The Artist's Way - The Day The Dragon Stopped Writing

The Progressive Book Club is the excellent idea of Mike L. Swift. You can find the guidelines and join the group for future discussions here. The book currently discussed is The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

Let me start by saying I absolutely adore this book. I received it as a gift and I really believe I was not gifted with a book, but with a second chance of making dreams possible. It is divided in a 12 week program and as the cover reads, it is a "spiritual path to higher creativity". I'm still working on Week 8 but there has not been a single week I've had not had an epiphany, or many. I will trust the reference to the first four chapters and their content to my fellow artists in the Club because I have a greater need. I want to share with you the impact of this book in my core as a creative being.

There are two predominant subjects in this book. The idea of a Great Creator with the freedom for it to be what suits you best. It doesn't need to be a specific God from a specific "Ism". If you are not a religious person that's okay. If you are, that's okay. The Great Creator and Creativity in itself becomes pretty available for everyone who wants to get it. Synchronicity is the second constant of this book. You read, you do your homework and suddenly, things start happening around you for real. Messages, people and tools start coming your way as you may need them. I swear sometimes I could hear The Twilight Zone score playing from Above.

However, this is like the Neverending Story. You become the main character and closing the book does not guarantee things won't keep happening inside you and that your world won't change. On the other hand, reading it fast without really doing the homework won't render any benefit. It's like buying the medicine but not taking it, or take it every other day.

I wanted this book to help me finish my WIP but yesterday I wrote on FB: "Wouldn't just be the irony of ironies that I would quit writing over a book that was supposed to inspire the writer in me? Didn't see that coming." The paradox, Father Dragon Writes that he won't write anymore.

Where this statement came from? Synchronicity. While this book and its exercises have made me think, laugh, get mad and cry (a lot); my surroundings feel like creative Jumanji. I ponder, I execute and something "coincidental" manifests in unexpected ways. Messages came that made echo in some raw wound in cleaning process.

The Ruthless Engineer.
Artist: Al Diaz

"Usually, he who has many talents ends up being an amateur in many fields, and professional in absolutely nothing." Award Winning Mexican Writer. TV show.

People say I have many talents I'm good at. Truth is I'm acceptable as an amateur but far from a pro. I have the talent but I lack the knowledge. I had the opportunity to study arts at the best Fine Arts school in Mexico. For many reasons I couldn't take it and this became one of my most bitter regrets, a wound that still hurts like hell.

"Pain and Art...A match made in Heaven?" Julie Luek's post
I was born sick. I've lived half my life imprisoned by illness and by walls. In order to stay on your feet in the face of an incapacitating ailment, you first have to come to terms with your reality. Reality was I couldn't move. Whining about all the things I wanted to do but couldn't was the certain path to self-destruction. I killed my dreams in order to let my heart and mind live. The question in Julie's post was if you really need to suffer to become a good artist. I didn't suffer to become a writer. I became a writer because I suffered and I needed a more creative and constructive way to express my pain, other than hating the world, me and my fate. Writing about living made me forget I wasn't living but surviving. Killing characters on paper made me forget about killing myself.

Darth Vader (mixed techniques)
Artist: Al Diaz

"Build your own dreams or someone will hire you to help them build their dreams." Shah Rukh Khan. Twitter.

Back to The Artist's Way, if there is one thing this book does for you is to help you believe in possibility. This book made me remember all those dreams I killed. At the time, they felt more like a boulder tied to the neck. Now they are more like the hard tissue over a wound that never healed. The song I never sang, the flight I never took, the kiss I never gave. My time to go after those dreams was long gone. They were my heart's desire but so what? I got wisdom and resilience in exchange so I guess that's okay. Besides, I am too old... or maybe not. 802 is still young for a dragon, some of you said.

"In order to be able to catch the ball, first you need to REALLY want to catch it." The Artist's Way.

In spite of the recent lesions, my health is improving in a significant way. Physically impossible is becoming possible. The Artist's Way is having me believing that impossible can become possible in the creative side. Dead dreams can be reborn and achieved. I had not realized that I truly believed I was a bad dragon who deserved all the misfortune I've endured. The book has helped me to see this and work on it. I am not a bad dragon. I am a good dragon to whom bad things has happened. I do deserve my dreams to come true. I deserve the song, the flight and the kiss and no matter how old I am, it's always good time to start making dreams come true.

Avatar, the Last Air Bender. Nickelodeon

The question is not if I want to catch the ball or not. The question is WHICH ball I do really want to catch. 

"The more I think about writing, the more I paint," I told Sir Jeff not long ago.

I wrote when my wings were broken. Now my wings are healing and stretching. Sometimes they can even hold me off the ground for a short while. The Artist's Way is telling the dragon there's still chance to conquer all those denied horizons, even now at this age. It's nudging me to try all those wonderful things of life I could only imagine when I wrote about them. It gave me a compass that, like Jack Sparrow's, is pointing to what I desire most. And my desire is to paint me a story.

Spirited Away. Ghibli Studios

How old will I be by the time I can make Agnipath look like Nickelodeon's "Avatar. The Last Air Bender" or there's a Father Dragon Studios that create something worth of Ghibli Studios? The same age I'll be if I don't try. The difference is I'll be a step closer each day, if I do. That's the essence of The Artist's Way.

Father Dragon Writes that he won't write anymore in the loving memory of dreams that could only be in my imagination. Father Dragon Writes that he'll go out and risk to fly to the extent of his wing capacity. Father Dragon Writes that he'll paint stories and fully embrace the artist within.

Thank you, Mike, for this gift. Thank you all wonderful writer friends who embraced me into your community. You've taught me so much! No. I'm not saying goodbye. I'm just celebrating you today because I'll be away on Friday. :) Till next week.

Celebrate the Small Things is a Friday Meme created by VikLit. 

Save the Cat or Make Violin Strings with It

M.L. Swift organizes the Progressive Book Club and the book to be discussed this month is Save the Cat.

While I listen to Vivaldi's Winter for violin, maybe it would be wise to say something about the reviewer.I am very jealous of my time and most of you know why. My dragoness is never more evident than when I face useless babbling. I am very wary about things that "everybody likes". I won't read a book because everybody says it is good. I won't believe something because everybody believes it and I definitively won't do something that everybody is doing. Meaning you won't see me reading 50 Shades of Gray because everyone in town is reading it, you won't see me doing the Gangnam Style or the Harlem Shake, because its in fashion, and you won't see me worshiping anything because most people do.

In short, I have to find and believe there is a good reason why I should read, do, or believe on something.  That something, whatever it is, first has to satisfy my logic, my intellect or my heart. Being as it is, I have zero tolerance when it comes to instruction (my flaw, I admit.) My disclaimer: this is the Devil's Advocate review. Proceed at your discretion.

In a world that produces How To books as a theater would produce popcorn, and where no rule is cast in stone, I've learned to be careful about what I read. There are so many contradictions that one can easily end up more confused than when he started his quest for information. After it happened to me, I like to assess (whenever possible) who is the person I'm going to take advice from.

Why was I reluctant to read Save the Cat in spite of the good reviews? Who is this Blake Snyder? The man who wrote Stop or my Mom will Shoot. Yikes! As hard core fan as I am of Sylvester Stallone, to me this movie sucked big time. Additionally, Snyder's book top line "Give me the same, only different", rang to me like bells of mediocrity. It came across as "do what sells, it matters not if it is good or not." Yikes, again. I hate mediocrity and as much as I love money, I despise the marketing idea of doing what sells, regardless if it is garbage. Last but not least, screenplay is not my business.

Why did I read it? I wanted to take part in at least one of Mike's club sessions, the book was given to me for free but first and foremost, I respect the value of experience. I may not love Snyder's work (or his idea of good comedy) but his years in the business must have taught him something useful, even for me. Besides, I read somewhere that screenplay knowledge could improve a writer's skill in good dialogue.

Experience. I suffered most of the first 118 pages. The man babbles too much for my liking. The golden pieces of advice could be summarized in fifty pages or less (and the book is overpriced).

I am an ignorant in genres. I still don't get the differences between the various genres and endless sub-genres. I know each genre has specific requirements and specific market but I still have to find the one who makes it all clear for me. Mr. Snyder felt the need to rediscover the black thread and the sacred guacamole. I mean, he created new genres that are (to my opinion) absolutely useless. I just can't imagine the face of an agent when reading in my query letter: "Title: The Path of Fire. Genre: A dude with a problem." Or where is exactly the area of "Monsters in the House" in a library? By the way, it mixes established genres. Do I need more genres to be confused about? Way to go, Mr. Snyder! Our relationship is getting smokey.

Fair to the truth, there is good (if few) pieces of advice in those 118 pages but many times during those pages I was roaring "Get to the freaking point already!!!" Dragon Ancestors, give me patience! For a man who is supposed to teach me successful writing, Snyder does ramble a LOT.

I ramble too. As a matter of fact, I have sections in this blog called disseramblings (from dissertation and rambling). But first, I don't promise to teach you the ultimate truth on anything and second, I don't charge you for reading. What you see is what you get. Now if someone sells to me the ultimate secrets of anything, he better gives me what I paid for or there will be trouble. Don't talk me senseless with the whole back story of how enlightenment was reached. Just deliver the message! If you think of it, this is just another golden rule of writing. (Readers don't care for needless back story.)

Blake Snyder finally managed to catch my full attention during Chapter Six and Seven, (a sort of consolation prize for my time). He used a couple of examples that sounded wrong to me, like referring aliens would positively prove the non-existence of God. *Glancing at the cover* What is this book about, again? Is it theology, screenplay or sophism? I am fairly good at two of them but I would rather have what I paid for. I got his point about mixed magics and I agree, but I still think the examples were bad, to say it nicely.

Conclusion. There was absolutely nothing in Save the Cat that I had not read before (for free) in priceless sites like Moody Writing, Helping Writers to Become Authors, The Bookshelf Muse, and Writability. And in my very personal opinion, any of them convey the message in a far more effective and concise writing than Blake Snyder. Actually, Mooderino's humor does make me laugh. Snyder's just get on my wrong side. Snyder's "centuries-distilled wisdom" can be summarized in three pages and if you've been around, you'll find you already knew at least one of those pages.

If I could go back in time, I would rather use my gift card to get other books I so much want to read like Alex Cavanaugh's or Cherie Reich's.

Final Note. Keep in mind this is only a fire dragon's opinion. I am extraordinary stern and demanding when it comes to education I pay for, and even more if the promise of "ultimate knowledge" is involved (Title reads "The last book on screenwriting you'll ever need".) I also state my qualifications as screenwriter are Official Ignorant and the value of my opinion about this book is only equal to my qualifications.