SHOW NOTES

In this week’s episode, I talk about patience and how I’m in this for the long haul. I don’t just say it. I live it.

TRANSCRIPT

You just heard a clip from an interview I did with Dan Blank on the Dabblers vs Doers Podcast.

In this episode I’ll be talking about patience and why—and how—I’m in the writing business for the long haul.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 22. This week I wanted to spend some time talking about patience, because it’s something I have in spades, but many authors don’t.

Patience for me means that even though I know I’m not as successful as I want to be today, it’s being okay with today because I know that I’ll be where I want to be down the road.

So many people jump into writing expecting to be crazy successful right out of the gate. I myself was no exception to this.

When I published my first book, Magic Souls, I thought I’d be a six figure author by the end of the year. Ha ha. Funny.

The truth is that while Magic Souls was a good book, there were a lot of things I did wrong. Not with the story, because it’s a solid story, but with the marketing.

My original book cover didn’t speak to readers.

I bought ads at all the wrong places.

I spent my time chasing the wrong readers.

And most important of all, I had zero clue where my book fit in the market.

Top that off with a poor author website, a lackluster social media presence, and no author brand, and my first book launch by most accounts was a failure.

***

But you know what I think?

The book was a success. Sure, it didn’t make any money, but I choose instead to focus on the positive lessons.

In writing Magic Souls, I learned so much about the writing process that I could write my next book faster. The readers who did review the book absolutely loved it.

The launch also taught me that my goals were too damn unrealistic. It taught me that I wasn’t as good of an author as I thought I was. It taught me that there was a big wide world out there that I needed to learn.

And instead of sulking over it, I wrote my next book, taking the lessons I learned and applying it to the next book.

40 books later, you’d think I’d be doing something right. I am. Right now I’m doing a lot of things right. The fact that you’re listening to this podcast every week means that I’ve done my job as both an author and as a storyteller. I’ve sharpened my storytelling skills to keep you listening. In 2014 no one would have wanted to hear me do a Podcast like this. Trust me on that. I didn’t have the skill set.

For my books, I know my target audiences now. My covers are infinitely better. I don’t just have books. I have a brand.

All that because I committed to getting better rather than beating myself up over sales numbers.

Patience for me isn’t doing the same thing over and over again. It’s about iteration and introspection.

I spend a lot of time by myself, just thinking. One of my strengths is that I’m fairly self aware.

I know that long term, I’m going to be in a much better position, all because I’m better today than I was in 2014 when I first started.

Everything I do in my career is simply practice.

I’m practicing my craft with every new story.

This podcast is one big practice session in how to create content that connects with people on a human level. So is my YouTube channel.

Everything for me is one big experiment, and I’m totally fine with failing. And just about everything I have done has failed on some level.

***

I opened the show with an excerpt about burnout.

There are only a few things that make me wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Burnout is one of them.

Patience and burnout go hand in hand for me. After all, I’ve been doing this for five years. It’s really easy to think maybe I should quit, but I refuse.

But burnout is real, and I do everything I can to avoid it. And the easiest way to avoid burnout is to see the positive in everything.

For example, I don’t necessarily enjoy editing this podcast. But I do it because I have to, and I see it as learning valuable experience for when I’m successful to hire someone to edit my audio and video for me. Doing the work myself now will make it easier for me to give direction and clarity to a future employee who will do this for me.

So I learn to like editing, and I have fun with it.

That’s my secret.

I’m eternally optimistic and I am always twisting things in order to see the lesson and the benefit. Even setbacks.

Hell, I view patches of writer’s block as blessings sometimes. That takes a mindset shift and a level of patience that most people don’t have.

I know that in order to have a successful long term career, I’ve got to 1) keep creating and 2) avoid burnout at all costs.

So I create content patiently with no expectations and I have fun with my writing.

So, if it takes me fifteen or twenty more years to be successful and make a living from my work, I’m okay with that. I can’t wait to see how much more skillful and developed I will be as an author and human being when I get there.

But if it happens tomorrow—I’ll also be ready for it, because I’ve been preparing every day, every minute, every second for the day my life is going to change. And when it does, sure, my circumstances will change. My problems will get magnified. My schedule is going to get crazy. But I myself won’t change because ultimately, I’ve been preparing all this time not to write a bestselling book, but to be myself in public. 100% authentic and true to myself and my readers.

And that’s easier said than done.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.” St. Jerome.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

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SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• How and why people watching is my secret to writing vivid, memorable scenes
• My seven-step process for capturing any scene or person on paper with stunning accuracy

TRANSCRIPT

[Bird sounds]

Have you ever been people-watching?

There’s a park near my house that I like to people watch in. Let me tell you about a typical day here: the sky is filled with the most amazing cirrostratus clouds. There’s birds chirping in the trees, wind chimes jangling from a house neighboring the park. Children playing, yelling at each other in delight. And every once in a while, a cyclist speeds by.

And all amongst this idyllic scene are people, each one with a unique story.

I have found people watching to be an endless stream of character and story ideas.

And I have a tried and true process for every session to capture everything I see accurately. It works like magic.

In this episode I’m going to share my process with you.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 18 of the podcast.

In this week’s episode I wanted to talk about my process for people watching because it makes for deeper stories and deeper characters.

A lot of people people-watch, but I’ve found that the most effective sessions I’ve had were the ones where I did it intentionally.

This sounds counterintuitive. After all if I said I was going to the park to intentionally find subject material, that would be a little weird.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

I almost never people watch on purpose.

But when I find myself in a situation where the people are interesting, I have seven questions that I ask that help me capture the setting, the people, and the mood with stunning accuracy.

These seven questions are magical, and it’s amazing how well they work.

Seven Questions for Better People Watching.

It goes without saying that whenever I find myself in a great situation I pull out my phone. I use the Evernote app to capture my thoughts. A benefit of Evernote is that it lets you take notes, photos, and sound.

Anyway, the first question is what do I see?

I write down what I can see. I start with the setting. I describe in a sentence or two what it looks like. Then, if I’m watching a particular person, I describe what they’re wearing, what they’re carrying, or what they’re sitting or standing on. Colors are also important and something that may not be easy to remember later.

The second question I ask is what do I smell? If I’m in a restaurant, that’s easy. I describe the food in the air. If I’m at a park, it’s usually grass or flowers. If I’m elsewhere, then it’s usually more difficult and I have to really pay attention to what my nose is telling me.

Unless there is a really strong smell, this is something I forget later when I’m trying to recreate the scene, so I try my best. Also, if I’m watching someone I’m probably too far away to smell anything on them like cologne or perfume. Sometimes if I can’t smell anything in the moment, I’ll make up details that I think go with the situation, just so I can capture it in all dimensions.

The third question I ask is what do I hear? What’s the surrounding ambiance like? If people are talking , what are they saying? I write down dialogue to the very word, paying attention to dialect, cadence of speaking, and word choice. This is so, so important when you’re creating characters. If there’s music or if someone is singing, I get creative about describing the music without capturing lyrics.

The fourth question I ask is what can I taste? If there’s no food involved, I look for anything else that might help me capture this.

The fifth question I ask is what can I touch? I’m usually not in a position to touch someone and that would get me put in jail. Instead I focus on textures. Textures on the floor, textures on surfaces like jewelry and clothing, the person’s skin.

Describing textures is one of the best ways to develop as a writer. Most people can describe sight and smells, but a pro weaves in texture. Textures also have the benefit of doing double duty when you’re using them. If I said that a woman had an alligator purse, you would both see it and imagine the texture. See what I mean?

And you’ve probably caught on that I’m simply describing the scene in the five senses.

But there are two more questions that take my observations to the next level.

What’s the Story Here?

The sixth question I ask is a simple but fun one: what’s the story here?

For people, it’s “what’s this guy’s story?” “What’s this woman’s story?”

At this point, it’s all imagination. I use what I can see to make some simple assumptions about the person.

If it’s a man and a woman sitting across from each other, based on their body language I can tell if they’re on a date, married, or just friends. Any of those scenarios is always interesting to explore.

I start with an assumption, and ask “what’s the story?” As I describe it, I then ask, “what if?” What if this couple sitting at the table next to me in the French restaurant are on a date? What if the guy is from Canada and the girl is from New Mexico? What kind of culture clashes would they have?

What’s his story? What was his mom like? Where does he like to travel? What really pisses him off? What does he do for a living?

I write and write and write.

And then I ask the last, most important question: What does the person think of this place?

Something I learned from Dean Wesley Smith, a writer who I look up, is that it’s not just enough to describe a setting in the five senses. Your character also has to have an opinion about the setting.

If you’re in a hot swamp and you hate swamps, well, that’s going to color what you see, smell, hear, taste and touch, right?

But if you’re in a restaurant with someone of the opposite sex and you’re having the time of your life, you’re going to have a much more favorable opinion of the setting.

I like to write a few sentences about the person I’m watching and what they think of the place they’re in. This way, everything they see and do is filtered through that lens. It’s a simple but very effective tool to help me get inside a character’s head.

So that’s how I people watch. To recap, I ask, what do I see, what do I hear, what do I smell, what do I taste, and what can I touch? For bonus points, I then ask “What’s the story here?”, what if questions, and “What does the person think about the setting?”

This is the process I use to capture everyday scenes. You’d be surprised how much I consult my sketchbook when it’s time to write my novels.

And, another secret that I’ll give away—when I’m writing a scene for a novel, I like to take a minute or two and imagine the scene in my mind—I imagine the people, sights, tastes, smells, textures, and sounds, character opinions BEFORE I put the character into the scene.

If you want to see my people-watching process in action, check out a couple of my previous sketchbook episodes: Love in the Food Court, Episode 2, and My Run-In with a Weird Pyramid Scheme, Episode 16.

Next week, I’ll be posting another people-watching session I had that was both fun and vivid.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” Anthony J. D’Angelo

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!