Everyone's confidence ebbs and flows. Some days you feel like you could conquer the world and well others... On those days everyone else seems more talented or having something better to say. I've just gone through several of those days. I don't know if it was the result of some pretty intense work over the past ten days or so or whether it was simply a failure on my part to feel good about myself and my stuff. I don't know. What I know is that I didn't want to write anything.
What's the cure? Don't be so hard on yourself. Give it a couple days and get back at it. When I mean a couple, I'm talking two or three - not two to three weeks off. Go for walks, watch some movies, maybe even think about how and what you'd like to write. But during these 'down' times, give yourself a break and then get right back at it after your self-imposed writing holiday.
Saturday 2 July 2011
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Day 42: Sometimes Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
I wrote a christmas story that I finished a revised draft in December, 2008. I workshopped it briefly in a course in fall of 2009 and it sat around in my computer for the next year and a half. I pulled it out today because I want a short story for critiquing at a course I'm taking. I wanted something that as a story was complete so that the minions could not alter my vision of story.
Pasted the piece into my scrapbook and went at it. Its odd looking at old work. Its never as bad as you think and you can come to it with fresh eyes, reworking cumbersome sentences. Giving it a nice polish.
Time off from a completed draft is critical when you need to move to the next stage of editting. Think of your story as a nice stew that needs to simmer or a cup of tea that needs to steep. Distance will make your heart fonder of your work. It is one of your babies.
Pasted the piece into my scrapbook and went at it. Its odd looking at old work. Its never as bad as you think and you can come to it with fresh eyes, reworking cumbersome sentences. Giving it a nice polish.
Time off from a completed draft is critical when you need to move to the next stage of editting. Think of your story as a nice stew that needs to simmer or a cup of tea that needs to steep. Distance will make your heart fonder of your work. It is one of your babies.
Day 41: Doing Instead of Writing About Doing
Day and a half late because I was busy writing rather than writing about doing the writing. Didn't even realize until now that I didn't blog yesterday. Had a reading that I needed to MC and needed to prep my nice comments about my fellow writers. I like the homey personal touch for those types and evenings and this morning started in earnest on some editing of a short story I've been putting off for months. Sometimes I guess you get caught up in the creative meanderings of your mind and lose it and time.
Sunday 26 June 2011
Day 40: Lessons Learned - Part Two
We all have that voice in our heads that tells us this or that. Do you listen to that voice or do you let others tell you what to do? When it comes to writing I think you need to train yourself to listen with conviction to what you think. If you are being critiqued and one or two people out of seven tell you something, it may not necessarily be true. It could simply be their preference and your writing could be completely fine. If five of seven say the same thing you need to use your common sense and look at what they are telling you. I'm not saying to simply accept their advice but be critical of it in the sense that you will examine what is being said and determine for yourself what is right for your book. Remember sometimes we can be blind to our own faults and it does take a fresh pair of eyes to point out the deficiencies when they do exist.
When you get advice, ask yourself whether it makes sense.
What happens if that voice in your head is telling you something is bad, no good, crap? Do the same thing you would do with any advice, be critical of it and, during a quiet time of reflection, think about whether it is reasonable.
When you get advice, ask yourself whether it makes sense.
What happens if that voice in your head is telling you something is bad, no good, crap? Do the same thing you would do with any advice, be critical of it and, during a quiet time of reflection, think about whether it is reasonable.
Saturday 25 June 2011
Day 39: Journalling 201
I was at the initial class of a program that I will be teaching in creative writing yesterday. I discussed journalling with the class. The topic of sharing your journalling came up.
I think this is a bad idea. Why? The journalling is really an exercise in silencing your inner critic and idea mining. If you start sharing your journalling in the raw form that its in, you will eventually silence your free thought. Journalling, if done freely, should read like a stream of consciousness. Topics change quickly and can be returned to. Listen to the topics that you continually return to. These types of topics may be your blood line or vein of gold as some call it.
Your journal should never be shared in its raw stage. Why would you take the risk of drying up your source of ideas for longer, more polished works.
This blog is really like journalling to a certain degree. These are thoughts straight out of my head to screen, unpolished. Am I failing to follow my own advice? I don't think so. That's mainly because I know the exact purpose of what I want from this project. At some point I would like a discussion of some of my ideas but right now the blog is simply primary source material for potential projects so I'm okay with it. If someone was to write that my writing lacked sparkle and shine, I wouldn't mind as it isn't suppose to sparkle at this point.
Journalling technique taught to the emerging writer must stress the privacy of thise writings, those ideas until they are in a polished state to be shared. If you don't do this, the emerging writer may creep back into the sideline shadows letting their own stories shrivel away.
I think this is a bad idea. Why? The journalling is really an exercise in silencing your inner critic and idea mining. If you start sharing your journalling in the raw form that its in, you will eventually silence your free thought. Journalling, if done freely, should read like a stream of consciousness. Topics change quickly and can be returned to. Listen to the topics that you continually return to. These types of topics may be your blood line or vein of gold as some call it.
Your journal should never be shared in its raw stage. Why would you take the risk of drying up your source of ideas for longer, more polished works.
This blog is really like journalling to a certain degree. These are thoughts straight out of my head to screen, unpolished. Am I failing to follow my own advice? I don't think so. That's mainly because I know the exact purpose of what I want from this project. At some point I would like a discussion of some of my ideas but right now the blog is simply primary source material for potential projects so I'm okay with it. If someone was to write that my writing lacked sparkle and shine, I wouldn't mind as it isn't suppose to sparkle at this point.
Journalling technique taught to the emerging writer must stress the privacy of thise writings, those ideas until they are in a polished state to be shared. If you don't do this, the emerging writer may creep back into the sideline shadows letting their own stories shrivel away.
Day 38: A Lesson in Inaction
Writing doesn't get done unless you sit down and do it. If you put it off, you'll never get it done. I must have said to myself about five times yesterday at different points in the day that I needed to post my blog. Each time I put it off for some other reason; usually playing some computer game as I was in the midst of a funk with a splash of laziness. Well, what happens. Nothing. It doesn't get done.
The lessons learned:
1. Write every day. Get use to sitting in the chair and putting your words to the paper.
2. Write when you don't want to. That's when its the hardest to be a writer but if you're committed you'll get it done. Stories and Novels are written one word, one sentence, one paragraph, one page, one chapter at a time. The one word is more than you had yesterday. Fortitude produces product at the end of the day. The imagination is just the seed. The hard work of daily gardening brings the seed from germination to seedling to adult plant. Your writing is the same thing.
3. Write even if your critic tells you its bad. It can be fixed.
The lessons learned:
1. Write every day. Get use to sitting in the chair and putting your words to the paper.
2. Write when you don't want to. That's when its the hardest to be a writer but if you're committed you'll get it done. Stories and Novels are written one word, one sentence, one paragraph, one page, one chapter at a time. The one word is more than you had yesterday. Fortitude produces product at the end of the day. The imagination is just the seed. The hard work of daily gardening brings the seed from germination to seedling to adult plant. Your writing is the same thing.
3. Write even if your critic tells you its bad. It can be fixed.
Thursday 23 June 2011
Day 37: Journalling
One of the first things I started to do when I got the writing bug bad was to journal each morning. I did this for about a year straight. I wrote about anything and everything during a period where my life was going through some difficulties. The first creative writing textbook suggested it and it was a really good exercise in shutting off the internal critic.
Years later this material can become the source of many story or poem ideas. I can mine ther nuggets from my ramblings.
Because I have been busy with a fiction project I haven't written a lot of poetry in the past half a year. I do miss it. I had some time today as I waited for an appointment so I started to look at some old draft poems and I got the urge again to rework them. It got me thinking to the reams of handwritten material that I can go through and start to see where the gems lie. This is all because of my commitment to writing everyday good, bad, or indifferent. I may restart my journalling practice and write freehand every morning for fifteen minutes, a stream of consciousness writing. Material galour and shuts the old critic up each day.
Years later this material can become the source of many story or poem ideas. I can mine ther nuggets from my ramblings.
Because I have been busy with a fiction project I haven't written a lot of poetry in the past half a year. I do miss it. I had some time today as I waited for an appointment so I started to look at some old draft poems and I got the urge again to rework them. It got me thinking to the reams of handwritten material that I can go through and start to see where the gems lie. This is all because of my commitment to writing everyday good, bad, or indifferent. I may restart my journalling practice and write freehand every morning for fifteen minutes, a stream of consciousness writing. Material galour and shuts the old critic up each day.
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Day 36: Remaining a Child Forever
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
- Pablo Picasso
If you think back to when you were a child and drawing, colouring you never thought about something being good or bad. It was drawing. It was colouring. You did it because it was fun. We changed all that because of the expectations of others. We are told to colour within the lines. We are told that we don't draw dogs or animals or people well. Maybe you should do something more practical with your time.
Try an expirement. Squint your eyes hard. Notice how the colours blur out of their object. Its all a matter of perspective. So colouring out of the lines is really a matter of a different perspective. Darn all those adults who thought they knew better and forgot how to be kids.
Imagination and creation is play and kids are the experts on play. Its either fun or its not fun. Its that simple. So what do we do as adults? We need to play as children play. We need to go to a place where there is no judgments, just fun and experimentation with new things. Returning to our roots as children will keep our work alive and fresh as adults. We can learn again to colour outside the lines and forget the judgments and the perceptions drilled into us by well-meaning but conforming adults who let their imagination die within their own conformity. After all isn't that internal critic always an adult in some form? I've never heard of one being a child.
How will you play today?
- Pablo Picasso
If you think back to when you were a child and drawing, colouring you never thought about something being good or bad. It was drawing. It was colouring. You did it because it was fun. We changed all that because of the expectations of others. We are told to colour within the lines. We are told that we don't draw dogs or animals or people well. Maybe you should do something more practical with your time.
Try an expirement. Squint your eyes hard. Notice how the colours blur out of their object. Its all a matter of perspective. So colouring out of the lines is really a matter of a different perspective. Darn all those adults who thought they knew better and forgot how to be kids.
Imagination and creation is play and kids are the experts on play. Its either fun or its not fun. Its that simple. So what do we do as adults? We need to play as children play. We need to go to a place where there is no judgments, just fun and experimentation with new things. Returning to our roots as children will keep our work alive and fresh as adults. We can learn again to colour outside the lines and forget the judgments and the perceptions drilled into us by well-meaning but conforming adults who let their imagination die within their own conformity. After all isn't that internal critic always an adult in some form? I've never heard of one being a child.
How will you play today?
Tuesday 21 June 2011
Day 35: Growth Through Extension
Always have the courage to try something. I read constantly about favorite topics in writing whether it be character issues, viewpoint, or harnessing that creative energy. Take what you've read about and try it out. Remember there are no mistakes, just results that are not quite what you're looking for.
Recently I've been perplexed by a comment made by a critiquer about one of my characters. Now this character is relatively minor in the scale of things. But for whatever reason, a comment was made that this character lacked subtlety. I worried about this for days (Get a life, right?). I read and a good friend put me on to a book from the Writer's Digest series on Character. There right in the chapter on Character Hierarchy was the answer. I read the section with great interest and realized that I had it right in the first instant and that the critiquer, despite their best intentions, did not understand the story. I went on to read other chapters and they confirmed many of my thoughts about the use of stereotypical minor characters and how a character can be viewed from the eyes of your protgonist. Got me thinking about the idea of an unreliable narrator and the creative juices started percolating.
Thanks to the negative comment and my curiosity about finding the answer to my distress, I have a richer story at the end of the day. The pain was worth it as I had growth as a writer and I've extended myself.
Recently I've been perplexed by a comment made by a critiquer about one of my characters. Now this character is relatively minor in the scale of things. But for whatever reason, a comment was made that this character lacked subtlety. I worried about this for days (Get a life, right?). I read and a good friend put me on to a book from the Writer's Digest series on Character. There right in the chapter on Character Hierarchy was the answer. I read the section with great interest and realized that I had it right in the first instant and that the critiquer, despite their best intentions, did not understand the story. I went on to read other chapters and they confirmed many of my thoughts about the use of stereotypical minor characters and how a character can be viewed from the eyes of your protgonist. Got me thinking about the idea of an unreliable narrator and the creative juices started percolating.
Thanks to the negative comment and my curiosity about finding the answer to my distress, I have a richer story at the end of the day. The pain was worth it as I had growth as a writer and I've extended myself.
Day 34: 8 Hours and 40 Minutes Late
Missed the deadline. Bit ticked off by it. But I was ticked off most of the night last night. I had another reading to attend. There was a lot of creative non-fiction read which depressed the hell out of me. When I got home I swore that I'd posted for the day and life basicaly got in the way.
Its a lesson learned. Get your daily writing done right away if you can. Try to seperate out your wriitng life from your non-writing life. Don't let reality get it the way of imagination. Set a prescribed time and put your butt in the chair and just do it.
So now I'll do another post later today. Perhaps something deep and reflective. Who knows? I lied. I was 8 hours and 39 minutes late.
Its a lesson learned. Get your daily writing done right away if you can. Try to seperate out your wriitng life from your non-writing life. Don't let reality get it the way of imagination. Set a prescribed time and put your butt in the chair and just do it.
So now I'll do another post later today. Perhaps something deep and reflective. Who knows? I lied. I was 8 hours and 39 minutes late.
Sunday 19 June 2011
Day 33: A Draft Poem
Writing poetry within the various forms can be a great exercise to learn patience. Here's a sonnet that I wrote as an exercise:
The Artist’s Existence
Still, in silence, I wait with patient soul
for whispers of my muse to find my ear,
the siren call of nature’s balladeer.
Sweet inspiration, perfect, pure and whole;
gifts, god’s creative beauty, I extol.
Have I been forsaken? That’s what I fear.
My words and music have left me that’s clear.
With melody lost, white noise takes its toll
From shadow, fog; music, refrains emerge
winged over the horizon of my heart.
Sing out, Erato. You are here, my love.
Joyful translations, melancholy’s purge,
Guide my hand sure, true to reflect your art.
My spirit soars as I serve my true-love.
A poem about the act of creation and inspiration. Rhyming dictionaries are must when writing poetry with a rhyme scheme.
Saturday 18 June 2011
Day 32: An Epiphany
Epiphany: according to Collins Dictionary, any moment of great or sudden revelation
I had an epiphany today. More like a BFO (Blinding flash of the obvious). TRUST your instincts, David. You are usually right. For a week I seriously questioned my vision of a particular scene in my book, forced to edit it before it had completely come together in my mind (I'm a firm believer that things have to boil away in that pot I call a mind) and some negative comments were made about it by someone I gave too much power to over my writing. I had questioned the need to have to fully edit a section of a longer work early in the creative process and also the idea of critquing a work before it is complete in first draft. Too many cooks spoil the broth type of thing. Today during a talk, the speaker confirmed my believes by questioning the need to polish work not yet ready to be polished because of course imposed deadlines and questioned whether we should be showing any of our work until it is complete and of a high standard. He felt it was an invitation to hijack the creative process or as I now call it, book by committee.
What I learn was that I need to trust my instincts. Don't give too much control or power to others as they simply offer an opinion and a preference. They are not the definitive writing god. The only writing god for your work is you. Any decisions about changes ultimately lie with you. Write the book that you want to write and none other.
Its interesting that I have begun to believe that critiquing of longer works as a single chapter ends up critiquing it like a short story. These are different animals. My character can grow and change over several chapters and not all characters are created equally. I learned that another character can be viewed your protagonist/ narrator a certain way and the conveyance of that character can be biased and possibly untrue as it is a matter of one character's perception of the other. You've got to look at your critiques with an eye to where the critiquer is coming from. Do they have a short story bias? But I'm babbling. Its your story. Trust your vision. Trust your instincts.
I had an epiphany today. More like a BFO (Blinding flash of the obvious). TRUST your instincts, David. You are usually right. For a week I seriously questioned my vision of a particular scene in my book, forced to edit it before it had completely come together in my mind (I'm a firm believer that things have to boil away in that pot I call a mind) and some negative comments were made about it by someone I gave too much power to over my writing. I had questioned the need to have to fully edit a section of a longer work early in the creative process and also the idea of critquing a work before it is complete in first draft. Too many cooks spoil the broth type of thing. Today during a talk, the speaker confirmed my believes by questioning the need to polish work not yet ready to be polished because of course imposed deadlines and questioned whether we should be showing any of our work until it is complete and of a high standard. He felt it was an invitation to hijack the creative process or as I now call it, book by committee.
What I learn was that I need to trust my instincts. Don't give too much control or power to others as they simply offer an opinion and a preference. They are not the definitive writing god. The only writing god for your work is you. Any decisions about changes ultimately lie with you. Write the book that you want to write and none other.
Its interesting that I have begun to believe that critiquing of longer works as a single chapter ends up critiquing it like a short story. These are different animals. My character can grow and change over several chapters and not all characters are created equally. I learned that another character can be viewed your protagonist/ narrator a certain way and the conveyance of that character can be biased and possibly untrue as it is a matter of one character's perception of the other. You've got to look at your critiques with an eye to where the critiquer is coming from. Do they have a short story bias? But I'm babbling. Its your story. Trust your vision. Trust your instincts.
Friday 17 June 2011
Day 31: A Month of Postings and a Day of Reflection
Well, here I am at day 31. A month of postings. I don't think anyone is actually looking but oh well. What can you do? I think I need to reflect on why I am doing this. Its more for me than anything else. An opportunity to reflect on my process - to understand it. To examine what works for me and to see where I've come from and what direction I am heading. After a period of time where I have seriously looked at my work, I can say it is a solitary journey filled with doubt and some joy. It is not a journey for the weak hearted and the unconfident. In the past month I have encountered many challenges in believing in my vision and sticking to it. I wonder if this will be a common theme through the months.
With summer approaching and access to the internet questionable at times, I've given some thought to how I will proceed. I will write a blog each day (My usual long hand) and type it into the blog when I have access to a computer. So you may find three days posted on the same day but I will continue the numbering system. But each entry will be written on a seperate day. The numbering system is more for me to keep things straight. Onward and upward. Only 334 days and entries to go.
A thought to close on for the day and the month of blogging: "I learn by going where I have to go." - Theodore Roethke. Tomorrow I go to prison for my training so that I can initiate many of my ideas for a creative writing class as a volunteer in the prison system. I write my blog to see where I am going so I can learn.
With summer approaching and access to the internet questionable at times, I've given some thought to how I will proceed. I will write a blog each day (My usual long hand) and type it into the blog when I have access to a computer. So you may find three days posted on the same day but I will continue the numbering system. But each entry will be written on a seperate day. The numbering system is more for me to keep things straight. Onward and upward. Only 334 days and entries to go.
A thought to close on for the day and the month of blogging: "I learn by going where I have to go." - Theodore Roethke. Tomorrow I go to prison for my training so that I can initiate many of my ideas for a creative writing class as a volunteer in the prison system. I write my blog to see where I am going so I can learn.
Thursday 16 June 2011
Day 30: It's In The Wind
I've just finished reading my stuff twice in three nights to a receptive audience. There is no scarier thing to do and no more thrilling thing than to release your words into the world and see where they take you. I read somewhere that the reward is only as big as the risk. Take a risk. Let your words fly free on the wind. The reward is incredible.
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Day 29: The Role of Critics
Here I am again talking about that inner critic. Last night, as part of a course I am talking, we did a formal reading of part of our work. I decided to push the envelope as part of my learning process and read a particularly emotionally difficult section. Well, it was a success. My feedback was great. I knew when I was reading that it was a powerful moment as the listeners were engaged. I had their attention.
That's not exactly true. While I had their attention about 15% of the audience gave the work, as opposed to the reading which were all positive, negative reviews. I had laboured on correcting some of the deficiencies in the work for three days leading up to the reading. The leader of my fiction group felt that I left some of my better writing off the table and that this particular piece lacked the nuances she had come to expect from me. I was at a loss to understand it all.
I found myself back to where I was three days ago. Questioning my vision. Doubting my skills because I thought it was damn good writing. What did I do? I wrote an email to a trusted writing friend to ask her opinion as to the specifics as to what she thought was wrong. She had given me some feedback as well that suggested that she enjoyed my reading but felt the section read lacked some of my usual polish (she was one of the four of twenty -six that found it lacking to some degree). I will wait for her response.
Two things arise from this:
1. If you want to put your art out there, you need to grow a thick skin because not everyone will like it. People have different tastes; and
2. Don't get your feelings hurt. Have the courage to examine the negative opinions about your work. That, with practice, is the only way to improve as an artist. When doing your reflection on the comments ask yourself whether the person making the comment understands your intention. If no, is it your problem or theirs? Is there a way to make your intention more apparent to the reader? Remember if the reader doesn't get your intention you really have to look at yourself.
Another of the negative reviews referenced a section where I said the 16 year old had dolls and collector barbies on her shelf. This was written while the girl was in her room needing comfort from some horrific event. My intention was to establish via this image that the girl was niave and overly protected by her mother and as such the reader could have more compassion for her due to her innocence. It was also a reflection on her mother. Did I fall short on my intention? I have to look at it and perhaps make changes to better show what I wanted to convey.
Last night's experience was my first real taste of the critic in the public. I need to remember that it is their opinion. But I really need to watch that it doesn't give fuel to the fire for the only critic that matters - my inner one.
That's not exactly true. While I had their attention about 15% of the audience gave the work, as opposed to the reading which were all positive, negative reviews. I had laboured on correcting some of the deficiencies in the work for three days leading up to the reading. The leader of my fiction group felt that I left some of my better writing off the table and that this particular piece lacked the nuances she had come to expect from me. I was at a loss to understand it all.
I found myself back to where I was three days ago. Questioning my vision. Doubting my skills because I thought it was damn good writing. What did I do? I wrote an email to a trusted writing friend to ask her opinion as to the specifics as to what she thought was wrong. She had given me some feedback as well that suggested that she enjoyed my reading but felt the section read lacked some of my usual polish (she was one of the four of twenty -six that found it lacking to some degree). I will wait for her response.
Two things arise from this:
1. If you want to put your art out there, you need to grow a thick skin because not everyone will like it. People have different tastes; and
2. Don't get your feelings hurt. Have the courage to examine the negative opinions about your work. That, with practice, is the only way to improve as an artist. When doing your reflection on the comments ask yourself whether the person making the comment understands your intention. If no, is it your problem or theirs? Is there a way to make your intention more apparent to the reader? Remember if the reader doesn't get your intention you really have to look at yourself.
Another of the negative reviews referenced a section where I said the 16 year old had dolls and collector barbies on her shelf. This was written while the girl was in her room needing comfort from some horrific event. My intention was to establish via this image that the girl was niave and overly protected by her mother and as such the reader could have more compassion for her due to her innocence. It was also a reflection on her mother. Did I fall short on my intention? I have to look at it and perhaps make changes to better show what I wanted to convey.
Last night's experience was my first real taste of the critic in the public. I need to remember that it is their opinion. But I really need to watch that it doesn't give fuel to the fire for the only critic that matters - my inner one.
Tuesday 14 June 2011
Day 28: A Leap of Faith
I wrote about cocooning myself in music a few days ago. This morning I was listening to the soundtrack of the movie 'The Hours' as I started to think about my writing for the day. I love this Phillip Glass music and I am particularly interested in the first track entitled 'The Poet Acts.' The title and the music got me thinking about how the act of writing is really a conscious decision to act, to leap into the unknown each time one looks at the blank sheet or computer monitor. And what a leap it is - a true leap of faith. It takes courage to take the leap into the nothingness and to find your bearings each day to write something from your mind whether it be a leap into the heavens, the shadows, or your deep abyss. You never know what you will find there as you put words to paper.
The Poet Acts - what a beautiful thought. As a writer you make a decision to bring your words, ideas and visions into being. You make that conscious choice. You decide to act. What a wonderful way to spend a moment - in creation.
What is the leap? Is it you reaching for that spark of an idea, your inspiration? Once you have hold of it, it is yours forever. I've read some where that people think they need to be inspired to write. That's not true. The writing is the hard work that goes on once you've captured your inspiration. The leap of faith is what gets you that inspiration in your hands. Have faith. Act. Leap.
The Poet Acts - what a beautiful thought. As a writer you make a decision to bring your words, ideas and visions into being. You make that conscious choice. You decide to act. What a wonderful way to spend a moment - in creation.
What is the leap? Is it you reaching for that spark of an idea, your inspiration? Once you have hold of it, it is yours forever. I've read some where that people think they need to be inspired to write. That's not true. The writing is the hard work that goes on once you've captured your inspiration. The leap of faith is what gets you that inspiration in your hands. Have faith. Act. Leap.
Monday 13 June 2011
Day 27: Do I Have Time To Write?
I commented on this topic today on a fellow writer's blog. My answer to the question was that everyone has time to write. Give yourself fifteen minutes a day to let loose your creative meanderings. You never know where it will take you.
I fugure that if I'm true to my goal of writing something on this blog every day, I'll have a lot of material for a book on the creative process but it takes time every day to write something. What about the days I don't feel like it? Force myself is the only answer that I have. Sit down and write something. It may be good, bad, or something in between. But I've written. I've exercised my creative muscles. I've thought about something that's important to me. Remember that anything you write can always be improved. The only bad writing is writing that never makes it to the page in any form.
If you procrastinate in writing for the day, it usually is something other than the physical act of writing that's getting in the way. If you don't want to face your page, you are either frightened about what you need to write or perhaps you are afraid of the effort that you will need to make that day to get out what you want to say. There is an emotional effort as well as a physical effort in the act of writing. You are afraid to spend your emotional currency in writing that day. I'm pretty confident your procrastination arises from fear. That gets me back to the familair theme of mine: Write fearlessly. Take chances. Be brave in your writing. More about this in the coming weeks.
I fugure that if I'm true to my goal of writing something on this blog every day, I'll have a lot of material for a book on the creative process but it takes time every day to write something. What about the days I don't feel like it? Force myself is the only answer that I have. Sit down and write something. It may be good, bad, or something in between. But I've written. I've exercised my creative muscles. I've thought about something that's important to me. Remember that anything you write can always be improved. The only bad writing is writing that never makes it to the page in any form.
If you procrastinate in writing for the day, it usually is something other than the physical act of writing that's getting in the way. If you don't want to face your page, you are either frightened about what you need to write or perhaps you are afraid of the effort that you will need to make that day to get out what you want to say. There is an emotional effort as well as a physical effort in the act of writing. You are afraid to spend your emotional currency in writing that day. I'm pretty confident your procrastination arises from fear. That gets me back to the familair theme of mine: Write fearlessly. Take chances. Be brave in your writing. More about this in the coming weeks.
Sunday 12 June 2011
Day 26: Right Place to Write
Where do you find the best place to find your connection with your writing? Is it a place? How about a sense of calm that comes over you. For me the place varies but I have found that as I gain experience in this craft we call writing I find it needs to be a place where I can focus and disappear into my words, thoughts, and the images in my mind. I can no longer write if my fourteen year olds are in the house and within earshot of my space. No boundaries I guess. One just walked in here and interrupted me as I wrote. Now I have to refocus on the task at hand. Take a big breath and return to my peaceful spot in my mind where I create.
Music has a big place where I write. It calms me and sends me to the places I need to go to put words to my imagination.
I create my own place to write wherever I am because my place is a cocoon that I make for myself. Usually my music is my cocoon. However, I once wrote in a restaurant amongst the white noise of others' conversations. I took off my glasses and could not see anything but the page directly in front of me and I wrote. The white noise acted as the cocoon's fabric engulfing me and hiding me from the view of everyday. Sometimes I create my cocoon in the library, at a coffee shop, my living room, my den or in the car waiting for my children to get out of school. Wherever I am and I am writing well I am cocooned.
The right place for me to write is within my protective cocoon where my words morph into something new, beautiful and unexpected.
Music has a big place where I write. It calms me and sends me to the places I need to go to put words to my imagination.
I create my own place to write wherever I am because my place is a cocoon that I make for myself. Usually my music is my cocoon. However, I once wrote in a restaurant amongst the white noise of others' conversations. I took off my glasses and could not see anything but the page directly in front of me and I wrote. The white noise acted as the cocoon's fabric engulfing me and hiding me from the view of everyday. Sometimes I create my cocoon in the library, at a coffee shop, my living room, my den or in the car waiting for my children to get out of school. Wherever I am and I am writing well I am cocooned.
The right place for me to write is within my protective cocoon where my words morph into something new, beautiful and unexpected.
Saturday 11 June 2011
Day 25: A Day of Thinking About the Ethics of Writing
I spent the day in a workshop talking about the ethics of writing. Drained me considerably. Interesting stuff but draining none the less. I want to think about something that will recharge my batteries so that I can write tomorrow. I miss it. I haven't been able to get to any original writing all week and that is where, with my imagination running freely that I am happiest and free. I did come up with a real twist for the ending of my current work, Eli Mourning on the way home in the car. A real 'what if' moment. I found a quote by Diane Mariechild that reflected the experience of this twist coming to me. She said:
"Trust that still, small voice that says, "This might work and I'll try it."
Your imagination whispers to you constantly in a small voice. Listen to it. Act on it.
"Trust that still, small voice that says, "This might work and I'll try it."
Your imagination whispers to you constantly in a small voice. Listen to it. Act on it.
Friday 10 June 2011
Day 24: Continued Ramblings About Vision
I got to thinking last night after I posted my brief blog. I began to ask myself why I had allow others to hijack my vision for my story. I think the answer lies in confidence. When you sit in a critic group and everyone is doing their best to improve your work you can run into the situation where you get overwhelmed by the ideas thrown at you. Everyone always seems to know more than you and the inner critic places the seeds of doubt in your mind. Confidence is like weed killer. If you have lots of it, the seeds of doubt can't take hold, can't germinate. But if you're a little short, well your whole garden will be overrun within days by all sorts of weeds and dandilions. Your mind is your garden. Keep it clear of weeds.
The thing you have to watch for is the good seed that gets blown in to your garden from another source from time to time. This is where time and patience come in. A beautiful flower can look like a weed when it first sprouts. Watch it grow and at the appropriate time ask yourself does this flower fit into my vision for my garden or will it stick out and appear out of place. If it does appear out of place, pull it, apply the weed killer. But you need the patience to wait.
How does this apply to writing? When you get a critique don't rush to apply it or discard it. Give it time. Think about your vision. Does this suggestion compliment or add to the vision you have for your story? Does it help your intention? You can't know these answers until you've finished your first draft and see your work for everything that it is. Put away your critiques until you're ready to proceed with the second draft. By then you can see whether the suggestion is a weed that may choke the life out of your flowers or whether it is a flower that will add to the beauty of your garden.
Remember your vision and courageously defend it against others who offer their vision for your work. Writing a novel is not a group event and at the end of the day you are the master, commander and only crew member of your ship. Sail true.
The thing you have to watch for is the good seed that gets blown in to your garden from another source from time to time. This is where time and patience come in. A beautiful flower can look like a weed when it first sprouts. Watch it grow and at the appropriate time ask yourself does this flower fit into my vision for my garden or will it stick out and appear out of place. If it does appear out of place, pull it, apply the weed killer. But you need the patience to wait.
How does this apply to writing? When you get a critique don't rush to apply it or discard it. Give it time. Think about your vision. Does this suggestion compliment or add to the vision you have for your story? Does it help your intention? You can't know these answers until you've finished your first draft and see your work for everything that it is. Put away your critiques until you're ready to proceed with the second draft. By then you can see whether the suggestion is a weed that may choke the life out of your flowers or whether it is a flower that will add to the beauty of your garden.
Remember your vision and courageously defend it against others who offer their vision for your work. Writing a novel is not a group event and at the end of the day you are the master, commander and only crew member of your ship. Sail true.
Thursday 9 June 2011
Day 23: My Inner Critic Returns
One of the things I want to do on this blog is to chronicle things I go through when writing a novel from start to finish. Today my inner critic bit me in my butt. Someone wasn't as enthralled with some writing that I thought was great. The first thing I did was get defensive. The second thing I did was think that everything was crap, garbage...whatever you want to call it. Then I pouted like as baby for about two hours. The lessons to be learned here are:
1. take a deep breath and examine what's been said and whether its valid criticism;
2. come back to the original vision you had for your work to rejuvinate yourself; and
3. tell your inner voice to shut-up and remember that you write great stuff
1. take a deep breath and examine what's been said and whether its valid criticism;
2. come back to the original vision you had for your work to rejuvinate yourself; and
3. tell your inner voice to shut-up and remember that you write great stuff
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Day 22: The Revision Process - Part 3
So much turns on word choice. That thought came to me as I looked at different ways to say 'crushed' and 'line'. The search begins and ends with a good thesaurus. There you can find all sorts of atlernatives for the word that you want to change. The changes are usually motivated by a repetition of a word close together in a paragraph. For example:
" ... line after line until she delivered the final line with a cuff..."
Too many lines. The line refers to a line in a psalm so I needed to use a word that had a similar meaning. The Thesaurus( I use Oxford Canadian) suggested with the guidance phrase "He couldn't remember his lines" the following choices: words, part, script, and speech. Another possible guidance phrase read "the opening line of a poem." This is more in tune with the intention of my original line. The choices here were sentence, phrase, clause, utterance, passage, extract, quotation, quote, and citation.
With these choices, I look at my intention. It truly is a the final line that is being delivered so words like quotation, extract, quote, and citation don't work for me. Clause, utterance, part, and script don't seem to fit. I'm left with words, sentence, or passage. Sentence isn't snappy enough for me.
When I first looked at this I decided on 'words': 'line after line until she delivered the final words with a cuff" but now with more reflection I like "line after line until she delivered the final passage with a cuff." My reason for this final version (for now at least) is that passage reflects the nature of a line rather than words.
This is the process I go through for each change I make. It takes a lot longer to write it than do it. It's really an intuitive thing for the most part, done within seconds of scanning the entiries in the Thesaurus. As well, I chose 'smashed' as an alternative to 'crushed.'
" ... line after line until she delivered the final line with a cuff..."
Too many lines. The line refers to a line in a psalm so I needed to use a word that had a similar meaning. The Thesaurus( I use Oxford Canadian) suggested with the guidance phrase "He couldn't remember his lines" the following choices: words, part, script, and speech. Another possible guidance phrase read "the opening line of a poem." This is more in tune with the intention of my original line. The choices here were sentence, phrase, clause, utterance, passage, extract, quotation, quote, and citation.
With these choices, I look at my intention. It truly is a the final line that is being delivered so words like quotation, extract, quote, and citation don't work for me. Clause, utterance, part, and script don't seem to fit. I'm left with words, sentence, or passage. Sentence isn't snappy enough for me.
When I first looked at this I decided on 'words': 'line after line until she delivered the final words with a cuff" but now with more reflection I like "line after line until she delivered the final passage with a cuff." My reason for this final version (for now at least) is that passage reflects the nature of a line rather than words.
This is the process I go through for each change I make. It takes a lot longer to write it than do it. It's really an intuitive thing for the most part, done within seconds of scanning the entiries in the Thesaurus. As well, I chose 'smashed' as an alternative to 'crushed.'
Tuesday 7 June 2011
Day 21: A Poem To Keep the Streak Alive
Somedays there is only work and little work that one could describe as creative. So here's a poem:
The Artist’s Existence
Still, in silence, I wait with patient soul
for whispers of my muse to find my ear,
the siren call of nature’s balladeer.
Sweet inspiration, perfect, pure and whole;
gifts, god’s creative beauty, I extol.
Have I been forsaken? That’s what I fear.
My words and music have left me that’s clear.
With melody lost, white noise takes its toll
From shadow, fog; music, refrains emerge
winged over the horizon of my heart.
Sing out, Erato. You are here, my love.
Joyful translations, melancholy’s purge,
Guide my hand sure, true to reflect your art.
My spirit soars as I serve my true-love.
If there is anyone out there even remotely interested in what I am saying drop me a line. David
Monday 6 June 2011
Day 20: Revision Part 2
As I worked fevorously on my excerpts, I reminded myself about the big question of when to let go? This is like a dry run for that final edit. What I find interesting is that you can make changes until the cows come home as there are many ways to skin a cat. How's that for rolling cliches? At the end of the day you have to just let go and trust in your vision for your story. Trust it until your editor asks you to make this change and that change.
Sunday 5 June 2011
Day 19: Revision Process-Part 1
I'm in the middle of revising a small section of my up-coming novel The Crucifixion of Eli Mourning. A brief excerpt will be published shortly. The revision process is interesting as you get a chance to revisit work done so long ago it seems and come to it with fresh eyes. When one is creating the first draft you write through to the end. I never, I repeat never try to revise as I go (that's a bit of a lie as I do make some changes as I input the hand-written draft into the computer). It's best to get it all down in the first instance, see where your story takes you. I know people who rework the same first chapter forever and they never get to chapter two. I really think you need to finish your story for two reasons. The first is that you get energy to push you through the revision process which can be 60% of your writing time on a project. The second reason is that you could be making changes that will need to be changed again and again simply because your story changes, not because its writing that needs to be improved (plot driven changes to the work that has already been produced).
You can see its best to push through to the end. I'm only revising now because I have a deadline of sorts for this brief excerpt or else I'd be waiting to the end.
You can see its best to push through to the end. I'm only revising now because I have a deadline of sorts for this brief excerpt or else I'd be waiting to the end.
Saturday 4 June 2011
Day 18: Filling the Well
Short entry tonight as I had a busy day at a course on copyright and defamation for writers. Talk about a way to suck the creativity right out of you. I went to Wicked in the evening as a reward. Great music and an okay adaption from the story. Got me thinking about music and movies that inspire me to create. Great soundtracks always put me in the mood to write. Time down watching a movie always fills up the well. What movies or music inspires you?
Friday 3 June 2011
Day 17: Keeping That Butt in the Chair Everyday
I read somewhere that being creative is actually doing something with your imagination. A great imagination is nothing without the willingness to do the work to get the job done. Creative expression is the hard copy of your imagination.
Some days I find it really hard to put my butt in the chair and write. These days are very slow until I find my groove and the words start to flow as I write the details of the scene that plays out in my mind. When its hard I put on my music and let myself float away on my thoughts. When it is easy I'm at peace. When its hard, well, I really have to focus on the job at hand.
Without the time put in at the desk with pen in hand (yes, right now my process involves long hand rather than word processing) my imagination, other than brief periods of private enjoyment, would be utterly useless unless I produce the hard copy - the creative expression of my imagination. So how do you keep your butt in the chair? Discipline, discipline, and a large pot of coffee. I've written this blog seventeen times now. I am committed to writing it everyday. However on at least five days, its been a chore. That tells me that about 3 out of every ten days I really need to get down to business and focus. My discipline and committment to this project got me to the chair typing.
As a aside and building on the long hand comment, I find that a Opti-flow type pen is best for me when I write. I find the words don't flow if I use a basic ballpoint. Odd? Maybe just a habit that gets me to where I have to be to be productive, a trick I've made for myself. I'll look at this in later blogs. Oh, I write in 5 subject Hilroy spiral notebooks as well. Although, I did recently do some long hand on blank sheets of lose paper out of necessity. Down time without my book.
Enough digression. The bottom line is that if you want to express your imagination in a creative form you need discipline to put your butt in your chair and keep it there each day adding to your hard copy. And a nice pen never hurt either.
Some days I find it really hard to put my butt in the chair and write. These days are very slow until I find my groove and the words start to flow as I write the details of the scene that plays out in my mind. When its hard I put on my music and let myself float away on my thoughts. When it is easy I'm at peace. When its hard, well, I really have to focus on the job at hand.
Without the time put in at the desk with pen in hand (yes, right now my process involves long hand rather than word processing) my imagination, other than brief periods of private enjoyment, would be utterly useless unless I produce the hard copy - the creative expression of my imagination. So how do you keep your butt in the chair? Discipline, discipline, and a large pot of coffee. I've written this blog seventeen times now. I am committed to writing it everyday. However on at least five days, its been a chore. That tells me that about 3 out of every ten days I really need to get down to business and focus. My discipline and committment to this project got me to the chair typing.
As a aside and building on the long hand comment, I find that a Opti-flow type pen is best for me when I write. I find the words don't flow if I use a basic ballpoint. Odd? Maybe just a habit that gets me to where I have to be to be productive, a trick I've made for myself. I'll look at this in later blogs. Oh, I write in 5 subject Hilroy spiral notebooks as well. Although, I did recently do some long hand on blank sheets of lose paper out of necessity. Down time without my book.
Enough digression. The bottom line is that if you want to express your imagination in a creative form you need discipline to put your butt in your chair and keep it there each day adding to your hard copy. And a nice pen never hurt either.
Thursday 2 June 2011
Day 16: Why Do I Write?
Because I like to. I find it relaxing. I like to put words to the crazy movies that I have running around in my head.
Those are all good answers and true but if I was truly honest (remember to be fearless I keep telling myself so what other type of true honesty is there? Half truths? Inaccuracies?) I write so that I can know myself better and that others can get the briefest glimpses of the true me. While it is rather sad to admit, noone really knows anyone else. Writing, music, painting, or whatever expression you wish to use is a unsuccessful attempt to convey our clearest thoughts and images within our brain - that electrical jump from one synapse to another we call thought.
So my own answer to the question as to why I write: I write so that I am not lonely, so that I can be understood on some level by a fellow human in an honest truthful fashion.
Those are all good answers and true but if I was truly honest (remember to be fearless I keep telling myself so what other type of true honesty is there? Half truths? Inaccuracies?) I write so that I can know myself better and that others can get the briefest glimpses of the true me. While it is rather sad to admit, noone really knows anyone else. Writing, music, painting, or whatever expression you wish to use is a unsuccessful attempt to convey our clearest thoughts and images within our brain - that electrical jump from one synapse to another we call thought.
So my own answer to the question as to why I write: I write so that I am not lonely, so that I can be understood on some level by a fellow human in an honest truthful fashion.
Wednesday 1 June 2011
Day 15: Busoni's Wisdom
"The function of the creative artist consists of making laws, not in following the laws already made."
Ferruccio Busoni
Think about that for a minute. This really focuses you on the issue of fear. To be a true artist we need to go further. We need to go beyond that which has already been created and find something new within it and a fresh way to express it whether that be in words, images, tastes, smells, sounds or touch.
I come from a writing and music background. I've had lectures on the 'rules' of writing. I've been told that you have to know the rules to break them. I guess I'm asking why? If a certain way of doing something impacts my way of expressing an idea, do I say no because it infringes some rule about writing. Heck no. You write it as you see it, hear it within your mind. There are no mistakes. There are no infringments as long as you reach the expression or vision that you pursue.
What is a good teacher? Some one who teaches you the rules and grammar of good writing? No, just look at how so many of the classics are written. Would that work today? No. The exceptional teacher or mentor is one that pulls your greatness out from you despite the rules and sends you on a journey where you find your own way to expression. A great teacher is one who helps you to find your courage within.
Make your own rules. Find your own course within. Create your own laws and release the creative force within.
Ferruccio Busoni
Think about that for a minute. This really focuses you on the issue of fear. To be a true artist we need to go further. We need to go beyond that which has already been created and find something new within it and a fresh way to express it whether that be in words, images, tastes, smells, sounds or touch.
I come from a writing and music background. I've had lectures on the 'rules' of writing. I've been told that you have to know the rules to break them. I guess I'm asking why? If a certain way of doing something impacts my way of expressing an idea, do I say no because it infringes some rule about writing. Heck no. You write it as you see it, hear it within your mind. There are no mistakes. There are no infringments as long as you reach the expression or vision that you pursue.
What is a good teacher? Some one who teaches you the rules and grammar of good writing? No, just look at how so many of the classics are written. Would that work today? No. The exceptional teacher or mentor is one that pulls your greatness out from you despite the rules and sends you on a journey where you find your own way to expression. A great teacher is one who helps you to find your courage within.
Make your own rules. Find your own course within. Create your own laws and release the creative force within.
Tuesday 31 May 2011
Day 14: The Issue of Fear
Fear plagues us creatively.
I've just done some writing on my new book and I am trying a few new things. But I find my critic talking to me and telling me that its crap and noone will like it. The usual BS that a critique in a particularly nasty mood comes up with when he wants to sap your of your creative energy for the day.
Why I am afraid? Ultimately its an ego thing. After all these years of writing I still have little confidence in myself. I hear my English 11 teacher's voice telling me that I don't write as well as my older brother and sister (thanks for that Mrs. W.). But I stop myself and I ask myself a couple of important questions. Is my story compelling? The answer is yes. My critique groups and fellow writers tell me that.
Why don't I believe them? Again it's an ego thing. In my arrogance, I think I know more than them. I have to because they'd see what a bunch of crap that I write. They're off a little bit on the intellectual side. Got to be. They like my stuff.
Its a vicious cricle. In the end I fear rejection like anyone else and that is ultimately what our inner critique is protecting us against.
So what do you do? You confront your fear and push through. Take chances. Put the words on the paper and live fearlessly. Well fearlessly until tomorrow or the next day when that voice tells you again that you write crap and that people are going to see it for what it is, ridiculing your efforts. Inner critiques are persistent buggers apparently requiring very little negative energy to live their days in the shadows of your mind. A little believe in their talk each day goes a long way. But they are not necessarily truthful.
Believe in your work. Live fearless. Starve the buggers.
I've just done some writing on my new book and I am trying a few new things. But I find my critic talking to me and telling me that its crap and noone will like it. The usual BS that a critique in a particularly nasty mood comes up with when he wants to sap your of your creative energy for the day.
Why I am afraid? Ultimately its an ego thing. After all these years of writing I still have little confidence in myself. I hear my English 11 teacher's voice telling me that I don't write as well as my older brother and sister (thanks for that Mrs. W.). But I stop myself and I ask myself a couple of important questions. Is my story compelling? The answer is yes. My critique groups and fellow writers tell me that.
Why don't I believe them? Again it's an ego thing. In my arrogance, I think I know more than them. I have to because they'd see what a bunch of crap that I write. They're off a little bit on the intellectual side. Got to be. They like my stuff.
Its a vicious cricle. In the end I fear rejection like anyone else and that is ultimately what our inner critique is protecting us against.
So what do you do? You confront your fear and push through. Take chances. Put the words on the paper and live fearlessly. Well fearlessly until tomorrow or the next day when that voice tells you again that you write crap and that people are going to see it for what it is, ridiculing your efforts. Inner critiques are persistent buggers apparently requiring very little negative energy to live their days in the shadows of your mind. A little believe in their talk each day goes a long way. But they are not necessarily truthful.
Believe in your work. Live fearless. Starve the buggers.
Monday 30 May 2011
Day 13: When the Well Runs Dry
What happens when you run out of things to say?
A bit of a loaded rhetorical question for a blog that prides itself on saying something every day. It's a bit of a trick question too because you never run out of things to say, only a momentary lapse in useable images or words to express them.
If you're feeling creatively empty, fill your well again by doing something fun: go to a movie, revisit your favorite book, go for a walk, go to the aquariam, look at old photos, remember a time when you were less stressed, listen to music, go out fior Thai food or sushi, dance, sit on your back porch and look out at the wonders around you...
You get the drift. Stories and ideas are everywhere. You just have to put yourself in the mindset to find and rediscover them.
A bit of a loaded rhetorical question for a blog that prides itself on saying something every day. It's a bit of a trick question too because you never run out of things to say, only a momentary lapse in useable images or words to express them.
If you're feeling creatively empty, fill your well again by doing something fun: go to a movie, revisit your favorite book, go for a walk, go to the aquariam, look at old photos, remember a time when you were less stressed, listen to music, go out fior Thai food or sushi, dance, sit on your back porch and look out at the wonders around you...
You get the drift. Stories and ideas are everywhere. You just have to put yourself in the mindset to find and rediscover them.
Sunday 29 May 2011
Day 12: With a Little Help From My Friends
Ringo say it best when he said he could go far 'with a little help from my friends.'
Every one needs one or two close friends to help us spur on to greater creative heights. These people should be supportive but truthful. They need to tell you what works and what doesn't work in any given piece of work. As the artist you need to accept that your friends are always looking after your back and to give serious thought to their heart-felt critiques. Accept them with the same intention in which they are given - with love.
'With a little help from your friends', you can go far.
Every one needs one or two close friends to help us spur on to greater creative heights. These people should be supportive but truthful. They need to tell you what works and what doesn't work in any given piece of work. As the artist you need to accept that your friends are always looking after your back and to give serious thought to their heart-felt critiques. Accept them with the same intention in which they are given - with love.
'With a little help from your friends', you can go far.
Saturday 28 May 2011
Day 11: Reworking an Old Idea and Having Fun
I was in a form class today. The poetry instructor had us working on some different forms. One was sestina. The group read a modern one where the poet ran together a few stanzas. I should mention that a sestina has a distinct pattern or word repeats and is 39 lines normally. This change got me thinking, thinking outside the box: a great place to play. I wondered to myself what would happen if you used single words as a line and that got me thinking about making a sestina stanza one line.
I wrote a tongue in cheek poem about Jack the Ripper in a dream state. What would a serial killer dream? I called it Ripper's Repose and I read it from time to time at readings. It goes as follows:
Rip
Flip
Flop
Hack Jack Hack
Wack Jack Wack
Well you need six words for a Sestina. Here's my version of my minimalist Sestina:
Ripper's Repose #2
Rip flip flop hack Jack wack
Wack rip Jack flip hack flop
Flop wack hack rip flip Jack
Jack flop flip wack rip hack
Hack Jack rip flop wack flip
Flip hack wack Jack flop rip
Flip Jack hack
Flop wack rip
I think this draft shows the torrid insane mind of a serial killer: quick harsh words, very visual.
I probably will change the wording of the final two lines to reflect the first line as it exists. That will result in the wording order changing throughout the poem. I just like the flow of the first line. Its a better flow for the end line. I'll have to look at puncuation as well.
On a different note, I didn't read this in class because my confidence, my inner critique didn't let me. Should have shut him up and experimented. After all it's all for fun and noone gets anywhere staying quiet. Love your art.Sing it out whenever you get the chance. This was one blown chance for me.
I wrote a tongue in cheek poem about Jack the Ripper in a dream state. What would a serial killer dream? I called it Ripper's Repose and I read it from time to time at readings. It goes as follows:
Rip
Flip
Flop
Hack Jack Hack
Wack Jack Wack
Well you need six words for a Sestina. Here's my version of my minimalist Sestina:
Ripper's Repose #2
Rip flip flop hack Jack wack
Wack rip Jack flip hack flop
Flop wack hack rip flip Jack
Jack flop flip wack rip hack
Hack Jack rip flop wack flip
Flip hack wack Jack flop rip
Flip Jack hack
Flop wack rip
I think this draft shows the torrid insane mind of a serial killer: quick harsh words, very visual.
I probably will change the wording of the final two lines to reflect the first line as it exists. That will result in the wording order changing throughout the poem. I just like the flow of the first line. Its a better flow for the end line. I'll have to look at puncuation as well.
On a different note, I didn't read this in class because my confidence, my inner critique didn't let me. Should have shut him up and experimented. After all it's all for fun and noone gets anywhere staying quiet. Love your art.Sing it out whenever you get the chance. This was one blown chance for me.
Friday 27 May 2011
Day 10: Busy Day Poetry
One of those days so here's a poem:
The Twenty-First Century
No lines, instant access
Credit cards, maximum debt
Don’t pay for twenty four months
We are a society of Easy Bake Ovens
Desserts prepared in five minutes
With optional drizzle
Corporate mergers, restructurings, and layoffs
Pressures to stretch a forty hour work week
Into a 24/7 existence
Technology expands our work
More in less replaces the corporate motto
Of pride in achievement and product
A job worth doing never gets done
Time stolen with maintained pressure
Insures mediocrity
Typewriters, television dials and rotary phones
Ghosts of a simpler life
Purged by technology to the graveyard of inefficiency
Children speak in techno-babel
Junkies to the latest electronic drug
Twitter, Facebook; instantaneous communication
No time for reflection; just regret
Within cyber bars we look
For live-long commitment via email and texting
We are a society of visual dialogue
Tactile relationships lost on a sea of cable and pulses
Telephone numbers programmed to eliminate memory
Hands free or no drive zones necessitates
A trip to Best Buy for the latest electronic gadget
With lessons of patience
No longer taught by over-whelmed parents
We stay connected; in tune for immediate gratification
Desensitized to our differences by the net
Cultures blur and individuality is lost
I choose to limit my technology
For when I am alone
I reflect
And find the best of myself
Without wires, without access
Without the chirps and beeps of modern society
I regain myself
I find my solitude, my god, my peace
Thursday 26 May 2011
Day 9: Practice What You Preach
I looked at yesterday's blog. Live fearless I said. Take chances. Expand your creative horizons. Not the exact words but you get the point. Well, it's time to take my own advice and live fearless.
I spend most of my writing time with a mystery at the present time but my first love from a creative point of view is poetry and will probably always be poetry. I love the images one can create in a few words and how the emotions of what you are writing about is right there on the surface, in the flesh for everyone to see. Nothing hidden. The truth written for all to see. So at the end of this post I am going to put up one of my longer works in draft. I wrote it during a poetry class I took in the fall. The thing about my poetry is that I have no idea whether it is good, bad, or indifferent. I guess I really should not care as it is a question for me as an artist whether I like it. Apparently I do and I was happy that to create it. Not perfect yet. Certainly not ready for publication but I have to remember what is the purpose of this blog: to examine my creative process and to facilitate your reflection on yours. So if I hide my work because I am afraid of its rejection or failures as a piece then I am a complete hypocrite in what I write. That's not who I am so I give you an excerpt from a poem with the working title 'The Wasteland.' (My apologies to Eliot). This is all I have written at this point but I will add over the coming months.
I spend most of my writing time with a mystery at the present time but my first love from a creative point of view is poetry and will probably always be poetry. I love the images one can create in a few words and how the emotions of what you are writing about is right there on the surface, in the flesh for everyone to see. Nothing hidden. The truth written for all to see. So at the end of this post I am going to put up one of my longer works in draft. I wrote it during a poetry class I took in the fall. The thing about my poetry is that I have no idea whether it is good, bad, or indifferent. I guess I really should not care as it is a question for me as an artist whether I like it. Apparently I do and I was happy that to create it. Not perfect yet. Certainly not ready for publication but I have to remember what is the purpose of this blog: to examine my creative process and to facilitate your reflection on yours. So if I hide my work because I am afraid of its rejection or failures as a piece then I am a complete hypocrite in what I write. That's not who I am so I give you an excerpt from a poem with the working title 'The Wasteland.' (My apologies to Eliot). This is all I have written at this point but I will add over the coming months.
Excerpt from “The Wasteland”
We stand
One by one
One hundred by one hundred
Thousands by thousands
A million strong
As sure as it is one
We are the lost, the incomplete
We are the teachers,
Doctors, electricians, chemists, and vets
The builders, miners, hunters and fishers
The architects, inventors, foresters, and farmers
Painters, sculptors, composers,
Poets, philosophers, and saints
Slain before our time
Our gifts unperfected
Connected, we search for our peace
But find none, for
We are beset by our regret
Tormented by our truths
We have seen the blood of many
But the blood of none stains our souls
We are valour, duty, and courage
But we are these things in vain
Pawns, sacrifices for the corrupted
But not for the good of our mothers,
Our sisters, brothers, wives, sons and daughters
Nor for our neighbours or our friends
We have died on soil unknown to our feet
We have died in battles unrelated to our hearts
We are the dead
We are your comrades in arms
Taken in our prime
Memories only to those we loved
And who loved us at home and afar.
While he is old school I take a lot of influence from Whitman in some of my work. Always open to comments about what you think about the work
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Day 8: Fearless
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."
Joseph Chilton Pearce
Courage is an attribute that an artist must have. Courage to express that which needs to be expressed. Courage to risk. Courage to take the chance to do something that has never been done before in the face of others telling you that it can't be done.
Live your life fearless. Live your life creative.
Joseph Chilton Pearce
Courage is an attribute that an artist must have. Courage to express that which needs to be expressed. Courage to risk. Courage to take the chance to do something that has never been done before in the face of others telling you that it can't be done.
Live your life fearless. Live your life creative.
Tuesday 24 May 2011
Day 7: Critique Groups
A good critique group is worth it's weight in gold. Find people to work with who are not afraid to tell you honestly in a nurturing environment what are your strengths and weaknesses in your work. Find people who want to see you succeed as much as they want to succeed. Be prepared to work hard with them to improve your work and their work.
A good critique group is one where there is give and take.
You should get some new ideas to help your writing or your story at every meeting or the group is not doing it's job for you.
I wonder whether you need to provide the obligatory 'I enjoyed your work' or 'That was nice' if you are in a trusting hard working group. I think the sandwich critique really doesn't have a place in a good critique group where there is honesty amongst it's members. Tell them about the stuff that works and the stuff that needs another look.
Above all, leave your ego at the door and work hard at improving your work and your trusted group members' works. Everyone will grow artistically in leaps and bounds.
A good critique group is one where there is give and take.
You should get some new ideas to help your writing or your story at every meeting or the group is not doing it's job for you.
I wonder whether you need to provide the obligatory 'I enjoyed your work' or 'That was nice' if you are in a trusting hard working group. I think the sandwich critique really doesn't have a place in a good critique group where there is honesty amongst it's members. Tell them about the stuff that works and the stuff that needs another look.
Above all, leave your ego at the door and work hard at improving your work and your trusted group members' works. Everyone will grow artistically in leaps and bounds.
Monday 23 May 2011
Day 6: Criticism Moves You Places
Giving your work to trusted readers can move it to higher levels. Always be open to good criticism. But what is good criticism?
Positive criticism is that which is offered sincerely in the hopes of giving you ideas that can improve a piece. Good criticism is not offering another perspective on where a story should go. Good criticism does not seek to change the intention of the writer.
You may be told to go deeper with your work. This is code for suggesting that you can provide your reader with more intimate involvement with your characters. While potentially deflating, it is excellent criticism as it tells you that the reader thinks you can give more of your characters and more of yourself into your work.
If your critiquer offers criticsm but cannot articulate why they don't like x or y in your story, you need to look hard about what is being offered.
To grow creatively, we sometimes need to prodded by gentle friends. Look at what is being offered and make your own choice. Does the suggestion potentially improve your work? That is a question for you to think about and answer as the artist. Just be open to the ideas offered by good criticism. In the end, it's up to you.
Positive criticism is that which is offered sincerely in the hopes of giving you ideas that can improve a piece. Good criticism is not offering another perspective on where a story should go. Good criticism does not seek to change the intention of the writer.
You may be told to go deeper with your work. This is code for suggesting that you can provide your reader with more intimate involvement with your characters. While potentially deflating, it is excellent criticism as it tells you that the reader thinks you can give more of your characters and more of yourself into your work.
If your critiquer offers criticsm but cannot articulate why they don't like x or y in your story, you need to look hard about what is being offered.
To grow creatively, we sometimes need to prodded by gentle friends. Look at what is being offered and make your own choice. Does the suggestion potentially improve your work? That is a question for you to think about and answer as the artist. Just be open to the ideas offered by good criticism. In the end, it's up to you.
Sunday 22 May 2011
Day 5: What Lurks in the Shadows?
Your inner critic is always lurking in the shadows, whispering to you with no face visible to your eyes. What can you do about it? I think everyone should embrace your inner critic. Hear its voice. Bring it out of the shadows so you can see its face. To paraphrase an old saying: Know your friends but know your enemy better. Give your inner critic a name. Find out what makes it tick. With knowledge you can confront your critic and possibly learn from it.
Here's a good exercise. Write a descriptive paragraph outlining everything you can about your inner critic. Provide as much detail as possible. Shine your beacon on it. Like most bullies, your inner critic will runaway when confronted by you. Take it a step further. Make a doll or a drawing of your inner critic. Put it in your writing space. Make fun of your inner critic daily. Bully it back. Talk to it and tell it that you're not listening today.
Here's a good exercise. Write a descriptive paragraph outlining everything you can about your inner critic. Provide as much detail as possible. Shine your beacon on it. Like most bullies, your inner critic will runaway when confronted by you. Take it a step further. Make a doll or a drawing of your inner critic. Put it in your writing space. Make fun of your inner critic daily. Bully it back. Talk to it and tell it that you're not listening today.
Saturday 21 May 2011
Day 4 - Where Does It All come From?
Have you ever sat back to consider how we generate ideas and where the ideas actually come from. In times long past, one thought the words came on the breath of god. The writer, poet, or composer acted as a lowly transcriber of words conveyed by a higher being: chosen by divinity to pass on thair art.
A conforting thought to the deeply religious. Not particularly helpful in answering the question.
I don't know why Mozart was able to envision and hear his music fully formed or what spurred Shakespeare to write his sonnets but I find the question of where it comes from fascinating.
On a personal level I wonder why I come up with a variety of ideas for stories that I write, why I am able to see the story played out in vivid detail in my head simply needing to transcribe what I see playing out in my personal movie theatre of my mind. I think I will pursue the answer to this question for the remainder of my life and will likely never find the answer. It is a journey that is exciting. Perhaps the answer does not lie in finding the answer but marvelling in the process that is new and fresh every time it happens.
I'm posting another draft poem of mine. Where did it come from? Why did I write it? I don't know. All I know is that it was there one day and needed to be expressed by me at the time.
A conforting thought to the deeply religious. Not particularly helpful in answering the question.
I don't know why Mozart was able to envision and hear his music fully formed or what spurred Shakespeare to write his sonnets but I find the question of where it comes from fascinating.
On a personal level I wonder why I come up with a variety of ideas for stories that I write, why I am able to see the story played out in vivid detail in my head simply needing to transcribe what I see playing out in my personal movie theatre of my mind. I think I will pursue the answer to this question for the remainder of my life and will likely never find the answer. It is a journey that is exciting. Perhaps the answer does not lie in finding the answer but marvelling in the process that is new and fresh every time it happens.
I'm posting another draft poem of mine. Where did it come from? Why did I write it? I don't know. All I know is that it was there one day and needed to be expressed by me at the time.
Litany
I am a man
With a benevolent god
Who reminds me daily
Of my shortcomings
My weaknesses and my strengths
He reminds me that I am human
A joyful state of being
Friday 20 May 2011
Day 3 - You Don't Have To Be an Artist To Be Creative
'Imagination is more important than knowledge.'
An interesting thought. Do you agree? At the seed of imagination is wonder. I wonder how that works? I wonder if I try it this way what will happen? I wonder if I write my story this way...
All the knowledge about the mechanics of writing and various issues of poetics isn't going to make you a great writer or poet. A vivid imagination exercised daily will. It will take you to places that no one knows about until you discover them. You are a courageous explorer. Your imagination will let you see the questions that you wonder about from new and unique perspectives. Imagination expands our knowledge.
Use your imagination fearlessly each day in all aspects of your life and you will be creative.
Who said imagination is more important than knowledge? Albert Einstein. I don't think anyone could disagree. Develop your imagination daily. There are no wrong ways of using it, just different perspectives.
An interesting thought. Do you agree? At the seed of imagination is wonder. I wonder how that works? I wonder if I try it this way what will happen? I wonder if I write my story this way...
All the knowledge about the mechanics of writing and various issues of poetics isn't going to make you a great writer or poet. A vivid imagination exercised daily will. It will take you to places that no one knows about until you discover them. You are a courageous explorer. Your imagination will let you see the questions that you wonder about from new and unique perspectives. Imagination expands our knowledge.
Use your imagination fearlessly each day in all aspects of your life and you will be creative.
Who said imagination is more important than knowledge? Albert Einstein. I don't think anyone could disagree. Develop your imagination daily. There are no wrong ways of using it, just different perspectives.
Thursday 19 May 2011
Day 2 Thinking About a Box
The only good thing about boxes is what they hold inside. You never know what's in a box until you take it out. Keeping it in the box is no fun. What's the point of all this?
If you embrace your creativity, always think outside the box fearlessly. Staying within the box is no fun. Getting outside the box is where the real fun begins.
I'm new to this blog thing and I actually never even posted a comment to someone else's blog until about five days ago. It was a comment that was directed towards the blogger's role in the development of many writing voices in our community. It was poetic (or at least the attempt was there). Some other reader/poster took offence to a grammatical error in my post. Affronted (not really, just wanting to have some fun) I suggested that the rules of grammar wasn't (see what I mean) something that I was overly concerned with and that sentence fragments were my friends. My comment was completely self-deprecating. The reader/poster felt obligated to comment again adding that the failure to utilize the rules of grammar was a reason he didn't read blogs regularly. Good grief, Charlie Brown. This Fella lives his life in the box. Obey the rules. I before E except after C type of guy. Where would writing be if everyone followed the same rules? Would we all write in the style of Dickens, Tolstoy, or Bronte. Where would be without Hemingway? Could Hemingway even write like Dickens? Would The Picture of Dorian Gray even be a hit ( in today's world it could be written in three or four chapters.)?
My point is simple. Next time you're in the box, step outside it. Turn your creative juices to the spaces outside the walls of your box and see what you come up with. At least you'll have fun trying to find ways to say the same old things we've been writing about or storytelling about since the cavemen days.
Here's a poem I might revisit from time to time. Its a draft in the jelling phase:
If you embrace your creativity, always think outside the box fearlessly. Staying within the box is no fun. Getting outside the box is where the real fun begins.
I'm new to this blog thing and I actually never even posted a comment to someone else's blog until about five days ago. It was a comment that was directed towards the blogger's role in the development of many writing voices in our community. It was poetic (or at least the attempt was there). Some other reader/poster took offence to a grammatical error in my post. Affronted (not really, just wanting to have some fun) I suggested that the rules of grammar wasn't (see what I mean) something that I was overly concerned with and that sentence fragments were my friends. My comment was completely self-deprecating. The reader/poster felt obligated to comment again adding that the failure to utilize the rules of grammar was a reason he didn't read blogs regularly. Good grief, Charlie Brown. This Fella lives his life in the box. Obey the rules. I before E except after C type of guy. Where would writing be if everyone followed the same rules? Would we all write in the style of Dickens, Tolstoy, or Bronte. Where would be without Hemingway? Could Hemingway even write like Dickens? Would The Picture of Dorian Gray even be a hit ( in today's world it could be written in three or four chapters.)?
My point is simple. Next time you're in the box, step outside it. Turn your creative juices to the spaces outside the walls of your box and see what you come up with. At least you'll have fun trying to find ways to say the same old things we've been writing about or storytelling about since the cavemen days.
Here's a poem I might revisit from time to time. Its a draft in the jelling phase:
My Medusa
My Medusa
How I pity your being
Alone, you have turned your gaze within
And looked upon your own heart
Cold, Hard, silent
Your stone weeps no blood
Only the bitter tears of anger ooze
From the hardness of your soul
With my love forgotten
And my compassion my shield
I am immune from your stare
I am fluid eternal
I am soft ever-lasting
Blood weeps from my soul
My blood weeps for you
Let me know what you think. Until tomorrow. David
Wednesday 18 May 2011
My first blog
Here I am sitting in the computer lab in a course on blogging. Created the account and I'm ready to go in less than five minutes. Bare bones right now but I'll add as I go. The goal: write a post dealing with some aspect of the creative process once a day. See what I find and to have some fun with the creative process being creative.
Heard a neat idea the other day for developing story lines for characters in your stories when you're stuck. Give the character a tarot card reading. I'll do two different ones and post about it tomorrow.
Plan to post some poetry and see how it changes over time, see if I can better understand my own process.
Maybe I should tell you a little about me: writer of fantasies, mysteries and poetry and a developing teacher of creative writing. Drop me a message. David
Heard a neat idea the other day for developing story lines for characters in your stories when you're stuck. Give the character a tarot card reading. I'll do two different ones and post about it tomorrow.
Plan to post some poetry and see how it changes over time, see if I can better understand my own process.
Maybe I should tell you a little about me: writer of fantasies, mysteries and poetry and a developing teacher of creative writing. Drop me a message. David
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