A writer friend confides that he suffers from nightmares as he nears completion of his first novel. “I wake in a cold sweat,” he confesses. “What if it’s not good enough? What if it’s no good? It’s like one of those dreams where you show up naked for the final exam. I didn’t used to be this scared–I didn’t doubt myself.” After we talk for several minutes, we agree the dreams, however uncomfortable, are a good sign. He is about to share his novel with a select audience of first readers, and he will be asking for their feedback. The …
Author: Sarah Lovett
POWER OF CONNECTION, DISCONNECTION
It took me most of my life to realize I use a conversational style in my household that I call “passing ships”. (Actually my husband pointed it out.) I talk on the move, beginning a question on one side of the house and finishing it on the other. A bad habit, and I’m working to correct it. It is especially interesting because each week I spend hours on the phone talking with clients and I love giving them my full attention. No double-tasking, no daydreaming, just my full attention. And yet I’ve been lazy with my family. I thought about …
QUOTE OF THE DAY
This from Robert Olen Butler’s book FROM WHERE YOU DREAM–The Process of Writing Fiction: “What we need always to be in search of is the way in which a character’s yearning is manifested. Stories are driven forward by causality. All plot comes from the character’s trying to get something, to achieve something, wanting, desiring, longing for something. The complications ensue from the drive of those yearnings and the attempt to get around the impediments and difficulties that thwart desire.”
FICTION QUICKIE
You have a photo album, right? Those faded snapshots from childhood, the bad-hair-day graduation pic, the formal wedding portrait…and the next wedding shot from the chapel in Vegas? Or maybe you don’t keep any photos but your mom has scads. Or yours are on MySpace or Facebook. Or your ex posted a few on the net. Or (even more interesting) you’ve destroyed every likeness of yourself. Your fictional characters have their own “Kodak moments”. Take ten minutes and daydream about one of your characters and those celluloid and digital snapshots of her life. Discover one that she keeps hidden. Picture …
THE GIFT OF TIME
Last week, busy with life and various editorial projects, I found myself feeling out of touch with my novel. My writer friend Dianne reminded me of something important that I had momentarily forgotten. “Give yourself dream time and mornings,” she said. “Let the book be with you when you are drifting off to sleep, and use those first minutes of the day for writing your pages.” I took her wise advice and the reconnection to my characters and their story was immediate, vivid, and visceral. When you give yourself the gift of time, choose those golden “windows” that are your …
DANCING FORM
Today’s wise quote comes from Lisa Dale Norton’s great book SHIMMERING IMAGES: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir. This particular quote applies nicely to structuring fiction as well as nonfiction. “When you get to the structure stage of composition, you have to be willing to allow the two sides of your brain to dance together, sometimes being led by the logical, I have a structure la di da side and sometimes being guided by the hey let’s let this stuff float around and show me the meaning side. That requires a leap of faith that unnerves many. And I know that. …
IN YOUR LANE, IN THE ZONE
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps nabbed gold eight-for-eight at the 2008 games in Beijing. When his mother faced interviewers, she spoke of the challenges her energetic son encountered in childhood. Bullied by other kids, diagnosed with ADHD, Phelps needed a positive channel for his energy, and he tried several other sports before he settled on competitive swimming. The combination of clearly delineated lanes and visible goals made swimming his perfect sport. Hearing Phelps’s story got me thinking about Creatives–our inventiveness, productivity, fluidity, and generativeness; our creative mania, expansive vision, and the complimentary need for balance and focus and commitment to a …
The Fine Art of Giving Up
In the midst of writing a full-length narrative, it is more common than not to arrive at a point when you realize the story’s all wrong, nothing works, and you’ve wasted months, if not years. The narrative arc you’ve been riding collapses beneath you. The story’s implausible, Swiss cheese, skeletal. You’ve created paper doll characters. Your cliché-ridden prose sticks to the roof of your mouth. The possible justifications for failure are endless. But in the end, the verdict is the same: You will never write this book, much less future books. Writing is painful, a waste of time, and way …
TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED
For the past three weeks I’ve been dealing with a series of tech issues that directly effect my ability to communicate with friends around the world. It seemed to begin with my computer’s logic board, now replaced. Then a lightning strike. Surge protectors handled the worst of that, but then they “died” taking the battery back-ups with them. Once they were replaced, along with a router, I had to replace my wireless phone because of a megaherz conflict. My mail disappeared and reappeared. And then the web server that hosts my domain died for 36 hours. Enough whining… The lessons …
TEN THINGS I’D DIE FOR
When I asked Stephanie, a writer friend, to list ten things she would die for, her initial response was that she could handle it in one of two ways: “the mushy stuff you could get serious about such as dying for family. But I thought to myself that would never happen so I took the other approach…somewhat self-centered and fun and it has some mushy stuff but not much.” The list is reprinted (fresh and wild) with her permission. * A life size replica of Shaquille O’Neal as a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup * The ability to fly * A …