The Gypsy Dances: A Series for the Creative Writer, Part III

If you are new to this series, Part 1 begins on December 27th

Calling Forth the Gypsy

"If one advances in the direction of his dreams,

and endeavors to live the life in which he has imagined,

he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."
~Thoreau

I have been working with Mary Jane Taxter almost since I began teaching and her triumph as a writer is one of my greatest joys as a teacher. When Mary Jane began with me she knew nothing about writing. But she had a deep, slowly burning desire to write. She also has a vicious Inner Critic who I thought was going to do her in many, many times; but week after week, month after month, year after year, Mary Jane kept coming to class. Soon the development of her critiquing abilities and understanding of the creative process began to outstretch the development of her writing. I knew what was happening. A fierce battle was going on inside her; the Inner Critic was allowing her to excel in the left-brain activities of critiquing, so she could helpothers, but the Inner Critic was going to be damned before she let Mary Jane fall down the Rabbit Hole into the passion.

Helping others is second nature to Mary Jane, who is also a nurse. She’s a giver, a nurturer to others but not to herself. Her Inner Critic was convinced that writing was a selfish affair. What good was it doing anyone? Selfish, selfish, selfish! became the Inner Critic’s mantra. Mary Jane’s Inner Critic is rarely loud. It’s subtle; it digs in its heels and quietly, slowly carves away at her heart.

Fortunately, Mary Jane’s Inner Writer is just as quietly persistent. She waited, she grew stronger, and when she was ready she began taking control. There were bursts of juicy eruptions and wonderfully written scenes that we all loved, but afterwards Mary Jane usually wouldn’t write for a couple of weeks. Then one day her character Evelyn discovered that she was half Native American.

"Whoa—where did that come from?" I asked.

"Oh," she said in her most flagrantly noncommittal voice. "I’ve known that for a while."

"So?" I prodded.

Mary Jane shook her head. I knew that look. The Inner Critic was digging in her heels. "We’ll see," was all she said.

It took Mary Jane many years to shift the balance of power from her Inner Critic to her Inner Writer and she still has to be constantly vigilant; it took her many years to let Evelyn pursue her Native American heritage, but once she did, not only the book but Mary Jane as a writer took to flight. It is with great pride and pleasure that I include a piece from her novel, set in Maine in the 1930s, in this chapter on the Gypsy.

Part 4: The scene from Mary Jane's novel, coming soon...

If you are enjoying this series, you can explore your own inner journey as a creative

writer in Emily's workbook, called The Art of Ficiton Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying. This series on The Gypsy Dances is excerpted from The Art of Fiction Writing. To order, click here.

The Gypsy Dances: A Series for the Creative Writer, Part II

Risk: The Magic Ingredient

"I began in absolute chaos and darkness,

in a bog or a swamp of ideas, emotions and experiences."

~Henry Miller

I recently did a series of interviews with people who were successful with their creativity and there wasn’t a one who didn’tight up when I asked them about risk. It’s the fuel, the manna, the soul food. It’s also one of the most powerful components of life; without risking, we stagnate. Take a risk, no matter how small, and everything changes. If you’re so afraid of the risk you won’t take chances, you will never be creative. No way. It is impossible.
When I interviewed Nick Meglin, who has been the "idea man" for Mad magazine almost since its inception, I asked him where he thought risk comes into play in creativity. His answer was immediate and forceful:

"Right at the beginning and always, always. A blank page is always a risk. This is a very strong philosophy I have. You and I go to Las Vegas. And I buy ten one-hundred-dollar chips. That’s one thousand dollars. You buy ten one-dollar chips. That’s ten dollars. We go to the crap table. That man over there, we both bet with him. I put all my ten chips down that he’s going to win. You put down one one-dollar chip that he does. The man rolls a seven. I win one thousand dollars. You win one dollar. Who’s luckier?"

"You took a bigger risk," I said. "You got more."

"No, you were just as lucky because you bet for him to roll a seven and I bet for him to roll a seven. We’re equally lucky. What differs is what I was willing to lose—not happy to lose, but willing to lose for that risk. We both won on the same roll, the same number, the same bet, but I made a thousand dollars because I was going to risk losing a thousand.

"I tell this to my students—I taught drawing for twelve years—if you don’t want to be told you’re a lousy artist by someone out there who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, don’t draw. Don’t fill a white page with lines, because once you do it, you’re at risk. But if you are going to do it, put everything you can on that page, everything you are or what you feel, what you think, your perception, you alone, not what you’ve seen, not what you think you’d like to do. React to that model, be at one. You’re the only artist in the world drawing that model tonight that way, in your way. No one else can do it.

"Bet the whole roll and put yourself at risk. If not, you’ll never win. You may not lose, but you’ll never win. Go down swinging. Lose trying. But put yourself at risk. And that’s what creativity is."

Part 3, The Gypsy Dances Coming soon!

The Gypsy Dances: A Series for the Creative Writer

The Gypsy Dances

"You cannot be truly creative until the gypsy in you dances."
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Imagining your creative desires is the first step on the journey to
getting them. The pursuit is not an easy one. Creativity doesn’t
just happen. Wildly creative people aren’t the beloved children of the Fates. Creativity is hard work. It is risky business. Creativity is something we must choose every day of our lives.

Creativity is active and passionate. Creativity is about doing and feeling. The rich fertile ground where creativity is born and nurtured lies in the heart and the gut. Creativity rises from the unknown, the unseen, the forgotten. Creativity laughs and cries, it dances and sings, it creates and destroys.

Next Installment: Risk: The Magic Ingredient!

What's an Author's Platform? Read on...

What's an Author's Platform? Read on...
You've Gotta Have a Gimmick
by Nina L. Diamond


The Truth About Author Platforms

republished from The Independent Publisher

It’s a phrase we’ve all heard a million times. But it’s also a show-stopping tune from the Broadway musical (and later, the movie), Gypsy, in which a bunch of strippers teach the young Gypsy Rose Lee that it’s not enough to take your clothes off…that’s right, you’ve gotta have a gimmick!

Well, I don’t know about that.

Ask any red-blooded, heterosexual male if he’d ever refuse to watch a woman take her clothes off because she didn’t have a gimmick.

Unfortunately, publishing has become the new strip show.

Credentials aren’t enough. Talent isn’t enough. Now you need a platform…you’ve gotta have a gimmick. That’s the bad news. The good news is that very few books need the platform of celebrity, or even fame within a certain market, to get published.

WHAT’S A PLATFORM? Your platform is your network, your accomplishments, your place in the world, your degree of notoriety among the general public or a specific market, your previous media and/or target market exposure…all of which become your publicity and sales angle that a publisher expects you to have so you can promote your book and reach out to your target readers with little help from the publisher.

Ironically, those authors with the best platforms – big celebrities – get the most promotion from their publishers, even though those celebrity authors really need the least help from their publishers.

It didn’t use to be this way. Platform as the determining factor in getting published is a recent phenomenon that grew in the ‘90s and is now firmly in place. Publishers make exceptions to the platform rule all the time, if they want to. And this ridiculous focus on platform begs the question: How many great books go unpublished for lack of a platform?

When you read a great book review or recommendation, it’s not filled with praise for the writer’s platform. It’s all about how wonderful the book is. The same goes for when someone recommends a book to you. Only the publisher’s marketing department cares about a writer’s platform. Readers, reviewers, and believe it or not, even the media, don’t give a rat’s ass about platform.

SO, WHAT DOES THE MEDIA CARE ABOUT? The media has been taught to care – by the publishers – about only one thing: what the publishers care about, what the publishers are putting their money and time into, and that’s their lead titles. Especially the major publishers’ lead titles. The media automatically covers them, even if the book is by a first-time novelist or a non-fiction author with a limited platform or no platform.

Anything less gets less media attention. Often little, if any. That’s because it’s about power. The big companies have it. The smaller companies don’t. The majors get the lion’s share of the media attention. The independents don’t. The lead titles have more power than the midlist titles. The lead titles will get more publicity, so the midlist author must draw upon the power of his or her platform to get attention, to spread the word to potential readers. That’s why platform is even more important to the midlist author than the lead title author.

When your book is a lead title, your platform automatically expands. When a publisher invests so much money and time in promoting your lead title book, from costly publicity to expensive marketing strategies, such as advertising and in-store displays, the publisher is also, in effect, now creating an expanded platform for you after you’ve already been published. That platform is: “Here’s the author we’re promoting a lot, the one we’re making a star!” Even if you had little or no platform before, now you have the platform of “famous author,” sometimes literally overnight. It’s also about money: the major publishers have the big bucks to devote to promoting that select group of books they call their lead titles. The independents have fewer financial resources to do that.

HOW DOES ALL OF THIS WORK FOR AUTHORS WHO ARE WITH INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS? Because independent publishers get less attention for their books, even lead titles, than the major publishers, platform can be even more important when you’re pitching your book to an independent publisher. Your ability to promote your book, use your ties to a certain segment of the reading market in order to help generate publicity and sales, and network via your platform, becomes even more valuable to the publisher, who will always be working with less power and a smaller marketing and publicity budget than the major publishers have.

WHAT KIND OF PLATFORM DO I NEED? That all depends upon what kind of book you want to write. It also depends on what your career goals are.

To sell your book to a publisher, you don’t need the platform of a Hollywood celebrity, newsmaker, famous self-help author, business tycoon, political pundit, or Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist or novelist, unless you want to be one of those.

Just because famous people are offered book contracts doesn’t mean you have to be famous to get a book published. Go to the bookstore, go on Amazon.com, and see for yourself that most books are not authored by celebrities or famous newsmakers, they’re authored by somebody who had a good idea for a book, the ability to research and write it (or the help of a ghostwriter), and enough of a platform or gimmick to help the publisher market and promote the book.

Some Thoughts on the Season sent to me by Kitty Madden

Advent Reflections from
Night Visions – searching the shadows ofAdvent and Christmas
by Jan Richardson

In this strange season, when we
are suspended between realization
and expectation, may we be found
honest about the darkness,
more perceptive of the light.
- Jack Boozer

I believe that the way in which we create is linked to the manner
in which we find patterns and make sense of the different
pieces of our lives….

….The season of Advent means there is something on the
horizon the likes of which we have never seen before.
It is not possible to keep it from coming because it will.
That is just how Advent works.
What is possible it not to see it,
to miss it,
to turn just as it
brushes past you.
And you begin to grasp what it was you missed,
Like Moses in the cleft of the rock,
Watching God’s hindquarters fade in the distance.

So stay.
Sit.
Tarry.
Ponder.
Wait.
Behold.
Wonder…
There will be time enough for running. For rushing.
For worrying. For pushing.
For now, stay. Wait.

Something is on the horizon.



Thanks, Kitty!

From Another Writer...

Who are you afraid of exposing yourself to when you write? Well, for starters, me. Being drawn to the less than joyful parts of life, there is always the danger some line could be crossed that should not be crossed. That is ICK; that is me.
Then, there is the cosposite reader who is mostly my father. He sees my writing as superficial; adolescent; lacking in pristine grammar; not typed well enouogh; too emotional; bringing up subjects better left buried; writing only for shock value and more, more, more. As it happens, I am a better writer than my father. But early lessons live deep inside. I cannot imagine being so cruel to someone creating anything- a dinner, a poem. Perhaps I will write about him one day. The Nazi who takes communion and takes me to the library. Hard ambiguity and conflict life poses for us.
He sees me as a student hack while he publishes along in his modest magazines, but still, the articles are published and the checks come in.
I think in some piece of writing this reader is going to have to bite the dust. If I were not still afraid, I would have simply said, "I willl have to kill him." (Ahhhhh poo. Sentences transposed themselves. well, I'm too tired to figure out how to change.


If you would like to respond to this posting from Claire, please click on comments below or email your feelings to me.

Why Do I Write....

In response to a previous blog posting asking Why Do You Write?, Bob Warterfield from Tulsa wrote:

"I write because I am addicted to words and ideas. There is no stronger narcotic.

I have found no sweeter release than to feel the surge of endorphins as words begin to flow and an emerging story takes its first breath of life. I have felt no lower level of withdrawal than during those intermittent failed connections with my muse; my junkie. Fortunately, inspiration is never far away and my habit is easily sustained."

Bob Warterfield
Tulsa, OK

Let me know why you write..

And here's one on "What do you wear when writing?" From Crystal

"What to wear while writing. What warms the body and stimulates the mind.
Heat and crystal. Long earrings whether it be night or day. A shawl, silk or cashmere or wool (no fur). Sandals and blue painted nails. Make up off except for eyeliner and your glass of wine. the black watch flannel gown and bunny rabbit shoes or the black knit long gown with naked feet suggesting sex and suspense.
In the morning, I find a heating pad and freezing cold coke with some sweetish leftover. Again, the earrings, perhaps today my red crystal ones or then, the blue star of davids are nice. I have scrubbed my face of make up and face the screen with grandmother's young face. The Timex watch obediently blinks on digital time, my silver bracelet is cold against my skin. I always wish I COULD STILL smoke, push the thought from my mind, and drink deeply of the coke. I will need the shawl for today.
It is not aesthetics. Just warmth and crystal."
Crystal Post

Sale on Emily's Books, Tapes and Turtle Jewelry Ending Soon!

20% off sale of all of my books, tapes and jewelry ends on December 5.

To explore the sale, go to my website: www.thefictionwritersjourney.com

or this link will take you directly to the sale page.
http://www.thefictionwritersjourney.com/Art_of_Fiction_order_form.htm

Have a Happy Holidays!

Your Blog Comments

A few people have added their thoughts to blog page, although I realize it is hard to find them, so as they are added ... please tell me ... I will guide readers to them. If you have added comments and I've missed them, please email me.

There are comments now on November 18th and November 10th. These are what I know about.

Keep posting and enjoy!
Emily

MARKETS AND CONTESTS

Excerpted from Rose and Thorn Ezine


Readers should make sure to check sources carefully
and inquire about references when appropriate.
The Rose & Thorn cannot assume responsibility for the
sites and services mentioned below.

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GL: http://www.newyorkstories.org/Guidelines%20General.htm

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WERGLE FLOMP FREE POETRY CONTEST

A top prize of $1,190 and publication on WinningWriters.com
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TALEBONES MAGAZINE

Talebones, a quarterly digest, is seeking science
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Child magazine is seeking freelance writers for their
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Submit queries only, along with published works, with
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Submissions
Child Editorial Department
375 Lexington Avenue, 9th floor
New York, NY 10017

URL: http://www.childmagazine.com/index.jsp
GL:
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