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| Red Tide at Amazon |
Peg Brantley, author of debut novel Red Tide, is this week's guest. Red Tide is available in both print and eBook.
I
have shelves full of books on craft. I admit that although they’ve all been
perused, there are only a few that have been read and marked up. I have a few
favorites, but today I want to talk about one in particular.
There’s
not one thing in it that has to do with POV or plot or character development or
anything that we work on to improve every time we sit down to write. And even
more, I want to drill down to just one takeaway from this book that doesn’t
mention our craft but has everything to do with it.
The
Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
should be required reading for every writer. I bought this book years ago, long
before I became serious about creating a piece of entertainment that only uses
words. It set on my shelf for a very long time until apparently, the time was
right for me to crack it open and go to work.
My
biggest takeaway from my first time through TAW has been the concept of morning
pages. Three full pages of stream-of-consciousness longhand writing. This
simple little habit helps me deal with my Lizard Brain (thank you, Seth Godin)
or whatever you want to call your inner Censor. For a while, I called mine
Snake. It’s the little voice that resides inside my head and tells me I can’t
spell, or find the right word or… do this.
What
you write doesn’t matter, just that you write. You can write about the things
you need to do that day or the things you did yesterday. Not every day of
morning pages will give you fantastic insight, but I promise you, done
faithfully, they will.
One
of the most useful things my morning pages have evolved into is that of a
personal brainstorming session. The stream-of-consciousness process allows me
to explore plot or character issues freely. I’ve morning-paged myself into more
than one perfect place.
In
fact, I brainstormed what might be useful to readers of this blog and voila…
here it is. I hope you’re encouraged to give this idea a try… and maybe even to
get your hands on a copy of The Artist’s
Way and gift yourself with the insight and strengths if will help you find.
About Peg Brantley
A
Colorado
