Imagination@Work

The Blessing of Failure

The latest issue of Wired magazine contains “The Master Planner,” an article/interview with Fred Brooks, an early computer programmer and former department head for IBM. Thirty-five years ago he wrote a small book, The Mythical Man-Month in which he argued against the idea that two programmers can achieve twice as much work as one in a month. This became known as “Brooks Law.” He has now written a new book The Design of Design a collection of essays dealing with leadership, hardware systems, and more.

Two comments from the interview caught my attention; comments that deal with life and creativity. Author/editor Kevin Kelly brought up a statement Brooks made about some of his early work. Brooks called the IBM 360 OS “the worst computer programming language ever devised by anybody, anywhere.” When Kelly asked him about the frank self-appraisal, Brooks said:

You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you’re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.”

This bit of honesty is difficult for some to emulate. People in my profession are often insecure about their work and sometimes become defensive. Who can blame them? They work alone and try to create from nothing a piece of work that will entertain, educate, and please not only readers but a phalanx of editors, pub boards, professional reviewers, amateur reviewers, bookstore managers, and more. Sometimes writing for publication seems akin to baring one’s back for flogging. So, we become sensitive souls; tender in all the wrong places.

Writing, however, is a craft and an art, one which requires the writer to have the guts to commit to self-examination. You need to know this: I am the poster boy of insecurity. I always have been. I’ve felt that way in every career I’ve had, and I’ve had several of them. Yet I’ve learned that professional growth comes faster when I focus on what I could have done better rather than what I did right.

Writing is a continuous process of learning. Early on I learned that I couldn’t read a book I had written once it hit the shelves. I kept seeing things I could have done better. More than once, I’ve thought about one of my earlier books and realize it could haven been better.

The second quote—an anecdote—that caught my eye is this:

Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera once said that his method of design was to start with a vision of what you want and then, one by one, remove the technical obstacles until you have it.

I’ve heard similar statements, but this one hits the bull’s-eye. What do you want from your creativity, from your writing? Can you see it? Does it seem real to you? Good. What stands in your way? Start removing obstacles. Al’s Axion #45: See it, believe it, do it.

Consider Brook’s quotes together: Learn your from your mistakes; start removing obstacles. 

AG

Drill Bits and Lamp Shades

Years ago Discover magazine ran an article about Amory Lovins (as told to Cal Fussman). Haven’t heard of him? Neither had I, but he’s made a name for himself by having innovative ideas about energy, oil, and the like. He’s a physicist, economist, inventor, automobile designer and several other things to make mortals like me feel like gross underachievers. In the article he discusses ways to deal with the world’s energy problems, but that’s not why I mention him. Although I found his thoughts interesting, I found his way of thinking even more so.

He made a point by describing a man who walks into a hardware store to buy a drill bit. Lovins asks, “What does the man really want?” My knee-jerk response: Um, a drill bit? But no. The man wants a hole. Okay, that seems pretty basic but how many of us think that way? Much of creativity, innovation, and artistic endeavor comes from asking the right question.

Maybe another example.

At the turn of the last century one of the first (maybe the very first) woman business consultants, Mary Parker Follet, was working with a company that made lamp shades. She asked a question that at first stumped them. “What business are you in?” Like me they went for the obvious, “Um, lamp shades?”

“No, you’re in the light control business.” Seems too subtle to make a difference, but then the, well, light went on. “You mean we can make window shades, too?” The ideas began to flow. The failure to ask and properly answer this question almost doomed the railroads that had difficulty seeing that they were in the transportation business, not the railroad business (which meant they missed out on many opportunities).

Now, what business are writers in? Are novelists in the fiction business? Are periodical writers just in the magazine business? Are editors in the word refining business? What about publishers? Are they just in the book business?

And what about our man in the hardware store? He’s there to buy a bit, not because he likes the design and feel of the bit, but because he needs a hole bored into something. What’s your real need; your real desire; your real goal? If everything worked perfectly, what would your writing business look like and how would you measure its success? The man with the drill bit measures his success by the holes that he drills. Those holes are evidence of achievement. What is the writer’s proof of accomplishment?

What business are you in? What is your real goal?

These are questions I ask myself. Life changes us, the industry changes, readers change; therefore we need to be flexible. The answer to the question should never be chiseled in stone but allowed to adapt to our ever altering interests, skills, and world.

“What business are you in?” I am in the communication business. I peddle ideas, sell concepts, and market thoughts. Of course, as a Christian, most of what I communicate touches on faith and the way it is lived out.

Am I a novelist? Yes, but I write nonfiction as well. Am I then a writer of books? Sure, but I also write short pieces, blogs, articles, consult, and edit. Okay, then, that makes me a wordsmith. That’s true it does, but I also lecture, give interviews, teach classes. You get the idea.

We need to think wider and deeper. What do we really want to achieve? I asked, “What is your real goal?” Mine is this: I want to make people think. That’s it. Do I want to entertain? Of course, but entertainment isn’t the goal, it’s the means. I want people to say, “Wow,” “Great,” “Gripping,” but most of all I want them to go, “Hmmm.”

I feel most successful when I, through written or spoken words, reach into someone’s mind and tickle it with a new thought.

That’s how I measure success.

AG

An Open Call for Faculty 2011

Giving Back

An Open Call for Faculty

Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference is one of the premier gatherings for the Christian writers. A “general” conference, BRMCWC covers a full spectrum of writing concentrations: novels, book length nonfiction, children’s books, devotions, freelance, articles, professional development, public speaking for writers, and more. Last year, we had nearly 400 in attendance taught by approximately 35 faculty members.www.brmcwc.com

Southwest Christian Writers Studio is a limited attendance (100 conferees maximum), hands-on, studio experience for the serious writer. www.swcws.com

Both conferences are operated in partnership with the good people of LifeWay.

Our goal is to provide the best conference possible. We want to change the world through the written word.

We have been blessed to have the sharpest minds, most experienced writers, agents, and editors teaching our students. Every year a number of conferees sell their first books and articles. Over the years, some of those attendees have become faculty.

We’re extending an open call for faculty to teach in the 2011 BRMCWC and SWCWS. As always, many of our previous faculty will be back providing a solid foundation, but we also like to have some new faces.

 

The right person will:

1. Be published in their field/genre.

2. Have a desire to give back to the Christian publishing community by training new writers of all ages.

3. Be approachable, patient, and knowledgeable.

4. Be able to teach.

5. Be willing to meet with conferees in one-on-one sessions.

 

How to audition:

1. Send a one page summary/pitch to me at alton@ganskycommunications.com. I will ask for more info if I need it. (Hint: Be creative. I receive scores of “How to Write a Proposal” class descriptions.)

2. Include a brief bio and qualifications.

3. Include contact info, web sites, blogs, etc.

4. Include a note about which conference you are auditioning for.

 

Our basic subject areas for BRMCWC (but we’re open to new ideas):

1. Professional practice

            a. The business side of writing

            b. Working with agents and editors

            c. Public speaking for writers

2. Novels (including classes focusing on specific genres)

3. Book length nonfiction

4. Devotional material

5. Articles, print and online

6. Freelance writing

7. Writing for Children

8. Poetry

9. Craft improvement

10. Marketing

 

Our basic subject areas for SWCWS:

1. Novels

2. Nonfiction books

3. Professionalism

4. Article length nonfiction

5. Freelance

6. Visual media

7. Craft improvement

If you’re a writer, editor, agent, or have some other related specialty, and want to teach in some of the most beautiful places in the country, then BRMCWC and SWCWS may be the place for you.

 

Keep writing,

 

Alton Gansky, Gansky.Communications

Director, Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference

Director, Southwest Christian Writers Studio

What the !

[It's recycle Saturday. The following post is from November 3, 2005 and has been properly composted. --ALG]

There it sits—your manuscript on the desk of an acquisition editor. A glance at the editor tells you she is tired, her eyes are red from reading manuscripts from people who are certain they are destined for the New York Times Bestseller List. The manuscript before yours was awful, or worse, wonderful. Now is judgment time. The Sword of Damocles glints in the glow of her reading light and hovers over your lovely printed proposal. A decision will be made in the next few minutes.

What does the editor see as she peels back the last page of the summary and reads the first page of your sample chapter? Hopefully, she doesn’t see a boatload of these: !!!!!!.

Sometimes a publisher hires me to fix or rewrite a manuscript and one of the first things I do is perform an exclamation-point-ectomy. I recently read a book by a well-known author who must have scored a bargain on the tall punctuation mark because one page had over twenty !s peppered in the text. I know, I counted. I wondered where the editor had gone. That’s the problem with being a famous author; editors stop editing your work (or perhaps prohibited from doing so).

The exclamation point has a place on the page, but not often. As punctuation goes, it’s a big gun and should only be used when the situation demands it, and when no other method will work.

Too many !’s will make your work look amateurish. Some have told me, “Well, that’s the editor's job.” No, it’s the writer's job. It’s also the responsibility of the new writer to impress the editor who will be deciding if you deserve a showing in the pub board meeting or a form rejection letter.

Little things matter. So when it comes to exclamation points—Stop it! Pretend they cost you $20 each! Use them sparingly! Too many are distracting! They draw the reader’s attention from the story you labored over! Get it!!!!!

Small things matter.

Are You a Breadcrumb Writer?

The world of writing is filled with advice. I have a few bookshelves filled with "how to" books. Each has something worthwhile to teach, but not one of them can tell me how my imagination works or how to funnel it into something tangible.

All creativity is rooted in the vagaries of individual personality. The human stew of emotion, experience, and effort is a recipe unique to every individual. This is true for all artists including writers. At the Temple of Apollo in Delphi is an inscription in Greek that comes into English as, "Know thyself." Easy to say; difficult to do. 

Writers need to know themselves. If we fill a room with writers we wouldn't expect them all to look the same, why would we expect them to think and work the same way? Some writers must work in the morning, others can't write when the sun is up. Some writers work slowly, others are speed demons. Is there a right way? (A write way?) Yes: the way that gets it done.

Perhaps the biggest difference among writers is the divide between "outliners" and "intuitive" writers.An intuitive writer doesn't outline or outlines very little. Many of the famous authors you know write this way. I'm an intuitive writer. I have outlined novels but prefer not to. Why? It's not because it makes me or my work superior to others. Trust me, that's not the case. I write this way because it is the way I'm wet-wired. It is the way my brain works. Intuitive writing (sometimes called "discovery writing") means I follow a trail of bread crumbs left by my characters. Outliners place their own breadcrumbs. Nothing wrong in that. To balance a comment I made earlier, many of the famous authors you know outline their books, some extensively. Why? Because that is howthey are wet-wired.

(We pause this blog post for a brief rant. Intuitive writers are NOT "seat-of-the-pants" authors. The phrase is a tad demeaning. Okay, back to the post.)

Some avoid outlining and creating long character backgrounds because they think the work is too hard. Well, it is difficult, but any working intuitive writer will tell you than her process is no easier. In some ways, being an intuitive may be more difficult.

Dr. Joel Gregory, former professor of homiletics at Southwestern Seminary, preached a memorable sermon in which he said, "I am often asked by my students, 'Dr. Gregory, in preparing a sermon do I start with the contemporary human need and move to the biblical text, or do I begin with the biblical text and move to the contemporary human need?' I tell them, it doesn't matter where you start as long as you end back in the Bible."

Should you outline or follow in the shadows of your characters. It doesn't matter as long as you produce a well-written and well-plotted book.

Experiment. I believe every intuitive should try outlining. If you're uncertain what works best for you, start with an outline. You'll know soon enough.

Keep writing.

Al

Adverbs Done Right

I not only write, but I edit.That means that publisher hire me to do everything from touch-up to complete rewrites. I not only edit, but I review. I have a publisher client that sends proposals to me for evaluation. This means I see a lot of writing. Some of it is good; some, well, not so much. As I do this work I notice trends common to new writers. Mostly, I notice bad habits. One such habit has to do with adverbs.

If you've ever been to a writing conference, then you've probably heard advice that goes like this: "Kill the adverbs. Eradicate them. Excise them. Evict the little buggers." This is not new. William Strunk wrote in Elements of Style, "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words . . ." Almost every book written about writing says something similar. So why am I repeating it here? Because as often as we're told not to use unnecessary adverbs, we are seldom shown how to use them correctly.

This came to mind while I was reading a bit of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life I came across this:

"You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully."

First thought: What? A writer of her caliber knows better than to use adverbs like that, and to use two in such a short sentence . . . Wait a minute. I read the sentence again and that forced me to lift my judgment. Dillard had just schooled me.

Here's the key with adverbs: If you can take them out and the sentences still stands, then you've done useful pruning. If the sentence deflates, then the adverbs belong.

In Writing Tools, Roy Peter Clark gives a comparison of bad adverb vs. good adverb:

1. She smiled happily. (Ouch.)

2. She smiled sadly. (Now that says something.)

The first sentence is just silly; the second creates an engaging image.

Back to Dillard's sentence. What happens if we take the adverbs out? We get this: "You make the path and follow it." Is that a good sentence? Sure, but it's not as strong as, "You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully." In this case, the adverbs not only belong, they do the heavy lifting. Removing them hobbles the sentence, and lessens the impact.

Adverbs are not evil, but they are overused so question their role in your writing. If they bring something to the table, fine; if not, boot 'em out.

Al

Imagination@Work is Back

As a newly married man, someone asked me about our plans for children. I gave the usual response: "We're going to wait until we can afford children." The older man laughed. "In that case, you'll never have children."

Imagination@Work was my first blog. It was the place where I talked about all things creative, especially writing. Then I let it slide. "I'm too busy," I said. "There are books to write, editing to do, and naps to take." However, I've come to miss it, and as far as being "too busy" goes, well, isn't that the point? If I wait until I'm not busy, then I'll never get started again (not to mention, if I'm not busy, I'm in real trouble).

So here is Imagination@Work, freshly dusted and all its moving parts well oiled. I will be tweaking the site as I have time, so be patient, I have a lot of updating to do.

Imagination@Work is the place where author Alton Gansky inflicts his views of writing and creativity on the rest of the world.