Your Novel: A Collage Approach

By Biusch (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

We often think about our ambitions in too cerebral a way, when it can be more powerful to feel our dreams and let our unconscious take over.  Getting a powerful sense of the mood of a story or book, for example, can help us to tap our voice, our world, our plot, our mood more easily.

So why not create a collage of your dreams?  If you want to write that fantasy novel, use magazine pics that remind you of the story, such as the winged beings and moonlit adventures you envision.  If you want to write a noir novel, what visuals from films and art speak to your aesthetic?  When you've made it, gaze at your collage every morning and night, experiencing it and feeling it.

As writers, I find we are often unblocked by living in the heart as well as the head.  That way, our deeper selves are already in action, before we even start.

Do let me know how it goes!

Pep Talk: Confidence Tips from Superstar Drag Queens

RuPaul in drag (photo credit below)

This is an excerpt from my new monthly column at the Grub Daily entitled Pep Talk, in which, as Grub Street's Confidence and Writing Coach, I help you to feel positive about your work and writing career.  The column is written under my other name.  You can read the whole post here.

On RuPaul’s Drag Race the other night, a beautiful drag queen named Coco Montrese was ripped apart by the judging panel.  Part of Coco’s challenge had been to give an ex-marine who was new to drag a successful makeover.  The judges said that “Horchata”—the newbie queen on Coco’s team—had terrible eyebrows, bad make-up, and a dress that looked like it had been ripped from Coco’s own.  Poor Coco was almost in tears.  Why, she cried, did she always fail the judges?  She tried so hard to please them.  Why did she get rejected?

Well, you know what RuPaul advised the beautiful, super-talented Coco?  He said that she needed to learn to enjoy the criticism and have fun with it.  “If you’re not enjoying it, the audience won’t enjoy it.”  Coco nodded, damp-eyed.

Now, I told you that to tell you this:  A couple of years ago, when I was working as a literary magazine editor...  (For the rest of the post, click here.)

Photo credit: David Shankbone, via Wikimedia Commons

Boston, Peace, and Stilettos for Writers

For all fellow Bostonians, may you be safe, well, and trouble-free today.  My thoughts are with those who have been most affected.

As a Brit who now lives in Boston, I spent my childhood in the London area, where the IRA bombings were.  In Britain, we still bear the memory of that time.  My partner Angela was amazed when she came with me to London and realized that there was nowhere on the street to put trash.  Even the train stations are devoid of litter bins--we learned, so tragically, what those bins could be used for.

And of course, while the tragedy continues in Boston, explosions are also happening around the world, often on a daily basis.  So I'm thinking of everyone affected by attacks, war, and other violence.

Peace, dear Boston.  How I love you.

What's more, I want to let you know about my new post at the Grub Daily.  It is about characterization through possessions, through objects, and it's called "When a Stiletto Isn't a Stiletto (Or What Our Characters Carry)."  Please enjoy.

Photo credit: By Summerdrought (own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Creative Tips: Quietening the Chatterbox

Via Wikimedia Commons (Author Unknown)

An obstacle for many of my coaching clients is the "inner chatterbox" -- the voice inside our heads that says our work isn't good enough.

As a matter of fact, your chatterbox is often your friend once you've harnessed her.  S/he can give you great ideas, can make you polish and commit, and she'll certainly push you to perfect your craft.  That said, your chatterbox can get out of control, especially when you're stressed, lost, intimidated.

And the most important thing for many of us is to keep on going.

It's particularly hard to switch the chatterbox off when you aren't yet published, or haven't yet sold your work, or...the list goes on.  The sense of "not being there yet" can certainly mess with our confidence.  So here's a true story that I tell my writing clients to help them quieten the chatterbox within:

One thing I learned from being a literary magazine editor was that many aspects of writing are extremely subjective.  Once, when I was sitting on a finalist panel with a dozen highly talented editors, we looked at a story that had been longlisted for an impressive award.  Apart from the editor who had selected the piece, the rest of us didn't rate this story highly.  We said there was too much telling, not enough showing.  We said that we wanted more scene, more complexity of emotion.  In the end, the Senior Editors agreed and rejected the piece.

Two months later, I was online, when I saw that the very same story had won third place in a writing contest at an equally well-established magazine.

It's true!  Just because an editor doesn't like your work, doesn't mean that another editor won't.  And just because your chatterbox doesn't like your work, doesn't mean that other readers won't.

Read that again, if you need to.  And maybe even again.

Your chatterbox wants you to think that her way is the only way.  Or perhaps she (or he or ze) wants you to think that there is no right way.  But you mustn't let your chatterbox take you over.  Don't let her put you off.  Instead, thank her for her input.  Tell her, "I'm taking note of your points," and write them down, keep hold of them.  But you don't have to fret about these points now -- they may or may not be valid later on, when you get to the editing process, and you can always ask a reviewer to help you toss the turnips and keep the pearls.

The important thing is to keep on writing or designing or rehearsing...or whatever it is that the universe needs you to do.

When it's time to think more critically about your work, you might ask your chatterbox to step forward again by taking out her list of points and giving them a read.  Plus you can also ask any trusted readers to give their own opinion of your work.

Ask these readers to include what is working well as well as their criticisms.  And in a future post, we'll start training your chatterbox to do exactly the same!

Bottom line?  Don't let the chatterbox sink your ship.  Help her to steer you to the final port of call, and enjoy those peaceful waters.
--

Thanks for visiting "Whole Arts Coaching," where Lana offers writing, arts, and confidence coaching on a per hour (or per minute!) basis!

Quotes That Help Us to Grow

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin

Joss Whedon, writing as Mal, captain of the spaceship Serenity:  

"You know what the first rule of flying is?... Love. You can learn all the math in the 'Verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens.  Makes her a home."

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." Vincent Van Gogh

"This is what I learned: That everyone is talented, original and has something important to say." Brenda Ueland

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country." Anais Nin

Rose image (above) By Takkk (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

One Big Writerly Confidence Boost

Pic: PatMcD via Wikimedia Commons

This post was first published in the Grub Street Daily, where Lana offers "Writing Boosts" for writers under a different name.  Contact Lana at: foxlana (at) gmail.com with questions about Grub Boosts or one-to-one arts coaching.

There is an unsupported rumor that positivity is for dummies.  Well, I can tell you this:  In my career as a teacher, writer, counselor and coach, I have never seen artists improve with such gusto as we do when we can see what is workingin our writing.  But how can we really notice what is working, when we need, so badly, to improve our craft?

Many years ago, when I was at teacher training college in Britain, a lecturer drew a square on the board with a dot in the middle of it.  He asked us all, “What’s inside the square?”  When we replied “a dot,” he asked us what else.  Of course, we said there was nothing, but oh how wrong we were!  “There is space,” he told us, “lots of space.  But you’ve been conditioned not to see it.”

His point?  We focus on what we are taught to notice.  And in our society, we tend to notice what is broken (the dot), rather than what is working well (the space). So when a trainee high school teacher only points out where a struggling student is going wrong, the student often believes that they have done nothing right.  They see their work as being unworthy, rather than assuming that they are doing some things well.

As writers, we can learn from this.  When a workshopping experience involves a great deal of constructive criticism, we try to listen, absorb, take notes.  Such professionalism enables Grub instructors and students to focus, quite rigorously, on how a piece can be improved.  This is, of course, what we most want to know—how we can better our work.  In fact, such a passionate focus is one of the reasons why Grub writers achieve such great results.

But when we can’t identify the positives in our own writing, and only see the niggly “dots,” we can feel overwhelmingly burdened.  Many of us put down our pens or abandon a powerful project – the very things we must try not to do.  Besides, it is a well-evidenced theory that “success” is predicted by tenacity and commitment.  So when you are feeling blocked and unsure, where can you go for support?

Well, Grub Street is now offering one-to-one Boosts with yours truly.  These are one-on-one sessions in which we will look at your writing or writing career, focusing on what is really working, as well as how you can constructively grow.  This doesn’t mean that I’ll just be saying, “Wow, good job, keep going!”  My background in education, mentoring and psychology means that I am used to being very specific about what you are doing well:  “Look how you are using rhythm and flow to build the pace and tension here,” I might say.  “Can you see that?  No?  Well, let me show you how this is working.”  We will also look at what you can do in order to improve your work/increase your platform/expand your career etc.  And you’ll be surprised by how much better you can feel when you are clear about what you are doing well.

In addition, we offer Career Boosts as well as Writing Boosts, in order to help you create achievable goals and plans.  And if you aren’t sure whether Boosts are for you, why not dip a toe in the water – I offer half-hour Boosts as well as full-hour sessions.  Another option is to book a series of half-hour or one-hour Boosts, a few weeks apart, to give your development some structure.

After all, writing is too high a calling to be ditched because of doubt.