How To Survive A Good Review
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on February 21st, 2009
When the first reviews for my most recent novel (Great Sky Woman, Random House 2006) started coming in, my emotions went through the usual roller coaster. The first, from Publisher’s Weekly, was 90% positive, but mentioned that, in their opinion, it was slow in spots. My stomach sank. Slow? In spots? Oh my God&ndashall is lost!
The second review came in two weeks later. This one, from “Booklist,” used words like “magnificent” and “engaging” and “adventure on a grand scale.”
I sighed. Boy, oh boy, did I need to hear that. Why? Because I am an insecure artist. Because I spend, on average, two years researching and one year writing my novels. Because I care so very much about each and every one of my literary children. Because I pour my life into every project I work on, break my head open, remove the protective walls from around my heart. I have to, because that is the only way to access my talent. I CAN’T do less than my very best&ndashthat would immediately devolve to hack work, and that I cannot do.
Some say to ignore reviews, that they are only the opinions of people who, often, are jealous of work they themselves could not create. I choose not to embrace that opinion. To me, reviews are the opinions of informed, professional readers. Such people are not necessarily any better informed than the average reader, but what they have to say is certainly worthy of attention.
To be absolutely frank, there have been times I curled up and cried because a reviewer I respected disliked my work. And other times when handsprings across the living room were the order of the day. Such violent ups and downs can hardly be good for your blood pressure (let alone the household pets) but for an artist who cares, really cares about reaching out to the world, about creating a dialogue with readers present and unborn, there seems little choice.
An artist needs feedback. We must know whether what we do communicates the message intended. That doesn’t mean all glory and complement. Harsh but honest criticism can help an artist understand what the public sees when they read the work, watch the film, view the dance. To the degree that such work is intended to make a statement, to communicate a state of emotion or elusive concept, we MUST know how the public reacts.
But there are times when the good review is more damaging than the bad one. It often seems that a large proportion of artists are people who crave a deeper, more fluid connection with the outside world. Who in early life felt their voice stifled, felt invisible in the middle of a crowd. So they learn to speak their truth in some other form, and a creative performer was born.
Deep within such an artist is a driving, gnawing, ravenous urge to be loved, respected, seen, heard. It is the stifled urge of a child dancing in the living room for the guests, saying “look at me! I’m special!”
Of course, attention isn’t always on the artist herself: sometimes we merely want to draw attention to some cause, or effect, or external reality or philosophy we consider important or of interest. At the heart of all of this, however, is the sense that our perceptions are worthy, our hearts strong, our song as valid as that of any other warbler in the forest.
And when those reviews come in, we can either read them at an emotional arm’s length, or we can take them to heart, suffer the slings and arrows&ndashand rejoice in the victories.
Which are more important? I’m not certain. But when those positive reviews come, I notice that I don’t take them as seriously, as deeply, as the negative ones. I don’t dare. That little boy inside me wants too desperately to believe that he is loved and appreciated, that he has made something worthwhile. When the positive reviews come, it is easy to listen to the accolades, to glow in the applause…
But God help you if you ever need it. Then, with an exquisitely perverse precision, it will be withdrawn. Chasing after the approval makes it dissolve, and we become like a third-rate comic frantically mugging for a once-appreciative audience, begging them to laugh until they are embarrassed for him.
I love the process of writing. I love the books themselves. I love my audience. And I love those reviews, too much, it sometimes seems. And at those times, a little voice whispers in my ear: “The writing isn’t for them. Never for them. It was before they were. And if they turn their backs, you will write still. Don’t be lulled by the fact that today’s reviews are positive. Don’t be frustrated if tomorrow’s reviews are bad. Listen to the voice in your heart, the one that whispers of discipline, and pain, and creative ecstasy. That voice was there at the beginning, and will be there at the end.”
That voice, and no other, can you trust
Going With “The Flow”
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on January 8th, 2009
Flow state, that mysterious mental zone where time and the outside world seem to disappear, is one of the keys to peak performance. Frankly, your ability to harness the limits of your intelligence, creativity, education, or talents will be largely determined by your capacity to remain in flow while under stress.
Those who cannot suffer “stage fright,” “writer’s block” “flop sweat” and numerous other labels for the same phenomenon&ndashinability to access the deepest wells of confidence and performance in the actual arena.
The key to unlocking this particular inner vault is to look at the phenomenon of flow itself, separate from any specific usage or application.
We all experience the “flow” phenomenon. The last moments before we fall asleep or the first after awakening (also known as the “hypnogogic state”) have this quality. Ever gotten on the freeway, lost yourself in thought, and only snapped out of it when your exit appeared? Flow. Gone running, dancing, or walking and found time dissolving, so that an hour felt like mere minutes? Flow. One exceptionally powerful “flow moment” would be the last few seconds leading up to orgasm, when it feels like the barriers between you and your lover are melting away.
All of these moments share something in common: they all deal with the dissolution of the subject-object relationship. The painter melts into the canvas. The writer disappears into the book, the reader into the magazine, the lover into the beloved, the martial artist into the flow of throw and punch. We stop being aware of “ourselves” and begin to sense a connection between all the disparate parts of the activity, as if we are simultaneously stepping back for a wider view, and sinking inwards to a place of almost impossible intimacy.
It is a path to genius. One might take the position that the ability to hold flow under stress is the single greatest key of all high-performing human beings in any arena of life. What is talent, separate from the focus required to manifest it?
There are many disciplines that address flow: meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, prayer, etc. And there are tools that work terrifically well for familiarizing you with this state: sixty beat per minute Largo rhythm string music (Vivaldi is great!), hot baths, incense, massage, etc. Distance running or rhythmic walking, dance, gardening or cooking (for some people), playing music, painting, and numerous other activities touch this space. Just look for the moments when time vanishes.
One core technique, used worldwide in thousands of disciplines, is breath control. This is key because breathing is the only physiological process both voluntary and autonomic, and is thus a key to the unconscious mind. Learning to breathe slowly and deeply even under stress will de-inhibit the flow response, allowing you to access your deeper wisdom and creativity even when a project is due by noon, or the baby is screaming in the next room.
To take advantage of this fact,
1) Learn to breathe deep in your belly. Lay on your back, and put a book on your tummy. As you inhale, it should rise. Exhale, it should fall. Your chest should move as little as possible.
2) Five times a day, at every hour divisible by three (9, 12, 3, 6, 9) concentrate on your breathing for sixty seconds. Learn to do this while driving, sitting in meetings, standing in elevators, or walking down the street.
3) Place (or catch) yourself under moderate stress, and practice this breathing. For instance, in the middle of an exercise class, while public speaking, in the middle of an argument, while caught in bad traffic, while experiencing an anxiety attack. Learn to breathe calmly and deeply in such situations, and you re-pattern your nervous system’s threat response, enabling you to calm yourself to enter flow.
There are certainly other methods, but this one, modification of breathing, has worked for thousands of year and hundreds of millions of people. It will work for you, as well.
Going With “The Flow”
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on January 4th, 2009
Flow state, that mysterious mental zone where time and the outside world seem to disappear, is one of the keys to peak performance. Frankly, your ability to harness the limits of your intelligence, creativity, education, or talents will be largely determined by your capacity to remain in flow while under stress.
Those who cannot suffer “stage fright,” “writer’s block” “flop sweat” and numerous other labels for the same phenomenon&ndashinability to access the deepest wells of confidence and performance in the actual arena.
The key to unlocking this particular inner vault is to look at the phenomenon of flow itself, separate from any specific usage or application.
We all experience the “flow” phenomenon. The last moments before we fall asleep or the first after awakening (also known as the “hypnogogic state”) have this quality. Ever gotten on the freeway, lost yourself in thought, and only snapped out of it when your exit appeared? Flow. Gone running, dancing, or walking and found time dissolving, so that an hour felt like mere minutes? Flow. One exceptionally powerful “flow moment” would be the last few seconds leading up to orgasm, when it feels like the barriers between you and your lover are melting away.
All of these moments share something in common: they all deal with the dissolution of the subject-object relationship. The painter melts into the canvas. The writer disappears into the book, the reader into the magazine, the lover into the beloved, the martial artist into the flow of throw and punch. We stop being aware of “ourselves” and begin to sense a connection between all the disparate parts of the activity, as if we are simultaneously stepping back for a wider view, and sinking inwards to a place of almost impossible intimacy.
It is a path to genius. One might take the position that the ability to hold flow under stress is the single greatest key of all high-performing human beings in any arena of life. What is talent, separate from the focus required to manifest it?
There are many disciplines that address flow: meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, prayer, etc. And there are tools that work terrifically well for familiarizing you with this state: sixty beat per minute Largo rhythm string music (Vivaldi is great!), hot baths, incense, massage, etc. Distance running or rhythmic walking, dance, gardening or cooking (for some people), playing music, painting, and numerous other activities touch this space. Just look for the moments when time vanishes.
One core technique, used worldwide in thousands of disciplines, is breath control. This is key because breathing is the only physiological process both voluntary and autonomic, and is thus a key to the unconscious mind. Learning to breathe slowly and deeply even under stress will de-inhibit the flow response, allowing you to access your deeper wisdom and creativity even when a project is due by noon, or the baby is screaming in the next room.
To take advantage of this fact,
1) Learn to breathe deep in your belly. Lay on your back, and put a book on your tummy. As you inhale, it should rise. Exhale, it should fall. Your chest should move as little as possible.
2) Five times a day, at every hour divisible by three (9, 12, 3, 6, 9) concentrate on your breathing for sixty seconds. Learn to do this while driving, sitting in meetings, standing in elevators, or walking down the street.
3) Place (or catch) yourself under moderate stress, and practice this breathing. For instance, in the middle of an exercise class, while public speaking, in the middle of an argument, while caught in bad traffic, while experiencing an anxiety attack. Learn to breathe calmly and deeply in such situations, and you re-pattern your nervous system’s threat response, enabling you to calm yourself to enter flow.
There are certainly other methods, but this one, modification of breathing, has worked for thousands of year and hundreds of millions of people. It will work for you, as well.
Forget About “Talent”!
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on December 25th, 2008
How is a writer to access her deepest and most powerful wells of creativity? How do we tap into our talent, our genius, our greatest potential for success? Writing classes often tell us how to plot, or structure, or build characters, or create poetic images, but the question of accessing our excellence is a slippery and elusive one. It is possible we’ll need to go outside our usual sources to find an answer.
Many will merely say “be born with talent,” coldly suggesting that writers are “born” with a particular amount of potential, and that one either has this or not. And you know? There is a certain amount of truth to this. It is hard to argue with the idea that geniuses like Mozart or Shakespeare were gifted. But the nature versus nurture argument is both fascinating and, for the average person, irrelevant. After all, since we can’t go back and choose our grandparents, what are we to do? Just abandon our dreams of excellence if we don’t happen to be one of the gifted few?
I often say something to students that is both deadly serious and a slight (and deliberate) exaggeration. It is this “I don’t believe in talent. Every time I’ve ever gotten close to an excellent performer in any discipline, all I’ve seen is a lifetime of hard, honest work.”
Why would I say something like this? Because it is the way I truly feel. The fact is that I’ve seen endless people fail due to lack of honest work. And given those years or decades of work, I’ve seen few fail for lack of talent.
The truth is that if “talent” exists, it seems to be the capacity for long, concentrated periods of tunnel-vision focus, combined with a unique capacity for digging into themselves to find truths most of us are reluctant to reveal. These phenomenal men and women sacrifice outside interests, relationships, and sometimes their health and sanity to focus on their divine obsession. And yes, if you find a group of these people, some will rise higher than others. But the primary gift of art is to be able to spend your life in the act of creation. And to do that, you don’t need to be “the best” (whatever THAT means). All you need to do is to get into the top twenty percent in your field, and you’ll do just fine.
And that is achievable with focus and honesty. But what exactly do I mean by that?
FOCUS
1) Can you write 500 words a day for twenty years?
2) Can you concentrate for an hour at a time without stopping for coffee, phone calls, or bathroom breaks?
3) Can you shut out the voices of doubt and failure? Then you have a chance. In my own life, writing was simply my only career goal. I would rather have failed as a writer than succeeded at anything else. I was willing to do ANYTHING ethical and healthy to reach that goal, and every single day I asked myself new questions about how I could do it, who I could ask, what I could read, what classes I might attend. Willingness to postpone gratification is essential, because your efforts simply won’t pay off rapidly unless you are in that incredibly lucky fraction of a percent. And there is good news: even if you believe in “talent,” in the real world, an absolutely driven “B” or “C” student will outperform a lazy “A” student almost every time.
HONESTY. This is where the rubber meets the road, the diamond path to excellence.
1) What is your actual current skill level? What is the skill level necessary to make it in your chosen field? Make no mistake: writing is one of the most competitive fields in the world. EVERYONE thinks they can write, and to a degree, they are correct. If you’re going to make your mark, you will have to bring everything you’ve got.
2) Who has the resources you need to bridge the gap between your current and desired skill levels? Remember that they have probably spent a lifetime gathering their knowledge. What can you offer them (that is ethical and healthy for you) to gain their help and support?
3) What do you fear most? Love most? What angers you most? Makes you laugh? Your ability to create memorable characters will be based on the depths of your self-understanding, and capacity to accurately observe the human condition. If you can dig deeply enough, you’ll find an incredible wealth of subject matter, more than enough to last a lifetime. But you must be honest. When writing to stimulate an emotion in your audience, first write to trigger that feeling in yourself. Write for yourself, or for an audience you respect.
4) What is your best effort? There is a great scene in “Walk The Line” where a music producer tells Johnny Cash to imagine he is dying in the street. He has one last song to sing to sum up the totality of his existence. What would that song be? Questions like this cut through the b.s. Don’t try to be clever. Just tell the truth.
5) What do you actually believe human beings are? At the core of us, under all of the ugly and pretty. What are we? How do you explain the differences and conflicts between human beings: black and white, gay and straight, male and female. What do you think love is? What causes war? Why do we dream? Your own unique answers to these questions will point you toward your personal “voice.”
6) What is the nature of the universe? Of God? Is there anything out there? Are we alone? While it is possible to write stories and screenplays from a variety of philosophical positions, the writer who knows herself and has a position on the nature of life will outperform a “brilliant” writer who has nothing to say. Dig deep.
These two aspects, (1) hard work, and (2) honesty, will keep you busy for a lifetime, and take you to the very edge of your potential as a writer. And after all, if you haven’t used up all the potential you were given at birth, it hardly makes sense to complain that you didn’t get more!
Forget About “Talent”!
Posted by Buy essay Blog | Uncategorized | Posted on December 19th, 2008
How is a writer to access her deepest and most powerful wells of creativity? How do we tap into our talent, our genius, our greatest potential for success? Writing classes often tell us how to plot, or structure, or build characters, or create poetic images, but the question of accessing our excellence is a slippery and elusive one. It is possible we’ll need to go outside our usual sources to find an answer.
Many will merely say “be born with talent,” coldly suggesting that writers are “born” with a particular amount of potential, and that one either has this or not. And you know? There is a certain amount of truth to this. It is hard to argue with the idea that geniuses like Mozart or Shakespeare were gifted. But the nature versus nurture argument is both fascinating and, for the average person, irrelevant. After all, since we can’t go back and choose our grandparents, what are we to do? Just abandon our dreams of excellence if we don’t happen to be one of the gifted few?
I often say something to students that is both deadly serious and a slight (and deliberate) exaggeration. It is this “I don’t believe in talent. Every time I’ve ever gotten close to an excellent performer in any discipline, all I’ve seen is a lifetime of hard, honest work.”
Why would I say something like this? Because it is the way I truly feel. The fact is that I’ve seen endless people fail due to lack of honest work. And given those years or decades of work, I’ve seen few fail for lack of talent.
The truth is that if “talent” exists, it seems to be the capacity for long, concentrated periods of tunnel-vision focus, combined with a unique capacity for digging into themselves to find truths most of us are reluctant to reveal. These phenomenal men and women sacrifice outside interests, relationships, and sometimes their health and sanity to focus on their divine obsession. And yes, if you find a group of these people, some will rise higher than others. But the primary gift of art is to be able to spend your life in the act of creation. And to do that, you don’t need to be “the best” (whatever THAT means). All you need to do is to get into the top twenty percent in your field, and you’ll do just fine.
And that is achievable with focus and honesty. But what exactly do I mean by that?
FOCUS
1) Can you write 500 words a day for twenty years?
2) Can you concentrate for an hour at a time without stopping for coffee, phone calls, or bathroom breaks?
3) Can you shut out the voices of doubt and failure? Then you have a chance. In my own life, writing was simply my only career goal. I would rather have failed as a writer than succeeded at anything else. I was willing to do ANYTHING ethical and healthy to reach that goal, and every single day I asked myself new questions about how I could do it, who I could ask, what I could read, what classes I might attend. Willingness to postpone gratification is essential, because your efforts simply won’t pay off rapidly unless you are in that incredibly lucky fraction of a percent. And there is good news: even if you believe in “talent,” in the real world, an absolutely driven “B” or “C” student will outperform a lazy “A” student almost every time.
HONESTY. This is where the rubber meets the road, the diamond path to excellence.
1) What is your actual current skill level? What is the skill level necessary to make it in your chosen field? Make no mistake: writing is one of the most competitive fields in the world. EVERYONE thinks they can write, and to a degree, they are correct. If you’re going to make your mark, you will have to bring everything you’ve got.
2) Who has the resources you need to bridge the gap between your current and desired skill levels? Remember that they have probably spent a lifetime gathering their knowledge. What can you offer them (that is ethical and healthy for you) to gain their help and support?
3) What do you fear most? Love most? What angers you most? Makes you laugh? Your ability to create memorable characters will be based on the depths of your self-understanding, and capacity to accurately observe the human condition. If you can dig deeply enough, you’ll find an incredible wealth of subject matter, more than enough to last a lifetime. But you must be honest. When writing to stimulate an emotion in your audience, first write to trigger that feeling in yourself. Write for yourself, or for an audience you respect.
4) What is your best effort? There is a great scene in “Walk The Line” where a music producer tells Johnny Cash to imagine he is dying in the street. He has one last song to sing to sum up the totality of his existence. What would that song be? Questions like this cut through the b.s. Don’t try to be clever. Just tell the truth.
5) What do you actually believe human beings are? At the core of us, under all of the ugly and pretty. What are we? How do you explain the differences and conflicts between human beings: black and white, gay and straight, male and female. What do you think love is? What causes war? Why do we dream? Your own unique answers to these questions will point you toward your personal “voice.”
6) What is the nature of the universe? Of God? Is there anything out there? Are we alone? While it is possible to write stories and screenplays from a variety of philosophical positions, the writer who knows herself and has a position on the nature of life will outperform a “brilliant” writer who has nothing to say. Dig deep.
These two aspects, (1) hard work, and (2) honesty, will keep you busy for a lifetime, and take you to the very edge of your potential as a writer. And after all, if you haven’t used up all the potential you were given at birth, it hardly makes sense to complain that you didn’t get more!