Jon Gregory's Blog, page 4

Somebody’s got to get in trouble, or…

no one wants to read it.

Conflict my friends.

Rising conflict.  Stakes…then higher stakes.

Dilemmas, paradoxes, no escape from the dangers.

Go see a thriller or read one.  If you’re breathlessly gripping your seat or turning the pages it’s because the author has raised the stakes.  He or she has given someone you care about and thrown them to the wolves.

Your story is a moving train, the speed of it is up to you…in my mind the faster that train is headed for the precipice the more I want to read.

Keep asking yourself as you develop the plot: “Okay, what’s the worst thing that could happen now?”

Then… ask it again.

Write it out, then ask it again.

Pursue this until you…the writer…are breathlessly writing those pages.  This is what your reader is asking of you.

Give it to ’em.

J

Don’t know who said this, but it works…

“The best things in your life happen outside your comfort zone.”

It’s in our heads to seek comfort, security, the sure thing.  It’s in your best interest to not do that.  Pretty sure it was Helen Keller who said “Life is either a great adventure, or nothing.”  The great adventure, that’s up to you to decide what it is…but I guarantee you…there will be steps along the way that are way outside of your comfort zone.

When you visualize them, analyze them and prepare for them you will feel the fear and resistance that every creative adventure is full of.

Three words for you…

Do it anyway.

The comfort zone your brain seeks isn’t designed to get you anywhere except to a warm bed at night.  Get out of it.  Look back on the great things you remember in your life…they all started out there.

No go show us something great.

J

The story you want to tell is sitting right in front of…

What – you think I know where it is?

You right now have everything you need to complete your act of creation, whatever that is – a book, a sculpture, a painting…you can search for tools, gadgets, apps and articles that verify your search for these things.  But in the end the only thing that stands in between you and a finished work…

is you.

Get…out…of…your…own…way.  Be the creative spirit you want to be instead of wondering how you can become more  creative.  Write, paint, do, redo, edit, get active and the world opens up.  Wonder how to get more active and you’ll sit there forever.

Go fire it up, make it part of who you are.  It’s be, not want to be.

J

Write the…

book you want to read.  The movie you want to see.  The story you wish was out there, told and set the way you see it in your head.

We all want that catharsis, to be led down a path we can’t go on without you.  We will give you our attention, our eyes, our ears…if you just give us…

that which is inside you when you dig deeper, look longer and write like you don’t care how it looks on the page.

Go brew up your version of a perfect storm, it may be just what we’re looking for.

Onward,

J

Ever read one of those writing books with a title like…

Finish your novel in 30 days, Write your breakout bestseller on weekends, finish that book inside you in 90 days, write your outline in 60 minutes…you get the idea – do they work?

Nope – you do.

These books are neither good nor bad, they just are.  If you commit to writing your novel in 30 days, write down the steps it will take to do it, then do those steps – well there you have it.  If you say you’re committed on your blog and to your friends – but don’t follow through with the steps…then there is another name for that:

Being committed to the idea of being committed.

Go further, keep it simple, stop looking for the secret.  Everything you need to finish it is already inside you – look within –

Now, go fire it up.

 

J

 

“We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from…

our laptops.”  John Cleese

Like so many of the geniuses out there the beauty here is simplicity.   We can pretend we’re writing by searching, surfing, researching, reading…and all those other “ing” activities.

The real work ends in ing as well…writing.  The act of writing is the idea generator.  Looking for something before you start writing is a charade.  Put it down, throw it out, put more down, work it – repeat.

That’s how the pros do it, always have, always will.

So go fire it up without waiting.

 

Onward,   J

Chuck Palahniuk once said…

“Write the book you want to read.”

You ever get frustrated trying to find the next great book to put on the stack, tossing most aside, wondering what good stuff is out there you haven’t seen yet?

We all do.

That’s why you need to write.

Write the story that’s inside you… of course you’re not sure what it is, or how to start, much less how to end it.

But if you just wrote down what you want to see in a good book- things like theme, setting, pacing, characters…

then…

make that you’re starting point.

The creation of something, birth of an idea onto the printed page… we’re all waiting to read it…work it and show us what you’re made of.

Now, go fire it up.

Most writers are split about whether to outline or go by the seat of your pants…

My preference is to know where you’re going, at least some signposts you can head towards, then veer off of when it feels right.   However…

There is nothing to beat being stuck, back against the wall, blinking cursor mocking you…than to just let ‘er rip.  Make it up, take a side road, kill a character, bring back a subplot with a different location, change the dialogue from third to first – just…get…keystrokes…down.

Will you use these in the final draft?  Who knows?  Most likely not.  But…no great story was ever written without some of this going on.  So whether you’re an outliner or not, release the shackles and just kill it with the keyboard…amazing things have come of this, give it a shot and show us what you come up with.

Onward

 

J

If you’re a writer, or anybody who creates…read this book:

 

Nobody Wants to Read You Sh*t: Why That is and What you can do about it.

The number of books on how to write a book are infinite, most are uninspiring, while a few are timeless.

This one cuts right to it.  Pressfield, who also wrote  The War of Art, one of the timeless ones, has distilled into a 2 hour read the honest truth about structure, content, theme and the hero’s journey.

If you are tired of fluff in writing books this will appeal to you – there isn’t any fluff.  It’s real world gritty meat that will stick with you.

Now go read it, and show us what you can do.

The wind sucked itself inside his collar, persistent, ice,

damp, the severity of the Golden Gate Bridge on a February night a sharp contrast to the beaches a few miles south.  

He peered over the railing. 

Black.  Foghorns, buoys clanging. 

Through the mist off the southern end, the skyline.  Eerie, blurred through the fog, he could still make out the steel columns of the pyramid, and the steep street of Divisadero.  The lighthouse on Alcatraz glowed on the horizon with a regular beat.

  The railing was wet, cold, rough to the touch.  Traffic was minimal but consistent, the bridge never slept, late parties, road trippers, occasional limos.  The orange towers reached above the fog line casting a yellowish glow over the asphalt below.  He snuck behind the south tower, putting himself between it and the railing. 

  It was darker here.

  His car was at the south lot, one of only a few at this hour.  Cameras were perched everywhere keeping an eye out for breakdowns, foul play…and jumpers. 

  He would give them no time.

  Swinging his left leg up over the railing…

 

So begins the sequel to Run For the Money https://amzn.com/B00MAN5WS0