I am now going to take my own advice and do what I said to to in my last post on how to write a book. This is Lesson 1, part 2, applied to myself.
"2. What areas of life are you an expert or authority in? For example, you may have some technical training or background which makes you an authoritative voice on that subject. However, this is a VERY limited example for this question. What I’m getting at here is this: what area of LIFE can you weigh in on with the experience, background or closure required to fully understand it? We are looking here for areas that you can say “I KNOW about this”; or “I can OWN this; this is MINE”. Areas you may personally consider mundane or even uninteresting, if only because you are so used to it that you don’t recognize it may be of interest to others."
The areas of life that I am an expert in:
1. How to make people laugh, by pointing out the absurdly obvious
2. How to get a man and make him mine
3. How to have a terrible relationship and make it ruin every aspect of one's and one's associates' lives.
4. How to misjudge a book by its cover; and how not to.
5. How to have an excellent relationship and make it improve every aspect of one's and one's associates' lives.
6. Growing up German as can be in the USA.
7. How to never completely fit in unless you want to.
8. How to survive on a few pennies and a lot of wits.
9. How to hitchhike across the USA.
10. How to be a hippie.
11. Real estate survival (barely)
12. Life as a wayward college student in Chicago.
13. How to never let go of one's dreams or one's right to invent alternate endings and realities.
14. How to tell a story of tragedy and still make it funny somehow.
15. How to cook an amazing dinner by color and smell alone.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Lesson 1: demo
I am now going to take my own advice and do what I said to to in my last post on how to write a book:
"1. Is there something you obsess over mentally? Is there something you keep coming back to in your thoughts? I am not talking about those little “demons and voices” many of us have that warn us or act as naysayers. Forget about them. They will be shut up and silenced as a result of your book. No, I am talking about the recurring thoughts, questions, ideas that you and only you have that seek to find a voice and to be heard. I am talking about your dreams, your desires, your hates, your loves. I am talking about that thing inside you that you keep coming back to because it wants to be expressed fully. I am talking about the collection of experiences you’ve had that seem to reflect you more natively than anything else. I am talking about the experiences you treasure, you abhor, the ones that you consider have helped shape you and your viewpoint more than any others.
Write them down. Don’t think too much. Don’t worry if your thoughts go all over the place. We are not looking for anything more than literal brainstorming here. What are the thoughts you keep coming back to? What are the ideas that form a central theme in your life? Stop thinking: just write. We don’t care about grammar, tense, person, manners or form. We’ll have a look at where theses ideas are heading later. For now, just get them out of your head and onto the page."
What do I obsess over mentally? Weird question, lady.
I obsess over the injustices committed by others that weren't deserved and should have never been allowed to pass in my perfect world. I obsess over the fact that karma is a lazy-assed bitch and needs to be hurried up. Over the fact that life isn't fair, not any more fair at least than what little fairness we are able to impose on it/our limited stake in it. Over the vast chasm between where I want to be and where I am; what I consider myself capable of and what I have produced to date. I obsess over the inability but willingness to reconcile my inner life with my external realities; to make sense and happiness out of my present fortune by increasing my own ability to appreciate all the good that's actually there and not always bitch about what isn't there and not take the good for granted; about how to actually encourage myself to live up to my own expectations of myself; about how to control my life into the direction I want it to go in; about how to overcome barriers not of my own making.
I obsess over liars and criminals; over my own previous stupidity when it comes to having placed my trust in the wrong people; and over my unwillingness to stop believing in the prevailing better nature of man and my own difficulties in being mean and hard and cruel when I probably should be. Maybe the bad guys win more often than they should because of the good guys' unwillingness to bring a knife to a gunfight. It's highly likely that this is the case.
(This pisses me off: I wrote more but it disappeared into cyberspace)...
I obsess over beauty, and art, and the ecstatic experience available through good art. I obsess over my connectedness with other life-forms and other beings, and the web that we weave which ties us together and often entraps us in its entanglements; and the sorting-out of these entanglements and replacing chaos with order and function and good sense.
I obsess over traveling: my love of travel, my lack of travel, my ability to substitute travel (to some degree) by freeing my mind to the pursuit of creative endeavors; my love of wide open natural spaces; my love of biting salty wind off the coast of Portugal on a ketch on the Atlantic sea; my love of crisp northeastern autumn air; my love of brisk walks in bracing temperatures in the English countryside. My love of photography, and my wonderment that in spite of all the love I have for art, I haven't dedicatedly committed myself to any of its various media, because I was raised with the idea that it's a waste of effort to pursue it professionally; that art isn't really a profession, and that being an artist is something that you do on the side.
Well, ain't that a load of total fucking bullshit. LIFE is not something you "do on the side".
On a more mundane note, I obsess over my waistline, the tendency of my arms to aspire towards thickness, and my inability to shop with wild abandon at Neiman Marcus like I feel I am actually entitled to, simply by virtue of being me and being an excellent dresser and having the ability to look absolutely stunning in the clothes I pick out for myself.
I still find it confusing that I should have to earn a living by selling shit I don't really give a shit about. It surprises me, the amount of passion some people find in the jobs that they do. I couldn't really give two shits about what I do for money. This isn't entirely true of course, but I don't live to work; I work to live. My biggest dream still is to be able to transcend the need for a "day job" by becoming a full-time writer, and by actually churning out some highly readable shit that pays well. Then I actually WILL be able to shop at Neiman Marcus and do all the things I feel already entitled to, simply by virtue of being me, and expressing that to others.
Why would anyone want anything different than that for themselves? I can't even imagine. I doubt anyone does. Or does this mean that I am an artist?
"1. Is there something you obsess over mentally? Is there something you keep coming back to in your thoughts? I am not talking about those little “demons and voices” many of us have that warn us or act as naysayers. Forget about them. They will be shut up and silenced as a result of your book. No, I am talking about the recurring thoughts, questions, ideas that you and only you have that seek to find a voice and to be heard. I am talking about your dreams, your desires, your hates, your loves. I am talking about that thing inside you that you keep coming back to because it wants to be expressed fully. I am talking about the collection of experiences you’ve had that seem to reflect you more natively than anything else. I am talking about the experiences you treasure, you abhor, the ones that you consider have helped shape you and your viewpoint more than any others.
Write them down. Don’t think too much. Don’t worry if your thoughts go all over the place. We are not looking for anything more than literal brainstorming here. What are the thoughts you keep coming back to? What are the ideas that form a central theme in your life? Stop thinking: just write. We don’t care about grammar, tense, person, manners or form. We’ll have a look at where theses ideas are heading later. For now, just get them out of your head and onto the page."
What do I obsess over mentally? Weird question, lady.
I obsess over the injustices committed by others that weren't deserved and should have never been allowed to pass in my perfect world. I obsess over the fact that karma is a lazy-assed bitch and needs to be hurried up. Over the fact that life isn't fair, not any more fair at least than what little fairness we are able to impose on it/our limited stake in it. Over the vast chasm between where I want to be and where I am; what I consider myself capable of and what I have produced to date. I obsess over the inability but willingness to reconcile my inner life with my external realities; to make sense and happiness out of my present fortune by increasing my own ability to appreciate all the good that's actually there and not always bitch about what isn't there and not take the good for granted; about how to actually encourage myself to live up to my own expectations of myself; about how to control my life into the direction I want it to go in; about how to overcome barriers not of my own making.
I obsess over liars and criminals; over my own previous stupidity when it comes to having placed my trust in the wrong people; and over my unwillingness to stop believing in the prevailing better nature of man and my own difficulties in being mean and hard and cruel when I probably should be. Maybe the bad guys win more often than they should because of the good guys' unwillingness to bring a knife to a gunfight. It's highly likely that this is the case.
(This pisses me off: I wrote more but it disappeared into cyberspace)...
I obsess over beauty, and art, and the ecstatic experience available through good art. I obsess over my connectedness with other life-forms and other beings, and the web that we weave which ties us together and often entraps us in its entanglements; and the sorting-out of these entanglements and replacing chaos with order and function and good sense.
I obsess over traveling: my love of travel, my lack of travel, my ability to substitute travel (to some degree) by freeing my mind to the pursuit of creative endeavors; my love of wide open natural spaces; my love of biting salty wind off the coast of Portugal on a ketch on the Atlantic sea; my love of crisp northeastern autumn air; my love of brisk walks in bracing temperatures in the English countryside. My love of photography, and my wonderment that in spite of all the love I have for art, I haven't dedicatedly committed myself to any of its various media, because I was raised with the idea that it's a waste of effort to pursue it professionally; that art isn't really a profession, and that being an artist is something that you do on the side.
Well, ain't that a load of total fucking bullshit. LIFE is not something you "do on the side".
On a more mundane note, I obsess over my waistline, the tendency of my arms to aspire towards thickness, and my inability to shop with wild abandon at Neiman Marcus like I feel I am actually entitled to, simply by virtue of being me and being an excellent dresser and having the ability to look absolutely stunning in the clothes I pick out for myself.
I still find it confusing that I should have to earn a living by selling shit I don't really give a shit about. It surprises me, the amount of passion some people find in the jobs that they do. I couldn't really give two shits about what I do for money. This isn't entirely true of course, but I don't live to work; I work to live. My biggest dream still is to be able to transcend the need for a "day job" by becoming a full-time writer, and by actually churning out some highly readable shit that pays well. Then I actually WILL be able to shop at Neiman Marcus and do all the things I feel already entitled to, simply by virtue of being me, and expressing that to others.
Why would anyone want anything different than that for themselves? I can't even imagine. I doubt anyone does. Or does this mean that I am an artist?
Lesson 1: my own feedback & brainstorming
My own feedback on my own lesson, as applied to myself:
Part 1 was definitely easier for me to do than Part 2, in terms of fluidity. I found it much easier to start talking (writing) about what I like, dream, think about than what specific areas I can consider myself an expert in. Interesting that my voice started to emerge on Part 1 and that I found no lack for words or ideas. In other words, it flowed like I like it to. It was natural; it was me. That was the voice, right there, that I want to continue into an entire book.
I also found it interesting that the voice I consider most mine, most authentic, most genuine, is not a particularly happy one. It is a voice fully capable of happiness and humor, but it is not in itself there yet. Rather, it contains a relatively high degree of irony (but not bitterness, thank God) and it expresses an ache for the actualization of more, better, higher. It is a voice of hope, tempered by the blade and not-so-glamorous grit of actual experience. I like it. It has a fair degree of maturity and it is honest, and it is able to tell it like it sees it. And it is in fact quite bold. Good on me.
Part 2 was where I felt I was getting into pretentiousness, to the degree that the list I was making seemed somehow separate from me and my own interests. None of the things I read on my own list has any particular hold on me. Which is a potential problem, because I am trying to figure out here what the FUCK is going to HOLD my interest for 300+ pages.
One idea I had along the way, before I forget it:
A largely autobiographical story, but each chapter ends not with the actual reality, but with (in italics, to keep it separate), my "dream" or cartoon reality. Yes. that would really be therapeutic, if nothing else. One chapter devoted to a section of my life that bears recounting; and the ending is how I would have constructed it in the real world, if the real world accepted my druthers and I was Queen of the Universe.
The more I think about the above, the more I like it.
Where truth meets fiction.
Where my inner world intersects with my external world.
Where, at the end of the book, my ultimate dream of being a published writer is achieved, in the real world. That would be a declaration of victory, and the ultimate revenge against the travails of life that my innermost being rails against, in every sense that I can imagine right now.
So for today's conclusion, I'd assess the following:
At the end of the day, I am an expert in my own life. Writing is where my inner life meets my external life, head-on. No one knows the story of my life like I know it. No one is more qualified to write about it. No one is more qualified to judge it. I don't actually want to judge it. I want to tell it like it is, like it was, and like it will be. I want to be the author of my own destiny. Literally. I think I'm on to something very real here, something that could keep me going for 300+ pages, in my own voice, and not bore me or my future audience. I want it to inspire me and others. I can do that, with this as a subject.
Probably a little more on this later.
If you are reading this, try Lesson 1. Let me know your own results. This could become a forum for aspiring writers if enough people read this, and try it for themselves.
Part 1 was definitely easier for me to do than Part 2, in terms of fluidity. I found it much easier to start talking (writing) about what I like, dream, think about than what specific areas I can consider myself an expert in. Interesting that my voice started to emerge on Part 1 and that I found no lack for words or ideas. In other words, it flowed like I like it to. It was natural; it was me. That was the voice, right there, that I want to continue into an entire book.
I also found it interesting that the voice I consider most mine, most authentic, most genuine, is not a particularly happy one. It is a voice fully capable of happiness and humor, but it is not in itself there yet. Rather, it contains a relatively high degree of irony (but not bitterness, thank God) and it expresses an ache for the actualization of more, better, higher. It is a voice of hope, tempered by the blade and not-so-glamorous grit of actual experience. I like it. It has a fair degree of maturity and it is honest, and it is able to tell it like it sees it. And it is in fact quite bold. Good on me.
Part 2 was where I felt I was getting into pretentiousness, to the degree that the list I was making seemed somehow separate from me and my own interests. None of the things I read on my own list has any particular hold on me. Which is a potential problem, because I am trying to figure out here what the FUCK is going to HOLD my interest for 300+ pages.
One idea I had along the way, before I forget it:
A largely autobiographical story, but each chapter ends not with the actual reality, but with (in italics, to keep it separate), my "dream" or cartoon reality. Yes. that would really be therapeutic, if nothing else. One chapter devoted to a section of my life that bears recounting; and the ending is how I would have constructed it in the real world, if the real world accepted my druthers and I was Queen of the Universe.
The more I think about the above, the more I like it.
Where truth meets fiction.
Where my inner world intersects with my external world.
Where, at the end of the book, my ultimate dream of being a published writer is achieved, in the real world. That would be a declaration of victory, and the ultimate revenge against the travails of life that my innermost being rails against, in every sense that I can imagine right now.
So for today's conclusion, I'd assess the following:
At the end of the day, I am an expert in my own life. Writing is where my inner life meets my external life, head-on. No one knows the story of my life like I know it. No one is more qualified to write about it. No one is more qualified to judge it. I don't actually want to judge it. I want to tell it like it is, like it was, and like it will be. I want to be the author of my own destiny. Literally. I think I'm on to something very real here, something that could keep me going for 300+ pages, in my own voice, and not bore me or my future audience. I want it to inspire me and others. I can do that, with this as a subject.
Probably a little more on this later.
If you are reading this, try Lesson 1. Let me know your own results. This could become a forum for aspiring writers if enough people read this, and try it for themselves.
upcoming lessons in how to write a book
Upcoming lessons to writing your book:
Lesson 2: Establish the subject matter of your book
Lesson 3: Give it a whirl: start brainstorming on content under the subject matter you've determined for yourself.
Lesson 4: Chapters as the framework: write down the chapters of your book
Lesson 5: Beginning, middle and end: establish a theme or a main idea that takes you through the book and binds it together into a comprehensive story.
Lesson 6: Heroes, Villains and other sundry folk: the people in your book
Lesson 7: Character sketches of the people in your book
Lesson 8: Major conflicts: establishing the barriers that have to be overcome (life as a game of freedoms, barriers and purposes)
Lesson 9: Freedoms: establishing the outer bounds of what you want to embrace with your book.
Lesson 10: Purposes: establishing the reason for the book.
Lesson 11: Revisit the chapters and establish them more distinctly.
Lesson 12: Stepping stones: Sketching out the chapters.
Lesson 13: Start writing your book: Chapter One
(interspersed throughout: feedback/revisions)
Lesson 2: Establish the subject matter of your book
Lesson 3: Give it a whirl: start brainstorming on content under the subject matter you've determined for yourself.
Lesson 4: Chapters as the framework: write down the chapters of your book
Lesson 5: Beginning, middle and end: establish a theme or a main idea that takes you through the book and binds it together into a comprehensive story.
Lesson 6: Heroes, Villains and other sundry folk: the people in your book
Lesson 7: Character sketches of the people in your book
Lesson 8: Major conflicts: establishing the barriers that have to be overcome (life as a game of freedoms, barriers and purposes)
Lesson 9: Freedoms: establishing the outer bounds of what you want to embrace with your book.
Lesson 10: Purposes: establishing the reason for the book.
Lesson 11: Revisit the chapters and establish them more distinctly.
Lesson 12: Stepping stones: Sketching out the chapters.
Lesson 13: Start writing your book: Chapter One
(interspersed throughout: feedback/revisions)
Lesson 1.5: finding a common theme
I looked at what Lesson #2 is supposed achieve and my immediate reaction was "not ready for that yet". Here's a sub-step between proposed Lessons 1 and 2 to make the transition to Lesson 2 easier. Chance are, I'll be adding this as its own distinct lesson.
For now, my next task is to analyze what I wrote about in Lesson 1 and see if I can narrow it down to a common theme, or at least a few common threads.
Injustice/betrayal/justice/karma
Right/wrong
Aesthetics
Humor/tragedy
Bad guys/good guys
Trust/distrust
Kindness/meanness
Goals & dreams vs reality (and reconciling/integrating the two)
Taking control of one's life/success
Pursuit of happiness
(dreams/goals): Art, beauty, truth
(dreams/goals): Travel
Mundane vs. sublime
Shopping/fashion/style/weight loss/girlie things
Living the dream
Me
The common denominator is me. The themes are as old and classic as the human condition. Nothing new there, except whatever new insights I can lend them as colored by my own experiences.
I go back to what seems easiest for me to write about: me, my life, my experiences to date, the things I've learned through experience: certainly not always by being a good example, often by being a horrible warning. No one else has the same story or viewpoint as I do, and there's no harm in taking the path of least resistance when it comes to writing my first book.And besides, I could probably blab on endlessly about myself. Hopefully I won't bore myself to tears while doing so.
For now, my next task is to analyze what I wrote about in Lesson 1 and see if I can narrow it down to a common theme, or at least a few common threads.
Injustice/betrayal/justice/karma
Right/wrong
Aesthetics
Humor/tragedy
Bad guys/good guys
Trust/distrust
Kindness/meanness
Goals & dreams vs reality (and reconciling/integrating the two)
Taking control of one's life/success
Pursuit of happiness
(dreams/goals): Art, beauty, truth
(dreams/goals): Travel
Mundane vs. sublime
Shopping/fashion/style/weight loss/girlie things
Living the dream
Me
The common denominator is me. The themes are as old and classic as the human condition. Nothing new there, except whatever new insights I can lend them as colored by my own experiences.
I go back to what seems easiest for me to write about: me, my life, my experiences to date, the things I've learned through experience: certainly not always by being a good example, often by being a horrible warning. No one else has the same story or viewpoint as I do, and there's no harm in taking the path of least resistance when it comes to writing my first book.And besides, I could probably blab on endlessly about myself. Hopefully I won't bore myself to tears while doing so.
Monday, August 30, 2010
You're better off dead, pal
In the latest breaking news of my cartoon reality, the dude whose initials are BS has finally been killed in a tragic car accident (due to a lack of mighty tornadoes in Florida, there were no flying houses present to flatten him with his feet sticking out at an odd angle from where the house would've landed on him, so I settled for a tragic car crash). No others were injured and there is no immediate known cause for the accident, although toxicology reports are still pending.
Alternately, the dude whose initials are BS was found dead in his home by a friend. His heart had exploded in his sleep and no foul play appears to have been involved.
I will play maudlin for a while, since it appears at first sight to be an unspeakable tragedy for someone so inextricably linked to my own life to be swept to the bosom of his Maker at such a relatively early age; and after all, he is the father of my child.
I will of course attend his funeral and be more than helpful to his mother and other next of kin in the distribution of his estate and assets (of which, of course, there are none to speak of. Thank GOD I am not financially or legally bound to him in any way, shape or form: now it will be up to his mother to bail out those financial debts which survive his untimely death).
His mother will be moved, of course, to provide amply for her half-orphaned granddaughter, and in addition to setting up a trust fund in her name, will also cover her health insurance and provide a generous monthly stipend to cover her immediate needs. In order to help me and my daughter overcome our grief, she will also send me a check for $100,000 to help us during this difficult time. Meanwhile, probate court will agree that Bill's estate is also indebted to me for an additional $120,000 or so as a result of an audit performed on his financial records.
I will pack up the household and immediately move to Cyprus with my family, where our sponsor will provide us with a beautiful house on the beach at no cost and where my gorgeous, able and generous husband will learn to be a trader for our sponsor while I laze away the afternoons in our beautiful beach house and write my first, second and third books, which go on to become very successful and establish my new career as a professional writer. The children will grow up in a privileged environment, receive excellent educations and enjoy much travel throughout Europe, Asia and Dubai, as well as frequent visits Stateside.
Yay.
Alternately, the dude whose initials are BS was found dead in his home by a friend. His heart had exploded in his sleep and no foul play appears to have been involved.
I will play maudlin for a while, since it appears at first sight to be an unspeakable tragedy for someone so inextricably linked to my own life to be swept to the bosom of his Maker at such a relatively early age; and after all, he is the father of my child.
I will of course attend his funeral and be more than helpful to his mother and other next of kin in the distribution of his estate and assets (of which, of course, there are none to speak of. Thank GOD I am not financially or legally bound to him in any way, shape or form: now it will be up to his mother to bail out those financial debts which survive his untimely death).
His mother will be moved, of course, to provide amply for her half-orphaned granddaughter, and in addition to setting up a trust fund in her name, will also cover her health insurance and provide a generous monthly stipend to cover her immediate needs. In order to help me and my daughter overcome our grief, she will also send me a check for $100,000 to help us during this difficult time. Meanwhile, probate court will agree that Bill's estate is also indebted to me for an additional $120,000 or so as a result of an audit performed on his financial records.
I will pack up the household and immediately move to Cyprus with my family, where our sponsor will provide us with a beautiful house on the beach at no cost and where my gorgeous, able and generous husband will learn to be a trader for our sponsor while I laze away the afternoons in our beautiful beach house and write my first, second and third books, which go on to become very successful and establish my new career as a professional writer. The children will grow up in a privileged environment, receive excellent educations and enjoy much travel throughout Europe, Asia and Dubai, as well as frequent visits Stateside.
Yay.
How to write a book: Lesson 1
So, you want to write a book? All right.
The first thing you need to establish is, what will your book be about? What story needs to be told? What story is interesting enough to not only keep your readers going for 300+ pages, but also to keep YOU going. It's going to be a lot more work writing the thing than reading it.
One question that will need answering: fact, or fiction? Or a colorful combination thereof?
Another question: what tense or person will it be written in?
I personally have a hard time inventing something more interesting than my own sphere of experience. Others have inner lives that are so creative and colorful that the pages of their stories are canvasses for things we could never experience otherwise. Either way is fine, as long as it's what's real to you. But what is real to you? How do you write at your most fluid, and real? When the ink of your pen becomes your own life-blood, what general style do those words embrace or reflect? That will need to be established before you even set your first word on the first page of your first book.
That's the voice you need to capture: that's the voice that will tell your story in your book.
However, the biggest problem most aspiring writers face is in fact, what will they write their book about?
This will be the first, and possibly even the most important, hurdle for us to confront and conquer, as all future actions in this course will depend on having successfully discovered what story most needs to be told.
We still start by brainstorming.
Think about these questions, and answer them completely:
1. Is there something you obsess over mentally? Is there something you keep coming back to in your thoughts? I am not talking about those little "demons and voices" many of us have that warn us or act as naysayers. Forget about them. They will be shut up and silenced as a result of your book. No, I am talking about the recurring thoughts, questions, ideas that you and only you have that seek to find a voice and to be heard. I am talking about your dreams, your desires, your hates, your loves. I am talking about that thing inside you that you keep coming back to because it wants to be expressed fully. I am talking about the collection of experiences you've had that seem to reflect you more natively than anything else. I am talking about the experiences you treasure, you abhor, the ones that you consider have helped shape you and your viewpoint more than any others.
Write them down. Don't think too much. Don't worry if your thoughts go all over the place. We are not looking for anything more than literal brainstorming here. What are the thoughts you keep coming back to? What are the ideas that form a central theme in your life? Stop thinking: just write. We don't care about grammar, tense, person, manners or form. We'll have a look at where theses ideas are heading later. For now, just get them out of your head and onto the page.
2. What areas of life are you an expert or authority in? For example, you may have some technical training or background which makes you an authoritative voice on that subject. However, this is a VERY limited example for this question. What I'm getting at here is this: what area of LIFE can you weigh in on with the experience, background or closure required to fully understand it? We are looking here for areas that you can say "I KNOW about this"; or "I can OWN this; this is MINE". Areas you may personally consider mundane or even uninteresting, if only because you are so used to it that you don't recognize it may be of interest to others.
I want areas of your life which are preferably NOT works in progress. I want areas that you can speak about with full knowledge and depth of understanding. To use an extreme example, let's say you're a cancer survivor. You've seen the battle through, from beginning to middle to end. Now you're done with it and you've moved on. Good. That's an area you KNOW about, from the inside out, an area you can own from start to finish.
Another example might be taken from where or how you grew up. Or from your experiences in the auto or sales industry. Or a string of crap relationships or behavioral patterns that you've managed to identify and get through and over with. I want any areas of your life and experience that you are an authority on, because you've been there and you've lived the life and you understand it and you have real insight and knowledge of.
Don't judge yourself while you write these down. That will come later. For now, any areas that are unique to YOU, your viewpoint, your understandings and experiences with, that you can authoritatively OWN. These areas may not even be that interesting to you, but they may be interesting for someone else. We'll decide that later.
You are the only "you" in the world. What can you bring to the table that is authentically yours?
The first thing you need to establish is, what will your book be about? What story needs to be told? What story is interesting enough to not only keep your readers going for 300+ pages, but also to keep YOU going. It's going to be a lot more work writing the thing than reading it.
One question that will need answering: fact, or fiction? Or a colorful combination thereof?
Another question: what tense or person will it be written in?
I personally have a hard time inventing something more interesting than my own sphere of experience. Others have inner lives that are so creative and colorful that the pages of their stories are canvasses for things we could never experience otherwise. Either way is fine, as long as it's what's real to you. But what is real to you? How do you write at your most fluid, and real? When the ink of your pen becomes your own life-blood, what general style do those words embrace or reflect? That will need to be established before you even set your first word on the first page of your first book.
That's the voice you need to capture: that's the voice that will tell your story in your book.
However, the biggest problem most aspiring writers face is in fact, what will they write their book about?
This will be the first, and possibly even the most important, hurdle for us to confront and conquer, as all future actions in this course will depend on having successfully discovered what story most needs to be told.
We still start by brainstorming.
Think about these questions, and answer them completely:
1. Is there something you obsess over mentally? Is there something you keep coming back to in your thoughts? I am not talking about those little "demons and voices" many of us have that warn us or act as naysayers. Forget about them. They will be shut up and silenced as a result of your book. No, I am talking about the recurring thoughts, questions, ideas that you and only you have that seek to find a voice and to be heard. I am talking about your dreams, your desires, your hates, your loves. I am talking about that thing inside you that you keep coming back to because it wants to be expressed fully. I am talking about the collection of experiences you've had that seem to reflect you more natively than anything else. I am talking about the experiences you treasure, you abhor, the ones that you consider have helped shape you and your viewpoint more than any others.
Write them down. Don't think too much. Don't worry if your thoughts go all over the place. We are not looking for anything more than literal brainstorming here. What are the thoughts you keep coming back to? What are the ideas that form a central theme in your life? Stop thinking: just write. We don't care about grammar, tense, person, manners or form. We'll have a look at where theses ideas are heading later. For now, just get them out of your head and onto the page.
2. What areas of life are you an expert or authority in? For example, you may have some technical training or background which makes you an authoritative voice on that subject. However, this is a VERY limited example for this question. What I'm getting at here is this: what area of LIFE can you weigh in on with the experience, background or closure required to fully understand it? We are looking here for areas that you can say "I KNOW about this"; or "I can OWN this; this is MINE". Areas you may personally consider mundane or even uninteresting, if only because you are so used to it that you don't recognize it may be of interest to others.
I want areas of your life which are preferably NOT works in progress. I want areas that you can speak about with full knowledge and depth of understanding. To use an extreme example, let's say you're a cancer survivor. You've seen the battle through, from beginning to middle to end. Now you're done with it and you've moved on. Good. That's an area you KNOW about, from the inside out, an area you can own from start to finish.
Another example might be taken from where or how you grew up. Or from your experiences in the auto or sales industry. Or a string of crap relationships or behavioral patterns that you've managed to identify and get through and over with. I want any areas of your life and experience that you are an authority on, because you've been there and you've lived the life and you understand it and you have real insight and knowledge of.
Don't judge yourself while you write these down. That will come later. For now, any areas that are unique to YOU, your viewpoint, your understandings and experiences with, that you can authoritatively OWN. These areas may not even be that interesting to you, but they may be interesting for someone else. We'll decide that later.
You are the only "you" in the world. What can you bring to the table that is authentically yours?
Friday, August 27, 2010
gotta start somewhere
So I decided to start this blog for reasons two- or three-fold:
1. To have a place to rant my fucking head off;
2. To have a place to express myself with no particular restraints caused by concerns of being caught out by someone who knows me and to whom I am socially indebted in some manner, be it familial, social, professional or some combination of the three;
3. To have a place where I can write on a daily basis and simply have a way to literally collect my written thoughts in one place, with the idea of organizing them into a beginning, a middle and an end at some point in the future and actually writing a book. But first, I need to do (1) (2) and (3) so I can really take a step back and go "that right there, that's me; that's the voice I know and love and need to strengthen and define into my own personal weapon of truth"; and "that's the common thread -- now it's clear to me what my story is and what my book is about"; and so on. And also the reverse, like reading something I wrote and going "that is total, disingenuous, pretentious shit. Who do I think I am?"; or "that is completely overwrought" or whatever.
Oh -- there's one more reason I decided to start this blog, and I admit it's a compelling one: there is some shit that I sincerely hate, and don't know what else to do about other than make my opinion heard. There are factually some people I think are better off dead than alive, and as long as they don't agree with this assessment, there isn't much I can do about it in the real world. But you see, there's this other world, this "cartoon reality" as an ex used to call it, where all the rules are mine, and where I can enforce them, and where the good people win and the bad people get their heads chopped off and put in a jar and kept alive so their dirty little souls can't escape, at least not till I say they can. That's the world I can write about without restraint but not act on otherwise. And it's therapeutic to write about it because then it becomes real to that degree and I'm over it and moving forwards. See, I'm already having second thoughts about the head-in-a-jar justice action, if only because I removed the inhibition from expressing the thought. Instead, maybe we could bring back the pillory as a compromise.
1. To have a place to rant my fucking head off;
2. To have a place to express myself with no particular restraints caused by concerns of being caught out by someone who knows me and to whom I am socially indebted in some manner, be it familial, social, professional or some combination of the three;
3. To have a place where I can write on a daily basis and simply have a way to literally collect my written thoughts in one place, with the idea of organizing them into a beginning, a middle and an end at some point in the future and actually writing a book. But first, I need to do (1) (2) and (3) so I can really take a step back and go "that right there, that's me; that's the voice I know and love and need to strengthen and define into my own personal weapon of truth"; and "that's the common thread -- now it's clear to me what my story is and what my book is about"; and so on. And also the reverse, like reading something I wrote and going "that is total, disingenuous, pretentious shit. Who do I think I am?"; or "that is completely overwrought" or whatever.
Oh -- there's one more reason I decided to start this blog, and I admit it's a compelling one: there is some shit that I sincerely hate, and don't know what else to do about other than make my opinion heard. There are factually some people I think are better off dead than alive, and as long as they don't agree with this assessment, there isn't much I can do about it in the real world. But you see, there's this other world, this "cartoon reality" as an ex used to call it, where all the rules are mine, and where I can enforce them, and where the good people win and the bad people get their heads chopped off and put in a jar and kept alive so their dirty little souls can't escape, at least not till I say they can. That's the world I can write about without restraint but not act on otherwise. And it's therapeutic to write about it because then it becomes real to that degree and I'm over it and moving forwards. See, I'm already having second thoughts about the head-in-a-jar justice action, if only because I removed the inhibition from expressing the thought. Instead, maybe we could bring back the pillory as a compromise.
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