A little over a year ago, I decided to retire from being a professional violinist. There were many reasons that went into this decision - I have a slight tremor that will likely become worse over time, breaking into the LA playing scene at my stage in life had been a difficult uphill battle, driving in LA to gigs was less than fun and the pay was sometimes not great, etc. Then Covid hit, and there were no gigs at all.
I also decided that I would like to begin a new writing career, and I figured that would keep me creative and excited about my life. I’ve written all my life, and had always gotten positive feedback, first in school, then whenever I had to do any writing for various projects or jobs I tackled.
I enrolled in an online course called Story Grid, and started doing homework.
Holy shit, was I in for a surprise: I realized I would have to completely revamp my idea of what writing a story was supposed to be like. I thought you just sat down and started writing whatever narrative was in your head at the moment, with a few parameters in place. Now my teachers were saying/shouting Throw That Away, It’s Not Good. In Fact, It Stinks!
Sheesh. They hadn’t even read it…
But they were right. I’d gotten other indications from friends who I asked to read the novel I had started. They were…..lukewarm. I thought I could just ramble on with well turned phrases about the subject matter, information that was not common knowledge, and people would throng to read my stuff, but no. That was not the case.
Well, I thought grimly, if I’m going to do this, I might as well do it right. So I dug in and began to do the homework. Story Grid assigned me to a cohort, consisting of other Story Grid denizens, and I tuned into the first meeting on Zoom with fear and trepidation in my heart. What would these other people be like? Were they all published authors? Would they laugh at my attempts to write a compelling sentence? Would I be asked to leave the group after they realized the fraudulent nature of my writing?
We all showed up for the meeting, and we were quite a motley crew. One guy, a published author, was in Australia, another ex-military guy was in Phoenix, and a woman who was a young adult writer lived in Saskatchewan. Wow.
As an ice breaker, we were given some parameters for a story, then asked to write one on the fly. Yikes.
We all came up with extremely different scenarios, and mine wasn’t awful. I finally started to breathe again. As we talked some more, I realized everyone there was in the same boat as I was - they had all begun to write, and weren’t happy with the result. We joked about the class and how difficult some of the language the teachers used was to understand. “Perspectival Complexity”? What the heck was that?
Over the years (yes, years), we have gotten to know each other a lot better. The Australian guy published a sci-fi book and left the group to write a follow up novel, we added a man from Honolulu, and we met religiously every week to share our attempts and discuss Story Grid homework. We began to see improvement in each other’s work, and to notice our own tendencies that needed correcting. We developed ways of commenting on the work that was helpful, giving alternative suggestions. We’ve noticed we each have certain Achilles heels that come back to haunt us every so often. We refrain from correcting things like grammar - that’s not why we’re there, and we’ve discovered other tools (like Autocrit or Open AI) to deal with those mundane items.
In short, we’ve built a safe place where we can be sure we’ll get the truth, but it’s truth that will help move us toward our goal. There is nothing better than this for a writer; it’s like having three close friends (who have your back) let you know when you’re simply off target, or more rarely, nailed it.
And a side plus is that I call these people friends, people I trust and who have become (in Story Grid lingo) First Party relationships. They know about my fight with cancer, and related some of their own stories. We’ve gotten to know each other’s family situations, grandkids and pets. During the LA fires, they were concerned about my safety. (We live well south of where the fires were.)
But best of all, I feel like I’m not alone, I have people I can reach out to in dark moments, and they can bring me back to sanity and productivity. We all get the other guy’s fears and frustrations. We’re family now.
So if you aspire to anything creative (really, anything - cooking, rearranging your living room, playing an instrument, gardening) consider finding a group to call your own, like-minded creatives who will see your weak spots and give you a gentle kick when you indulge in them, call out your bad habits, celebrate your wins, and give you a push off the cliff when you need it to start flying. Those are true friends and colleagues, and are indispensable to your success.
Photo by Lawrence D'Attilio
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