Storytellers and the Stories they Tell...

I've come to find out, writing in itself, is nothing more than storytelling. A fairly straightforward concept I know, but that's the reality of it. So the first prerequisite to be a writer is to simply be a storyteller. And at least that part I have down. I've been a storyteller for as long as I can remember, and not just the lying type of story telling. That doesn't count.

My earliest member of story telling goes back to maybe the third or fourth grade. For some reason the teacher gave me free time to do as I chose (only God knows what she was thinking) and I being the studious young man that I was decided that I would write a story. A comic book actually. And I did. A wrote a captivating tale about a villain with a skull for a head and buzz saws for hands. (Yes, two buzz saw hands!) 

I even animated it, I drew the characters inside little story boards within the margins of the yellow sheets of notebook paper than stapled them together along the edges. It was amazing, even if I do say so myself, but it wasn't only me who said so. I showed my teacher and she was so... so... I don't know what she was, I guess impressed is the best word to describe it. But she was so, whatever he was that she had be read it to the entire class. I got to sit up in the front of the class, you know like it was story time and the class sat around me and I read my little story to them all and I would look up between horribly formed sentences and terribly drawn doodles and see eyes wide with excitement and intrigue, waiting in eager anticipation to hear what happened next.

I remember distinctly at the end of the story the Villain or Anti-Hero being violently kicked out of a window and falling to his death, or perhaps not actual death, I can't remember if I was already planning a sequel or not but you get the point. Skull Head and Buzz Saw Hands goes out the window and my story ends. And afterwards the little handmade comic book goes into the unknown void that was my little desk and was lost for the remainder of the school year. That is until, nearly the last week of school, when everyone is cleaning out there desk and cubbies in preparation for summer vacation, I pulled out this crumpled yellow little book, and in retrospect quite foolishly, announced to the class that it was up for grabs and flung it carelessly in the the center of the room. I suppose half expecting no one would be interested and it would go into the trash with a thousand other un-submitted homework assignments, failed spelling test and everything else we would stuff into our desk in hopes of never seeing again. However much to my surprise, my classmates jumped on the crumpled little comic with so much fervor and enthusiasm that it was ripped into a prime number of little pieces and taken by multiple kids a souvenir for kids to remember the school year.  Which means they probably forgot it even existed the moment the last bell rang or perhaps they didn't but i know for a brief moment in the fourth grade I was a storyteller in its purest form. So I guess that's the feeling I chase now every time I write, to simply tell a story I love and hope that someone else will love it too.

Sometimes I wish I would have kept that little handmade comic book, but I've come to realize that's what stories are for. Not necessarily for the storyteller, but for the tell-ee or the audience, or the reader or whatever the case may be. Once you tell your story, once you get your story out it's no longer solely your own, but it then belongs to everyone who loves it, and I think I like that.

Anyway.

Till next time,

Lefty

Fear is an Illusion

Fear is an illusion, a fancy trick crafted by the mind in an attempt to protect you from a failure that could never exist if you eliminate those fears and go forward.

Fear is an illusion, a psychological side effect of one's most basic and primal instinct for survival. It  is a means to an end, a metaphorical trigger to a very simple two part FIGHT or FLIGHT response system, and since we all know men do not fly, you are now left with but one option.

Fear is an illusion. It is not a sign of weakness. It is not a sign of cowardice. It is not a sign of anything. It is a nonexistent apparition in a realm of make-believe. It is a dream, non-contextual, without merit, and often forgotten before it can even be truly understood. Fear is not real, it is an impulse. It is the action taken afterwards that is real. The action or the inaction, the victory or the surrender, the awe inspiring, death defying, dream commanding, illusion shattering leap that follows, or the long silent walk home that is real.

But the Fear is just an illusion, a means to an end, a trick of the mind, an impulse, a dream. The Fear is not real. You are.

A Writer's Greatest Foe

Self-doubt is the greatest enemy of any writer, greater than any critic, any naysayer, any editor, any nit-picky reader, any grammar fanatic, any Nazi spellchecker, any publisher, literary agent, or pessimistic friend. Self-doubt will crush an author before an author can even become an author.

Self-doubt is the mind-killer. Self-doubt is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my Self-doubt. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the self-doubt has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Okay so that last part is actually "The Litany against Fear" from Dune. I just took out the word fear and replaced it with the word Self-doubt. I stole it, so what. My point remains.

The biggest thing for any writer to overcome are his/her own doubts, fears and self imposed limitations. I know for me personally this hindrance has at times seemed insurmountable. "What you're writing is no good, your plot is weak (full of holes) and your characters flat (not to mention dumb), you'd be better off stopping now and saving what little dignity you have left." And yep I know what you're thinking, my voice of doubt is a real dick, and your right, but that's how Self-doubt rolls. It gets under your skin and its hard to shake, but you have to shake it, because the truth of the matter is you have nothing to lose.

Self-doubt is a defense mechanism, intended to save you from embarrassment or rejection or whatever you're afraid will or won't happen once you're done, but what you have to realize, and what I have to constantly remind myself  is that no matter what happens once you've written the last word or punctuated the last mark, the sun is still going to come up the next day. The world is not going to end. Time is not going to stop. You are not going to die if you don't get published.

Worst case scenario is you don't get published, you don't get the hundred thousand dollar book deal, you don't get picked up by some big shot Hollywood producer, and you never get that million dollar movie deal. So what, in the end, IF the worst case scenario does happen, you're no worse off than you are now, but at least you can say you wrote a book.

So keep writing, show self-doubt who's boss!

Till next time,

Lefty

My Ambitions as a Writer

Stay diligent. Stay focused. Do not succumb to self pity or doubt.

That nagging feeling in the back of your mind, the one that whispers to you "Give up."
The one that so plainly points out the irrationality of your actions.
The one so adamant to convince you that, you are merely wasting time you do not have.
Ignore that. That is only your fear.

Your insincere Fear.

Your fear of Rejection, your fear of Disappointment, your fear of Failure, your fear of Success.

It is only your insincere fear.

It, by no means, truly believes a single thing that it has said.

So write on, write on, the chapter is almost finished, that paragraph almost done, that sentence is almost perfect.
Don't stop! GO!

Go!
Move!
Grow!
Crawl!
Push!
Pull!
Beg!
Plead!
Pray!
Cry!
Laugh!
Love!

Live, and die... but do it all on that page.

And when you're done... do it again.

Tell your story.