Curtis Moser's Blog

When I started this blog, my intention was to post every single day. What a ridiculous guy I am! Then, when life got in the way, I thought I'd write every weekday. Now I find myself shamefully revising my goal once again. Three days into the week and I'm just now making my ripple in this ocean of the World Wide Web. I once read that vocalizing your goals or, in this case, writing them down helps you achieve them, so I'm putting that theory to the test. Going forward, you can expect me to post here . . . as often as time permits. How's that for an achievable goal?

Here's the thing about my life, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this regard, but it is so insanely busy! I work a 12 hour night shift, followed by coaching little league, daddy-duty, and church time, and I still have to balance three kids' schedules which include (among other things) baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey, gymnastics, math tutoring, reading tutoring, piano lessons, homework...the list is never ending. I need a nap just thinking about it. I try to make time to write during my lunch break, after cramming down a few hollow calories, but on a good day, that leaves me with twenty minutes. That's not a lot of writing time, but it's enough to make progress. Recently I've been using that writing time to revise my new novel, which comes out on October 13th, so with a deadline pressing, the kids, the dog, and the blog are all feeling the pangs of neglect. Not to fear, though. I'm almost done with my revision, and then I'll be back, blogging my wicked little heart out.

At least until another project gets in the way.

Joseph Campbell is famous for several things, not the least of which is his idea of The Hero's Journey. His formula for creating a Hero's Journey inspired George Lucas, who in case you didn't know, wrote a little screenplay I like to call Star Wars. If A + B = C and B + A = C, then Joseph Campbell actually invented Star Wars...or whatever. I'm not a mathematician. I barely qualify as a writer.

Campbell coined one of my favorite quotes of all time when he said: "Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself  on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." 

I should be able to tell you without any hesitation that Mr. Campbell was right. After all, I'm well into my middle age now and I have a considerable amount of life experience. But I confess that I've spent the lion's share of my life following the dollar, not the bliss, and that dollar is a slippery fellow. I don't remember following him into a cheese plant, and I certainly don't remember following him to the night shift. Also, that dollar? He ain't under the Swiss cheese.
I do know one thing for sure, though. If you follow your bliss, you expend positive energy in its pursuit, and if you establish daily habits and keep striving, no goal is out of reach. Mr. Campbell was right. A + B really does equal C, which is another way of saying fear is a liar.

Call its bluff. 

I was excited this last weekend for the release of the new Gary Clark, Jr. album. He's one of my favorite new musicians. So when I received his album in the mail on Friday, I did the equivalent of locking my doors and closing my blinds. I parked my truck in a church parking lot and turned off my cell phone. Then I listened, brimming with excitement. As is often the case when I build something up in my mind, the album disappointed me. Not because it isn't good. It is good. There are three or four standout tracks, and several other good ones. But the album disappointed me because it wasn't what I wanted it to be.

How selfish of me to expect someone else's artistic vision, someone else's artistic journey, to conform to my own. Art is, after all, an individual expression of life. It isn't supposed to be for the masses. If the masses are pleased, much the better, but that shouldn't be at the heart of artistic creation.

After I finished my first novel, I spent a long time trying to decide what to write as an encore. To be clear, my first novel was definitely not a commercial or literary success. Still, the temptation was there to write a sequel and add-on to the world that I had created in my dog book. And one day, I may. But after much soul searching, I decided to go in an entirely different direction with my second novel. There may be dozens of disappointed fans, (dozens may be a gross overstatement), but I am pleased with how my second novel turned out. I am pleased with the artistic expression of its theme, and I'm satisfied with the finished product.

If you are just starting on this journey of being a writer, let me give you some advice. Write for yourself, not for the masses. Make it your own and be damn proud of it. The very best artists thumb their noses at the critics and stay true to the whispers of their soul. The worst artists prostitute themselves out to the will of the world.

This is a blog dedicated to writing, but as I get ready to roll into the weekend and I find the juice in my creative batteries in need of a charge, I turn to music, books, and movies.

Today is the happy release day for Gary Clark Jr's new album. If you're not familiar with his music, do yourself a favor and check him out. He's a phenomenal guitar player, a great singer, and a fine musical talent all the way around.
Last Friday, The Black Keys guitarist and gravel-voiced lead singer, Dan Auerbach, released the first album for his new musical aside, The Arcs. I love anything Black Keys related, and this album does not disappoint.
If you're looking for a book recommendation, Robert McCammon's Boy's Life is as good as it gets, although, unless you've been in a cryofreezer since 1991, it is not a new release. If you want to read something from this side of the millennium, The Devil's Only Friend by Dan Wells is great. In fact, start with I Am Not A Serial Killer and work your way through all of the John Cleaver novels. You'll be happy that you did.

For those of you with a cinematic appetite, Mad Max:Fury Road was terrific. Also, if it's still playing in a theater close to you, go watch The End of the Tour. It's the best movie of the year, in my opinion.

With all of those entertaining options, I hope you enjoy your weekend, and I hope, like me, you find a way to recharge your creative battery. See you on the flip side. 

An agent I follow on Twitter posted a link to an article this morning about why writing every single day may not be the best advice, and since I've been harping on that kernel for a couple of blog posts now, I naturally thought, "What fresh hell is this?"

Then I read it and, to my chagrin, found the article to be excellent.

For most of us, writing is not our primary source of income. It's not even our biggest priority, nor should it be. For most of us, myself included, working full-time to put money in the bank is priority numero uno, and spending quality time with the family is priority numero uno-dot-uno. I work a night shift at a cheese plant, and since that shifty job is the way I feed my family, it has to take a front seat to my writing. That being said, if you're serious about becoming a novelist--if you're serious about finishing a novel--having a goal to write a little bit every day is crucial. It's difficult to find a rhythm, and even more difficult to find your writing voice when you're only carving out 15 minutes of writing time every few months. The point I've been making is simply this: make your writing a priority. It doesn't have to be number one or two on the list, but if you're serious about it, it needs to be up there above, say, knitting mittens for your guinea pigs.

Bottom line, good writing, like every other worthy pursuit, takes practice. Lots and lots of practice.

The aforementioned article can be found here, and it's worth a read.

I've been thumping the pulpit pretty hard over the last couple of blog posts about creating a daily writing habit, even if it's only a few hundred words. The idea is to make forward progress. But what happens when you're facing a deadline? Or worse, facing a crippling bout of writer's block? I'm not exempt. For all of my preaching, I have the hardest time forcing myself to write everyday. There are some days, (and this is no exaggeration), I would rather clean the toilet with my toothbrush, and then brush my teeth with that toothbrush, than sit down and write. I don't know why that's the case, but I'm open to suggestions if you know how to overcome it. My toothbrush is disgusting.

I'm not the only writer who finds writing painfully difficult. All writers struggle with the labor at one point or another. Hemingway likened writing to opening up a vein. Thomas Mann said that writing is more difficult for writers than it is for other people. Mann and Hemingway obviously knew their onions when it came to writing, so there you go.

I'm strangely comforted knowing that the struggle is real. In the spirit of comforting the rest of you, here are some of the ways famous authors courted their muse.

Mark Twain, George Orwell, and Marcell Proust got completely horizontal and wrote lying in bed. Ernest Hemingway and Charles Dickens, on the other hand, wrote entire novels standing up. And considering the size of some of their novels, that's a tremendous feat.

Vladimir Nabokov wrote his novels using index cards, which he then stored in tiny, little boxes. That way he could write scenes non-sequentially and re-order them any time he wanted. (There is writing software now, incidentally, that does the same thing. Scrivener is the one that I use and endorse).

Victor Hugo wrote naked.

Balzac and Voltaire drank gallons and gallons of coffee. By some accounts, Voltaire drank up to 40 cups per day. Not to be outdone, Balzac drank 50. I like caffeine as much as the next guy, but 50 cups?! How is that even possible? If the esteemed Mr. Balzac slept 8 hours/night (highly doubtful considering his caffeine intake), he would have had to drink more than 3 cups an hour, every hour, to make it. And since coffee makes the bowels move, he would have been on the crapper for a huge part of those awake hours. It's a wonder he got any writing done at all.

If you're struggling with your writing, find your favorite author from above and emulate his writing habit. And for the sake of your bowels, let's hope your favorite author isn't Balzac or Voltaire.

Helen Thayer is a tremendous woman. She was recently named One of the Great Explorers of the 20th Century by National Geographic, and she has done things that boggle my feeble mind. For example, she walked 1,600 miles across the Gobi Desert.

I can barely walk a mile on my treadmill.

She walked across the Sahara Desert--the entire Sahara Desert--following an ancient 4,000 mile trade route. She kayaked over 2,200 miles along the Amazon. She traveled to the magnetic North Pole accompanied only by her dog, Charlie. And, (think about this for a moment), she lived alongside a wolf den for six months, setting up camp a mere 100 feet away.

Yikes.

She is also the author of several books, and has, in my opinion, lived a very satisfying life. I listened to an interview with her on NPR the other morning and was impressed by something she said. I don't have the exact quote, but in essence, she said that a goal without a plan is fruitless.

Okay, sounds lovely. But what is it doing on a writer's blog?

There are several ways to write a book. Some follow a strict outline. Others write by the seat of their pants. And others, like myself, are struck by creative lightning, have a pretty good idea of how they want the story to end, and plod along toward it. As I've said before, it doesn't really matter which path you walk when writing a story, just so long as you walk it, but I think Helen Thayer's idea is also correct. You have to have a plan in place on how you're going to complete your novel or you'll never finish it. One goal may be, for example, to write 300 words per day.  

I can't tell you how many people I've met over the years who tell me they are going to write a novel, and when I ask about it months later tell me that they haven't started yet. One day, they say, when I have the time, I'm going to get it done.

Well, here's a little secret: You. Will. Never. Have. Time.

Writers write a little every day, and step-by-step, like crossing the Sahara Desert, accomplish their goals. Dreamers dream and die without leaving a mark.

Which one are you?  

Everyone is familiar with Aesop's fable about the tortoise and the hare. I tell my kids all the time, (and I actually believe this dad-ism), slow and steady wins the race. I have a million snail jokes that all conclude with basically the same punchline: it does not matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop. There are several cliches that more or less say the same thing, and I've found that this advice applies universally, in all aspects of life. Hell, it even applies to sex. But since this blog is a writing blog, I'm going to try to keep it limited to that scope.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I do not enjoy writing. It is a difficult process for me, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that, if it's difficult for me, it's difficult for others as well. Here's the thing, though. Writing a novel is not a race. There isn't a prize for getting to the end first. The only prize is finishing. Which means, all you have to do when you sit down at the computer is inch forward. That's all.

Let me say that again.

All you have to do when you sit down at the computer is inch forward. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be good. It just has to be. If it's on the page, it can be fixed. If it's in your head and not on the page, it cannot be fixed, it cannot be published, it cannot be read, and it has no power to inspire, to entertain, or to change the world.

Up to this point, this blog post is 275 words long. That's two short paragraphs. Not many words at all. If you write just 275 words per day, you could still take two days off each week and write a 70,000 word novel this year. And in case you didn't know it, writing a novel is a serious accomplishment.

As I tell my children, slow and steady wins the race. If you have never written a novel, and there's a story rattling around in your head, sit down and write. If you're a writer struggling with writer's block, sit down and write. If you don't know if there's a story rattling around in your head, but you've always fancied the life of a writer, sit down and write, and I can tell you by experience, your desire to write will grow the more you do it.

As the cliche states: the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Here's another: the scariest moment is always just before you start. And just in case you can't figure out how to start your novel, try this cliche on for size: it was a dark and stormy night.

That's a terrible opening for a novel, but you can always change it later.

 

As a writer, I try to introduce the theme of any story in the first chapter--in the first paragraph if possible--and then drive toward it as the plot unfolds. That way, when I revisit it at the end of the story, if I've done what I intended to do, the theme resonates with the reader. It is one of the first lessons I remember learning about writing, probably as early as fifth or sixth grade. For that reason, the first five words of the Bible have always seemed significant to me.
In the beginning God created...
I believe that all of us were born with a creative spark. A little glint of celestial light that reflects the Divine in us. My little brother is a musician, and it has always been remarkable to me that he was self-taught. He simply picked up the guitar one day and played. He wasn't great overnight, he practiced for hours on end, week after week, month after month, year after year until he had honed his gift, but it was there inside of him from the beginning. It was a creative craving that he succumbed to, and the beauty of it is, now when he plays, he finds a measure of peace. 
If we believe what is written, God wants us to be like Him. He wants us to find the same everlasting peace and happiness that He has achieved, and I think that's why He has given us the power to create. I don't like writing. It's difficult for me. But I love having written. I love to see something that I created, knowing that the characters in my story, the adventures they have, and the emotions that they feel literally did not exist until I put them down on paper. That provides me a great deal of satisfaction. 
Today is Sunday, and I try to spend at least part of each Sunday engaged in spiritual contemplation. Over the years, I have lost some of my faith in religion, but I do believe that when Christ taught about talents, it was more than just a metaphor. Each of us were born with a creative spark. If you're a writer, write. If you're a painter, paint. If you're a singer, sing. If you're a musician, play your instrument. There is creativity inside each of us. Find it, cultivate it, and I believe in that way, we can experience at least some of the happiness of God.