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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Oct 2

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Art as activism: Project Unbreakable

Note: The links to Project Unbreakable contain emotionally disturbing material. Please consider this before clicking on those links.

Yesterday, Carly wrote a post about artists as activists—those of us, like poet Martin Espada, who feel called to make the invisible visible.

Another artist doing this same thing is photographer Grace Brown, founder of Project Unbreakable. Two years ago, Grace began photographing survivors of sexual assault holding up posters on which they quoted the words of their attackers. Since it began, the project has highlighted more than 2,000 survivors’ stories. Brown uses her art to give survivors the opportunity to heal and increase awareness of sexual assault.

Read more

Oct 1

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Artists as activists: How will you wield your power?

Writers often write to shed light on a difficult subject, find justice, and make a difference. Some writers say it’s our duty to seek truth, speak out, and stand up for those who can’t. It’s the reason why writers are among the first to be persecuted during times of political unrest.

Poet Martin Espada, who worked as a tenant lawyer and is now a professor at Amherst College, in Amherst, Mass., says he feels it’s his duty as a poet to make the invisible visible. He calls himself a poet spy, taking notes on what will later become poems.

Espada writes about controversial issues and fights for human rights through his poetry. He writes about immigration reform, dictators, prisoners on Death Row, poverty, and 9/11 victims.

In an interview with Bill Moyers, Espada said, “There’s something about poetry that saves me. There’s something about poetry that energizes me, that brings me to another plane. That fires all the hormones, I don’t know what. Something intangible, and yet tangible at the same time. There is something to poetry and activism which has the same energizing effect.”

What will you do to wield your talent as an artist, a citizen of the world, and as a communicator, whether you’re a writer, painter, photographer, or someone who has a vision for something better?

Espada has won numerous awards, including the American Book Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. His most recent book is The Trouble Ball. For more information about Espada and his writing, visit his website.

Sep 25

J. J. Abram’s mystery box as metaphor for writing

In producer/director/writer J. J. Abrams’s Ted Talk below, he says his fascination with how things work and the mystery surrounding life were given to him by his grandfather.

When he was a boy, his grandfather took him to a magic store where Abrams bought a Tannen’s Mystery Magic Box. This many years later, the box has never been opened because he says it represents his grandfather to him and the infinite possibilities and hopes that his grandfather instilled in him.

Abrams believes that mystery is the catalyst to imagination. He gives the example of when he was working on the TV series “Lost.” He had 11.5 weeks to write the script, cast it, and shoot it.

Because of the short time period, he and his crew had no time to think about what the show couldn’t be. No time to think about what they couldn’t accomplish. Read more

Sep 24

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Scientific experiments indicate a “writer’s uniform” could make you more effective

So much about writing is a mind game.

Successful writers have routines that alert the subconscious to bring forth the muse. It may be a specific Montblanc pen, Moleskine notebook, extra-hot cafe latte… or a certain piece of clothing.

Plenty of professions have uniforms that, in the mind of the wearers, may set a mood or tone with them and the people around them. Think: doctors and nurses and their patients.

It just may be that you go into writing mode more deeply if you have a “writing uniform.”

Maybe it’s a special jacket, a certain scarf you always wear, or a particular t-shirt that has meaning. (Some writers have been known to wear cozy pajamas and bunny slippers, while others wore nothing at all). But I digress.

For entertaining and informative insight about a concept called “enclothed cognition,” watch this 2-minute video, which as it turns out is also a great example of an effective book trailer for You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourselfby David McRaney.

You’ll learn how a particular uniform or piece of clothing can have symbolic meaning and how the psychological experience of wearing it could positively impact your writing practice.

What would your writing uniform be?

In a related post about routines, read How award-winning author Jonathan Franzen writes.

For more information about David McRaney, visit his blog.

Sep 19

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Practice strategies of super elite performers: Sleep your way to creativity

I’ve learned that taking a break from the computer and “sleeping on” my writing often reveals breakthroughs — a solution to a problem or a story idea. And often this inspiration happens right after I lie down when my brain is buzzing from a writing session.

But I recently found that sleep is more important to the creative process than I realized.

Christine Carter, Ph.D, a sociologist and happiness expert at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, writes on her blog about elite performers and how they become successful. “People who go to the top of their fields don’t just practice deliberately and persistently, they also rest strategically,” she says.

It’s well known that most people need seven to eight hours of sleep a night. But Americans average only 6.5 hours of sleep per night, Carter says. She’s written about characteristics of elite performers and says super high achievers clock in more sleep time than average. Elite performers tend to get 8.6 hours of sleep a night and high performing athletes even more. Read more

Sep 17

Young People’s literature gets a boost from the National Book Foundation

For the first time in its history, the National Book Foundation has announced the 2013 Young People’s Literature Longlist for the National Book Award. This is the first time the National Book Foundation has announced a “longlist” of ten titles for each National Book Awards category. The list includes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The Longlist for Poetry will be announced today, the Longlist for Nonfiction on Sept 18, and the Longlist for Fiction on September 19. The short list of five finalists in each category will be announced in mid-October.

The nominees for Young People’s Literature address important contemporary issues, including the immigrant experience, coming of age as an LGBT teen, and the impact of technology on civilization.

Personally, I’ve read some great books for young people and I’m excited this category is doing more to recognize the incredible talent in the field.

One example is Lisa Graff’s nominated book, A Tangle of Knots,which takes place in a slightly magical version of our world, where most everyone has a special talent—something he or she is uniquely gifted at, often to a supernatural degree. Read more

Sep 16

How to create new stories from existing writing

Part of writing includes stalled starts and manuscripts that are better left in a drawer. But sometimes those pieces of writing that didn’t work out can be turned into something new. Add to that, poems or essays or short stories that reveal ideas and characters so compelling that they may generate brand new works.

One example of this is the memoir Breaking Clean by Montana author Judy Blunt. The first chapter was initially an essay Blunt wrote as a college writing assignment.

Short story writer Pete Fromm wrote How All This Started, a novel, which began as a short story by the same name that was published in his short story collection, Night Swimming.

I recently read a poem to my writer’s group and my writer pals said they wanted to know more about one of the characters in the poem. Maybe my poem will lead to a short story or novel.

Even drafts that don’t work may have promise. As we write and read and write again, we change and learn. We have a new perspective. A draft that didn’t seem to work years ago may have new life in light of all we’ve learned.

What drafts or works have you written that still resonate? Maybe now is the time to give them new life.

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