Oct 8
Learn about Margaret Atwood’s creative process in the 4-minute video below. I love her metaphor of using a rolling barrage to help you write your novel. I’ve done this and it works!
Write something truly awful to find the good stuff. That’s what poet Brendan Constantine promotes in his post “Idle Hands are the Poet’s Playground: Brendan Constantine on Taking a Chance.”
“Furthermore, it will always be true that our poorest work lies ahead of us. We’re going to write something truly awful in the future. We have to. Why do we have to? It’s often the only way to uncover the good writing. Like going through a kitchen drawer, sometimes we have to take out things we don’t need in order to get at the things we do.” Read more
In my last post, “How to make dry research fun,” I wrote about the research I’m doing for my current work-in-progress. I’m writing a story that contains fallen angels, demons, and even the greatest fallen angel of all time.
Part of my research involves reading current novels that contain this subject matter so I can see what’s out there and what’s been done (so I don’t repeat it). But this is not all or even the majority of my research. Most of my reading is of historical texts and references. I’m going back in time to find the “real” history of my characters and themes.
So why not just read what’s hot now? If I were writing a vampire novel, I’d want to read, among others, Stoker’s Dracula, Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, and Meyer’s Twilight (to see what all the fuss is about).
But if I only read these books, I’d be basing my knowledge on other author’s perceptions, themes, and ideas. Read more
Below are two blog posts I found particularly inspiring and enlightening in my writing life this week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
New York Times bestselling author Bob Mayer’s post from last year: Pay the Writer makes so much sense. He writes about how we teach others how to treat us. This is true whether you’re speaking at a writing conference or setting aside quiet time to write at home. The video by Harlan Ellison is a hoot.
From last month, a post by my blog partner, Carly Sandifer, about finding inspiration in a commencement speech given by author Neil Gaiman.
Enjoy!
Lately, I’ve been overworking my left brain. In the last week I’ve had to learn a new software program, learn a new webinar system, prepare and host a webinar, and finish my business taxes, which required me to learn a new form that took three phone calls and one hour to figure out what the taxman wanted.
This morning I’m officially back to living in my right brain and my current work-in-progress. During all my left brain activity, though, I did manage to keep my sanity by taking a few short play breaks.
Here’s one below: a two-minute video of Dusty the house cat who at night turns into Clepto. Watch to the very end to see the funniest part!
Not only did this make me laugh, but it gave me a great idea for a character. Have you seen anything funny or playful lately that sparked a creative idea?
My massage therapist is an artist in every sense of the word—he does fantastic bodywork AND he’s a sculptor and painter. Recently, he told me a story about when he was in art school.
He was working on his first painting and between each layer of paint, he’d dip his brush in the varnish and then paint another layer. When he was done, the piece almost had a 3D effect with all the layers of paint and varnish. It was a beautiful accident.
During class, the instructor praised his work in front of the other students and mentioned the “intentional” effect he created. My massage therapist smiled and nodded, as if he meant to do that. Read more
Sep 10
Last week, I wrote about how to acquire a creative mind via a short video by creativity coach Eric Maisel. In this 2-minute clip, Maisel discusses how artists make meaning from their lives through creativity. He says we cannot give up on our creativity without hurting ourselves.
A good point to keep in mind for those times when we feel like chucking our laptop out the window or feeding our latest work-in-progress to the garbage disposal.
onewildword 