The Best Creative Advice I've Been Given

Aspiring Writer/Interviewer-"What advice do you have for young writers?"
Published Author-"Just write."
--
That's how it goes, every single time. Every single time the words, "Just write" were uttered, I wanted to gnash my teeth like a troll and secretly wonder how they could enchant readers with bouquets of beautiful prose and florid descriptions while, when asked about their craft, they could only offer two words.
Here's the thing; they are ABSOLUTELY right.
But there are better ways of giving that rock-solid piece of advice. a gem doesn't have to be found in rubble. (sorry for the horrid pun).
My two motivators?
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and a particular blog post by Merlin Mann.
First off is the brilliant Merlin Mann. He wrote a blog post, Nanowrimo: a pep talk and a warning, and it will be the hands down, best pep talk to get through Nanowrimo and that first draft. I can't pinpoint a quote from it; it's so chock-full of awesome and no-nonsense advice that i can only honor it by pasting the link from his blog, 43 Folders: http://www.43folders.com/2009/11/02/nanowrimo-advice
Next is War of Art. A clever wordplay on Sun Zi's The Art of War, Steven Pressfield reveals the furry devil; Resistance, mother of procrastination, writer's block, and the subsequent brain cells killed by thunking your head into the keyboard all the time. Why does it have to be so hard? You think. Why does the thing I love have to be the hardest thing I do?
Pressfield offers a brilliant piece of advice; Resistance is a compass. The more you love it, the harder it is to do. Especially if it's a creative endeavor.
"Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.

Do it or don’t do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.
You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God."
That quote alone was enough to make me sit. And write. 
What are your secret creative weapons?

Back from my slog

I'm back. And I'm looking over the last post and thinking, "Man, I must have been really depressed when I wrote that."
But I think that is part of the process. There are days when I feel like I'm freaking out and I never have time for writing. But I try to flow like water. If one thing doesn't work out, that's okay. Just fix, bend, and make do. If I'm extra busy on Mondays? Just write 500 words on Mondays and save the 2,000 word monsters for Wednesday, when  I have more free time.
And as for the email thing, I haven't checked my email once this month and I don't feel deprived at all. Strangely, I also do not emerge with huge pockets of free time now. (Even though I conservatively estimated that I spend 2 hours daily on email and guilt surfing the web) It's been taken up by, you know, writing.
But I got past the midpoint of my rewrite, and I am still squinting and trying to figure out if, upon completion, it deserves another complete rewrite (or its furry primate cousin, the huge mud slog fix-everything revisions). But it will be easier. I can already tell that my rewrite is a LOT better than my first draft.
I'll go back to my manuscript now.

On Mood and Screenwriting

I'm a writer of novels, I know.
I lately have been looking into screenwriting outlining tips and methods in order to spur my own outlining for my rewrite.
Also, I'm doing the Phase Outlining by Lazette Gifford. Basically, you do a very detailed version of an outline, with about 200 words to summarize each scene in a truncated fashion.
I was stuck, though--there were so many loose ends to tie up, so many plotholes to fill. *Sighs*. Story dragons. What can you do about 'em?
Also, writing like a 10,000 word phase outline sounded daunting--even if it would make my story 726,840 times easier to write.
But I had this sort of minipiphany (yes, I just invented it) and I realized the essence of each scene.
It's the mood.
I might be wrong about this, but in each scene in a movie, upon more discovery, there's always a mood. If I can form my scene around a mood, it will be easier to write. Right?
I hope so. Now I should go crank my timer and get to work. 

Rewriting (or, more accurately, Tartarus)

I knew my Nanowrimo novel wasn't top notch. Or even good. But, using the Shrunken Manuscript Revisions method, I single-spaced everything, shrunk my writing to a point 6 Times New Roman font, and printed my 50,000 word, originally 150-paged novel in 31 pages.
I looked at it. And then, I have a post-it in my hand, and I slapped a huge REWRITE on the first chapter (which, by the way, has shrunken to less than a page). Then I looked at the rest of the manuscript. And then my inner writer/editor cried.
Inner Writer: "You gotta rewrite this whole thing."
Me: "!@^*(% WHY?"
Inner Writer: "You are not conveying this theme and story in a satisfying manner."
Me: "But--I have tolerable scenes, and--and" *gestures frantically*
Inner Writer: "In other words, your story sucks."
Me: "Shit. You're right."
But a WAY better story structure has emerged--tying everything together in a tighter, more connected manner.  I'm actually glad.
I am now neurotically outlining my next one. I'm definitely WAY better on outlines. I still love pantsing (that's the only way my story gets out on the page) but now I've adopted the outlining method on the Excel spreadsheet. I'll update on how that works out. 
Except.....I have no definable climax. Or the Dark Night of the Soul, the my-character-has-hit-rock-bottom-and-is-pretty-much-about-to-internally-and-physically-die part.
And what good is a story without its final battle?
I'm leaving on vacation Friday--hope I can generate more ideas then.
Meanwhile, onto my chocolate and comfort food...

My Secret, My Masterpiece

You know you have found something you truly love when you suddenly see the beauty in this world.
When you want to laugh, and cry, and jump at the same time.
When everything else has fallen away, and it is your goal. It is the one, the pinnacle. 
"Almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
-Steve Jobs
I am not about to die. Nor am I sick. I am well, alive, healthy. But I have never felt more alive. My novel is my work. My Michelangelo, my sculpture to shape and mold. It makes me believe in the beauty of it all. It makes me believe in miracles from God. It gets hard sometimes. I'm in the clouds, then I'm down on the cold, unforgivable ground. But I rise up, again and again.
Dear readers, I am invincible.
Confucius once said that love could make you strong. I know it to be true.
I have found my passion, my life love--writing. 
At times, it feels as if I'm walking through Heaven and Hell at the same time.
But I am a writer.
An unknown writer, no doubt, but a writer.
This is my work. Right now, I will savor the moment where everything is perfect.
This is my secret. My project, my masterpiece.

Revisions from James Scott Bell

On Tuesday, the Writer's Digest hosted a (free!) webinar featuring James Scott Bell, the renowned author of several writing books. In it, he talked about novel revision--the very thing I wanted to hear.
It was amazing.

I had been fretting on my supposed "break" about all these small details, questions like, "How will this character get from A to B?" and "What color highlighter should I use for character issues?" I had been thinking about mapping and index cards and working out the intricate structure in my book.

But James Scott Bell made me rethink all that.
He made me see the forest from the trees. He made me go to the roots of my story. Revisit character. Motivation. Theme. He plainly brought out the driving force behind the story; The Stakes.

I'll share a little bit of his genius on what he defines as the stakes.
He defines it as the "death overhanging". The stakes, he says, are based on three types of deaths; physical, professional, and psychological.

• Physical
• Literal and actual death; there is a danger that the character might get killed. (He gave the example of a mafia don)
• Professional
• Death of something you have built your life around, such as the position of a CEO, a millionaire, or even a role like a mother. There is a danger that the profession might crumble and the character will be left with nothing to support them.
• Psychological
• Death of spirit, or motivation. There is a danger that the opposition will crush the motivation and the character will be left with a broken spirit and lost motivation.

I feel like he defines the stakes beautifully. I used to think that the stakes was only the threat of a physical death. The character might get murdered, or killed, or end up in a hospital with a coma. But James brought out the two other deaths--making way for a multifaceted conflict.

Think of conflict as its own character. It cannot only be one-dimensional.  It has to have many sides, many faces, and many interpretations. It made me completely rethink my story. All its conflict was there; but James Scott Bell gave it all a name. I can then polish the stakes, and the story would flow much more smoothly and the tension would definitely increase.

And don't forget; this is a two-way lane. There must be stakes for the protagonist, so there must also be equally high stakes for the antagonist. I want to be able to write the story from the antagonist's point of view, and have it JUST as compelling as if it were told from the protagonist's point of view.

Ah, the chills!

I'm a fan of Andi Buchanan, the author who co-wrote the book The Daring Book for Girls with Miriam Peskowitz. Way back when I had first read her book, I fired up an excited email to her (my first email to an author. Ever.) and--by miracle of miracles--she responded!
We maintained our correspondence over the years, and once I posed a question to her. I was writing this dystopian novel at the time, and I had this sub-plot where my characters fall in love. As of then (and still as of now) I have not experienced falling in love. (I have had some crushes, though--oh, yes.) But that mutual relationship? I knew nada. Zero. None.
And then she answered the question--in a writer's conference! She talked about me and gave me compliments that were really touching (and more than I was worthy of :]).
My reaction?
"AHAHA-that's-AHAHAHA-me-AHAHA-Oh my God, she's talking about me!"
Yeah. I get a little overexcited sometimes.
But it was a strange experience, hearing someone talk about me. It gave me chills. Happy chills. It was my first step into what you would call....fame?
I don't know. Maybe later, I might include a link to the video.
But man, am I excited for the future.