Sleep, Reflection, and the Writer

AuthorAppleton on July 6, 2015

My mind is like an engine running overdrive. Ideas are pouring in all the time and I’m running with them. The visions I have for the future are pending realities I’m striving to bring to pass. This last few months has been crazy busy. Work, writing, website maintenance, travel, and now moving. Like it does every time after I run on burnout for so long, my mind has crashed. It reminded me how important balance of sleep and work is in the life of a writer.

Push, push, and push harder! It seems I fall into this trap again and again. Yet one thing is certain, that drive to achieve has been a great asset in my life. When my wife and I were first married I was working a decent-paying job at a factory. Then I finished my first novel and we spent, it seemed, every free hour driving to some bookstore or library to promote and sell my novel. I wanted it to succeed and, it did, but only after I quit my job and we hit the road for about five months. We hit around eleven states from New Hampshire to Georgia and I signed so many books that my hand cramped on multiple occasions.

That trip was a leap of faith. We had a vision for what God could do with my writing and we followed it. It was a scary thing to do at first, but the longer we stuck at it the greater the impact we had. When that first book tour was finished I remember feeling rather burned out.

This month we moved from Connecticut to South Carolina. Again, following the vision God has given me for our family. I feel burned out now. My creativity is a bit drained. Yet I know that I am reminded that I can return to that same productivity level if I persist and create a routine that achieves my goals.

It is easy to stay up until all hours working on various projects, but without sleep the mind reaches a state of exhaustion. When that happens we lose our ability to produce our best work.

Reflection is also important to the process. When I was a kid I had no responsibilities outside of the home. The result was that I had time to sit and read, time to ponder life and its intricacies. Reflection as to what kind of stories I wanted to write, what kind of man I wanted to be.

It is often in the silence, often in the stillness that we refresh our creativity. Our present society rushes from one thing to the next. Little if any value is placed on sleep, reflection, stillness. We can either become casualties of our own drive, or we can look at our future over the long haul. If we consider the effect it will have on our relationships and our physical needs we will prioritize proper rest and strive to take quiet time to reflect.

The writer cannot afford the cost of working overdrive non-stop. Take value in slowing down your life. Enjoy the moments. Enjoy the memories. Step back and let your engine cool before you take it on the road again.

Q: Do you give your mind the rest it needs in order to maximize creative flow?

Chess, my Grandpa, and Creative Thinking

AuthorAppleton on June 22, 2015

“Do you want to play white, or do you want to be black?” My grandfather worked as a draftsman designing submarines. He has a keen understanding of math and strategy. When I was growing up he used to play chess with me all the time… and he would win usually within five moves.

One night (I think it was after one of our small family birthday parties) my grandfather had beat me best out of three games again. He has this great laugh that just made me smile when I lost and left me confounded as to how he always beat me. Being the reader I was I had started reading a biography on a famous chess master. It was a long time ago but I think the chess master was Bobby Fischer, and he had drawn a chess board on his ceiling. He would lie awake at night, strategizing how to improve his game.

That night as I lay awake in bed I could not get out of my mind how easily my grandfather had won those chess games, so I visualized a chess board on my ceiling. The mind is a powerful thing. If creatively utilized in quiet moments it can generate solutions to problems standard problem solving might miss. By visualizing the potential chess strategies and guessing at my grandfather’s counter moves I was able to figure out how he repeatedly won against me.

The next time I played chess… I won! We ended up having so many fun, competitive matches. Some of my best memories. My grandfather picked up a used trophy of a golden horse. Each time we played a chess game the trophy was at stake. We jotted down our matches in a little notebook, each time letting the winner take the trophy home.

Chess, my Grandpa, and creative thinking are all linked in my mind. Chess forced me to be creative. Chess forced me to contemplate the potential outcomes of each move before I made it.

Today I approach writing in much the same way. I sit back and contemplate scenarios, character development, and moral implications. It is important to think strategically. Often we desire to rush a creation when, instead, all that is needed is thoughtful strategy. Maybe instead of immediately attacking with the queen, we move out our knight and bishop to set up the field.

Question: How does strategy play into your creative thinking?

Fear and Your Dreams

AuthorAppleton on June 15, 2015

I have seen many people let fear stand in the way of their dreams, and this troubles me. Fear comes upon all of us when we face something uncertain or unknown. Maybe not all of the time, yet if we admit it fear often keeps us from making potentially positive changes in our lives. This should not be so. Instead recognize your fear and use that as motivation to accomplish your dreams.

Often it is enough to simply acknowledge your enemy and then you can begin to overcome that enemy. The enemy of our dreams is fear. Fear of what others around us will think when we take a “leap of faith.” Fear of failure if things don’t go the way we hope. Fear of how we could let down those we care about and those who rely on us for support. Fear of the unknown.

What does this really boil down to? We are comfortable in the place we exist. We know our routine. We know our job (even if we don’t like it). We know the people around us. Familiarity creates a zone of comfort which we are loathe to risk changing.

But the greatest changes in my life have always been when I stepped outside of my comfort zone by recognizing my fear, determining to overcome it, and used that motivation to make progress toward accomplishing my dreams.

Often I have told people that when my wife and I were first married we hit the road with my first book. We toured eleven states in approximately four months. We relied on meeting new people and forming connections. We had no specific outline for our trip we just knew that God wanted us to do it and that the place we were at was not his best for us. The result? Thousands of books sold, speaking experience and connections established, and my first book contract from a traditional publisher. None of which would have happened if I had remained in my comfort zone.

This year we are making a huge shift, moving from Connecticut to South Carolina. This is going to be a difficult thing but we know that God is in it. We leave a lot behind that we know and love. Family, friends, familiarity with the area, and more… but we look ahead to greater things in store as we follow our dreams. We need to step outside of our comfort zone in order to grow deeper together and with God’s will.

Question: Do you recognize fears in your life that stop you from achieving your God-given dreams?

How I learned Patience building Ships-in-Bottles

AuthorAppleton on June 8, 2015

From Dad’s basement workshop a scrap of pine wood, paints, and plumber’s putty. From Mom’s sewing supplies white or black thread, a needle, and twist ties from the kitchen drawer. Late into the night I used to work on building sailing ships in bottles. The work was delicate, requiring precision and diligence. And many times, just as the project neared completion, my hand would tense and just like that one little mast would snap in two, destroying my delicate miniature ship…

Sailing ships have always fascinated me and I loved building those ships in bottles. The hunt for just the right bottle, the sketching of the ship I designed to go inside of it, the layout of the ocean. I don’t have a workshop anymore so I have not been able to make one since I was a teenager.

My father recently gave me some of the tools that I used to make the ships with, so I will get back to building them soon. Building those little ships disciplined me in one of the most important virtues of art. More specifically, my art, which is writing.

Experience has shown me that most writing projects end up rushed. Often we start off writing with a relaxed enthusiasm that optimizes creative flow. Later we start feeling the timetable is getting away from us, whether it is a deadline with our publisher or the pressure of your fans who eagerly await your new title. Fashioning a ship-in-a-bottle requires an immense level of patience, and writing requires the same. I have found that good writing requires a patient pursuit of the writing craft. Educaton and connection are keys to improvement. From building ships in bottles I gained a greater level of patience than I believe I would have gained otherwise.

Q: What projects have helped you focus and gain patience?

How my dad inspired my fascination with trees in fantasy

AuthorAppleton on May 4, 2015

My dad is a talented artist. I remember when I was a kid (we were homeschooled) my mother did not have the artistic leaning, so my dad told us he was going to draw an apple. When he said “draw” he meant create a piece of art. The apple seemed to “grow” off the paper.

My dad did another thing I found fascinating. He showed me how to draw trees. The way he drew them he would “grow” the tree, starting with the trunk, designing branches that shot off of it. Maybe I just don’t remember but it seems to me he never added the leaves unless it was a panoramic sketch.

For an unknown reason trees have always fascinated me. Perhaps it is their strength and their fortitude in a storm . . .. A better explanation might be that my dad brought them to life for me in a magical way.

I am not a great artist. My sketches are simple. Maps I can do but other things take me hours to accomplish. Yet, I do know how to write.

Through fantasy stories I bring trees to life in much the way my dad did on paper. In Key of Living Fire I had the opportunity to introduce a living tree. Ancient and deep in shadow, this is a carnivorous tree, full of evil intent. It works with its benefactor, this crazy woods guide.

If trees were alive? Is it a question? Not to me. My dad brought them to life on paper, and now I bring them to life in my novels. This is just one more reason to love what I do.

Question: What things do you like to see ‘brought to life’ in Fantasy?

Writing is (an author’s meditation)

AuthorAppleton on April 20, 2015

Writing is an expression of greatest concern, a reaching for the deepest meaning, a searching of our souls. Writing is.

Writing is

The expression of our passions, dreams, hopes.
The realization of loss and the longing to return the past.
An examination of our hearts and souls.
A way to connect with our Creator.

Is anything such a pure expression?
In writing we say what we fear to say,
Live the life we fear to live,
Reach out to those we long to love.

Is anything as deep a conviction?
Through writing we speak what our mouths cannot,
Walk where we cannot go,
Reach a world we never meet.

Is anything such a full passion?
By writing we connect with strangers,
We lay bare our souls to scrutiny,
We love without reservation.

Writing is a full expression
Of the life we want to live,
The people we want to meet,
The legacy we wish to leave.

This, writing is.

Question: What is writing for you?

The Challenge of Writing Part-time

AuthorAppleton on February 23, 2015

There have been a few seasons in my writing life when I could devote one hundred percent of my working time to writing. The challenge for me now has been that I have various commitments that vastly limit my creative and writing time. Here is a glimpse into the challenge I face.

This is not a challenge that I take lightly. Time to devote to writing equals greater productivity because my mind is not under the same pressure that it is now. When I get up in the morning I want to give attention to my three wonderful children and to my wife. I want to sit down with them for breakfast, read the Bible with them, pray with them, go over the kids letters, help teach the kids to read. Then I head off to my day job. I work full-time in sales for one of the largest furniture store chains in the country. It is a good job. It pays well. I work under a good management team, and with some great colleagues. This job requires different disciplines than my home life. I must maintain a working list of potential and past clients, and generate new business. This job puts food on the table and the roof over our heads, and more. But it also requires working every weekend and most holidays and is straight commission, which equals higher stress because every week I must put the same drive into it that I have done in the weeks previous.

When I get home I am usually a bit tired. Not physically, for the most part, but mentally. I want to devote evening time again to family (though a few evenings per week I don’t get home until late).

I do not say this to complain, but rather to show you the challenge of being a writer. It requires commitment and vision. For now I chip away at big writing projects that before would have taken me a mere matter of months to complete. Often my writing time is after everyone is in bed. I should be sleeping now because I am tired, but if I don’t write, the books will never be written… and I love to write them. The stories are always building in my mind, urging me to share them.

For now I write part-time, out of necessity. But I am scheming to return to writing fulltime. It will happen again. I have faith that God has given me this drive for a reason and when the time is right He will open the necessary doors. For now my energies are divided in several directions… and it slows the process. The primary thing is to not lose sight of the dream, never give up on the goal, and always take the writing commitment seriously.

Question: What are your challenges in pursuing your dream?

How to create original fantasy creatures

AuthorAppleton on February 16, 2015

Among the interesting questions I have received from fantasy readers is the one regarding my process for creating and naming original fantasy creatures. Here is my little how-to on the process:

Take fascinating creatures from the real world and dissect them. Ask yourself: What do I find fascinating about these creatures? What abilities do they possess that inspire my imagination? Do their scales or their colors make them memorable? What parts of their bodies are interesting or unique?

Mash together elements from the creatures you’ve considered. You might do what I did by pulling in the head of an alligator, the feet of a dragon, the tail of a dinosaur, and then make six legs instead of four. The result was my first version of a Megatrath (so far my most popular creature). I felt that the head of the alligator gave the Megatrath a vicious demeanor, the length of its body allowed it to react with the speed of a snake, and the scales on its body armed it like a dragon. This was a creature I envisioned as a powerful adversary and a valuable ally.

Name the creature’s species. In the case of the Megatrath I wanted the name to convey brute strength, patience, arid terrain, and the largeness of its body. Mega for the size and strength, and trath combined trek (like a long journey) and wrath.

This is a simple system but it has worked very well in creating my fantasy worlds. Originality is key to producing a fantasy world that readers will remember, and one answer to that need is to craft original creatures. If you like dragons, gryphons, serpents, and the phoenix, then use them as well. But put them in a world populated by creatures new and strange.

Question: Does this process give you ideas for how to create your own fantasy creatures?