Writers in the Storm

Julie Glover

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has asked herself the question: If I got to do a TED Talk, what would I say?

Some of you reading this may have actually done a TED Talk. If so, good for you! Congrats. That's a big deal.

But for the rest of us, it's a good question to ask, because it clarifies what we have learned in life that's worth sharing with others.

Why we have inspiring posts

A fair number of our Writers in the Storm posts can be categorized as "writer inspiration." We like sharing words of empathy, motivation, refreshment, and encouragement. Because this writer gig ain't easy sometimes.

Not to say other jobs aren't difficult, but the intense creativity you must put forth coupled with the ongoing unpredictability of what you'll get back (contest wins, contracts, sales, reviews, etc.) can produce moments of fatigue and frustration. Having regular pick-me-ups can make all the difference.

Writers need and crave inspiration.

Meaning we're a ripe audience for TED Talks.

Bestselling author Ted Talks

We can learn quite a bit from other successful writers who share about their own journey and lessons learned. Following are just a few TED Talks recorded by bestselling authors. (Maybe scroll down to read the rest of this post, then come back up to watch the video you want? :) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fExrstN8TEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgDGlcxYrhQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40xz0afCjnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0pwe4vaQo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

You're an expert too

The authors above are big names in their genres, and beyond, so it's no surprise they got a TED Talk and actually had something to say.

But if you've been writing for any length of time, you have something to say too. You've learned something worth sharing with others.

You know more now about at least one of the following...and probably several:

• Yourself
• Crafting a story
• Meeting challenges
• Finding cheerleaders
• Dealing with rejection
• Celebrating success
• Creating intriguing characters
• Interacting on Social media
• Establishing a brand
• Marketing your book(s)
• Finding your niche
• Embracing your writing process
• Engaging with readers
• Setting and adjusting goals
• Surviving on three hours of sleep, a stale bagel, and a vat of coffee to meet a deadline

You're an expert at something. Even if so far, it's just all the things that don't work.

Recognize how far you've come! Share with another writer what you've learned. Maybe it's just the person across the Starbucks table from you who's also writing a book. Maybe your local writing chapter. Maybe in a well-crafted workshop you put together and present at conferences. Maybe, must maybe, in a TED Talk for all to see.

But don't just be inspired. Go inspire!

How have you been inspired by other writers and inspired others yourself? And if you were asked to do a TED Talk, what lessons learned through writing would you share?

About Julie

Julie Glover writes cozy mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart®. She is also co-author of the Muse Island supernatural suspense series, which begins with Mark of the Gods, under the pen name Jules Lynn.

When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit Julie’s website hereand also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Christina Delay

As creative people, we often receive advice about the importance of taking breaks, walks, and time away to allow our creativity to simmer and rejuvenate. But I bet most of us have a really hard time actually taking time for ourselves.

I’ve found that understanding the why behind advice or recommendations gives us a much better chance of following through. Because we can then apply that recommendation in a personal way in the manner that means the most to us.

Scientific Evidence

“Neuroscience is finding that when we are idle, in leisure, our brains are most active. The Default Mode Network lights up, which, like airport hubs, connects parts of our brain that don't typically communicate. So a stray thought, a random memory, an image can combine in novel ways to produce novel ideas.”

Brigid Schulte | Author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

Some quick facts for you:

• Creative people tend to have greater volumes of gray matter in the brain, in regions associated with consciousness and self-awareness.
• Research has shown our brains are more creative when we are in a positive mood.
• Higher levels of dopamine in the brain lead to greater levels of creativity, which is why relaxing activities like showering can increase creativity.
• Relaxing activities provide us with a break and give us a fresh perspective, especially when we are fixated on a certain issue or ineffective solution.
• When we are stressed, our amygdala—the region of the brain responsible for emotions, emotional behavior and motivation—will shut down certain parts of the brain to prepare our bodies for survival.
• Stress and uncertainty lead to conventional choices, causing us to overlook creative solutions and avoid taking risks.

“To unleash creativity, it is important to free ourselves occasionally from rigid structure and routine, and to always be open to experience.”

Scott Kaufman | Author of "Wired to Create: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind"

So now that you’ve heard from the scientists, let’s take a look at what some great creative minds have said.

Creative Genius

Many creative minds through history have engaged with different types of stepping away for creative inspiration.

Actor and Director Woody Allen

“I’ll stand there with steaming hot water coming down for thirty minutes, forty-five minutes, just thinking out ideas and working on plot.”

A hot shower can definitely be a type of mini-retreat. Have you ever thought about how many ideas come to you while you’re showering? It’s because you have very little distractions in there. No phone, no email, no books to read. Your mind has the space to engage with the creative parts of your brain and begin to solve the story puzzles you’ve given it.

Nikola Tesla

Tesla stumbled upon the idea of alternating electric currents while on a leisurely stroll and used his walking stick to draw the idea to his friend.

Going for a walk is also a type of mini-retreat. Taking time to disengage from your daily responsibilities allows your brain the space it needs to do the deeper work.

Austrian Composer Wolfgang Mozart

"When I am … completely myself, entirely alone … or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly."

Granted, I think Mozart dealt with some insomnia; however, he was also disciplined about using the quiet moments he was given. Rather than toss and turn, he used those sleepless nights for idea generation. Rather than overstuffing his schedule, he allowed himself moments of being alone ... being completely himself.

Novelist Stephen King

“Like your bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream.”

Stephen King has admitted to regularly engaging in "constructive daydreaming" to enhance his creativity and free his mind from everyday rational thinking. In addition, he’s created a writing space that is free of distractions and also allows himself time to daydream.

When is the last time you lost yourself in a daydream?

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes...Including you."

Anne Lamott, well-known author

I think this is probably one of the hardest things as an adult to do. Because there is this inherent guilt for "sitting there and doing nothing."

However, science and creative minds have proven that we need this idleness, this ‘doing nothing’ to allow our brains the space to do deep work.

A challenge for you

This week, I’d like you to write yourself a permission slip and post it somewhere in your writing space. Give yourself permission to do nothing, and to do it guilt free. I’ve laid out some ways in which you can do this "nothing," or you can come up with your own that works for you.

If you do anything this week, do nothing. Your creativity and your stories, will thank you.

About Christina

Christina Delay is the hostess of Cruising Writers and the brand new Creative Wellness Retreats as well as an award-winning author represented by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency. She may also have a new supernatural mystery series out with Jules Lynn under a pen name.

When she's not cruising the Caribbean, she's dreaming up new writing retreats to take talented authors on or giving into the demands of imaginary people to tell their stories.

About Cruising Writers

Cruising Writers brings writers together with bestselling authors, an agent, and a world-renowned writing craft instructor writing retreats around the world. Cruise with us to the Bahamas this November with Alexandra Sokoloff of the internationally-renowned Screenwriting Tricks for Fiction Authors, Kerry Anne King – Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author, and Michelle Grajkowski of 3 Seas Literary.

by Fae Rowen

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines perseverance as "continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition."

I don't usually check definitions, but I knew perseverance meant more than stubborn, even when I was confronted by the word for the first time. By the chair of the Department of Physical Sciences. My first week at college.

After attending his "demonstration lecture" during a College Week visit, I enrolled in the only undergraduate class Dr. Gelbaum taught. Instead of beginning with a review of what we should already know or a syllabus or rules, he opened with, "What is the most important characteristic of a math major?"

In the class of over a hundred students, surprisingly few hands went up.

"Intelligence." Helpful, but no.

"Memorization skill." No.

"Organization." No

"A big coffee pot." Chuckle.

"Lack of fear." Closer.

When he'd called on all the raised hands, he looked at us and sighed. "No more hands? No more guesses?

"I asked you this question because you will never make it as a math major at this institution if you don't have perseverance."

A few gasps. One person got up and walked out of the lecture hall.

I wish I could remember all of the rest of his opening as well as the beginning, but here's what I remember.

“Perseverance makes other people think of you as stubborn, because you fail, then you try again. And again. And again. Not exactly the same thing, but you try to solve the problem in another way, with another tool. You work on the same problem for weeks, looking for a thread of logic that will unlock a solution or find a way to finesse a more elegant, shorter way to the answer.

“When you're in physics or German class, your mind wanders to the rough edges of a solution. When you're playing a game of pick-up basketball or sitting on your board out in the ocean surfing, an approach you haven't tried surfaces and you stop, look for paper and pencil and sketch out a new idea.

“When you fail a homework quiz because you couldn't make headway on just one out of the twenty problems and that was the one problem on the quiz. When you fail a test because there was a new kind of problem on it, one that forced you to analyze and synthesize what you've learned to create a whole new technique and you didn't have time to finish it once you figured out the approach. But you attend quiz sessions, visit your professor during office hours, and burn that proverbial midnight oil until you've figured out something new, something you'd never been able to do before, you are a math major.

“Because you have perseverance. When things get hard, when you don't understand what's going wrong, when you don't know how to make it better, you keep working on it. You find research. You talk to others. You read papers. You start and stop. You throw away a lot of attempts. But you keep following your dream, you keep working on your problem, because it's become the most important thing in your world and, eventually, you will solve that problem and present it to others to enjoy, to learn from, to build into the future.

"End of lecture. Read the first chapter in your textbook. Do all the problems that you can't."

Dr. Gelbaum's first lecture coalesced everything I needed to hear and remember about perseverance. And it gave me a very important word for my adulthood. I persevered and got that math degree, then a master's. I persevered in my career as a mathematician.

And when I decided to write, I persevered when a friend read my first book and offered the name of a writers' group I should join. Every time I receive a chapter back from one of my critique partners, I persevere and edit words that need some finesse, even though they were the best words I could think of at the time. When my editor tells me my character arcs aren't strong enough, I go back and analyze what is missing, then I synthesize a solution.

To be successful, writers need every characteristic mentioned by Dr. Bernard Gelbaum. We have to persevere in the face of all the changes in the publishing industry. We have to persevere just to finish a book that has a chance of being bought by readers who are hungry for our stories. We have to persevere and market our work so readers can find us. All while life swirls around us.

But if we can juggle all that's necessary, if we push through every rejection, every less-than-five-star review, every time we don't think we can make a deadline, that perseverance muscle gets stronger. And we're better for it. We soldier on.

We know that we can do anything. Be anything. And we are. Writers.

How have you soldiered on—in your writing life or in life? What character trait helps you the most to get through the times that make you willing to quit and give up your dreams?

ABOUT FAE:

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

P.R.I.S.M., Fae's debut book, a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, and love is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Image credits:
"Don't Quit" - DepositPhotos
"Never Give Up" by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay