Finishing School: The Happy Ending to That Writing Project You Can't Seem to Get Done - Softcover

Tennis, Cary; Morton, Danelle

 
9780399184703: Finishing School: The Happy Ending to That Writing Project You Can't Seem to Get Done
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0399184708 ISBN 13: 9780399184703
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

All too many people start a writing project with grand ambitions but reach a crisis of completion. Finishing School helps writers reignite the passion that started them on the project in the first place and work steadily to get it done.

Untold millions of writing projects—begun with hope and a little bit of hubris—lie abandoned in desk drawers, in dated files on computer desktops, and in the far reaches of the mind. Too often, writers get tangled in self-abuse—their self-doubt, shame, yearning for perfection, and even arrogance get in the way. In Finishing School, Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton help writers overcome these emotional blocks and break down daunting projects into manageable pieces.
      Tennis first convened a Finishing School so that writers could help one another stay on track and complete their work. Since they weren’t actually critiquing one another’s writing, there was no jockeying for the title of best writer or the usual writing group politics; there was only a shared commitment to progress. Without guilt, blame, and outside critique, students were more productive than they imagined possible. Through this program, they were able to complete novels that they’d been struggling with for almost two decades, finish screenplays drafts, and revive interest in long-neglected PhD theses. In this book, the authors share this proven and easily replicable technique, as well as their own writing success stories.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Cary Tennis wrote the advice column "Since You Asked," which appeared on Salon.com for twelve years. As an advice columnist, he never missed a deadline, but in his literary writing, he found himself stalled. Through the Finishing School method that he created, he completed his novel and now helps others through theirs in his writing workshops and international retreats. 

Danelle Morton is a journalist and the coauthor of fifteen books. Morton has worked for The New York Times, was an associate bureau chief for People, and has been a foreign correspondent. She was a finalist for the PEN/USA Literary Nonfiction Award and the ASME magazine award in the public interest category. She has received investigative journalism grants from The Nation Institute and the George Polk Foundation.

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How We Chose the Six Emotional Pitfalls

Danelle

When Finishing School strips away the excuses and the unreasonable expectations we bring to the act of writing, we see our behavior in stark relief. What is behind the irritation, the clouded thinking, the sudden desire to deviate from the plan? For this book to be helpful to all, and not just for those who want to commit to taking Finishing School classes, we thought we should explore what we have learned about the emotions that prevent people from finishing writing projects.

We have observed some truly astonishing things in Finishing School. We have seen that when people used the simple techniques in this program, the thoughts and feelings that had held them back became transparent to them. People who had been stuck got unstuck. People who had been fearful became confident. People who had been unhappy with their work enjoyed it again. Insights and breakthroughs brought people a lighthearted relief they had not felt in years.

We thought this book should ask why that is so, and offer some answers. We made a list of things we had heard people say, voices and beliefs that tormented them and kept them from finishing. We read the list out loud. It was a little embarrassing at first, saying these things out loud, because they hit home, sometimes uncomfortably so. Once we got going, though, it turned out to be fun. We were shouting out all these awful statements, many of which became chapters in this book.

The next time we met, it was clear that the pages that chronicled this negativity easily divided into six categories: doubt, shame, judgment, yearning, fear, and arrogance.

DOUBT-I can't do this. I'm a terrible writer. No, I'm a good writer, better than most people I know, but I'll never be like Flannery O'Connor. My brain isn't that big and my ideas are not that original. I'll never finish, so why go on?

SHAME-I'm a loser. I never finish anything and now I'm not going to finish this. I'm ashamed to even look at the writing I did two years ago. Everyone knows I'm a loser. Where did I get the idea that anyone would want to read my stupid words?

YEARNING-This has to be perfect and it has to be good enough to make me famous. I'm going to write something beautiful and perfect, and everyone will know that I am perfect too, because this is an expression of me. I cannot make a single mistake. And unless every sentence is perfect, it's not worth doing.

FEAR-If I do finish, it will be a failure. Getting rejected will be so humiliating and discouraging that it's better not even to try. Those people who say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger are liars. What doesn't kill you destroys some piece of you. What doesn't kill you makes you want to go crawl into a hole and never show your face again. If I never finish, at least I've never failed.

JUDGMENT-My writing sucks. I'm scared to let other people read it because I don't want to be found out as the mediocre person I know myself to be. If I finish, I'm going to be the butt of jokes I'll never hear, banned from family gatherings because of the things I wrote about them. When I reveal to others my true self, they will despise me. The idea of sending my work out for sale, or to agents, makes me sick to my stomach.

ARROGANCE-I don't need any help to get things done. I just do it. That's what I do. I get so annoyed by writers' groups, those losers. None of them has ever published anything. I don't want to share the credit, or the pain, with anyone. My pain is so much more exquisite than the pain of losers, because I am not a loser and I do not want their unexceptional support.

After we whittled the list down to six, we decided it was very useful for anyone who wanted to examine the reasons why they had not finished their work. The pitfalls that resonated for Cary were different from those that resonated with me. We found that our students identified with one, two, or three, but not all. Everybody resonated with shame. Cary felt shame, arrogance, and fear I felt arrogance and judgment, with shame coming in third.

The list helped writers get back to work by making them understand that they weren't necessarily lazy or undisciplined but were facing big emotional issues when they sat down to write.

Creative people need a way to speak about this without fear. By naming these emotional blocks and exploring them in this book, we hope to take away some of the sting these statements carry, just as we experienced on the day that we exposed to each other our most depressing judgments about ourselves and our work. This is why a significant part of this book is devoted to trying to identify and explore the Six Emotional Pitfalls.

How can identifying them be useful to you? It can help you to be honest about the turmoil the pitfalls cause and to recognize that in this turmoil you are joined by everyone who has ever tried to write. All writers who have written about the difficulty of writing cite these emotions, be they famous and successful or amateurs writing alone and just for themselves. These emotions are real. They reflect the seriousness with which you take the task, but they are not a verdict. They are, like all emotions, something that comes and passes. If you have a way to discuss them, you may find the process of recognizing and releasing them easier, and because of that you will get back to work.

Doubt "I Think I Can't"

Doubt Masquerading as Self-Knowledge: "I'm a Terrible Writer"

Cary

Do you ever say to yourself, "I'm a terrible writer"?

You just shouldn't say that, because it's not true. It can't be true. Here is why. If you are feeling bad about yourself, fine. I feel bad about myself too. But saying "I'm a terrible writer" is what cognitive therapists call global labeling, or globalizing. It not only isn't true-and that's one good reason not to say it-but it can actually harm you. Cognitive therapists know that the things we say about ourselves affect our moods; saying them can actually affect how we feel and, in a sense, bring about the very things they assert. That is, if you keep saying, "I'm a terrible writer," you will find yourself unable to write and thus will never achieve the thing you want to achieve.

Saying "I'm a terrible writer" can be pretty useful, though, in one sense. It's a great way to avoid feeling things you don't want to feel.

So when you find yourself thinking, "I'm a terrible writer," ask what it is you don't want to feel. Is it the uncertainty of ever attaining your hopes and dreams for yourself as a writer? Is it your fervent but fragile desire to be understood and appreciated for your writing? Is it the particular emotions that come up during your actual writing, feelings that seem like they might get out of control or threaten your secure sense of who you are, what you are worth, and how you look to other people?

Saying "I'm a terrible writer" must serve some purpose. If it didn't matter to you, you wouldn't say anything at all. It's a clear signal that you have some powerful feelings about the issue of your writing.

Well, surprise. Those powerful feelings you have about your writing-those feelings that in the past have stopped you from writing-can actually be used to stimulate some good writing, perhaps the best writing you've done in a long time. Because they're real feelings. Real feelings make good writing. That's the simple, honest truth.

So make no mistake: I am saying that you shouldn't say, "I'm a terrible writer." You should never say that, because it is masking some other thought or feeling you are having about yourself. If you do say it, here are some of the things you might actually mean:

I am uncomfortable revealing my true self.

I want to learn to write better but I fear being judged by others, so I beat them to the punch.

I'm not...

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Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2017
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0399184708
ISBN 13 
9780399184703
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
272
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

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Hamburg
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