Skeletons and imagination

Just a short post today. How has your imagination been lately?

My 5 year old nephew came over to my house for the weekend, and we played on the swings outside. He told me stories about his "Team Skeletons". Apparently, he has 5 skeletons that go with him wherever he goes, each with their own names and personaliteis. He reminded me that playing is a part of what I do, an esential part. You can't survive if you can't play in your own mind.

When was the last time you talked to YOUR imaginary friends? I'm trying to reconnect with my old pals. Maybe I'll develop my own team of skeletons. What do you think?

The Flames of Inspiration

Creative work is never an easy endeavor, and fiction is no exception. I don’t care if you’re writing a short story, a novel, or a limerick, eventually you’re going to hit the wall and nothing worth reading will come out of your efforts. It’s true of every great mind in every great endeavor. There will come a time when you just don’t know where to go. Characters won’t tell you what they want. Words don’t seem to rhyme even when they should. You’ll be ripping your hair out trying to find just one step in the right direction, but it seems like you’ve already tried every point on the compass.

So what do you do? Do you sit down with a notebook and force yourself to write? Do you build a bonfire and dance around it under the light of the full moon? It gets to the point where that last one will probably start to sound appealing if you think it would work, but I’m going to suggest a radical idea you can try. If that doesn’t work, you try the bonfire idea and email me how it turns out. Okay? Okay.

The answer to this problem, like most answers worth listening to, is sublimely simple. Are you reading closely? Because this trick might change your writing habits for the rest of your life. The answer, in a nutshell is…

STOP WRITING!

That’s right, I said it, stop writing. The answer is you’re probably too close to your work. You’ve lost that spark. That fire that got you started writing in the first place.

Listen up.

Have you ever been to a live concert somewhere and stood with jaw on the ground wondering how it’s possible for someone to do something so perfect? Have you ever been reading a favorite book and looked up, only to find tears in your eyes you didn’t even realize were there? That’s art. It’s real, honest to goodness, powerful, gut-wrenching art, and there’s no way to really describe it in words. It makes you want to be better, strive for more, and work harder.
If you find you just can’t write anymore, you’ve got to get off your butt, get away from the computer/typewriter/napkins in the coffee shop and find something that’s akin to an out of body experience. It shouldn’t be that hard, it’s really all around us. I have a writer friend who goes out camping for a weekend to regain his spirit, and goes back to work on his manuscript on Monday with more freshness and vitality than anyone I know (I’m convinced if I could bottle his secret, I could make a fortune).

Once you get that power back, you’ll know it. You’ll feel ready to start again. You might have no idea what you’re going to put on the page, and that’s okay, because now you’re going to put your heart and soul into it again. So happy traveling, and long live the journey.

Truck Tires Can Cure Brain Farts

It's happened to all of us at one time or another. You're talking to someone you know, maybe even quite well, and the words coming out of your mouth aren't the same as the ideas in your head. People get offended, you embarass yourself, you get that hole in the pit of your stomach. It feels AWFUL.

This tragic condition has come to be known as the "brain fart". It's akward when it happens in conversation, but even more frustrating when you're writing. Some days your mind is so ready to write, and there are ideas pounding in your head, and as soon as you read over what you've just written, you wonder who wrote it. It certainly isn't the mental narration you pictured when you started.

I went through a really annoying period where everything I wrote turned out to be NOTHING like what I imagined it to be. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I did what I always do when I can't figure something out. I took out the notebook I always keep in my pocket, (which you might consider doing too, by the way, and soon you'll go crazy if you're without it) and I started noting the things I was doing each day, and the results of my writing the day following. I found I most often have difficulties saying what I want to say after days I don't exercise.

In order to test my new theory, whenever I started writing and hit that annoying point where I wasn't saying things right, I went outside and tossed an old pair of truck tires around for a while. They were heavy, and I would come in sore, but without fail within a few minutes things were coming out right on the page.

So, in short, here's your mental Beano to relieve brain farts.

1. Find out what's causing them,
2. Remedy the situation.
3. Try, try again.

It's really that simple. As always, continual effort is what's necessary to succeed in writing or any endeavor. Just don't give up!