Karinwritesdangerously

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may never complete the last one, But I give myself to it … I have been circling for thousands of years, And I still don’t know: Am I falcon, a storm, or a great song?” Rainer Maria Rilke

What lovely words and how inspiring for us! Rainer reminds us that we writers and creatives have whole worlds within us. We embrace contradictions — we are the storm and the song. And the falcon!

When we give ourselves to our work freely and joyously, who knows what we’ll discover? We might find that we’re:

Sowers — We plant the seeds of ideas that can take root and grow.

Witnesses — We reveal hidden and apparent truths in fresh ways.

Interpreters — We help make sense of the world and ourselves.

Tricksters — We can push life past its ordinary boundaries.

Magicians — We create kingdoms with a wave of our hands.

Menders — We can bring wholeness and harmony to the soul.

What wonderful powers we possess! And as we give ourselves to them and let them grow and begin to shine, we can transform everyone and everything around us. Not always, but sometimes. And those moments are golden.

We are so many things and on any given day we can be one or all of them! We can be the magician who creates and banishes. The mender who repairs broken hearts and worlds. The trickster who challenges.

Who will we be today as we all write on?

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‘The artist, having chosen his theme, picks out only those details that are characteristic and of value for his subject…and he rejects all the remainder and puts it to one side.” Guy de Maupassant

Guy was a master at capturing a few revealing details in a situation and weaving a tale around them. Even now, more than 150 years after they were penned, his short stories are considered highly polished gems. But finding just the right details isn’t always easy, because they are not just window-dressing, they are actually a window into the heart of a scene or a character description.

“What you want, in other words, is telling details, bits of reality that suggest something larger. At their best, telling details operate as symbols that help make an author’s case for a literary theme.” That’s how Jack Hart describes their value in his helpful guide, A Writer’s Coach.

Jack goes on to distinguish between details rooted in sensual reality and those that are more general and cerebral: “A well-chosen detail can tap levels of human response unavailable to writers who offer only abstractions and generalizations. Abstract writing can inform and persuade, but it cannot bring readers to genuine sadness or horror, or euphoria. Simply exhorting an audience to laugh or cry is pointless, and cheap tricks designed to manipulate emotions are readily apparent….”

The emotional power of details is rooted in our brains, notes Jack. Abstract thinking occurs in the cerebral cortex, the most recently evolved and advanced part of the brain. But emotion emerges from the brain’s ancient core as “the direct result of external stimulation. Writing rich in telling detail approximates experience and can also reproduce a human being’s emotional response to experience.”

Fascinating isn’t it? Powerful words evoke powerful emotions, just as if they were being lived through by our readers. Immersing readers in our world or our characters lives through telling details is one of the most effective tools we have in our author’s kitbag. Yet we often take the easy way out, choosing words or phrases that tell rather than show, that register in the mind and not the heart or soul.

Dynamic detail: Let’s use this awesome tool with creativity and gusto as we all write on!

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“Find what gave you the emotion. Then write it down, making it clear so the reader will see it, too, and have the same feeling that you had.” Ernest Hemingway

Ernest makes it sound simple, but it’s not easy! Building telling details into our stories is so crucial — and so challenging — that I wanted to share some more advice from “A Writer’s Coach” by Jack Hart.

First, Jack describes our mission: “All detail should justify its existence by working toward your overall writing goals. Just what are you trying to accomplish, and how does each detail help you do that?….”

“Reaching readers, drawing them into a world you create on a page and making them experience it with both head and heart, requires that you show them exactly what you’re talking about. Before they can get to the same place you are, they need to see what you see, hear what you heard, and smell what you smelled. You must share your experience, not the conclusion you drew from it.”

Telling details can help us evoke atmosphere, scene, character, and theme. One of the ways to do this economically and effectively is to draw on information that readers already have stored away and are familiar with.

Master stylist Gustave Flaubert believed that three details, artfully chosen and arranged, were enough to evoke a create a full scene.

Most readers have been to a soda fountain, for example, and as Jack observes”…you can create a full image of one in their heads by mentioning only the long counter with little round stools on metal pedestals, tulip glasses for chocolate sundaes, and pale-green Hamilton Beach milkshake mixers.”

As Jack also notes, “…details reveal character as well as place. The use of detail for characterization draws on a stored inventory of traits that are linked in our minds.” In short, we can use a few carefully chosen details to summon up a character as well as a scene for our readers — and to give them verbal “cues” about how we want them to see and think about a character.

Like squares in a handmade quilt, details add up to a pattern that helps tell our stories. Let’s find just the right ones as we all write on.

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“Working hard becomes a habit, a serious kind of fun. You get self-satisfaction from pushing yourself to the limit, knowing that all the effort is going to pay off.” Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gymnast

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

Working hard = serious fun = a habit. 

I love Mary Lou’s simple strategy! It reminds me of my friend and mentor, Dr. Rob Gilbert,* who says, “there’s nothing more satisfying than wrestling with something difficult that you really care about.”

Embracing our writing as “serious fun” can be so rewarding!

Thinking of working hard as fun creates a feeling of childlike excitement. Having fun is, well, fun! So we’re more likely to keep going. And if we work in a lighthearted, curious way just as kids do, we are more open to delicious discoveries and word windfalls.

When we see our work as serious fun, it’s seriously, it’s energizing, a soul-nourishing activity. We’re giving effort — giving our time and mental energy to something that matters to us — knowing that, somewhere down the line, we will reap the benefits. 

We also get self-satisfaction — a sense of pleasure from knowing we’re in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing: working hard to improve our writing craft and boost our chances of publication and reaching our desired audience. And when working hard is satisfying, we’re more likely to make it a habit.

Finally, when we are totally absorbed, when we play hard and long just as kids do, we learn so much about ourselves! We learn how much fun it is to really stretch our writing muscles and push ourselves farther. We learn that there’s always more gas in the tank and even surprise ourselves by coming up with creative ideas. How much fun is that!

So let’s see our work today as serious fun and enjoy ourselves as we all write on!

* Be sure to check out Rob’s wonderful Success Hotline (973.743.4690).

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Let’s launch this holiday time with love and gratitude for all we hold dear! May your life be filled with joy and thanksgiving, now and always:

God’s World
Edna St. Vincent Millay

“O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide gray skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with color! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, world! I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known the glory of it all
But never knew I this,
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart. Lord I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year.
My soul is all but out of me — let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.”

Have a blessed holiday with friends and family!

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”

“My book came out; and people began to think that topsy-turvy Louisa
would amount to something after all.”

“Some books are so familiar, that reading them is like being home again.”

“I like good strong words that mean something…”
Louisa May Alcott

The great Louisa May Alcott’s birthday, November 29, will soon be here! Born in 1832, she became one of the most beloved—and successful— authors of her time.

Louisa, like her beloved character “Jo March,” was a tomboy who loved to race through the woods. “No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race,” she once said, “and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences…” Louisa enjoyed nature walks with Henry David Thoreau and often visited the library of her neighbor, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Writing proved to be an early passion for headstrong Louisa, and as a child, fantastic melodramas sprang from her pen, which she and her sisters acted out for their friends with gusto. At age 15, troubled by her parents’ poverty, she stubbornly vowed: “I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won’t!”

Society’s limited views of women’s work didn’t stand a chance in the face of Louisa’s determination: “…I will make a battering ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world.” For years, she did just that, as a teacher, seamstress, household servant — anything she could find to earn a little money.

Enormously tenacious, she launched her career as an author by writing poetry and short stories for popular magazines. In 1854, at the age of 22, she published her first book, Flower Fables. When she was 35, her publisher asked Louisa to conjure up “a book for girls.” Little Women, written from May to July 1868, was based on her own family life.

Jo March, her one-of-a-kind heroine, is widely considered to be the first living, breathing girl to light up the pages of American literature, which was awash in idealized images of childhood. Little Women was an instant success and during her career, 30 books and collections of stories poured from Louisa’s creative and determined pen. 

May her imagination and persistence be an inspiration to us all as we boldly sail our own ships on a sea of words — and all write on!

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There’s probably no more beguiling and bedeviling dimension to a work of fiction than structure. It’s the framework that a story hangs upon and the scaffolding upon which characters spring into life. A strong structure gives a story backbone and resilience; it also provides a springboard for action.

Consider one of the classics of children’s literature, The Secret Garden. First published in 1911 by Frances Hodgson Burnett whose birthday it is today. She was born in 1849. For more than 125 years, The Secret Garden has never been out of print. Scan any list of the best 100 books for children, and you’ll always find The Secret Garden.

Why has this book entranced generations of readers? Is it the vivid and original characters? Yes. Its appealing and magical setting on the moors? Yes. Its strong, propulsive plot? Yes. Its universal themes of love, loss, and redemption? Yes. All these strengths contribute to its success.

But another invaluable asset is its supremely satisfying structure. A master storyteller at the top of her game when she wrote The Secret Garden, Frances employed a classic three-act format to tell her tale. In a nutshell, here’s how it unfolded over the course of 300+ pages:

Act 1 (the first 100 pages): We meet Mary, the spoiled and unlikeable main character who encounters a series of mysteries: What has turned her guardian into a recluse? Where is the secret garden? Exactly who is the “animal tamer” boy named Dickon? Who is it she hears crying in a distant corridor of the vast mansion in which she is marooned?

Act 2 (the second 100 pages): In an artfully succession of reveals, we discover, along with Mary, the answers to each of these overlapping mysteries. We learn of her guardian’s tragic loss, we find and enter the secret garden, we meet the charming and gifted Dickon, and we learn that Mary’s guardian has an abandoned son. Not only are all these mysteries resolved, we are also invited to witness the awakening of the lovely secret garden at the hands of three very different children: Mary, Dickon, and Colin.

Act 3 (the final 100+ pages): Here, all the strands of the story are woven together. The secret garden and the world outside spill over into each other and each is transformed by the other. The garden exerts a healing power, but it can do so only because of the ministering hands of those who have revived it and suffered beyond its walls. All the characters share a unity of purpose as the story concludes.

From a reader’s point of view, this three-act story is soul-nourishingly satisfying. It progresses from suffering and intrigue to revelation and growth to healing and redemption. Analyzing this movement is proving very helpful in my revision. How about you? Is there a story you love that you might benefit from decoding? Write on!

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Wild Nights

Wild nights! Wild nights!

We’re I with thee, 

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!

Futile the winds to a heart in port,–

Done with the compass,

Done with the chart. 

Rowing in Eden!

Ah! The sea!

Might I but moor

To-night in thee!

—Emily Dickinson

“Anyone can do anything at any time.” Grammy Award Winner

I don’t know anything about the young man who said this in a Grammy acceptance speech — who he was, what songs he’d written, or how he rose up to the top of his field. But I knew he was speaking to me — and to you. What a liberating seven words!

Anyone: That’s you, that’s me, that’s anyone we know, and anyone and everyone who feels impelled to write and share their thoughts. All of us are equal when it comes to our untapped potential. If we can find the inner strength to encourage and nourish our ideas, if we bring the loving husbandry needed to let those ideas grow and blossom, we can all achieve something we feel is worthwhile. We all breathe the same air as Shakespeare or Voltaire or Virginia Woolf.

can do anything: Why not? Why not? Who says we’re limited, constrained? Is there any limit to the imagination? Any limit to where it can take us and we can take our readers if we dare — if we stop dreaming and start doing? Nestled within the word “impossible” is
another two words, “I’m possible.” So let’s dream higher, bigger, bolder — let’s write dangerously and see where it takes us. Let’s go all out instead of holding back.

at any time: At any moment every thought we need, every word we long for, is available to us, just waiting to be plucked from the ether and put on a page. We have all the words — and thousands more — that Emily Dickinson or John Keats or Alice Munro or Willa Cather or used to write beautiful, heart-stunning poetry and prose.

Amazing! Just think of all the tools we have at our command — we are kings and queens of the page: It’s our kingdom, our refuge, our playground. At any moment, we have the power to summon up words that sing and dance — and create magic. Right here, right now.

“Anyone can do anything at any time” — write on!

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“I invented this rule for myself to be applied to every decision I might have to make in the future. I would sort out all the arguments and see which belonged to fear and which to creativeness, and other things being equal I would make the decision which had the larger number of creative reasons on its side. I think it must be a rule something like this that makes jonquils and crocuses come pushing through the cold.”
Katherine Butler Hathaway

I’m not sure who Katherine is but these words of hers struck a chord with me. So often, not only in life, but in our writing, we find ourselves faced with making choices that spring from either fear or creativeness. These two impulses an have such different outcomes!

When we choose from a place of fear, what happens?

We feel contracted and constricted: Fear springs from our belief in limitation and lack: That we don’t have enough talent or fresh ideas or skill to write the way we want to write and say what we want to say.

We play small: Fear makes us want to protect ourselves, to stay in our comfort zone, to avoid risks, and choose the easier, less demanding road. We may decide not to make a bold plot choice or not to contact that big agent we’d love to work with but are sure wouldn’t want to work with us.

We fail to believe in ourselves: When fear drives our decisions, we send a message to ourselves that we don’t believe in ourselves: that we don’t have faith in our ability to summon up and find the ideas and words we need to accomplish our goals.

When we choose from a place of creativity, the results can be so much more exciting!

We show courage and confidence: When we make the bolder choice to let go of our fear, we write from an expansive, enlightened place. We feel bigger and more sure of our way. We find the strength to grow, to push ourselves, to explore new territory.

We unleash energy: When we tap into our creativity, we inspirit and embolden ourselves. We release wellsprings of drive and motivation that carry us forward and keep us going when we feel like stopping: We find a second wind.

We summon support: When we let our creativity shine and overtake our fear, we let the universe know that we’re ready and willing to step out, to be heard, to share our words, ideas, and feelings. And the universe responds with unimagined help and encouragement.

Sometime soon in our writing, maybe even today, we’re going to have to choose between fear and creativity. And when that moment comes, let’s be creative crocuses, not shrinking violets. Let’s push through our fear and write dangerously! Write on.

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