Seeking Magic

In Istanbul, I watched the ritual of the Whirling Dervishes. It was not the crazy, frenetic madness that I expected. It is a controlled, ecstatic ritual – if such a thing is possible. I was moved and inspired.

Earlier in the day, at the Santa Sophia Cathedral, my cheeks still damp with tears of awe, I wished at “the Sweating Column”. I slipped my thumb into the sea-shell looking hole (thinking that it could also be the eye socket of a skull). Then I swept my fingers around the circle and wished: “Please, let my full-time work be that of author.”

Brianna also wished and I teased her, “Did you wish for that million dollars?” She said, “Oh, no. That would be a waste of a good wish.” My beautiful child!

The ritual of the Whirling Dervishes began with a concert of Sufi music. Four men came out, dressed in black robes which they removed and handed to the musicians. Then they stood as in a square or circle. They begin to spin in place and raised their arms, one hand facing down toward the Earth, the other facing toward Heaven.

As the music played and Dervishes spun, I knew that my wish had already come true: that I am already a full-time author.

I felt a sense of the magic of creation and creativity. Fine storytelling is not the perfect sentence nor the most complex character. It is magic. Developing the skills of plot, description and evocation are paths to the magic. They can lead to deeper understanding and thus to more powerful magic. But they are not the magic. Ritual and practice and passion for detail lead to controlled ecstasy; the dance of whirling beautifully in one place.

This is what I seek in storytelling, I seek the sublime.

And this means I must move beyond myself. I am in the way. To achieve magic, to even touch magic, I must know it in my heart, my eyes, my spine, my fingers, my toes – bones, blood, cells. And then, I must spin away.

The more I learn about storytelling, the closer I come to magic.

Learning from the Masters

Currently there is a thread on the Guppies email list about re-reading old classics. Several people like Dickens and re-read his stories -- especially "A Christmas Carol" -- at this time of year. Another person re-reads "Babbit" every ten years just to see how her perceptions of this protagonist have changed. Others are re-reading C. S. Lewis, Tolstoy, Henry James, the novel "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", and Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird".

I've read most of these stories simply as a reader; I never took literature courses in college. Now I'm reading everything in an attempt to learn how fine storytelling is done. Like the lady chess champion who studied chess moves and games, I'm studying stories and storytelling.

At this time it's very hard for me to just "read". I start a book and begin instantly to analyze it for grammar, plot, credible characters, suspense, etc. If an author drags me into their story, it's very good. If I'm turning pages rather than slogging through like an assignment, then the book is very good indeed.

This makes me a bad conversationalist about books. I just don't think about books the same way anymore. I tend to ruin other people's enjoyment of a good read. Sorry friends.

I apologize for the bad conversation but not for the practice. Rocket scientists study under other rocket scientists in order to hone their rocketry skills. Michelangelo studied under marble carvers and sculptors for years. Teachers learn from other teachers at conferences and veterinarians study techniques of other veterinarians. This is the time-honored process of apprenticeship.

However, I just want to say here, I don't like it. I feel separated from everyone else who gets to just enjoy stories. My goals may be noble, but I am far, far away from achievements to match the chess champion or Tess Gerritsen.

I'd like to think I'll eventually find some authors to emulate. But I'm not there. I have a lot more reading to do. So please excuse me while I study.

What are you re-reading these days?

Prescription for Best Beginners: E for Effort

Tonight I'm watching a National Geographic special about people with brilliant brains. One woman is a leading chess champion who was trained by her father to use mental skills to develop mastery. One man is a savant who can tell what day of the week any date will fall on, past or present. Another man had a brain injury and now paints obsessively and beautifully.

I was most interested in the woman who is ordinary -- like me -- and yet has an extraordinary ability -- like I wish I had! She was raised to be a chess champion by a father who knew a little about chess, and had some strong theories about phsychological training and education. She was raised surrounded by chess books, analyzing different games and plays, studying past masters, experimenting with moves and ideas, developing tricks for memorization.

She spent hours and hours learning about chess. She fits the mold described by Malcolm Gladwell. Author of "The Tipping Point" and "Outlier: The Story of Success", Gladwell studied successful people and concluded: a person needs to invest 10,000 hours of concentrated and reflective practice to achieve mastery—this amounts to about 10 years.

I've seen this prescription applied to the success of Tiger Woods.(As you know, one of my favorites.) I also saw a recent documentary about T. Woods that explained that he no longer thinks about his golf swing. Through practice and exercise and analysis, he's gotten to where he just swings. His mind can quickly analyze conditions and strokes. He isn't "thinking" about golf, he is "intuiting" about golf.

In the National Geographic special, they also featured a firefighter who is an expert with a specific type of lethal fire experience. He doesn't "think" about fighting fires. He's spent a lot of time studying fires and experiencing them first hand. When in fire situations, he doesn't "think", he "intuits". He already knows clues and possible results of certain actions. He is successful because he has moved way beyond "thinking".

Why am I writing about this? Because I wish, with all my heart, that I could quit "thinking" about writing stories, and start "intuiting" them. I want to be like Tiger Woods and like the firefighter and the chess player: a person who simply writes very well intuitively.

But right now, I'm analyzing everything, studying plot structure, studying character development, sketching people and places with words, networking with others to learn from their ideas. Keeping this crazy blog. Geesh! I'm in class. And it's hard. And it takes a lot of work. And a lot of days I don't want to attend.

Then I'm back again. Again and again. This is how I know that I am breaking the Best Beginner mold.

Are you in class? What for? For how long? (Sounds like a prison term, eh?)

World's Best Beginner

My biggest challenge in learning anything is that I am a Great Beginner.

When I learn a new game, new skill, whatever, I appear to have the most incredible Beginner's Luck. Actually, what I have is incredible Beginner's Concentration.

The first time I learned archery, I hit almost 100%. Now I can't even hit a target. The first time I played poker, I took everyone's money. Now everyone feels safe with me in the game. The first few times I played chess, I actually won. Now I can barely play, even against a computer.

These games and skills were fun. They were interesting for those few moments when I learned them. Then, as all Great Beginners, I lost interest. From that point on, I didn't care about the score or the technique. I'd learned enough archery to know how it worked. Enough.

Here I am, The World's Best Beginner, finally trying to really learn something. I'm trying to become an accomplished novelist and storyteller. I'm trying to learn the details, the skills, the finer points of the craft.

And I have to say, Beginners are not good at moving into the ranks of Advanced. We hate the work and frustration and sweat and blood and gunk. Yuck! Back to Beginning, if at all possible.

However, even being a Beginner can lose its interest and appeal. I'm tired of the title, World's Best Beginner. I'm tired of the easy, quick win, then move on to something else. I finally want to be really good at something.

How about you? How do you learn? Are you a Great Beginner or an Accomplished Advanced?