Amazing things happen when we let go and follow the direction of our calling. The same thing happens to our fictional characters. This notion leads me to believe that there are destinations to which principle leads us.
This leads to another question, does your character lack character? It's not a twist on words but a real question. Before you start questioning your character's behavior and motivations, pose these questions and watch the character jump off the page as you practice these techniques.
Does s/he place more value on position and titles rather than character?
You can probably see how the above question begins to develop personality. If not keep reading. I will give you a scenario and you can allow your familiar character's to respond.
Your character is walking to the car. Your character see's a bank robbery taking place. S/he see's the license plate of the getaway car but may choose to respond or not get involved. When questioned, your character may or may not answer honestly.
Now, let this scene play out with one or more of your characters by using the exact same scenery.
For example:
Walter Ennis did not expect this excitement. He did expect he would continue to live by his own motto: mind your own business and look out for Walter. No matter what happened, Walter Ennis stuck to his convictions.
He was simply walking to the vegetable market when it happened. He could have frozen in his tracks when he saw it but common sense told him to keep walking and to look in the opposite direction.
The bank robber hurried to car. As he reached Walter, the robber hesitated.
Walter continued walking, happy that he had not stared at the license plate. Why should he get shot over someones money. Besides, banks are greedy. They wouldn't donate a penny to his funeral service if he was foolish enough to intervene and get himself killed.
Walter continued along, minding his own business.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Denise saw him. No sooner than the robber fled through the front door. Before the robber reached her, Denise crossed the busy intersection, dialing 9-1-1- as she fled. She turned to the left, made a mental note of the license plate of the robber's car and whispered into the phone. She was compelled to live by her own motto: Do your part.
"Good job," the 9-1-1 operator said.
Denise wondered how someone could not report such a crime. That's the problem, she thought, people are afraid to get involved.
When questioned by the responding police officers, she remembered more details.
"Good job," the officer said to her.
Those words rang in her ears for months: good job.
If others cared to do a good job as citizens the world would be a much better place, she thought...if only people would do their part.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
#Writers, What does it mean?
Go Set a Watchman,# Harper Lee.
After the tremendous fame of #To Kill a Mockingbird, many wonder why the publisher released the title, Go Set a Watchman.
A better question is, What does this revelation really mean? Are we afraid of what it may reveal about who we really are?
As we appreciate a renown title such as #To kill a Mockingbird, a title written in a dark moment of American history, can we appreciate the totality of the times which includes the likelihood of Jim Crowism incorporated in #Go Set a Watchman, or, are we limited to the thought that Gregory Peck's character represented the personification of who we really are?
If the former is true, we should have no qualms about the contents of book we have not yet read. If the later is true, then the earlier book would not have been necessary.
The writer who causes us to question our fears has done the greatest public service possible via the pen. The writer may have revealed the dimensional personality(ies) of the individual.
Ecclesiastes 9:14 (of the Holy Bible) says it best: there was a small city, with a few men in it...
Study the passage and be enlightened.
After the tremendous fame of #To Kill a Mockingbird, many wonder why the publisher released the title, Go Set a Watchman.
A better question is, What does this revelation really mean? Are we afraid of what it may reveal about who we really are?
As we appreciate a renown title such as #To kill a Mockingbird, a title written in a dark moment of American history, can we appreciate the totality of the times which includes the likelihood of Jim Crowism incorporated in #Go Set a Watchman, or, are we limited to the thought that Gregory Peck's character represented the personification of who we really are?
If the former is true, we should have no qualms about the contents of book we have not yet read. If the later is true, then the earlier book would not have been necessary.
The writer who causes us to question our fears has done the greatest public service possible via the pen. The writer may have revealed the dimensional personality(ies) of the individual.
Ecclesiastes 9:14 (of the Holy Bible) says it best: there was a small city, with a few men in it...
Study the passage and be enlightened.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Saturday, May 16, 2015
#Am Writing from the Treasure of the Heart
The future of the writer and that of the thinker intersects at the corners of awareness and imagination, based upon the treasure within the heart of the writer/speaker. History exposes many examples of unprecedented performances of human genius following a simple question. " What if? " What if Black people and White people and Jews and Catholic and Protestants could someday hold hands in the streets of America and sing the lyrics of the old Negro spirituals, Free-at-Last, Free-at-Last; Thank God almighty...we're free at last." Those famous words are the result of a man's courage to ask, What if?
It all starts with the treasure of the heart.
Leonardo DaVinci believed that to master a problem, it is necessary to break down its form. It is often in the process of restructuring that we develop a new perspective. Our first view of circumstances leading to labeling what we see as a "problem" is biased by definition. Once the "problem" becomes restructured it becomes a new set of circumstances, and is no longer seen as a problem.
One of the greatest values in writing non-fiction rest in the writer's ability to unfold nuggets of wisdom in following the question, 'what if?" This process is also one of the greatest services thought leaders bring to the world. What if you restructured the problem before you? What value will it yield and how will the question best serve?
Jesus Christ best demonstrates this phenomenon in a parable in Luke Chapter 7 of the Holy Bible. He delineates a measure of wisdom in a way that only he can. One of the Pharisees desired that Jesus would come and dine with him which Jesus did. A woman of questionable regard understood that Jesus would be there and she, also, went to the Pharisee's house, but she brought an alabaster box of ointment with her.
In the eyes of an onlooker this unholy union presents a problem. The Pharisee, not unlike some modern day Christians who lack understanding, judged that since light has no association with darkness, why then was Jesus Christ associating with this woman? Like some modern day small minds lacking the gift of understanding, it appears that the birds of a feather theory was applicable here.
Now, what if we stop at the door of judgment and ask what if? What if there is a reason the woman entered the house with good intentions as she carried the alabaster box of ointment? Because the spirit within us cannot exist in two places at the same time, we cannot harbor judgment and wisdom at the same time and in the same space. At this point, wise individuals question what they feel but the arrogant remain in a fool's paradise. What if we suspend judgment and look further-what wisdom might we find and pass on as a great service?
This restructuring process allows us to access dimensions beyond the limits of self and far beyond the known. By postponing judgment we allow ourselves to explore the vast unknown with self-appointed receptors or with an open mind.The area of unbiased observation invites genius. Genius is often the result of a different perspective. The question, "what if?" often paves the road to new perspective. It is perspective that yields nuggets of wisdom. As writers and thinkers we have that power in our hands, that is the power to influence perspective.
Again, the first view is often biased and emanates from self, not from the observed. Such was the case with the Pharisee .( Luke 7:39) He reasoned in his mind, that if Jesus was who he said he was, he would have known what manner of woman it was who touched him.
In the following verse, Jesus answered this man with a parable, a most effective way of conveying wisdom without creating defensive behavior with the listener. Jesus said there was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed $500.00 (excusing the difference in currency at the time) and the other owed $50. When the creditor discovered they had nothing to pay, he, the creditor forgave both of them. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And Jesus said unto him, Thou has rightly judged.
Can you see how Simon's judgment was changed from flawed to enlightenment from the basis of a single parable? I suggest to you, that restructuring of the problem with a loving heart, yields wisdom, for the treasure of the heart the mouth does speak.
Jesus went on to express the fact that the woman had serviced him as he, Jesus, entered the Pharisees house but the Pharisee had not serviced Jesus at all. She had loved much.
"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
What is it that you judge as a problem that can be restructured from the treasure of your heart? What have you asked forgiveness for that your love may, also shine?
It all starts with the treasure of the heart.
Leonardo DaVinci believed that to master a problem, it is necessary to break down its form. It is often in the process of restructuring that we develop a new perspective. Our first view of circumstances leading to labeling what we see as a "problem" is biased by definition. Once the "problem" becomes restructured it becomes a new set of circumstances, and is no longer seen as a problem.
One of the greatest values in writing non-fiction rest in the writer's ability to unfold nuggets of wisdom in following the question, 'what if?" This process is also one of the greatest services thought leaders bring to the world. What if you restructured the problem before you? What value will it yield and how will the question best serve?
Jesus Christ best demonstrates this phenomenon in a parable in Luke Chapter 7 of the Holy Bible. He delineates a measure of wisdom in a way that only he can. One of the Pharisees desired that Jesus would come and dine with him which Jesus did. A woman of questionable regard understood that Jesus would be there and she, also, went to the Pharisee's house, but she brought an alabaster box of ointment with her.
In the eyes of an onlooker this unholy union presents a problem. The Pharisee, not unlike some modern day Christians who lack understanding, judged that since light has no association with darkness, why then was Jesus Christ associating with this woman? Like some modern day small minds lacking the gift of understanding, it appears that the birds of a feather theory was applicable here.
Now, what if we stop at the door of judgment and ask what if? What if there is a reason the woman entered the house with good intentions as she carried the alabaster box of ointment? Because the spirit within us cannot exist in two places at the same time, we cannot harbor judgment and wisdom at the same time and in the same space. At this point, wise individuals question what they feel but the arrogant remain in a fool's paradise. What if we suspend judgment and look further-what wisdom might we find and pass on as a great service?
This restructuring process allows us to access dimensions beyond the limits of self and far beyond the known. By postponing judgment we allow ourselves to explore the vast unknown with self-appointed receptors or with an open mind.The area of unbiased observation invites genius. Genius is often the result of a different perspective. The question, "what if?" often paves the road to new perspective. It is perspective that yields nuggets of wisdom. As writers and thinkers we have that power in our hands, that is the power to influence perspective.
Again, the first view is often biased and emanates from self, not from the observed. Such was the case with the Pharisee .( Luke 7:39) He reasoned in his mind, that if Jesus was who he said he was, he would have known what manner of woman it was who touched him.
In the following verse, Jesus answered this man with a parable, a most effective way of conveying wisdom without creating defensive behavior with the listener. Jesus said there was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed $500.00 (excusing the difference in currency at the time) and the other owed $50. When the creditor discovered they had nothing to pay, he, the creditor forgave both of them. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And Jesus said unto him, Thou has rightly judged.
Can you see how Simon's judgment was changed from flawed to enlightenment from the basis of a single parable? I suggest to you, that restructuring of the problem with a loving heart, yields wisdom, for the treasure of the heart the mouth does speak.
Jesus went on to express the fact that the woman had serviced him as he, Jesus, entered the Pharisees house but the Pharisee had not serviced Jesus at all. She had loved much.
"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
What is it that you judge as a problem that can be restructured from the treasure of your heart? What have you asked forgiveness for that your love may, also shine?
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
#Writing and Living Within the Reality of Change
To state the obvious, change is inevitable. Everyone's knows that but why can't everyone make the adjustments imposed by change?
Because we do not clearly see the promise on the other side of change and because change is uncomfortable, that's why.
Whether we are writing fiction or non-fiction the reality of this dynamic (change) confronts our story, haunts the characters within it and speaks to a secondary reality: uncertainty and fear of the unknown, but on the other side of change is often the fulfillment of one's calling. A writer's ability to unfold the events leading to this change establishes great characterization of fictional characters. The notion of change tends to influence good writing and successful living. In life, one's ability to confront and accept change establishes success, as defined by one's ability to meet one's goals and live the dream envisioned.
Pay Attention
How do we begin to successfully confront change? First, listen to the voice of the inner spirit. Yes, there is a conversation going on within the community of self. Meditate and pay close attention. Breathe deeply and hear your own thoughts as well as the thoughts of your own characters. There is always a song playing in your heart, your job is to appreciate the lyrics. Pay attention.
Act
Act upon the area of your discomfort. This is the promise of living by the spirit; it is the ultimate act of faith. When we meditate and pray and come to the point where we feel our area of comfort is invaded by our own thoughts about who we really are, we have arrived; however, our first inclination is to resist...to run away. In fiction, show the resistance of your character. In real life, focus upon your own resistance. I urge you to not resist, instead, lean into the winds of change and call uncertainty and the fear of the unknown by its genuine name: Undefined Opportunity. The truth is before us at this point. This point represents an epiphany, land-marking the point to which we are propelled to higher consciousness. Paul, in the Bible, called it the second heaven. It is a place where the known self tends to let go and turn away from resistance.Carl Jung called it: the morning of awakening.
Lean Into the Wind
In establishing your fictional character in a story and in establishing your character in life, overcome fear by leaning into the wind. The force behind the wind is a sign of your readiness. You will not feel the wind in your face unless you are already equipped to make the change. At the end of the day, you will come to realize that the wind upon your face is the breath of God, reminding you to lean this way.
Let's take a quote from my book, Ascend to The Secret Place "Infinite wisdom tends to knock at the door where capacity lives."
Pay attention, act and lean into the wind.
Because we do not clearly see the promise on the other side of change and because change is uncomfortable, that's why.
Whether we are writing fiction or non-fiction the reality of this dynamic (change) confronts our story, haunts the characters within it and speaks to a secondary reality: uncertainty and fear of the unknown, but on the other side of change is often the fulfillment of one's calling. A writer's ability to unfold the events leading to this change establishes great characterization of fictional characters. The notion of change tends to influence good writing and successful living. In life, one's ability to confront and accept change establishes success, as defined by one's ability to meet one's goals and live the dream envisioned.
Pay Attention
How do we begin to successfully confront change? First, listen to the voice of the inner spirit. Yes, there is a conversation going on within the community of self. Meditate and pay close attention. Breathe deeply and hear your own thoughts as well as the thoughts of your own characters. There is always a song playing in your heart, your job is to appreciate the lyrics. Pay attention.
Act
Act upon the area of your discomfort. This is the promise of living by the spirit; it is the ultimate act of faith. When we meditate and pray and come to the point where we feel our area of comfort is invaded by our own thoughts about who we really are, we have arrived; however, our first inclination is to resist...to run away. In fiction, show the resistance of your character. In real life, focus upon your own resistance. I urge you to not resist, instead, lean into the winds of change and call uncertainty and the fear of the unknown by its genuine name: Undefined Opportunity. The truth is before us at this point. This point represents an epiphany, land-marking the point to which we are propelled to higher consciousness. Paul, in the Bible, called it the second heaven. It is a place where the known self tends to let go and turn away from resistance.Carl Jung called it: the morning of awakening.
Lean Into the Wind
In establishing your fictional character in a story and in establishing your character in life, overcome fear by leaning into the wind. The force behind the wind is a sign of your readiness. You will not feel the wind in your face unless you are already equipped to make the change. At the end of the day, you will come to realize that the wind upon your face is the breath of God, reminding you to lean this way.
Let's take a quote from my book, Ascend to The Secret Place "Infinite wisdom tends to knock at the door where capacity lives."
Pay attention, act and lean into the wind.
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