It's the Journey, Not the Destination

Ever take a road trip?  Was it memorable?  I bet I can guess why.  You anticipated your arrival.  You shared a camaraderie with your friends or family.  You felt like a pioneer.

Once you got there, you realized the Grand Canyon was just a giant hole in the ground.  But those hours crammed in the back of the station wagon with your siblings remain carved into your memory on a geological timescale.  It's because of the journey, not the destination.

Whenever someone asks me how fast I can solve the Rubik's Cube, I think of those road trips.  It was never meant to be a race.  A road trip is meant to meander.  Besides, I never set out to solve the cube in record times.  It was more important that I learned how to solve the cube, not simply memorize hundreds of algorithms and finger tricks.  (By the way, an algorithm in cube-speak is a predetermined pattern of turns that has a desired effect on a group of little cubies.)  No, my ultimate journey was to be able to solve the Rubik's Cube with my eyes closed.  Would I learn how the Rubik's Cube works at a deeper level?  Would I learn more about myself during this journey?

When I write, it's easy to think the goal is just completing the story.  That's not enough.  It's the journey, not the destination.  Sure, I want to create a finished story.  But, I want my readers to remember, and maybe even discuss, the importance of my story in their lives.  (That's my dream anyway.)

I recently read the novel, Some of Your Blood, by Theodore Sturgeon.  It is a deconstructed vampire story.  Okay, that isn't quite accurate enough.  Some of Your Blood is a deconstructed story.  It is non-traditional in every way.  Yet it is fascinating to read because it is more than the story itself, but how the story is told.  Once you finish it, you'll want to read it again.  Think: the movie The Sixth Sense (but this novel was published about forty years earlier).  Another thing about the story that will get you wanting to go back for more is the "unreliable narrator" aspects of the novel.  It reminded me of Kevin Spacey's character in the movie The Usual Suspects.

If you can create a journey for your readers, then you can tap into something deeper and your story will have a lasting effect on them.  It's not just the story, but it's how you tell it.

Lost in (Cyber) Space

Do you have a backup plan?

Normally I do, however, this weekend I was unprepared for the Blogger outage.  If you didn't hear the news:  what should have been routine maintenance for Google's Blogger service ended up locking out users and removing users' data for more than 36 hours.  Google had worked over the weekend to restore lost comments and posts by rolling back data in their environment.  My post however, which was scheduled for today, was one of the casualties of their catastrophic human error.

Unfortunately for me, my post has forever been lost in cyberspace.  Perhaps I will rewrite it.  Perhaps I will restore it to its full glory.  Just not tonight.  I'm too distraught at the thought of having to re-invent, re-edit, and re-post something that may never live up to the original.  I suppose that's why we wear oven mitts: so we never burn our hands again.  I will be sure to be more diligent in the future backing up my data.

I love the fact that Blogger is free, but the real lesson here is you get what you pay for.

When I first learned of the Megaminx puzzle, I knew I had to get one.  But they were pretty expensive (and I wasn't sure I would be able to solve one anyway.)  Why invest in a quality Megaminx?  I thought I would try to solve it once and then be done with it.  So I sent for a cheap one from China.

This is a cheap Megaminx

I began to solve it, then it fell apart and exploded in hands.

This is a Megaminx Explosion

I was embarrassed.  I wasn't embarrassed because I couldn't solve the puzzle.  I was embarrassed for being cheap and not expecting the puzzle to explode in my hands.

It's the same with writing.  I don't get embarrassed with typos or grammatical errors...ever writer makes those.  But I am embarrassed that my original writing was lost, never to be restored.  I did not have a backup plan.  I can only hope that when I do rewrite my post it will be better than the original.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Random Recommendation: 10 Difficult to Write Pieces

Whenever I face a daunting challenge, (how about that crazy cube at left?) I remind myself that the world is full of amazing people who make the impossible seem like child's play.  This post is dedicated to all those super humans.

I read this great article that shows us just how amazing people can be when put in extraordinary circumstances...or who simply wanted to challenge themselves – beyond what us mere mortals would consider difficult.  If you think solving the Rubik's Cube blindfolded is impressive, wait until you read this post.

The article ranks ten works of literature based on how difficult they were to write.  From a novel written without the letter, e, to a successful novelist who was still years away from puberty when she wrote her first novel, to a memoirist who emerged from a coma to dictate an entire book exclusively with his one eye, this blog post is nothing if not inspirational.

Reading the list also will give you some perspective when you're searching for an excuse not to write.  Enjoy it here:

10 Works of Literature That Were Really Hard to Write

Let the hero worship commence.  I bow down to all you amazing people out there who keep me humble.

Happy Writing!

"SHOW" Me Your Cube!

You've heard it before.  "Show, don't tell."
You must create an experience for your readers.  You cannot simply state something and expect them to believe it.

"The dice were fuzzy." 

That doesn't quite cut it.  If the reader isn't engaged, then you have lost them.  It's the equivalent of a first date checking out her nails while you're blathering on about yourself.

How do you engage the reader?  Show them your story.

Skilled teachers are aware of some students' kinesthetic learning process.  These students "learn by doing" rather than being lectured to.  If you can tap into the tactile senses of your reader, then you create a complete experience for them.  You can "show" them your story rather than lecture and "tell" them your story.

I'll take a stab at this and try to "show" you the fuzzy dice:

"Those fuzzy dice.  Overstuffed and bulging like the cabbie's distended belly.  Those fuzzy dice filling the taxi cab with pine needles to mask his man odors.  Sarah retched at those fuzzy dice.  The faux antiseptic cleanliness intensified the minerally taste of bile in her mouth.  If she could reach them without alarming the cabbie, she would punch those fuzzy dice.  Those fuzzy dice dangled from the mirror and taunted her like Robert's sickly manhood.  Oh, how she wished she had had the strength to fight back them.  Her knuckles could have judged just how fuzzy his manhood was."

Just reading "the dice were fuzzy" might be enough to visualize them in your head.  But is it the complete picture of the dice hanging in the grimy cab?  Does it draw you into the context of the story?  "Showing" can do this better than "telling".

Remember, "showing" is about experiencing the story.  We experience the world through our senses.  To help you remember the important senses to draw your readers into your work, all you need is a Rubik's Cube.  Each side can be a memory marker for "showing".

1.  Sight:  We see with our minds.  We read a story and inevitably picture what is going on in on much like a movie playing.

2. Hearing:  Sound, not just dialogue, but even the sounds of words can further engage a reader.

3. Smell:  I don't know of any scratch-n-sniff novels.  So maybe the sense of smell is not right for every situation.  But scents are linked strongly to memories, and that is something you can use in your writing.

4. Taste:  We spend a great deal of our lives eating, so the sense of taste can be used to illustrate an important part of the story.

5. Touch:  I suppose there are books written in Braille.  But what is the experience of tracing a feather across a lover's arm?  The sense of touch helps the readers to see this.  And this leads us to our final and most important side of the Rubik's Cube.

6. Emotion:  Of course it's not really one of the five senses, but it is the most important element of story.  To "show" a reader what your story is about is to engage their emotions.



Use the Rubik's Cube to do a "showing" writing exercise.

Set a scene.  Describe a character.  Now, roll the Rubik's Cube like dice and try to focus on the "sense" that turns up.  Don't ignore the others.  But work to link each back to the emotional tone you are trying to achieve with your piece.

Want to Learn Story Structure? Solve the Rubik's Cube!

What can the Rubik's Cube teach you about story structure?  Just about everything you need to know to create dramatic stories!

Most beginners will learn to solve the Rubik's Cube with a layer-by-layer method.  Simply put, you solve the cube like stacking layers of a wedding cake.  Solve the first layer, then the middle layer, and then the last layer.  Poof.  It's solved!  Easy as 1,2,3.

Good things come in threes, right?  Well, this simple 3-layer Rubik's Cube method can help you remember the most common story structure.  You've probably heard the old adage that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  What this really means is a story must have the following three fundamental elements:

1. A conflict
2. Character(s) struggling to overcome the problem
3. The resolution (either won or lost)

That's it.  Include these basic elements and you have a story.

For example:


What is the conflict?
I want to solve this puzzle, but there are 43,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible ways to further mess it up.

What is the struggle?
I plan to solve the puzzle one layer at a time.  Complications arise.  If I try to solve the pieces in the middle layer, I risk messing up the first layer pieces.

What is the resolution?
My actions bring me to a turning point.  I now have two layers solved.  Here, the stakes are highest.  With every move to solve the remaining pieces, I might have to start over from the beginning.  I am fully committed and must risk it all to move forward.  I will reach a final resolution.  On the one hand, I may achieve my goal and solve the cube successfully.  On the other, I may not, and I chuck it against the wall in frustration.  Either way:  "The End".  The story is resolved.

You'll find these three elements in almost every classic story, from "Romeo and Juliet" to "Cinderella".  The amazing thing about Shakespeare is he didn't have the Rubik's Cube as a guide and yet he still wrote masterful stories.

Do You Embrace Technology Or Resist It?

Rubik's Revolution & Rubik's TouchCube

Do you embrace technology or resist it?

It seems everything is virtual, electronic, or computerized.  Nothing is off limits.  Even the Rubik's Cube.  It's now available in two electronic forms.

Yet, I prefer the old fashioned, mechanical Rubik's Cube.  I guess I'm a traditionalist.  Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have an inkwell and a feather quill for writing.  And I don't belong to a historical reenactment society signing Benjamin Franklin's name on parchment.

When it comes to writing, I have embraced technology whole-heartedly.  I used to get a thrill from writing longhand.  It was just me against that blank notebook.  The physical act of my hand trying to keep up with my mind was an adrenaline rush.  After an hour writing that way, I'd flex my hand open and closed and look over the pages smeared by my palm.

Writing is hard enough.  I don't need to endure the pain of cramped hands and strained forearms.  Maybe it's just arthritis, but I embrace technology now.  There's freedom in not having to be constricted when I get in the flow.  I just want to get my thoughts down in a flurry of keystrokes.

Like most other writers I compose my stories on a computer.  But I also take advantage of a few other pieces of technology.  Each helps me in different ways:

1. Email
2. Portable keyboard
3. Private blog
4. Kindle eReader

1. Email:  Story ideas will come to me at inopportune times and I'm not always in front of my laptop.  I'm lucky enough to have a phone with email, so I can capture these tidbits before they fade and email them to myself for later.

2. Portable keyboard:  Whenever I'm traveling or otherwise out of my normal routine it's easy to make excuses not to write.  If I'm not in front of my laptop, I'm not writing.  But with my foldable keyboard it's more difficult to come up with reasonable excuses to not write.  I can synchronize it to my phone and compose without the overhead of my laptop, or worse yet the temptation of the Internet.

3. Private Blog:  I have set up a private blog.  This is for me and me alone.  Okay, so it's the virtual version of the leather-bound journal.  But the neat thing I discovered about this was that I can submit blog posts via email.  So it is a great way for me to jot down notes without having to worry about which scrap of paper or notebook I wrote something down in.

4. Kindle:  I just got a Kindle.  I love it because reading on it is like getting a massage for my eyeballs after a long day staring at my computer.  The unexpected use case I found for it was the ability to read drafts of fiction.  I can transfer documents to my Kindle and read at my convenience without having to print out reams of paper to edit my work or critique others'.

Technology is what works for me right now.  I still write longhand, but mostly for writing exercises or to jot down ideas.  In fact, there is a large following of Julia Cameron's the Artist's Way that advocates writing out three pages of longhand first thing every morning.

What about you?  How much writing do you do in a notebook?  Or do you prefer the keyboard?

Even Snoop Dogg enjoys new technology.  Here he is with the Rubik's Revolution.  Me?  I'm not as cool, so I'm going to stick with the original Rubik's Cube.

Happy Writing!

(Another) 10 Ways Writing is Like the Rubik's Cube

Today, I'm continuing where my original post, "10 Ways Writing is Like the Rubik's Cube," left off.

11. You won't ever get it right the first time.  (Just ask Hemingway about first drafts!)
12. You can do it almost anywhere.
13. Even a four-year old can do it.  (Dorothy Straight and the Little Solver)
14. There are billions and billions of possibilities.
15. You should do it to impress only one person...yourself.
16. There is no right or wrong way to do it.
17. You can always learn something new from the Masters.
18. Competitions can be a humbling experience.
19. Too much time away and you get rusty.
20. Changing one part invariably affects the whole thing.

Did I miss any?