Category Archives: Writing

book reviews, Writing

Book Review: Coaching the Artist Within

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A few months ago a co-worker loaned me Coaching the Artist Within, by Eric Maisel 2005 New World Library. I read it sporadically for a couple of months, then mid-May I attacked it with purpose and completed it.

Eric Maisel is a creativity coach. This is a relatively new profession (see the appendix in the book), but it has educational and qualification standards. Eric works with artists of many mediums–painters, writers, actors, musicians–to help them reach their potential in creative endeavors.

The book is built around twelve skills the artist (this word used to mean anyone in the creative arts) can learn to coach themselves, to become more creative more consistently. These skills are:

Becoming a self-coach
Passionately making meaning
Getting a grip on your mind
Eliminating dualistic thinking
Generating mental energy
Creating in the middle of things
Achieving a centered presence
Committing to goal-oriented process
Becoming an anxiety expert
Planning and doing
Upholding dreams and testing reality
Maintaining a creative life

For each of these skills, Maisel presents two exercises. He also offers personal experience he has had where he worked with a client-artist to show them how to use either the skill or one of the exercises to improve their creativity. The book includes a list of references and an index.

This book helped me. I bogged down in the first chapter, as the suggested exercises seemed hokey to me (talk to yourself, moving between two facing chairs to let your creative and non-creative sides have it out). The second chapter was better, but I still wondered at that point if I should finish the book. By the end of the third chapter, however, I was rolling and learning much. I was especially helped by Chapter 6 Creating in the Middle of Things, Chapter 7 Achieving a Centered Presence, and Chapter 9 Becoming an Anxiety Expert. This last one helped me the most, I think. The difficulty of the writing process gets me down, perhaps to the point of depression. This chapter explained how that is really anxiety, and gave help to overcome that.

After completing the book, I went back and re-read the first chapter. I still found that exercise hokey, but I did get more out of it. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to create, but finds it difficult to do so on a regular basis. Eric, if you should stop by, I’m sorry my having borrowed this book didn’t add to your royalties, but perhaps this post might help.

Carlyle, Writing

Carlyle: writing contemptible to me

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After Emerson wrote to Carlyle that every writer is a skater, a sailor, and that a book has more variation than a surveyor’s compass (see my post on June 17), Carlyle had this to say in reply.

How true is that you say about the skater; and the rider too depending on his vehicles, on his roads, on his et ceteras! Dismally true have I a thousand times felt it, in these late operations; never in any so much. And in short the business of writing has altogether become contemptible to me; and I am become confirmed in the notion that nobody ought to write,–unless sheer Fate force him to do it;–and then he ought (if not of the mountebank genus) to beg to be shot rather. That is deliberately my opinion,–or far nearer it than you will believe.
Carlyle to Emerson, 2 June 1858

Carlyle is a difficult writer to understand. His motivations for being a writer are unclear, except that he could. No doubt his statement that the business of writing has “become contemptible” to him is an exaggeration, an over-statement at a time of physical or mental exhaustion. Yet, in all his correspondence to Emerson, Carlyle always complained about whatever he was writing: how difficult it was to do the research; how the book never came together as he wanted it to; how he had to change directions often in midstream; how he would go mad if he continued to write. I’m sure Emerson’s statement of the nature of writing and of the book was somewhat in response to prior complaints by Carlyle.

Carlyle was either considerably down in the dumps or revelling in over-statement to say “nobody ought to write…unless Fate force him…and then he ought…to beg to be shot rather.” Yet, I suspect these words contain a large measure of truth. While I would ascribe it to a calling rather than to Fate, perhaps the writer ought to make sure he has a calling for it, with proofs of the calling equivalent to the preacher’s proofs: grace, gifts, and usefulness. An urge to write may not be enough.

I think, in a future post, I will write about the writer’s grace, gifts, and usefulness, and see where that takes me. Not tomorrow, nor maybe this week, for I have some accumulated book reviews to post.

Carlyle, Emerson, Writing

Every writer is a skater

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As time allows, I continue to read through my ancient volume of the letters between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Carlyle, a letter or two at a time in the evening, every few days. I came across this tidbit from Emerson.

Every writer is a skater, who must go partly where he would and partly, where the skates carry him; or a sailor, who can only land where sails can be safely blown. The variations to be allowed for in the surveyor’s compass are nothing like so large as those that must be allowed for in every book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson to Thomas Carlyle, from Concord 17 May 1858

These two friends had been writing for twenty-five years. Emerson had made two visits to Carlyle in England during that time, but Carlyle never ventured across the seas to America. In all his letters, Carlyle always complained about the books he was writing. Each one was an arduous task he would love to be rid of (I’ll cover that specifically in a future post); each was likely to cause his death; each resulting work was terrible. At present Carlyle was about done with his longest work, a biography of Frederick the Great, and he complained about it in every letter to Emerson (these letters now being a year apart, with Emerson the reluctant to write).

I think these words of Emerson might have partly been in answer to some of Carlyle’s complaints. The writer begins a piece, Emerson says, but the piece winds up only partly where the writer expected it to go. Just as an ice skater sets his direction, but is somewhat at the mercy of skates and ice (depending, of course, on the skill of the skater). The exact direction and stopping point is unknown. The writer chooses the subject of the book; does the outline; maybe even writes a synopsis of the chapters; but the book takes on a life of its own as the writer writes.

Or, as Emerson says, “the writer is…a sailor, who can only land where sails can be safely blown.” Now of course, a skilled sailor, with a good ship or boat, properly rigged and outfitted, can reduce the variability of the landing spot. I remember my brief sailing days, and the frustration at trying to get my 10 foot trimaran to do what I wanted it to do on Point Jude Pond. A skilled sailor learns how to use the variable direction and strength of the wind to his best advantage, yet can never quite tell exactly what spot of water he will be on at every given time, nor exactly where he will land.

So with the writer. The Olympian skater has much less variability in where the skates take him than do I when I get on the ice–which I haven’t in at least twenty-eight years. The writer must acquire skills and experience to allow the things he writes to be more under his control. As the vessel carrying the sailor must be properly built and maintained, the writer does not get where he wants to be except with similar preparation and outfitting. Still, just as the best skaters sometimes end up not exactly where they thought they would be, as the best sailors still have variable conditions to account for, so the writer’s work is never quite as imagined from the start.

It’s something for me to think about as I progress on this journey.

Next blog post: Carlyle’s reply.

Bible study, Writing

Message of the Un-Said: Inner Thoughts

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I alluded to this topic in my last post. In the story being considered, no where are we given any inner thoughts of the characters. Inner thoughts are common in modern literature, and are a frequent topic at critique groups: how many inner thoughts to give; how to format them; how long to make them; how many point of view characters to give the inner thoughts for. Get in the characters’ heads, we are told by writing instructors.

The writer of 2nd Kings didn’t do that. He merely gives us the characters’ action and words. They did this. They said that. They responded thusly. We don’t know the motivation of the Shunammite woman as she first asks Elisha for dinner, then asks her husband to build a room for him. We never see her say This is a man of God; we must be kind to him; what can I do? We never see her husband say Why is this woman always wanting to spend my money? Well, he is a man of God. As I mentioned last post, we don’t know if he thought She can’t possibly get back from Mount Carmel before dark. What’s going on between this “man of God” and my wife? Instead, the writing draws us in. It insists we dig deeper, try to figure out what the characters are thinking based on he condensed telling of their actions and words.

That wouldn’t work today with a modern readership. Can you see someone with a Tom Clancy novel saying, “Now what is Jack Ryan thinking at this moment?” No, now readers want the full story–shown, not told, with limited points of view. Paper and ink are no loner objects of concern; attention span is. Still, perhaps the writer of 2nd Kings has given me something to think about, something to try to work a little bit into my writing.

writer's platform, Writing

Change of Plans

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It always happens. Despite the best intentions of coming back to my topic in a day or two, I was unable to. With my wife gone I had some extra things to do around the house. Also, I put in some extra hours at the office relocating my work station. I was not under a deadline to do so, but I thought, once they assigned me the different space (and good space it is) I’d better make the move ASAP. Then, I was expecting to be home all last week, and gone today through Wednesday, helping our daughter, son-in-law, and grand baby move from Kansas City to Oklahoma City, but it turned out they needed me more last week, so I changed plans and drove north on Thursday. Thus, I blogged not.

Tonight, I’m also working on a change of plans in my writing. I see myself mostly a novelist. I have no platform–best defined as a ready-made audience to whom I can directly market any non-fiction ideas I have, so fiction seems right for me. Plus, the fiction ideas came to me first, and continue to come more frequently than do non-fiction. However, as hard as it is to break into fiction (non-fiction outsells fiction 8:1, or maybe 10:1), non-fiction seems an easier sell. But again, not having an established audience is a hindrance to breaking in there. So, I have been casting about, trying to figure out what to write, and it hit me: Bible studies, and small group study guides.

For sure, I lack credentials in this area, other than the experience teaching adult Sunday School. I’m currently teaching a study I planned and wrote, titled “The Dynamic Duo: Lessons From The Lives Of Elijah And Elisha.” That seemed to be something I could expand from my two page weekly handout into a full length Bible study. Then, a study we did previous to this was of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I was substitute teacher for that, and taught maybe 25 percent of it. We were hindered by lack of a good study guide. I found one I purchased through Amazon.com, but it was written for a high school level literature class, not for an adult Sunday School class or small group. So I thought “I should write the study guide we didn’t have for class.” I wrote four sample chapters, the beginning of a proposal for both studies, and went off to the Blue Ridge conference.

The good news is: an editor for a very good publishing house for this sort of material is interested in both! He asked me to get proposals to him by about June 13th. So, this week all fiction is shoved aside for the two proposals. I’m finding the writing difficult, and am having trouble concentrating. It is so different than writing the actual material. I plug away, get a little bit done, then find myself pulled away to mindless things. Hopefully taking time to do this blog post will move me back on track.

miscellaneous, Writing

It’s been a so-so week

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Back at work; hard to concentrate; too much self-starter stuff and not enough firm deadline stuff. Somehow I’ve got to do better on the self-starter stuff. Discipline, discipline is the key.

At home, I have just barely finished my Life Group lesson for teaching tomorrow. I’m printing multiple copies of it right now. I was two weeks ahead, until I had to begin getting ready for Ridgecrest. Last night and today I spent a fair amount of cleaning gutters–not of leaves, but of accumulated dirt, pollen, and grit from the shingles. The house is 20 years old, and I doubt they have ever been cleaned. The gutter guards keep the leaves out, and taking the gutter guards off and re-installing them is a pain. In one gutter on the back, above the deck, about half the gutters (or 2 inches) was full of this stuff. I spent so much time on the ladder that my legs were quivering. A thunderstorm hit this morning before I was done with the back one, and, since I worked “upstream to downstream”, it now has a small puddle.

I have found a new writing critique group. They meet on Thursdays, twice a month, including this week. I did not attend due to the busyness of life, but I’m hoping I can become a regular at this and somewhat find an answer to a question that’s been bugging me: Is my writing good enough?

I was able to write this Life Group lesson only with great difficulty. I’m not sure why, but I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t find the words to express what I wanted to. Part of the reason is I’m trying to help the class find things in the Bible based on what is not said, rather than on what is said; or to whom the words are spoken, instead of who else they might have been spoken to. I found that difficult to write. I may blog on that tomorrow.

I still have much follow-up to do from the Ridgecrest conference: e-mails and proposals and sample chapters and summary paragraphs. My schedule right now looks like I should be able to attack some of that in the week ahead.

Well, this was a dull post. Just a report on the week following the big conference in the life of one wannabe writer.

Writing

Culture Gap

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Am I the only one in America who does not watch American Idol? Who doesn’t talk about it at coffee pot or water cooler? Who doesn’t care whether this David or that David won? Okay, obviously I’ve heard enough to know that it was David vs. David in the final, one young, one younger. And a bunch of us were sitting in the lobby that evening during the writers conference when people began receiving text messages saying which one had won. Last night and today I’ve been catching up on the week missed on the blogs I read regularly, and almost every one of them had something about that show. Most had several somethings. Christian and secular, literary and political, all were the same.

At the writers conference, Monday night was faculty talent show, and they did a sketch “Ridgecrest Idol”, where the faculty played the part of famous writers through the ages, reading the first page of some famous work. Three others of the faculty formed the panel, acting out the part of the three judges. I’ve seen enough sound bites from the show to know what was going on. I couldn’t have cared less, and probably should have left the show.

Why don’t I care? Not my type of music in general. Not much enamored by pop culture. Not much swayed by hero worship. My life is not changed by who wins the competition, or by which judge is meanest to which contestant. I guess I have a choice to make: get with the culture, or remain out of touch, further and further out seemingly on another planet. It’s bad enough I get pressured to watch Gray’s Anatomy, and Lost, and now Battlestar Gallactica, when I could care less about any of them.

I conclude that I am cut off from the current culture, adrift in a world gone mad over singers and stage performers. What hope is there for writers?

Writing

Ridgecrest Diary, 22 May 2008

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[Lost the entire post; trying for a second time. I guess I’ll do the short version.]

I intended to post every day of the writers conference; however, our Internet service was slow when available and often wasn’t available.

The conference ended today with our last class, a closing assembly, and lunch. Ridgecrest is practically a ghost town right now. Perhaps it was just as well I wasn’t able to get on-line. On Monday the usual writers conference letdown got to me, when once again I was reminded of the extreme difficulty of breaking in as a published writer. I don’t know why I should think that breaking into this new field should be easy. I’d be upset if it were suddenly easy to break into engineering with minimal effort. Still, I had to work through those down feelings, which I did over the next couple of the days.

A few conference highlights:

– the class on novel plotting with Ron and Janet Benrey, husband and wife novelists.
– several other classes that proved most worthwhile.
– my meeting with an editor who asked for proposals on my two Bible/small group study guides.
– my meeting with another editor who asked for a proposal on my Bible study.
– my meeting with an agent who asked for a proposal on my baseball novel and for summaries of the series of “cozy” mysteries I’m planning as my next project.
– my meeting with another agent who has had my Biblical-era novel manuscript since November, and gave me hope for it.
– unplanned meetings at the coffee shop with other writers.
– late evenings in the lobby with faculty and other writers, discussing writerly things.
– meals, lines, pre-class sessions, and walking between buildings with other writers, with chances to discuss what we all are writing.

Lynda and I decided to spend tonight here. We’ll take a couple to the airport in the morning, then do the tourist thing in Asheville for a couple of hours, then head west. It’s going to be a couple of busy weeks.

Writing

Ridgecrest Diary: Monday, May 19, 2008

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We arrived here yesterday about 1:30 PM local time, after a hard drive Saturday (757 miles) and a short, 2-hour hop yesterday. So we were able to check in early, and I was able to reconnoiter the camp for a hour or so. Met two fellow un-published writers during my wanderings.

At supper, one of the editors I was most interested in meeting came to sit at my table, and I was able to talk to him about my projects. I didn’t do a real pitch, since both of our wives were with us and it was somewhat casual. The evening session was good, with a very good keynote speech by Alton Gansky.

After that, I went to the coffee shop and talked with a couple of ladies who were at their first writers conference. I was able to help them understand some of the conference organization, and made a few suggestions on which sessions they could go to and which faculty to try to meet. Then I went back to our building and hung out in the lobby with a group of guys. Four of them were faculty, all published authors (mainly novels, but some non-fiction). Did that for almost two hours, and learned much from those four experts in my avocation.

Time to head to breakfast. Hopefully today will yield much more results.

Writing

We’ll try this one more time

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Tomorrow morning Lynda and I will head east, to Ridgecrest, North Carolina, to attend the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. This will be my fifth writers conference in my eight years of serious writing. Classes to attend; agents and editors to meet with to pitch writing projects; meals with others in the industry; like-minded people to network with; a mountain setting; forgetting about work for a week. I’ll be trying to gain publication for two different Bible study books I’m working on, as well as for my two novels and my poetry book.

The odds of publication are still minuscule, but higher with this face to face time than simply by the mail. We’ll see what happens. I can’t keep plunking down beaucoup bucks year after year for these things, so this may be the last one for a while.

Wish me luck.