Tag: writing craft

Books on the Writing Craft and other matters at hand

books about writing

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Let’s talk about writing… and reading towards our writing practice.

On this article, you’ll find some ideas about formal studies, the need to keep learning, and the books that I’ve included on my learning practice about the writing craft.

Yes, I made a list with all my 5 star reads on the writing craft. Enjoy!

And tell me more… What have you read? What are you reading? Recommend some books to me?

So… About formal studies

Formal studies teach us to read, focusing on goals. School gets us the reading practice oriented to themes, and learnings that we need, in order to perform… mostly to perform in tests, but if we have writerly aspirations, it gives backbone to our efforts.

Later, and as we exit the formal education system, all we bring with us are the systems taught, while learning the official programs.

And many of us, also bring an intense dislike by obligatory readings.

Out of school and into self-learning…

Out of school, no more learnings? No. Self-learning is part of the writing (and living) craft.

To make use of a more formal approach to learning, even if we are out of school for good, can make the diference we need, in order to write better.

After all, if we are not in the formal circles is a lot more difficult to be exposed to the basics, because it’s what school give us: the basics.

At this time, we have licence to go and study by ourselves whatever we want to learn.

Of course, that Learning is hard. Not just while in the formal teaching institution, but also by ourselves. We tend to be lenient towards what we have to do, and want to do. It takes a lot of discipline to really live the scholastic life, when we frankly don’t have to.

So we struggle.

Best versions of ourselves are hard to grasp

Trying to find things that motivate us to learn more about, or read more about, and failing on maintaining that energy is the usual cup of tea.

Also, having the means to do it (time, money, will…) is usually a hard combo to achieve. Means are usually scarce, and it’s hard to get our hands in the best version of the knowledge, we need to have access to.

And it’s just better not to bother. It’s easiest not to do it. Or to pretend to do it, and just give an half-ass efforts into it… And then we end up more hurt by trying it half way, instead of going all in.

Because we fail to see the reward, we put moderated efforts and get frustrated when things just don’t pan out as we wish. We want it all, but fail to give it our all.

A clue…

Set some order on learning efforts. Have a more organised approach to subjects and just do the time on the work. Read the book, do the training, have the workshop, write the text…

And, in the midst of setting my own learning practices, I give you the most important learning resources I have come accross in the past fifteen years.

So… I give you some books about the writing craft, that have made a difference on this learning journey. Just the 5 stars reads that were useful and fun.

Books on Writing

“Revision & Self-Editing” by James Scott Bell

About the most important aspects of writing and the impact of revisional work and self-editing our writings.

“Turning Pro” by Steven Pressfield

A motivational book identifying a force known as Resistance, and how it impacts our creative efforts.

“Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Some well thought advices, from a most beloved poet and letter writer, that guide us through the sacrifices that the work demands from us.

“Turning Home” by Susanna Tamaro

Reflections about living a writerly life and how her personal experiences shaped her, her longings, and her fictional writing.

“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf

Getting to know the irony that shaped this women, in her writing acknowledgements and achievements, is a priceless lesson, humorously put.

“Word by Word” by Anne Lamott

Invaluable lessons on the most common (and abstract) problems about writing and living a writer’s life. A guide to our more common feelings towards the writing predicaments.

“Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Stop romanticising the hardships of the creative life. Accept the mystical of the creation act and find happiness in writing.

“Escrita em Dia” by Margarida Fonseca Santos

Useful exercises on the writing craft, helping unblock ourselves, and finding rhythms in our creative practices.

“Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It” by Steven Pressfield

A non-nonsense way of looking to readers realities. We might as well face it and learn to do better to captivate people’s attention.

“Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You” by Ray Bradbury

Inspiration and the celebration of the writing life.

“The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises” by James Scott Bell

Strategies and thoughts on writing, through the lenses of the first manual written on war by Sun Tzu.

“The Artist’s Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self” Julia Cameron

Unstuck yourself with this 12 weeks course on how to create and be creative. Find out the easiest way to accept that we are all creatives at heart.

“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott

Writer’s themes are dealt with with humour and simplicity. A precious help on the more usual predicaments about the writing life. And it’s good for the non-writer’s as well.

“The Faith of a Writer” by Joyce Carol Oates

What a writer believes, and writes about, and how an honest take on the writerly issues can help us cope with this life.

“Why I Write” by George Orwell

A short essay on his motives for writing, so similar to our own, and interesting to compare to.

“Quem disser o contrário é porque tem razão” Mário de Carvalho

A Portuguese author’s take on the writing life, and writerly themes, setting the tone with: there are no absolute truths, just opinions on subjects and actions we take.

“How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines” by Thomas C. Foster

A funny, well versed, intelligent professor gives us the written version of his usual classes on Literature. With the so well put knowledge, we learn to see beyond the works and criticism on literary works.

“On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King

A glimpse into his thoughts on the writing craft throughout the years, and his multiple experiences with being the struggling, and the successful writer.

“Writing Fiction for Dummies” by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy 

The nuts and bolts of writing through some studied methods. This is a how to book, worth the immense time it takes to read and apprehend it fully.

There are others, but not 5 stars reviews, so I’ve kept them out of this list. These are my most precious and inspiring book on the writing craft.

Reading and self-learning efforts…

This year I have a reread already lined up, and a new book on the craft.

The reread will be “How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines” by Thomas C. Foster. I just got the paperback copy and want to read it in this format.

The new book is “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk, which I hope to get to soon.

Meanwhile,

I discovered some 4 stars right here on my shelf, that I feel have been neglected. I have read them, but I feel the need to reread and see what I missed on the first time, that made me give them a 4 star rating. These are:

“Ernest Hemingway on Writing”, edited by Larry W. Phillips

Some quotes and curated excerpts of Hemingway’s works related to the writing craft and his practices.

“How Fiction Works” by James Wood

A literary essay on criticism, literary artefacts and craft tricks writers use to deliver their messages.

“The Art of Fiction” by David Lodge

Prose for the newspaper readers, as he gathers a topic from a well-known novel and uses his literary experience to enlighten and delight the common reader.

I feel all of these need a second turn on my reading radar.

Getting Back to the basics…

I have wanted to be exposed to the basics, and I’m working through some kind of writing bibliography, in tandem with reading fiction.

But I feel I need to have a more dedicated study practice. And this is something to chew on for a while… Set some guidelines and do the work. I’ll let you know how this goes on future blog posts. 

See you next week! And, meanwhile you may checkout my social media and subscribe to this blog.

∞

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Bye and Keep Writing! ✍🏼

Own your shit

own your shit

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

I’m a huge fan of J.R. Ward’s writing. There. I’ve said it, again and again.

I’m a fan. And not because of the steamy scenes. Even though I like those. They were kind of a slap in the face back in the day.

I’m an enthusiast of her so distinctive writer’s voice. She’s a badass writer. The work shows it and the fans know it.

I have been an admirer for more than a decade, since her “Dark Lover” first came out. I have induced others to read her work, and it didn’t disappoint. I know men that read Ward’s work. And I find her writing-craft-personality very masculine.

And now?! In this moment of my life?

Now, I’m a huge fan of J.R.Ward’s as a person-writer… to the extent of what I can perceive about her (which I may say it is not much on the personal side, but enough in the writer’s one).

I did not pay much attention to her online presence over the years. I don’t remember her to be that present there.

I usually don’t go down the rabbit hole for most writer’s that I know. Too much time to waste in that. If I’m am intrigued by something, or I admire their work and want to know more about them, I’ll go investigate their website or blog, or buy some kind of Memoir or Letters written.

The rest? The YouTube and social media stuff? I figure that, it’s just stuff to occupy idly the time I have. So I try to avoid that.

Quaint detail about J.R. Ward: her looks kind of surprised me.

It was not what I was expecting. And, at first, I couldn’t wrap my head around how a vanilla-like-lady could write so many cuss words, hard-core relations and witty remarks. The lesson’s on me.

Her works had been a constant in my life, since I first bought the first book.

I collect the Portuguese editions every time-o-money I can. Also, I buy the English originals every time a book truly speaks to me.

Because I am all in for an original.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood had been a constant, but also the Jessica Bird’s books and The Fallen Angels. I have still The Bourbon Kings saga to pick up… and now there’s a new pet project of Ward’s, in a more Dark Academia theme, which I’m putting in my tbr.

Then Ward got herself a YouTube channel. It has two videos, and two shorts, in a bit of insight into herself and her life.

The simplicity, and fun in them got me wandering if I had been missing something online about her work and her author’s mindset and routines. Did I ever…

It has been a while since I searched for anything online about this author so this came as a surprise: There are basically two types of content about J.R.Ward on YouTube: fan made videos about books and characters AND J.R.Ward’s interviews and public events.

First, were the usual stuff being filtered through magnifying glass search. The fan videos are fun. And that’s it.

The second type of content out in the virtual world consists of interviews and public events. And…

She sure can draw a crowd in. Entertain it too.

In these, we get to know a bit about the writer behind the successful writing. Commercial success, as she puts it. But I figure it’s a Writing success with no bullshit about it.

I have been listening attentively to her answers. She’s big on giving insight to her listeners. And not just about her routines and creative process.

No. If we listen carefully, we find an inspiring kind of justifiable obsession with writing. A true, not emphasized by wanting to sell books on the craft business side of things, genuine life experience on devoting herself to writing.

Writers Write and that’s it, isn’t it? And she puts it as it is.

All the career stuff, and public relations stuff, and fame stuff is an expensive accessory that entangles an author in a too-self-important trip… instead of writing.

All they have to do, their first and foremost activity, is Writing.

All we have to do for our Writing is Write.

And own our shit frankly.

She has a big kind of speech in this video that culminates in:

So drop your emotions at the door, pull in your big girl pants, and if wanna do that, than you fucking own that shit. – J.R.Ward in Unabridged: J.R. Ward @LFPL @LFPL_Foundation @JRWard1

It’s a good, inspiring piece of knowledge. Of Writer’s professional knowledge.

Maybe we should all own out shit. Just saying… I know we suffer more when we don’t.

In all that Insta wisdom’ness look for Mel Robbins full post (find it here…)

hard stuff

All things we avoid become breaking point harder.

Let’s not avoid writing… or own our weird shit. There’s no easy way to go about it. Just

Own your wants and dreams. Own your shit, not your bullshit.

***

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

 

Writing Awesome Characters

characters

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Telling stories is all about creating awesome characters.

Think of it like this, in a world of our own volition, even the dog can, and must, be a great character.

An awesome character is not just the more likeable, or the most evil, or the better constructed. An awesome character has something in him that captivates the reader.

It’s like when we meet someone and we get all these vibes about who that person might be, and all the secrets that are hers, and the little details that make us wonder who, what, and how she really is. And, ultimately, why someone is the way she is.

The process that goes from those first impressions, to knowing a character a bit better, to understanding him, and where he is coming from, is kind of comparable to knowing a new person in real life.

All about the characters

In some stories, it’s all about the characters. This reminds me of the characters of a movie I have seen recently: ‘Elvis‘, 2022, with Tom Hanks and Austin Butler. Just, UAU!

I guess it’s a truth well acknowledged that Tom Hanks is a spectacular actor. At least, I think so.

And that any movie made about Elvis would be well loved by the fans.

But Tom Hank’s ‘Coronel Tom Parker’ is something else. I just couldn’t hate the guy. Not as he is being portrayed in his glorious simplicity by Tom Hanks.

And Austin Butler has made this story/character justice. He gives Elvis character some unknown animated spirit that just takes control of who’s watching.

I’ll leave a sneak peak here:

These are strong characters, in a real life inspired story, but never forgetting that ultimately, it is entertainment and fictional factors bringing this movie to life.

It is not a documentary. It’s a living, breathing, piece of art, full of color, sound, feelings and dazzle.

And so much has been said by Elvis and his life, work and career, that I never thought it could be done in a so inspiringly new perspective.

And this movie experience serves the theme of this article, because these characters are truly well constructed, whole, amazing in themselves, and in this particular rendering. 

Characters and Character-driven story

In a character-driven story (with a special focus on characters, instead of plot), having a clear notion about who the characters are, what they desire most, what they want, and what they really need, how they will evolve throughout the happenings of the plot, is imperative to create an epic story.

We need to know them profoundly in all their shortcomings and awesomeness.

An awesome character has a je ne says quoi, something in him that reels us in, in his very private, very demonically, very growth needed existence.

Usually, this is achieved through feelings.

We get an awesome character  and make him ignite feelings in our readers. Through our words, and concepts, and delivering them the right way, we are able to nurture specific feelings in our readers. Positive or negative feelings.

Even if the character is weird, out of the box, totally wrong for common sense standards, if we make people feel for him, understand him, have compassion or/and even hate him profoundly, we have created an awesome character.

Even the dog needs to be a great character

In a story all characters should have this dept. Even if they are not the focus (the main characters), they should be well constructed and feel real, instead of just a random prop, popping up here and there.

So, even the dog needs to be awesome. And not just for the empathic statement of the ‘save the defenseless to create empathy‘ scheme. 

The way he looks like, how he behaves, the role he has in the main story. But also the meaning that his presence partakes to other characters, and their own needs and actions, growing along while the plot is unravelling.

As a great side kick, or as the main character, even an animal needs to be imagined in awesome, plot contributing ways.

But these are just a few ideas to consider about creating awesome characters.

There are so much more. More practical, or inspired, and even formulaic ways to create and develop a character.

But to make it awesome, I believe we must infuse them with the power of evoking feelings. And I’m sure we will get an awesome fictional being.

So…

Make them special. Make them known to you. Make people feel for them. Work them thoroughly.

And it’s: awesomeness achieved.

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

Meanings in our writings and please our readers intensely

subtext and symbols

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

A clock isn’t just a clock. It’s a symbol of other things that permeate the story. 

Mentioning a season isn’t just how’a the weather or to place a story in time. It has meanings, and connotations with life itself, human life spans, among other things.

Our references, all the things we read and watch, live and learn, bring us to the threshold of deeper meaning and purpose in the stories we write.

This reminded me of a personal story…

In my high school senior year, one of our Portuguese Language class assignments was the reading, and study, of a particular theme in a Portuguese Classic work. We had to write a paper, and present it, in front of the whole class.

The book contained a lot of themes from which to choose from: plot, characters, places, symbols, and other sorts of fundamental pillars, that served as building blocks for that particular story.

I admit, it was rich in possibilities.

But, truth be told, I hated that book.

It was long and boring, I couldn’t understand half of it, and so dull that I kept falling asleep before the first twenty pages were up. It was a painful read for the time… and I took the class a second time, to improve my grade and have the chance of a better access to college. So, I suffered the boringness twice.

I guess it doesn’t matter which book it was, but for this story intents, I’ll leave the link here:

Aparição by Vergílio Ferreira and the youtube movie trailer. ‘Apparition’ as a direct translation.

I don’t believe it was ever translated to english. It didn’t made it to the worldly stage, like Saramago’s work, for example.

And the shock I felt as I discovered it was made into a film!

The book blurb goes as follow:

Aparição is a novel by Vergílio Ferreira in which he discusses philosophical theories connected to existentialism, written in the first person.

Need I say more?

The movie trailer got me curious to see which parts of Évora I do know… and that’s about it for the current me book reader.

But, back to the subject at hand.

Can you guess what I chose to study and present a paper about?

Symbolism, of course! In both years. And, no, I didn’t cheat on the second paper.

I will not pretend to have been interested in it so much that I went back to the existentialism theories and construct upon those. No. I wasn’t so great at philosophy either but, I was good at the Creative Writing part of it though.

So, I stuck to the more immediate symbolism of the different objects, ambiances, and words used in the text. Grouping them into different types of symbolic representations and delivering a multitude of possible meanings, and how those served the text in itself.

Looking at it from the symbolic perspective was fun. And it was the only theme I could have dealt with at the time.

But still, I didn’t go too deep, alluding more than actually stating through text. Yes, the animosity between me and that book got me little to nothing invested in studying it. I was sixteen at the time so…

But this experience with symbols, symbolism and layers upon layers of deeper meaning, got me hooked.

I have read books on it, and watched college lectures about it, and pinpointed examples of good, not so good, and poorly written symbolisms, always sharing the opinion of those who favor symbolism as part of a more meaningful construct, rooting fictional stories into deeper meaning.

[For years that I have been eyeing a Dictionary of Symbols that costs a small fortune]

We write to connect people. We write stories bringing our experiences and personal reflections to the plots.

Symbols and working with other levels of meaning, gives meat to the bone structure of these stories.

Understanding how certain words may allude to particular themes gives dept, and some complexity to our stories, and to every other artistic representation.

It’s not just listening to a catchy tune, but understanding the lyrics. Not just watching a movie, but capturing the ambience and the mood intended. It’s looking at a face, in a painting, and recognising the expression in the eyes. It’s not just quoting a phrase of some random book, but scrape the fluff, and connect with a representative meaning.

A clock, a meal, a particular time of the day or night, the season of the year, a facial expression, an action, a lack of action, a physical place… all have meanings, and can be worked into our story as representative details that help compose a really great piece of storytelling.

And it’s fun to locate those pieces of deep meaning in our stories, and make them work for the success of the plot, and for the possibility of bringing our art to a new level of mastery.

Intelligent people connect through meaning. And readers are in the intelligent game, aren’t they?

I believe they are. 

And so should we, the writers, be.

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

Beautiful Imagery and our best work

images

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

Imagination and Imagery are intimately connected. It’s the power of combining images, transforming them into our particular reality, and even going beyond that.

Writing is constructing images in our heads and in our readers minds.

While building a story we recur to different strategies to visualise how characters, locations, and objects, will appear to our readers.

I do believe that, all that we can see in our minds will translate into a page in the most effective way we can imagine, if we just put the work behind it.

I also believe that usually this happens in ways we can’t perceive objectively. It’s kind of a shadow work that occurs inside our minds, fuelled by all the collected inspirations.

The act of describing what we are envisioning, letting what we absorb come through, will make reading a lively experience.

This means building ideas about how the elements will be, and master its materialisation on the page. Whatever the story, in whichever genre we fancy.

How we find imaginative inspiration?

Some of us, writers and imagery builders of sorts, have a fondness for reading and imagine things in our own way.

Sometimes, this ability gets us to have a book turned into a movie just because the imagery used was totally wrong from what we had envisioned.

Others, find it useful to look at correlated art works and give our imagination a hand at picturing worlds, creatures and even human faces.

There are a few theories about this brain ability of ours, categorising people into types of learners, just by figuring out our abilities to retain information and, therefore, use it in creative ways, accordingly to our main senses of vision, hearing and touching.

I found that, for me a mix and match of all of these, work in different projects and situations. So I learned to use visual aids, and well as hearing and touching.

In some projects I use music. In others, drawings and pictures. With more, or less, emphasis on each aid, according to what I feel is most needed for me to capture the full experience I need.

Because to learn about these characters, and this world, and these objects and locations, I need to attune myself to their particularities. And this is only possible if I keep my sources of inspiration in an expanded mode. Always looking, always alert, always integrating fun little snippets of information that might seem to be just there for the taking. Just so I have some places from which to draw inspiration from.

Where do I find some inspirational imagery?

Just looking at other people’s rendition of something, a picture, a drawing, a digital art work, a description, a capture of some sort of inspirational material, allows me to let me own imagination guide me into my own world building, with all it entails. Browsing through Pinterest, DeviantArt, a Google search on Images tab, can get me some much needed help on figuring out some writerly things.

How do I use it in my writing process?

I use it for inspiration, to build up my mental muscles on the much needed imagery.

Exposing myself to beautifully composed images, to gruesome battle outcomes, to twirls of abstract imagination, will get me content enough to start thinking about my own creative processes in my stories.

Also, I use it for writing exercises.

To have a prompt, and to build upon that little morsel of imagery is a pleasure, and alleviates me from having to start with the dreaded blank page feeling.

Just like painting uses references, the  writing practice also can, and should, do it. Imagery serves us as guides in this unthreaded wordy land.

Is it beneficial to my writings?

Yes. It is indeed. My imagination needs all the aid she can get. My writing efforts benefit from everything I throw at them. All the little unsuspected efforts we can make to help us write more and better are welcome.

If we find a notebook full of clippings is the way to go, we should try it out; or a mood board hanging on the wall; a Pinterest album full of scary pictures; a reference book on imagery; a subscription to a travel magazine; or any other way of collect those images we will be recurring to intentionally, in order to make our writing process smoother and more inspired.

Standing in the shoulders of giants has its downside?

Do not copy. Do not steal. Do not use without permission. Do not go into that unimaginative, hurtful, dishonourable lane.

Reconnect the dots of all you have learned and add to the work already done. Be inventive, resourceful, creative in your own right. You can do the most beautiful, your own, work. And it will feel good to do so.

Be careful of the difference between gathering inspiration, to work out added value, and the already mentioned problem above.

Gather from all types of different sources and think: I am the sieve through which all comes in, and only a small combined part of it mesh and comes out.

Allow myself to be the changing factor, the added value, the combinatory and creative force behind whatever I create.

Will it be easy?

Is anything worthwhile easy? I don’t think so.

Was any of those drawings easy to make? Any of those books we read? Any of those creative breakthroughs?

Easy and Worthwhile are opposites, aren’t they? 

Having these processes available to tap into, allowing new inspiring imagery and information to come through, working out the effective ways they can serve my writing efforts, trying to be receptive to all inspiring tendrils is part of the fun.

All we can do is allow our minds to translate into our work the images we had envisioned. All we must do is ensure that the reading experience will be the best we can make it. And that all these inspirational processes work out for the best in each page we write.

So that our reader truly gets what we were aiming for: the best story possible. 

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

***

References:

Considerations about Building Worlds

building worlds

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

World Building is hard, fun, messy and an inspiring cluster of moments to be had, while writing a story.

To create a full, well developed, verisimilar picture of a new society, in whichever form and size, means we have to be ready to explore.

And we explore by imagining some complex interactions, rules and possibilities of functions and purposes. We explore by asking ourselves ‘What if?‘

World Building is also very fun, and we can have a great time imagining and developing some physical, personal and social landscapes in order to make a certain story work.

Building a new world usually means that we want it to be special and unique.

But sometimes, we have all of these ideas, already seen in other books, series and movies, that makes us doubt if we are indeed writing something new or even good enough. Making us doubt of what we intended to create, and getting us not to put enough time in working out the particulars of that special world.

How to come up with remarkable ideas for our World Building?

Learning about other people’s creative processes might give us a glimpse on how their new ideas came to be. It might help us discovering our own process to invent our own strategies to uncover our imaginative process.

I suggest that you watch the documentary ‘Abstract, the Art of Design’ for a great glimpse of other people’s creative processes.

But, more frequently than not, we see their processes as a confluence of different factors, including their own unique reality and life experiences. And, let’s face it, we can’t replicate that. All we can do is live our own life experiences and use them the best we can.

So, looking to other people’s creative processes teach us an invaluable lesson: Use your beliefs, inner thoughts and fears to create our Story Worlds.

There’s a constant need to look around and analyse how we see the world, how we react in certain situations, what we believe in and how those beliefs have changed over time.

There is great potential here. Not just for the things we would like to advocate in behalf of, while writing our stories, but also looking frankly at our hidden agendas, those thoughts we find uneasy and some of them even shameful.

And then, there is fear.

Fear can be our ultimate telltale sign that we need to work on that through a story. Not as a way to deal with it, even if it could be that, but as a spark of inspiration from which to build upon.

When we are writing Fantasy, being in a dystopian novel for example, we may construct a more believable story if we tap into our own experiences and thoughts.

I guess we all have came into contact some pretty messed up world views, peer pressure, or non-sensical beliefs. We might as well put them under a new light and scrutinise if any of those would fit our story just right.

Building a brand new world is, and cannot be in other way, connected to how we experience the reality we live in.

We may set the action in a far away galaxy, in a totally different body, or even in a totally different existential and corporeal plane, but we all start from the same reality in which we live in.

My father used to say that “all the things that exist are from this world. We cannot invent anything that we hadn’t already seen or experienced in this world.”

I agree with that. We can only reimagine what we have seen or experienced in some way. And all of it came from this world we live in.

We cannot think outside-the-box, if we have no ideia of what exists beyond it’s confinements. For example in sci-fi stories, assuming there could be something existing outside what we know, and having clear notions that there are rules to the functioning of this world in which we live in, we can only extrapolate into how things could be in other worlds.

Initially, we draw inspiration from the knowable in order to build a new world, somehow inventive, by reapplying the old and conveying things in a new format. And then we go deeper into the rabbit whole, if we can. We conjugate different ideas, crisscrossing from distant experiences and knowledges.

It’s not just having some knowledge but learning to recognise it’s potential and integrate it.

We use what we’ve got, specially if it’s a cross between a chihuahua and a fountain pen, or an ugly feeling and an online game, or chicken legs and a house foundations. Any one of these fortuitous connections may give us that idea that will make our story special.

World Building doesn’t mean just physical location. It envolves people, traditions, cultures, belief systems, interactions, associations, objects, daily tasks… all of the things that we experience in our own existences adapted into this new world that we are creating.

Because a martian would never walk like an earthling, would he? Or an addict would never rationalise some random thought in the same way that someone without that particular addiction would.

There are different knowledges to be pursued and other connections to be made between the simplest thing in that particular world. And our job as storytellers is to make those connections if we can.

So on we go into other worlds in order to discover our own.

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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What are you writing next? Who cares?!

who cares

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Maybe we can take all of this (world, life, work) as something dense, difficult, hard to accomplish. Or maybe we can declare fu** ** and say to ourselves ‘Who cares?’

To accept the pressure of having to write the next story is daunting. And not just if you are a known author. If you are a newbie, or a somewhat published author, it’s hard to accept the responsibility of having to write a new work.

To keep it in perspective, and for our mental health well-being, maybe we have to put ourselves in a ‘Who cares?’ mindset.

Instead of writing the next plausible and expected story, how about saying fu** ** and start working in a new genre, or an unsuspected book, or a poetry collection, or a biography.

Because, who cares?

Who is going to come to our home and demand us to write this or that? No one. Who is going to wait impatiently for our second book on a series? If we are lucky, maybe a few. Who cares about which work is out first, as long as we keep making them?

What I know for sure is that, if we pressure ourselves into the point of breaking, we will not write another story ever.

So, who cares?

It’s just me. I care about what I write. I give a fu** about what I’ll be writing next. I suffer the pressure I put on myself in an unimaginable way.

So, I must not care about who cares because I care too much and shouldn’t take it as hard on myself.

Having true fun in creating a story (life or body of work) is the only thing that should matter. To keep myself light and calm so that my imagination can do it’s thing, without added pressure.

Problems? They will always be there and I have a choice. Let them swamp me or tell them ‘Who cares?’

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These are some words inspired by Neil Gaiman’s interview in the Tim Ferriss Show. Have you seen it? Did it inspire you to do something? Tell us everything.

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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