Writing from the Inside Out (24 page)

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Authors: Stephen Lloyd Webber

BOOK: Writing from the Inside Out
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It's almost always necessary to build up a fanbase before you start selling anything, but remember that, in the end, it's easy to give people what they want. We all love to support people who offer something valuable. Nonetheless, imagining that as a reality can still be hard when I myself am in that position — but I do it, and it does work.

For his whole life, Walt Whitman was his own evangelist. Really putting your heart and soul into your writing and sharing that love and connecting with others is a reward in itself. Beyond connecting with good writing, the reader connects with your engagement. We all love to be close to someone who is open and in love and thriving.

This entails generating quality material and giving it away. It's hard to make friends when you have a product in front of you, but it's easy to sell something when you already have a following. You build a following by being authentic and generous. Not getting the results you wanted? Be more authentic, and be more generous.

With social media, you get to tap into a very efficient form of word-of-mouth marketing. Eben Pagan is an online marketer who often talks about giving away your best ideas rather than keeping them to yourself. He and many other people have had a lot of success by doing exactly this. It can be counterintuitive, but when you give away your best ideas, you tap into the law of reciprocity. When we recognize that we are receiving something valuable, we want to give back. In addition, when you factor social networking in with giving away your best idea, and you make it easy for people to share your information, the process moves a lot more efficiently.

When you're marketing something, you want to have some clarity about where you can find people who share your interests. In marketing terminology, that's your
niche
: the relationship between what you're interested in and what other people want. The more you focus on something much larger than yourself, the easier it is to stay motivated, and you're clearing a space for community based on that passion.

My process starts with a fulfilling practice — a practice that extends to my family and friends, adding value to my life as a happy, fulfilled person, a devoted writer, a great person, and a gardener, and extending further into the world, where I offer my work, connect with others and make friends. I am who I am, so I might as well share that with the world rather than what I think might look better. When I am authentic, people appreciate it. It all circles back to having integrity in my practice. I am giving form to something durable, and so I am patient, staying just beyond the edge of my expertise, and always returning to what I love.

 

 

YOUR WRITING'S ROLE

Beyond polishing a book so that you honor its emotional and artistic truth, if you're hoping that the book can serve a purpose or fill a role in the world, or if you want the book to be inspiring or helpful to a specific audience, you need to ensure that the book meets its needs as well. To do that, you can put yourself in the listener's shoes.

In recalling a time you've needed something, you know that you were never as interested in the details of the object you wanted as much as you were aware of your own need. Focus on what your audience needs, and use your creativity to address those needs authentically. Even if your only desire is to be entertaining, the same holds true. The reality is that they may already be actively searching for what you would like to offer.

 

 

THE EDITOR'S “CUT AND GROW” APPROACH

A writing marathon is a direct way to form a tighter allegiance with the creative impulse. The editor with no ego contributes the best of his/her attentive skill while yielding to the direction of the creative impulse. Creativity has no limits, is eternally valuable, and has no means of valuation. Criticism within itself possesses no value other than the ability to assess. When creativity and criticism are combined, a work can be innovative and express its originality. Whether a work is consistently good is often not a question of the quality of the creativity, but — ironically — of the critical drive, insofar as the critical informs and enlarges the creative impulse. It is a marriage. In art, we most appreciate the two making love.

It is good to affirm that there is absolutely no limit to creativity, other than the time supplied toward its expression. Love, intentionally, each part of the process, and write first to please yourself. The critic is the parent voice, the teacher voice, the editor. Gratitude diffuses the editorial ego and puts this persona at the service of the creative impulse.

We have an internal teacher, and if we choose to read our own work with the teacher's mindset, we have a great tool. The editor cannot create, but that's as it should be. In observing, we understand that, because it is limitless, the creative extends beyond us as well.

An opened eye finds the poem that carries the poet away.

— D
ONALD
R
EVELL

The finished product will be better when you move continually forward, neither forcing yourself to go too fast nor moving haltingly, remaining honest and heartfelt. In life, shutting down after a mistake will prevent coming to full terms with the wider story. I cannot pretend to know the story that is larger and truer than the ones I intend to supply for myself to make meaning.

The psychic energy that would have been spent justifying a situation can be channeled toward a clear purpose or left available and free for locating and enlarging a moment of opportunity. I can see myself as the protagonist, but that is artifice. I want to be free of stories. I have everything I need already; the check is in the mail.

The branch from which the blossom hangs is neither too long nor too short.

— J. K
RISHNAMURTI

You're alive! Let yourself be surprised at how fruitful it is to persist for the sake of your best interests. And, at any rate, remember that it's not about the form (what the material looks like); it's about your approach to writing.

 

 

EXERCISE:
LOCATE MOTIFS

Read back through the material generated during a writing marathon. Locate the key images and recurring motifs.

Focus on developing the motifs you have located. Give yourself time and focus to weave the motifs back into the story to maintain uniformity of landscape.

For example, if you have noticed that your story features several instances of unpredictable weather, how is that motif affecting the story's pacing? Do you spend enough time describing the snow? Do the characters interact with the weather? How is the weather, as a motif, a character in itself? Notice the magic elements in the scenery. Let the scenery reveal itself as animistic in how things act of their own accord.

 

 

EXERCISE:
DISMISSING DEFEAT

It may happen when you feel pressured to write: You don't want to do it. You feel defeated.

In fact, there is this looming possibility: You don't have to write. It isn't impossible that you resolve right here and now never to write again. You might want to pause for a moment and really let the feeling effect you. What would happen if you chose never to write again?

You are a free person, after all, and if you resolved to do it, you could eliminate any possibility that you would ever set pen to paper again or touch a keyboard with the intent to “write.” Sure, you might send a quick email or check what's going on in the news. You'd sign a check here and there — or maybe you'd even resolve to stop writing to such a degree that you'd insist someone else did your check writing and your email checking.

It is possible. You could fully and completely stop writing.

If you made that decision, what would happen? Imagine your life. Imagine being the person who never writes anything.

Of the following, who lives most fully?

the person who writes when he wants to, whether it's good or not

the person who never writes because he doesn't want to

the person who sometimes writes when he wants to, and sometimes it doesn't work out

Would you live more fully having renounced writing?

If there's any doubt, you owe it to yourself to examine that doubt, and do whatever is necessary to transcend the doubting. The purpose of running through this exercise is to carve out more of a deep internal nook, in which you can know your identity for certain. If you have a book in you, you owe it to yourself — and possibly to many others — to write that book. It's nice to be around people who are really doing their soul's work. Forgive yourself for not writing, and don't pressure yourself to write when you don't feel like it. Give yourself full permission to be creative when your intuition says that it's time for you to write.

Give yourself the opportunity to give up writing forever so that procrastination is no longer a temptation. The deeper the decision, the deeper the resulting certainty, the better able you'll be to cope with challenges — imaginative, interpersonal, financial, physical, emotional, and so on. Even just having this one certainty will positively impact other aspects of your being. It's a holistic approach. Resolve one doubt, and another comes (as long there is time and energy to doubt), so be grateful for the ups and downs. The ups and downs, twists and turns, are the expressions of life — something bigger than us — breathing.

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