Conscious Writing

Yesterday, you described a behavior you observed, focusing only on who, what, and when, without coming to any conclusions about what caused the behavior or what happened next. Now it’s time for the next step: why.

Step two: Interpret the behavior you observed.

Take what you’ve observed and interpret what you believe you witnessed.

• He slammed the car door and I assumed he was angry.
• Her brow was furrowed and I assumed she was concerned about something.
• He glanced behind himself repeatedly and I assumed he was worried about being followed.
• Her fingers tapped non-stop on the tabletop and I assumed she was impatient.

When you’re working with fictional characters, presumably you won’t have to assume what’s going on in their thoughts. However, this exercise is good practice for other reasons. First, you are practicing your observation and reporting skills. Second, you are practicing connecting physical actions with emotional content.

In your fiction, you should avoid putting your character’s state of mind in blunt terms. She was angry. He was sad. This kind of writing is vague and dull. Telling is a tool you should deploy only rarely. With this kind of exercise, you can develop a catalog of physical movements that can reveal your characters’ emotional content. Like you, your reader will assume that a character tapping her fingers feels impatient, or a character slamming a car door feels angry.

Those action-emotion connections are so common they may be clichéd, but by observing and reporting from real life interactions, you can add more interesting, vivid descriptions to your toolbox.

Good news for Aquarians this week! In our January 5 horoscope, Rob Brezsny says that our ability to multi-task, think ahead, and adapt will be more appreciated and rewarded than usual. Being unpredictable is in our favor!

He suggests others may be jealous of the Aquarian talent for multi-tasking, but I haven’t experienced that (to my knowledge). My employers have taken advantage of it and my co-workers are happy to fail lightly so that I have to use it to keep the ship afloat, but I think most of them think I’m weird or semi-magical. If I’m going to be rewarded for the fundamental change in my job this year, I like money. It’s the season.

Beginning this short series of posts on how beginning writers can use interpersonal communications techniques to practice their observation and reporting skills.

Step one: Describe the behavior you observed.

Observe a situation, preferably people in action. If you can, choose someone with identifiable emotions – stress, happiness, worry, fear, anger. Someone scrolling on their phone might not be your best subject. You might observe people at home or work, or somewhere else in your social circles. Focus only on what concrete information you see.

If you don’t have the opportunity to observe people in real life – or feel self-conscious doing so – use television drama. Watch a program with the volume off and observe what you see. Rewind as often as you need to make a thorough report. Choose a program you don’t usually watch, so that you come to a scene with fresh eyes, without knowing anything about the characters or the scenario at hand.

In this step, focus only on who, what, and when. Avoid judging or interpreting what you see, or adding context. Don’t speculate why the person is behaving or emoting as they are. Simply observe and report. Your prose doesn’t have to be beautiful.

• He slammed the car door.
• Her brow was furrowed.
• He glanced behind himself repeatedly.
• Her fingers tapped non-stop on the tabletop.

That’s all you need to start. You’re on your way!

The next few days’ exercises in A Year of Living Consciously focus on observing and identifying feelings as a tool for improving interpersonal communication. That’s nice, but not really what I’m interested in pursuing here.

On the other hand, the techniques are also applicable to creative writing, particularly for beginning writers who need to practice their observing and reporting skills. So let’s use that lens to examine these steps that communications experts recommend when dealing with overwhelming or difficult feelings.

• Step one: Describe the behavior you observed.
• Step two: Interpret the behavior you observed.
• Step three: Share how you (or a character) feels as a result of this behavior.
• Step four: Discuss the consequences of the behavior.
• Step five: Discuss your (your character’s) intentions as a result of the behavior.

I’ll look at these in more detail over the next five days.

Wouldn’t it be great if we were surrounded only by people who treat us well and respect us? That sounds boss to me, too. Unfortunately, no one is entitled to such a circle of care. If we’re lucky, we find this circle among our family and friends.

Some of us – not nearly as many – are treated with courtesy and respect at work. I bet almost everyone has a horror story about being bullied or dressed down by a boss or co-worker.

And for creative people…well, good luck with that. Once you put any part of yourself or your work out into the world, you will draw the critics, many of them unhelpful and unkind. If you participate online in any meaningful way, you’ve entered humanity’s cess pool.

When you’re attacked online, you might feel shamed or humiliated. You might feel combative or you might want to bail out altogether. I don’t recommend any of these. You should never feel badly about yourself because someone criticized you or your work online. You definitely shouldn’t engage. In a lot of cases, that’s exactly what the troll desires. And please don’t quit.

Creative people publishing and interacting with online communities need the toughest of skin, but sometimes even that isn’t enough. The best approach is a philosophical one. If you engage online, you will meet trolls. This is the Way of the Internet.

It’s unfair, but no one has the inalienable right to cozy treatment. You will encounter jerks. You will be surrounded by people who disagree with you, even if they do it respectfully. Don’t waste your energy fighting reality or trying to change what cannot be changed. Use your energy wisely.

An excellent way to get to know someone is by asking their favorite books. These treasured stories and poems can give you insight into their influences, beliefs, preferences, and hopes. Even better, there’s a good chance you haven’t read the same books, so you get excellent recommendations for future reading. And if the other person doesn’t  have any favorite books, don’t be their friend.

Here are mine. Except for #1, this Top 5 is subject to change based on my mood and whatever books I remember later. But this is a good list.

Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
Like Game of Thrones, Gone to Soldiers is an epic novel following multiple POV characters over many years, but in this story, the world torn apart by war is ours and the war is World War II. A thrilling and heartbreaking view of wartime through the eyes of outsiders. Jewish characters fight with the French Resistance while others face antisemitism on the homefront and in the military. Women join the workforce, support the war effort, and take up arms, facing sexism, danger, and literal warfare.  An astounding novel. It shocks me that it’s not more widely known.

I’m Not Stiller by Max Frisch
An American travelling through post-war Europe is arrested in Switzerland and accused of being Anatol Stiller, a missing Swiss sculptor. The American consistently denies this accusation, despite being identified as Stiller by his wife and multiple friends and acquaintances. Beyond the mystery of whether or not the American is Stiller, the novel examines the nature of identity and the extent to which a person must accept who they are and how far they can reinvent themselves.

I have a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore by Ethan Mordden
The first volume in a series of five collections of connected short stories, Kansas introduces a small group of friends in 1980s Manhattan – Bud, the narrator; Dennis Savage, his best friend; Little Kiwi, the naïve twink who steals Dennis’ heart; and other long- and short-term friends and acquaintances who make up their social circle. Funny, sentimental, and heartbreaking, the stories examine romantic love and chosen family against the backdrop of the still-early gay rights movement.

Family Dancing by David Leavitt
Another short story collection, also on gay themes. Leavitt explores his characters’ lives through their family relationships and connections, eschewing the gay urban ghettoes for suburbia and examining all the ways we are outsiders among our own.

Amerika by Franz Kafka
One of Kafka’s famously unfinished works, Amerika follows the adventures of 16-year old Karl Rossmann, who is forced by a sex scandal to leave Europe for America. On his travels, Karl befriends dubious allies, is adopted then abandoned by his uncle, and takes up with two layabouts to whom he is inconceivably loyal. Karl’s good nature is repeatedly betrayed by those who claim to be his friends, he is punished for breaking rules he does not know exist, and he misinterprets people and events with astonishing naivete, yet through it all, he maintains his optimism and generosity, as well as his hardheaded self-confidence. If you’ve ever found life cruel, random, and confusing as hell, you may find a kindred spirit in Karl.

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. – Jonathan Swift

Do you ever have ideas that are ahead of their time or even slightly ahead of the curve?

Story time.

A few years ago, I was talking with a friend about comic and SF conventions. I love comics and have been to a number of cons of various sizes in many cities. I’ve never done San Diego, but I’ve been to New York Comic Con and it’s a blast.

However, cons changed over the years and I’m not so in tune with the younger audience they attract. When I started attending comic cons, the vast majority of the hall was filled by comic dealers and professional talent. Over time, other vendors – toys, posters, memorabilia – got in on the act. Then the amateur artists came along, selling their version of characters they don’t own and have never worked on professionally, and often have simply traced and modified from professional work. Then cosplay blew up, and it started to become hard to navigate to a booth space for all the costumes in the way. Eventually, the cosplayers and famous movie cars became the convention spotlight “guests” and the better retailers and creatives started backing away. It was simply no longer fun or profitable to attend, because audience was no longer there for them.

Modern cons are not my scene. I don’t begrudge people enjoying themselves, but I miss the old conventions. I would like to go to cons to meet talent and buy comics. I’m not there to see cosplay or a Batmobile replica. If I kvetch about the new, it’s only because it drove the old to near extinction. I’d be happy to see both thrive.

Which brings me back to my conversation with my friend and my idea. I said that someone should create a virtual con. I knew there were lots of people like me, who wanted to talk to creative people, buy comics, and support artists, but who didn’t want to travel and spend a lot of money to stand in a packed (smelly) crowd, especially when the halls were slowly becoming devoid of the very people we wanted to meet.

Wouldn’t it be great, I said, to have a weekend event, using Zoom or another online platform, where people could interact with comic creators or talk to dealers? Charge a small fee, set up scheduling for chats, let everyone participate from their own location? It couldn’t be just a one-on-one with a few writers or artists, but a big deal with both creatives and vendors. I imagined the creative people would like that, since they wouldn’t be competing with cosplayers and cars for eyeballs, and vendors already sell online. I could see the appeal of having a dedicated space and time for retailers to talk to potential customers from all over, especially for dealers with high-end product.

To be clear, this wasn’t a plan of any kind, only me thinking out loud. It wasn’t even an amazingly original idea, as Zoom events had started, but back then, there wasn’t anything that big in scale. I didn’t spend time working out details, because it was not something I could imagine tackling on my own, but I had the vision of it. It was fun to speculate. I do that a lot, dreaming out loud.

And my friend pooped all over it, for so many reasons: online was over, people doing online events weren’t getting big audiences, anyone who wanted to do an online event could do it themselves. There were lots of reasons why this was an idea whose time would never come.

And about six months later, COVID-19 shut the world down. You probably saw that coming.

I’m not fooling myself about the prospects. Even if my friend had liked the idea, it’s doubtful anything would have come from it. But clearly, the thought wasn’t as outlandish as I was given to believe. If I’d had entrepreneur money to go along with my entrepreneur ideas, I would have been six or eight months ahead of COVID with an online comics event.

Moral of the story? Don’t let other people crap on your fun ideas, even the crazy ones. Identify the people that indulge your capacity for play and dreaming out loud. Protect your ideas from the naysayers. Surround yourself with people like the movie guy who says, “It’s crazy, but it just might work!”

If you have an idea that excites you, that you can manage with your resources and finances, do it. You might have fun but not make any money. It might be a big bust. Or you might have originated something the world simply does not yet know it needs. Go play.

Writers have a lot of voices in our heads. If we’re lucky, those voices are characters nudging us to tell our stories. Occasionally, though, we have competing desires and it can be hard to decide which we should listen to. Often, the choice is between our intuition – the still small voice that prods us towards the light – and our ego – the loudmouth that says we should be far better known for our greatness.

Our characters have this same problem, and if they don’t, we should consider it, because this is a foundational human conflict. Does your sword and sorcery hero brave the dragon because only he can or because he wants the accolades of the city? Is your space-faring protagonist driven to the stars by a sense of mission or by a grudge match with family or a competitor? Did your married protagonist find their soulmate outside their marriage or is this a midlife crisis?

This is a another good angle from which to dive into motivation and develop character. Our characters have wants, but why? Chances are, their reasoning is driven by both intuition and ego. People are complex like that.

But which is which? One way to discern between ego and intuition is examining the emotions that tag along with them. Ego takes charge when it feels like something is missing. It’s a fear-based motivation. Intuition usually is quieter. It feels like assurance, not temptation. Ego back pedals in the face of serious challenges. Intuition is the voice that acknowledges fear and tells you to do something anyway, because it’s that important.

In your plotting, ego may be the part that gets your character in trouble and their intuition is what helps them work their way out.

Do your characters take it smooth…or like Tina Turner, do they like it rough?

I’m not talking about rock music or whatever your dirty mind conjured just now. In this context, smooth and rough relate to how your protagonist takes their life lessons. Does your hero listen to the voice of reason or quiet warning signs? Or does your hero need the emotional equivalent of a 2×4 across his head to get the message?

Dramatic writing requires uninhibited use of the 2×4. Generally, your story will drag if your protagonist always heeds the advice of friends or obeys all the traffic signals, thereby avoiding the consequences of stunted thinking or bad choices.

However, there’s also power in the small moments. A simple glance, suggestion, or symbol can drive home a message as well as a big traumatic event, and sometimes do it better.

Even big blockbuster genre movies use this message. In last year’s The Batman (Now on streaming!), Robert Pattinson’s Bruce/Batman obsessively focuses on his superhero mission to the detriment of other avenues, ignoring all relevant advice. Despite the plethora of explosions and butt-kicking throughout the movie, a quieter moment near the end of the movie gives the character his biggest lesson. Mild spoiler ahead…

Near the end of the film, when the Big Bad had triggered his Master Plan, the Batman attempts to rescue some civilians. However, because of the Batman has spend 2 hours nurturing his reputation for fear and violence, the people who need rescuing pull away from his helping hand. With one brief moment, Bruce realizes that he’s creating fear in the very people he’s wanted to help and protect, and that his reputation hinders his mission.

I won’t often cite to a superhero movie to make a point about characterization or character growth, anymore than I’d mention cotton candy when discussing healthy nutrition. However, I like this example, because it shows that even a big goofy superhero movie with all the punching and the blowing-things-up can convey theme and characterization in half a minute and without any dialogue.

When you’re writing, you’ll need that 2×4 to keep your protagonist – and your readers – on their toes. However, don’t forget that you have simpler solutions in your arsenal for teaching lessons.

And today, this is your reminder to breathe.

Whatever’s going on, whether you are happy or sad, feeling tired or overstimulated, taking a pause for some intentional deep breathing will bring you back into focus.

Breathing isn’t only for anxiety attacks or counting to ten when you’re angry. When I have a marathon writing session, somewhere from 5 – 8 hours doing creative work, I can find it difficult to turn myself off. My brain is speeding along, anticipating what’s about to happen in my story or making lists of areas to research or urging me to move on to the next chapter, even though I’m out of time for the day. With the fidgeting and inability to slow down and switch gears, it’s like a serious caffeine buzz, but stronger. I don’t have experience with the other kind of uppers, so I can’t describe it better than that. Deep breathing and clearing my mind also help me come down from these creative highs, so that I can unwind for the night. Otherwise, I’d be lying in bed with an out of control creative train of thought and no way to write it down.