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Panning for Gold

3/31/2015

 
Panning for Gold, or I would say, "dish panning for new ideas" can be a lot of fun. You can just let yourself mindlessly stumble upon them, keeping yourself open and aware to the little things that happen daily that you could almost miss if you weren't paying attention--or you could actually make your gold panning into a regular activity. 

Once a week, for example, you could schedule a treasure hunt on the Internet or in newspapers and magazines. Once you start looking for unusual story material, you won't be able to stop! 

Here's how it works:

You picked up a shell on the beach or in a hobby shop. The inner layers of the shell and its different textures and colors could remind you of the many moods of your friend Sally…  how her complexion is colored by her moods. If she’s happy, her cheeks are rosy; if she’s sad, her face is pale, etc. Each aspect of the story could have a different way of unfolding.

Maybe you’re inspired by the way the shell spirals around itself and the fact that at one time a living creature used that shell as its home. (The shell itself is living creature, is it not?) What did that life look like? Your story may construct spirals around its theme like the shell spirals around itself…  and so on.

Once it becomes clear that everything in the world is connected, whenever you sit down to write, you will start to go on yet another treasure hunt to seek out those connections. Metaphors and similes will become second nature to you as you get used to creating relationships and finding similarities.

Symbols will start to pop into your writing when you see how profoundly you can use them for expressing these magical relationships between words, objects, people, events and circumstances.

Plan a quiet time when you can sit comfortably with a notebook and pen. Jot down whatever enters your mind: phrases, scraps of conversation, ideas for stories, articles, poems, novels…

Tear off these notebook pages and place them in your Idea Dishpan.

If anyone wants to know what abundance is, you can show them your Dishpans. You’re just brimming with ideas and material! For you, writer’s block is like ice cream on a stick: words melting into your mouth, the chocolate shell breaking loose and slobbering all over your shirt front… Do you remember the first time you ate ice cream on a stick? Now there’s a story… right?!

Panning for gold, like writing, can become a way of life. Liberate yourself from outlines and plans and all the other formal instructions delivered in “writing courses.” Later, when you have an idea that requires form and structure, these tools may come in handy… or maybe not. The goal is to stay fertile, fiery and free—at all costs.

Dish Panning for Gold

3/19/2015

 
Every day I dish pan for gold. Whenever I find a gem of an article, I place it in my Ideas Dish Pan.

The Ideas Dish Pan can have anything from Internet print-outs, photos or articles clipped from magazines and newspapers, to a scrap of writing I may have found in the parking lot or on the lawn. It could be a notice about a stray pet or flyer for a garage sale—or just the way something’s worded that catches my eye. It could be a word itself.

Dish Pan Gold could be an article, picture or ad torn from a magazine I’ve purchased, a catalog that came in the mail or a free handout from an organization that’s trying to persuade me to donate or join. It could also be something I overheard or that popped into my head that I jotted down in the notebook I always carry with me.

This collection of intriguing tidbits is my “dirt” that I pan when I’m looking for an idea. I may not be aware of it, but at the time I collected that scrap, the idea had already popped into my head. In fact, it was my mind that had served as the magnet. All that remained was for me to return once more to the idea and start panning.

In addition to my Idea Dishpan, I have two others, making a total of 3 Dishpans:

• DISH PAN #1 - Ideas
• DISH PAN #2 – Works in progress
• DISH PAN #3 – Drafted works for revision

The Idea Dish Pan reminds me of my childhood days when I had jars filled with fossils and unusual stones that I’d collected along the shores of Canandaigua Lake or in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State where I spent my summers. I also collected stamps, trading cards, bubble gum cards, post cards…  Each of these items had a story and a memory.




What Will  You Write About?

3/8/2015

 
"You are now a writer... so what will you write about?" This was the question the Famous Published Author fired at us before he stalked out of the classroom on that illustrious first and last day of my college creative writing course. It is the question no beginning writer wants to hear.

William Sansom wrote, "A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes."

Like the rest of the aspiring authors seated before this man of Great Wisdom and Fame, I was clueless. At age eighteen, my playing field was, well… limited. Boy-girl relationships, parental challenges, teachers and school, trips, summer camp, sports competitions…

That was about it. So…  what will you write about? 

Everything I had just listed to myself sounded as dull as dishwater.


Adding to my frustration was piece of advice that I’d long discarded as corny that popped into my head at just that moment when my mind went blank and I was unable to respond to the professor’s “what” question.

From an early age, I had always devoured every book I could get my hands on that had a protagonist with a passion to become a writer. Usually these girls and boys had mentors and they all gave the same piece of advice to aspiring writers. How many writing handbooks had I devoured that started and ended with that advice? Tattooed into my brain was the statement:

Write from your experience.

If I lacked experience at the young age of 18, wasn’t it my responsibility to start collecting some? Travel to the Orient, India, South Africa? Back-pack across the Mohave Desert, climb Mount Kilimanjaro…  hang out with the aborigines, or get lost in an Amazon rain forest?

I still wasn’t getting it because I was looking outside rather than going within, to visit myself at deeper levels.

What will you write about? I needed to learn how to dish pan.


Aim for the Heart

3/1/2015

 
I always know that if I aim for the heart, my writing will deliver a targeted heart-felt message. And for me, that's what good writing is all about.

Someone once said, “People are like sticks of dynamite. The power is on the inside, but nothing happens until the fuse gets lit.”  And that fuse is the heart.

Deep inside we all want people in our lives who will help to make us all we can be. You can be that person for the members of your team. Providing timely encouragement, recognition and support will help to light the fuse... and, in many instances, unleash their emotional energy.

Recently I read a story by Tom Mathews about a young man who played for the legendary Alabama football coach, Bear Bryant.

Bear had a third stringer on this team named Henry Peterson. Henry had never gotten to play, and just before the Alabama-Auburn Game, Bryant got a call from Henry. He said, “Coach, my dad died and I won't be able to make it to the game on Saturday.”

Bear said, “No problem, son, you should be with your family.”

However, the next day Bear got another call from Henry, and he said, “Coach, I got to thinking about it and I don't want to let the team down. I'm going to be there.” Sure enough on Saturday, Henry was dressed and ready to play.

Just before the game he walked over to the Bear and said, “Coach, I want you to start me today.”

Bear said, “Son, are you nuts? This is the Alabama-Auburn game, and you've never played.” Well, Henry persisted, and Bryant, never knowing why, said, “Okay, I'll put you in on the first play.”

Henry Peterson scored three touchdowns in the first half... he almost beat Auburn by himself. Bear, at halftime, walked over and said, “Son, I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you. Why haven't you shown me you can play football like that?”

Henry said, “Coach, did you ever see me walking around the campus with my dad?”

Bear said, “Yes, I have seen you.”

Henry then said, “Coach, my dad was blind and today is the first day he ever got to watch me play football.”

The final line in this story was: “As a leader, you can never underestimate the power of emotional energy.” I would like to change the word “leader” to “writer.” Let that statement be a watchword for writing dynamic works.

As a writer, you can never underestimate the power of emotional energy--especially when you aim for the heart.



    Author

    I am a ghostwriter, book doctor, editor and publisher. I am also a published poet, novelist and author of two books on writing tips & techniques. Websites:

    Dandelion Books 
    Carol Adler's Writing & Editing Services
    Carol Adler's Writings
    Carol Adler's Blog
    

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