http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html

The mystery is often more important than the knowledge

I read a post today over on Literary Lab about a guy who quit his job and traveled the world, dancing badly in every country he went to while video taping it. Then he wrote a book about it. David Malasarn had this to say about the experience:

This video reminded me that, no matter what you choose to do, no matter how stupid it is, if you do it with passion, joy, and love, other people will be able to participate in that dream.

I encourage you to drop over to the site and check out the video. It was cheesy, but he’s right. What an experience that would be; I’d be willing to sacrifice quite a bit to trade places with Matt for a year.  Check out the first few pages of his book, too. I’m going to pick up a copy and read it; sounds like an intriguing adventure.

I read this passage today, taken from Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. Enjoy.

People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you’ve created God it your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.)

Where does your inspiration come from? Do you write in the mornings or the evenings? How do you get the idea for a plot? How do you write such vivid characters?

All journeyman writers know these questions. If you have been to a reading or read an interview of a popular author, they abound. This question bubbles up within every student of the art at some point. What is often missing, and what even the talented author often cannot articulate to words, is the real question: Where, for you, do your inventions begin and how do you recognize them?

For each author, this is different. But essential to the process for every author is analysis. If you do not look, if you do not see, if you do not stop to polish an idea, then how can you recognize dusty gem from dusty rock? Thus, you must begin by finding a strategy that causes you to dig into everything you see, to be curious about every experience of your day.

I’m taking a course on creative writing, and ran across this passage about the importance of journals as an intimate, vital friend to the writer. Enjoy.

Keep the journal regularly, at least at first. It doesn’t matter what you write and it doesn’t matter very much how much, but it does matter that you make a steady habit of writing. A major advantage of keeping a journal regularly is that it will put you in the habit of observing in words. If you know at dawn that you are committed to writing so many words before dusk, you will half-consciously tell the story of your day to yourself as you live it, finding a phrase to catch whatever catches your eye. When that habit is established, you’ll begin to find that whatever invites your attention or sympathy, your anger or curiosity, may be the beginning of invention. Whoever catches your attention may be the beginning of a character.
Writing Fiction, by Janet Burroway

It’s been a while since I’ve been inpired to express creativity in any visual medium. I tried my hand at it today in photoshop, and what you see below is the product of that day.

Those deep, philosophical places in the back of my mind are awed by this–the infinite wellspring of the mind; the baffling power of creativity that draws on God-knows-what to enable us to create such amazing things from nothing; the creative skill that is like an unseen puppet master taking hold and leading every stroke of the brush.

Creativity is to the artist, like water to fish and air to birds: A constant mystery.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is a story of a journey through a world where no hope remains. It’s set in a postapocalyptic world, but is by no means science fiction or at all unbelievable. I have to say, it’s honestly the most believable future I’ve ever read. This is my first book by Cormac McCarthy, and as the blurb on the inside of the jacket says, he literally pulls me through the story unable to put it down, as if by reading I’m keeping the characters alive.

If I had a complaint for this novel, it would be that in the end, I almost felt cheated. Almost. The book was so good, but has none of the classic climax and surreal action I come to expect in fiction. But, in its realism, it is so true to the characters and world, that everything feels impossibly vulnerable–nothing more than a candle in a wind storm, refusing to be snuffed out by nothing more than some indomitable will and obstinate refusal to accept the truth of the situation. It is also a poignant story of a father and son’s love and how that keeps them going, day after day, in spite of a world that will stop at nothing to see them give up.

Wulf Rating:     

Time for a little goal review and setting. Yarr.

November Recap

Two Poems: I wrote four; one of which is being considered for an art contest; goal achieved

Twinergy/Other: I wrote almost 60,000 on Nightshroud, a RHUNE novel.

Total words: 59,800

All-in-all a successful month! Phew! Don’t get many of those : (

December Preview

Book Reviews: I’ll do at least two this month.

Poetry: I’m going to revise and ship off two poems to an art contest at the college.

Writing: I plan to fix the plot for Twinergy this month, so I can get this book back on track.

Okay, start the cheering and the shin kicking!

Besides some beautiful typography, breathtaking prose, and great delivery, what does this prose by Taylor Mali, presented by Ronnie Bruce, have going for it?

It touches on some cords that should be embedded at the heart of any writer’s strategy and writing voice. It touches on principles that should be embedded at the heart of any American. And, it captures the essence of powerful speaking,  powerful writing, and the need for proper, logical, rational, and thorough education.

Enjoy.

Yes, it’s that time of year again: The month when writers everywhere suddenly loose their mojo and forget how to type letters that accumulate into words.

I was over on Lylurn Enclave and found this lament about writer’s block:

So I’ve been stuck for three days, haven’t written a word. They just wouldn’t come out.

I’m sure none of these will be a paradigm shift for established writers, but I find that confirmation other writers are using a tool encourages me to try them too. Here are some of the ones I’ve employed to success against the November Beast of Writerly Agony:

• Surf the web for images that fit my story; get inspired about some character or locale and write on it for a bit;  flesh out some back story
• Write legends about their great uncles or long dead warriors or cultures they idolize or despise
• Rewrite the current chapter from an antagonist’s POV or a minor character’s ( I tend to neglect the villains most)
• Have a written conversation (because that way it’s not crazy) with one of my characters, if two of them are particularly caustic together, talk to them both at the same time; ask how the story is going and what they think I should do (then do the exact opposite of course)
• Pull out the mood music, get some music that really gets me brooding or pumped up; write whatever comes to mind–poetry, battle scenes, crap that won’t be in the book, who cares
• Start the next book. I know that can sound absurd, but often I write books in series out of order. It gives me great insight to where I want the characters to go in the future (and if they should even live this book).
• Pull out one of my favorite books and read the passages I love most; find some technique or characterization that just absolutely works, get inspired, and then make my current sucky scene work like that (maybe even insert a new scene to do it).

There you have it. The wulfish cure to Black November.

Wow, I realize this is a comic, but what an amazing idea for fleshing out stories.

You could use this for plot arcs, character interactions, themes, and just about anything within a novel.

It looks like a bit of work, but the end result is a wonderful map of the story line and characters, useful for analyzing even the worst sort of story problems.