Look Beyond the Surface - Connecting with Creativity

This is a post more about the creative process rather than a technique so bear with me.

As you are aware, I am in the process of editing and revising my book. On positive side, I am happy with the story. I can see the potential. I love the characters, and the world.

But it's a gem that needs a damn good polish.

Initially, as I was going over the revised first scene, I knew something wasn't right. It was bit discouraging knowing something isn't right, but not knowing quite what it is. It's not a question of good dialogue or wrong spelling. All that is fine. And yet something was missing.

But while I was worrying about that last week, my muse insisted on playing. I had a non-fiction project brewing in my mind for over a year, and suddenly the ideas started pouring out so I decided to let the Muse be in-charge, and made notes. I say, made notes, because I barely had to think. It was fabulous, and gave me such a high that no amount of caffeine or chocolate has ever done.

I could have forced myself to stick to my WIP, keep trolling through the editing. A part of me did feel guilty for not making as much progress with editing as I had scheduled, but a greater part of me was happy and content, and knew this was the right thing. So muse and I played, and then we took some time to read a new book on journaling, which inspired us to dig deeper into our journal, and now we are both refreshed, and know that we are ready to talk to our main character.

Because after giving myself time to just be creative without worrying about the end product, I also realised what bothered me about my WIP. The overall tone of the story is not yet as I want it to be. The main character's voice seems to casual for the story, or for his own depth.

After taking the time to be creative through my journal, just enjoying the fun, I can move forward. Editing on schedule is all very well, and I am not against discipline. Discipline is a key to succeed if one wants to have a long-term writing career, but we also have to remember that this isn't a regular, logical job. This is a creative process - and it has its own schedule, and sometimes it knows far better than we do, when we are ready to move forward.

So this evening, I plan to have a good chat with my MC and see what he has to tell me. Meanwhile, I shall continue to analyse my WIP rather than be fixated with making it perfect immediately. I need to understand the problems before I can fix them. I need to look below the surface - listen to what the story and the characters have to say. And sometimes, I just need to throw the schedule out of the window, and listen to the Muse.

Check out my Guest Post

Hello All,

I am doing a guest post over at the Editing Hat TOMORROW on Sunday, thanks to Adam for giving me my first guest post :-)

Topic: How Writer's Journal can be a useful tool for every writer

I will answer comments there. Hope to see you there - and while you are there, have a nose around Adam's blog. You'll probably enjoy his whackadoodle sense of humour.  I definitely do :-D

How Formal Is Your Everyday Writing?

This question occured to me as I was writing in my journal, and thinking about Virginia Woolf's diary. I was planning to read unedited versions of her journals, but when I looked at them they just irritated me, because not only it was in the usual 19th cent. style with lots of initials and & symbols everywhere (Jane Austen does that too), but also there were tons of notes on each page, giving us information of what it all meant. It was just distracting. But fortunately, her husband has written an edited version of "Writer's Diary" taking entries from her diaries that relate to writing. He also mentioned in the introduction that he will dispense with the notes and dots so as not to distract the reader. And I am thankful for that. But as I was writing about that in my journal, I noticed my own style. Even my journals aren't completely casual. For example, I nearly always say "I have" or "I am" as oppose to "I've" or "I'm". Even in the stories it is hard for me to remember to do that. I use full sentences. There are rare exceptions like being too tired, or in an extreme need of getting information out in a hurry. But usually even in those circumstances, I write down those notes on a post-it, and then when I transfer them to journal, they are properly written. Same goes for travel journals. Why do I do it? Simple answer is for myself. When I read my journals months or years later, I want things to make sense. I want to be able to read it without getting irritated at bad hand-writing or for things that make no sense. If I am writing emails, I want people to be able to understand what I am trying to say without guessing it. And if I am chatting, I don't want to come across as an illiterate moron who cannot spell things. (yes, I hate the current chat lingo. LOL or BRB is about as far as I am willing to go). Oh yes, paragraphs. Totally hate it when a paragraph is so long, it just all looks like a big block of text. What do you think? Are all these things important only in the work that we are trying to publish, or do they matter in every-day casual interactions too? For me, they most certainly do.

Example of my journal pages. Occassionally they are less orderly, but this is quite standard

Example of casul journal page, a quick map drawing in the museum

A Hobby to Replace a Hobby

Writing used to be my hobby. It was something I did it in my free time, for fun. It is still something I do it in my free time. It is still fun (most of the times). But it is no longer a hobby. Now it's a dream of a lifetime. An ambition to achieve. Something to strive for. Recently it occured to me - when I was beating myself up for not being productive - that all the obsessing doesn't help. If I am not writing for whatever reason, moaning at myself (mentally) is hardly going to make me creative. So I decided that in those times, I needed to do something that was relaxing, fun but also something that would help me loosen up and be creative at the same time. And the answer was already there in the back of my mind, on a long list of things I would like to try - Art Journaling, Drawing, Painting. I am obsessive about journaling, but I want to take it to a different level by including art rather than just words. I enjoy drawing/painting, but I am not very good, so I need to learn. And as a result a new blog is born. Journal Addict is my blog to record a different journey. All about journaling and creativity. It's about being creative without obsessing about success - because I only want to be a paid writer, not necessarily a paid artist. It's about fun, joy, and the pleasure of making something with your own hand. So if you fancy a look, pop over and see if you enjoy it.

Keeping Journals

Jamie at Variety Pages suggested doing a post about journals. Since I am totally journal obsessed person, I volunteered rather eagerly. Technically, there is a difference between a diary and a journal. A diary is a day to day recording of one's life. More like an accounting ledger. A journal is suppsoed to be a recording of one's thoughts, feelings and reflections. My own journals are a combination of both, so here when I use the term "Journal", I mean a combination of both factual events, as well as reflection on those events. Historically, journals were a popular thing. It is very common to find that a lot of educated men and women kept journals. But today, it is no longer the case. In my personal life, I don't know a single person who keeps a journal. That in my opinion is a real shame. We may think our life is not exciting or fascinating, but neither was Virginia Woolf's in her own time, or Cesar's in his own time (hey, battles were an everyday event. There was nothing different about them). Besides, the purpose isn't just to record, but to analyse, and to free oneself from one's own preconceptions. When you journal, you are making memories. For yourself, if you choose to keep your journal private. Memories change with experience. As we grow as people, the things we remember, shift in perspective. But if you have it written down in black and white, then you know exactly how you felt when you were sixteen, and if today is any different. Do we have to understand it? Of course, we don't. But we are writers. Writers get into characters' heads. We write about people. We feel them. And you know what - the scariest thing of all is to get inside one's own head, to raise questions that you do not know the answers to. Journaling with honesty takes courage. I have been keeping journals regularly since 2002. I know that I will always keep regular journals, because I very much regret not keeping them when I was younger. As of today I have: A regular journal: I write in this almost every day, or fairly regularly. This is where whatever's happening in life goes, and various thoughts, goals etc. Anything I want to. I also work on improving my journaling techniques. My first couple of journals were more or less diaries, or full of miserable rants. Then as I read over them, I learnt that I needed to focus on happy things too. Now, I am working on learning to make my journals more visually attractive by adding non-written stuff (semi-art journaling) into it. I am still working on it, because by nature, I like neat, tidy writing. A Dream Journal: I only write in this one when I have dreams that stick in my mind. My dreams are by no means enlightening thunder bolts. They are weird, and mixture of usually more than one country. But I write them anyway. Tarot Journal: This is also irregular one. I write in this when I pick up a tarot deck. This is actually a mixture of tarot reading, as well as creative-writing prompt, because sometimes I use Tarot Cards as writing prompts. Travel Journals: Every time I go away somewhere, I write a travel journal. This is another area where I am working on improving my skill. Writing Journal: This is every-day writer's journal, which I started keeping only recently. Here, just misc. writing stuff. So these are the journals, and they do not include all the scribble pads and post-its I may use. Some pictures of my journals:

FINISHED JOURNALS

FROM TURKEY TRAVEL JOURNAL

FROM ITALY TRAVEL JOURNAL

A PILE OF JOURNALS