Jon Gregory's Blog, page 5

Your brain is ready to give up much before your…

body.  You  know this to be true if you’ve ever pushed yourself athletically.  When you just know you can’t go any further something inside of you pulls it out.  Whether you’re feeding off of stored energy reserves or some kind of mind over matter process really doesn’t matter, what does matter is this is a real thing you can use in other areas.

Like the creative pursuit.

If you’re waiting for inspiration, energy, flow or a muse … wait on, they show up after you begin.  They really get going when you reach down inside and pull out the reserves, the afterburners, that reservoir of energy we all have but seldom believe in.

Believe in it, make it show up by expecting it through what you do, not what you wait for.

Grab that blank sheet of paper or canvas and put something on it, the end result doesn’t get started by any other method.  Every great thing began with a thought, some uncertainty, and a  blank canvas – now go fire it up.

Onward.

J

A well known martial arts instructor had this to say…

“The brain is the weapon, your body is just a tool.”

Before you click off thinking martial arts and writing don’t go together, think about this:  the above quote applies to:

Everything in life.

You sit at your computer and play with a sentence structure or invent a character or pull a side plot out of your head that fixes an earlier problem – you are using a tool, but the impetus, the gun, the weapon…is your mind.  The typewriter, the pen, the keyboard…they are merely following instructions as they come spinning from your imaginative brain.

Take this into whatever part of your life you want to, and think about how similar it is to what I recently heard a Navy seal say on a podcast, “The brain is ready to give up way before the body is.”  It’s reverse, but it’s the same, it’s all in your head mate – now go use it.

Need more?  Go read “Living with a Seal” by Jesse Itzler.  https://amzn.com/B00U6DNZB2

“If you have a problem with the 3rd act…

the real problem is in the 1st act.”  Billy Wilder

Why did he say this and how can we use it?  My take is you need to have some idea where you’re going.  Not saying you need to outline, as that topic has been tackled by all of the best articles on this.  What I am saying is you need at least a road map.

If you start your story without a guideline of some sort, then all you’re really doing is writing a long, painful outline that you’re calling a first draft.  Trust me on this, I’ve done it.

A great book on this idea is “Story Engineering” by Larry Brooks.

So however you plan it out, an outline, a few sentences on a notepad, a spreadsheet or Scrivener…get something in front of you to show you where you’re headed, it will save you time, heartache and pain.

You don’t even need to stick with the plan, just put the car in drive, head down the road, and the rest … well, that’s why they call it writing.

Now go fire it up.

 

J

“The hardest thing about writing…

is not writing.”  James Baldwin

This quote was originally intended to convey the idea that the writing shouldn’t look like writing, to write a sentence so well that it doesn’t look like writing.  The reader isn’t distracted by a writer showing off, he’s just pulled into the story.

I see the above quote in another light.   You as a writer have a job description that can be easily manipulated into other seemingly valuable activities which end up as non essential paths down an endless slide of distraction and procrastination.

Your job is simple:  write.

Trying to find the time, the inspiration, the muse or the means is a waste…and in the end is much more frustrating than just getting in the chair and  putting words on paper.

So go fire it up, and just write.

It’s not inspiration, it’s not motivation, it’s this…

Habit.

The best writers, the most productive writers, the most productive anything do this one thing above all.

They do it every day.

That alone is the creator of what you were looking for in the first place.  The only way to get inspired, motivated or driven is to actually start.  Start anything, start small, get it in motion…the rest comes easier.

Nothing you read here or anywhere will motivate you.  You need to look  inside for it….and it’s a flame that you light.

Now go fire it up, make it a habit instead of a waiting game.

 

J

Big wave surfer Laird Hamilton is known for saying…

“Fear is the most common emotion in my life. I’ve been afraid for so long — well, honestly, I can’t ever remember not being afraid. It’s what you choose to do with that fear that makes all the difference.”

What does this have to do with writing or the creative spirit?

It has to do with life.

The sooner you can embrace the concept of getting comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable, the more you’ll do.

They used to call it embracing the fear.

I would calling it something simpler: Do the thing.

You’re afraid of it until you do it, then you’ll wonder what all the tension was.

Know go do something you’re uncomfortable with, and fire it up.

J

The greatest obstacle to discovery isn’t ignorance…

it’s the illusion of knowledge.

Said another way by the ever eloquent Mark Twain:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

We don’t know.  Some of us know we don’t know.  William Goldman in his book about screenwriting and Hollywood said something to the effect that nobody knows.  And he was  talking about mega producers that were throwing big movie budgets into something that in the end was just a throw of a dart.

If the smart guys that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars don’t know – your job just got a lot easier.  It’s not brains that gets it done, it’s the persistent attitude in a forward direction that accomplishes things.

Be persistent, sure in your course, adaptable, and realize even they don’t have the crystal ball… nobody does, so stop looking for it.

The best crystal ball is in your head using your actions as the guiding force.

Now go fire it up.

 

J

Fools and fanatics are always so sure of themselves…

…while the wiser ones are so full of doubts.

The louder they talk the less I hear.  If you are pounding the table with certainty I doubt you even more.  It’s the guy over there in the corner, quietly taking it all in, that’s who I want to hear.

Just one problem.

He’s keeping his mouth shut, he knows he doesn’t know.  And therein lies his strength.

It’s like the old saw when asked about the direction of something unpredictable like the stock market or interest rates or what have you:

“Those that know ain’t saying, and those that are saying don’t know.”

The great thing about this is that you don’t need to know to make it work, you just need to do.

So go fire it up, regardless of what you know.  It will work, just not how you think it will.

 

J

If more information was the answer…

we’d all be billionaires with 6-pack abs.

Seriously, lack of information isn’t the problem – if you want to find out how to do something, it’s there.  Need to change your brakes: YouTube; need to change your eating routine: blogs; need to learn how to write on a regular basis?  Oh wait…that’s a tough one.

Only problem is we as writers are drawn to articles, blogs and books that will somehow make the craft easier, more structured, more “in some kind of flow state”.  Message for you reading this:  stop looking.   It’s inside you, has been all the time.  You have everything you need to write your story or hone your craft – the only thing left is actually what can’t be taught: persistence, consistency, ritual.  Soldiers do it, pilots do it, doctors do it – a checklist of the necessary ingredients of a ritual or routine.  The doing of those items one at a time without waiting for the right moment.

So, unplug from the overdose of information and out there and be the creator you want to be, instead of the consumer of the creativity of someone else.

It’s starts with only one step… the first one.

Now go fire it up.

 

J

The bar has been raised… how does that affect you?

Entertainment, the kind that we’re interested in: books, movies, blogs…etc.  Whatever your creative outlet is, you have been schooled.   If you look at what is out there it’s amazing.  I didn’t click on it but saw a post headline today about some film made entirely with a rear back up camera on a vehicle.

How do you even come up with that?

More importantly, how do we follow that with something interesting?

I don’t have the answer.

But… I don’t think you need one.  You just need ingenuity, a genuine message, and a format that is new or a twist on an old one.  The fact that the bar has been raised shouldn’t be seen as a threat to your work…far from it.

The bar being raised is your perfect excuse to give us your best.  I know you already are, but go back to it and ask:  …and then? ….what if? … suppose I reverse the ideas?… If this character were cast as…?  … The time line, is it possible that I can begin the story in the middle instead of where it starts now?

You get the idea, the bar being raised raises your level, now go show us what that is.

 

J