Thursday, March 31, 2011

What Acting Taught Me About Writing

Some say that writers see the world differently, which I think is a little misleading. It implies that a writer was born with some insight, some secret view to the world that readers of the world don’t share.

Then again, I agree with the saying because I think that the more you seek to write well, the more changed you become. And as you seek to grow in writing, you are forced to look at things differently.

A writing lesson I’m glad to continuously relearn is one I first learned when I had dreams of Broadway. Yes, once upon a time I liked to act. And like most people, initially I sucked at acting. My instructors always casted me way against my type, and my performances were always more than a little stilted until I learned one huge lesson:

You can’t portray someone if you’re judging them.

If you don’t accept your character’s motives and project them, no one will believe your acting from fifty rows back. To get on stage or in front of a camera and really make people believe you are someone, you have remove your judgments on who you think they should be, and just let them be. You are the canvas. They are the paint. And for that time you are portraying that character, everyone should sense their motivations and goals through you with absolutely no apology for them.

That’s acting.

The same goes for writing a character: If you judge the character, you can’t write him/her well.

Then again, if you don’t judge the character and proactively filter out some of their less redeeming qualities to make them more palatable, people may judge you. To understand that possibility and write their story anyway? That takes guts.

After all, most readers assume that books and characters are autobiographical. If your character does something, readers will assume you have, too. And how many writers have readers come up and tell them, “I pictured you as the main character the whole time”?

People judge you based on what you write. It’s an undeniable fact. So it only makes sense for an author to pre-judge characters to make sure they pass the snuff of representing them on paper before digging into the commitment of writing on the character’s behalf.

Back to the point of those who say writers see the world differently, it does take a rare person to tell the story of someone they disagree with—to look into a soul and see why it is the way it is to such a level that everyone who reads what is told from that character’s perspective assumes the author is similarly minded.

Just like an actor has to go on stage and represent their character like the true hero of the script—even if they’re the "bad guy"—a story rises in its potential when the author lets a character walk and talk and think authentically, with no judgment from the teller of their story.

Moving into a judgment-free zone is not a task for all writers (or actors, really). Some have no aspirations to do this at all. They are content to portray people like them as the good guys and people they cannot relate to as two-dimensional bad guys. This requires little imagination and no growth for either the reader or the writer.

But to those out there looking to see the world a little differently, I have this challenge: If you wish to grow in the craft, write about someone you don’t understand. Tell their story—even if you never choose show it to a soul. Don’t apologize for the character’s behavior, but seek the why of it. Make every character a hero in their own eyes, define how their goals influence their actions. Are the bad guy’s goals really any different than your hero’s? In the end, do they really want the same thing? Opposite things? If opposite, why?

It’s an amazing and fascinating process. And after a person does this a few times—any person—I really do believe they begin to see the world differently.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Neck-and-Neck


Just a head's up: Chris and Debbie, there's a one-point spread between you. Not going to say who's in the lead, but thought I would throw that out there while there's still a few days left...

The rest of you, keep rocking it! It's still anyone's game :)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

March $$$ Madness


As I sit here using my psychic abilities to fill out the NCAA bracket, I just can't help but notice that I'm not exactly going mad over this whole tournament. I never have, and it seems very un-festive to me.

My March has no "madness" in it... and I kind of want there to be a little. So I thought and I thought about how I could be wild and crazy this March. And this is what I came up with:

Starting TODAY and ending the last day of this month, I'm going to hold a contest. In this contest there will be two, yes TWO, winners. Each winner will receive a $25 gift card to either B&N or Amazon to support your reading habit :)

How do you win, you ask?

Well, since you asked so politely, I shall answer. You see, my invisible buddy who tells me stories (i.e. Rhea) needs some reviews out there in internet land. We're talking on Amazon, B&N, Borders, Goodreads, blogs, Shelfari... wherever.

You see, just the other day I was in the book store trying to choose between three books on the same subject, and guess what I did? I pulled up their profiles on Amazon and read several reviews on each book. Those reviews guided me to the books I finally purchased.

Reviews matter.

For this reason, our dear Rhea needs reviews out there so people can get a feel of whether or not it's the book they're looking for, based on your honest reviews.

So here are the rules:

* Every review gives you one entry
* Each book counts separately (e.g., if you review all 4 books on goodreads, you get one entry for each separate review link)
* You can re-post the same reviews on multiple sites to rack up the points
* Previously published reviews posted prior to the this announcement are eligible (blog reviews or site)
* You must include a link to each review to get a point
* There are no deductions for not giving it every star possible
* If you know me personally, you are still eligible--same goes if you don't know me
* Easy points include being a follower of this blog (+1), follow on Twitter (+1), tweeting about this (+1), and/or pimping this with a link on an FB status update (+1). That's potentially four easy entries right there on TOP of your review entries :)

As mentioned before there will be TWO winners:

Winner #1 will be the ambitious soul who posts the most reviews, over and above everyone else
Winner #2 will be drawn by random from my souvenir "panning for gold" pan

Basically, anyone can win.

So, you ready to have some MARCH MADNESS bibliophile style?

Let's go to town and give Rhea some review love!!!

Who's with me???

To enter, fill out the form below:

Monday, March 14, 2011

Tsunamis and Body Surfing

If you haven't watched from the ground footage of the tsunami in Japan, I highly recommend it. Watching the footage without commentary is good for the soul, I think.

Some of you know I lived in Maui for six months. Loved it. I made a promise when I went there that I would get in the water every single day, and I did. For the first few months the waves tossed me around like an uncoordinated rag doll. Then one day I "got" it. The rhythm of the ocean and how it pulses.

I remember one day driving down to Big Beach. We were still a mile away and could hear the percussion of the waves on the sand. When we reached the beach, the tourists all stood, coolers and towels in hand, gaping at the twelve-foot waves that had taken over their vacation spot, breaking and crashing right before the water line.

What I did that day wasn't smart. It wasn't a good example, but it was a personal test I wanted to take. I looked at those waves, pounding the sand so hard I felt it in my bones, and saw the path past them into the bobbing roller coaster behind the break. And I wanted to go on that ride.

So I did, even though the massive audience of tourists made me a bit nervous... After all, I was about to be a very bad example... and possibly publicly humiliated.

Laying my towel on the beach, I walked to the waves more than twice my height. There was no fear in me, just the absolute awareness that timing was everything if I didn't want to be beach slapped--and I knew that if I made a misstep I would indeed take a serious hit.

When my opening came, I didn't run for it. There was no fevered action. More important than what towered above of me was the push/pull of what was going on at my feet. That was my guide of whether to slow down, hurry up, or move backward. Despite what my eyes saw, the dance at my feet was the key to success.

Melodramatic story short: never moving faster than a stroll, I waded out until the tide pulled and beckoned, then I pushed off and swam into its pull. Easy as that, I was behind the breaks and bobbing safely out of the crash zone. It was like having a balcony view of the beach, so I saw it when two guys toss down their towels and stormed the beach. Like everyone else there, they'd watched what I'd done (most of them in parental horror), and these guys hadn't come to Hawaii for nothing!

They were going to swim, by golly! And massive waves weren't going to stop them!

If my bad example enticed these two guys to brave waters they didn't understand, then watching these two guys get pounded back to the beach kept the rest of the tourists from following my bad example. In fact, as I watched the athletic guys get beat down and sand scratched, my own confidence wavered at my ability to get out of the situation I'd put myself in.

Had I overestimated my abilities?

When the time came to get out (i.e. I noticed some well-meaning parents thought I was stuck), I swam over to the danger zone, lifting, dropping, and mostly doing my best to ignore all the fear channeled my direction. This was between me and the wave.

I bobbed until my opening came. I knew because the water swirling around me told me the very instant I had to make my move. No hesitating. No forcing the moment. Just being in the moment and being aware of the laws that governed me.

I can't site many moments of true grace in my life. I've certainly never been confused for a ballerina, but if I ever had a moment of grace in my life, this was it. It was as if I'd been lowered by gentle hands to stroll to safety while framed in angry white water. In THAT moment, and for those few breaths of my life, I had been EXACTLY in tune with the laws of nature--laws that would just as soon smash me to the beach and turn me into fish food as guide me to safety like an overindulgent guardian angel.

It was this experience, combined with many others that altered my understanding of God and justice.

Water is not malicious. It doesn't go out of its way to hurt you. It simply follows the laws that govern it, without exception. Different people walk up to the same wave, with dramatically different results. Some can't get their footing while others play with ease. Some put their towels too close and have them pulled out to sea. Others put them too far away and burn their feet on the sand trying to get to them. Same beach, different experiences.

The possibilities of what may happen are limitless when people do not understand the laws of the water. But once one learns, the possibilities of what can be done in the ocean vary from predictable to breathtaking. Surfing, sailing, swimming...whatever. They all require understanding of immutable laws that govern us whether we are aware of them or not.

All of nature is the same way. It will kill you just as soon as feed you. We're all part of the cycle, after all. Nature won't assassinate a squirrel while wrapping a protective cocoon around you. There is no bias or favoritism. Fire, earth, air, water... they're all obedient to the laws that govern them. And when we fight or ignore those laws, we are in their war path.

And that's why I think it's important to watch the tsunami footage. Not because I'm an alarmist that wants you to sign up for a food storage MLM which illicits sales by promoting fear, but because I think it is very, very important not to forget exactly how helpless we are when nature takes it up a notch. It is absolute silliness and worse than naivete to think that our ignorance will protect us.

My first day on the beach in Maui was an embarrassment. My thirtieth was arguably more dignified. After two months I was "getting" it and realizing how stupid I'd been before. In days following, I got a little less stupid.

Then I moved, and now it's been nearly three years. Trust me, I'm stupid again. Fully. I watched the power of the waters easily pulling cars and houses out to sea and thought, "I forgot." I forgot that I'd seen yachts tossed around like toys by heavy storms on the island, quickly creating multi-million-dollar scrap heaps. I forgot that the ocean didn't care if someone was on their honeymoon before it smashed them into a reef. I forgot that beach lines were approximate markers, not a die-hard property lines between what man claimed and what nature was allowed. I'd forgotten that nature is always in flux and doesn't care much for "should," and only deals with what "is."

We shouldn't forget, though. I implore us all not to ignore this moment of learning and contemplate the Bachelor instead. But don't get all mopey, doom-and-gloom either. Because if I can walk out of torrential waves like an effing Venus then there's hope for us all.

We just need to learn, be prepared, and practice. If we understand, we'll have a view outside of the danger zone when we encounter the tsunamis of our own lives.

First 1:30 is of water. After that it is footage of water moving to land. Both are worth seeing.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

New Title Unveiled

So I first wanted to give a big thanks to all of you who voted on which book should be my first "romance." It was a landslide victory, and the book was then titled, "The Cannon Curse."

But since that title doesn't exactly scream "romance," I thought I should rename it before submitting it to a publisher. And while it's not exactly ready to be sent off, I have come up with book's new name. And I really hope you like it. After all, this book has been a bit of a collaboration so if you hate, you might be able to talk me into changing the title.

Probably not, though. I really do like it.

So without further ado, I give you the new face of "The Cannon Curse." From now, and this day forward, it shall be forever known as:

The Love Misconnection

What d'ya think (besides the quite obvious observation that I have no future in the graphic design industry)?

Hope you like it, because I think it's going to be fun, fun, fun. And if you don't laugh out loud at least once... well, I've got nothing for you.

Thanks for reading