How I Saw The Hero Change - A Look At Heroes In The Movies

I was raised in a pretty traditional home in rural Vermont. My father was a police officer. My mother a God-fearing woman. So a strong sense of justice and right and wrong was instilled in me.

As a kid, the types of heroes I gravitated to were the heart-of-gold heroes, uncompromising and duty-bound. The heroes who believed in truth and justice. Superman. Batman. Luke Skywalker. He-Man. The Ninja Turtles.

In the early 1980s, there was no question that heroes were good. It didn't matter what made them good, just that they were good, that they fought the bad guys and won in the end. And that's pretty much all I cared about too.

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Handsome Stranger in Cactus Jack

When I was around eight years old, my mother introduced me to a movie that changed my perspective on what makes a hero. Cactus Jack, also known as The Villain, was a western comedy that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Handsome Stranger, a perfect cowboy who did what was right because, well, it was right. In my little eight-year-old eyes a hero couldn't get any bigger than Schwarzenegger. I mean, come on, he was Commando, Kalidor from Red Sonja, Detective John Kimble from Kindergarten Cop, and Dutch from Predator. He wasn't just a hero, he was the hero!

But the main character of Cactus Jack wasn't Schwarzenegger. It was the bad guy Cactus Jack Slade, played by Kirk Douglas, a thief and a scoundrel and a liar. Heck, he even had his own "Bad Men of the West" handbook. He was rotten to the core, but he was the hero of the story. Sort of. He was the focal point anyway, and it's the first time I remember thinking differently about what makes a character a hero.

Seeing the trend

As I got into my teen years I began to notice a trend in popular culture. Heroes went from being wholesome and good and chivalrous to dark and brooding and even more dangerous.

I didn't know it at the time, but the anti-hero was nothing new. The movement began, I think, in the 70s with films like Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, Death Wish, and Dirty Harry—in fact, Clint Eastwood became the poster child for the brooding anti-hero for many years.

This wasn't just a film trend either.

In comic books, we saw the emergence of The Punisher and Wolverine in 1974. This ignited a dark and brooding anti-hero trend that exploded in the 80s with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns—a title that redefined Batman as a nightmarish vigilante—and Alan Moore's Watchmen series, which gave a dark new definition to what makes a comic book hero.

In literature, we saw the popularity of the anti-hero rise with books like Steven King's The Dark Tower, Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, and many, many others.

On the political front, Ronald Reagan began appointing conservative judges who cracked down on crime at a time when most of the public perceived crime rates as high. The sexual revolution and the Cold War era helped breed a mindset within American culture that had a lot to do with shrugging off society's standards and government control.

The public perception of what a hero was supposed to be was changing. No more Greek demigods or mortal "chosen ones." Heroes were becoming more human and more imperfect.

My favorite imperfect hero

For me, the next big milestone came in the early '90s when Bruce Willis took on his most iconic role, that being the tough-as-nails cop John McClain in Die Hard (1988), Die Hard 2 (1990), and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995). I might not have been drawn to a character like John McClain with his drinking binges, foul-mouth, and bad attitude had it not been for the fact that my dad was also a cop.

The more I watched John McClain, however, the more I realized that underneath his imperfect exterior was a true hero. Sure, he was a nut, and he screwed up a lot, but you could always count on him in the end. Die Hard remains one of my all-time favorite movies.

Other movies that challenged my perception of what makes a hero included Sean Connery in The Rock, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys, Wesley Snipes in Blade, and Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.

The hero becomes the villain

Shortly after the turn of the century, I observed another change in how our heroes were being portrayed. This time dark took an even darker turn.

Sin City (2005), based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, remains an incredibly grim and hyper-stylized story of bad guys doing the right thing. Its brutal violence pushed the anti-hero to the edge, even going so far as to make the audience root for the bad guys. (Let's face it, everyone was a bad guy in that movie!)

Also in 2006 Showtime presented us with Dexter, a hugely popular series that ran for eight seasons, based on the books by Jeff Lindsay. The hero of this series was a serial killer. Oh, sure, he was a conflicted serial killer, and the show did an amazing job at making him likable, but this kind of programming never would've been produced ten years ago.

The hero had changed again, and he was really, really bad.

How far the hero has fallen

Nowadays you'd be hard-pressed to find a film with a perfect, uncompromising hero. If you do, it's probably made fun of—i.e. Metro Man as voiced by Brad Pitt in Megamind, and Emmet as voiced by Chris Pratt in The Lego Movie.

The closest example would probably be Chris Evan's strong-jawed portrayal of Captain America in Marvel's Avengers franchise, but even he is depicted as being an archaic concept from a bygone era.

Has the concept of the "true hero" become a thing of the past? Why are we, as a culture, so averse to the notion of perfection? Why aren't our heroes wholesome anymore?

As much as we as individuals strive for perfection we know we can't reach it, and we're quick to tear down anyone who appears even slightly perfect. Tabloids hound celebrities for their dirty secrets. Politicians attack one another like rabid dogs to expose the skeletons in their closets. For some reason perfection makes us feel awful about ourselves, so when we meet people who seem to have it all together our impulse is to gossip about them, talk behind their backs, smear them, bring them down so we feel better. We hate perfection, and yet we're obsessed with it.

We want to see our heroes win, but it's like we can't buy the scenario unless we can perceive them as being worse than ourselves.

I guess all of this is to say as much as I've embraced the anti-hero with all of his foibles and problems, I kinda miss the heroes I grew up with.

One Of The Best Things About Having An Outline

To outline or not to outline? That is the question every writer must face.

I'm big on outlining. I don't use bullet points or any kind of outlining nonsense they taught in school. My outlines are different. My outlines are straightforward story maps that I make before I start writing a novel. Some of them are so thorough I consider them Draft One.

I outline for many reasons.

1. To quickly get a story out of my system (usually takes about five days) and see if it's even worth writing.
2. To help prevent writer's block further along in the process.
3. To plan foreshadowing events and character arcs.
4. To ensure my story isn't just a sequence of events, but that it contains subtlety and subtext.
5. To build, not just a story, but a world within my story.
6. To make sure I don't screw something up (she starts the story with blonde hair, but ends the story a brunette. Oops!)
7. To help me remember what the hell is going on. (What happened to that guy from Chapter 3?)
8. To hash out plot points in advance so I don't get stuck.

I could go on, but eight is a cool number so I'll stop there.

Recently I began work on a new novel, something I'm aiming to write to market and release later this year. While on vacation I created a very thorough, chapter-by-chapter outline. I practically storyboarded the entire book and in the process found a gem of a story that I'm very excited about.

I started writing the narrative about a week ago, and last night I ran into a conflict with the plot.

"What the frack? Are you kidding me? All that work outlining and I run into THIS?"

Here's what happened.

In a nutshell, I had a character who had written down the license plate number of a suspected child abductor. This character worked at a hardware store and the suspect had been a customer. The license plate number was taken to the police in the hopes of discovering the suspect's name and address. But I ran into a conflict when it occurred to me that the suspect had just ordered some building materials from the hardware store. His name and address were already on file. There was no point in going to the police with the plate number because the hero already the info he needed.

And a whole subplot went down the drain.

Fluuush!

*face palm*

"You're an idiot, Craig. You wasted all that time outlining and look where it got you. Welcome to Writer's Blockville, buddy! I can't believe—"

But then the answer to the problem hit me. Because I had created such a thorough outline, because I knew the arcs of my main characters and knew where the story was headed, my narrative was taking on a life of its own. The solution to the conflict in my plot was already in the story, I just hadn't seen it yet.

Had it not been for my outline I could've wasted hours, maybe even days trying to dig myself out of the plot hole. But after a few minutes of skimming my outline I had a solution.

Outlining has saved my life multiple times. There are good ways to do it, and bad ways to do it, and, in my opinion, downright wrong ways to do it. I'm not saying it's the only way to write, just that this is one example of how it has worked for me.

How To Effectively Kill Your Facebook Posts

What Facebook knows about us is scary.

I was recently talking to a couple of friends who were surprised by the way Facebook ads almost always seem to have something to do with their recent Google searches or browsing history. I explained that it's because Facebook tracks our every move because they're in the government's pocket and someday the government will use that information against its citizens to eliminate undesirables so they can create a utopian society that takes our children and forces them to compete in rigged death matches for the glory of their district.

I'm not freaking out here. The Hunger Games is seriously prophetic stuff, man!

But I digress.

Okay, it might not all be so cloak and dagger, but there's no question that Facebook is the "big brother" of our time. And it all has to do with some very cleverly written and ever-changing algorithms.

What is an algorithm?

An algorithm is a computer program designed to run a sequence of calculations to acquire and tabulate specific data. An algorithm can be programmed to figure out how many users named Craig stalk your Facebook page, or how many users aged 25 read your blog.

In some cases an algorithm can even be programmed to make decisions.

FOR EXAMPLE:
Facebook's algorithm is designed to red flag posts containing words like "free" and "giveaway." This is because the algorithm assumes those key words have something to do with a business. If it assumes you're trying to make money, Mark Zuckerberg wants in. The job of the algorithm is to find those posts and restrict them unless the user decides to pay Facebook to boost the post's reach.

Most of us already know that Facebook only shows what we post to about 10% of our friends and followers. This algorithm was implemented a couple years ago, and it's a change that pissed off—and continues to piss off—almost every single Facebook user. I mean, what's the point of having every member of my family "friend" me on Facebook if the algorithm is going to show only 10% of them what I post?

When you look at it from Facebook's point of view, however, it makes a lot of sense.

Let's say Facebook is the boss of a large department store and we are the employees. Every day the employees come in and sell their own homemade products. The boss isn't going to like having his store used so other people can make money unless he gets a cut. That's exactly what the CEOs at Facebook decided. There came a point where so many people were using Facebook for their business—and making good money at it!—that Facebook came up with an algorithm to restrict interaction with user posts unless posters paid money to increase engagement.

But, like any good boss, Facebook's algorithm can work with you if you try.

Before I go any further...

How the heck do I know this stuff?

Facebook is a large part of my job. Aside from using it for personal reasons and to promote my novels, I also manage several Facebook accounts for businesses and non-profits. Over the years I've read a lot of blogs and listened to a lot of seminars by business professionals, photographers, experts in the field of social media, and others about the dos and don'ts of Facebook. This is just a bunch of stuff I've picked up along the way.

I don't claim to have it all figured out, and some of this information might change in a few months too because Facebook is continually updating and changing its algorithms.

In the least I hope this information helps make you aware of how the social media "program" works.

Making Mr. Algorithm your friend.

You want to know what really kills a Facebook post?

Inconsistency.

One of the worst social media blunders an author can make is to post twice a day for a week and then drop off the map. Once your Facebook page has gone a few days or longer without you logging in and interacting in some way its algorithm decides you're not very interesting. Suddenly you become like a lover trying to win back your ex and you've got to work hard to convince Mr. Algorithm that your posts are worth distributing again.

Another good way to kill your Facebook posts is to be like that one-sided conversationalist at a cocktail party. Don't get onto social media just to talk about yourself. Nobody likes that guy. You need to click on other people's posts, or comment, or like, and/or share their stuff. This tells Facebook's algorithm that you're an engaged participant. The more you engage the more others will engage with you and the more attention your posts will receive. That's why it's called "social" media.

If you have trouble posting consistently there are a number of online programs that can help you schedule posts on a regular basis such as Hootsuite and MeetEdgar. If you're an author with a Facebook business page (also called a "Like Page") you can even use Facebook's built-in scheduling feature to plan your posts days, weeks, and even months in advance. (Unfortunately this feature is not available for standard Facebook accounts, but anyone can start a "Like Page" if they wish.)

And before you ask, no, there is no data to support the idea that using third party programs to do your posting limits your chances of engagement. As far as I know Facebook's algorithm doesn't care who does the posting, so long as it is on your behalf.

How else can I kill my posts?

Authors like to be perfectionists. It's what makes us so imperfect. It's also why we have the hardest time resisting correcting a post if we publish it with an error. But that's a surefire way to get Facebook's algorithm to red flag your post as redundant. Once that happens even fewer than the already paltry 10% will see your post, if any.

If you really need to make a correction then post it in the comments. You can always upload a corrected version of the post later, but wait an hour or so. Posting the same thing too soon can also raise a red flag. Remember, Mr. Algorithm doesn't like redundancy.

Indies need to support other indies.

The best thing us indie authors can do is partner up with other indies. Make a pact with each other that whenever someone posts something everyone will go and like, comment, or share the post. This will immediately convince Facebook's algorithm that the post is interesting. For every reaction the post gets, the algorithm unveils it to more people. You could even get your friends and family in on this too!

Does all of this sound like more work than it's worth? It's really not. All it takes is five or ten minutes a day of hitting up your friends, family, and favorite Facebook pages and liking and commenting on a few things. Be engaging by getting engaged.

Is Rewriting While Writing A Crime?

Is it okay for a writer to stop part-way through a first draft to go back and rewrite something?

Ooh, rewriting while writing. Tsk, tsk. This question comes up a lot among writers, and I don't entirely understand why.

Writing is a creative process. If you overthink it you'll lose that creative edge, that part of you that imbues the writing with the most... you. Keep in mind I'm talking about the creative aspect of writing here, not editing or proofreading or punctuation or any other technical aspect. Those come later.

In the beginning, you just need to get out of you what's inside you. Get that first draft done by any and all means necessary. If that means going back and rewriting something, do it! If you think it will slow you down then write a note to yourself about what you want to rewrite so you don't forget, and keep going.

Just write.

It frustrates me when I see writers getting hung up on questions like this. I've been writing novels since I was 15 years old, and it never occurred to me that going back to rewrite something as I was still writing might be wrong. I never asked if I should be outlining or not. I never wondered about what writing software to use. I just wrote.

And wrote, and wrote, and wrote.

The great majority of writers barely finish one novel. By the time I was 17, I had written three, one of which was published. To date I've completed nine.

Proceed with caution

If you do go back to rewrite something, don't start editing.

EXAMPLE
I'm working on chapter twenty-six of book three in my medieval fantasy series Children of the Falls. I just recently went all the way back to chapter one to re-write something—I wanted to write a secondary character into a certain scene. As I read through what I had already written I noticed typos, misspellings, passive voice, but I ignored all of it. I'll clean that stuff up in editing. My objective—my only objective—was to rewrite a portion of a scene to include a secondary character. That's it. Done. Moving on.

My point is simple. Do whatever you got to do to get that first draft down. Don't worry about how I do it. Don't worry about how J.K. Rowling does it. Stop perusing writing forums and Facebook pages asking formatting questions and comparing your process to the processes of others.

Just. Write.

Getting The Most Out Of Beta Readers

1. Be leery of people who love giving advice.
These people often just love to hear themselves talk. They might be thorough, but they'll also be super annoying. Recruit them at your own risk.

2. Send your manuscript strategically.
While there is no “right” way to send your manuscript to beta readers, I suggest doing it in “rounds.” A few people will receive the first draft. After you get their feedback and revise accordingly, you’ll send it out again to other beta readers who can give feedback based on the new revisions. That means you have a chance to organize who will see which draft.

I sent my first draft to a writing buddy that I've been friends with for many years. She's not an editor or a proofreader, but she IS a great gauge of storytelling, pacing, and character development. Her "bird's eye view" of my overall novel provided valuable insight for me during later revisions. More completed drafts of my manuscript I sent to people I knew would look at it more critically and from the point of view of general readers.

If your beta readers are the type of people who will buy your book and you get positive feedback, then you know you’re doing something right.

3. Be specific with your questions.
Ask your readers specific questions about the manuscript, like did the character’s motives make sense? Were there any scenes you felt were unnecessary? Were there words/phrases overused that seemed to distract from the story? Was the ending satisfying? Believable? Did the descriptions and emotions feel real to you? It will help them focus their thoughts and help you get the most out of their feedback.

I should have been more intentional about this with all of my beta readers because I got the best feedback when I did.

Using beta readers doesn’t have to be a scary process. In fact, they’re an important part of writing that can take your story to a whole new level!

Beta Readers Aren't That Scary

There. I did it. For the first time ever I sent out a novel to a team of beta readers.

Scary? Check.
A test of patience? Check.
Invaluable? Check, check!

Beta reading has proven to be one of the most valuable assets in the indie authors stash of secret weapons. If you're scared about this or suffer from the dreaded "I can't let anyone read my work!" syndrome, you're not alone. But here's some truths about working with beta readers that might help put your mind at ease.

They're just as grateful as you are

Ok, first of all, they're all really nice. I hand picked my team to include a variety of people—a couple friends whose opinions I trusted, a few peers I knew professionally, and a few people I didn't know so well who I believed would give me an honest opinion. Not a single one of them was ungrateful to be given a free book to read.

Think about it, unless you're an all-around terrible person you're not going to spit all over a gift, and you're certainly not going to come down like a hammer on an innocent author looking for feedback. The truth is that most of your beta readers are going to be grateful to be a part of the process, and in return, they’ll be kind about their feedback.

There may be some a-holes, but we'll talk about them in a minute.

They're actually really encouraging

My readers gave me all kinds of constructive criticism, but every single one of them also gave me great words of encouragement. After reading an email from one of them I would always feel elated, like I'd just won a sort of mini lottery! I'd feel inspired to go write some more, which is the opposite of what I was expecting to feel.

They're going to strengthen your story

I've known many authors over the years who get a very high opinion of themselves and their work. Any changes made to their story not thought of by them are stupid changes. I argue that this kind of thinking is itself stupid.

Your beat readers are going to come back with suggestions about the plot, comments about where they were confused, remarks about what parts of the story that didn't make sense, and all of it, if you soak it in and weigh it against your artistic vision, can help improve your book. Obviously, you don't have to accept every suggestion your beta readers make—you don't have to accept any of them, in fact!—but changes are they're going to think of things that you have yet to consider. A writer so high-on-his-horse that he can't take this kind of feedback and turn it into something valuable is missing out on a massive opportunity to enrich his book.

Dealing with a nasty beta reader

I didn't have any meanies in my group of beta readers, but I know they're out there. Negative Nancys. Debbie Downers. Jealous Johns. And my advice to you in this department is simple: scrap 'em.

Years ago I made the decision that I didn't want negative people in my life. Negative people attract negative energy and negative circumstances. It's true. I've seen it happen. Negative people live miserable lives and they often don't realize that the reason their lives are such a mess is because they're so miserable.

If a person can't offer constructive criticism I don't listen to them. Might they have had something valuable to say? Sure. But if in the process of listening to them it's going to raise my blood pressure, forget it. Cut them off.

It's not possible to cut out ALL negativity from your life. Let's face it, that's just life. But in the years since I've been making a more concentrated effort to attract and keep positivity I've found that the kind of energy around me and the kind of energy I'm able to put out is more creative, more fun, and more rewarding.

Other tips for getting the most out of your beta readers

1. Be leery of people who love giving advice.
These people often just love to hear themselves talk and they usually don't know as much as they think they do. They might be thorough, but they'll also be super annoying. Recruit them at your own risk.

2. Send your manuscript strategically.
While there is no “right” way to send your manuscript to beta readers, I suggest doing it in “rounds.” A few people will receive the first draft. After you get their feedback and revise accordingly, you’ll send it out again to other beta readers who can give feedback based on the new revisions. That means you have a chance to organize who will see which draft.

I sent my first draft to a writing buddy that I've been friends with for many years. She's not an editor or a proofreader, but she IS a great gauge of storytelling, pacing, and character development. Her "bird's eye view" of my overall novel provided valuable insight for me during later revisions. More completed drafts of my manuscript I sent to people I knew would look at it from different points of view.

If your beta readers are the type of people who will buy your book and you get positive feedback, then you know you’re doing something right.

3. Be specific with your questions.
Ask your readers specific questions about the manuscript, like did the character’s motives make sense? Were there any scenes you felt were unnecessary? Were there words/phrases overused that seemed to distract from the story? Was the ending satisfying? Believable? Did the descriptions and emotions feel real to you? Questions will help them focus their thoughts and help you get the most out of their feedback.

I should have been more intentional about this with all of my beta readers because I got the best feedback when I did.

Using beta readers doesn’t have to be a scary process. In fact, they should be an important part of writing that can take your story to a whole new level!

The Ever-Annoying Modifier

If you're one of the many writers asking, "What's so evil about modifiers anyway?" I don't blame you for not getting it. Too many of us have fallen victim to our culture's lazy standards of writing, perpetuated by the shorthand of social media and the explosion of self-published books that go unedited, unchecked, and are held unaccountable.

So what's the big deal about overusing modifiers? Well, let's see.

First: The Modifier

Essentially, a modifier adds information to another element in a sentence. The man didn't just walk from the room, he walked from the room slowly. A modifier can be an adjective, an adverb, or a phrase or clause acting as an adjective or adverb.

Ok, so, modifiers are words that modify things. With me so far?

Second: The Problem

Modifiers kill creative writing. Verbs should be a writer's best friend, not modifiers. Verbs lend action and speed and interest, but if you're not using the correct verbs you'll find yourself falling on too many modifiers to make up for your lazy verb selection. The end result is sloppy looking writing.

EXAMPLE
"The thief slipped stealthily into the room."

A writer who doesn't understand the misuse of modifiers won't see anything wrong with that sentence, but let's take a closer look at the problem.

The thief is the subject of this sentence. Slipped is the verb that describes his action. Stealthily is the modifier adding a descriptive element to the verb. The main problem with this example is that the modifier is unnecessary. Why is the modifier unnecessary? Because we have an inappropriate verb.

Slipped.

What does this even mean? Is the thief sliding along the floor here? Is there a banana peel in the dark? Is he disco dancing? This verb doesn't quite describe our scene. Slipped is something a stealthy thief would prefer NOT to do, I would imagine.

Let's try again.

"The thief snuck stealthily into the room."

Better. Snuck is a much better word for a stealthy thief than slipped. It could just as easily be crept or tiptoed or skulked, depending on what mood you're trying to set or your personal preference.

But now we have another problem. Remember our modifier Mr. Stealthily? He is now making the verb redundant since the word snuck implies stealth.

Let's try again... again.

"The thief snuck into the room."

Ahhh! There we go. And now we have a tightly written sentence. It's succinct. It conveys a good mental image. There are no redundant or unnecessary modifiers and the verb is strong, implying a specific action while still allowing the reader to use their imagination to conjure the scene. If you want to convey more information about the thief's movements or his demeanor, get creative!

"The thief snuck into the room, a shadow of menace and ill intent."

Ok, it's an elementary example, I admit, but hopefully this process shows you how cutting out modifiers forces a more creative use of proper verbs and can lead to stronger, more descriptive sentences.

An Example From My Own Work

In Where Evil Abides, the second volume in my high fantasy series Children of the Falls, one of my heroes starts a fight. In the first draft, the sentence read like this:

"Merek jumped over the food table and overturned it, pushing the soldiers back, but only momentarily."

There are several things I didn't like about this sentence, but for the purposes of this article I'll deal with the modifier.

I realized that the word "momentarily"—a modifier—is a useless word. Is it worth it to emphasize that Merek's actions distracted the soldiers for only a moment? Doesn't the action in the next sentence imply the next moment? What does this modifier do except waste the reader's time?

I decided to get aggressive and axed everything after the comma.

"Merek vaulted over the food table and kicked it over, pushing the soldiers back."

Vaulted was a more appropriate verb to describe the specific action, while the verb "kicked" gave the sentence a little extra, well... kick.

As for the modifer? Gonzo!

Reality Check

Are modifiers NEVER supposed to be used? There are some purists out there who might think the first sentence about the slippery thief is an abomination. There are also some very lazy writers who look at some of today's top selling fiction, see lots of modifiers, and think it's no big deal.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I try not to use modifiers, but I'm also the kind of person who writes by feel. If I feel that a sentence flows better with a modifier as opposed to a verb, I might go with the modifier, but that's AFTER I've already assessed the sentence to see if there isn't a stronger verb that works for the scene.

Here's An Exercise

Do a search throughout your document of all words that end in "ly" and get rid of them. Nine times out of ten an "ly" word is a modifier. I guarantee that most of those modifiers can be deleted without changing the meaning of the sentence. In many cases you may have to hunt for a more descriptive verb, and in other instances you may need to rework your sentence entirely. You'll find your writing getting stronger and stronger the more modifiers you hack out.

So hack away!

"Facing Your Fears" Wrap-Up

I once heard a great little maxim: "A writer is halfway done the moment he begins."

It's a true enough statement, but why is it true? Because for many writers overcoming fear is the biggest obstacle. Sometimes just beginning is what it takes to overcome the manacles of "maybe" and "might" and "what if." Sometimes all we have to do is start.

And then all we have to do is keep going.

We can study great writing. We can absorb good advice (like you're doing now. *wink, wink*). We can accumulate lists of dos and don’ts, but until we learn to keep on keeping on we're doing nothing except gathering information. Information, I'll add, that is useless until it's put into practice.

A child learns to ride a bike by riding a bike. There's no other way to teach them.

Likewise, a writer learns to write by writing. Sounds simple enough, right? Sure, unless fear is holding you back.

Over the past few (okay, many) weeks, I've examined some of the different aspects of a writer's fear—the fear of looking foolish, of being called out on our grammatical mistakes, of being boring, of being misunderstood or unliked, of failing, of not meeting our expectations—and, as I've said before, every single fear a writer can have stems from one commonality: they all MIGHT come true.

But we'll never know unless we begin.

Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony 
than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Your fear may be telling you that your words don't matter, but that is a lie. Your words do matter. Your story matters. Your story may only ever bless one single person, but until you write it and get it out there you'll never know.

If I had cancer and only three days left to live, and if I found myself sitting face-to-face with you, a writer paralyzed by fear, this is what I'd scream at you regardless of how many people thought me a lunatic:

• Don't be afraid to be you! Write what's in your heart. Who cares if the world thinks you're nuts. The universe has put this on you to write, so write it already!


• Don't get tied up in grammar and technical mistakes now. Yes, those things are important, but you'll get to them during the later editing stages. For now, just write!


• Don't try to be perfect, just write!


• Don't worry about failing. Everyone fails. It's how we learn, so just write!


• And, for the love of Christmas, just write, damn it!

So let your fingers fly across your keyboard today—or if you're really old school: the typewriter, or if you're really, really old school: the piece of paper. Whatever you've got, just have at it. Enough stalling, enough procrastinating, enough excuses, it's time to overcome fear and get to work.

Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go follow my own advice. :-)

Face Your Fears

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 10: Fearing Fear

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#10 Set Yourself Free Of Fearing Fear

I recently made a trip to Nashville. It was utter misery. Not that Nashville itself was miserable, the city is actually quite a lot of fun—and the sweet tea? Oooh, the sweet tea!—but repeated car trouble had left me stranded with no idea of when I could drive back home. How long am I going to be stuck here? What about my job? How do I get back home? How much is this going to cost? Oy vey!

Oh, and then I got in an accident with the rental car that I had to use in the meantime, but that's another story.

After a nightmare of a weekend I called the mechanic on Monday to see how my car was doing, terrified that I would get more bad news. I got more bad news—I was going to be stuck in Nashville for another three days. Well, at least my insurance was covering most of the problem.

I hung up the phone and, to my surprise... I felt fine. The news I received wasn't great, but it could've been worse. At least I knew what was going to happen.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that fear isn’t the problem—fearing fear is where we run into trouble.

Remember those famous words from Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

FDR was essentially telling the American people that their fear was making things worse.

When we are able to exit the crazy mental loop of fear we’ll be in a better place to see clearly, aspire meaningfully, and stop tripping over our own self-defeating feet.

Beating a fear of fear doesn't mean all of our lofty goals are realized and our dreams come true. It simply means that when we're no longer fretting over the unknown we have more room to breathe, experiment, and evolve as writers when we’re not squeezed into those small and invented stories that have been dictated to us by fear.

Your life and your writing are both precious resources. Don’t waste a drop of either. Take charge of fear by not letting it control you. When you can finally start to see around the obstacle of fear you have a chance to step into your greatest potential.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 9: Be Logical

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#9 Dose Fear With Logic

As I've said before, our fear exists to keep us safe. When you're in a new city your fear helps you identify certain parts of town you may wish to avoid if you're out walking about all alone. Fear keeps you from getting too close to the edge of the Grand Canyon. Fear keeps you from swimming too far out into the ocean where dangerous currents or sharks could harm you.

Sometimes fear overreacts. Though it may have your best interests at heart, there are times when it just needs to be reasoned with.

For example, consider an inquiry process like this:

YOU:     Why have I been procrastinating so much lately?
FEAR:   Because you know if you finish your book you might find out it's bad. If you never finish it, you'll never have to hear the bad news. You'll be safer that way.
YOU:     Who is going to say my work is bad?
FEAR:   Critics. Other writers. Readers.
YOU:     Maybe. Maybe not.
FEAR:   Are you sure you want to take that chance?
YOU:     I'd rather get some feedback, good or bad, so I can improve myself as a writer. Besides, I have confidence in my work. I believe it's good.

Your fear will have to agree.

If you are feeling fear, you are likely perceiving danger. The harder you try to silence the fear, the louder it will get to try to protect you. Therefore, I propose that you lean into that fear, and really listen to what it wants you to know. Then reason with it. Reason with yourself. You'll find that fear sometimes doesn't have a leg to stand on.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 8: Hold Your Course

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#8 You Can't Steer A Still Ship

Ever kayak? I love kayaking. It's an interest that both my wife and I share. One thing you can't do in a kayak, or in any boat for that matter, is try to steer without moving. If you're just sitting there in a calm body of water and stick your paddle under the surface, nothing is going to happen. Without a current or forward momentum, you can't steer that kayak to go anywhere.

How does this translate to writing? Simple: writers with defined goals have a better chance of achieving them, and therefore give fear less of an opportunity to throw them off course.

If you have something more interesting to focus on than fear, it’s far less likely that fear will hog the spotlight of your attention. One way to hold your focus and build forward momentum is to clearly articulate for yourself why you’re working on a particular piece of writing, what motivates you to stay with it, and what the imagined end result will be.

For example, if you know that the article you're writing about famous women in history is going to teach you something that aligns with your core values, you have an intrinsic reward that's worth fighting for. If you work for a newspaper or magazine and understand that when you finish your articles you'll get a paycheck, you're more likely to invest yourself in what you're writing about. If you have a chapter by chapter outline of that novel, then you can see the end result and don't have to worry so much about running into hick-ups in the narrative.

When you have your eyes set on the next goal you create forward momentum. When fear creeps back in, it's easier to steer around it because your moving toward your goal.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 7: Do What Scares You

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#7 Do What Scares You

I was a very shy, anti-social teenager. I was nerdy. I was awkward. I was like red meat for playground bullies. When I grew up and took a job at a local newspaper I had a hard time coming out of my shell—making phone calls, interviewing people, walking up to police officers and politicians and striking up a conversation to "get the inside scoop." People terrified me, and, honestly, they still do. I much prefer to live in my little bubble.

But I actually love talking to people now. After six months at the newspaper making phone calls to complete strangers felt like second nature. I could walk up to anyone on the street and strike up a conversation with them. To this day I'm continually embarrassing my wife because I'll talk with anyone about anything.

My point is simple: It's worth it spending time doing the things that scare you because the more familiar you get with those things the less intimidating they will become.

Be smart about it, of course, and assess whether this thing you fear can do you harm. If the answer is yes, don't do it. Obviously. If the answer is no, then I invite you to make a point of doing that very thing as much as you can until you exhaust fear's charge around it.

This process will likely take time, but once you beat down that fear by wearing it thin you'll find yourself a more confident person.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#6 Retrain Your Bad Habits

Do you tend to write and rewrite an endless succession of drafts, unable to decide when a piece is finished? This is actually a common problem I hear from many writers. They often struggle to get any work done on other parts of their work because they're continually revising one particular chapter—usually chapter one.

Or maybe you're on the flip side of this problem and you hesitate even starting on a writing project because it feels too daunting, you haven't fleshed out the next chapter, or it just seems too difficult.

If you can relate to this, try setting some performance standards for yourself.

Give yourself a time limit. Say, for example, that you just keep revising and revising and revising chapter 2 of your awesome novel. Tell yourself that today you're only going to work on it for 10 minutes and then you're going to move onto chapter 3. If you're on the flip side of this problem and you can't even get started, give yourself 10 minutes to sit down and write. MAKE yourself do it. Whatever happens, happens, and then you can go procrastinate by watching TV or scrolling through Facebook. Just. Do it. Once your writing starts to come out you'll find your flow, but, like all good habits, it will take discipline and practice.

The point is to balance all the time you're wasting—be it procrastinating on a task or spending too much time on said task—with time spent on things that actually advance your goals.

I have a personal rule I try to follow when I'm working on a book: I won't create more than three drafts of a chapter before moving onto the next. Oh, I'll come back to those chapters when the book is finished and revise some more, but not until all the rest of the chapters have had the attention of three drafts. The point of this is so that I don't get in my own way.

Like any practice, the more you implement whatever standards you’ve set, the more reliable you will become. Experiment with your own ways to accept and move through your resistance.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 5: Navigating Hardships

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#5 Don’t Make Things Harder Than They Need To Be

Here's the truth about fear. It makes things hard. And if you’re used to approaching your writing life from a place of fear, you’re likely to believe that being a writer is really hard. You may even dread sitting down to write. Over time your subconscious is going to wake up to the belief that: writing = bad. And then you won't find yourself carving out time to write anymore.

Fear gets us all knotted up in such a way that we have to work twice as hard at writing, publishing, promoting and presenting just to overcome our own resistance. Such an attitude lands you shoulder-to-boulder, on an eternal uphill climb. This gets tiring fast.

When you find yourself working at a pace that feels unreasonable or exhausting, take a step back to consider whether or not fear is at play. Being driven to accomplish and succeed can be a very useful quality in the writing life. But your drive could also be the fear of failure in disguise.

Sometimes, just being still is all our writing lives need from us. I've even heard it said that the subconscious continues to work when we're asleep. I can attest to this. While working on Children of the Falls, the first book in the series ended up becoming so long that I split it in half. Suddenly I found myself in need of another title, and I struggled for days to come up with one. Then one night I dreamed of giving book 2 the title of book 1, and I woke that morning with a whole new title for book 1 sitting on my tongue.

So, take a break. Take a nap. Give your brain some rest and then come back. More will happen creatively.

Now imagine a writing life that isn't so hard, that's made a little easier because the creative juices flow a little more freely. Fear doesn't have any time to take hold because you're having too much fun! I’ll bet you could work faster and more efficiently—and even get better results—without fear weighing you down.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#4 Overpower Perfectionism

If you were to ask me if I'm a perfectionist, I'd have to say yes. It's one of those things that's like, "Once an addict, always an addict." Even though I'm living a life of recovery from perfectionism, it will always be a potential pitfall.

The conclusion I've reached after years of battling perfectionism is that perfectionism is not a helpmate. It's a hindrance. Though there is a side to perfectionism that can drive you to make something better, there is another side that just delays, and delays, and delays... and ultimately gets you nowhere.

Many of us have this idea that we’re meant to be perfect as writers. Instead, try thinking of your writing as akin to your fingerprints. They are what they are—unique patterns that exclusively represent you—not good or bad or better or worse than anyone else’s.

Instead of trying to perfect your writing, then, strive to get acquainted with this pattern and become more and more proficient at expressing it. There is no endpoint in this process, and we will never arrive at “perfect.” So why not give up the chase right now, and just enjoy the resonance and beauty of our humble, flawed writing as it is? As Leonard Cohen sings, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Rather than “perfect” as an end goal, try setting your sights on “finished,” and see if that gives you a bit more appreciation for the light that seeps in.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 3: Shift Your Focus

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#3 Ignore the Endgame... For Now

Fear almost always has to do with the unknown. What if they hate my poetry? What if my books don't sell? What if the publisher says I suck?

But if you KNEW your book was going to successful and loved, you'd run to the post office to mail your manuscript as soon as possible, and probably even pay the exorbitant price of overnight shipping. If you KNEW your parachute would open and that you would land on the ground totally unharmed, you might give skydiving a try. Right? (Hehehe...)

Fear tends to be focused on projected outcomes—which we cannot definitively know. So, why not use fear as a signal to turn your attention to your process instead? When you give your attention to following through on a goal, taking steps to improve your craft, researching places to submit, or reading that book on marketing, you are creating a forward motion that makes it harder for fear to hold you back.

You don't have to TOTALLY ignore the results you want. Obviously, there are long-term goals to consider here, but when the ultimate result becomes your focus it distracts from all that can be accomplished in the now, especially the creative stuff.

Now, you've got an unfinished something sitting somewhere don't you? Go attack it, dude!

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 2: Admit You're Afraid

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

Fear can be so damaging, crippling us to the point of leaving us stagnant. Heck, writing this series of blogs was intimidating enough at times. I'd ask myself, "Why am I doing this? Do I even know what I'm talking about? Who am I to write about fear? I'm no expert!" And the more questions I asked, the more fearful I became of writing this. Surely there are experts better equipped than this poor sap.

But, hey, I've felt fear. I know what it's like to hover over that blank page and wonder if I'm good enough to write what I want to say. I've opened that letter of rejection just dreading the criticism. I've read those emails from readers calling my work... all sorts of nasty things.

But, fortunately, when it comes to fear, I've had my small measures of success in rising above it. So maybe I've got a thing or two to share that will help. Like how conquering fear isn't really about conquering fear. It's simply saying, "Yep, I'm afraid."

#2 Admit You're Afraid Without Letting Fear Take Over

When we're afraid, there's a plethora of inner voices that come to life and tell us all sorts of lies—that we're not good enough, that no one cares about what we have to say, that we're alone, that we're too weird... whatever. These negative thoughts can short-circuit our creativity if we let them, so it's up to us to re-wire our thinking so that we can short-circuit fear.

In the film A Beautiful Mind, when someone from the Nobel Prize committee asks schizophrenic mathematician John Nash how he silenced the voices that threatened to interfere with his work and his life, Nash replies something to the effect of, “I didn’t. They’re talking to me right now. I have simply made a choice to stop engaging with what they’re saying.”

This is every writer’s opportunity with fear—to learn to live with the negative stories that get airtime in our minds without letting them limit what we know we are called to do.

Chances are good that your fear is just trying to protect you from feeling pain. And this is good. This is the way we are wired as human beings. But fear can usually be reasoned with. Once you convince your mind that even if that manuscript gets rejected, you're going to be ok. Even if your beta readers are overly critical, there will still be some good feedback to mine from. Tell your fear that you'll never reach your goals without taking some risks. Once you convince it that you’re going to be just fine, it will likely let up, and eventually even shut up for good.

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Face Your Fear And Fuel Your Writing Part 1: Identify Fear

You stare at the blank page.

You hesitate dropping that manuscript in the mail box.

You look out at the audience with your book in your lap and butterflies in your stomach.

For a writer, there are many things that can trigger fear. Sometimes that fear is so intimidating that we don't move at all. Our books don't get written. Our poems don't get read. Our words don't get published. And that's when fear becomes a problem.

Over the next ten weeks I'll be examining fear, mining from my own experience and from what I've witnessed in my peers. Hopefully this will hit some nerves (good nerves, though!) and help other writers navigate the waters of fear and find success.

#1 Identify Fear

Fear is neither good nor bad. It’s simply an emotional reaction that lets us know where we are meeting or anticipating challenge. Fear can be healthy when you're doing something like touring the Grand Canyon and you don't want to fall over the edge. The fear of gravity is merely self-preservation at work. So is the fear of rotating lawn mower blades, live electrical wires, and great white sharks (actually, my shark fear may have more to do with seeing Jaws when I was eight, but, never mind...)

Fear becomes a problem when we do (or don’t do) something to try to avoid feeling it. For example, if we let the fear of rejection prevent us from sending in that manuscript, we are ensuring that we’ll never realize our aspirations.

It can be difficult identifying fear when it's subtle. If you’re overperforming, underperforming or avoiding performing altogether, chances are good that fear is in play.

For example, did you ever consider that the piece of writing you just can’t get right—and therefore endlessly revise—may be a reflection of your fear? Fear of perfection, maybe? Fear of pleasing others? Fear of not measuring up to someone's standard? When we find fear at the root of a challenging habit or behavior, we are fortunate—because with awareness, we have choices. And choices lead to progress :-)

Where might fear be creeping into your life?

The Rest of This Series

Part 1: Identify Fear
Part 2: Admit You're Afraid
Part 3: Shift Your Focus
Part 4: Overpowering Perfectionism
Part 5: Navigating Hardships
Part 6: Retrain Bad Habits
Part 7: Do What Scares You
Part 8: Hold Your Course
Part 9: Be Logical
Part 10: Fearing Fear

Getting Over Your Fear Of Letting Others Read Your Work

What if they don't like my writing? If people say nice things they're just lying so they don't hurt my feelings. Gasp! Oh no! Someone said my writing is bad. That's it, I'm never handling the English language again! I suck. I'm awful. I'm moving to Australia!

Ok, crazy person. Relax. Sure, your mom may not be the best person to seek advice from, and, yeah, some strangers may totally crap all over your work. But here's the truth: you gotta learn to take it.

First, learn to weed out the jerks. Any critique I get that starts with something like, "This sucks! This is so stupid! I've read better work from Stephanie Meyer!" (NOTE: No one has ever compared me to Stephanie Meyer. Thank God!) I immediately disregard. I've received enough positive feedback over the years, and I have enough self-confidence to know that my writing isn't awful. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, and I know it's not the greatest American prose in history, so anyone who wants to crap all over it is just wasting my time.

Second, learn to take feedback collectively. Let's say you send out ten manuscripts for critique. One person says your main character felt too boring, while everyone else says they loved the character. Chances are that one naysayer is the one with the problem, not your main character. On the other hand, if EIGHT people say your main character reads like a floozy, they might be onto something.

Don't be like Jerry Seinfeld's mother and think that EVERYONE has to like your babies. "How could anyone not like him?"

Taking feedback gets easier. It's never fun to get a complaint, but you will learn to make critique work for you. Writing is uncomfortable, and it makes you vulnerable. You open yourself up for critique when you put written words out there. Being afraid of what others have to say is going to lead you to pulling punches. Your writing will suffer. You'll lose the truth. You'll be so afraid of getting hurt that you'll never get anything. THEN your writing will suck.

"You make this decision now to be afraid

and you'll never turn back your whole life.

You'll always be afraid."

—Unbreakable (film)

By letting others read your work prior to publication will give you perspectives on your material that you've never thought of before. Some of those perspectives will lead to new ideas that will enrich your stories and your characters more than you could ever do on your own. Closeted writing is limiting. As hard as it is to open yourself up to critique it is so essential to developing a fully realized novel.

The absolute best work you have in you is always going to be the stuff that’s closest to your heart, the stuff that’s absolutely the hardest to let another human being read. It’s risky to show people those deep and true parts of yourself, but life is risk. Look that fear in the eye, spit it in the face, and then write more effing words.

Make Your Goals Specific And Measurable... Like Batman!

Batman is the quintessential problem solver. Since his inception in 1939 he has always been, first and foremost, a detective. A costumed Sherlock Holmes. More than his martial arts skills, his money, or his gadgets, Batman's intellect has always proven to be his most valuable asset.

Though the movies have often failed to demonstrate this aspect of the Caped Crusader, there's a great scene in "The Dark Knight Rises" that shows Batman's intellect and how victory can be achieved when you first break down your problems and tackle them one step at a time.

First, you've got to understand, that in "The Dark Knight Rises" Batman had spent the majority of the movie getting beaten to a pulp. He had grown too cocky, over-confident, and had lost his edge. As a result, when he finally comes face-to-face with the physically superior villain Bane, Batman gets pulverized and tossed into a third world dungeon with a busted back.

As his body heals, Batman considers what he did wrong, and when he finally returns to Gotham City he approaches Bane like a surgeon, dissecting the threat before they come to blows. First, he recruits some allies. Then he gathers his equipment. Then he spreads hope to the citizens of Gotham and fear to the bad guys. Finally, after months of planning, Batman springs his trap and defeats the antagonist.

With a little planning, determination, and some allies, nothing is impossible to overcome.

• Don't try to tackle your problems all at the same time. I find if I think of writing and editing and marketing and networking and plotting and characters and printing and... Sigh. It gets overwhelming. So every now and then I break down my priorities.


• As Batman so clearly demonstrates in "The Dark Knight Rises," your goals must be specific and measurable. When he returned to Gotham City to face Bane again, he had a detailed plan. It's an example of the obvious—if your goals are too vague they are just dreams. My wife turned my onto the idea of a "power hour." Every day for one hour I have a list of things I need to accomplish related to my writing: check Facebook, upload/download content, check-in with crit group, network, etc. If I don't have a plan, I forget, and the work doesn't get done.


• Long-term thinkers are the ones who win. Batman knew that defeating Bane was essential to the survival of Gotham City. His plan took months to form, but it was for a far-reaching purpose. Today's culture doesn't think like this. We're all about immediacy and convenience, and rarely do we think beyond our needs for the day, week, or maybe even the month. But when we keep our eyes on the future instead of our immediate circumstances, the possibility of reaching our goals becomes more and more inevitable.

You may find yourself beaten at times, overwhelmed by writer's block or a discouraging review. You may find that there are some Banes out there who are going to catch you off guard, knock you down, and thwart all of your efforts, but you can't let your circumstances overwhelm you.