The Root of Passionate Writing

I read Vroom’s comment to my article “The 3 Essential Things Never Taught at Writing Workshops” and I appreciate the raw honesty in it and the question posed caused me to think. Here’s the comment in full:

what if, just what if.. i had the passion to write couple of years ago.. and it disappeared one day, in which i am unable to write like i used to, the passion ‘ran away..’ is there anyway i can help myself get over this phase? cause seriously i love writing i love writing more than playing basketball or watch soccer/football! even though the poems i written were depressing because of how i used to feel and i kind of got over the depressing days i didn’t like how depressing they were.. any suggestions?

Passion grows from within and different people exhibit passion towards different things whether in-material or material, an object, a person or even an idea. People are naturally passionate beings, we are hardwired by the Creator in such a manner. I believe the passion never ‘ran away’, I believe the passion is still there but you have put a cap on it and boxed it.

I asked myself this question, as I was writing my first book and even when I’m working on my second one now, “Why are you doing this?” in crude words, “Why write?”

Why write in the first place? Why bother? Why slave away in the wee moments just to get a sentence right? Why spend all that effort if you are not sure people want to read it? Why push on when you get “rejection letters” to your manuscript? Why would someone like me, trained in Information Technology, who hates romance books yet I write about love, heartaches, human struggles and finding one’s place in the world?

Because writing is the ONLY thing I KNOW.

Take away everything from me, all my skills, all my academic training, everything and strip me to my core – writing is still there. I’m a story-teller and writing is the tool I use to tell my story. This is where my passion springs from – the knowledge that I know nothing else except writing.

If you ‘feel’ the passion running away, take time off to ask yourself why you are doing it. What are your motivations?

Another thing, you can do is to simply find passionate writers and sit with them. Have a cup of tea, talk about writing and read each other’s work. Writers just need to be heard even if only one person reads their work, they are elated. After pouring out so much from your emotional tank into your writing, you’ll need to fill it up that tank again. Pass the Passion and absorb the Passion.

I found my muse in someone who took the time to read my work and tell me it was great. I’ve always wanted to write but I never had the courage to pursue it. In my mind, I thought it was merely a little hobby I just fiddled with in my spare time but then I met people who looked at my writing and told me there was something there. They enjoyed my thoughts, tit-bits of conventional wisdom that seemed to connect with them. I had an audience willing to hear what I had to say. My Passion for writing was ignited by encouragement from readers and then the Passion found focus when I met my muse and my writings were motivated by the pure essence of friendship and love. So my Passion was focused on writing about the pain and joys of love.

My Passion was ignited and focused.

Herein lies the key, we all have passion but it needs encouragement and focus. No matter what style you write in, whether it is depressing or uplifting, focusing your Passion will drive you on. If you find yourself ‘lost’ then take time to find your focus. Maybe it is time for you to find a new focus? Maybe it’s time to try a new style? Maybe it’s time to take a risk and write a full novel? Why not?

Passion never ‘runs away’. It’s still there. It just needs to be ignited and focused and before I forget, writers write with their emotions strapped to their foreheads. But I’ll keep that for another post.

To Vroom, keep writing. To get yourself out of that rut…pass your writing to someone to read. In his book On Writing, Stephen King tells us that he writes in order to make his wife laugh. What about you? Vroom, will your poems make someone cry because they understand the pain you write about? If they do cry, then you’ve managed to pass your passion onto to another soul via your writing.

Technorati Tags: Author, Passiom, Writing

The 3 essential things never taught at writing workshops

I’ve been invited countless times to join writing workshops and as tempting as it seems, I’ve refrain from them for the very reason that I know I may not learn much from them. Partly due to the fact that almost everything you want to learn about writing can be gleamed from the internet or talking to fellow writers or merely hanging out with very opinionated people.

I believe there are several things that writing workshops fail to teach good meaning people who want to jump-start their writing career and I’ll list them here as I think of them. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a workshop basher, heck I run workshops to teach educators how to use technology in their teaching learning practices, but I just want you to think deeply on the need for you to spill out money on a writing workshop when at the end of the day, you gain nothing.

The Passion to write
Passion to write is not a skill. You either have it or don’t. Passion cannot be bought neither can it be given to you in a manual or guidebook. It is birth from within a person’s soul and springs forth in actions that pulsates with the energy from that passion. You look at your book as if it was a new born babe, learning to talk and walk. You want to see it to adulthood, to bring joy to the millions or the few that read it. Such enthusiasm cannot be taught, it exists. Passion can be passed on from another passionate person to another, provided that the other person shares the same passion.

The Art of the Lonely Walk
Writing is a lonely affair and as you embark on it, you will find that for long periods you are essentially on you own. Alone. Alone with your creation as it unfolds and the only person who truly sees the significance of what you write is you. No-one else sees or knows what that gem of a book will be like. The Lonely Walk of a writer is primarily that – lonely. Occasionally, you may meet other pilgrims on that lonely road and you may share a thought or two but then its back to being alone. They don’t teach this at writing workshop 101.

Breaking the Rules
After spending a week at a workshop that taught you every trick in the book to make money writing, you’ll realize that merely applying the rules or laws of writing would not generate that next best-seller. After telling you about the rules did they mention that you can break the rules? Or even better; make your own rules? As an author, the book you write is an extension of your personality. It’s you speaking to the masses. Can rules be put in place to govern personality? Can you box your voice in a particular shape and still be true to yourself? They teach you so much yet at the end of the day, the ones that make it big actually break every rule written and invent their own rules.

So there you have it, the three (3) that I can think of when it comes to Writing Workshop that teach you nothing. Any model that you adopt is merely that- a model. It may help you shape your book but it can never birth the book into existence. The book still rest in the mind of the writer and only the writer holds the key to unlocking the dormant book.

Personally, I read a book by Robert McKee – Story; given to me by best friend (thanks Sam) and read Nicholas Sparks comments on his website and just wing it from there when writing my first book. Mind you I was writing while learning the art of the craft. Once the draft was done, I sent query emails to 38 literary agents (some turned me down, others never got any reply). Eventually, I emailed a local publisher and sent my manuscript in for review and got accepted. Hard work, dumb luck and shooting in the dark kind of paid off for me. I hope you had better luck then me.

Cheers!

The 2 factors that affect genre choice

Let’s be honest with ourselves. When it comes to writing, we put the choice of genre quite low on our to-do list. It probably comes in after attending that Write a Novel in 30 days course you sign-up for. Ditch the course (they just do it to take your money) and choose you genre first.

Genre is key to your success as a writer. It determines where you are headed and generally keeps you focus on your writing. But how do you make the choice?

Let me propose two (2) factors you can take into consideration when making your choice for which genre you want to write in.

What Do You Read?
Look at your personal library of books (you should have one) and see what type of book stands out the most. You see, your style of writing would closely reflect your choice of reading. You tend to imitate the author you love most, you would actually phrase yourself base on the model you see in his/her novels. And in most cases that particular style is suited for the genre he/she writes in.

Check out what you read the most. The one that connects with you on an emotional level and try your hand in writing in that genre.

How You Say It?
Invite a friend over and tell them a story. Did it make them cry? Laugh? Or irritated? Did it make them think? 

How you say it refers to your voice in writing. Writers are story tellers and each has a distinct voice, distinct way of phrasing their words and a distinct tone to the mood in the story. Angry tones are suited for a murder-mystery or horror. Soft gentle tones – romance, general fiction. Quiet reflective tones – self help manuals or general fiction. The tone of your writers voice should fit the genre.

A mismatch of voice to genre would only make it a comedy to read but then that in itself may be a good thing.

Another thing to consider when choosing genre. Don’t choose it for the money. Yes, some genre sell more that others and it is tempting to want to fish in the pond where the fish is plenty but remember there are other anglers vying for the same fish. Instead, choose a genre that you are passionate about and see if you can create a niche for yourself. If that niche is already populated check out the other writers and see how you can create your own unique identity away from them.

There you have it. If you can think of any other factors that contribute to choosing a genre, just drop me a comment.

Cheers!

The One skill writers must have besides writing itself

I am often asked how I come about knowing so much. I never confess to having photographic memory (though I wish I did) neither do I see myself as a genius (I love my hair too much) but what I do have is a wild imagination that seemingly latches on to whatever new information pumped into my cerebral.

Besides writing itself, the other important skill, if not the only important skill is The Mastery of One’s Imagination.

Sherlock Holmes said, “You see but do not observe“. Aptly spoken and it is a phrase that writers should constantly hum as mantra. As writers, the blank page is our canvas and words our paint. We draw imagery, which takes life in the minds of the readers. Such imagery needs to live first and foremost within our writer’s minds. We need to see before it can be seen.

Yes, we all can imagine. As children we played with our imagination, we had dinosaurs running in our backyard, aliens living under our beds, the boogie-man in our closet and suspicious looking people as out imaginary friends. But somewhere along the line we lose this natural tendency to imagine our world. Replaced instead with in the face common-sense or logic thinking. Only a few have learnt to harness and tap the power of imagination. These are the Jedi master’s of their imagination and they are our icons of fantasy and lore example Stephen Spielberg, Stephen King, Johnny Depp; to name a few.

For a writer to excel, he too needs to be a Jedi of his own imagination. He must allow his characters to run free in his minds, he must observe their interactions and listen to what they are saying. The writer is the loyal scribe to the happenings of a reality that lives in his mind, which only he can see and chronicle. Eventually, the happenings of this world would be reported to the world populated by readers; curious to know the whats and the ifs.

For my second book set in pre-war Malaya, I have to rely heavily on my imagination and from watching period movies. There is just not enough research material for the period before Malaysia received her independence. The little that I have come across, does not paint a big enough picture for me to describe. So much of that world, I had to build in my mind and I had to rely a lot on flashbacks by my main characters in order to tell their story. Initial readings by friends tell me that they are comfortable with the flashbacks and the fact I am telling two stories in one. The events of the pre-war story affects the present story. So there is a link between events in the lives of my pre-war characters on the lives of those in the present day. Interesting to read but a horror to write. So I have taken large liberties to fill in the blanks with Constructive Imagination. 

Constructive Imagination is not wild imagination but rather inferring and constructing reality based on the little information you have. You may have a shred of information but through a process of deduction you can safely build a picture. Criminal Profilers do a lot of inference work based on evidence at the crime scene. They build a good enough picture for everyone to see, which leads to the capture of the suspect. The same can be said in writing. Build a good enough picture and your reader can see.

Be the master of your imagination and study it well and you will realize that it opens up your writing. Plots seemingly fall out of the sky and your characters take on lives of their own. Link your imagination to information you gleamed from reading and see your stories take on a credible tone.

Before I forget, reading is the fuel for imagination. So read a LOT. It doesn’t have to be a novel, it could be the ingredients from your box of cereals, read, read, read. As you pump your imagination with information, create links between them and watch the stories come alive.

So there you have it; the other skill writers must have, besides writing, is a mastery of one’s own imagination.

Cheers!