{"id":240,"date":"2012-01-02T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T17:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2012-01-02T11:00:40","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T17:00:40","slug":"mindfulness-and-the-art-of-thievery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Mindfulness and the Art of Thievery"},"content":{"rendered":"

All right, so let\u2019s sit down and think about this for a minute: where do story ideas come from?<\/p>\n

Short answer: magic.\u00a0 But that seems like kind of an unfulfilling blog post, so in the interest of keeping you reading, let\u2019s dive a bit deeper.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been on this personal journey lately, trying to \u201cup my game\u201d in the mindfulness category.\u00a0 Basically, I\u2019m trying to be more aware of the moment I\u2019m experiencing, trying to live in the immediate, while pushing aside the regrets of the past and worries about the future.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that I\u2019ve pledged to live an entirely unplanned existence bobbing through space taking whatever may come and figuring it out as I go along (although I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say there was a bit of that going on in my life).\u00a0 What I\u2019m really working on is my focus.\u00a0 On what\u2019s in front of me.\u00a0 On what\u2019s important.\u00a0 On what\u2019s now.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s a good philosophy for life and writing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last month I took a stab at NaNoWriMo.\u00a0 Total failure.\u00a0 I only reached a little over 15,000 words.\u00a0 Well short of 50K.\u00a0 (Cue the Wah, Wah sound.)\u00a0 One of my biggest short comings, I thought, was my inability to write without a conscience.\u00a0 During write-ins, the people around me would take off on a word sprint while I would sit frozen at the keyboard, wondering what the hell my characters should say or do now.\u00a0 I tried to chalk it up to a difference in writing style.\u00a0 I was a deliberate writer who really considered the words he put down on the page.<\/p>\n

I was full of crap.\u00a0 The truth is I was thinking about everything else except the page in front of me.\u00a0 I had a scene, I knew where I wanted to end up, and I just needed to focus and write the damned thing.\u00a0 I think everyone else smoked me because they\u2019d figured out how to get over themselves and just write.\u00a0 They focused on what was in front of them, did their jobs, and gave me a most righteous and well-deserved butt kicking.\u00a0 I am both grateful and sore, emotionally speaking.<\/p>\n

If it seems like I\u2019ve strayed a little off the topic of how to track and trap ideas, it\u2019s because I have, but give me a few paragraphs more.\u00a0 As my brother likes to say, I\u2019m taking you on a journey, but don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll get you back to The Shire.<\/p>\n

As goes life, so goes your writing, or so I believe.\u00a0 Chances are if you live a scattered and frantic life, your writing process will mirror that state of mind.\u00a0 I think mindfulness can help both.\u00a0 If you\u2019re more in tune with the world around you, you\u2019ll start collecting the seeds of stories almost everywhere you go.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s the thing about ideas.\u00a0 They\u2019re right out there in the open, no stalking or stealth required.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example for you.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve used the same dry cleaners for years.\u00a0 You go in about once a week, and for as long as you can remember it\u2019s always been owned by Robert Dunn and his wife, Martha.\u00a0 Robert is an oddly formal man, but his wife is always warm and friendly.\u00a0 You always go in on a Thursday, and it never fails, Robert is always behind the counter dressed in a sports coat and tie.\u00a0 Though the color of the jacket may change, there is always a red rose pinned to the lapel.\u00a0 This week is different though.\u00a0 The rose is yellow, and Mrs. Dunn is nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n

If you are focused in on the everyday details of life, you\u2019re more likely to notice when things stray from the routine.\u00a0 And the curious among us begin to wonder why the change occurred.<\/p>\n

We all know that there is most likely a very simple (and boring) explanation for why Mr. Dunn changed the color of his rose on that particular day, but guess what?\u00a0 No one gives a damn about reading that story, so nurture the seed you collected, and see if you can\u2019t get it to take root.<\/p>\n

Just off the top of my head, I can think of three ways you might go with this story:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Martha Dunn\u2014She pins the rose on Robert\u2019s lapel every morning.\u00a0 Red signifies love.\u00a0 Yellow can mean jealousy, or dying love.\u00a0 This could be a story about the secrets she\u2019s keeping or those she has discovered about her husband.<\/li>\n
  2. Robert Dunn\u2014Robert chooses the rose.\u00a0 He has discovered his wife\u2019s infidelity.\u00a0 What will he do about it, or has he already \u201csolved\u201d the problem?<\/li>\n
  3. You, the patron\u2014Simple remarks about the color of the rose and Martha\u2019s absence makes Robert aware you have noticed the changes.\u00a0 He wonders what else you know.\u00a0 How well did you know his wife? Are you now part of the problem?\u00a0 What should he do about it?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The final idea is my favorite of the three because it involves a relatively innocent person stumbling into a hairy situation that will most likely require him or her to fight for survival.\u00a0 And while I\u2019m sure there are many other ways to spin this germ of an idea, the main point is that you don\u2019t have to do all the heavy lifting on your own.\u00a0 Ideas are everywhere.\u00a0 You just have to be open to them.<\/p>\n

    Try to be mindful of what\u2019s going on around you.\u00a0 And be ready to take whatever you need.<\/p>\n

    Okay, so maybe it\u2019s not the magic I promised you, but I am telling you to steal from those around you (more or less).\u00a0 And that kind of sounds like fun.\u00a0 So go forth and thieve.<\/p>\n

    Happy hunting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    All right, so let\u2019s sit down and think about this for a minute: where do story ideas come from? Short answer: magic.\u00a0 But that seems like kind of an unfulfilling blog post, so in the interest of keeping you reading, let\u2019s dive a bit deeper. I\u2019ve been on this personal journey lately, trying to \u201cup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[534,690,733],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-process","tag-ideas","tag-mindfulness","tag-nanowrimo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}