The Opportunity of Newness — Paying Attention to the World Around Us

Hello! After a few weeks off from blogging, I am back! And officially living in a new state!

Things are going well, and while there is certainly too much to talk about in terms of moving and navigating a new city and starting a new for just one blog post, things have been going well overall. And I've started writing (or actually revising) consistently just like before I moved. While I will admit that writing has not been my number one priority over the past few weeks as I prepared to move and have thus been trying to settle in. But moving provides a unique experience that can definitely grow and expand your writing if you let it.

Over the past few weeks I have seen new sights and places that I did not know before. I have started a new job and learned new processes. I have met new people and moved into a new apartment. I completely changed my life and now have to start building anew. But I've also done the little things, like figuring out where the nearest grocery store is, how to get from my house to a friend's, and what to do when you the train you need isn't running and unsure of where I am. Being in a new place, even the small things that seemed so second nature to me back in Boston now have a whole new challenge built in. Simply put: Things are foreign to me. Figuring things out is not part of daily life.

And with the challenge of figuring things out, there are often a lot of experiences and thoughts and emotions that arise. Sometimes, once we settle into our daily routines and feel comfortable in our surroundings, a lot of these feelings tend to dissipate. Things like stress and worry and vulnerability and amazement aren't always as significant in the day to day. You know how to solve a problem. You know where you are going and how to get there. But being the pre-comfortable, shall we say uncertain, state affords a lot of opportunities as a writer.

As writers, we often create situations that require imagination. We build worlds and make up characters and create conflicts and solve problems. And while imagination and creativity are extremely important, drawing from our own reserve of life experience is equally as important. And the more life experiences we have, the more we can draw from ourselves.

This is in no way to say that moving is necessary for everyone or that we can't write about things we've never experienced ourselves. But I do think that as writers, we do want to keep our eyes and ears open. We want to absorb as much as we can from the world around us to inform and better our writing. And when dropped into new situations, whether hours away or in our very own neighborhood, we want to pay attention. To seize the opportunity and take in the emotions and sights and people and newness, and later transform it into a detail or plot twist or character trait that will enhance our writing.

Perhaps it's not actually seeing something and then rushing home to start a new idea, or incorporate it into your story, but rather it might just be tucking it away in your mind for later, or recognizing an emotion or conflict or feeling hidden within the scene you just witnessed. But being aware of newness, and the many ideas and opportunities it can provide, is important for all of us, everyday. Moving has reminded me of this, and I hope that New York brings me many ideas and makes me a better writer.

Finding the Belief Systems Within Your Fiction World

Today is Easter, and for those who celebrate it, I wish you the most joyful of days. This has been a big week for two of the major world religions. For the Jewish community, Passover was commemorated, and for the Christian community, Holy Week culminates in the celebration of Easter today. Each of these religious holidays have a large impact on our society at large. With school often canceled for Good Friday, and various rituals and traditons practiced by families and friends across the nation, this week served as a reminder for such how deeply these holidays are woven into the fabric of our society; of just how greatly these ideologies shape our lives.

Likewise, our fictional worlds must have these ideologies as well. While such traditions don't always have to be overt or a tremendously large part of our stories, it is undeniably important to understand just what beliefs lie behind the everyday life of our characters' worlds.

Ideologies, religious beliefs, superstitions, or whatever else you'd like to call them all inform the way our characters act. Although we may not spend virtually any of our story's real estate discussing the long standing history behind these beliefs, or even include a direct practice of a belief itself, the ideas that govern the greater society matter to the quality of your narrative. Your readers may not notice, particularly within contemporary, realistic stories in which the world you explain closely matches the culture of your reader's world, but regardless, you do have to have some kind of ideology within the story itself.

Beliefs are the back drop of every society. They dictate what characters do — and what they don't do. For example, religious traditions or areligious superstition might inform the gender norms of your story. Practices surrounding food might play a significant role, and even contribute to the conflict of your plot.  Your character might meet a friend whose beliefs are different than there own. She might even explore a new system of beliefs herself. Even for contemporary worlds like our own, communicating the tradtions remains important, because all of these things can be both character building and contribute to your plot.

Here are some questions to consider about when thinking about the beliefs of your fictional world:
• What holidays does the society celebrate? Do any of these holidays come into play within the narrative?
• Do superstitions play any role in the lives of your characters?
• Regardless of whether your character personally believes or not, are their religious beliefs held within the society that mandate certain behaviors, practices, or traditions in your character's society?
• How do your characters view nature? Are there any spiritual associations with the natural world?
• Are there various ideologies within the culture? Are they at odds or do they coexist peacefully?
• What does your protagonist personally believe? What do the characters around her belief?

Examine these questions within your current project. Perhaps contemplating belifs may open up a way to deepen characterization and complicate your plot. Also, think about these questions for a potential new project. Maybe you can even develop a whole new story idea from these questions!

Go Explore! Ideas Come from Everywhere

This past week I went on vacation, and had the chance to take a small break from my writing and go see some sights I had never seen before. Strolling the streets of San Francisco, seeing the flashy lights of Vegas, taking a tour through wine country, walking through the redwoods, and just driving new city streets provided great memories. But my trip also provided a wonderful chance to encounter many new sights, people, and cultures that all serve as the basis for great new ideas.

I think there is something to be said about the way we see things when we are encountering them for the first time. Fresh eyes, a bit of wonder, and keen observation allow for a viewing experience we don't often get from the things we see every day. How easy it is for something to be overlooked when it  becomes repetitive or familiar. But when vacationing, or visiting a new museum or landscape, we have a new perspective that interests the mind and sparks a thread of creativity is a new way.

One of most common things you hear in writing is to write what you know. Of course, there is ample room for imagination and fantasy, but I do think there is lots of value to this statement. When you know something, when you can deeply understand a place or a concept or a feeling, it comes across in your writing. Paired with this idea of exploration and new experiences, I think great things can happen in your writing. Not only are we increasing what we know by seeing and experiencing anew, but combining the exciting, inspired creativity of a new place with the more concrete, though perhaps intangible reality of what we know in our hearts and minds can provide the basis for a truly fabulous story. We need the newness as well as the old. We need to blend the architecture and dialect and unique aspects of a new city with the familiar characteristics and emotions and regions we know to make a story that is both alive and moving but also fully believable and grounded.

My trip reminded me of the value of simple observation. It reminded me that I need to get out and experience the greater life beyond my small niche. The world is happening all around us. There are millions of conversations and sights and ideas to be taken in. And the details you pick up from all different sections of the world will combine beautifully with the unique, important truths you already know.

So explore. Go for a long walk. Venture into a new neighborhood. Take the bus in a different direction and see what's out there. Seeing new sights doesn't have to mean traveling across time zones and state lines. It can simply mean opening up your eyes to the little, unfamiliar things that exist all around us. It will improve your stories, I know it will! And it might just give you a great new idea or two.