Lighting Up Stories
Photo by StockSnap @ Pixabay Two years ago, I wrote a post called ‘Healing with Journaling’. I was a bit naive to claim that we could heal from traumas. What I should have said instead is that writing is a therapy. So, if writing doesn’t …
Photo by Jan Vasek @ Pixabay ‘I have an idea for a film, a book, a play’… ‘Great! When do you start writing your first draft?’ Silence… Usually followed by: ‘Ah, it’s a complex story, I need to do more research’ or ‘Yes when I …
Why would you spend time on a business plan? Probably because it’s the first step to take your artistic career seriously.
If you’re driving, unsure of the roads to take, you have great probabilities to get lost. But if you have planned your journey, chances are, you will reach your destination.
Of course, sitting down trying to forecast projects and numbers can be quite daunting. This is why I have prepared a business template for Artists and Writers super easy for you.
If you know you’re going to be working on halfhearted projects, you’ll end up discouraged and will not finish them.
In other words, your projects should excite you. They should be in alignment with your purpose. They should make you FEEL GOOD.
It’s tempting to cram many projects in one year but it can also be a great factor for giving up everything.
Only three to four big projects a year seem more manageable. Do only one project at a time, so you can stay fully focused on it and thus you become more efficient.
Moreover, the other reason for not overloading your business plan is to have enough room for FUN.
It will also fuel your creativity in amazing ways.
While it is crucial to visualize your end goal and feel the good vibrations of the finish product, don’t focus exclusively on the outcome. The outcome is not up to you. Of course, it’s nice to imagine being a bestselling author but you won’t be able to control the buying of your books. Your audience will decide if they’re going to buy or not.
Your job is to make an amazing product. Visualize a happy outcome but focus on your day to day task, to make this project wonderful and irresistible.
You must hear it, read it, and see it all the time: Take action.
Easier said than done, right?
When we’re ready to rock and roll often Procrastination kicks in. Not nice. Suddenly we don’t feel like working on our projects, and we end up doing something else, such as watching TV for instance, feeling bad about ourselves.
Each time I don’t feel like writing, I tell my brain: ‘OK, let’s do this for one minute.’
Next thing I know, I worked on that thing for an hour.
This is as simple as that.
Even if your inner voice is shouting: ‘You’re not good enough’ make a point to do it anyway. Override that nasty voice with some feel good music and get on with whatever you’ve got to do.
Make sure you take care of your whole being too: soul (meditate), mind (read) and body (exercise). It’s all connected and intertwined.
Allow yourself to have some time off too, to recharge your batteries. I’ve seen it many times, I’ve been there myself. Burnout is real. It’s horrible.
Being nice to yourself also means to be ruthless with distractions. Since I turned off all my notifications, I feel much calmer. Okay I admit it, sometimes I’m missing some messages on the spot but my pulse stays stable. I look at my messages or my emails when I’m ready to do so, not while I’m working.
Also don’t beat yourself up when you fail.
Failure is part of success. If you look at the people who succeeded, they all had a big disappointment. They didn’t let failure define them. They cried and carried on.
Life happens. Sometimes a life event might disturb your plan. Take one thing at a time. Take a break from everything. All you need to do is re-adjust your plan for the future, that’s all. Trust in the process of creation and its perfect timing.
Wishing you my best wishes for your creative plans.
Photo by Colin Behrens @ Pixabay I have never liked January and its New Year resolutions time. I don’t see the point. Each year is what you DAILY make it… for 365 days. Many times, I saw people making plans and giving them up after …
Photo montage by Daniel Gardiner Dot 1: Books are Magical Things It’s not you who choose a book, it’s the book that chooses you. Have you ever come across a book that matches exactly how you felt? Or answered a question that you had in …
Photo Montage Daniel Gardiner
Virginia Woolf, Anne Rice, Paul Verlaine, Stephen King… for many writers, depression is not an unknown guest and often takes its roots in early childhood.
The reasons might differ – emotional or physical abuse, abandonment, neglect… the list can be long. The child, future writer, often grows up with a dark cloud around his/her head and a story to tell.
However, this child will often do his/her best to keep everything inside which will make connection with other people almost impossible. The writer is often a misunderstood creature.
The child writer will then decide: ‘I don’t do people. I’ll do books instead, they’re friendlier’.
After finding some answers in books, the child writer will write a story or two or will do some journaling.
One day the child/teenager will make another decision: I want to be a writer. The young writer is dead serious about it, yet people laugh at this statement. Why? Because ‘being a writer is not a job’.
And they are right.
Writing is not a job.
It’s a divine calling.
As a beginner, the writer will do everything BUT write his or her painful story. Writers will start writing about something that doesn’t touch their heart. Something that won’t put the light on the big elephant in the room.
As they wrote a meaningless story, people will read it and say ‘so what?’ And that hurts their feelings.
What the novice writer doesn’t know, is that he/she is learning the craft.
Mediocre writing is VITAL if the writer wants to get better.
They need to write again and again. Soon enough, the writer will realize that if she/he wants to get noticed, he/she needs to let the demons out and write about something that triggers a strong emotion.
Writers at work will bleed at every sentence, will put their guts on paper, will walk through dark tunnels and will live with uncomfortable thoughts.
Once the piece is written, and if proactive, the writer will send his/her work at every publisher, agent, manager, producer, editor… If they’re lucky, they get a rejection letter.
Otherwise, they’ll be ignored which is the worst kind of rejection.
Rejection is unpleasant; it affects the writer’s self-esteem. If combined with another emotional knock-back such as a breakup, a divorce, problems at work, loss or unemployment, the dark cloud becomes bigger and thicker than ever before.
See post: Dealing with Rejection
If not looked after, the writer could fall in the trap of addictions.
Indeed, the depressed writer will find ways to shut down the voices inside telling him or her that ‘they don’t have it; they are unworthy and should stop writing’. As a writer is often a lone wolf, he/she can sink into deep depression without anyone noticing. In self-doubt, the writer is tempted to give everything up.
Then one day, the writer will learn to treat depression as an ally and not as an enemy. He/she will see it as a sign, an inner voice that needs to be heard, a problem that needs to be addressed or even better, a story that needs to be told.
As the writer has learned to tell a story, he/she will spend time a lifetime learning about human nature. Soon enough, he/she will understand a strange fact: everybody is in pain, everybody struggles.
That’s the true beauty behind the writer: feeling empathy and compassion for others. She/he can feel his own pain but also others’.
His/her main skill is the capacity to put himself inside everyone’s shoes: old, young, wild, poor, rich, shy, gay, straight, man, woman, black, white, a single mother, a doctor, a womanizer… It can be pretty messy inside his/her head. Borderline schizophrenic even.
But this pain will fuel the writer’s creativity. He/she will use it to connect with people, to be relieved from past traumas, to transmute unmet needs, to give inspiration.
See post: Journaling for Healing
After each defeat, the writer learns to bounce back like a ball. He/she will get used to rejection. Of course, he or she will be affected, but not as much as before.
The writer is both sensitive and tough. He/she is both depressed and strong. He/she is a dreamer and a business person.
The writer spends hours writing stories to entertain the world, to help people to think, to react, to act, to dream, to hope…
A writer is an alchemist who is able to transmute feelings and experiences into words of wisdom.
And yes, the writer will not touch everybody’s souls. He will touch one person or more and that will make his/her day.
So dear writer, please don’t give up: Someone out there needs your stories. Keep writing.
Picture by Mohamed Hassan @Pixabay You might come across them in stories or in real life. They wear all sorts of disguises. So who are the mentors? What is their purpose and why do we need them? Let’s dive in… 1. The Master of Craft …
Phil Clarke (aka Philmscribe) is a UK-based script consultant and screenwriter with over twenty years service to cinema. After years working at the coal face of film on such features as Sleepy Hollow, Enigma, The Beach and two of the biggest box office franchises: Star Wars …
Here is a list of books that have changed my craft. I really hope some of them will help you too.
So to be clear with everyone, I don’t get sponsored for this list and these books are not classified in order of importance either.
‘The hard part is creating something that the ‘right people’ would be excited by if they read it.’ Erik Bork
It’s THE book that explains what a strong concept is and why it’s so important to have one before starting any writing. This book is well-explained and down to earth. I also liked the practical and humble voice of the writer.
Why would you need this book?
‘Write something that may change your life. This is a very high standard, but it may be the most valuable piece of advice you’ll ever get as a writer. Why? Because if a story is that important to you, it may be that important to a lot of people in the audience. And when you’re done writing the story, no matter what else happens, you’ve changed your life.’ John Truby
This book is a classic for screenwriters especially for those who think that most films are predictable. Mr Truby has a way to ask the right questions so you can write your story ‘organically’ and not generically. Brilliant book, great teacher.
Why would you need this book?
‘Ten minutes gives you the ‘ticking clock’ every writer secretly needs: a deadline.‘ Pilar Alessandra
Pilar Alessandra is well-known in the industry, she was the Senior Story Analyst at DreamWorks SKG before becoming the Director of the writing program On the Page. The Coffee Break Screenwriter is always on my desk. Each time I get stuck on a script, I can count on this book to sort me out. I would also recommend any of her seminars. She is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
‘Bad characterization feels two-dimensional, wooden, unbelievable and inauthentic‘. Lucy V. Hay
Lucy V. Hay is an author, screenwriter, producer, script editor and, founder of one of the most popular blog for writers: Bang2write. Always ahead of any trends, Lucy knows her stuff inside out. Characterization is one of the most important element of your screenplay. If the reader doesn’t feel for your main character, you’re out, as simple as that. It doesn’t mean that your character has to be lovable though…
Why would you need this book?
‘Writing a screenplay is no simple task. While it’s great to study up on the various formulas, directives, structures, and methods, all that you really need when you finally start a script are the basics. Everything else will fall into place. Embrace the Less is More mantra, and you’ll have better dialogue and better scenes.’ Ken Miyamoto.
Ken’s book is about uncluttered writing. I call it ‘Feng Shui writing’. Ken’s philosophy when it comes to screenwriting is: Less is More. I love it. Ken Miyamoto also has a website that no screenwriter should ignore: ScreenCraft.
Why would you need this book?
‘Always be writing. Actively, continuously, on an ongoing basis. The more you write, the better you will get. It’s as simple as that. Your third script will be better than your first; the fifth better than your third. As a working professional, it’s your job to continuously come up with exciting new work.‘ Lee Jessup
This book is not about how to write a screenplay but how to build a career as a screenwriter. It gives a good guidance on the strategy to follow. And needless to say, it’s a proven strategy. Lee Jessup is another big name in the industry. Her honest approach might scare some, but she is right when she says: ‘your writing habits are to put your head down and do the work.’
Why would you need this book?
‘Beyond wish fulfillment, a good story should offer a fully dimensional emotional experience’. Jeffrey Alan Schechter
I have to admit, I have a soft spot for this book. I have read many screenwriting books in my life but this one is different. Expect some a-ha! moments while reading it.
Why would you need this book?
‘Talent can be cultivated. It can be learned and taught with the proper instruction and a good mentor. No one is born a blacksmith. They became one with hard work. So too does the screenwriter’. Geoffrey D.Calhoun
In this guide, you’ll find all the tools you need to write your screenplay from choosing your theme, your concept, characters, structure, plots, format… to what comes next, such as: the rewrites, the coverage, the synopsis template and networking. Geoffrey was listed in the top 100 Indie writers in the world and was the founder of wefixyourscript.com. This guide is for every screenwriter: the newcomer and the experienced writer. Excellent book.
Why would you need this book?
‘All of us, experienced writers and newcomers, need to take on competition in the way that Olympic athletes do: calmly, consciously and consistently aiming high, pushing our imagination and talent to the limits.’ Linda Aronson
I cannot write a post on screenwriting without mentioning Linda Aronson, who is famous for her work on non-linear structure and complex multiple storylines. Linda also knows the rules of storytelling inside out and will break them one by one with ingenuity. She has a ‘real but unusual’ insight on writing screenplays. I like the fact Linda invites us to adapt the structure to the story and not the other way round. Exceptional book. Not to be missed. Expect some light-bulb moments reading this too. For more information, I invite you to visit Linda’s website https://www.lindaaronson.com/
Why would you need this book?
‘In every conflict, there are seeds of misfortune and destruction but also seeds of union, understanding and enrichment. Conflict makes things move forward‘. Yves Lavandier.
Last but not least: La Dramaturgie (Writing Drama) by Yves Lavandier. I first read this book in 1997. Even today, I often find myself reading some chapters over and over again. Whether you are writing a novel, a play or screenplay, this book covers it all: structure, characterization, conflict, dialogue, comedies, short films, documentaries… It’s my precious book, I swear by it and I know that I’m not the only one.
Why would you need this book?
Happy reading and keep writing!
Is there a secret path that leads to a successful career? Do you need to be some kind of genius to make it in your field? Or is it just that some people are more lucky than others? In my career, I had the opportunity …