Fiction Writing: The Passionate Journey. Blog of Writing Coach, Emily Hanlon: creative process

Friday, November 07, 2014

How the Fiction Writer Learns to Welcome the Unknown

How the Writer Welcomes the Unknown in Fiction

"... the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself... alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the sweat and the agony."-- Willliam Faulkner

What is good fiction writing technique? How do we unleash the creative energy through the channels of character and story?

Craft and technique are necessary, but the trick is to not put the cart before the horse. Technical expertise alone cannot release the writer's passion, and the perfectly turned phrase will please the ego, but if it doesn't translate into something meaningful for the character and story, it is so much wasted word count.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

The Power of A Good Critique for the Fiction Writer

Power of a good critique in Fiction Writing

A good critique never leaves you deflated. It always leaves you inspired.

Receiving a critique with curiosity and an open mind and knowing how to critique others writing are two of the most enriching aspects of belonging to a fiction writing workshop. Having your work critiqued in a supportive atmosphere where there is a professional writing coach is a terrific learning experience in many way ways.

Whether you are participating in a writing workshop or working with a private writing coach, a good critique encourages the silencing of your Inner Critic, your willingness to take risks with your writing and releases your creative passion.

A Good Critique Inspired, Never Deflates...

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Why and How Your Inner Critic Stops You from Writing?

How the Inner Critic Gains A Foothold
Here is a scenario about how the Inner Critic gains a foothold in our lives. Imagine you are a little kid and you go to touch something that is hot and your mother screams, “Don’t do that!” Or, you are playing in the dirt, having a grand time, and your mother says in horror, “Oh my God! We are going to grandma’s house and you’re filthy dirty!”

The Inner Critic Wants to Keep You Safe, but at What Cost?

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Why Do We Make Writing So Hard?

We make writing a lot harder than it is meant to be. Don’t get me wrong—writing is not a piece of cake. It is hard work, but it’s good hard work, like digging in the earth to make a garden. The problem for many of us is that our minds have convinced us that sitting down to write a story much less a book is at best painful, at worst impossible.

I believed this for many years –– and despite that I managed to get five novels, two picture books and one book on writing published. I don’t believe in the pain theory of writing any more. Experience and age has convinced me of this:

Friday, March 14, 2014

Do You Want You Want Your Fiction Writing to Expand Like Crazy?

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole: Wonderland as Metaphor!
How Far Down the Rabbit Hole Are You Willing to Go?

Falling down the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland is a perfect metaphor for the creative journey which can never take place in the “real” or conscious world. Writing, whether it be fiction, poetry or nonfiction, finds its origins in the dark, fertile chaos of the unconscious.

The Importance of Tweedledum and Tweedledee
If you don’t meet Cheshire cats and Mad Hatters, Tweedledees and Tweedledums, mad queens, dragons, flying monkeys and monsters, or your version of the above, then you have not fallen.

This is not to say you have to be writing fantasy or horror to open to your unconscious, but as you will see, the journey for the writer must hold metaphorically a good sprinkling of both.

Explore Emily's workbook, The Art of Fiction Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying.... Paperback and e-book available

Friday, March 07, 2014

Are You Right Brain or Left Brain Dominant?

The Right Brain Leads the Dance of Creativity...

Creativity is a subtle dance between the rational and the intuitive, between the left and right parts of the brains. In terms of writing, we would say that technique comes from the left side of the brain and imagination from the right side. Both are needed. People, by nature, are usually right brain or left dominant. Some are more in balance than others, and no matter which you are, you can learn how to build muscle into whichever side you are weaker.

Here is a look at some of the ways that the many people with whom I have worked over the past 30 years relate to their right and left brain tendencies. This is by no means a complete view of the spectrum but I believe it is fairly typical of fiction writers.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

When Inspiration Strikes, It's well... Cryptic!

Writer's Inspiration comes from strange places! E.L. Doctorow Quote

How does the writer make sense of mysterious and cryptic connections that excites the creative unconscious?
Don't need it to make sense. Just go with it. Play with it. See what turns up.

What follows is a quote from E L Doctorow on how his new book, Brain of Andrew began. Won't make sense to the logical mind, but clearly his creative unconscious saw it as something to run with!

"Many years ago, I worked for a man, a good decent man in the movie business. And he told me one day that years before he had been feeding medicine to his infant child with an eye dropper and it was the wrong medication. And as a result, the child died. And he had a couple of other stories that made me realize that he was an inadvertent agent of disaster, leaving a wake behind him of terrible events. And I also had the image in my mind - I don't know where it came from - of a girl with colored pencils drawing on a pad and then she sees an adult trying to see what she's done. And so she takes the pencil in her hand and scribbles over what she's been so carefully doing. And those two images somehow combined in some sort of evocative way and got me writing this book."

Good advice!
Have you had such an experience? If so, share it with us.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Waiting for Inspiration: Fiction Writer's Beware!

Waiting for Inspiration: A warning to Fiction Writers

Waiting for inspiration to write, or searching for the "just right" opening sentence or paragraph will, more often than not, make you nuts.

Let's look at inspiration first. It does come to all of us. It might appear as a sudden flash of a whole story or scene or poem or essay. You have it! You know you have it! You sit down to write and the words flow like magic. Moments like this are truly a gift from the Muse and to her I say, "Thank you so very much."

More often, inspiration gets you to pick up pen and paper or go to the computer to writer, but no sooner do you begin than you find yourself in a labyrinth of words and thoughts. And all had been so clear only moments before. In despair, you give up, feeling like a failure. "So much for inspiration," you sigh.

Monday, April 01, 2013

The Power of Image for the Writer

An image is worth a thousand words... that's actually true, especially for a fiction writer. Find out why.

If you begin with words you might be handing over control of your writing session to your Inner Critic!
Many writers have the misconception that words drive writing, that in order to begin you have to have the right first sentence or paragraph. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you begin with words, that's where you'll end up, lost in a quagmire of words. Why? Because

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

What Does Creative Success Mean to You?

Who is Defining "Success" in your world?
We all have our definitions of what it means to be successful with our creativity. All too often, those definitions are based upon the insatiable appetite of the ego for outer world recognition. Not that there is anything wrong with outer world success. There isn't! The problem is that if we buy the ego story that outer world success is the reason we create, we will depend on the judgments of others and will never know creative fulfillment and its sustaining passion and joy.

There is no everlasting pot of gold at the end of outer world success.
Let's explore the effects on our writing when the need for outer world success becomes a driving force. Notice I used the word need, which arises out of the ego desires and not the creative source within us. When this happens, the endless loop of thoughts may run something like this:

Monday, April 18, 2011

The Greatest Gift of Writing

Writing as a Gift for the Writer, Quote by Henry Miller

The greatest gift of writing is discovering who you truly are.
Not the small you who gazes with fear and longing outward into the world, but the expansive You, who talks in dreams and ignites your imagination through a summer breeze, a raging storm, a war torn landscape and the touch of love.

This is the You who guides the pen and gives your fingers their flight across the keyboard.

This is the You who calls you to the most challenging of life's journeys.

Imagination is more powerful than the workings of the mind.
When you sit down to write, don't think. Put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write.

"We are all guilty of the great crime of not living life to the full. But we are all potentially free. We can stop thinking of what we have failed to do and do whatever lies within our power. What those powers that are in us may be, no one has truly dared to imagine. That they are infinite we will realize the day we admit to ourselves that imagination is everything. Imagination is the voice of daring." --Henry Miller

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Looking for a way to open to your imagination? The Art of Fiction Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying shows you how. The Art of Fiction Writing is now an ebook for only $8.99! Explore the e-book.

Are You Looking for a Writing Coach or Writing Workshop?
Explore Emily's Coaching and workshops at TheFictionWritersJourney.com

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Falling In Love: The Great Romance Between Writer and Character

Talking to my dog about drama, love, hate, desire, envy ... what a story!!

Recently, I was considering the question of peace, which doesn't happen often while writing fiction. There's all that drama, love, hate, desire, envy and so on. Peace, with any luck, comes at the end of the novel.

I was considering this aimlessly as I lay with my head on Phoebe's warm flank one cold winter's day. Phoebe, being the sensitive, intuitive creature she is, immediately tuned into my musings and suggested we consider the question of love instead, which she quite rightly observed was a precursor to true peace. As she is an expert in both, I decided to go with her feelings.

"It can't be mushy love, all slurpy with wet noses and such," I reminded her. "Not that I don't love your slurpy, wet nosed kisses, but these are writers I'm writing for. Love, hate, war, peace, birth, death — the human drama — we can't be too obvious."

Friday, January 14, 2011

Pitfalls of the Character Driven Writer. Posting # 2 in the Series: Plot or Character? Which Is More Important?

When too much chaos is too much!
In the previous posting, I explored the strengths of the character driven writer. Today I am exploring one of the pitfalls many character driven writers face:

You get overwhelmed by the chaos of creativity into which you so easily find yourself.

Antidote: Don't give up.
Understand the power of creative chaos and learn to swim in it.Trust that you will not drown so long as you go with the tide, even if when draws you into whirlpools!

How is this played out with our characters?

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Plot or Character in Fiction Writing: Which Is More Important? The Series Begins Here!

Which is more important: plot or character is the wrong question to ask!

I am beginning a series that will continue over several weeks or more that explores the question of which is more important: Plot or Character?

Although it is an often asked question, I think it's the wrong question for the fiction writer to ponder. Both character and plot are vital to storytelling.

A better question to ask is:
Am I a plot driven writer or a character driven writer.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

When Inspiration Calls the Writer -- Don't Hang Up!

Don't wait for inspiration, just start writing!

When Inspiration Calls the Writer, What to Do Next

Waiting for inspiration in order to write, or searching for the "just right" opening sentence or paragraph will, more often than not, make you nuts.

Then there are the blessed moments when inspiration arrives.
You suddenly get an idea and pick up pen and paper. (I use “pen and paper” metaphorically because in my inner landscape, I can’t see the Muse sitting at a computer!) Sometimes the inspiration is truly spectacular and an entire story, character, scene, poem or essay writes itself. When you are done, you feel incredibly enlivened. Like a real writer!!!

More often, when inspiration arrives and you sit down to write, all had been so brilliantly clear moments before, becomes muddy.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Ah, What If You Plucked A Strange and Beautiful Flower? A Writing Prompt

Let your imagination fly!

A Writing Prompt. Quote Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"What if you slept, and what if in your sleep you dreamed, and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower, and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand?"

Ah, what then?
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This morning, I received this email, that I want to share:
Hi Emily,
I'm having lots of fun with this prompt. Last night I read it to each of my grandchildren, then asked them to tell me a story. I then transcribed their stories on my iTouch. They are so entranced they can't wait to build their story.

I told them to listen for stories in their dreams and they could tell me in the morning so we could write them down. Ian is on chapter two already (just turned 8yr). Julia (4yr) wrote hers herself in my notebook. I'll need a little help translating her phonetic spelling, but there is clearly a story there. What delightful little minds they have.

Thanks for the prompt. Maybe I'll even write my own story. HA. But for now I'm delighted to have a hand in igniting the next generation.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful to have you in my life to fuel my own fires.

Blessings, Patresa

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Being a Warrior for Your Writing and Creativity!

Be a Warrrior for Your Writing and Creativity. Quote Fran Leibowitz

An interviewer asked Fran Leibowitz why, if it's so hard, she continues to write. She said: "The rewards of any warrior. The word that best describes my feeling of having written is triumphant — triumphant on the level of Alexander the Great. Having overcome your worst fear, the thing you are most vulnerable to, that is the definition of heroic. Also, it's such a worthwhile human activity. The most."

Amen!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

The Power of the Dark for the Fiction Writer

I sent my Soul through the Invisible

And by and by my Soul returned to me

And answer’d ‘I myself am Heav’n and Hell.’
—Omar Khayyam, Sufi poet

The Shadowland of the human psyche is grist for the writer's mill.
As the poem by Omar Khayyam suggests, our power as human beings comes from the blending of the light and dark, the gentle and powerful. Power can be used to create or destroy. Destruction can be seen as positive or negative. Darkness can be terrifying or magnificent.

Your Inner Writer knows that creating is a constant dance between heaven and hell, yin and yang, intuitive and rational, head and gut and heart, and in that dance there is no right and wrong, no like and dislike; there is simply being and dancing the passionate dance. It is this shadow world of the human psyche that becomes the grist for the artist’s mill.

The Task of the Artist Is to Bring the Dark into the Light

Saturday, February 28, 2009

For the Fiction Writer, the Depth of Our Humanness Is Fertile Material for Our Writing

Darkside has nothing to do with evil or morality.
It has nothing to do with ethics or lack thereof. Darkside is a label attached to psychological material that lies in the shadows of consciousness and even deeper, buried in the unconscious. Your darkside material holds some of the most fertile ground for your writing.

When you deny your darkside, you might well be denying the best parts of you.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

In Fiction Writing, Words Are the Vehicle for the Visceral Experience

The role of language and words in fiction writing

Fiction writing is not about language.
It is about experience and feelings, and where do experience and feelings lie? In the body. Nothing is more human than the body, and few things are more confounding than the passions that lie within: everything from the most tender love to the most murderous rage. Therefore, if as writers we are to explore and express the human condition, we must approach our task through the body, not through the mind ― through experience, not through words. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and literally experience everything you write about. That’s what the imagination is for. You imagine and the characters unleashed from your creative unconscious live the life and through them, you live it, too.

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