This New State of Play

 

My first week of freedom of the classroom, I have been revisiting my own story, enjoying a new state of play, and contemplating what this new stage in life is meant to be, or at the very least, what it means to be me. As Longfellow once lamented, 

“Act! Take Action! Be Active!

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!”

And, as it happens, as once said by wiser folk than I, writers write. Everything else -- everything external -- is beyond our control. However, writing is an internal process. As such, we focus on what we can control: ourselves. Take classes. Read books about the craft. Study mentor books. Adapt, rethink, refocus. Take chances. Leave your comfort zone. Write something new. Write something different. Submit, and submit again. 

Most important: Persevere. 

To cite another idiom: We do our best and leave the rest to the universe.  

 Or, as Neil deGrasse Tyson offers much more eloquently --  and really, who else knows more about how the universe works than the mighty Tyson:

“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.” -- Neil deGrasse Tyson

To this end, I’ve revisited one (of many) of my favorite reads,  Story Engineering,  by Larry Brooks (Writer’s Digest Books, 2011). Every creative cook understands that the “most delicious of ingredients require blending and cooking – stirring, whipping, baking, boiling, frying, and sometimes, marinating – before they qualify as edible…” It is the delicious sum of these ingredients that turns your story into a “literary feast.”

In other words, story engineering is that recipe that brings these ingredients together in a cohesive , satisfying dish. It differs from formulaic writing in that the process of story engineering serves to bring clarity to your story, but you bring the art. A pinch of this, a dash of that, stirred not shaken, and you make the story your own.

May your life be a most delectable dish of the artful!

-- Bobbi Miller