Helping the Writer’s Mind

Oh my God! I desperately wanted to finish that story. Look! I have abandoned it. I had been working on it for the past one month. It’s been six weeks since I haven’t touched it. Would I be able to resume it? How could I do justice to the story, now, after such a long time of discontinuation? I do have some notes made from the times, while I worked on the stuff. I do not think those notes are of any help, anymore, though. 

It is clear to me how vague the classification of writers would be if I categorized them based on such feelings as above. A writer, at almost all stages of his or her growth feels this way. Most of those super-successful writers may not experience it the same way, because they have the ability to pursue writing without bothering much about another day-job, but apparently have other issues that affect them the same way.

If writing gives a person immense pleasure or joy, and the person is forced to work in a bakery in order to make a living, the resulting conflict could damage the mental equilibrium of that person. Those person(s) who have no aptitude for working in a bakery, when forced to compromise their psychological ecosystem with the sophistication of an altogether different system of things, creative writing suffers. This is when one feels; “Oh my God! I desperately wanted to finish that story. Look! I have abandoned it.”

The fear for being not able to do justice to one’s work of a lifetime deserves wise handling. If not, it will consume the writer, wholly. The totality of all fears has their common grounding in the unknown. In the case of the above-mentioned writer (let us call him Paul), the unknown part is the quality of his work. Paul does not know and fears this fact: how would it all turn out to be. How could I do justice to the story now, after such a long time of discontinuation?

In order to undo the fear of the unknown, the simplest method can be the Jungian concept of assimilation of psychic realities. Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was a German psychoanalyst, whose groundbreaking theories on human mind, guided the world into a modern-renaissance. He argues about a specific course of action through which a human being can bring out the contents of his unconscious and experience it in the conscious level in order to alleviate the pressure from the unconscious side.

This same method is useful in undoing the fear for the unknown in Paul’s case. If Paul is uncertain of the results his work could bring him after a considerable gap in the process of writing, he should first, look at the results. There is only one way he can get the result—by completing the work. Paul just needs some gut feeling to cross the initial fear.  

If one is stuck with the fear of how the work would turn out to be, the possibility of writing a book or a story is obliterated entirely. It is up to you to take that step courageously. Your work deserves to be born, simply because you have such strong feeling for it. Let your fears not obligate the stopping of your creative work.

About Anu Lal
If you liked this article, you might like my book too. Take a look.

Anu Lal is the author of Wall of Colors and Other Stories. He lives in Kerala, South India. He blogs at The Indian Commentator 

You can catch up with him in Facebook too.      

The Weather-talk

Image Courtesy: Google

Meet your neighbor in the bus stop, or a relative, an old colleague, or acquaintance at a party, the most convenient and approachable topic of our conversation—the no-fire zone of our lives—is weather talk.

“What a weather! Hadn’t felt anything like this in years!” It could also be ‘rain-talk’, or even ‘snow-talk’, and vary in accordance with the environmental peculiarities of the place one inhabits. Here, in Cannanore, Kerala, the Southern side of India, it is mostly ‘rain’. Sometimes, ‘heat’ becomes a topic too.

What does this have to do with a writer?

Take your Pen, Pull the Trigger

What is the ‘trigger’ in storytelling?

Image Courtesy: Google

Trigger in a short story is the point at which the individual reader’s emotional levels start fluctuating corresponding to a specific action in a story or according to the changes in the lives of characters.

This is “meeting the reader’s mind”.

In a short story, this moment is very important due to the limitations of its size. Unlike a novel, the writer should be especially careful in order to bring the reader’s mind to care for the main character’s agony, joy, or temper within a limited period of time and limited number of words.

The Writer’s Genie

Image Courtesy: Google

Firstly, I lied about the genie. There are no genies that can help a writer, magically sparing him or her from all the pain and fret of the work. Secondly, a part of this lie is truth. Of course, there is one thing that can help a writer. Guess what?

Type writer?

Computer?

i-pad?

Writing software?

If you are still following this sequence of guesses, you prove yourself to be a serious searcher of the art of writing. At one point in life, we all search for a support mechanism in our work. However, if you are guessing along the same lines, as mentioned above, you are going the wrong way.

23 Tips from Famous Authors for New and Emerging Writers

I.

“I have advice for people who want to write. I don’t care whether they’re 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. It’s the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour — write, write, write.” ― Madeleine L’Engle

II.

“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.” ― William Faulkner

III.

“Read Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don’t ­really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, “how to” books seldom do any harm. You can kick-start a whole book with some little writing exercise.” ― Hilary Mantel

IV.

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that – but you are the only you.” ― Neil Gaiman

V.

“Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of.” ― Anne Lamott

Your Regular Job

Image Courtesy: Oprah.com

Regularity in action often turns the act into a habit and the habit is always capable of sustaining itself into time. Great many self-emancipation gurus contempt habit and ask people to move on and do things that are out of their regular rhythm and comfort zones. There is a certain truth about what they say. Especially, for a writer, it will do her great good if she prepares herself to experiment with the daily, the mundane, the spiritual, and the fantastic.

Even writing these words—fantastic and spiritual gives me goose flesh. Such is the power of the fantastic and the spiritual upon human consciousness. But in order to experiment with these out-of-the-ordinary-experiences, a writer must have a strong control over the craft. In this article, I am focusing on nothing else but how to manage this hold on one’s craft.

 It is an art in itself.

In order to hold onto one’s craft, one must be artistic enough to know that it takes the understanding of the rhythm of the art to do this. The rhythm indicates regularity. Regularity is the consistent interaction with a focused intention towards a cause.

Regularity with some intervals in its practice is rhythm.

To write is to follow the rhythm one’s mind allows one to be comfortable at within the premises of the art.

How one follows, one’s cause depends on individuals and also on the craft they follow. For a writer, she should decide the frequency of practicing their art in consideration with what their art wants from them, what time, what attention, what diligence.

In the case of writing, it wants from the artist—everything.

Sustaining frequency is very important in developing style and craft. In order to achieve frequency, a ‘habitualization’ of the craft is crucial. Turned into a habit, the craft of telling stories will accompany the frequency, unaffected by the interventions of the outside world—the nagging family, the demanding wife, the short tempered boss of your day job and a particularly bad day in the coffee house.

But how does one achieve this? How can a habit be useful tool for a writer?

As one can see, in cases of human metabolic activity such as the activation of salivary glands at the sight of food items and the initiation of hunger at the usual lunch time, that habits can leave such tremendous impact upon us. They govern our responses both physically and mentally. Salivary glands in their daily action indicate this very truth. The ejection of saliva is both a physical and mental action. In this manner, if a writer habituates his writing activity, the act as such can flow uninterrupted at the precise time or manner that the writer practices daily. At least, the mental and physical preparedness can precede the real act of writing.

Still, it is a matter of debate whether creativity is time bound or if it could be habitualized.

Perhaps, it is not.

Hemingway said there are no great writers, but only great re-writers. This means, you have a chance if you have a draft, although not much ‘creative’ in its appearance or impact, to think about and depend on in your writing journey. The life of an uncreative story ends in the editor’s waste bin. But for a blank page, there is no life at all.

Anu Lal is the author of the up-coming collection of short stories Wall of Colors and Other Stories. He lives in Kerala, South India. He blogs at The Indian Commentator 

You can catch up with him in Facebook too. 

A review of Conversations with a Dead Man by Doug Lucas

Doug Lucas is a retired marine who has worked as both a combat photographer and forensic photographer.   He is part of Pipe Dreams Publishing - and if you're thinking of submitting work to his publishing house - visit his website first - cos he's got something to say to you: http://tinyurl.com/co9h8r6    In fact, just visit is website anyway - it's really funny!

Conversations with a Dead Man

A young man idles away his time in a rural church yard and finds himself deep in conversation with John Wesley Elder.  Nothing unusual in that you might think, but John Wesley Elder is dead.   The young man soon finds out that being dead doesn't mean you have nothing to say, or that what you did in life should be forgotten, and the story of John Wesley Elder's life unfolds.  The Elder family escape from the feudal hardships of life in eighteenth century Ireland and come to the New World.  Here they build a new life and John learns the importance of hard work and self-sufficiency.  His life is full of hard knocks but he is nobodies fool and he tell his tale with wry humor.  He describes the hard work and community spirit involved in building the Elk River settlement, the growing unhappiness with the Crown and taxation and the hardships and struggle of the American War of Independence.  And threaded throughout the story is the tale of his relationship with the Native American Ester, the love of his life.

The Tripod of Short Stories

Courtesy: Google

Brevity makes a “short” story. But a short story is not just about length. As a genre, the short story is complex. Many other aspects, along with length decide the genome of a short story. Some of these elements are still unidentified. In fact, it is apt to say that those elements that are identified crucial elements of a short story are few in number. Short is just a metaphor, short stories are actually tall.

W. H Hudson and many other scholars, suggest that length is the crucial aspect and a story that you can read in single sitting is short story. If we take this as our measure, we cannot hail Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach or The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway or The Buddha and the Terrorist by Satish Kumar, a short story. The Old Man and the Sea might be a bit longer, but consider Jonathan Livingston Seagull; with all the photographs, that adorn the pages, it is just about fifty pages long. Many of the short stories in Stephen King’s collection, Full Dark, No Stars are longer in length, in fact longer than Jonathan Livingston Seagull, usually called a novel.  

What is, then, the magic potion that delivers its spell in the making of a short story?

Let us remind ourselves, once again, that there are only “major” elements to discuss. The minor elements, still evade our attention, as they are all part of the subjectivity of the author and the wiring of creativity inside our brains.

Creative writing classes and ‘How-to’ guides often suggest many systematic steps in producing literature. The problem with such a systematic, limited academic method is its side effects—all the crap you write and all the crap you evaluate ‘wonderfully artistic and deep’. Once you are into the struggle to create stories with flesh and blood, stories that earn, you will know that the first thing you need to do should be to unload the garbage, you accumulated as a student. Practical experience makes you wiser and stronger. From my experience as a writer, I have learnt my lessons and here are a few for your consideration—the three cornerstones of short stories.  

Voice

Terrain

and

Trigger

With this minimum number of components, you can create a short story. As we have already seen, the rest of the magic comes from within you, the writer. It is an alchemy, much like how Sodium and Chlorine combines to give a product, very different in quality and use from the two parent components—Sodium chloride; salt.

Next: What is Voice?

Anu Lal is the author of the up-coming collection of short stories Wall of Colors and Other Stories. He lives in Kerala, South India. He blogs at The Indian Commentator 

You can catch up with him in Facebook too. 

Have You Hit the Ground Yet?

What is ‘terrain’, in storytelling?

Image Courtesy: Google

This part will mostly help those who have difficulty in understanding what ‘plot’ means. I know it is a bit shaky when we talk about plot, but most often, I have seen people using this term interchangeably for theme or action. No one says it aloud, though, but everyone is a bit confused if asked; what is plot?

Do you have the Voice?

What is voice in a story?

 

Image Courtesy: Google

Voice is the dominant leg of the tripod of storytelling. It could be the voice of the narrator, the voice of the main character or the voice of the story itself.

Awakening the return of wisdom by the Awakening Poets: A review

The awakening poets, aka Sheena Zenz, Nicole North and Darren Garmer,  describe themselves as "an artists collective dedicated to sharing metamorphosical language codes with a growing, awakening audience"

When we were first asked to review awakening the return of wisdom, I admit I was a little unsure as to what I was going to discover, however as soon as I started reading I realised that the collection does indeed have an otherworldly feel about it, and to me it seems as if it has been streamed from a higher spiritual plane.

This stunning collection of over seventy poems is both enchanting and lyrical, and stimulates the senses in such a way as to leave the reader full, yet craving more. I can honestly say that I have never had the pleasure of reading a collection of poetry of this calibre, and constantly felt as if the poets were guiding me on my very own magical mystery tour into the unknown.  The language used is at times unusual, however it is completely accessible and I never felt out of my depth, or left behind. The artwork in the collection is also exceptional,  and whilst I have purchased the collection on kindle I think it would be better appreciated in book format as the collection totally lends itself to being read by candle light.   I also think that if at all possible the poets should consider having this made into an audio book as it would be a wonderful collection to meditate to.

My only real concern initially with this was the price;  the kindle version in particular seemed very steep, however now that I have read it  I don't begrudge a single penny.   If you only ever purchase one collection of poetry in your life, then make sure it is this one!

Awakening the Return of Wisdom is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Return-Wisdom-Sheena-Zenz/dp/1482373408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367263257&sr=8-1&keywords=awakening+the+return+of+wisdom

Find out more about the Awakening Poets:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvirgoebooks.com%2Fawakening-the-return-of-wisdom.html&h=OAQH0Uv0X

https://www.facebook.com/AwakeningTheReturnOfWisdom

Ingrid Hall is the author of Granny Irene's Guide to the Afterlife - Revenge.  She also offers free interviews, book reviews and spotlights to indie authors.  Find out more at http://www.ingridhall.com

Interview with Dennis Higgins

This is the first installment of our interview series, headed up by author Ingrid Hall. Support up and coming writers by checking out her page as well the interviewee's information at the end of the article!

 WELCOME TO THE HOT SEAT DENNIS

Hey Dennis, it's great finally getting the chance to talk to you today, let's grab the bull by the horns and kick things off by telling us a little bit about yourself..

Hi Ingrid, well I am a person that has always had a love of things from the past, you know things that are gone but not forgotten.  This is why I live vicariously through my writing. My characters can go where I can't.  I have written three books so far:  My Indie book Parallel Roads (Lost on Route 66) My traditionally published book: Katya and Cyrus Time Pilgrims, and my upcoming release Almost Yesterday.

I am fond of all things time travel too - My character Irene goes off on several jaunts of her own... So, tell me is writing your full time career?

I wish it were.  I have a day job as well but must admit I do a lot of technical writing for them as well.

So our own writing is kind of a busman's holiday then... What is the worst job that you have ever done, and why?

Hot, sweaty manual labor in a factory with a tin roof and no air conditioning.  This was when I was a young man.

Well, I guess everyone has to start somewhere!!!!  If you could have written any other book by any other author what would it have been and why?

Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson.  It was originally called Time, Bid ye, but when the movie was made they changed the name.  It is the perfect blend of romance and time travel. A love that is so powerful that it transcends time itself is the stuff that dreams are made of.

How do you think your parents would describe your book, and does this differ from how you would describe it?

My mom is an avid reader and my worst critic.  She read it but I never actually heard her describe it.

What genre is your work, and do you have any plans to work outside of it?

My genre is YA, Romance, Fantasy.  Is that an actual genre? I keep going back to a book I started years ago which is more of a ghost/paranormal story.  I may finish it one day.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I have always wanted to write.  I had all of these ideas in my head but never thought I could actually be an author. When I met my wife online, we started writing a never ending story of one of my time travel ideas.  The story was full of love, and would only be enjoyed by us, so years later she encouraged me to start writing my first book, which was a time travel adventure based along the famous American road Route 66.  This is my indie book called Parallel Roads (Lost on Route 66)  This one is loved by people, even if they don't like traditional time travel. It's more of a murder mystery.  I get great reviews on it.

I have downloaded a copy on kindle, and I am looking forward to reading and reviewing it for you!!!  Do you ever get ideas at random moments, and if so how do you hang onto them?

Good question Ingrid, I do get random ideas and if they are good enough I retain them. If I am watching t.v and get an idea, I write it down in a notebook.

Okay, do you have a structure when writing and if so, what?

I don't really have a structure that I am conscious of.  I do use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my characters.  The structure just seems to fall into place as I write.

An excel spreadsheet? That sounds very organised to me!!!  Okay, which was your favourite character to write and why? 

Ha! I love your British spelling, but my spell check has underlined the word favourite with the extra u.  My favored is Katya from Katya and Cyrus Time Pilgrims.  She is a unique character because she is lost in time and has temporal amnesia.  She remembers her past, but not when she actually lived.  She had jumped around living in many timelines until she sort of ended up in Cyrus's.  As a result of this she speaks strangely because of the different periods she has experienced. But in many ways she is just an ordinary girl with extraordinary powers. She's plain but pretty.  Dyes her hair. She likes to have fun and shows Cyrus who is all business that they have fun just time travelling because they are together.

She sounds amazing, and I just love the way you Americans have taken our wonderful language and mashed it up lol... Do you read for pleasure or out of habit?

I read for pleasure and knowledge. It's funny,  I am so influential that I try not to read while I am writing an actual book. I afraid that it might change my own voice. My fans like my simple writing style. 

What are you reading at the moment and why?

I am reading the Awaking (The Judas Curse) by Angella Graff.   The premise intrigued me because it is about immortals and ancient Gods.  I liked the Percy Jackson, Lightning Thief series.   This is a subject not written about much.   There can be reasons for immortality other than vampires.

I LOVE the ancient Gods, you should check out my novel, it's all about the Norse Gods.

Meat eater or vegetarian?

Carnivore. I love my steak.

No-one's perfect I suppose!!  Sex or cuddles?

First one, then the other, then back to the first one, then sleep.

WOW!! Moving on swiftly,what is our favourite movie and why?

I know it's a cliche, but I love Titanic.  The history mixed with the fictitious story is how I write also.  In fact I talk about going to Southampton and finding the exact site where the great ship launched in my blog http://www.timepilgrims.com/blog.html

The theme music from Titanic always brings a tear to my eye, because we played it at my dad's funeral, which brings me onto my  next question.. Do you have an opinion on life after death and if so what?

My opinion is mostly from a traditional Christian perspective.  I do believe souls can come back and be around us at times though.  Call them ghosts or purgatorial spirits or whatever, but I do think they are there sometimes.  I don't believe in reincarnation as such, but I do feel that people can channel past lives and feel them.

I am heavily into life after death/reincarnation. It's such a fascinating subject and I could talk the hind leg off a donkey about it, but seeing as we don't have all year, I will move swiftly on!! When you eat out would you choose Chinese, Indian, Italian, or other, and if so what?

I love it all.  I am a foodie.  I actually learned to love Indian in England.  I love Chinese but I think ours is Americanized because I pretty much hated the food in China when I was there.  We ate pigeon and ducks feet.

My son has tried pigeon, personally though the thought of it makes me feel sick.  London, Paris, New York, and why?

I have been to France but never Paris. London was awesome but hard to drive in.  New York is most like my hometown of Chicago.  I pick Chicago.

You have been to France but not Paris, Nooooo!!!  What do you have in the pipeline?

Oil? Water?  This must be a British term but I can extract what you mean.  What is coming on my agenda, in my future, down my pike.  Well, my third book is being published by my publisher, Whiskey Creek Press, this July.  It's called Almost Yesterday and I am very excited about it.  In it my young time pilgrims have adventures in San Francisco during the gold rush, the summer of love, and the great earthquake.  I also take them to England to investigate the Titanic and they end up in the London Blitz.  Mixed with tragedy there is always fun and romance.  My books never get too heavy, but they are also NOT children's books.  I also introduce a loveable time travelling dog.

You make me laugh so much!!!! In fact my sides are aching, you are so funny lol!! Yes, pipeline is one of our curious little idioms, and I love your thought process; gold rush..titanic..and the blitz, yes I can see how you would have arrived at all of that! Your brain obviously works at the same frenetic speed as mine.

What is your earliest childhood memory?

One of fear. All I could remember was a cone shaped, black device coming towards me when I was laying on a table.  My mother told me it was an x ray taken of my ears because of an infection.  I was only one year old.

You can remember being one? NO WAY!!!  Where would you like to be in 5 years time?

A household name with movies being made of my books.. with time pilgrims being the latest craze.

All Hail Dennis Higgins!!!  If you only had 60 seconds remaining on this planet what would you say, and who would you say it to?

I would thank my wife for being the best mate ever.  I would tell her that I love her, and then go and pet the dogs.

What advice would you give your 18 year old self?

Stop eating pizza every Friday.  Quit smoking ( I did when I was 27) and exercise more.  Thank you for interviewing me Ingrid, I enjoyed it.

Dennis you are a SUPER STAR.  I have enjoyed our little chat, and my sides are still aching from where you have made me laugh so much. 

Find out more about Dennis Higgins at his website and blog http://www.timepilgrims.com/

Ingrid Hall is the author of Granny Irene's Guide to the Afterlife - Revenge. She is offering free interviews and book reviews to indie authors.  Find out more at http://www.ingridhall.com