The Most Fascinating Person in the Room

I'm an instructor at a local college and we're starting a new quarter tomorrow. My students' first assignment is to tell me why they are the most fascinating person in the room. And of course, I'll start things off by telling them a little about myself: I was a professional clown, I'm forty years old, I have a four-year-old daughter, and I write books for other people.

I'll tell them that I hope they learn as much about themselves as they learn about "writing." And that's the truth. There are so many people in this world who know very little about themselves. They don't know their passions. They don't know their beliefs. They don't know what makes them tick.

That's the amazing thing about writing: it gives you the chance to learn about yourself and the world around you. If I can encourage just one person in the classroom (and on this blog) to dig a little deeper, that will be enough. Why are you the most fascinating person in the room? What is your passion? What are your beliefs? What makes you tick?

The Weird Mental Processes of Tim Burton

So I was reading an article on Tim Burton, and his new "self published" book "The Art of Tim Burton," described by latimes.com as "a lavish art book featuring more than 1,000 images, some of which go back to childhood," and it made me want to rush out and pick up a copy.


I was curious for several different reasons. For one, I'm a huge Tim Burton fan. I love his quirky visuals and his artistic world view. It's hard to explain, but I see him as a kindred spirit. Everything he has ever done--with few exceptions--has inspired me to create something.

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

The Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
                               Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; -- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore--
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--
                               Nameless here for evermore.

I Have a Dream

You can't have a blog called Sacred Word, without featuring perhaps one of the greatest speeches of all time on a day that we honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

You Are Here

I have many fond memories of going to Six Flags when I was a kid; there wasn't anything better. And of course, we had a list of rides we wanted to ride, shows we wanted to see etc. etc. Whenever we were finished with a ride, we would walk up to the Six Flags map--usually in front of the bathrooms--and decide what we were going to ride next. There was always a bright red X on the map with the words "You Are Here" typed underneath. Just in case you didn't know where you were.

We've been house-sitting for the past three weeks and we just got finished unloading our car and we're trying to settle into a routine. I feel out of sorts, discombobulated...it's like I don't know where I am.

There's no better way to be in the here and the now...than when you are writing. Even when things aren't going especially smooth, creating has a way of putting you in the moment. And the moment is really all you have anyway, so it's nice to be present.

Being in Your Element

I'm reading "The Element" by Ken Robinson, Ph.D. The subtitle of the book is How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. It couldn't be more appropriate. With the arrival of the new year, I am realizing more and more that we have to be led by our passions; we have to believe in who we are; and we have to promote our personal brand with that very same passion. And doing less than those three things is a disservice to who we are and to everyone around us.

But What Do You Do for a Living?

Before I left the corporate world, one of my major frustrations was that I felt like I had lost my identity. And it wasn't the corporate world (although this can be argued) that took it. I don't know how many times (when I identified myself as a writer) that new acquaintances asked me "But what do you do for a living." Naturally, this was after I revealed that none of my novels had been published. I finally quit telling people I was a writer. Instead, I gave them the same old schtick that I worked in "Office Services" (code for mailroom) for a rather large corporation and I crocheted in my free time.

I can't be alone in this.

It was only after I "edited" a few books for other people and left the corporate world to "write for a living" that I rescued my true identity and didn't feel like a fraud when I identified as a writer. Keep in mind, my novels still remained unpublished. And one could argue (and my wife would be one of those people:) that I wasn't really "writing for a living"...because money was tight and our new lifestyle barely qualified as "living."

While it can be argued that I "write" more now that I don't have another "job to pay the bills," I don't know if that would be accurate. I just go to bed earlier now. When I was in the corporate world, I still wrote...I just wrote after working a ten-hour day sorting mail and making sure the back office was running smoothly.

I tell that really long story to serve as an example of what "NOT" to do.

It's all about branding. If you write (whether you are paid or not, published or not, renowned or not) you're a writer. If you're a writer, identify as a WRITER. Join an organization. Join a writer's group. Dump your unpublished fiction onto a blog. Start building your brand. And do whatever you have to do to pay your bills. There is no guarantee that you'll ever be able to "write for a living." But I can assure you that if you quit identifying as a writer...if enough years go by, you'll stop writing. And that would be bad for all of us.

Starbucks: Too Sexy for Their Name?

Okay, I'm sure you've heard this by now, but the new Starbucks logo has changed. And it no longer includes the words: Starbucks Coffee. I can't imagine what genius had that idea; perhaps the genius that thinks Starbucks should start making bluejeans and doesn't want "coffee" on their bluejeans. I'm thinking it's not the best idea. Turns out that the Gap had the same idea just recently and changed their logo. There was such a backlash that they reverted back to their old logo within the week. I'm guessing that we may very well see the old Starbucks logo reappear and the genius who came up with the idea will probably be having a lot of conversations with the guy who decided to change the Gap logo.

But all of this talk about logos got me thinking about branding...and writers...or branding and creative types in general. As a whole, we're not good at it. And we should make it our business to start getting good at it. While I have plenty more to learn, I've been thinking about "personal branding" in connection with my writing for some time.

I've been known to "ghostwrite" a book or two (or three or four) and have had the offer for my name to appear alongside my client's name on more than one occasion. At this point--outside of sharing writing credit on a screenplay--the answer has always been a very polite "no thank you."

And it's not because I was ashamed of the project at hand; I can truthfully say that I have been extremely proud of every project that I have been involved with. What concerns me about putting my name on a project that is not 100% my own is BRANDING. I am a novelist. I am a poet. I am a short-fiction writer. I am a BRAND. And while I don't have the kind of brand recognition that I hope to have in the future...it is definitely something I think about. And it's something that we will continue to explore.

A Little Sacrifice Goes A Long Way

Needless to say, when I quit my corporate job to write full time, I had to make sacrifices. No paid vacations. No sick days. No taking it easy...at least without having to pay the price for it. And my young family had to make sacrifices as well. I could argue...and my wife most certainly would...that they've sacrificed more than I have.

But let's not kid ourselves, if you're going to make sacrifices, do it for something you love. How many times do we find ourselves sacrificing our time and our resources for something we don't love to do in the first place? I would argue...PLENTY.

If you can do one thing for yourself in this new year, make the sacrifices that pay off. Sacrifice something you do because you've always done it, to take that risk. Sacrifice your old life, your old habits, your old ideas...and trade them for a year that you are going to do things differently. Frankly, that's a sacrifice that we can't afford NOT to make.

Writing What You Know...and Then Some

I'm a big fan of writing "what you know." With that said, I write mostly fiction. I DO NOT write autobiography. Writing would be boring if I just stuck with what I know, but I ALWAYS use it as a jumping off place. I also write from true emotions. I write from true feelings. I write from my own experience. But it doesn't end there. That's where I turn it up a notch and then I turn it up some more. And then I turn it up some more. And then I let the story take me where it wants to take me. While this is evident in my short fiction, it is even more true in my novels.

My books practically write themselves. I start off with a brief character sketch and maybe a scene and then my characters practically take a life of their own. The protagonist of my novel "The Anguish of Angus Bluefeet" is virtually my opposite. At least on the surface. Angus Bluefeet is a 35 year old actuary at a life insurance firm who is married and has two kids and who loses a child in a freak accident. And he also plays a major role in an ABC reality series.

It's All Just Practice

One of the perks of posting over ten years of your fiction and poetry is that you get to read it again. While I didn't change anything from its original form, I reread each piece for any glaring typos etc., and then dumped it onto the blog to let the readers take it or leave it. But it's been nice (mostly) to revisit these old pieces.

Several of the old stories found their way into my novels without my recollection. Linda--the woman in "The Things We Wish For"--is a precursor to Betty Bluefeet, the wife of my protagonist in my first novel "The Anguish of Angus Bluefeet." And the unnamed protagonist of that same story ("The Things We Wish For") has the same experience of running through the house wondering if his beloved has taken their own life. There are several descriptive sentences which seem duplicated almost verbatim. To my knowledge, (it HAS been ten years or so) I never lifted pieces of this story for my novel. It just happened.

I'm a firm believer in the idea that we write what we are ready to write at a particular time...and not a moment before. And everything we write today allows us to write what we are going to write tomorrow. That's why--even while I have pieces that will never see the light of day--nothing is a wasted effort. Everything I write always serves me down the line. What I write today makes me the writer I am tomorrow.

Which takes me back to the idea of William Stafford's "writing as vocation." I'll tackle THAT one at another time. ;)

Lack vs. Abundance

My spiritual path keeps leading me to the subject of lack...which is ALWAYS connected to fear. If I look around me and see lack, LACK is what I get; if I look around and see abundance, I get ABUNDANCE.

The same goes with writing. How often do we get the idea that once we've written the first novel, we'll never be able to duplicate its success with the second? You'd be surprised as to how many people have that fear before they've even finished that first book. Or that first story. Or that first poem. They have to produce the perfect piece their first time out.

And of course, we all know that that is crazy making. We should stay concerned with the here and now. We should stay in the present. We shouldn't bother ourselves with perfection, and just show up to the page. I alluded to this in an earlier blog when I mentioned "lowering your standards."

When it comes to writing, all that matters is that one sacred word in front of us. Let that one out and wait for the next to follow. One word at a time. One sentence at a time. One paragraph at a time...etc. And by sacred, I don't mean perfect. Lose the idea of perfection. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder and I'm not the one to make that call. I'm just the creator. Of course, if you want to go a little deeper, it's all perfect...even the imperfect...but it's less convoluted when you see the practice of writing as nothing more than sacred...just getting it all down one word at a time.

Born to Write

I have mixed feelings on whether or not writing can be taught. I think writing is one of those things that you learn on your own. Not that you don't read a crapload of other people's stuff and then read a crapload of writing about writing but the actual "practice" itself...I think writers eventually either do it or they go crazy. And sometimes they do both. :)

While I have reservations on whether writing can be taught, it can--without a doubt--be nurtured. It can be encouraged. It can be drawn out. And sadly it can be squelched. Naturally, there are writers who don't give a flip what you say to them...they'll write regardless because they don't know how to do otherwise. However, I do think there are those who replay the voices of disgruntled teachers and misguided parents etc. etc.--you're not good enough, smart enough--and they keep their desire to create deep within them somewhere...just waiting to get out.

If I can do anything in this New Year, I hope I can encourage just one person to get back to doing what they were born to do. There's nothing quite like sitting down to a blank page and breathing life into it.