Writing in the Zone

Sometimes, the temperature is just right.  Sometimes, it's the dewey smell after the summer rain.  I've noticed over the course of my life that seasons are highly influential when it comes to my creativity.  I had recently been awake for a couple days straight and on that night, I found myself sitting in my living room opening my senses to a Staten Island spring.  It's been warmer than usual and we had all the windows in the house open.  The smells of budding flowers, the sounds of birds going crazy and the feel of nice warm breezes made their way through my windows.  At around 3am, I had a moment of self-awareness.  I should be writing, I thought.  It was the spring after Aiden was born that I burned through the pages of my first draft of Alorya.  I would stay up late to feed and care for him, while Regina caught up on some much needed sleep.

I don't know if it's possible, but I'm going to try to blog about getting into the Zone.  I first heard the term in the days when I played basketball for hours on end and it's a moment when everything goes right and the energy is endless.  When I was writing Alorya, I would get into that Zone and emerge with 40-50 pages that for the life of me, I can't explain their inspiration or source.  I sometimes tell people that the book wrote itself, but I edited the first draft.  It was the most amazing thing I had ever done and I sometimes find myself acting like a junky waiting for that next moment in the Zone.

It was during the other night when I may have found the formula:

• The environment has to be perfect.  You may not have discovered your environment, but when you do, try to replicate it whenever you're ready to write.
• Make it personal.  No matter the topic, we all have some feeling one way or another.  If you don't have it, don't write about it.  Draw from that feeling when you write.
• Go off on a tangent.  You can always go back and edit, but sometimes while writing about "A", a few thoughts on topic "B" pop up in our heads.  Write it down.  You can move or delete it during a later edit if you don't like it, but the important thing is that something about "A" inspired you to think about topic "B".
• Do Not Check Your Spelling and Grammar.  You can always do that later.  If you're serious about writing, you're going to hire an editor anyway.  Let the story flow and don't worry about spelling and grammar for now.
• Get comfortable.  The perfect environment should always include a comfort.  You may find yourself writing for hours, so don't let the pain of sitting on cactus be a distraction.
• Plan to be alone.

I would love to bottle it and sell it, but I'm just hoping to be able to give some of my own insight into the Zone.  We write because we love to do it.  I love to write because of those exhilarating moments when the world around me become ethereal and my story comes to life.

ICON 31 - Review

This was the best ICON I have ever attended.  Since 2008, my friends and I would travel out to Stony Brook to nerd ourselves up at the Sci-Fi Convention.  It wasn't what I was expecting at the time, but I found it to be really good if you were comfortable with being a participant instead of an observer.  Like our college years revisited, we would trek (he he) over to the Students Activity Center and sit in a classroom while we read the summary of the activity.

"Evil Laugh Contest"
"Star Wars vs. Star Trek"
"Furry's: How not to be creepy?"

Subsequent years proved to be less entertaining.  It seemed like an evolving experiment which would range from "very adult" to "family friendly".  Those of us from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi have children and in some cases, grand-children.  While we can appreciate adult-themed classes, it was awkward sitting with our children during some of those classes.  In 2011, it was way too tame.  Adult themed classes occurred during the evening, but during the day we were subjected to Twilight, Harry Potter and Teletubbies.  I was a touch uncomfortable with the middle aged man dressed as a teletubby, but that's just me.

ICON 31 brought the perfect blend of balance.  Enter Doctor Who!  The first class of the day, I sat in a "Dalek Building" class with my wife and son.  Steve Gostelow was an independent contractor who built Dalek's for the BBC and hosted the class in a Q&A style forum.  We discussed how to actually build a Dalek prop.  Any and all questions were answered, including how much the BBC paid for the work (not much).




Star Wars Rep in the Upper-Right


I sat on a panel for "Star Wars vs. Star Trek" as the lone Star Wars supporter.  I had some serious fun with the Trekkies and they certainly had some fun at my expense, as well.  My friend Sunil peppered me with comments aimed to question my intelligence for actually preferring Star Wars over Star Trek.  I stuck to my guns an pointed out that I had no trouble understanding Star Trek.  I usually just fell asleep before the show was over to register an opinion.

After this, I went to a "Game of Thrones" class, in which we discussed the book and television show.  The focus was on Season 2, which also covered opinions from the first book (Season 1).  In the end, they showed a couple trailers for the second season on HBO.

I had a blast.  I debated dressing up as Doctor Who, but in the end I'm glad I didn't.  I don't have the "stick thin" physique of Matt Smith and I wasn't about to shave off my Goatee again.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Stony Brook next year!