A Writer's Thanksgiving List

If you had the time and inclination yesterday to check in with social media between, say, the turkey dinner and dessert, you must have seen all the posts sharing what people were most thankful for.  Here is my writer’s list:

• ·Your journey is your own.  None of us can predict, when the first fleeting story idea comes to us, whether it will ever see publication. Perhaps like me, you have traveled a rocky path through elation and disappointment, success and failure.  It’s not for the faint of heart, but each journey is unique and incredibly rewarding.

• We travel in good company.  So many wonderful, incredibly talented, encouraging, challenging, loving people attend us along the way.  Fellow writers, industry professionals, readers – people who make the journey fun and meaningful, who are rich in experience and wisdom and willing to come alongside us.

• Print isn’t dead.  People are still buying books.  Honest-to-goodness books! Pick up a book, open to the middle and inhale.  Feel the pulse, listen for the heartbeat. It’s still living and breathing. 

• Ideas are endless.  You may struggle to find ideas, but as the world changes and new experiences are open to us, potential is created for new story ideas or for putting new spin on old ones.  Fresh discoveries are made every day.  The world has not 'arrived' yet.

• Technology is in hyper-drive.  Never has it been easier to do research, learn the craft, polish a manuscript, query an agent, increase your circle of influence, develop a social network, cyber-visit a location across the globe for setting, find the perfect photo of your character and back it all up in the cloud.  Sister, it’s a loooong way from making carbon copies on a typewriter. (Amazingly, it hasn't been so very long ago...)

• Self-publication is an option.   Writers no longer have to go the traditional route to get stories into the hands of readers.  Okay, there are hurdles and challenges, and money is involved, but it’s a possibility for those who choose it. 

• We have the great privilege of creating art.   The act of creation does something wonderful inside us.  It fills us and feeds us.  Read the Creation story in Genesis again and see the mixture of creative abandon and order described there.  Create art every day.

This is really just a beginning list, and we’d love to add your contributions.  What a great time to be a writer! 

Keep Calm and Ponder

 

I recently watched a lecture by John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) which was delivered in 1991 on the subject of creativity.  I found it challenging and informative.  He had five main points that are necessary for creativity and you can watch it here. Rather than repeating his main points, I want to highlight the information that made the most impact on me.   And I’m paraphrasing here:

• ·When it comes to creativity, it is easier to focus on the trivial things that are urgent than the more important things that are not urgent  OR the little things we know we can do than to start on the big things we’re not so sure about.

• ·The first 30 minutes or so is spent in getting into the mood, tuning out the distractions of everyday life and getting into a playful, less purposeful mode.  The purpose is not on problem solving, but experimenting with ideas.  Then you can spend an hour or so in pondering, which is preferable to spending long periods of time (less productive).

• The most creative people don’t give in to the quickest, easiest solutions.  They can tolerate the tension or discomfort of sticking with it and taking longer to find the most original ideas.

As I watched, I found so much that we can use to seize the year:  brainstorming story ideas, imagining the direction, shape or POV of a story, discovering creative ways to market and promote.  Determining how to unfold the story in the most creative way.  Tossing an obvious plot solution for something more original.   Expanding a small story idea into a bigger one.  We might take time for this at the pre-writing phase and then later at a mid-point where the story dries up or looks up at us fish-eyed and smelly.  We can focus on the big picture, the whole story, or the minute details, as long as we approach the process in a playful, open frame of mind.  No ideas are wrong, they’re just ideas, and this is essential to spontaneity.

He also made a statement that creativity is not a talent but a way of operating and is completely unrelated to I.Q.   We can learn to get into the open mode needed for creativity.  It’s not something you either have or don’t.  Phew on both counts!

Most importantly, I felt he validated our need as writers to spend time away from writing and reading and being connected to social networking in order to feed that place where great stories originate.  

So I’m going to set aside time, create my oasis and ponder the possibilities.  What about you?