Tag: writing

On Star Wars Day, May the Fourth (Draft) Be with You

So it’s May 4th. As any Star Wars fan will tell you, this is Star Wars Day. Why? Because…well…MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU! Get it? Get it? “Fourth” instead of “Force.”

Clever!

I love Star Wars. I’m not sure why, but it probably has to do with the whole “out of nothing, a great one rises” hero’s journey archetype thing and all that jazziness. There’s something exhilirating about a (spolier alert) hero who rises (literally) from the dust of his home planet to take on the scourge of the Empire.

You can actually see that saga continued in the new Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. I did. Twice. In the theater.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a piece of advice on this Star Wars Day 2016: never stop writing. That’s a common theme on this blog, because I am well aware of the doldrums that can hit when we are working on a new book. We start. We write. We ramble along. And then, somewhere in the mix, we have the tendency to put the whole thing in a drawer and forget about it. We lose the force, as it were.

But on this day, we say, “May the 4th be with you.” And you know what? Today, we can take that to mean that it’s the fourth draft that will be the key. I know, I know, it’s a stretch, but as with any religious holiday, we have to go beyond the obvious trappings and find the deep meaning.

I edited my first book over 15 times (with two readers). The second? Probably almost 20 edits (with four readers). It was probably more. A lot more. But I’ll be conservative. Each edit gets the juices flowing in new and exciting directions. Each edit got me past a problem or insecurity. Each edit a new saga. Each tweak a new way to connect with the writing force that’s a part of each of us.

So today, on Star Wars day, fight the good fight against the dark forces of procrastination. Fight the Darth Vader in your head that tells you you’ll “never” or you “can’t.” Resurrect a draft from the ashes and take on the empire of writer’s block. Be the author who rises from the ashes and finds greatness!

At least until that next edit comes along.

In the meantime, live long and…oh, wait…right…

May the 4th be with you.

Spring Has Sprung…Or Spring Sprang–Either Way, Spring into cREative Action!

So, spring has sprung. Or, maybe spring sprang.

Well, whichever it is, I know that first iteration up there is what fits best with that saucy Sinatra song lyric, “You make me feel so young…” I think a sprung spring was the right choice.

Anyway, now that spring is upon us, it’s time to think again about who we are creatively. It’s time to thaw out and meditate on rebirth. Renewal. Anything with “re.” Come to think of it, creative has “re” in it. So, with that in mind, how do you plan to use this season to your best advantage? How do you plan to warm up the creative engine and get going on your pet projects?

If you’re stuck, here are some ideas:

  1.  Pull an old manuscript OUT of the drawer and REvisit it. Dust it off, give it another look, and see what you can do to breathe new life into it. Add some fresh flowers, some fresh faces, or a fresh new storyline. Give it to a friend and see if they can revive it. Get a new perspective.
  2. Put a current stale manuscript IN the drawer and REv up a new one. Think of a new character and put them in a new situation. Put a bit of yourself on the page and then write your dreams around this new side of your persona. See what happens! If you don’t have time for that March getaway, then write about a character on vacation and live vicariously.
  3. REinvent yourself. If writing or painting or whatever you do has you down, pick up a used guitar and do what I did: sit in front of YouTube until you can play. It works. I bled a lot, but now I’ve got the ability to make music. Yeah, I still write and write and write. But now I can take a break and play Simon & Garfunkel tunes. Paul Simon was one of the greatest writers I know, and it inspires me. What music inspires you?
  4. Go sit in nature in REpose. No book. No music. No conversation. Just sit there and listen to the grass grow. Hear a child laugh in the distance and let that make you happy. Take pleasure in things that don’t need to be created. Find joy in things that just are.
  5. REad. See what someone else created and let it get your juices flowing.
  6. REpeat this mantra: creativity is a process. What I’m saying is, if you’re trying to shake the sleepy doldrums of winter, don’t expect that it’ll happen overnight. Give yourself time to thaw, stretch, and get into the swing of spring again.

It’s spring. It has sprung. You don’t need to be Sinatra to make beautiful creative music this time of year. You just need a little inspiration. Or a good Paul Simon tune.

How do you get into the creative swing of spring?

2016 Is Bringing Out the Sweetest Creative Juices!

As 2016 progresses, I’m finding lots of things moving and shifting. Big changes. Little changes. Changes so small, they’re hardly perceptible to the human eye! One change in particular that I’m noticing: I’m falling in love with creativity and the creative all over again. And it isn’t taking the form I thought it would as 2015 came to a close.

First? I’m loving my instructional design (e-learning) work. A lot. Why? Well, I’m working with some really creative people and it’s giving me a chance to create new storylines, copy, and design ideas. I’m taking what I’ve done and pushing it to the next level. Stretching out in new ways. Very exciting.

Second? Changes in my non-work life are prompting me to think about my creative writing in different ways. Instead of focusing solely on book-length manuscripts, I’ve started mining the everyday for creative stems. I got away from that for a while, but it’s good to be back. These tiny fireflies don’t have to light up the big city just yet. They just have to exist as kernels–ready to pop at a moment’s notice.

These are just two examples. But y’know? They are exciting. And the best part of new creative juices is the sweetness they bring to the rest of life. As 2016 progresses, I have to say I’m really looking forward to tasting more.

If you need instructional design/e-learning services, creative copy, editing, proofreading, or any other projects of that nature, reach out! Let’s make 2016 great all around.

With the New Year 2016 Upon Us, It’s Time to Reflect and Project Creatively

As I sit here and ponder the fact that 2015 will soon be in my rearview mirror, I want to take a minute to reflect on what the year has meant creatively-as well as what lies up the road in 2016. I think it’s good to rewind. To look back. To take a good gander at what has passed so that we can better plan for the future.

This recent trip around the calendar certainly saw some interesting highlights. I started my writing company, and that has been fantastic. To those of you out there wondering whether or not dreams can come true, I can tell you that they do. I write and edit for a living, and I couldn’t be happier. Creativity is now a permanent part of my work and personal life, and that is what I’ve always wanted.

I also decided to polish up my personal marketing machine to embark on some re-branding campaigns for some of my books. I dove into old waters with a new swimsuit, and I can truly say that I have found a new resolve to take those manuscripts to the next level! New designs, new online copy, and a new sense of purpose will see that happen. I’m planning. I’m excited.

But most important was the time I took to just be. I didn’t rush to finish another manuscript or try to push the river of words in directions they didn’t want to flow. Instead, I took some time for family and reflection. And wouldn’t you know it? I washed ashore right where I wanted to be. Renewed. Refreshed. Ready to take on new challenges.

As we head into 2016, I want to say to all of you: keep writing, keep creating and, most importantly, keep breathing. When you pursue the lifepaths of words, art, poetry and general creativity, you sign up for more than you bargained for. It isn’t really about money or notoriety, but about putting something special out there. It’s about creating a message and getting it into the world. It’s about a strong sense of personal satisfaction that comes from an ability to see the world in our own unique way. Everyone can do it. They just have to do it!

If you struggled with creativity in 2015, make a resolution: “This new year, 2016, I will be more authentic, more courageous, and more my unique self than I have ever been before. I will speak my voice in whatever medium I love.”

And if that doesn’t work? Well, just keep breathing and see what comes your way. After all, 2017 is right around the corner.

What did you pursue creatively this year? What do you have in mind for 2016?

Josephine Boyce Gives Us Sage Tips for Writing Productivity

[In this series, Creative Blog Profiles, joshpcreative.com takes a peek at what other creative bloggers are producing and profile them here. They don’t necessarily know it’s happening (although we do the pingback/trackback where we can), so we’re prepared to remove an entry if they get mad. Hopefully they won’t. We just want to find creative stuff to tell you about.]

So this morning, the Josh P. Creative fingers were rolling around the ol’ WordPress tags, and we happened across writer Josephine Boyce’s blog. Boyce’s “About” page tells us that her blog concerns “shiny things” (including clothes, food, and writing). She says she’s been trying to get published for years, and so I immediately felt a kinship with the blog! There’s a big community of us out there. We should all get together and have a potluck or something. I’ll bring egg salad. I have a good egg salad recipe.

Anyway, the post that caught my eye was a 12/14 piece on 12 Steps to Improve your Writing Productivity. There are a few of these floating around on the interwebs, but I like them. I especially like when authors put their own spin on them and make them personal, as Boyce does, instead of just parroting a bland list from some author interview they read somewhere.

Hers is certainly personal and entertaining.

A few of my faves from her list? Number 1–“Just write the first draft.” Yes. I’ve given that advice many times, and am also currently trying to adhere to it as I work on yet another manuscript. Sometimes, writing can be painful. We want to chuck it all out. But remembering that we don’t have to be publishable on the first pass is a good reminder. That piece of advice can go a long way when we get stuck on one particular paragraph to the point where we want to quit altogether!

Another good one? Number 12–“Shut up your inner doubts.” As Boyce reminds us, comparison can be the downfall of creativity. Don’t search the web for overnight success stories about authors who happened to be sitting next to publishing house editors on a plane who immediately demanded a copy of the person’s work in progress. Forget that noise. Focus on your own work and push ahead, because it is worth something. It is unique. It is YOU!

At the end, Boyce gives us a peek into some “Orwell” tips she received from a mentor years ago, including the importance of “short”words, cutting words, and avoiding jargon.

Sage advice.

Listen folks–the writing wilderness is full of scary animals and darkness. Often, we end up shivering in the cold. But if we can light a small fire and get some warmth back into our bones, the night isn’t so scary, and a path to creative freedom may just emerge where we least expect it.

Take a look at Josephine Boyce’s tips and see if you can get a little courage back.

 

How 10,000-Year-Old Cave Lion Cubs Helped Me Thaw Out My Own Creativity

Ever heard of cave lions?

Me neither.

However, I ran across an article by Jeva Lange at The Week, and suddenly, I’d heard of cave lions. Apparently 10,000-year-old cave lion cubs were found almost totally intact in Siberia. Perfectly preserved specimens of a lineage now extinct. And that got me thinking about writing. About creating. About the ebb and flow of creative ideas as they move (or don’t move) through our lives.

Consider these cave lions. They had a life. A narrative. A story in progress. But then? Well, that life was put on hold. Literally, put on ice. And for thousands of years, as the story of earth unfolded around them, they stayed frozen. But then, the story of human exploration and the story of the cave lion cubs intersected, and now their journey will continue. Not only will it continue, but it will help to write stories for generations of scientists to come.

All this prompted me to revisit some story ideas I’d been kicking around in my head years ago. I guess somewhere along the way, these ideas got lost. Frozen in time. These story stems became trapped under the snowdrifts of time, waiting for the day they might be uncovered again.

And then it happened. I actually started to flesh out some ideas on these old themes, and I’m pretty happy about where they might lead creatively.

You see, sometimes an idea we have feels right for our time in life. Very much in its element. However, for some reason, it gets lost. Stuck. It waits patiently for us to unearth it so that is can once again continue the journey. Instead of ignoring old ideas when something in us unearths them, perhaps the better approach is to dig a little. Explore a little. See if we can bring new life to something that seemed so cold and lifeless.

If you feel stuck or frozen, or even if you just have a bit of the idea explorer in you, try this exercise:

(1) Right now, no time to prepare, think of something fun from your past. RIGHT NOW! Got it? Good. Don’t judge it.

(2) Now, see if you can construct meaning around it. Investigate how that random, silly memory may have informed your present. Construct a new narrative around that memory. Bend it. Shape it.

(3) Type out the memory and your new story, and save it somewhere where you can come back to it. (But for now, let it go.)

The point of this exercise isn’t to get you to write the next great American novel because you recalled a story about sliding around on the ice in front of your house in Ohio because your dad decided to make a homemade ice rink and he almost slipped and hurt himself while you and your brother laug…wait…that’s my memory. Anyway, the point of this exercise isn’t to make you famous. It’s to show you that you are a storehouse of images. A waystation of wanderings. A vault of vestiges.

You have ideas and memories frozen inside of you, waiting for the story to come back to life. You never know which one will someday find its way into your ongoing story.

Stay open and explore. The results may just change the generations.

What memories came to your mind? What happened when you explored?

 

 

L.E. Delano Suggests We Don’t Just Tell it Like it Is, but WHO it Is

[In this series, Creative Blog Profiles, joshpcreative.com takes a peek at what other creative bloggers are producing and profile them here. They don’t necessarily know it’s happening (although we do the pingback/trackback where we can), so we’re prepared to remove an entry if they get mad. Hopefully they won’t. We just want to find creative stuff to tell you about.]

I was perusing the “writing” tag at wordpress.com today, and was lucky enough to find an entry by L.E. Delano at http://ledelano.com/  called, “They Always Say ‘Write What You Know'” that was fresh off the press. It was a post that reminded me of some advice my mom gave me when I first started writing. See, I was wringing my hands wondering if I had anything new to say, and she said, “Josh, just write what you know. Write about your experiences.”

And I did.

And I still do. And I’ve found that those experiences include people. People that find their way, in fragments, into my work.

See, L.E. Delano tells a touching story about her family. Delano has a son on the Autism spectrum, and she has a daughter that she says, “struggles with the balance of an often embarrassing brother that she loves and protects fiercely.” This is such a stark and real tension, and it has become the subject of one of Delano’s upcoming books.

Delano wrote not just about what she knows, but WHO. And that gives others a chance to take a peek inside the world of people–a peek that can provoke strong feeling through familiar intimacy. If authors tell us about the folks they know, in a real and heartfelt way, then the reader gets a chance to make the same acquaintaince, even if they don’t know the characters personally.

Today, while you’re out there in the world interacting, think about this: don’t look at people for what they are, but for who they are. Try an exercise. Walk down the street, through a mall, or into a restaurant, and try to look upon each person with absolutely no judgment. Do not think about the money they make, the clothes they wear, or the cigarettes they smoke. Simple gaze, witness, and move on.

Sound easy?

It’s not.

If you’re a writer, try the same thing with your characters. Develop them, write them, and then…well…sympathize with them. Without judgment.

Really try to get to know people for who they are. After all, the best way to find out about someone is to get to know their true story. If they sense judgment on your part, you’ll get nothing but judgment, and silence, in return.

Ponder that today as you think about not only who you know, but who you’ll meet or write.

 

Wynonainaday Will Make You Love Autumn and Avoid Galleries

[In this series, Creative Blog Profiles, joshpcreative.com takes a peek at what other creative bloggers are producing and profile them here. They don’t necessarily know it’s happening (although we do the pingback/trackback where we can), so we’re prepared to remove an entry if they get mad. Hopefully they won’t. We just want to find creative stuff to tell you about.]

Today, we’re featuring a blog with an interesting mix of beauty and on-point madness: Wynonainaday. I happened upon this blog while searching the “writing” tag at WordPress.com.

I was delighted (yes, I used the word “delighted”–wanna make somethin’ of it?) to find a beautiful poem entitled “Letter to Autumn” which got me thinking about my days growing up in the East/Midwest. I remembered the sound of neighbors raking crisp leaves in the evening and the smell through the neighborhood as they burned. Great memory. Haven’t thought about that in a while.

This was followed by an entry called, “The Daily Fail: Volume 4” in which Wynona (I’m assuming this is her name…is that a bad assumption? I don’t know… I’ll just keep assuming) discusses a recent foray into an art gallery that EXACTLY DESCRIBES why I don’t like browsing in art galleries. I mean, it’s so on point, it’s almost creepy.

Read it. You’ll agree with it.

Wynanainaday’s tagline is that she is “trying to commit to something other than a Netflix subscription.” I’d say the blog is a great start. If you’re looking for something that has a good mix of fun and artistry, go check it out.

And read that gallery story. You’ll become a window shopper for the rest of your life.