Why Failure Is an Option

Recently, I took a ceramics class in order to fulfill one of my requirements for my AAOT degree. The first couple of weeks went great. I made a teapot that looked like a very lopsided dragon, and learned a lot of new techniques. What was more than that - I finally discovered what it was like to work with real clay, which was great for me- because now I understand exactly what the Bible meant by the clay talking to the potter, and asking "why did you make me like this?"- and why God calls himself a potter.

But that's not the lesson I want to impart to you guys today. The lesson I want to talk about is... well, something that we Americans cringe at. The F word.
     
                       Failure

Nope. Nobody likes that little word. We're all taught that failure is a bad thing. Quitting is prohibited. And only losers do both. Well- let me tell you, in regards to Ceramics - I'm a really big loser. You see, apparently I'm just not big enough to center clay on a pottery wheel. If you don't have your clay centered -you can't make anything.

Now, usually I don't let my size get the best of me. Sure, at 4'10'' and 83lbs I'm pretty tiny. But I don't let that control my life. I reach for the stepladder, climb all over to get things I can't reach, and shop in the kid's section for converse [it's $40 cheaper, why not?]. But there are two things I've discovered that are impossible to have when you're my size.

One is a good pair of non-tailored jeans.

The other is hand-thrown cups you made yourself.

Now, neither of these are the end of the world- but they are, in a sense, little failures because I've tried to find jeans, and I've tried over and over again to make pretty cups. But I can't. I'm too small.

And it's just a fact of life. There will be things I can't do that I fail at when I try. High-level math is another example. For some reason... numbers and my brain just don't mix. Don't ask me about Algebra, I don't know squat.

But I think we need to stop looking at what we can't do as a bad thing. Failure is an option-
                 Don't be afraid to fail.

You see, if I hadn't spent all that time in a pottery class I was doomed to fail- I might never have decided that I actually really enjoyed just sculpting clay and I would never have learned to be patient with it. And if I hadn't spent all that time trying to find a good pair of jeans then I wouldn't have figured out that you can, actually, get them tailored for free at JC Penny.

You don't learn anything from success when it's your success. But you do learn from failure. People learn from failure every day.

The first rough draft of a novel is always going to be just one big epic fail. There's no way around that. But we don't look at it that way, do we? No! It's a rough draft. There's a reason why I call them 'dump drafts'. But dump drafts teach us to power through, they teach us that characters evolve, that plotlines do too- and that beautiful things happen out of really big messes. Seventh Sparrow, right now, is one big sloppy mess. But it's turning into something utterly fabulous. And the characters grow so much through my epic fails as I try and sort through my rough draft.

So we, too, might even go so far as to label our entire being as one big epic fail. Maybe we've never dated, maybe we don't think we're good enough for whatever we've been called to do. Maybe we're not as good a writer as we'd like to be. Or maybe our life isn't working out the way we think it's supposed to- or the way everyone else tells us it's supposed to. Maybe we're struggling with depression or a really busy life, or any amount of stress. Maybe we completely blew that last job interview- or that art piece didn't turn out right- or we said something really, really, really dumb.

Maybe we think we're an epic fail.

But guess what? That's ok.

People are wonderful in the fact that they have an entire lifetime to live, to grow, and evolve. You might be a terrible rough draft, a lump of clay, or a misfit pair of jeans now - but think of what beautiful sculpture, or riveting novel, or gorgeous creation you're going to be later.

Failure takes a lot more work than success. Success does not demand that you master your emotions, work hard and learn from it. Failure does.

As C.S. Lewis said- "Experience is a hard teacher - but you learn. My god, do you learn."

So the next time you have an epic fail just breathe.

It's going to be okay.

Podcast: Episode 1 - An Awkward Introduction, and Character Journals

I decided that it would be interesting to try to do a bit of a podcast, just to let you all get to know me a bit better. So here is the first episode. The topic of the day is, basically, telling you what this podcasting series is about, and also one of my favorite things, character journals. Don't know what that is? Listen to my rambling and find out! 

An Introduction, and Character Journals

Here's an example of one that I did with my character, Julia, which was actually turned into a scene in my novel: Beneath the Script. One of the things that it helped me with, developing Julia's voice - was her constant use of "Bless" in place of something else (i.e. "Gosh", "God", "Dammit", etc). I never would have discovered that without the character journal, and I'm glad I did.  

*****

September 8th, 2012

Julia Kingston

Character Journal

Prompt: Most embarrassing moment? 

Oh, bless - you're not going to make me answer that one, are you? I mean, it's an embarrassing moment. Things like that are better left unsaid. Like the time I accidentally knocked my best friend's favorite vase out of a- excuse me - her third story window. No, I understand that it's an important question, I just don't want to answer it. However, I would be happy to answer another question, at another time. So if you don't have any breakable, special pottery and you don't live on the third story, I'd be happy to chat about another subject. 

Well - I suppose I could throw you a bone - I guess. I mean, one of my embarrassing moments included quite a lot of tequila at 3 AM in some shady club I honestly don't remember very much about. It also involved my costar - but I'm telling you, she snogged me first! And don't get any ideas, there's been enough fanfiction written already! Speaking of fanfiction - God, have you heard that the fans actually put Max and I together? I mean, Max! He's lovely - and I'd be lying if I  said that I don't find the prospect of that quite... appealing... but he's twelve years younger than me, and, quite honestly, I don't know what they're thinking. He's got a girlfriend, for goodness sake - and I- well- I'm me. I'm forty-one and divorced twice, and let's be quite honest here... I have nothing to offer him. I'm not getting any younger, or shall we say, I could stand to lose a few pounds and be very happy about it. My bum's getting closer to the ground every year and honestly, now, there's a reason I didn't get picked for that part in Armandy. What a bloody fool I was, trying out! Really, I shouldn't have been so devastated. I was just flattering myself. They had younger girls, younger, prettier, thinner girls that were much better for the part than I was. And, bless, the way I flirted with the main actor on that set... I didn't realize, stupid me, how uncomfortable I made him. Everyone knew what an idiot I was except for me. You know, there were the other auditioners I overheard talking and... yes, their comments hurt quite a lot, actually. But I suppose it was good for me, in a sense. They were right. Same as Taurus. It hurts to say that... but yes, Taurus was absolutely right that I was ruined. It was my fault, too. And I suppose-
Oh, but look at me. You didn't ask for all of that. Here I am, silly me, rambling on about things that you probably don't care about. Bless, I should just put down this pen before I dig myself into a deeper hole. Sorry about that.

- Julia

The Patriot Film Review

Film: The Patriot

Prominent Stars: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger

Basic Setting: Revolutionary War

Genre: Historical Fiction/Action/Drama

Plot Summary: A hero of the fierce french and Indian conflict, Martin had renounced fighting forever to raise his family in peace. But when the British arrive at his South Carolina home and endanger what he holds most dear, Martin takes up arms alongside his idealistic patriot son, Gabriel, and leads a brave revel Militia into battle against a relentless and overwhelming English army. In the process, he discovers the only way to protect his family is to fight for a young nation’s freedom (taken from the back cover of the case).

###

Patriot’s a film I’ll not likely forget. It’s not often a movie makes me cry more than once, and the last time I threw a pen at my screen, I was watching Bouddica. This time, with Patriot, it was my favorite pen, and I still can’t find it. It’s probably somewhere behind my TV. Oh well.

The sad loss of my pen all began this morning, July 5, when I decided that I should watch a patriotic movie. It’s July after all, and yesterday was taken up by fireworks and the ridiculously long (but fantastic and old) movie Gettysburg. Today, I figured I was going to watch a movie that I’d never seen. I usually avoid violent, intense films. I’d heard stories of people’s head getting knocked off by cannonballs and I wasn’t sure whether to look forward to the movie or to be really apprehensive about it. I must admit that I wasn’t entirely prepared for the sudden death of a young boy, a hero who didn’t stop hacking a soldier to bits long after he was already dead, and other such moments. I did have to pause the film to remember to breathe every once in a while. That said, I’m left still marveling at the masterpiece made through subtlety, memorable moments, foreshadowing, and symbolism.
Subtlety is not my strong suit as a writer. I’m still learning, with the help of my friends. So I was really impressed by the way the writers and director of the movie showed what had happened to Ben’s wife through only a few, brief glimpses of a gravestone, and some well-placed and well-written dialogue. 

The film had many memorable quotes and moments. For me, there were four quotes that really stood out. The first is when Ben addresses the town (state?) council: “An elected legislature can trample rights as well as a King can.” Sometimes I wish people here in America would remember that. The two others apply directly to myself and my fellow Christians, as I believe that we really aren’t as involved with politics or other such little “wars” as we should be. We talk about what needs to be done, but “Will [we] now, when needed most, stop at words?”, because as the good Reverend said: “A Shepherd must tend his flock and at times fight off the wolves.” I really don’t want to see us sitting there, in the rubble of our nation, saying: “I have done nothing, and for that I am ashamed.”

The final piece of the movie which impressed me the most was the use of foreshadowing and the symbol of the Cherokee Hatchett. In the first scene of the movie, we see Ben’s temper in how he treats the rocking chair that broke. But beyond that - most have talked of the tin soldiers as being the most powerful symbol of the movie. They’re certainly the most obvious. However, I find the Cherokee Hatchet to be the most moving and meaningful symbol. It represents Ben’s past anger and revenge on the French. When Thomas pulls it out of the chest, it foreshadows how Thomas’ death with yet again put the hatchet in Ben’s hands against those who have committed crimes against the people he loves. However, what I found to be the most compelling moment of the movie (the moment I threw my pen for), was the moment when we all thought Ben was going to lose. The bullet casted from his son’s toy soldiers (symbolising retribution for Thomas’ death) fails to kill Tavington. And then the hatchet, the symbol of Ben’s strength, his anger, his revenge, is knocked out of his hand. In the end, it’s not the hatchet - revenge, that kills the villain, but the bayonet - the American cause. The hatchet: Ben’s past, his anger, his revenge, is never returned. It’s left there on the battlefield. He returns home without it to build a new world - just as his son, Gabriel, predicted.

I must say, I loved the movie. Even if it ripped my heart out scene and scene again, even if it made me lose my favorite pen, even with all the blood and the gore and the disturbing violence. It was masterfully created. It’s not one I would recommend to anyone who doesn't have a stomach for blood or violence, but if you can handle that - I think it’s a story worth hearing. It reminds us of the cost at which America was founded, the price that was paid. Beyond that, it reminds us that we can’t sit by and do nothing, we can’t keep quiet on our ‘principles’ and expect that our enemy will do the same. When we face an enemy who doesn’t play by our rules, the time for peace and diplomacy is over. The time to fight for the freedom of others is at hand.

###

The Patriot. Dir. Roland Emmerich. Perf. Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. Centropolis Entertainment, 2000. DVD.

How to Write a Book - Part II

Meeting Your Characters

I'm schizophrenic.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Fooled you. I'm not schizophrenic, but I don't create characters, I meet them and get to know them. So sometimes I may look eerily like I've got voices in my head when I'm sitting at my keyboard, staring at the screen, and talking to an empty room. Who am I talking to? 

My characters, of course.

Characters are one of the core aspects of a well-written novel. If they're flat and uninteresting, your novel will be too. If they're goofy and childish, the tone of your novel will be much more lighthearted than if everyone was being serious and talking about how they're all going to die. Characters are important, neglect them and your book will suffer. This is why I wanted to talk about them early on. 

There are a few things you have to remember about each and every charrie, no matter how minor.

1. Characters are people too

2. There is no perfect character

3. They're all annoying little bastards sent from the devil to torment your muse. They may not always do what you want them to.

Let's start with number one: 

Characters are People Too

Let's talk about how incredible that statement is. Your character - your brainchild, this insane, wonderful creation that has sprung from your demented mind is a person. Essentially, you do not always command every aspect about them. And more importantly, they will surprise you.

Respect your character, and they will respect you.

I don't care if your character is a four year old. I don't care if your character is a slimy, corrupt captain bent on ogling every woman he sees. What I mean by respect is this: you treat them as a person, a rounded, full person, who carries within them both the potential for great good, and great evil. I'm not saying that people aren't inherently evil, they are. But they weren't made that way. Therefore, they have both aspects inside of them - and so your characters, if you want realistic, must be as well. Your hero will have flaws and insecurities (not necessarily hubris), perhaps Tom likes to shoot off his mouth and lacks good judgement, perhaps Amelia is insecure about her looks and can't cook to save her life. The same goes for your villain. Even your villain will have that sweater he loves, that grandmother he dotes on, or a penchant for a certain color or way of dress.

They will have this whether you give them it or not. Also, they will have this whether you even know they do or not. 

Quirks will emerge as the story goes on. Don't worry about fleshing out your characters in intimate, psychological detail. Don't worry if he has a whatsit-complex or try to write down every intimate detail of the articles of clothing he has in his closet or what the middle name of his best friend's sister's boyfriend is. All will be revealed in due time. 

Start with the basics, the backstory, and at least one thing that makes your character unique. Is it a boy or a girl? Are they attractive, or not so? What do they do for a living? Who are their parents and how do they relate to them? How old are they? Who are their friends and lovers? Now, give them at least one good memory and one bad memory. Have they had their heart broken? Has somebody they loved died? Are they mortified about the fifth grade school play where they played the Happy Tulip or Bunny Number One? For unique traits, they could be physical, psychological, or habitual. Do they have ridiculously good-looking hair? What are they afraid of? Do they have that one mug that they always must use to drink their favorite beverage? 

Again, don't worry about the details too much. I know, at least for myself, the more I play around the character, the more they begin to just write themselves. This brings me to point number two.

There Are No Perfect Characters

You cannot expect to get your character right the first time around. I can't stress this enough. Your character will morph and become more well-known with you as your book wears on, so for right now, what's important is for you to have enough information to get inside their head and spit some dialogue out on a page. I had to learn this the hard way with my character, Ultana. She began as merely a mentor, a fairly flat character that I didn't know very much about and who had been ridiculously difficult to find a name for. In the beginning she was a bit of a feminist, a bit of a warrior, a bit of a crochety, angry wife who couldn't really care less. 

Well, I got 1/3 right.

She was an angry wife.

But the more I wrote with her and discovered her husband's personality, the more I understood why she was so angry in her first scene. How would you respond if you were the wife of an Irish Chieftain who you hadn't wanted to marry in the first place, who didn't love you, who downright smacked you around, and was constantly having affairs with other woman and then getting angry at you when you exchange looks with another man because heaven forbid you do the same? 

Geez.

And suddenly Ultana bloomed into this strong-willed, wise woman with a penchant for crossbows who loved her daughter fiercely and was determined to stay faithful to her unfaithful husband and then, once I'd written oh, I don't know, half the book, I realized that she'd completely stolen center stage without even trying because she was just that admirable.

Her husband, O'Neill, was meant to be a 'meh' character that mildly annoyed you, not one that put you into a fit of rage because he was such a selfish, pig-headed prick to everyone around him. Suddenly, he had stolen center stage as well - as the main antagonist.

How's that for a turnabout? 

These were characters that I had no intention of developing that literally developed themselves. So I'm telling you, don't worry, even if your characters aren't perfect now, they will turn into your babies who will steal your heart and center stage  be absolutely fine in the end. 

Characters May Not Obey You

So don't be a control freak. We writers are not gods, not even in our own little worlds. Characters will fall in love without asking. Characters who were meant to fall in love may develop a brother-sister relationship that was not supposed to be there. Villains may suddenly become relatable and heroes may suddenly become incorrigible. 

Now, I'm not saying to go with the flow and let all your characters to all the work of creating a story, you'd have a mess then. What I am saying is don't constrict your story to the point where your characters are not acting like themselves, because that's no fun for anyone. If you start to hate your hero, it's up to you to be clever and throw some life-changing experiences his way so that you still get your happy ending that you wanted (or you can always kill him off and turn it into a tragedy, but that's not recommended because if he's that hate-able, nobody will care). If your villain becomes too like-able because of how he treats his grandmother - kill granny, then see how he reacts. Yeah, sure, you're sadistic and cruel, but it's for a good cause.

So what I'm basically saying is this: you both control the plot, you and your characters. It's a joint effort, you see. Characters will do what they want, but you have the last say because once you know them inside and out like you would your best friend, you can basically manipulate them so that the ending turns out the way you wanted it to.

Wow. Maybe I'm not schizophrenic... but I might be slightly psychotic.

The point of all of that being, don't be afraid to bend a little bit, but make sure you assert who's really in charge. Having characters is like raising kids (because I would totally know what that's like), you have to give them some leeway to make their own decisions and be their own person, because if you constrict them too much... well, you're going to end up with a really bad novel.

No pressure.

So seriously, get writing. What's your character like? Is he the antagonist or the protagonist? Climb inside their head and write some backstory, or throw them into a situation to see how they react. Relax, let go, it's okay to play around.

Writing a novel is basically just glorified make-believe anyway. 

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.” - Joss Whedon

Talent or Teaching?

 Introduction

There has long been a debate within the writer’s community about the subject of teaching Creative Writing. On one side, we have the still, small, yet proud voice of inner Talent, standing on his pedestal against the harsh winds of correction. On the other side, we have the bold, demanding Instruction. He leans on his withered cane and demands to be heeded and obeyed. The conflict? Can creative writing be taught? Prideful Talent screams that it can’t. Wizened Instruction replies that it can and should be. I believe that there are some things that even Talent, boastful though he is, must learn from his wise elder. What does Instruction possibly have to offer Talent? Well, think about formatting, a beautifully crafted plot and living, breathing characters. What about mere skill with a pen, can that be conjured from some will within? You may say it can. I say it can’t. These are things that talent may paint a mere shadow of, but that careful guidance can hone into brilliance and beauty, igniting our imaginations into living color. Perhaps writing creatively is not the easiest thing to teach in the classroom, but I believe that it is a skill that’s learned, not a whim that is governed by talent alone. In essence, Creative Writing, one way or another, is always taught.

Let me explain to you what I mean by the word ‘taught’. By ‘taught’ I don’t necessarily mean a professor at the head of a classroom pointing out grammatical errors, symbolism, and plot structure. I do, however, mean that a writer does not simply pull out good writing from the depths of some magical pool of talent. Good creative writing inherently involves time and effort which lead to a sort of learning process. Creative writing is taught. Certain aspects of it are taught differently. Some, more solid aspects are taught by a professor or from a book. With other, more abstract parts, it’s taught mostly by experience.

Consider for a moment formatting. Now, formatting, punctuation, and grammar, are necessary, basic, and fundamental aspects of good writing, and they are tools in the creative writer’s arsenel. To some it may seem a mere trifle. But formatting is just as important as the protagonist, and the creative writer must pay attention to it. Writers write to be read. At least, most of the time they do. And if they write to be read, then they write to communicate something. If they are to communicate something, they must be able to be understood, and formatting and punctuation is one of the ways by which we are understood by our audience. It is all well and good to write with abandon in the pre-writing stages. Those will probably never see the light of day (at least I hope not). However, in the final stages, the rules of grammar and punctuation and formatting - however tiresome - must be followed. These are some of the tools in a writer’s arsenal, and to forget them would be outrageous. Things such as the proper rules of your country on how to punctuate dialogue, or where commas go, and how many exclamation marks are appropriate - these are not things that come naturally. A child, no matter how much potential he has for writing, will not sit down and write a grammatically perfect story. This is something learned, whether by being well-read, or by going to classes and learning them from a teacher or professor, or by looking them up in a book.

To Elaborate Further

That is an easy enough argument, and people may argue that I haven’t touched on ‘creative’ writing, yet, but think about how it relates to writing. How can I know that Erin is angry and shouting unless I put an exclamation mark at the end of her exclamation? How can I convey that she is saying it, if not by the proper use of quotation marks? How can I know if I’ve begun a new chapter, if not by a chapter heading? How can I understand something when every other word is misspelled? While these nuts and bolts may not be thought of as inherently ‘creative’, they are every bit as important to creative writers as they are to other writers.

If you were to ask me about the more abstract parts of creative writing, such as characterization and plot structure, I would still say that these aspects are taught. What about a beautifully crafted novel? Could a writer simply come up with one, without any instruction on how to? I would argue that he can’t. Leonardo Da Vinci had a great potential to be a great painter - but no matter how hard he tried, as a child he couldn’t have painted the Mona Lisa. It’s inconceivable to us to even think that he could. He had to learn, by careful instruction, how to be a great painter. He had to learn color theory and which brushes to use and the strokes with which to use them. It amazes me that people don’t apply the same logic to writers. A novel, or any other work of creative writing for that matter, is a masterpiece the same as a painting. So, in the same fashion, an uneducated, untrained writer cannot come up with plots with the same depth and complexity as a seasoned writer. Talent, whether through practice or by direct teaching, is honed and sharpened.

Even simple, old fashioned, beautiful, coherent writing isn’t something that writers are born with. Again, to use the example of other such artists - a violinist, when they pick up the violin for the first time, do not play a beautiful sonata or a trilling reel with perfect tone and pitch. They struggle through their practices, burning their ears and the ears of those around them. Usually, they even cause those ears to bleed and their housemates will want to cut their ears off and throw them into the shredder. However, as they learn to use the bow properly, as they learn to place their fingers in the perfect places to draw out a sweet tone, as they learn to trill their notes and to add vibrato, slowly their dying cat of a song turns into a beautiful tune that delights their listeners. If a violinist must learn to play beautiful music, why do we expect a writer not to learn to write beautiful prose? A writer too must struggle through his or her work, learning from others and reading widely to expand her vocabulary and develop her voice. She must exercise her mind, making sure that her writing is coherent. She must search for new metaphors and throw out the stale ones, ever perfecting her prose until it rings in her ears. That isn’t talent - that’s years and years of hard work. Perhaps it wasn’t directly taught, but it was learned.

Looking at my own work over the years, it’s obvious that there was some kind of learning process. My characters started out being flat cliches, my plots were filled with tropes and riddled with holes. My poetry was boring and choppy. However, the point was, I loved to do it and I had a passion for it. I was inherintly good at it for my age. But as time wore on, my writing did something. It matured. Now, that didn’t happen from me just sitting there and fishing into a murky pool of talent. It happened from me doing exactly what I’m doing now - typing. Not just typing, but reading, and not just reading, but watching, and not just watching - but learning as well. And if there is learning, there is teaching of some kind. Whether it was from a professor (some of it was) or from reading books or blogs on how to write better (much of that was) or from simply imitating and hammering out my own voice and learning what worked and what didn’t (most of it), I was taught, and I learned.

     In Conclusion

You see, some may argue that you can’t teach someone to write creatively. Maybe that’s true. You can’t really teach someone to be creative. But you can take the affinity that’s already there and hone it, and that honing comes with a learning process. A learning process is the product of careful teaching, self-taught or otherwise. Therefore, yes, creative writing, just like any other art - be it painting or music or drawing, or any other craft - be it architecture, crochet, or fashion design can be, and is taught, whether we realize it or not. So, it’s not a question of if it creative writing can be taught - it’s the simple truth that creative writing comes from a talent, but good creative writing comes from years of careful, deliberate learning.

How To Write a Book - Part 1

Getting Started

         Just earlier today, one of my good friends congratulated me on the release of my new ebook that I had recently self-published. She said that she'd always wanted to self-publish, but sadly had never finished anything. I had the same problem, actually, and do you know what that problem was? Making excuses. A lot of us think it would be nice to write a book (just to be able to say that you have), a few of us have gone through with it. Most of us probably haven't. Why? Well, we keep making excuses.
         And I use the term "we" deliberately - meaning I make excuses as well.
         I'm a firm believer in the truth that it's only when we stop making excuses as to why we can't that we can get down to what I affectionately refer to as "canning" - in other words - we actually get crap done. 
          There's usually three or four excuses that I and those around me constantly make as to why we can't write:
          1: No time.
          2: I just haven't found my "muse".
          3: I need the right "setting"
          Now for the fun part - I get to tell you that each and every one of these excuses are just that: excuses.

Take Five Minutes

         The first one, my favorite to start with, is the myth that we need lots and lots of time to write something. I know that a lot of us have it in our heads that we should have hours of time set aside to be able to sit down, undisturbed, in peace and quiet, and type away in order to write a book. This is just not true. My favorite example to use is the famous author JK Rowling. When she was writing her famous Harry Potter books, she didn't have oodles and oodles of time at first. She wrote whenever she had a spare minute, often putting whole passages on napkins at a cafe. The point being - you don't need to have a huge block of time set aside, five minutes will do. 

Be Brave, Take Control

        As for the second excuse of "I just haven't found my muse" - this was one I was extremely guilty of. This also is a lie we tell ourselves. What I had to learn through the blood, sweat, and tears of trying to salvage a sagging middle that my "muse" just didn't find interesting enough to write is this: I control my muse, my muse does not control me. Sometimes you have to give your own muse a kick in the pants and just start writing. One sentence is all it takes, whether you're writing a book, an essay, a poem - anything. It doesn't even have to be a good sentence, just write something. One of my favorite quotes that I use to apply to my writing is by Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." You see, often times, all it takes is the bravery to proverbially step out the door - write that first sentence and see where it takes you. You don't need a muse to tell you when to write. Type something, anything. Whether it's complete crap or not doesn't matter - it's called a "rough draft" for a reason. I like to call my first drafts "dump drafts" - it gives me the freedom to just type and not worry about whether or not it's good enough. That can be fixed later. I've found that once I get down to typing - there's no stopping me.

Just A Pen and Paper

           Now, for the final excuse - the setting. Some people think that they need to be in a completely quiet room at a special desk, with a steaming mug of tea that overlooks a lake. Some people think they need to write in a bustling cafe, with just enough people and background music to get lost in. These are really, really nice ideas - but real life doesn't work like that. If you keep waiting for the right setting to write in, then you will never write. All you need is a laptop with Google Drive or an word processor, or an old fashioned pen and something to write on. Learn to tune out annoying sounds - buy some noise canceling headphones if need be. If you like background noise, there's a lot of good white noise tracks on Youtube. If you like music, then you just need the internet and Youtube and some headphones. It's not that hard.

          This is what beginning to write a book boils down to: don't let anyone or anything hold you back, including yourself. All you need is five minutes and one sentence and you have begun - and once you begin, there's no telling where that story may take you. Everyone has a story to tell.

        

           No excuses. Five minutes. One (possibly bad) first sentence. Start telling yours.

Find the People that Inspire You Most

Once upon a time... 
     There was an odd little girl who wanted nothing more than to be normal. She preferred the company of those thirty years her senior to that of her peers, and she never understood why. In truth, nobody did. When her friends wanted to play dolls, she wanted to take hers on adventures through Victorian slums. When her friends wanted to play dress-up, she wanted to the daughter of Robin Hood. When her friends wanted to play dollhouse - she wanted to make aliens out of legos. She built huts out of tree branches and pretended to hunt squirrels with her toy bow and arrow, then went inside for 'tea and crumpets'. She enjoyed learning new words, and reading about far-off places, and talking with adults because adults conversations were so much more interesting to her. 
              But the one thing she loved, above all else, was to tell stories.
              Hours, every day, before she could even write them down, she was telling them. Princess and Dragons, horses that could run millions of miles in a second, trips over the Swiss Alps, it didn't matter to her. Her favorite story was that of a noble princess from far away who freed the oppressed people from a tyrant king.
              These she played and told alone, because there was no one to do it with her. Her friends didn't understand the attraction. So, before long, she sank into herself, into her world of fantasy, and didn't come out until one fateful day. 

              It was the day that would change her life. A day she has never forgotten. 

              Her best friend told her other friends she was crazy. 
              The words stung. She was labeled an outcast. So, alone, she returned to her bedroom and continued to weave tales, convinced that she would never find anybody in the world who would understand. 

              "So, alone she returned to her bedroom, 

and continued to weave tales,

convinced she would never find anybody

in the world who would."

                  Then, one day, a strange thing happened. A new little girl, one she had never met before came to play. In the midst of the piles of her little plastic dolls, acting out the story of the noble princess and the tyrant king, this little girl sat with her and began to play along the same story line. 

That little girl was me... 
                 and the one who played my game with me is now my best friend in the whole, wide Universe. She is also a writer, and she inspires me to be who I am. Because of her, I found the courage to branch out and discover that there were other little girls just like me, and that we weren't insane - we simply had what was called an overactive imagination. Today, those others like me, we hang out together, drinking tea and eating crumpets. We're writers, musicians, actors, and artists... and we never would have found each other had we not been inspired by our mutual insanity. 
                  Do you have a mutual story? Or... perhaps you know someone who was like me. Perhaps you know someone who is just a little different. Please understand... that person is not insane. They're not strange. They certainly don't deserve to be alone. They're not anti-social, they're not awkward, they're not drifting. They're waiting.
                 They are waiting for that one person to come along and tell them that it's okay to be them. That they're not the only ones. There are over 6 billion people on this planet, and yes, there is only you - but that doesn't mean that you're alone. We're human, and we're special, and we were made to live extraordinary lives. Nobody should be shut out of communion with another human being and made to think that they're strange because they're different. 
                  Everybody has their own little area of life that's like that: forgotten dreams, hidden interests that you think are strange... or too different. Please know that it's okay. You are important. Don't be afraid. Fear does not inspire greatness, and it does not ever teach you to be who you were made to be. Those little quirks are what make you you, so accept them. Know that you are not alone on the planet. There's so many other human beings - and your chances are very, very good of finding someone that understands you, but you'll never know if you don't have the courage to look. Human beings are made for friendship. Friendship is what makes us stronger. It grows us. Without our friends we would be so much less... because our friends are the ones that believe in us enough to let us know that even if we are a bit odd, and a bit strange, and bit mad... they love us anyway, and they know that we can be great as us. 
There is no such thing as an unimportant human being. 
                  So, 

go out and find the person that inspires you to be you. 

"Don't be afraid to seem a bit mad. All the best people in the world are a bit mad in some way or another." - The Doctor