How to Make a movie: Announce yourself

It’s official, my friend and I are making a short film! If you asked me a year ago what I thought I would be doing now, I never would have guessed this. Life takes you on a bizarre and awesome path when you follow your interests.

In my continuing effort to share what I’m working on while still keeping my posts helpful and accessible, I now introduce a series of broad lessons I’ve learned from the process of making a movie. These lessons are helpful to anyone who’s trying to make something bigger than themselves.

Step one: Announce yourself

During the last writer’s conference, I asked my audience if they consider themselves to be writers. I was surprised that most of them said no. They believed they needed the external validation of an MFA or a publishing career in order to use that title. I shared with them that my life was never the same after I started describing myself as a writer.

1. I felt encouraged to write every day because I wanted to live up to my title.
2. It was easier to invest in my writing career once I was a self-proclaimed writer. It seems crazy to spend $400 on a writing class if I’m a web designer with an interest in writing, but it makes perfect sense if I’m a writer with a side job.
3. People started connecting me with other writers because they know me as the writer. This helped me make connections for my conferences as well as the movie project that I’m about to get into.

So, yes, first things first, let everyone know what you consider yourself to be and what you hope to do. I made it very clear to everyone I know that I’m a writer. For the last few months I’ve been letting people know how much I enjoy writing screenplays and that I hope to develop a project.

That brings us to the lovely Ashley H., who you might remember from when I dyed my hair purple. Ashley knew that I was interested in screenwriting. She also knew that her friend, Caroline, was interested in screenwriting. With this simple email from Ashley: “I really think the two of you should meet and discuss things!” we were off!  It was a match made in movie-making heaven.

Do you see how important it is for your friends to know what you are interested in doing? If I had kept my ambitions a secret, if I was too embarrassed to say what I wanted, Ashley never would have thought of introducing us. If you want to start an ice cream company, start telling everyone you know. If you want to put on a one-woman show, start talking about it now. After you share what you’re passionate about, you’ll be amazed at the connections that start popping up!

So what is your dream? What do you want to do that is bigger than yourself? I’d love to hear it in the comment section below!

Stay tuned for the next step in making a movie!

I wish I took my advice more often

What if I told you I know a trick that can help you sleep better, gain clarity, release stress, lose weight and feel happier. Would you do it? What if this trick took at least 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week?

Even though I know this trick (and you do too), I rarely do it. It’s EXERCISE!

There’s nothing like a bike ride on a sunny say.

As a writer I focus so much on my brain that it’s easy to forget that brain is housed in a body that needs care too. Our bodies are meant to move. We come from hunters and gatherers. Our ancestors were running, squatting, swimming and climbing. If you forced our ancestors to sit in front of a computer for 8-10 hours a day they’d probably go insane. Exercise is in our DNA, and when we embrace it everything seems to get better.

Look at how happy Mike looks running around the sand dunes.

The crazy thing is that the very same excuses I use to not exercise are the things that exercise alleviates. I’ll say that I’m too tired, but when I force myself to workout, I feel more energized and I sleep better. I’ll say that my muscles are sore, but when I exercise, I feel them loosening up and the pain goes away. I’ll say that I don’t have enough time, but while I’m running I have wonderful insights and I’m able to get more done when I get home. Again and again, my writing practice is improved by my exercise practice because exercise teaches me the value of discipline, and the joy of finishing something I didn’t think I could start.

The joy of spending a week walking in nature!

About a thousand times now I’ve come to the realization that exercise is the greatest thing I can do for myself. I’ve wanted to write this post so many times but whenever I’m about to I slip into lazy mode and I feel like a hypocrite for touting the benefits of exercise. But the great thing about exercise is that you ease back into it whenever you want to. There is always some form of motion that you can start doing to get back on track.

So on that note, I’m off to the gym!

Growing some Wings

This is one of my favorite quotes, and it’s a belief that motivates me whenever thinking of what to do next. It’s a quote I had to repeat as I wrote the check to reserve the venue for my first-ever writers’ retreat. (Actually I’ve set up two impromptu retreats with my writers’ groups and I know that the concentrated time and companionship can make the difference between thinking about a novel and finishing a novel. However, these retreats were at my parents house so there was no financial risk for me. This retreat is on a larger scale, with more money and time at stake.)

It would have been easy to say no to the idea of this retreat. Financially speaking, I should say no to this retreat. But at the end of the day I know I can do an amazing job organizing it, and I know that it will be worth it. There are only seven openings and I need at least five people to sign up in order to break even. I jumped off a cliff and now I’m waiting for those wings to pop out! If you know someone who would benefit from this retreat, please share the info! Here are some of the details, but visit the website for the daily schedule and more details.

• 3pm Friday, Feb. 20 through 3pm Monday, Feb. 24
• We will all be staying in a quiet house in the Catskills and our meals will be brought to us. All you need are your usual writing implements, clothing, and a toothbrush.
• All activities are optional. They are designed to inspire creativity and enhance the craft, but your time and schedule is priority.
• Mornings start with yoga or mediation and the evenings end with a group critique of the day’s writing.
• On the last day, Chloe Caldwell, author of Woman, Legs Get Led Astray and The New Age Camp, will be joining us to talk about her experience as a writer, and offer feedback on our writing.
• Prices range from $540-$800 depending on the room situation you pick, and if you send a deposit by 12/15 for the early bird special. Price includes housing, meals (except for one meal at a restaurant), activities and supplies.

I hope you will join me for this retreat and I hope there will be many more in the future.

How bullying made me a better writer

Most kids joke that their favorite subject in school is recess or lunch. Those were the times I dreaded the most. Classmates spitting gum in my hair; getting called ugly/ fatty/ freakazoid; kids running from me, afraid they would catch ‘Tracy germs.’ I ate lunch in the bathroom whenever I could sneak by the lunch attendants who seemed more preoccupied with keeping us all in one raucous room rather than ensuring that no one was getting hurt or bullied.

While I would never wish that treatment on any young child, as an adult it’s easy to notice the bright side of the past. The truth is something positive did come from that time. I truly believe that my skills as a writer were formed during the isolation and depression of bullying.

1. It made me more observant.
   If I wasn’t bullied, I was ignored. At these times I could watch my peers; studying their gestures, their words, and their behaviors . I thought if I studied them hard enough, I would learn how to become popular. Of course that didn’t work, but I did learn how to be quiet and absorb the information around me, and put that into my writing.
2. It taught me the art of revision.
   As a kid, I was terrible with come backs. As soon as someone dissed me, I froze up and English became like a second language to me. This made the kids laugh even more. While trying to fall asleep I would go over the insults kids hurled at me that day and come up with all the clever responses I should have said. Writing gives you the ability to sit with a cluster of words and sculpt them as much as you want until they finally resemble your elusive thoughts.  Writing gave me the ability to use my words, an ability I didn’t have on the playground.
3. It turned me into a reader.
   

   In order to become a good writer, you must read. This is the best way to absorb effective structure, beautiful prose, potent vocabulary, and great ideas. I was slow to reading, in fact I didn’t start reading until 3rd grade, but once I was able to decipher those inky pages I couldn’t get enough. I escaped into the world of books. If my reality was full of play dates and giggles, I probably wouldn’t have read so much.

4. It taught me the complexity of humanity.
   The best authors make you sympathize with people who do bad things. In order to achieve this, the author needs to have incredible understanding as to why a person would behave that way, and, most of all, she must be able to forgive that character. It took me a long time to forgive my classmates for their treatment, but eventually I was able to understand why they did it. They were scared little kids afraid that if they didn’t pick on the scapegoat they would become the scapegoat. They had siblings or parents who bullied them and they took that out on me. They thought it was a harmless joke. When my best friend arrived at our school in fifth grade, I asked her if she knew how to talk because she was so quiet. Years later she told me how much that comment hurt her, but at the time I didn’t know any better. Whatever the reason for bullying, I don’t believe that kids are evil, they were complex.
5. It helped me handle rejection.
   Getting a letter saying “unfortunately we cannot represent you at this time,” doesn’t feel like rejection compared to what the boys used to say on my school bus. I remember one time the kids teased a boy, saying that we were boyfriend and girlfriend, at which point he pretended to throw up. His retching was so convincing that the bus driver pulled over to see if he was okay. Kids would kick the empty seat over if they saw me coming to sit next to them, or they would beg my teacher to be partnered with someone else. That was a kind of rejection that puts all future rejection in perspective.

I spent years pitying myself as the victim, not understanding what I did to warrant that kind of treatment. The truth is it doesn’t matter. Bad things happen. If we choose to let those times teach us rather than beat us, we are stronger and better for it.

How to Talk to Your Future Self

A few months ago I was feeling anxious about money and not sure if I should continue focusing on my writing career. I opened a random page of a notebook by my bed and wrote: “Tracy’s Patterns: As soon as you get somewhere with your writing you start panicking about money, and distract yourself with odd jobs and job searches.” I felt better as soon as I wrote this, and closed the notebook to return to my writing.  And forgot about it.

I am weeks, maybe days, from finishing the second draft of my novel. Just as I was on an incredible wave of momentum, I crashed into wall of anxiety. I’m going to go broke writing this stupid thing that no one will ever read. I’m almost 30, I should have a real job. It went on and on, but I won’t bore you with the details because if you are pursuing something creative, you’ve probably had all the same thoughts. I decided to end all this anxiety once and for all and start the never-ending job search again.

The next day I was cleaning up my apartment and I found a notebook that I rarely use. I opened to a random page and there it was in writing : “As soon as you get somewhere with your writing you start panicking about money, and distract yourself with odd jobs and job searches.” I nearly dropped the book on the floor. I had completely forgotten I wrote those words. It felt like I had paid a genius psychiatrist  to study me and write down her findings in my notebook. Actually the most comforting thought was: this is me from the future saying don’t worry it’s all going to be okay as long as you listen to your heart and not your fears.

As soon as I realized I was continuing a pattern to hold myself back, it was so easy to let go of the anxiety. Yes, I don’t have enough savings to last me forever, but that should be motivation to finish my book sooner, not get another job. Since finding that journal, I’ve been writing like crazy and any time I think of looking at my bank account, or looking at a job listing, I repeat my findings to myself, and keep writing.

What is your pattern? Leave it in the comment section below or write it down in a journal. The next time you start to doubt yourself, revisit your comment and see if your anxiety is based on truth or based on a belief that is holding you back. This was so helpful for me, and I hope it can help you as well.

The worst thing a writer can do

Never read a great book when you’re in the middle of writing a novel. I’ve read three books in the last month (Lone Wolf, The God of Animals and Little Bee). I hated the first and loved the last two.  I was angry the whole time I read Lone Wolf. I gripped the pages, my knuckles turning white, thinking “I can do so much better than this.” While I read that book I wrote a lot, and I loved all of it.

When I read The God of Animals and Little Bee, I felt completely incompetent while writing. I couldn’t believe that those amazing authors used the same tools as me, and yet, with their words they stung together beautiful descriptions and complex characters while I could only cobble together a few clunky, boring sentences. Needless to say, I had a lot of trouble writing while I read these great works.

I had to remind myself:

1. A published novel went through many drafts and was critiqued by an agent, publisher, editors and friends. Many people helped polish and improve the final product that I’m unjustly comparing to my work in progress
2. There’s a wide range of writing styles and talents, and the library would be a boring place if everyone wrote the same. Readers want variety.
3. I am reading for pleasure, not for comparison.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t enjoy amazing writing. By all means, fill your life with beautiful, compelling works of fiction; however, I suggest saving that inspiration for between projects. If you’re feeling stuck with your own work, pick up a crappy book. The anger you feel when someone who is not as good as you is successful can be incredibly motivating. There’s only so much whining you can do before you actually need to prove that you’re better.

4 tips on how to breathe

Man oh live I’ve been busy. In addition to starting Brutal First Impressions (please like it on facebook!), setting up a writers’ conference (I’ll write more about that soon), writing for two blogs, and doing background work for television (I’ll write about that too), I’m also editing the first draft of my novel. Phew, I get tired putting that all down in a sentence 🙂

As I work on the revisions of my story, I realize that editing is like breathing. Each inhalation is an expansion of thoughts, the exploration of ideas and character. Each exhalation is a purging of unnecessary words, the  fine-tuning of each idea. Throughout the editing process the word count for my story jumps from 50,000 to 90,000 then back down to 60,000. My story expands and contracts like a healthy set of lungs.

Here are 4 tips on how to breathe and write:

1. Don’t hold your breath. Each breath brings life into your story. Fresh words keep it alive. Holding onto your original words will eventually cause your story to suffocate.
2. Don’t take shallow breaths. Bring as much new air into your story and rid as much stale, used-up air as possible. The deeper your breaths, the more room for creativity.
3. Stay where the air is fresh. Read books you love, take a class, surround yourself with people who support your work.
4. Never stop breathing. If you are a creative person, art is your oxygen. I don’t write every day, but the longer I go without writing the crazier I feel. Don’t deprive yourself of what you need.

May the lungs of your story be happy and healthy 🙂

I need your advice

I loved all the great tips my readers shared on the Scrivener giveaway post, and I’m hoping you’ll share some tips even without a free giveaway 😛 I am currently working on the second draft of my novel. I found it extremely helpful to set a mandatory word count for my writing each day (3,000 words). When I started revising my draft, I tried to set another measurable goal of finessing one scene a day; however, some scenes are 1,000 words and others are 5,000 words. Some scenes are fine the way they are and just need some homophone corrections while other scenes need to be more researched or entirely rewritten. I find it really difficult to come to my computer each day and not know if I need to be in writer mode, editor mode, or researcher mode. I can feel my momentum dying down.

So, what are your tips for the second draft? How do you set goals? How do you keep up the momentum? how do balance all the hats a writer must wear?

I look forward to your responses!

And now I shall leave you with some other writer’s thoughts on rewriting:

“There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” – Justice Brandeis

“More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn’t say I have a talent that’s special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.” – John Irving.

“Writing for me is largely about rewriting.” – Khaled Hosseini

“All writing is rewriting.” – John Green

And the winners are…

Last week I posted a review of Scrivener with a chance to win the amazing writing software. I asked readers for their best tips, and with over 50 comments, I found three general rules:

• Write a specific amount every day whether you feel like it or not. Setting a target word count or allotted time helps keep you accountable, and writing past the point of comfort (which is a good thing).
• Write everything down. Whether by hand, on your phone, or in your computer, when you have an idea capture it. You never know when you might be able to make something of it.
• Writing and editing are separate activities. when you’re writing, just get all your ideas down on paper without any judgement. Take a break and then come back to the writing with a critical eye. 

And the winners are:

 

William Cooper (PC)

Matthias Sundberg (Mac)

Congratulations! Thank you to everyone who shared their great tips with us!