Creativity: Capture Your Dreams

(Photo Credit: Tumblr)

    Dreams play out our deepest fears and our wildest fantasies—the stuff great fiction is made of. Approximately four times each night, our minds take creative journeys. Sometimes mystifying, sometimes delightful, dreams are stories, poems, settings and scenes waiting to be expressed. The trick, of course, is capturing them.

    I’m not a fan of gimmicks some “experts” recommend to remember more dreams, like drinking lots of water before bed so you’ll wake up more often (and most likely just after a dream). I am a huge fan of sleep, and the importance of getting enough of it is about the only thing health researchers seem to agree on these days. So I’ll offer three harmless ways to make to most of a good sleep.

    The first way to remember more dreams is to focus on doing it just before going to sleep. Sound too simple? It works for many people, including me. If it doesn’t help you, a few minutes of creative contemplation before going to sleep certainly won’t hurt. (Doesn’t it beat dropping off to the babble of late-night TV?)

    And speaking of staying up too late, a great way to remember your last dream is to wake up naturally. Blaring alarms and radio banter blast us into wakefulness so quickly that fragile dream memories stand little chance of surfacing. Of course, to wake up naturally you need enough sleep. So play with this for a week or two. Try using your alarm as a “backup” until you find the right balance of waking up alarm-free and making it to work on time.

    The final harmless trick is: whenever you wake up with a dream still simmering, don’t get up, don’t even open your eyes. For a few minutes, try to recall as many details as possible. Bring images and events and emotions to waking memory where they will stick for longer—long enough, hopefully, to log them into a journal while the morning java brews.

    Dreams are fascinating creative resources, and it may take little more than focus to remember more of them. But if these tips don’t work for you, don’t lose any sleep over it! The worst that’s likely to happen by trying is that you’ll finally get enough rest to wake up totally refreshed and ready to write.

Small Goals, Small Steps

By Alina Chase

 

How can it be so hard starting something we want to do, know we’ll enjoy doing and know we’ll feel fantastic about accomplishing? While we have very different life, work and writing routines, I’ll bet we share some of the same roadblocks. Some days we’re worn out. Others we’re indecisive, perhaps overwhelmed by nagging to-do’s. And sometimes, after a hectic day or week, it’s hard to switch gears. So we decide to unwind by checking Facebook or watching TV until we feel like writing later… Of course ‘later’ never happens.

The best strategy I’ve found for getting started doing anything is so old it’s a cliché. Maybe that’s why I didn’t take it seriously until life got so hectic that I realized my all-or-nothing approach had to go. It left me exhausted trying to meet (arbitrary) goals and too often giving up before I’d even started. If this sounds familiar, let’s start thinking small.

First, set underwhelming goals. Sure, you want to write Chapter 5 tonight, but then you check your list of excuses and no way that’s going to happen. Why not wait until Tuesday when you’ll have more time and energy? Then Tuesday is worse. So maybe Thursday? Stop! This is exactly how books do not get written.

And who’s in charge of goal-setting anyway? Would it be OK if you only finish 5 paragraphs tonight? It beats a blank page. So lower your expectations and write something. If, once you get started, you get fired up and crank out a chapter, fantastic! But nothing will be written if you don’t get started. And here’s where small steps come in to play.

Small steps are equivalent to sharpening pencils. (And if anyone out there still drafts longhand using actual pencils, sharpening one is an excellent first step.) You don’t even have to be positive you’re going to write. But after a few simple steps to prime your brain and make it incredibly easy to sit down and write, it’s likely you will.

It goes something like this. 6 p.m. Brain tired. Wake up laptop. Fill mug with water; set microwave. Open a new file; name it “Chapter 5”. Toss tea bag into mug. No clean socks—start a load of laundry. Whew! Time for a break. Drink a few sips of tea. Where are the notes I scribbled during lunch yesterday? Pay the utility bill. Retrieve notes from the car. Might as well read notes while finishing tea. Write 2 sentences. Put laundry in dryer. Write 2 paragraphs. Petunia drags her leash to the door and whimpers. Take her for a walk. Write 2 more pages...

Quit now, and you’re still a few pages ahead of waiting until Tuesday to get started. And you also have clean socks. How hard was this?

 

Tune In To Your Rhythms

By Alina Chase

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We all have daily, weekly and seasonal rhythms. Working with them is one of the most painless ways to increase productivity. Write when we write best, and relieve ourselves of guilt-inducing deadlines when we know our creative energy wanes.

This sounds simple. So why is it so hard to do?

We underestimate the ripple effect. Doing more of one thing requires doing less of not one other thing, but more likely several other things. And shifting our writing schedules may impact so many autopilot activities that we’re surprised it takes so much effort—and fail to do it.

For many of us who naturally write best in the morning, why is it so hard to squeeze in an hour of writing before work instead of struggling to crank out coherent prose at night? Because getting up an hour earlier means getting to sleep an hour earlier. And that means nixing an hour of evening activities. It may mean skipping evening surfing but also may take eating earlier and replacing a beloved evening Espresso with chamomile tea. Sticking with the plan is even trickier when it affects others—what if a mate insists on watching TV in bed long past our newly declared bedtime?

So maybe Saturday morning writing marathons will work? Maybe, if we can get up before ten—which could mean implementing energy-enhancing weeknight changes to avoid being wiped out by the weekend. (Including that getting-to-bed-early thing.) Add to that doing laundry on Wednesday, mowing grass on Thursday and doing whatever else it takes before Saturday to free up extra hours to write. How simple is this?

And while allergies, holidays and tax deadlines are predictable seasonal disruptions, it takes even more forethought and discipline to plan for and around these downtimes.The key to making small changes is to recognize that there is no such thing as one small change. But continuing to work out of sync with our natural rhythms and easily anticipated downtimes can turn what we love doing into just plain work. While tuning into our rhythms, changing what we can when we can, will help create the flow we crave. Isn’t this why we write? The effort is worthwhile!
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(Photo Credits: Spring pic found on Tumblr and Winter pic found at TopDreamer.com)

(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
 
A creative diversion from Alina Chase
 
Want to shortcut creating a diverse cast of characters? Each character needs one, at most a few, distinguishing physical and personality traits. Why try to imagine (and keep track of!) subtle differences between humans when posting photos of critters with a few notes about key features is all you need to stay focused and consistent when developing stories about their human counterparts?
 
While many wildlife analogies are overused, nature has an endless supply! We meet plenty of “birdlike” characters and get the basic picture, but it’s a worn comparison and not specific enough to engage our imaginations. What images, personality traits and metaphorical possibilities might you create if you liken Lily to a hummingbird? Instead of giving Pauli a parrot’s beak, give him the conversational style: loud and repetitive with frequent and inappropriate interjections. And why not endow Emily with the goofy, ungainly legs of an ostrich (or its neck or feet)?
Now take a look at chimpanzees. They have fascinating eyes: curious, shy, almost sorrowful. They’re cute little fellas. Plus they’re smart, friendly and funny. But without warning, they can become vicious, spiteful, feces-flinging creatures. Know anybody like that?
How about reptiles? As with some people, an alligator’s glazed stare should not be mistaken for passivity. And they always seem to be smiling—but they’re not. Gators also have quite a snout. Have you seen faces like that, with noses or chins so out of proportion that it’s hard to focus on any other feature? Gators are also silent and sneaky, blending into the background until dinnertime, when their bulky, typically inert bodies spring into action. Look how many possibilities just one reptile supplies!
And what about fish? Check out a catfish’s face.  Now picture an old man.  Whether you make him slimy or cute, once he’s tagged as a catfish, how can you—or we—possibly forget him?
 
Whether you compare characters directly or use analogies as a subtle framework to stay focused on key traits, posting quirky critter photos provides quick cues. And, in my book, visual creative boosts that enliven my workspace sure beat dull databases!


(Photo Credits: NatureBlogger, Pinterest,  Fishing Tips Depot)

How Long Should Your Book Be?

(Photo Credit: Pinterest)

By Ailna Chase

Since deciding that life is too short to struggle through books—no matter how much I paid for them--I finish fewer than 50% of the fiction and nonfiction books I began reading with great enthusiasm.  It’s not ADD; it’s boredom. Which I attribute to fluff. And the prevalence of fluff, I believe, is driven directly by traditional publishers’ book length expectations.

Even if we don’t plan (initially, at least) to go the traditional publishing route, we are influenced by the standards. Take a step back and consider if and how streamlining to 30,000 words might create a better reading (and writing) experience than polishing a 70,000-word draft. Ask yourself whether trying to make a cookbook look like what’s already on bookstore shelves is a waste of creative effort. With viable self-publishing formats and marketing alternatives limited only by our imagination, why write ourselves into a creative rut based on guidelines that have nothing to do with quality—or even what readers want?

Check out this eye-opening post about what’s driven some publishing industry standards. And imagine a future when everything written is not a word shorter or longer than it needs to be.

Charlies Diary: Why books are the length they are:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/03/cmap-5-why-books-are-the-lengt.html

More (Productive) Writing Time: Partitioning

 By Alina Chase

 

Partitioning both your time and thoughts will help you enjoy more productive writing time—and may help you find more of it.

The benefits of partitioning time, focusing on one and only one task at a time, may be more obvious when you think about non-writing activities. Like texting while driving. Like shampooing a cat while trying to convince your boss over the phone that you’re hard at work on that proposal. Like wandering inside to take a cool shower while homemade kabobs burst into flames on the grill—objective not accomplished, and now who’s going to clean up the mess?

So when you finally set aside an hour to write, why are you also checking email, responding to texts and keeping an eye on whatever’s on TV? A few minutes here and there eat away at both your writing time and creative focus. So eliminate disruptions and mental clutter! Decide what you want to do now, and give whatever that is all of your attention.

If you’re not going to do something now, don’t think about it now. When you leave work, forget about work. And when you finally find time to write, just write.

And as I switch gears from writing to not burning tonight’s dinner, I’ll leave you to ponder this quote from a very funny book:

Like the good Reverend King

I too “have a dream,”

but when I wake up

I forget it and

remember I’m running late for work”

                       Paul Beatty, The White Boy Shuffle

Break From the Herd

“I once complained to my father that I didn’t seem to be able to do things the same way other people did. Dad’s advice? “Margo, don’t be a sheep. People hate sheep. They eat sheep.”

Margo Kaufman

From The Portable Do It

John-Roger and Peter McWilliams

TIME-SAVING TACTICS

Break From the Herd

By Alina Chase

Do you ever shop at 5 a.m.? Hardly anybody does.

Simply by doing what most people do not, when they do not, you can reclaim enough wasted time to write at least a few more pages per week.

Schedule the first appointment of the day with doctors and dentists and you’re less likely to wait. Arrive at the mall as it opens. Instead of waiting in traffic just to wait in line at the bank at noon on Friday, do banking on Tuesday. Eat out at 5 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. You’ll get a table without waiting—and probably better service.

Begin running errands at 6 a.m. on Sunday and you’ll cruise through deserted streets, park near the door, zip through aisles, breeze through the checkout. Employees and customers are less stressed, actually smiling!

And you’ll be back home and writing before most folks have rolled out of bed…

Time-Saving Tactics: Try Half-Drafts

By Alina Chase

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      When all you’re trying to do is capture thoughts,  develop ideas and explore possibilities, why restrict yourself to sentences, paragraphs and chapters?  Nothing will bring your train of thought to a screeching halt faster than stopping to ponder a comma or word choice or sentence structure. If you scribble and draw instead of write, you can capture ideas more quickly and more ideas on one page with no rules to distract you.
      Try using a cheap spiral notebook (or the flip side of wasted printouts) and a pen or Crayons instead of your laptop. Then "write" using symbols, graphical representations and your version of shorthand. Advanced doodlers may even want to add stick figures or sketches. Do this in any way that makes sense to you, keeping in mind that the fewer words you use at this stage, the more time you'll save.
      Then number, letter or otherwise code your ideas. Connect conepts with lines and arrows. Combine points with boxes that represent paragraphs, scenes, or chapters. Then, later, you can shuffle sheets around, spread them across the floor, or tape them to a wall to experiment with different scene and chapter sequences
      Think of these first drafts as half drafts for pantsters, graphical outlines for plotters. Quick to develop and review, they'll minimize time wasted on tangents and writing clunky first-draft prose destined to be deleted. They contain just enough information to jog your memory so that when you do get back to the laptop, you can focus all your energy on writing brilliantly!

Productive Pastimes - 3 Morale-Boosting Exercises

By Alina Chase

Glowing Embers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If your fiction is fizzling, your blog is “blah” or you just can’t stop surfing long enough to finish (or start) your latest project, maybe all you need is an ego boost. Try these creative exercises to broaden your perspective, renew your enthusiasm—and give yourself some well-earned kudos.

1-Write Rave Reviews

No rules! You’re making stuff up and nobody will see it. You have fresh ideas, a brilliant approach and phenomenal style, so… What will fans say? What will the editors and bloggers competing for personal interviews write? Will your favorite author write a rave review or trash you on Facebook (obviously jealous)?

2-Thank Your Supporters

Remember how many people believe in you. Then write acknowledgments. Thank family and friends for contributions and moral support. (Can you imagine how delighted they’ll be to see their names in print?) Thank living and long-dead authors for inspiration. And remember to thank your future agent/publicist/producer for helping you launch a remarkable new blockbuster.

3-Write a Dedication

Tear-jerking or comical, public acknowledgement or private joke, a dedication will refuel ambition. Dedicate your book to an individual, a small circle of friends or to a group of professionals or volunteers you admire. Or think five years forward, dedicating it to the college professor who said you would –never- succeed as a writer. (But you did…so there!)

Dig deep to get to the heart of why you’re writing and who you’re writing for. Get arrogant, sappy, spiteful, funny. Nobody's grading these exercises, so have fun with them! One belly laugh, one tingling of renewed spirit or one new insight into this inexplicable craving we have to write may be all it takes to get your writing back on track.

Distinguished Characters

Here's Alina Chase, kicking off our blog series for characters. Over the next few days, we will be sharing character templates: Physical Traits, Attitudes and Personality, Skills, Schedules, and Past. Good luck!

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 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Distinguished Characters
Create One Trademark Feature

 By Alina Chase

      Whether you’re writing a novel or interviewing a football player for an impossibly short article, you can’t afford to babble. Every description must be relevant. Every word should be intentional.

        That means choosing telling details, details that show more about a person than appearance, details that clearly distinguish your protagonist from other characters in your book and from protagonists in similar books. Especially powerful are traits that hint of contrast or conflict.

        Why waste words describing the football player as tall and muscular? Unless you say otherwise, we assume that he is. Surprise us by noting how shy he is, that he sits like a girl or that his feet are so tiny it’s a miracle they can support his bulk.

        And creating a single trademark feature for each character in your novel can save a lot of mental energy dreaming up, describing--and keeping track of--less distinguishing attributes. Let your readers fill in the mundane details.

        Picture a woman with very wide-set eyes. It’s fairly uncommon and can be attractive. Jackie Kennedy had eyes like that. But push those eyes apart another half inch and your woman looks like a lizard. In real life, aren’t unusual features like this, and particularly imperfections, what we notice first and remember longest? So give us the unexpected!

        And note how easily nature’s quirks provide unique and welcome springboards for conflict. Make your FBI agent so short that all he can see in a crowd is boobs and navels, or so tall that he’s always noticed (and then send him undercover to Japan where he towers over natives like Godzilla). Give your gorgeous heroine crooked teeth. Give your defense lawyer a lisp.

        All you need is one distinguishing feature to begin bringing characters and their stories alive in a way readers are sure to remember!

MOTIVATION: Productive Pastimes

By Alina Chase

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      When you need well-deserved downtime, instead of completely shutting your creative brain down with mind-numbing movies or games, make quality time with your favorite (and least favorite) authors a creative learning experience.

 

Read A Great Book—Again.

  

      It’s relaxing, entertaining and motivating.

      For a quick shot of inspiration, read a few bookmarked passages to help renew your enthusiasm to write like the masters.

      But when you feel burnout creeping in, plan to spend a whole afternoon or evening with an old favorite. This is not wasted time! The second, third or tenth time you read a book, you’ll notice more about structure and style, rhythm and pacing. How did the author build tension, stage humor? What is said, and not said, about settings and characters? Why do you care what happens?

      And no writing is perfect. Can you find one way to make your favorite book just a little bit better?

  

…Or Read a Really Bad Book.

  

      Keep a few lousy books on the shelf to read when your ego needs a boost. Read a few pages, a whole chapter if you can stand it. Now you can write better than that, can’t you?

      After you’re feeling sufficiently smug, read more, critically. Keep in mind as you bash the book that not only the author, but perhaps a traditional publisher, found it worthy of print. And you chose to read it. So, first, ask yourself what the author did right.

      Next, consider when you began losing interest—and why. At what point did you stop reading the first time? Or did you struggle through until the end, hoping the book would get better. Why?

      Then think about what could be changed (and how) to make it something you’d love to read.

  

      So nix the guilt for taking time out. Let books you love inspire you, and books you don’t love serve as bad examples but encouraging reminders that your persistence will pay off. And remember that reading a book you’ve read before may reward you with both inspiration and energy—at least you won’t be reading into the wee hours waiting to find out how it ends!

Sniff the Roses

Sniff the Roses
 by Alina Chase

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

        We readers always seem to know what characters are wearing, but how often do we know what they smell like? Scent is so neglected, especially as it relates to humans, you’d think it was taboo.

         Scents (or aromas or stenches) are always present. They evoke memories like no other sense can. Faint or strong, pleasant or not, smells associated with experiences make powerful and lasting impressions.

Does Jordan’s apartment smell like cookies, disinfectant or dirty socks? Does the park smell like your grandmother’s roses, sunbaked earth or ripening dog poop?

          And don’t you know without checking for evidence in the trash can that your co-worker ate a fast food burger and fries for lunch--if not from the salty, greasy smell hovering in the office, then from her breath? (Perhaps not, if her noontime dose of musky perfume knocks you out first.)

         Begin paying attention to all aromas you encounter, and especially to the memories and emotions they evoke. And keep in mind how life experiences shape our gut responses. The sweet scent of gardenias reminds one of romance, another of funerals. The earthy smell of horses may be nostalgic or nauseating. Cologne may be enticing or asphyxiating. Might scent not be more than an interesting detail, but also a subtle source of attraction or conflict?

         So before your next writing session, take a deep breath. Imagine how easily you can create more vivid and memorable experiences for your readers by infusing scenes with what things and places--and characters--smell like.