Writing is Like Acting

In high school and college, I took lots of acting classes and performed on stage. You wouldn't think that would have much to do with writing fiction, but writers can learn from actors. How, you may ask?

1. Actors (at least those who use the "method" technique) learn to "become" the character they play on stage. Good writers "become" their protagonist when they are writing. They put themselves in the head of their characters so that everything they write feels authentic and natural.

2. Actors must learn to stretch their personal boundaries. They cannot let their inhibitions or the judgment of others stand in the way of their art. Writers need to do the same thing. They need to write what comes to them regardless of what others may think. Every time they put pen to paper, they need to think about how they can take what they are doing even father and go even deeper.

3. Actors must pour their soul into their work. Every night, no matter how many times they've performed the same part, actors must play it with the same freshness and energy they had on opening night. Fiction writers need to do the same when they pick up their pen. If writing becomes just another task or chore, it loses something important.

Continuing our recent hug-fest...

Agent Nathan Bransford (a darn nice guy, btw) commented on the danger of writers committing themselves so fully to their art that "WRITER" becomes the watchword of who they are.

Point taken. But (you knew there was going to be one), as I responded to him in part:

Creatives own a sensibility that doesn't apply to other people. It's just different, and it doesn't matter whether you're in music or computer programming or graphic arts or writing. I'm a mom, wife, friend, writer, etc. But if you want to get at the essence of what I AM, the best word is "artist."

I used to be an interior designer. Even now, I suffer from withdrawal when I could not build rooms. I'm constantly tablescaping and restyling walls of pictures (mostly when I can't think what to write next). It's the same when I'm not able to write stories. Ask my husband. If I go a few days without writing I get crabby with a capital K. My husband knows this to be true, but I don't know that he could articulate why it is true. He doesn't own the same sensibility, the same drive to create, to share who he is via media like words and paint and rooms.

A bookkeeper may excel (no pun intended) at what s/he does, but s/he probably does not get irritable when they don't get to keep books for awhile. They might not like the work piling up, but I doubt they feel much of a physical need to put numbers in boxes. Those numbers in boxes do not tap into the essence of who they are. S/he doesn't pour out the Self into their spreadsheets. *

Artists--or my preferred term: creatives--tend to do just that. Like Dave said, every page, every painting, every room, every computer program (yeah, you heard me) has a part of its creator's soul locked in it. But rather than losing pieces of ourselves, that's how Creatives rebuild ourselves, by building things outside the self. To me, it's almost as if there's a finite amount of space inside me, and the untold stories start to crowd me out. I actually feel a bit dead inside when I go a certain amount of time without creative expression. I highly doubt I'm the only one around here who feels that way.

I can say that here. You probably get it. But most people are never going to understand that artists are not whole without the act of creating. They don't understand the compulsion, the drive. Let that go and always accept it about yourself. Shoot, embrace that about yourself. We certainly do.



* this is not to downplay or degrade bookkeepers in any way.

You've got soul!

Is there a gap between who you are deep inside and the self you present to the world in your day- to-day routine? For most people, there is. We can't help it. So many things around us pull us toward the mundane. We're bombarded with messages about how important it is to make more money, have a better car, live in a bigger house, live the "good" life. It is very easy to get caught on that treadmill, focused on things we "have to" do that make the self we present to the world "better" while doing nothing for that deeper self.

These mundane messages can be even worse for writers--if we let them. The message from society is that writing is not a worthy endeavor unless you can prove you are successful in the mundane world: have you been published? lately? how much $ have you made? do people know who you are? do you have fans? have you pleased the critics?

Sometimes I have to remind myself that those are the wrong measurements. Sure, they'd be nice to achieve, but a better measure of success in writing (and in life, for that matter) is what you have done for your soul. Every time we put words to paper (or pixels), we writers are letting our deep inner self shine through. We are stepping off  treadmill of the mundane and refusing to listen to those negative messages that try to keep us running after that surface success.

Everyone who writes puts a little bit of their soul into it. Ironically, those who are most successful at letting their soul shine through in their writing tend to find commercial success as well. I think that's what Betsy was talking about in her earlier post about her "nasty little short story." She wasn't afraid to pour her true self into it, and she ended up getting rewarded on a personal and professional level.   

Creative Thinking

You all, if you read this blog, if you submit to our ezine, if you are writing at all, you're engaging in your own creative process. Not only that, if you're reading this blog and submitting to the magazine, or just even reading the magazine, you're on the leading edge of the creative process. (Incidentally, readers engage in that too. Reading is a very creative endeavor.)

Within the laser-focus of speculative short fiction, I still view e-zines as the leading edge vehicle to get our short stories into the hands of readers. Most of our readers are as comfortable with computers as they are with fireflies the size of dragons and spaceship galleys that split atoms and come up with coffee. Reading online has almost become a security blanket thing. To me, it means there's something always there, always new, always changing. Inertia unnerves me.

Story is among the world's oldest art forms. Some even say there are no new stories. But there are a lot of ways to think and be creative within in the confines of story. We rewrite history and old tales. We spin ancient themes and apply them to today. Some stories are based on bald-face curiosity, and some on tangled intrigue. But at it's best, speculative fiction has always led the herd down unknown paths.

Go here for all the forms of creative thought.

Point is, there's no wrong way to go about making a story.There is no right way to come up with an idea. Not only that, there are no wrong ideas. Some have been used before, of course, which sometimes makes people think they're wrong. But, referring back to my last post, if you infuse your work with you and your own worldview, it'll be new and creative. Easier said than done. But all you have to do is take a look at our slush to realize it's so worth it.

Keep 'em coming!