Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

7 Creativity Killers and How to Stop Them

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Creativity isn’t something that is reserved for the special few. Neither is creativity limited to innovators, artists or inventors like we’ve been led to believe.

Creativity is buried treasure that’s inside every human being.

Everyday we whisper our creative ideas in how we care for our children, our homes, our jobs and in how we take steps towards our dreams.

But, once in awhile, when we face that blank page on our computer screens, the ideas don’t come to us and the words, just don’t flow like they should.

This staring at the blank page for too many hours, is what I faced this past week – more than usual. I paced the room, stared out the window praying for some flicker of ideas, but nothing seemed to help.

What do you do when it seems like your imagination has been hijacked by creativity killers?

We must first unmask what’s holding us back. Once we know the answer to that, we can break their hold on our creativity…

7 creativity killers and

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What are some creativity killers to look out for?

There are quite a few culprits that try to snatch your creativity. As writers it’s very helpful if we can train ourselves to be aware of what hinders or stops us from being creative.

  1. Conformity. Sometimes your desire to be accepted by the social group to which you belong to may hinder you from ‘trying stuff’ and experimenting with new ways of thinking, living and being.
  2. Criticism. When well-meaning friends, family, critique groups and editors say ‘not so nice’ stuff about our writing, it can feel a door has been slammed on our creative flow.
  3. Fear of failure or success. All of us as writers have a fear of not selling our work for some reason. This can make us feel embarrassed, insecure, brings self-doubt in our ability, and we start to believe that our ideas and our writing ability is just not good enough. Surprisingly, success can also be something writers fear. Because when one book has success, then the writer feels like the next book you must write even better or at least as good as the first time. You might question if you have another good book in you.
  4. Writer’s Block. When we can’t write for some reason or another this brings a devastating blow that we wonder if we’ll ever be able to write again.
  5. Stale Ideas. Sometimes as writers we have many ideas and one by one we dismiss them because some part of the idea we’ve seen in a movie or read in some book before. We begin to wonder if there are any truly original ideas left on the planet?
  6. Isolation. Having time alone with our thoughts most of the time helps our creative flow, however constant solitude, can hinder our outflow of ideas.
  7. Over-Thinking. I know I’m totally guilty of this one. I sometimes overthink and over analyze my ideas/characters/plot to death often freezing my ability to write the story.

Now that we know what these creativity killers are, what are some ways to re-awaken our creativity?

  • Conformity. Give yourself permission to get in touch with your creativity, to be imaginative, to think the ‘unthinkable’ – even when it doesn’t look like what everyone else is doing.
  • Criticism. Find a way to see beyond the hurtful words and uncover the weaknesses you can fix in yourself and your work. If the criticism is constructive it will also have words of some type of encouragement and usefulness on how to make it better. Listen for new ideas to help your creativity flow again. Try to stop yourself from forming a litany of words in your defence when you should really be trying to think about which parts of their criticism make sense. This is easier said than done – I get that – but many times this is how we grow as writers.
  • Fear of failure or success. Sometimes the solution here can be simply learning more of what you need to know about writing, self-publishing or marketing your book. It does take time, but there are so many amazing resources out there for writers. To write a better story, The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne is amazing to help you figure out how a story is structured. Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, has helped me get through many moments of resistance as I’ve been writing.  Or if you want, go to a writer’s workshop or conference. Talk with other writers on Facebook or on Kindle Boards. When you are fearing failure or success, your inner critic is working overtime. Ask yourself tough questions like what’s the worst thing that could happen? When you’ve faced the worst thing – realizing in most cases it won’t happen – then you’ll find it’s easier to push through the fear to finish your work or start your next book. You are stronger and have more grit than you realize… so don’t give up.
  • Writer’s Block. If you can’t seem to come up with anything to put on the page, find some place that’s inspiring. Go for a walk in nature, sit at a peaceful park, go to your favourite cafe, play your favourite music and find a comfy place to sit. When you’re settled write the details of everything you feel, hear, taste, touch and smell around you – do this for fifteen minutes. Be really descriptive and then read what you’ve written out loud. You’ll start to see images in your mind’s eye which most likely will inspire new ideas. Most of all, discipline yourself to write everyday… whether it’s an email, a letter, a blogpost or a paragraph. Just write.
  • Stale Ideas. Think about an old idea you were inspired by from a movie or in a book and really look at it. Analyze why you think it’s so good. Use the opposite of this idea to create a new idea or you can combine some of your first idea with another old idea to create a new story or theme. You can always change it up a little by heightening the intenseness of different scenes and emotions. As always, read books,  newspapers and watch movies for ideas and ways to change up the idea for your story.
  • Isolation. If all you do is stay in your room all day, everyday, at some point your inspiration and imagination will dry up. In Julia Cameron’s very helpful book, The Artist’s Way, she talks about going for artist dates once a week – to places that inspire your creative child. I know when I go to an art gallery, museum or even the dollar store, I’m inspired to start creating something new. So get out into the world, talk to people, play with your kids, go to a football game and watch as you’re inspired. Also remember that a good sleep along with healthy eating and exercise helps you think clearly.
  • Over-Thinking. Really try to catch yourself, when you are constantly editing your words, especially if you’re working on your first draft. It will hinder your creative flow. It’s okay to try to write the best you can, but you have to let go of your expectation that your book will be perfect. When we over-think or analyze our words, story or idea, we freeze our creativity. Try writing morning pages – 3 pages handwritten every morning – and do this without editing anything, and watch how quickly you begin to find yourself able to free write. The words will really begin to flow onto the page.

For most of us writers, the creativity inside of us is our buried treasure. This means that it’s inside of us and we need to dig it up – to uncover what’s inside of us – to get in touch with what’s in us. But the reward is that we get to live a deeper and fuller life, which makes the hard work of uncovering what’s inside of us, worth it.

How do you spark your creativity? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

 

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6 Common Character Scars in Fiction

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Just like you and I, the characters we write in our novels, have scars from painful experiences in their past.

These are wounds that each character totes with her wherever she goes. Much like in real life, our main character’s stubbornness to avoid a repeat of a painful wound from her past, also brings with it the costly price of lowering her sense of fulfillment in life.

The scars our protagonist feels from past pain, affects them so deeply that they will do anything to avoid that feeling ever again. This means as we write our stories, we need to have a good understanding of the emotional trauma of our character’s past and how it is now shaping their present.

Here’s some details to think about as you write about your character’s scars…

6 Common Character Scars

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Making Sense of Character Wounds

When a character(or a person) has emotional scars, those are much more than just painful memories. Tucked inside each wound is a lie the character tells themselves is a seed of doubt. The character asks themselves am I to blame for what happened? Do I not deserve love? When the doubt grows bigger, the character’s self-worth is also destroyed.

I’ve been digging deeper into my character’s wound in the new middle grade fiction novel I’m writing. The first book in this series is kind of emotional for me to write, as this series is inspired my the true story of my large family(13 people) as we pioneered land in the Canadian North. You can read about the flaws and wounds that the main character(an orphan girl) believes as you read the summary for the first book in this middle grade fiction series here.

We try to make sense of everything bad that happens in our lives – it’s our nature. Most of the time we believe if we had made better choices or done something differently, that our life would have turned out better. And sometimes things just happen, that are out of our control… but we still blame ourselves. When we believe we deserve this pain – and are disenchanted about our lives – we feel like we deserve of this pain.

For instance, if a character is raised to believe that the only way you are shown real love is when you have success and have perfect output or if the character was raised with parents who praised their rivals in order to try to motivate them to work harder, then the character – under all the rage and pain – would ask herself what she did wrong. The lie she might believe could be: I’ll never be good enough; I am a huge disappointment; A person is only good enough and worth loving is they are the best at what they do.

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Many times this lie digs its way deep into our character’s self-worth and self-esteem. As our character goes forward, she might lie to avoid punishment; refuse to take a compliment and give the credit to others; become a workaholic; or start to equate self-worth with accomplishment.

When a character is scarred, she puts on emotional armor to keep her feelings safe…

This is how flaws grow – because your character feels like she needs to protect herself from being hurt again. For instance, a character who was abandoned as a baby or if they were left alone as a young child to fend for themselves, might develop flaws like distrusting authority figures; sabotaging budding relationships; become clingy and needy or possessive of others; isolating themselves and becoming a loner.

Looking from the outside in, these flaws seem to help your character protect themselves from the pain of abandonment and rejection, but they limit her instead. They stop her from building good relationships and puts a filter of distrust on the people she starts to get close to. This in turn, steals your character’s freedom and stops self-growth and their chance at true happiness.

Your character’s backstory…

Your character’s backstory will have a ton of painful experiences, but somewhere in there, as the writer, you will find an experience that you’ll see as their big scar. They’ll most likely have many painful moments in their past that have changed them a little at a time. If you can find an event in their backstory where all this hurt happens, it will help you understand who or what marred your character, and why, because of what happened in their life, they’ve begun to question their self-worth. This will also show you the way -as the writer- to the false belief your character must somehow begin to see as a lie… so that they can become healthy to achieve their goal.

Here’s 6 of the most common scars that are found in characters…

1.Failure or Mistakes of some kind. When things don’t happen in people or character’s lives like they expected, they are hard on themselves. Sometimes character’s heap all kinds of guilt or blame for their failures(some might have been beyond their control) and it can paralyze them. Sometimes they make not-so-good choices because of the guilt they feel.

2.Betrayal from someone they trusted. When someone you truly trusted and were close to, lets down someone, the character can be deeply hurt. Some examples could be a deep betrayal of a loved one(adultery), some hurt that happens between parent/child or some betrayal between friends.

3.Some kind of injustice. If your character sees(or experiences) a violent crime, witnesses a social injustice or when they live in a time period or society that is corrupt, these will all leave their mark on your character. For example, Katniss Everdeen and the injustice she witnesses in The Hunger Games.

4.Isolation. If your character has felt all alone in the past, it has long lasting effects on them in their present. This kind of isolation can look like: living in poverty, social status barriers or even from a relationship where one friend or child was favored over another. These in some way hamper your characters opportunity, achievement and fulfillment.

5.A Physical Wound. If your character has been physically scarred or has a condition that causes difficulty, then they might have low self-esteem or doubt of their worthiness which might cause them to feel like they don’t fit in. Physical hindrances can change your character’s choices, hurting their confidence and limiting them both emotionally and physically.

6.Neglect, Rejection 0r Abandonment. There are some primary relationships – parents with their children; brothers & sisters; husband & wife – where it’s vital that they care for each other. When the person giving the care rejects or isn’t concerned about the person needing to be cared for, deep feelings of rejection or abandonment can form inside them.

There’s probably many more scars that characters – and people in real life – form from the painful emotional experiences they’ve gone through, but that’s a few of them.

It’s quite fun to dig deeper into our characters and learn what makes them really tick and how they react to situations and people the way they do.

What types of character scars have you discovered as you’re writing your book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

 

*Photo created with Canva

 

003 Push Past Resistance and Give Yourself Permission to Create with Pamela Hodges

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I had the honour of interviewing Pamela Hodges recently. She grew up in rural Saskatchewan and trained for awhile to be a teacher, but decided she wanted to pursue art instead. She graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, before she went to Tokyo to work as a fashion photographer for clients like Marie Claire, Elle, Chase Manhattan Bank, and others.

Later she met her husband Nick, they moved to California and had 3 children. She has fun homeschooling her children and is also a painter and a writer who has fun blogging over at ipaintiwrite.com. Pamela’s cat Harper dictates to Mrs.Hodges for Harper’s blog www.thecatwhowrites.com. Also, Pamela is a regular blogger over at www.thewritepractice.com. You can connect with Pamela on Twitter and Facebook.

*Photo By: Pamela Hodges

Watch the Video Interview

Summary of the Interview

*Pamela talks to creatives and encourages them to get over the barriers and feelings of “I’m not good enough” to draw or to write. She said her own blogging journey started 3 years ago and she said she didn’t really know what to write so her first post was “This is Imperfect.” She said she really didn’t want anyone to read it.

*She tells her story of growing up and that in the mid 70’s in rural Saskatchewan, her parents wanted her to follow education and have a stable career. She started and barely passed the 1st year of education training, and ended up switching to art because that’s what she really wanted to do.

*When she was in Art College, she went through a 4 year art program and had a teacher who believed that art needed to be realistic and he told her he wasn’t going to recommend her for the graphic arts program. Pamela said she believed when her teacher told her that she wasn’t a good enough artist.

*Pamela encourages artists – painters, writers, etc., – to decide at some point in her life that you don’t need permission anymore. If you want to paint your unique style, just do it. If you want to write that book, don’t wait for an agent, just write and self-publish your book.

*Pamela says that’s what she’s doing now. She’s writing a book and figuring it out as she goes. She wants to encourage other creatives and she’s decided if she has an idea that she wants to act on, she does it. She’s become a Leading Learner.

*She talks about how Jeff Goins’ blog inspired her to believe in herself. She says she’s always asking permission to have her own ideas. She encourages creatives that you don’t have to ask permission to be who you are.

*Sometimes asking permission from someone else to be creative or to do something is our default from growing up. Pamela says the biggest thing she does when she faces a struggle is to remember to tell herself that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

*The book she’s almost done creating now, the artist manifesto, it took her a year to decide whether or not she should illustrate the book. A little voice inside told her believe in yourself as an artist. She still had the fear that someone would tell her later on ‘oh you can’t draw.’ Pamela says she’s taking Seth Godin’s words to heart and WILL finish and ship it.

*Pamela talks about how hard it was when her cat Pooh Hodges died earlier this year. For awhile Martha the dog took over writing at thecatwhowrites.com, until Harper, the cat took over. She encourages any animal if they would like to guest post on the blog, they need their own email account – to send in their guest post idea.

*She said when her cat Pooh was alive, Pooh interviewed Steven Pressfield and he talked about how to overcome resistance. He wrote about that in his awesome book, The War of Art. He says that the more resistance you feel to write about something or paint something, that’s really a signpost for you, that that’s your True North. That’s your soul telling you this particular book or work of art is exactly what you should be doing.

*Pamela says she feels the negative voice of resistance telling her stuff like: come on you haven’t done it yet? or Why do you even bother? She says it’s a daily battle to get through the voice that wants to tell you to stop making your art. She remembers Steven Pressfield saying that the resistance you fight is as big as your dream. So if you have very little resistance in your life now, it’s because you’re not dreaming big enough.

Ask yourself… how big is the shadow of the tree of your dream? If you have a small shadow it’s because you’re not dreaming big enough. The more you dream and the bigger the dream is, if you get scared and more anxious because you’re pursuing something, that’s because it matters a lot to you.

*She encourages artists to not live complacent lives… doing the same old thing everyday. Instead, ask yourself what gets me excited? Try to create what you’re passionate about. You don’t need to be a #1 bestseller right out of the gate… all you need to do is Just Start!

*Pamela says one of the biggest things for writers, painters or creatives anywhere need to remember is that you don’t need to ask permission. Just start creating what you’re excited about. Stop listening to the voice of resistance, and just begin.

*Steven Pressfield’s book Do the Work he talks about how to finish the projects you start. And how to do work that matters to you and how to get started. It’s not about having better ideas, it’s just about committing to do the work, everyday.

*Pamela encourages writers to start today to write down something that has deep meaning… write about something that’s really emotional for you. Take responsibility and have fun creating your art.

You can find Pamela on your blogs ipaintiwrite.com and you can see what new topics Harper the cat is writing about these days over at thecatwhowrites.com. Also, Pamela says her toys will COME ALIVE again in December… check it out here at toycember.  Pamela would also love to connect with you on Facebook or Twitter.

What helps you overcome resistance & choose yourself? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

 

The Secret to Make Your Story Really Matter

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It’s the start of NaNoWriMo for writers everywhere which means there’s a big focus on telling the stories we love.

The BIG question, is how do we write a great story that captivates readers?

As I was writing a scene for my contemporary romance novel this morning, I had an epiphany…

The secret to really make your story matter is to be immersed inside your character’s head. To see the story from their perspective.

I’ll explain what I mean from a few scenes in the novel I’m working on…

The Secret

*Photo created with Canva

Seeing Your Story Thru the Eyes of Your Character

As I was writing this morning, I was having so much fun diving deeper into the two main character’s point of view, that I lost track of time. That doesn’t happen a lot for me, so it was inspiring.

Here’s what I mean.

My main heroine, Abby (Fuller) Parker after having just lost her best friend and husband in a tragic motorcycle accident – only 5 hours after they married – is completely thrown for a loop from the tragedy. It’s only after the funeral, and after she has hidden from the world, at home on her parent’s ranch outside Calgary, that she realizes she can’t continue to live like this. After she yells at Kara, one of her 3 sisters – for no good reason – and then overhears her old High School friends say horrible things about her behind her back, she realizes it’s time for her to leave.

Abby heads to her Nana’s old rambling and rundown Victorian cottage on Mulberry Island(I’ve set the Island on the Pacific Ocean, near Vancouver, B.C). Once there Abby lives through memories of coming every to stay with her Nana, since she was five years of age. It was there that she met Jack, the good-looking quiet and brooding boy who hung out with her brother Eric. It wasn’t until she was thirteen years old that, Jack – who was fifteen- started turning awkward when he hung out with her. Each summer after that Jack pays more attention to her, until finally when she’s sixteen, Jack takes it one step deeper.

Jack takes Abby to her stepfather’s lighthouse to show her the view and that’s where he tells her he loves her and kisses her. But, Jack’s drunk stepfather interrupts and tells Jack to get his whore out of the lighthouse. As Abby runs out of the building, she hears Jack and his stepfather yelling at each other. She runs down the beach toward her Nana’s house, but Jack catches up with her. He says sorry, but Abby doesn’t know how to process it and tells Jack she needs to be getting back home. Jack tries to talk her into staying for a few more days, but Abby has had enough and feels like she needs to leave.

My main hero, Jack Shepherd, was raised with his mom and real dad until his birth dad dies in a freak boating accident. His mom, starts using drugs to try to cope and eventually marries Lenny, when Jack is five. Jack starts getting beat up regularly and sees his mom abused to. When his little sister is born when Jack is ten years old, he often gets beat up for trying to protect his mom and sister. That’s when Jack starts to get to know the Fuller family and hangs out with Eric and later with Abby. Abby is like a breath of fresh air to him, beautiful and encouraging. He’s drawn to her like a fly to honey and can’t wait until the next summer when she comes back.

So, when Abby comes back to Mulberry Island, Jack can’t believe it. When he first sees her again, he is amazed by how much he still loves her and when he discovers that her husband just died, Jack feels guilty for being happy that Abby’s available. As Abby hires Jack to work as the restoration architect for her Nana’s old house, they get to know each other in an even deeper way.

Here’s what I learned as I started writing down the details of Abby and Jack’s background and then as they meet each other again…

  • Abby is afraid of being abandoned again: like she was when her birth mom died of cancer and when Daniel died in the sudden accident. She’s not sure she can give  her heart, only to have it ripped out… again.
  • Abby is insecure about how important she is to the men she loves – her dad, Daniel and then later as she starts to care for Jack.
  • Jack, deep down, feels like his mom betrayed him, when she remarried Lenny – who started beating on Jack from when he was young. He feels like he can’t totally trust women. Later on, during his years of college, as he’s training to be an architect, he falls for and gets engaged to Vivian. When he discovers Vivian kissing his boss one day, Jack feels the betrayal all over again – only deeper. So his default is to hold his heart back from Abby.
  • Restoring Nana’s old house is in a way, healing and restoring for both Abby and Jack as they have fights, learn to forgive each other and how to really work together to develop trust.
  • When they search for and discover hidden treasure, it’s somewhat of a metaphor for Jack and Abby’s own journey as they uncover their hurts, begin healing and discover the best of each other.

Those issues, are the heart of the story and the secrets I absolutely love to uncover as I dig deeper into the lives of my main characters. It’s best for a writer to be so immersed within that character that they know their deepest thoughts and feelings.

Finding out these surprises is one of the reasons why writing is so fun, and it’s why secondary characters can really add something great to a book. Writing a story isn’t just about telling a story. It’s about living through the character and seeing the story from their perspective. The story is not the writer’s story. The story is the character’s story. This is why I really love story so much.

I dive deeper into story structure and uncovering character and dialogue in the New Write and Publish Your First Book online course. If you want to learn more don’t wait. I’m limiting the number of students for this first class. Doors are open only until Nov. 6th at 11:59 EST. To learn more, check out the Free Video training (and Free Book) 🙂

This is what I’ve discovered about telling a story. Without understanding the character, the story has no meaning. The story becomes only a series of events. It’s the character that gives the story heart.

This is why the character(s) is the key to the entire story, and the focus should always be on the main characters. Secondary characters, of course add a broader dimension and support the story, but the main characters are the ones that the reader really begins to care about and relates to.

What are your secrets to making your story really matter? I’d love to hear your thoughts on story in the comments.

 

*Photo created with Canva

 

 

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