Ask the Author: Robbie Vorhaus
Answered Questions (5)
Robbie Vorhaus
Ask yourself these questions:
1. What's my unique truth? What's my point of view? To the core, what's the moral, the theme, of my story? Why is this story (doesn't matter the genre, structure, or fiction or non-fiction), important to me?
2. Who is my audience and how do they want to hear stories and/or receive informative or entertaining information? Are you writing to children? What age? Business people? On what level? Leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, MBA's, small business owners? Are you writing to woman? Moms? Parents? Christians or Jews? Self-help enthusiasts, the spiritual, seekers? Become so knowledgable about your audience, who they are and what they want, that whatever you write you feel as though you are writing directly to your audience.
3. Storytelling. Know your media. Know the rules. If you're writing a movie, you need to know that on the average, every script is approx. 120-pages long. If you're writing a TV sitcom, you need to know that you're essentially writing a three-act play for approx. 22 mins, with a plot, sub-plot and a "runner," a running gag that shows up in all three acts and resolves at the end. Writing a novel, blog article, or biography? Each literature form has very specific rules, and as tempted as you may want to break the rules, don't try. Become proficient, original, articulate, compelling, and unique in your writing. That's what will distinguish your work.
4. Establish a feedback system. If you're audience laughs when you want them to cry, you need to a change something. If you're attempting to tell the story that true love never dies, and the feedback you receive is that your work makes people feel hopeless, you need to change something. Don't get caught in the amateur trap of not showing your work because you're afraid someone's going to steal it. And, at the same time, don't get caught in the other amateur trap of showing your work in little bits to everyone. Know what you want to say, know your audience, know the genre and media in which you want to tell your story, and then get enough feedback to tell you if you're on track for the story you want to tell.
And, one more thing: If you really, truly, honestly, want to be a writer, then write. Ask any book author and they will tell you how many people say, "My story is fascinating and I'm going to write a book!" Write, write and write. Most of it will be crap. Throw that away, and then build off the jewels.
I know you can do it. You just have to write, and keep writing. Good luck and keep in touch.
1. What's my unique truth? What's my point of view? To the core, what's the moral, the theme, of my story? Why is this story (doesn't matter the genre, structure, or fiction or non-fiction), important to me?
2. Who is my audience and how do they want to hear stories and/or receive informative or entertaining information? Are you writing to children? What age? Business people? On what level? Leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, MBA's, small business owners? Are you writing to woman? Moms? Parents? Christians or Jews? Self-help enthusiasts, the spiritual, seekers? Become so knowledgable about your audience, who they are and what they want, that whatever you write you feel as though you are writing directly to your audience.
3. Storytelling. Know your media. Know the rules. If you're writing a movie, you need to know that on the average, every script is approx. 120-pages long. If you're writing a TV sitcom, you need to know that you're essentially writing a three-act play for approx. 22 mins, with a plot, sub-plot and a "runner," a running gag that shows up in all three acts and resolves at the end. Writing a novel, blog article, or biography? Each literature form has very specific rules, and as tempted as you may want to break the rules, don't try. Become proficient, original, articulate, compelling, and unique in your writing. That's what will distinguish your work.
4. Establish a feedback system. If you're audience laughs when you want them to cry, you need to a change something. If you're attempting to tell the story that true love never dies, and the feedback you receive is that your work makes people feel hopeless, you need to change something. Don't get caught in the amateur trap of not showing your work because you're afraid someone's going to steal it. And, at the same time, don't get caught in the other amateur trap of showing your work in little bits to everyone. Know what you want to say, know your audience, know the genre and media in which you want to tell your story, and then get enough feedback to tell you if you're on track for the story you want to tell.
And, one more thing: If you really, truly, honestly, want to be a writer, then write. Ask any book author and they will tell you how many people say, "My story is fascinating and I'm going to write a book!" Write, write and write. Most of it will be crap. Throw that away, and then build off the jewels.
I know you can do it. You just have to write, and keep writing. Good luck and keep in touch.
Robbie Vorhaus
Curiosity. I find myself incredibly curious about the world around me.
I'll ask myself questions like, what is it that's invisible? If I meet a person, I'll think, what are their fears? What are they like in private? What sounds do the make having sex? How do they relate to the unknown? What secrets do they hold?
I'll also ask questions of myself like, what if I wasn't a man? What if I were married to someone much older than me? Younger? What if I had a billion dollars? What if I didn't have a single penny to my name?
And after I've become conscious of the questions, I'll bridge the totally unrelated answers with more questions like, what if I were homeless and met someone famous? What if I were a woman and I had sex with another woman? What if I got terminally ill and then discovered I had the power to heal myself and others.
Allowing myself to be curious, without judgement or labels, takes me to a place that I want to share, to express, to explore through story. And for me, my craft is telling stories through words and ideas.
And just knowing that I have power, the honor, the ability to create stories from what appears to be random information, is incredibly powerful for me.
I'll ask myself questions like, what is it that's invisible? If I meet a person, I'll think, what are their fears? What are they like in private? What sounds do the make having sex? How do they relate to the unknown? What secrets do they hold?
I'll also ask questions of myself like, what if I wasn't a man? What if I were married to someone much older than me? Younger? What if I had a billion dollars? What if I didn't have a single penny to my name?
And after I've become conscious of the questions, I'll bridge the totally unrelated answers with more questions like, what if I were homeless and met someone famous? What if I were a woman and I had sex with another woman? What if I got terminally ill and then discovered I had the power to heal myself and others.
Allowing myself to be curious, without judgement or labels, takes me to a place that I want to share, to express, to explore through story. And for me, my craft is telling stories through words and ideas.
And just knowing that I have power, the honor, the ability to create stories from what appears to be random information, is incredibly powerful for me.
Robbie Vorhaus
I was trained as newspaper journalist, then moving into radio and network news, which meant there wasn't anytime to indulge writer's block, sickness, broken hearts, or bad moods. If someone was depending on me for a story or photo, and I dropped the ball, I was out of job.
That said, writing to me, including the time I took to write OLOM, was a job. I approached the work with the same attitude I have any assignment: This is my job, no one else is going to write this for me, and I have to get it done, and done well.
So, knowing that I still had a full-time job, and never knowing when or where I would be called off to, I chose to write at least three hours every weekday, working off an outline that I created earlier, and regardless of how I felt, where I was, what else was going on around me, I stuck to my schedule.
Sure, over the course of my career I've experienced writer's block. But I always made sure that despite how I felt, I knew that there was a story in me that needed to come out, and my job was to write that story, and I did, even if it meant that I felt stuck.
Writer's block is simply another form of resistance, and all resistance is feedback, and nothing more. Use the feedback as a teacher, information for what you don't want, and choose less of it.
That said, writing to me, including the time I took to write OLOM, was a job. I approached the work with the same attitude I have any assignment: This is my job, no one else is going to write this for me, and I have to get it done, and done well.
So, knowing that I still had a full-time job, and never knowing when or where I would be called off to, I chose to write at least three hours every weekday, working off an outline that I created earlier, and regardless of how I felt, where I was, what else was going on around me, I stuck to my schedule.
Sure, over the course of my career I've experienced writer's block. But I always made sure that despite how I felt, I knew that there was a story in me that needed to come out, and my job was to write that story, and I did, even if it meant that I felt stuck.
Writer's block is simply another form of resistance, and all resistance is feedback, and nothing more. Use the feedback as a teacher, information for what you don't want, and choose less of it.
Robbie Vorhaus
I continue advising clients and giving motivational talks. I also continue writing blogs and short contributed pieces to national publications. And, I'm currently writing a coming-of-age novel called "Camp Neshaminy."
Robbie Vorhaus
In 2007, a mom at our daughter's school called to speak to my wife about an issue related to the Girl Scouts. Knowing I advise leaders on how to handle crisis and life changes, she asked me how she could handle her stress and worry. I suggested she begin by coming present, believing she was born to be happy (peaceful, content, relaxed), and every day choose to eliminate just one thing that she knew no longer fit in her life, and call that One Less, and, conversely, to consciously choose to add in at least one thing a day that brought her joy, peaked her curiosity, made her heart beat faster, or just felt good, calling that One More. One Less. One More.
This mom got so excited at the profound simplicity, and suggested I write a newspaper article, which I did. That article went viral, and I received emails from all over the world asking where to buy the book, which, of course, wasn't even a thought at that time. Yet after so many requests, I wrote an outline, which I tested on family, friends, clients and colleagues, and discovering they had never read a book, a guide really, on what to expect when and if they chose to commit to following their heart and becoming truly happy.
OLOM took my seven years to write from that phone call to publication, and it was worth every moment.
This mom got so excited at the profound simplicity, and suggested I write a newspaper article, which I did. That article went viral, and I received emails from all over the world asking where to buy the book, which, of course, wasn't even a thought at that time. Yet after so many requests, I wrote an outline, which I tested on family, friends, clients and colleagues, and discovering they had never read a book, a guide really, on what to expect when and if they chose to commit to following their heart and becoming truly happy.
OLOM took my seven years to write from that phone call to publication, and it was worth every moment.
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