I’m continuing this theme of healthy ways to better writing (a theme I did not plan ahead of time, it just kinda happened) by talking about exercise and how it can have a positive impact on your creativity and writing. Exercise is obviously one of the most healthy activities one can pursue as it helps keep you in shape and reduces the risk of a lot of diseases.

Exercise and the brain

Most people think of exercise as only helping the body (as I talked about above). But staying active also has a positive impact on the brain. In fact, exercise can do everything from reduce depression to helping you feel more alert. I found an article from the website Medicine.net called Train you Brain with Exercise:

“I like to say that exercise is like taking a little Prozac or a little Ritalin at just the right moment,” says John J. Ratey, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of A User’s Guide to the Brain. “Exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being.”

Christin Anderson, wellness and fitness coordinator at the University of San Francisco goes on to say:

“When one exercises,” Anderson says, “you can think more clearly, perform better, and your morale is better. This is pure science — stimulate your nervous system and function at a higher level.”

Thinking clearly. Improved performance. Increased morale. All of these can have a positive impact on your writing. Just being able to think clearly will help you in terms of organizing your writing, structure, ideas, editing and so forth. For example, if you’re writing a novel, being able to think clearly could help you organize your plot and create more rounded characters.

The good part about exercise is that it really doesn’t take all that much to reap its benefits. The article states that working out (whether it’s running, walking, swimming, etc. for 30 minutes 3 times per week is enough to keep your brain in top shape. Of course, the more you exercise the more benefits.

Exercise as a creative boost

People who exercise regularly often report a ‘meditative’ aspect to their fitness routines. As I wrote in a previous post, meditation and meditative-like states can really increase your creativity and improve writing. Furthermore, when one feels that sense of well-being and euphoria, stress and other worries seem to fade away, giving your brain a chance to focus on other things.

From my own experience with exercise, after I’m finished with a workout, I really do have more energy and feel ready to tackle any writing project – often with a fresh perspective. The only problem I have is keeping a regular exercise schedule.

No drugs needed!

There is a general stereotype about creative people that they often use drugs to enhance their art. While this might apply in the short-term, in the long run, people who use drugs to increase their creativity are only hurting themselves. How many famous artists, musicians and writers have died from complications of drug use? Quite a few. This goes without saying, but it’s hard to be creative when you’re dead.

The cool part about meditation and exercise is that the benefits increase over time by improving your health. A side-effect of drugs is that you need more and more of the drug to get the same results. With meditation and exercise, that doesn’t happen. And if it does, it’s only benefiting you.

Do you exercise on a regular basis? Has it improved your writing or other creative endeavors? Leave a comment below and share your experience.

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I’m not suggesting that writers should just sit around doing nothing all day. Of course we have other obligations; some have day jobs, family, chores, social lives and so forth. Writing is just one part of our lives. So how do we give our minds the chance to relax and unwind without becoming a lazy bum?

I found the answer in meditation.

When I first began experimenting with meditation I was worried that I wouldn’t do it right and it would take years to see any results. Boy was I wrong. Mediation is not only easy, but you can feel the benefits right away.

Easy ways to meditate

Meditation is as easy as sitting in a quiet room and breathing deeply. There are a lot of methods of doing this. Some require you inhale for so many seconds, hold your breath, and then exhale. But I’ve found that just breathing in deeply, holding for a second or two and then slowly exhaling does the trick. This can be done anywhere.

A more formal approach to meditation is to sit in a quiet, comfortable place and concentrate on your breathing for an extended period of time. For me, 15 minutes is just right. During that time, I listen to very soft meditation music that is often accompanied by sounds of nature (the ocean, birds, thunderstorm, etc.). These soundtracks can be found easily on CDs and online music stores like iTunes.

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to meditate. Close your eyes, relax your body, breath from the stomach and clear your mind. The last step is probably the hardest. Your mind is used to being bombarded with external stimuli and internal thoughts. Let your thoughts come and go, but don’t dwell on anything. Let your music soothe you. After a while you’ll find this gets easier.

How does meditation help writing?

Generally, meditation clears the mind of all those distractions that stifle creativity. And when your mind is clear, it becomes open to more possibilities. After just a few days of meditation (once a night for 15 minutes each session) I found that my writing had improved drastically and writer’s block hit less frequently. I also found that my little ‘inner editor’ turned off and I was able to just write without worrying about editing until later.

I know that I, and a lot of other writers, suffer from at least a little anxiety about writing – especially faced with the dreaded blank page. Meditation is a natural anxiety reducer and will help face those blank pages with much more optimism.

A natural alternative to drugs

I find it sad that so many writers and other creative types turn to drugs (I include alcohol, as it is a drug) to help them with their writing and to ‘be more creative.’ In the short term, drugs may help (the jury is still out on whether drugs improve writing or just give the illusion of improvement). But as time go on, drugs become more of a problem and most writers begin to spend much of their time dealing with the consequences of drug use rather than concentrating on their writing.

Meditation is just the opposite. It really does help creativity and meditation becomes more effective over time. Meditation also helps more than just your writing. You’ll see your blood pressure decrease, stress levels decrease, anxiety and depression become less of an issue and you’ll be able to deal better with all life throws at you.

I’ve cut alcohol out of my life completely. Instead I try to drink a lot of water, juice, tea, coffee and beverages like Sprite or 7up. I know that my writing has not suffered in the least because of my abstinence from alcohol. I’m not saying I’m any better than someone who has an occasional glass of wine, rather, just giving you my own personal experience.

Try meditating, you have nothing to lose

Give meditation a shot. Even if you spend 5 minutes a night, you’ll see the benefits and you will naturally want to increase your time meditating. Once you get in the habit of doing it, meditating becomes as routine as brushing your teeth.

After you try meditation, leave a comment and let us know how it works out for you. Or, if you already meditate on a regular basis, leave a comment and tell us how it has benefited your life over the long term.

Happy meditating!

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This boils down to that old saying ’show, don’t tell’ (I wrote about this earlier Stephen King offers a ’show, don’t tell’ lesson in new novel). There are effective ways to do this, and when done right, your characters will jump off the page and be more realistic.

This post has been inspired by another post I read from The Techtiggers’ Soapbox  called The Human Touch: Using Body Language in Writing. The post offers a great example of how using action really does liven up your characters:

For example, you can say ‘she whispered seductively in his ear’ and you’ll get the point across. The problem is that your brain thinks only about how the voice sounds, the rest of body is left out. Now, try this: her lips brushed his ear as she whispered, “yes.” Yeowza, fireworks! Your body reacts in a more visceral way to the physical interaction.

A perfect contrast between showing vs. telling. There is technically nothing wrong with the first way of writing the scene (she whispered…), but you are merely telling. But when action is added “her lips brushed his ear” you get a more vivid picture of the characters and scene.

Thinking and Doing

Another trick I’ve learned in my own writing is to use action when characters are doing mundane things like thinking. Since I like to get inside my characters’ head and reveal their thoughts, I need a way to do this without putting the reader to sleep. Here’s an example:

Without Action

This is a really boring lecture, John thought.

Boring, right? Yeah, it gets the point across but it’s not very effective.

With Action

John shifted in his seat and yawned from the endless lecture.

Much better. Instead of just telling what John thought, we are showing it by his actions. It’s much easier to imagine John yawning and getting restless than just imagining him sitting in his seat think ”this is boring.”

Action drives your story forward. Don’t let your character sit around as talking heads, breathe life into them using action. Your readers will thank you for it.

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The premise of the novel is interesting: A clear dome falls over a town and they must somehow survive the consequences of being cut off from the rest of the world. There is a great book review in the NYT – and the review is also where I got the inspiration for this post.

You probably remember from your English classes or creative writing classes to show, not tell. This means that instead of simply describing attributes characters, settings, etc. you should show these attributes through action. Long narrative can be boring. Certainly, there is a place for narrative but it’s not always the best way to pull your readers into your fiction.

Stephen King’s Under the Dome is a great example of how King shows without telling, and without taking anything away from the story. Here’s an example from the NYT book review:

Consider the book’s step-by-step way of defining the Dome. Mr. King isn’t about to do the easy thing, which would be to give a straightforward description of what it is and how it works. Instead he offers a textbook demonstration of how to make action and explication one and the same. First step: A woodchuck on the ground and a pilot in the air named Chuck are sudden victims of the Dome’s guillotinelike slicing descent.

A transparent dome that falls over a town could be hard to describe. But showing the effects of the dome is a much more interesting way to describe the dome without a long narrative.

Another more subtle example of showing and not telling in King’s novel is how he handles the reaction of the town citizens and those on the outside the dome. Again, King could have easily just described the heartache and panic that sets in, although that is not effective:

News crews (notably CNN’s) arrive at the perimeter of the Dome to stake out this colossal human-interest story. And what they observe, on a visiting day when loved ones outside of Chester’s Mill are allowed to venture near the Dome’s dangerous surface, conveys genuine tragedy. As Mr. King puts it, describing what the TV cameras see:

“They observe the townspeople and the visitors pressing their hands together, with the invisible barrier between; they watch them try to kiss; they examine men and women weeping as they look into each other’s eyes; they note the ones who faint, both inside the Dome and out, and those who fall to their knees and pray facing each other with their folded hands raised…

While this is a narrative, it’s not a straightforward description of people feeling lonely and isolated because of the dome. Instead, King gives concrete, realistic examples of how people are reacting to the dome through the eyes of a news crew (CNN) that captures the drama as a human interest story.

The ability to ’show and not tell’ effectively can be challenging, especially for writers just starting out in the world of fiction. Like everything else, it takes a lot of practice.

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In my own experience today, I as driving along at about the speed limit. I could have gone faster as other cars were whizzing by me. But I was listening to some really good music (Grateful Dead anyone?) and enjoying the overall experience. As I was driving several ideas came to me about the different writing projects I have going on (including the idea for this post).

After thinking about how slowing down inspired all these good ideas, I came to the conclusion that the best ideas come when I don’t try to force them. In fact, I wasn’t even thinking about writing as I was cruising down the road with my music blasting. Once I got home I put some of these ideas to use on a freelance writing project I’m working. I continued with the slow pace and the music and the words came out with ease.

Is this the zen of writing? I don’t know if it is or not. But it seems to be working for me. Lately I’ve been slowing down at a lot of stuff, like eating so I can enjoy the food more.

In today’s fast-paced society, how does one slow down to achieve a greater awareness that will help your writing? Here are 5 ways to slow down:

1. Meditation – You don’t have to be a guru to meditate or devote your life to the practice. Only 10-20 minutes a day is all it takes. Sitting in a comfortable position and concentrating on your breathing will clear your mind and let the new thoughts flow and get your imagination pumping again.

2. Naps – Naps are one of my favorite daily activities. I try to limit myself to only an hour or so, although I’ll confess that more than a few of my naps have been a lot longer. Taking a nap will help you feel refreshed and give you new energy. Sometimes napping with good music playing softly in the background will mess with your dreams and might provide you with some good inspiration. But taking some time out of the day for a nap is very healthy.

3. Listening to music – I’m not talking about listening while you’re doing something else. I mean listening to music for the sake of listening to music and enjoying it. Sometimes when I listen to music while doing nothing else, I close my eyes and let the music fill my head. Sounds turn into images and images can turn into great writing ideas or bring a new perspective to a current project I’m working on. Any kind of music can work, as long as it inspires you.

4. Reading – This one goes without saying. All writers should spend a lot of time reading. A lot of my ideas for short fiction are inspired by novels I’ve read in the past. Reading is also a perfect alternative to watching television because it requires active attention and engages your imagination to form images of the characters, setting and action.

5.  Just slow down! – This might actually be the hardest to achieve because it requires a constant awareness of yourself and your activities. Slowing down allows you to actually enjoy the little things in life. That old saying “Stop and smell the roses” might be an old cliche` but there is a lot of truth behind it. My experience has always been when I slow down in life, I tend to get more inspired and my writing seems to improve.

The 5 methods I’ve listed above might be pretty obvious ones. That’s because they work! The problem is that few people actually implement these simple ideas into their lives. None of them require a lot of effort and all are pretty easy (with the exception of #5, maybe).

Give it a shot. Slow down and enjoy life more and see where it takes your writing.

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I decided to read the book Write Great Fiction – Dialogue (aff link) and although I’m still reading it, I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons on the art of dialogue. First and foremost, dialogue is not easy to write. Beginning writers, and even seasoned writers, tend to struggle with it. So if you’re like me and have trouble making your characters talk, you’re not alone.

Here are 5 things you should consider the next time you sit down to write a scene with dialogue:

1. Dialogue needs to propel the story forward. If your characters are just standing around chatting, talking about the weather or their weekend plans, chances are the dialogue is not being effective and you need to cut the scene or rewrite it. Dialogue needs to move the plot forward and keep readers interested.

2. Dialogue is used for pacing in a story. Long and drawn out narratives in a story will slow the pace down. At the same time, dialogue generally speeds things up. Good fiction should be a balanced combination of the two. If your story has too much narrative you are likely to put your readers to sleep. On the other hand, if your story is all dialogue with little narrative, you will probably lose your readers and they’ll have a hard time following the story.

The bad news is that pacing isn’t something that can easily be taught. It’s more intuition than anything. The good new is that you can get better at it by reading a lot of varied genres and practice, practice, practice.

3. Dialogue should be unique to each character and reveal stuff about them. In real life, we all have different ways of speaking and use our own little ‘catch phrases’ and so forth. The characters in your fiction should also be differentiated by the way they speak. Just imagine if everyone in real life spoke the exact same way. Boring! Fiction should be no different.

Use dialogue to make each of your characters unique. But be careful: If you have a gun-toting, tattoo covered, motorcycle riding, crime loving character in your story, chances are he/she is not going to be talking about the pretty flowers on the side of the road. You get the idea.

4. Dialogue shows, narrative tells. You all have heard that old saying: “Show, don’t tell in fiction.” Well, dialogue is one way to show. Dialogue is a direct action performed by the character. It gives them life. Makes them human. For example, you can describe via narrative for pages and pages how a character feels after being dumped by her boyfriend. But you can also say the same thing, with greater effect, in a much shorter space through dialogue. The character herself gets to describe her feelings, in her own words.

5. Fiction needs dialogue. I’ve probably only read one novel that had more narrative than dialogue. The novel is Saturday (aff link) by Ian McEwan. While parts of the novel dragged (for me, anyway), I thought McEwan did a masterful job at his minimalist dialogue approach. Not all of us can write like Ian McEwan, although it is an excellent goal to set for yourself. Dialogue serves so many purposes in fiction that I could spend all day listing them here.

The main point I’ve taken from the Dialogue book so far is that dialogue is just one tool for writers to use in their fiction. Other elements like narrative, action and setting are all equally important. The trick is to weave them together in a way that is balanced and interesting. I wish there was some magic formula I could give you to make this ‘weaving’ easy. But there’s not. Writing good fiction just takes practice. And reading a lot of books in varied genres can’t hurt either.

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Recently I found myself debating the outlining question when I then read this post by Larry Brooks SOLVED: The Outlining vs. Organic Writing Debate over at the blog Write To Done. This is an amazing post and has really changed the way I think about the age old writing debate about outlining.

The premise of the post is this: The question about whether or not to use an outline is the wrong question to ask. We should instead be focusing on story architecture:

The issue isn’t about outlining.  The issue is simply the degree of foundational story architecture awareness that a writer brings to their process.

Without story architecture, both processes ultimately fail.  Stories will come out convoluted, one dimensional, poorly paced and ultimately rejected.

With story architecture in the mix, the story emerges as a well-oiled machine.  The only question then becomes: is your story compelling, or not?

I love this way of thinking! Sometimes the most basic questions we ask ourselves about simple things are the wrong questions to be asking. This is critical thinking at its best and as the old cliche` goes it’s ‘Thinking outside the box.’

The argument Larry Brooks is using is that it is the story architecture that counts. Outlining and organic writing are merely two ways of achieving the same result – a well-crafted story. For people who just write and never use an outline, they are using that first draft to get the architecture of the story out of their heads and onto paper. Outliners do the same thing, they just do it before writing the first draft.

Seeing the outlining debate like this makes the whole question a moot one. It doesn’t matter. Perhaps the best sentence of Larry Brooks’ entire post comes at the end, and is in bold:

Outlining is optional.  Story architecture isn’t.  Debate over.

In other words this whole debate is just splitting hairs over two different means to the same end. As long as the story architecture is solid, the whole question of outlining doesn’t matter.

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You might ask why I’m covering an issue that most people learn in grade school. Well, it’s always good to freshen up on issues of grammar and style (in this case, style). Sometimes we tend to get ‘lazy’ and our writing suffers as a result. So put on your thinking caps and lets dive into the active and passive voice of writing!

The difference

Just knowing the difference between the active and passive voice is just about all you need to improve your own writing. And the difference is rather simple:

Active voice: The subject of the sentence is doing the action.

Passive voice: The subject of the sentence is being acted upon.

Pretty easy, huh? I thought so.

Examples

Here are two sentences, the first one is in the active voice, the second one is passive.

Active: Once a month, Billy washes the car.

Passive: Once a month, the car is washed by Billy.

Notice how the active voice is much more direct, and generally creates a much stronger sentence. While it is not technically incorrect to use the passive voice, its use should be limited because it can make your writing appear stifled and awkward.

There are, however, certain types of writing where the passive voice is more appropriate. This includes scientific and research papers, where one tries to avoid using personal pronouns. But even then, always using the passive voice is probably not a good idea.

In fiction, the active voice is the way to go. So the next time you’re proofreading that novel draft and the writing just doesn’t seem right, look at what ‘voice’ you are using and change some sentences around. It can make a big difference!

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That may have been true for a lot of famous writers in the past, but is it possible to be a reclusive writer in today’s uber-connected world? My guess is that it is probably not possible. More than that, however, I think to be a good writer, one needs to go out and experience the world.

I should clarify and say that I’m talking about writers of fiction (and maybe even poets – but they are an entirely different breed). Other writers, like those who write articles, by the very nature of their work, are forced out into the world to interact with it.

Yet when writing fiction, it is a very solitary activity. Most of the work goes on in the writer’s mind and then is ‘transcribed’ onto paper or screen. Not a whole lot of interaction is involved in the writing process itself. But that does not mean that a writer should stay locked up inside whether writing or not.

Get out and experience the world

I’m not saying you need to go climb Mt. Everest or go sky diving (although I’m sure those types of activities would be very inspiring). I’m talking about simple things like going for walks, going out with friends, or simply enjoying life. If you can afford it and have the time, travel is an excellent way to clear the cobwebs out of the mind. Traveling to different parts of the country, or the world, can be very inspiring.

If there is one thing I have learned over the years is that inspiration doesn’t come on-command. Inspiration comes when and where I least expect it. And inspiration never seems to come when I’m sitting at my desk, with red eyes, after a marathon writing session. No, it comes when I’m out of the house doing something. This is why I always advocate that writers carry around a little Moleskine Notebook (aff link) everywhere you go, so when those ideas and bits of inspiration strike, you can record them on paper before they escape you.

I have also found that long periods at home turn my brain into mush. As much as I love being home, I need to get out and do stuff, just to keep the mind fresh and the ideas flowing.

Do you think it’s important for a writer to get out and experience the world? Can a writer be reclusive in today’s world? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. I look forward to reading your answers.

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I compiled a list of ways you can take the Dead’s philosophy of being in a creative field and apply to your writing. A few of the tips listed are directly related to writing, and being a better writer. The others are about the ‘business’ of writing.

1. Be original. The Grateful Dead were infamous for never playing the same song the same way. They constantly sought to inject their music with originality. Even if they were doing a cover of another artist’s song, they added their own flavor to it and made it theirs.

The same goes with your writing. Find your voice. Experiment a lot with different styles, genres, etc. Try not to fall into the trap of recycling old plot devices (usually seen in genre fiction). I know all this is easier said than done, but it just takes a lot of practice to really hone your writing craft.

2. Write across different genres. Jerry Garcia loved a lot of different types and styles of music. He incorporated a lot of his mixed tastes into his own guitar playing. A lot of Grateful Dead songs have many different elements in them: Blues, country, rock, etc.

If writing mysteries is you game, great! But expand out and try a little science fiction, thriller, literary and so forth. Read as many different genres as you can. Mix and match like you’re a mad scientist trying to create something truly unique. The best way to do this is to read, read and read some more. Many genres have common elements that readers expect. Learn the basics of each one first, then start doing your own thing.

3. Practice, practice, practice. Jerry Garcia was always practicing his guitar and the Dead were always rehearsing. Yeah, they were good, but in their own eyes, they could always be better.

The only way to become a good writer is to practice, and that means to write constantly. There are no shortcuts here, folks. Even if you have to pump out 100 crappy short stories to finally get one really good one – you’ll be learning something new with each crappy story you write. And you’ll only get better.

4. Give freely and openly. When starting out, the Grateful Dead spent a lot of their time giving free concerts. They played in parks, in the street, in clubs and invited everyone to join the party. While they didn’t get rich doing this (although it really boosted their name brand), it gave them the publicity they needed to move on to bigger and better things.

You can do the same with your writing. For example, if you have written a good short story, then proofread, edit, re-write and repeat until it’s as good as you can get it. Then post it online to share freely with others. Better yet, give it away as a free ebook. You won’t get rich doing this, but readers will be much more likely to take a chance on you if they can read some of your work for free. This might just be the best way to cultivate a loyal following.

5. Let your fans spread the love. The Grateful Dead were known for allowing people to tape their concerts at no charge (they are known as ‘tapers’). Why? Because as Jerry put it, once they play the music, it’s out there and doesn’t belong to the band anymore. The result is a massive archive of live shows. The ‘tapers’ were instrumental in getting the Dead music out to a wider audience and even driving album sales.

If you are a writer that plans to distribute your work in digital format, than it’s easy to take this Grateful Dead philosophy to heart and put it to use. In short: DRM is evil! If you’re going to start publishing ebooks, then make sure they are available in the open-sourced ePub format. If you use an ebook site like Smashwords, then you can make your ebook available in all the major formats.

More importantly, however, is to encourage your fans to share your work with their family and friends. This type of word-of-mouth marketing will be the fastest way to a larger following. And your fans will appreciate not having to jump through hoops to read your latest novel/short story/poem/etc.

6. Learn to collaborate. The Grateful Dead were notorious for their collaboration and giving everyone an equal say. Even the guy who cleaned their offices was able to vote on issues affecting the band. When writing songs the band learned how to bounce ideas off each other and take inspiration from their bandmates. Everyone had something to learn. This aspect of the Dead also extended on stage as well, when the band began to ‘jam’ they followed their gut and often played without a formal song arrangement, or even a set list in most cases.

Even writers can benefit from this spirit of collaboration as well. At its most basic level, collaboration can mean having someone you know and trust proofread your work and help you prepare it for publication. Or, you can even collaborate with others on a large writing project – like putting together a homegrown publication.

Simply having someone to bounce ideas off of can go a long way in helping your writing grow. Just make sure, in the end, when you are rich and famous, to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge those who helped to get you where you are.

Are you a Grateful Dead fan? If so, what other lessons can we learn from their music and work ethic? Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

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