement, critiques, expert guidance. When we find the strength to ask for help, it often arrives in surprising ways and from surprising places.

And finally, Bishop doesn’t know about manufacturing, but his can-do attitude — “I will learn about it” — shines through. It’s just one more thing to be mastered. Our takeaway: Let’s see obstacles cropping up in our writing as opportunities to learn something valuable that will enrich our work and build our skill.

As Bishop’s dad said, every kid has « internal genius, » just waiting to be tapped. Since we’re all kids at heart, it’s in you and in me — write on!

« Just keep going. You’re on the right track. You’re going to find it. »
Directions from a helpful stranger

One balmy evening some time ago ago, I hopped on the subway and found my way Brooklyn. My destination: a book signing.

I was equipped with Google Map notes, but since I’m directionally challenged, I still felt the need to ask someone if I was heading toward 7th Avenue, a major thoroughfare. The fellow I asked paused briefly and grinned. Instead of simply saying, “Yes,” he made the comment quoted above. It occurred to me that this is not just a road map for finding a bookstore in Brooklyn, but also one for writing:

Just keep going: Whatever obstacles you encounter and however tough a writing session proves to be, forward momentum matters. If you just keep going, no matter how long it takes, you will eventually reach your desired destination. But if you let distractions or disappointing days derail you, you won’t get where you want to go. 

You’re on the right track: Knowing that you’re on the right track makes all the difference when it comes to motivating yourself. To me, this doesn’t mean that I won’t make mistakes or find myself in a muddle or take time-consuming detours the don’t prove fruitful. For me, being on “the right track” means that I’m pursuing the right road overall and keeping my eye on the prize.

You’re going to find it: If I just keep going and stay on the right track, then I’m guaranteed to ultimately achieve a major goal, which is to produce an exciting, engaging children’s novel. The same goes for you and whatever major project you are working on. 

Let’s keep it simple. Let’s follow these three steps and screen out everything else. If we keep going, stay on the right track, and have faith that we’re going to find what we’re aiming for, then we’ll all reach our writing destinations — and have fun along the way. Write on!

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« The chemistry of the body is inseparable from the chemistry of the brain. Movement can stimulate anyone. I can’t say enough about the connection between body and mind; when you stimulate your body, your brain comes alive in ways you can’t simulate in a sedentary position. You’re making it work differently, and new directions can result. »
Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

The Creative Habit brims with helpful ideas to jump start everyone’s imaginative juices. It’s no surprise that dancer Tywla Tharpe believes in the body-brain connection and that physical activity ignites creativity. 

As writers, how can we ramp up our physical activity? On days when we can’t make it to the gym or go for a run, how can we boost our creativity? A few strategies:

Do chair exercises: Simple body movements performed « butt in the chair » mode reduces fatigue and gives creativity a jolt. You can find easy chair exercises online.

Stretch and walk around: Every hour or so, stretch, shake out your mental cobwebs, give your eyes a rest, and get your blood flowing. Walk up and down a hallway or stairs. Moving every hour for a few minutes will refresh you and may even trigger a new idea or two. 

Dance to a beat: If you work at home and can dance, go for it! Moving to a beat helps get your creative juices flowing. It also boosts your endorphins, upping your happiness IQ. A song lasts a few minutes, but the surge in creativity it gives you can be long-lasting. 

Walk on the wild side: Nature is restorative! Research shows that people who spent four days hiking while unplugged scored almost 50% higher on creativity tests than a control group. Give yourself and your writing a gift! Leave your cell at home and take a walk in a park. Many a writer walks daily. I’ve had many inspiring ideas among trees and flowers!

In-chair exercises, dancing, walking — we can do this! Write on!

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« I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil. »
Truman Capote

Our boy Truman has a point: pruning our prose is often one of the best ways to improve it. There are so many missteps that can weaken the arrangement of words we put on a page: dull adverbs, lackluster adjectives, redundancies. Whatever we’re writing, we want it to sparkle and sizzle, not sputter and fizzle. As Jack Hart puts it in his terrific guide, A Writer’s Coach,” “Anything that doesn’t contribute to a piece of writing detracts from it. So create the strongest possible prose by eliminating everything that isn’t essential.” Strong words, but valuable advice. Here are some more tips from Jack for streamlining your sentences and adding more punch to your prose:

Question everything: Once you have a full draft, read through it slowly, mentally cutting words, phrases, and clauses. If the cuts don’t change the meaning, then keep them. If a word adds little to an essential point you’re making, consider cutting it. Look closely at the words or phrases on both sides of a conjunction like “and” or “but” and make sure they each say something different and that you need both of them.

Make modifiers work: Be sure that these descriptive words add impact by making them specific. Instead of using the word “worn,” come up with something juicier and more evocative, like “rump-sprung.” If a modifier repeats a meaning already conveyed by its noun, then drop it. For example, “slowly ambled” can be shortened to “ambled,” because ambling implies a slow pace.

Don’t overload: Don’t intimidate your reader with convoluted sentences that are confusing and muddy your meaning. Focus on one or two main ideas in each sentence and keep working until their meaning unfolds elegantly and clearly.

Avoid creeping nouns: Avoid using two nouns when one will work. Forget “sales event” and use “sale;” dump “crisis situation” and say “crisis.” And write on!

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« You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. »
Maya Angelou

« You can be cautious or you can be creative. But you can’t be a
cautious creative…Good ain’t near great. »
George Lois, art director

Wonderful, isn’t it, the way the inspiration for our work can come from so many places? I once read a piece by Anne Sibley O’Brien, a children’s book illustrator, with some great advice for us all. In it, she talked about her growing inner desire to “be bold and fierce. To do the work that only I can do.” To spur herself on, she created a list of practices that in her experience help her be bolder and fiercer. Here are some of her approaches that we can apply to our own projects:

Sit in stillness: “Getting quiet is the core practice for shifting from the good ideas imposed by my busy, chattering brain to the much better ideas and images that bubble up from somewhere deeper in
my unconscious.”

Ask questions: Anne finds that her work often improves when she spends time “musing on the questions I’m asking and what I want to achieve.”

Visualize: Daydreaming about an unfinished piece: what it will be like when it’s completed and how it will make you feel can be a great motivator.

Use free writes: As Anne puts it: Setting her pen to paper and “writing without stopping for a timed segment is a good way to go digging for and be surprised by nuggets hidden in my unconscious.”

Create a buffer zone: when you are creating, give yourself an “envelope of quiet, time, ease and freedom around the work.” Focus totally, with no distractions.

Give it space: Creative work “benefits from time to mature like wine. I’m able to see more and take the work farther when I live with it for a while.”

Be serious, yet light: Take your work seriously, but “hold it lightly. Don’t apologize or make excuses. Instead, put that energy towards creating work” that you can be proud of.

Get help: Anne values the insights of Eric Maisel, a creativity coach and especially likes three of his many books: Coaching the Artist Within, The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance, and Fearless Creating: A step by Step Approach to Starting and Completing Your Work of Art.

Let’s be fierce and bolder — and see if we can use some of Anne’s advice this week as we write on!

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As we move into warmer, greener days, something to delight us all:

“They always called it Magic and indeed, it seemed like it in the months that followed — the wonderful months — the radiant months — the amazing ones. Oh! the things which happened in that garden! If you had never had a garden, you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden, you will know that it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there. At first it seemed that green things would never cease pushing their way through the earth, in the grass, in the beds, even in the crevices of the walls….

“The seeds Dickon and Mary planted grew as if fairies had tended them. Satiny poppies of all tints danced in the breeze by the score, gaily defying flowers that had lived in the garden for years and which it might be confessed seemed rather to wonder how such new people had got there. And the roses — the roses! Rising out of the grass, tangled around the sun-dial, wreathing the tree trunks and hanging from their branches, climbing up the walls and spreading over them with long garlands falling in cascades — they came alive day by day, hour by hour. Fair fresh leaves, and buds — and buds — tiny at first but swelling and working Magic until they burst and uncurled into cups of scent delicately spilling themselves over their brims and filling the garden air.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, from The Secret Garden

« Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? » John Keats 

Adversity—it’s not exactly something we embrace with enthusiasm! And yet, here, Keats advises us to use it as a catalyst for growth. How, practically speaking, can we use adversity? How can we use it to spur us to change and improve, instead of grinding us in the dust and making us feel powerless? After pondering this, I’ve come to see that when adversity comes our way, when it smacks us over the head, we still have the ability to make a choice about how we’ll respond to it.

In a nutshell, we can use it or let it use us. 

On the writing front, adversity — defined as ill fortune, misfortune, or a trial — comes to us in many forms:

We can find ourselves stymied by a writer’s block or hit a rough patch when our prose limps along on feet of clay. We can face revision decisions and feel like throwing our pages up in the air because we’re confused and frustrated. We can read something wonderful by someone else and fear our story will never be as good or as popular or as….whatever. Or we can polish our prose and buy it dancing shoes and send it out into the world only to have it meet rejection and be forced to regroup and revise yet again.

I could go on, but it’s painful and I know you get the picture. At some point, if you’ve been writing for a while, it’s likely that you’ve faced all these trials in one guise or another. Here’s the rub: Adversity comes with the territory. If we’re striving to write dangerously, to get out of our comfort zones, to do something that matters to us, well, the world is going to smack us down. Not once, but more than once. 

So let’s rethink our mindset about adversity. When it comes our way—and it will!—let’s use it to activate us to up our game. If we get rejected, let’s use the pain we feel to make our characters experience their pain more deeply. If we feel envious, let’s use that to push ourselves harder. If our revision stalls, let’s take a pause that refreshes or ask for help so we can get back on track.

When adversity hurts us, let’s make sure that’s not the end of the story. Let’s compel it to help us, to make us better, as we all write on! 

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« Have fun, and write what you love. When J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, and my boss, Arthur A. Levine, bought the American rights, fantasy wasn’t “hot.” Children’s books weren’t “hot.” British books weren’t “hot.” And publishing people sort of thought Arthur was nuts. But he just knew he loved this book, that it was one of the most fresh and wonderful things he’d ever read.

And that magic happened because Ms. Rowling wasn’t writing to please the market. She was writing to please herself. And she did that across all seven books, in spite of the pressures of fans and reporters and the Internet and critics, keeping true to her vision every step of the way. »
from Second Sight by Cheryl B. Klein

There are so many things to love about these passages from Second Sight, ow a classic writing guide by a gifted editor, Cheryl B. Klein, who served as continuity editor for the two last Harry Potter books in that ever-popular series. While this guide focuses on books for children and young adults, it offers well-honed advice on character development, voice, and plot that applies to all types of fiction.

“Have fun,” and “write what you love” — what better touchstones can we have for the work that we do? So often, it’s easy to derail ourselves by thinking about what’s popular and what’s passé, what’s selling and what’s slumping. The best path we can take? The one that leads us to stories we love—love stories we want to share. The best path we can take is the one that leads us straight on until morning by staying true to our vision and writing the best book that we can write in the way that only we can write it. All the rest is just distraction. Write on!

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