Creative writing – WordServe Water Cooler

May 9, 2017May 1, 2017

Dreaming and the Creative Writing Process

The clock by my bed read 3:30 a.m. when I jerked awake. I fought to untangle my legs from the sheets while trying to clear the fog from my brain. Why did I wake up? I wondered. I shuffled into the kitchen to make a cup of hot tea and as I inhaled the fragrant steam, a story formed in my mind.

Grabbing a pen and notebook, I settled into my favorite comfy chair and watched the story appear on the paper. My hand was doing the writing, but the words flowed from an inner place in my mind that I didn’t realize was even there.

Most writers have experienced something similar. I wanted to know how the process works, so I did a bit of research. I discovered that dreaming is a known quantity in the creative writing process.

In her book, Writers Dreaming: Twenty-six Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process, Naomi Epel says many “famous authors . . . all discuss the nature and significance that dreams play in their writing.” Dreaming and writing are not only a natural combination, but an effective one as well.

Many writers try to get into a semi-dream state in order to create. Carol Gift Page described this process in a class she taught at writer’s conferences.

Donald M. Murray, in his book, Write to Learn, asserts that writers don’t know what they know until they write it. He says the best way to write is to blurt an idea out onto the page no matter how tangled up or mangled it may appear. Then he instructs writers to begin to shape it into something beautiful using the tools of the craft.

My ideas seem to lurk in my subconscious mind waiting for the right moment to jump into my conscious stream of thought. Most often this happens while I am sitting in front of a computer, but sometimes it happens in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning.

Jesus Christ is the Creator creating through me. He creates the stories and I obey by writing them down. In Psalm 45:1 God says, “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” (NKJV) The dream state is when He is able to by-pass myself and my own thoughts to place His ideas into my imagination.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on Thee.” (RSV) When we allow Jesus Christ to harness our imaginations, we’ll have the ideas He gives us. Then, when we use our minds to focus on the details, the whole project is brought into subjection to Him and Jesus is glorified, which is the real reason for writing.

The next time I wake up with a story pushing for release, I’ll know where it came from. And I’ll rejoice that I am being used for the Father’s plan. God gives the inspiration, and he expects me to do the work of crafting it into good writing. Then he will work out his plan for the piece. I can trust him.

October 17, 2014October 11, 2014

Screenwriting for Fun and Energy

As this posts, I’m stretching my writing muscles. Doing something I’ve never attempted before. Writing a screenplay for a contest.

It’s not something I’d ever put thought into. After all, I’m a non-fiction author, although my work is story-rich. But I do have these fascinating plot thoughts that simply won’t go away. So what’s a writer to do with them?

According to a Hollywood screenwriter I met at a recent conference, “Enter a contest and have fun.”

And the timing is right. I just finished writing a book I’m very passionate about called Getting Through What You Can’t Get Over, releasing through Barbour Publishing in April, 2015. I’m totally jazzed about Getting Through, but I’m also drained. It takes a lot to wade into soul-deep true stories of people who’ve experienced unwanted tragedy — many of them my own.

And as I prepare to work on my next non-fiction project, another soul-wrenching work speaking life into hurting people, I need a mental boost. So I’m challenging myself in an out-of-the-box way. I’m screenwriting for seven days in the 168 Film Project, Write of Passage contest.

But right before I started, something very interesting happened. And I wondered if God had hinted at all of this in the past, although I’d forgotten.

It was October, 2010, and I was in South Carolina on the cusp of discovering a life-changing secret about my identity. Though DNA tests wouldn’t confirm it for several days, I would soon learn my dad isn’t my biological father. At forty-six, the news blindsided me from left field.

On this particular day, I was getting ready to visit my dad (the only father I’d ever known), and as I neared his house, I thought my heart might explode from its pounding. I needed to catch my breath before I faced my fears.

It was Sunday evening, and I pulled into a plaza parking lot only two blocks from my dad’s house. The place was deserted, except for one vehicle.

Writing Screenplays — Stretching a Different Set of Muscles Can Energize

I glanced up and the license plate immediately caught my eye. I have no good explanation as to why, but I took a picture. I thought the personalized plate was curious, and remember wondering if God was telling me something. But at the time, I hadn’t even signed with my literary agent, much less sold a book.

Besides, I had bigger things on my mind, so I saved the digital photo in a file, and promptly forgot about it. Until recently.

A few weeks ago, I ran across the picture while looking for something else. Then I realized I was getting ready to enter my first screenwriting contest. And I wondered….

Does it mean anything? Probably not. Could God have hinted to me all those years ago? Possibly so. Is it fun to consider? Absolutely yes.

Whether anything comes from screenwriting or not, this is what I’ve realized. In order to infuse your writing with fresh wind, sometimes you need to do something totally off the wall, very different from what you’ve gotten used to. For a short time.

So I’m not working on a screenplay because I hope to invent the next Hollywood blockbuster, I’m screenwriting for fun and energy. That way, when this contest is over, I’ll have new fodder to make my next book even better than the ones before. And maybe that’s what God had in mind all along.

How do you stimulate your writing in creative new ways?

Anita Fresh Faith

June 24, 2013June 23, 2013

What Does Your Hero Yearn For?

I’m not talking about story goals here. This is something deeper, more at the core of his being. James Scott Bell writes about this in his book Conflict & Suspense.

The hero may not even realize it’s present. It’s something he doesn’t have but yearns for. Bell defines yearning as a desire for something without which the person feels incomplete. And he may not even be aware the yearning is there until a story event triggers a response based more on the yearning than on the event itself. This could lead to behavior, an overreaction or under reaction, that makes little sense to the other characters and to the hero himself.

This yearning is in your hero’s history, perhaps something from his childhood. Whatever it is, it predates the story. When he comes into the story, he’s already carrying trouble in the form of this unfulfilled yearning. This gives you all kinds of possibilities for unpredictable actions by the hero as the unspoken yearning influences his behavior and relationships with others.

For example, say your hero yearns for a strong father figure because his father left the family when the hero was a boy. In your novel, he might have a hard time seeing the antagonist as the villain because he develops a strong emotional attachment to the man early on. As the villain is slowly revealed, the hero rebels against what he sees and may even attempt to shield the bad guy, defend him, rationalize his behavior. Or he may feel betrayed which can send him down another path in the story

Next time you feel stuck with your hero, dig deeper into his history. See what unexpressed yearning he’s hiding from himself—and from you.Now the tension and potential for a tragic outcome is heightened as the hero’s yearning, and resulting idolization, of the villain conflicts with the reality of who and what the villain really is.

April 15, 2013August 11, 2013

“Have I Arrived?” Defining Your Expectations as a Writer

I recently went to a fabulous wedding. It was held at a vineyard in California wine country and everyone was dressed to the nines. I was able to interact with many acquaintances I rarely see.

“You’ve published a book!” A friend’s mother cried, hugging me with enthusiasm.

“Self-published,” I felt obligated to mention.

“Yes, but you always wanted to be a writer, and now your dream has come true! You have arrived!”

As she ran off to be photographed next to the bride, I let her gracious words marinate in my head for a while. Have I arrived? Not by my system of measurement. In many instances, a writing career is something that can take a lifetime to establish. So, how do authors know when they have ‘arrived?’

On the outset of any undertaking, it is important to determine what success looks like. Writers can only benefit from defining their own expectations of success. Does success mean self-publishing a book on Amazon for friends and family to enjoy? Does it mean filling a need or service in the community? Does it mean a lucrative career and multiple bestsellers that are optioned for film?

If you aspire to have your work read by as many people as possible, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a popular writer. However, if you only recognize success as a big time book deal and an over-sized cardboard novelty check, you may never reach your ultimate goal. The writing journey is a long one, with many milestones on the path to success. Reaching a milestone goal might be cause for celebration. How about celebrating the first time a stranger approaches you and asks about your writing? Why not celebrate your first book review that goes online? Maybe one of your milestone goals is selling three hundred books and you celebrate by going out for sushi. There are people who have sold three million books and it doesn’t feel like enough to them. That’s the difference between people who walk the earth happy and those who are vaguely dissatisfied and unfulfilled. They never established the finish line, so all they can see is what they have yet to accomplish, not what they have already accomplished.

If your goal is to be the best writer in America, that’s not possible to quantify, and trying to measure your success will only frustrate you. Whatever your endgame, the point is to determine the location of the finish line and create goals and expectations for building your writing career. It’s important to be honest with yourself about where you want to end up. If you can clearly define and articulate where you want to go, you have a much better chance of getting the help you need to reach your destination.

Emily Bronte only wrote one book in her life, but it was Wuthering Heights. She did not live to see the widespread acclaim for her book, but we can all agree that she was an exceptionally successful writer. Many writers wait for their audience to decide if they have arrived. They are waiting for a stamp of approval from the world, a bestseller list placement, their parents, friends, or maybe their high school creative writing teacher. At the end of the day, though, only the writers themselves can determine if their goals have been met and they have finally arrived.

Do you think that success as a writer is about the destination or the journey?