Musings & more….
A. S. Anand has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his blogspot blog. Do take a moment to check out Aman’s book, 2032, if you head over there!
This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.
As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.
Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Who is one person that you’ve been dying to connect with, but just haven’t had the courage to reach out to? First, reflect on why you want to get in touch with them. Then, reach out and set up a meeting.
(Author: David Spinks)
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I have been so focused on promoting After The Virus and trying to carve out writing time (so I follow up with a new novel in a timely manner) that my Trust 30 posts have really fallen to the wayside, but, with that said, I do read and think about the prompts every morning. This one has my brain churning, churning, churning… who have I always wanted to connect to?
Here’s the thing, I’ve always thought that we are all just people. Some people are fantastic at what they do (though, in reference to Outliners, I do believe that talent is only part of the parcel and practice makes perfect or at least really good), and they build a following because of that. So I have always tried to not put people up on pedestals – it’s so much easier for them to fall down that way.
With that said, I would probably become a gushing fan girl if I ever came face to face with Mr. Steven Spielberg, who pretty much raised me via his films.
I’ll have to think on this prompt throughout the day. Just wanted to call your attention to it.
Who have you been dying to connect to?
Dare to be bold by Matt Cheuvront
Our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate, where strength is born.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Next to Resistance, rational thought is the artist or entrepreneurs worst enemy. Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thought comes from the ego. Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.
A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. Its only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.”
– Steven Pressfield, Do the Work
The idea of “being realistic” holds all of us back. From starting a business or quitting a job to dating someone who may not be our type or moving to a new place – getting “real” often means putting your dreams on hold.
Today, let’s take a step away from rational thought and dare to be bold. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to accomplish but have been afraid to pursue? Write it down. Also write down the obstacles in your way of reaching your goal. Finally, write down a tangible plan to overcome each obstacle.
The only thing left is to, you know, actually go make it happen. What are you waiting for?
(Author: Matt Cheuvront)
—–
I won’t bore you with my lists of goals and obstacles or tangible plan (if I manage to format one) but what I find interesting about this prompt – other than I totally agree – is that I usually pride myself in being rational. It is something I have constantly strived for, mostly because everything can go off the rails so suddenly, so it is best to plan to be as rational as possible ahead of time.
And this does block me, especially if I am attempting to write from a rational perspective; such as, I need to write a romantic comedy next, because that is what sells…that’s what I spent the bulk of 2007 doing, with no pitch-able romantic comedy to now show for it. This is the brick wall I come back to time and time again. It is obviously a tough lesson for me to learn. I must have 5 rom coms shelved at this point, including one I still work on sporadically. I like to think that I am now a strong enough writer to create in almost any genre, but boredom really factors for me, and if I am bored for sure the reader will be as well!!
So while I do think there is a strong argument for learning rules and structure (I am certainly big on structure) – be they for screenwriting or novels or shorts – but, once you are cemented in those rules, I think it is important to try to forget those restrictions as you begin to create a new story.
I am trying to play more, trying to believe in the world I am creating and desperately trying to not judge the writing, because once I attack a new idea rationally I often kill it for myself, even though it could have been great if I had just believed.
So while being rational may be great in relationships, it can be death to creative endeavors.
Day 2 of the #Trust30 30-day writing challenge from ralphwaldoemerson.me begins with this prompt:
Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.
(Author: Liz Danzico)
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Okay, this prompt is much less scary than yesterday’s prompt, but no less intense. There seems to be the beginning of a theme forming for me here, one of writing in a much more condensed version than I normally do; yesterday it was for 15 minutes and now I am supposed to encapsulate today in a single sentence. And I assume it shouldn’t be a run on. Okay here we go.
Today begins with sunshine, new growth in the garden, and a cat nesting in the papers on my desk, and hopefully those papers…
Sunshine, a napping cat, and multiple piles of papers filled with creative bits spread across my desk, creating comfort and possibilities for today…
Today begins with the warmth of the sun, the comfort of a napping cat, and endless possibilities hidden in handwritten notes spread across my desk.
Today begins with the welcomed warmth of the sun, the comfort of a napping cat, and endless possibilities just waiting to be explored in handwritten notes spread across my desk.
[Hmm… these seem to be getting a little long – more than a mouthful, if I am to “tell today’s sentence to another person”. Let’s try again:]
Today the papers strewn across my desk beckon with endless possibilities and…
My desk welcomes me with a napping cat and haphazard piles of papers filled with possibilities and…
[What if I drop the metaphors and symbols and go for a simpler response?]
Today is a day that anything or nothing at all could happen, and I will be content either way.
Today is filled with decisions and choices, as is every day, just some have more weight than others.
[Well, this isn’t going anywhere terribly insightful – ha!]
Describe today, describe today… Today is barely begun and yet it feels like a day rooted in comfort and filled with possibilities.
I woke up early and quite awake this morning, which is a rare occurrence, with my head filled with thoughts of the future and tasks of the present. Today will be a good day.
[Yes, I know, that’s 2 sentences].
Today is feels like there is only a few moments for all the tasks laid out before me, and yet there will still be time to look forward and revel in the endless possibilities of life and love.
[And with that said it really is just time to just get on with today].
How’s your day going?
I just signed up to participate in the Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson online initiative.
#Trust30 is a 30 day writing challenge. You receive a daily prompt and respond to it… in writing. So I sign up, THEN I check out the 1st prompt:
Gwen Bell – 15 Minutes to Live
We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live.
1. Set a timer for fifteen minutes.
2. Write the story that has to be written.
(Author: Gwen Bell)
So, um, ya. Just reading that scared the shit of me… that’s a response, right? Like I actually felt a shot of fear reverberate through my gut…that can’t be good. Now I am thinking, holy shit maybe I should have checked out the 1st prompt BEFORE I commitment myself. Why couldn’t we talk about our 1st childhood memory? Trust me that would have been hard enough. I mean, sure I write about death and destruction and heroes pulling the world back from the brink of disaster (etc) but I don’t really want to imagine myself dying, having only 15 more minutes with so much left undone, unsaid, unshared. The idea of it makes me all heavy and sad, and why go there, why wallow?
But that’s not the exercise is it? If I push past my initial reaction, I see I am suppose to focus my attention on the story that has to be written, that I only have 15 more minutes to get out into the world or, at least, out of my head. Well, that’s different, isn’t it? Though no less daunting, because I am not sure that in this particular moment I have any story locked in my head that can actually be told in 15 minutes. And any story I have that can be so concisely related? Well, I share those every day, as they occur to me. I guess I am just lucky that way…telling stories is like breathing for me. They would pour out of my head, or at least dribble out of an ear, the right one, I think, if they had actual mass.
Speaking of only having 15 minutes to live and write, more than a little part of me would die, if I couldn’t be a storyteller anymore.
What about you? 15 minutes to live: GO!
As I am puttering around this morning–feeding animals, emptying the dishwasher, turning the tomato seedlings–I find I have the opening scene to my story, THE NINTH DRAGON, running around in my head… images, full sentences and all. So I hustle into the office to jot down these thoughts only to discover that I am out of scrap paper. Serendipitously (hopefully!) I have used an entire draft print of my novel, AFTER THE VIRUS, to brainstorm a series of short stories set in that universe.
Anyway, I remember I have some coloured paper upstairs that is who knows how old (5 years maybe) so I grab a 1 inch stack, title and date the top page and settle in to write out the first scene (or at least the parts I have running in my head).
I swear I only turned away for a second, but that is all it took to lose the paper to Leo, pen and all.
I seriously hope this isn’t a commentary on the quality of the writing–the paper makes a better bed than book? Or perhaps I really should just stop reading into every little thing the cats do. They like to sleep on things–end of (potentially dull) story.
Insert even cuter picture here:
Now get back to work! Me, not you. You feel free to do what pleases you.
So I just read POKE THE BOX by Seth Godin, which has been released through his new partnership with Amazon, The Domino Project.
Now, I must admit, before I launch into my rather verbose reaction to this book, I didn’t buy PTB when it was first published–even at it’s very accessible introductory price (.99). Why? Because I am not a big fan of motivational or self-help books. I generally find such books a slog to get through, and it always seems that I already know (even if I don’t practice every day) their fundamental principals. However, when I received an email yesterday via The Domino Project about Steven Pressfield’s new book, DO THE WORK, I was intrigued enough to click through and read more. First of all, this book has a corporate sponsor (GE), which is completely brilliant. And second Mr. Pressfield wrote THE WAR OF ART, which occupies a spot among all my “creative” and writing books, possibly right next to Syd Field. The thing is, this book was a gift, a birthday gift from a beloved cousin, who has since chosen to leave his mortal coil, and, I must further admit, I have never read it. So I signed up to get a free copy of DTW and vowed to read AofW beforehand.
Then I started to feel a little guilty that I hadn’t supported The Domino Project further when I completely believe in its principals–so I downloaded POKE THE BOX.
And then I read it.
As I was reading, I kept coming across underlined passages. This was my first time reading with the Kindle App and I had not turned off the “others have highlighted this” option. Then, out of the blue, I too felt like noting down a section. So out came a blue post it note (hence the picture with this post), because I thought it might be a good exercise if I took the time to answer this question Seth had posed–the one that had captured my attention enough that I actually scrawled it across a sticky note.
Then I made more notes and more notes.
Next thing I knew, I was thinking about the book–thinking about my reaction. Thinking about how it felt like it was time to wake up, it was time to step forward; it was time to stop listening to that voice–the one inside my head that had been undermining me for such a long time. And it was time to stop listening to the voices around me, at least the echoes of voices around me, that I had been listening to, that I had been giving so much power.
I realized I have been hiding. I have been waiting. And that it was time to move.
So, I decided to share my reaction to POKE THE BOX.
Then I decided to self-publish some of my writing, because I am tired of waiting to be handed the opportunity to have people read my work–just read it, and hopefully react. I’ve got stories to tell. I’ve written a lot of them down. I’ve even filmed some of them, but I’ve always waited–for film festivals, for broadcasters, for agents and now for publishers.
And you know what? I hate line-ups. Almost nothing is worth the time lining up takes–especially when you can order it online. So let’s do that.
__________________________________
Upcoming POKE THE BOX posts (not necessarily in this order, as the 1st topic, aka sticky note, is the most daunting):
I have a crazy, bloody, dark & funny love story resting underneath my fingertips.
I’ve been working on unleashing it for a couple of years now. Yes, a couple of years.
I know that this story starts with a funeral, ends with a wedding and people die in-between – hopefully only the bad or irredeemable guys, though I make no promises.
The story is about all the crazy things that happen to us, the crazy things you think you can’t tell anyone or… you know… they’ll think you are seriously insane or on your way there at least. Except true love doesn’t acknowledge deal breakers and the person who is your perfect pair is just as fucked up as you, only differently – so, you know, you aren’t fighting over the same energy. Plus with each other you can leave all that shit behind anyway.
There will be lots of rain, guns and a musical number in this screenplay, probably under threat of death. There are childhood friends and drug dealers; in fact they might be one and the same. There will be a stalker and an ex-wife, who may just as well fall in lust themselves. Someone might be pregnant, someone might be a spy – actually that might be the opening to the plot – he runs an import/export business – ya, right. She’s a colour blind interior decorator who has a thing for dance poles and 80s music, she also can shoot a gun, but why is nobody’s business. Cue sweet songs & honey – it’s going to be a wild ride.
And I am going to do it all in 90 minutes – 100 tops.
Listening to: Real, Real Gone by Van Morrison
Channeling: The Coen Brothers & Penny Marshall
…it’s just bullshit, Meghan.
“The writing isn’t flowing, because I haven’t found my voice within the story,” I say to myself whenever I am restless and distracted, whenever I want to justify not writing.
And it is bullshit. The worse kind of bullshit – my own – lying to myself, because:
I AM MY VOICE.
Making note of that here, publicly – officially putting myself on record.
I AM MY VOICE.
That is all and everything. Back to writing. Oh, yes, feel free to call me on it – much appreciated.
I’ve been working on my comedy about love this afternoon, no it’s not a romantic comedy – because I said so.
I’ve been playing around with a couple of opening scenes (set at a wake) including this one (set in the bathroom of a community centre).
Trixie dramatically flings open her stall door and then slumps against it. She shakes the pregnancy test (now out of box) in her hand.
TRIXIE
(confessing)
He’s a partner.
MINX
Ever heard of a condom, stupid?
AMANDA
Did you flush?
TRIXIE
It broke.
AMANDA
The toilet?
TRIXIE
The condom.
MINX
They have pills for that.
TRIXIE
Took one. This was the earliest test I could find.
MINX
You could’ve just dropped by the hospital.
TRIXIE
I knew you’d be on the way here –
AMANDA
Listen, I know this is all terribly important, but I am having a real issue with the unflushed toilet.
(dramatically whispering)
It’s right behind you.
Trixie sighs and then leans over to flush the toilet.
This script is going to totally rock – because I said so.
ETA: Belatedly thought I should provide visual proof of writing… hence the desk shot. I also have final draft, scrivener (which I am trying out) and i-tunes running on the computer. I especially like the inclusion of the envelope… did I run out of scrap paper? why did I think grabbing an envelope was the best choice at the moment of inspiration? Ah, well. I just go with it – it usually works out for me that way.