How Badly Do You Want to Be a Writer?

Don Bowyer, one of my past workshop participants from the San Francisco Bay area, emailed about an incident that jumped his writing into high gear:

Over the weekend I attended the CWC (California Writers Club) June meeting. It was very inspirational. Sophie Littlefield came to speak and she is on track to write four books this year. She has major publishing contracts with three houses. She submitted and received 600 rejects before getting her first deal. Now she lives to write. She eliminates everything in her life that takes time away from her writing, no TV, no Internet, no… You get the idea. She is married with two kids, and she makes time for them, but when it is time to write she goes full course tilt into the process. It was very interesting. How bad do you want to be a writer? That was the message. On Sunday I wrote 4000 words over the course of eight hours, it was insane. Just wanted to share.

We can hear such stories and advice for years on end with no major affect. Then there's that magic moment when we do as Don did:

We listen!

Bravo Don.

Happy writing!

Transcending Stress: Words of Wisdom From David Lynch

Several weeks ago, I mentioned that someone had recommended to me a short, inspirational book by filmmaker David Lynch (Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks) about how to expand one's creativity.

In the book, titled Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity, he talks about how learning Transcendental Meditation in the late '60s in L.A. opened his ability to swim deeper for the big fish, or concepts that plumb the depths of the human psyche, which might be, as I was thinking today, the reason classics become classics. Rather than being about any particular subject at a time when such subjects are popular, classics are stories that hit at the most basic emotional level, thus making them timeless instead of dated.

If I had to summarize the book — a great disservice to you, since the book is worth reading from a writerly point of view — I'd have to say this is the story of how a man learned a method for decreasing, on a daily basis, the level of stress in his life. Thirty-something years ago, he got into a rhythm of meditating for 20 minutes, twice a day, which allows him to slough off the annoyances that lead thoughts astray. Refreshed and unburdened, he can then open his mind to big concepts and their significance:

When you dive within, the Self is there and true happiness is there. There's a pure, huge, unbounded ocean of it. It's bliss — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual happiness that starts growing from within. And all those things that used to kill you diminish. In the film business, there's so much pressure; there's so much room for anxiety and fear. But transcending makes life more like a game — a fantastic game. And creativity can really flow. It's an ocean of creativity. It's the same creativity that creates everything that is a thing. It's us.

I'd like to provide with some more quotes, but before I do, wanted to address two subjects.


My Earlier Guess

Before reading the book, I took a guess that Mr. Lynch's point would be to approach life as if everything is a source of fuel for art. The book seems to confirm that idea, though please feel free to argue with me. Mr. Lynch describes using meditation to create an across-the-board creativity where everything, if he allows himself to remain open to new thoughts, can further uncover and add to the concept he's working on artistically.


A Unique Voice

As I mentioned above, the book is worth reading because of the format — ruminations of less than two pages each, while most are only a paragraph or two long — and because his voice is so unique. He states everything simply, without much detail and with a word choice that's Boy Scout clean, as in scrub-behind-the-ears innocent:

Little fish swim on the surface, but the big ones swim down below.

and

I started out just a regular person, growing up in the Northwest.

and

I used to go to Bob's Big Boy restaurant just about every day from the mid-seventies until the early eighties. I'd have a milk shake and sit and think.

A Few More Quotes

You must have clarity to create.

Really, the art life means a freedom. And it seems, I think, a hair selfish. But it doesn't have to be selfish; it just means that you need time.

You want to do your art, but you've got to live. So you've got to have a job, and then sometimes you're too tired to do your art. But if you love what you're doing, you're going to keep on doing it anyway.

If anyone else reads the book, please feel free to forward your comments.

Happy writing!