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LifeWriting Articles
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Written by Steven Barnes
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Sunday, 08 August 2010 00:00 |
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In most stories, your character must acquire new skills in order to accomplish his goal. This parallels life itself: in general, if you are not currently manifesting at a given level of performance, you must learn, or grow, in order to function there. In story, this need for growth is addressed in the Fifth step of the Hero’s Journey, meeting allies and gaining powers. What does your character need? Courage? Honesty? Strength or endurance? Will his allies be a friend, a lover, a wizened old coach? A doctor lawyer or business partner? A mentor or parent? In some way, we all must learn to accept help along our life paths, or we’ll be mired in mediocrity. The best way to learn how to identify gaps between your character’s goals and current status is to look more deeply into your own life. 1) What are your strengths and weaknesses physically? What allies could help you in this arena? 2) What are your strengths and weaknesses in your career, or your education? Where did you sabotage yourself? Where do you need more courage, more flexibility, more endurance, more resistance to failure? What allies would be perfect to help you here? 3) What are your strengths and weaknesses in personal relationship? Are you getting and giving everything you need here? Can you honestly communicate your feelings? Do you create room for your partner to express his/her needs and wants? What skills could you acquire to improve in this arena? It is by looking deeply into your own life in these three areas that you will gain the insight to create memorable characters, and the clarity to chart their path with confidence! ## Lifewriting™ is the first high-performance system designed for writers. Drop by www.lifewriting.biz and give it a peek! Dark Dream 906 Ashworth Pl Glendora, CA 91741 US |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 August 2010 22:27 )
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David Farland
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Written by David Farland
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Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:00 |
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News Update: (From Talespin Jim) Thanks to Kick reader, Laurel Amberdine, I now have a forum to keep you informed of the progress and plans for the Daily Kick Writing Groups. I've had hundreds of ideas and suggestions from Kick readers on how to make a great writer's group and I want to show you what we've come up with so far. More importantly, I want to get your approval, opinions and even more ideas you might have. Please go join this forum now and see what's new with the writer's groups. Your information is confidential and will be deleted along with this forum once the writer's groups are established and ready to rock and roll. Come back to the forum often. I will sometimes announce in the Kick when something important is added to this construction forum. If you haven't heard about the writer's groups yet, this construction forum is a great place to learn about them and see if you want to join. If you do decide you want to join, email me at
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and tell me your genre-subgenre, whether you want to be a group leader and give me any ideas you might have. Better yet, post those ideas on the construction forum. Go to this forum now: http://www.amberdine.com/forum David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants—Flying I was looking up prices for airfare to Boston on the internet yesterday, getting ready to teach my "Write that Novel!" seminar in November, and it got me to thinking about flying. I know a number of authors who are famous for not flying. I won’t mention their names, since I wouldn’t want to embarrass them. After all, I’m afraid of heights, too, and can’t change a light bulb. I’m not quite sure why. I’ve nearly drowned several times and will still blithely jump into any well or raging river —but one little fall off a roof, and now I get palpitations just by standing on a chair. Authors often need to travel—to book signings, to speak at conventions, to take writing retreats, meet with editors or producers, and so on. So if you’re an author, you need to learn to fly. I have it on good authority that Kevin J. Anderson has mastered the craft so well, he can now teleport at will. If you have a fear of flying, you need to get over it. My old friend Rick recognized the need well enough so that he bought himself a Leer jet. He’d have his pilot take him up every day and Rick would about go crazy clinging to the leather seats in the cabin, until after a couple of years he worked his way through it. Personally, though I still can’t look over a cliff at the Grand Canyon, after enough frantic prayers I’ve become so relaxed about flying that usually I fall asleep before takeoff. Part of learning to fly means that you have to know how to handle the restrictions. For example, did you know that you can’t carry a handgun on a plane? To some people, this is problematic. I was with a group of movie producers in Hollywood once and found that three of them often faced this. The solution: fly out of the airport in Burbank, and before you leave, you dig a little hole in the potted palms in the atrium and hide your gun there until you return. But be careful! As one producer warned, "I got back from a flight once, and dug up the wrong gun! Apparently, someone else had taken mine by mistake." When asked what he did about it, he said, "Well, it’s a pretty nice Glock," and then he opened the lapel to his jacket, revealing a shoulder holster, and showed it off. Really, though, the hardest part of flying for me is actually paying all of that money. Every year the airlines actually give us worse and worse service while charging us more and more. The last two planes that I went on didn’t have a single spare seat left, and on the shuttle trip back from the airport, the van was so full that I had to have a hefty nurse from Canada sit on my lap. And what’s with the snacks nowadays? I flew on American Airlines to Texas recently and didn’t get offered so much as a peanut. Even on West China Airlines they give you snacks. I don’t have much use for dried needlefish in what looks like powdered mustard, but if you’re starved enough, it will keep you alive until you can reach an Applebee’s. So go ahead and give the devil his due. Grit your teeth and make your reservations online a good two months in advance, and chances are that you’ll get the best deal available. Buy flight insurance if you must. There are a number of good credit cards that pay benefits to frequent flyers. Some of them even let you pay an annual fee to join a Captain’s Club—so that you can get automatic seat upgrades, use of an airline’s lounge, and so on. I’ve never been in one of those lounges, but I hear that the better ones give out liquor and throw orgies. Think of all the fun you can have while flying: between the free guns, dried needlefish, the drunken parties in the lounges—and don’t forget the thrilling rides you sometimes get when your captain decides to fly into a tornado zone—in time you’ll learn to WANT to fly!
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