Christmas Head

Yesterday, I was riding in the car with a friend to go meet another lady to pick up a box full of clothes and toiletries to donate to a women’s shelter she supports. We were riding in her big Cadillac Escalade and just as we pulled onto the 101 south and took our lane we saw 3 cars almost collide with each other narrowly avoiding causing a huge accident which would have likely affected us and consequently involved many other motorists around us.

The blessed motorists who somehow chose in that moment to listen to their God given intuition and the voices of their driving angels, decided in that split second prior to what would have been a disastrous lane change, to look twice and really see the people in the cars directly next to them. Instead of crashing into them, they waved at them as if to say “Oh I didn’t see you there and I almost hit you, completely ruining your day, so sorry about that!” and we watched as they waited for the others to pass before they proceeded into their lane and continued on with their busy day.

My friend said to me after witnessing this, “Good thing it’s Christmas and everyone is being nice to each other!”

We felt like we had witnessed a small miracle! No one shook their fists at each other or used rude gestures and we saw no lips mouthing angry words. Thank God for Christmas!

Now the inattention behind the wheel usually comes from what I call during this time of year, “Christmas Head.” Everyone so caught up in the rush and consumer buzz of the Christmas holiday they are paying no attention to the present moment, whether its behind the wheel or in line waiting at a retail store, their heads are missing what’s right in front of them as their minds drift on to the next item on their “to do list.” So caught up are we at times during the holidays that we completely miss the true expectation of Christmas, the beautiful anticipation of the celebrated anniversary of the birth of Jesus. The birth of our salvation, the birth of our eternal grace from sin. I know that pointing this out is almost cliché but it is a pitfall we face every day, not just at Advent.

We often become drowsy and complacent to the gift of God’s love and salvation and the promise that this world is not our last stop. We fall asleep to the needs of others and place ourselves, our endeavors, before all else and instead of asking what can I do for God’s glory today? We insist on comfort and instant gratification for ourselves. We are blind to the elderly widow who lives next door and is alone day after day, or the co-worker who hasn’t smiled in a week, that we don’t stop to ask why they aren’t smiling or offer to sit down and share a cup of coffee with them. Most times, we don’t really see the people around us, like missing that car in our blind spot while driving; we develop blind spots in how we should be love to the people around us.

Advent is a time for us to grow, to step out of our norm and work on “seeing” each other better, loving each other anew in hopes of expanding our hearts beyond Christmas. We do know that the best gifts don’t come from a catalog and are not wrapped in brightly colored paper. The best gifts come from the heart; they are the moments that we share with one another in love, compassion and charity. God knows our hearts, He shaped us, He knows our capacity for love, He knows the gifts He has placed in us and waits on us to choose to use them of our own free will. Loving each other as Christ loved us, being His light to the world. The star that shines beyond Advent.

JCB 12-8-12

What We Write

I have found as a writer and an avid reader there are several ways to tell a story, but when using classic principles to illustrate the trials and tribulations of our characters we learn to see our narrative in three acts.

In the first act our protagonist is minding his own ordinary business and something happens to him that changes his life or his outlook on life forever. Perhaps his wife leaves him, or he wins the lottery, or someone he loves is murdered or dies. Nevertheless, the event changes him and he will never be the same person he was before the event occurred.

When we meet our character again in Act II he is trying to figure out where he stands in his "new world," what he can do about his new reality, and how he is going to cope with his new understanding of the world around him. He investigates. In the case of a murder mystery he might begin to look for clues, following the signs to the truth behind the mystery. Ultimately in search of justice; closure so he can move on, peace. A new degree of "ordinary".

One of my favorite writing teacher authors, James Scott Bell calls Act II the "muddle in the middle". He likens the three act structure to a suspension bridge or two doorways of no return with a long stretch of road between them that we must navigate successfully to become the hero.

Once you past the first concrete pile-on or step through the first doorway you enter act two. Then comes the hero's quest, the middle of the story, the muddling around, where our character figures out who he is in the midst of his chaos, he puts the puzzle pieces together and he is propelled past the second pile-on of the suspension bridge, or through the proverbial second doorway of no return towards resolution.

This last doorway is a culmination of events that leads him into act three. This doorway raises the stakes a little higher but it eventually leads him, maybe at the cost of life or limb to the truth, reconciliation, understanding. In the murder mystery plot this is when he finds the last salacious clue, he find out who did it, confronts him or her and in act three they are brought to justice.

As a writer, I am always considering this formula, and how my characters have been placed and react to the stakes I have raised for them to rail against. I know it's cliche to refer to life as a three act play but in my own project I am in the midst of rewriting and editing Act II and it donned on me that in the journey of writing my novel, emotionally I am also in Act II. I realized we are all "muddling in the middle" of some problem or life experience we have faced that has pulled us down to the mat or slowed our personal growth to a crawl.

My church calls this time of year "ordinary time". I'm catholic so whenever it is mentioned or I read it somewhere at church it strikes me as odd and I feel a guttural response to stand up and shout what the heck is so ordinary about it? It doesn't feel ordinary to me at all! I am working on a novel that has consumed my every thought for the past four years. Ordinary seems strange to say when I have friends struggling to find work, or overcome illness. Women are having babies, husbands are getting promoted, there's flooding and hurricanes tormenting the middle of the country, I could go on and on. Good or bad, tragic or joyous these moments of our lives are far from ordinary, they are indeed extraordinary if we really stop to notice.

Aren't we just trying to uncover the clues, find peace within the chaos, strength to rise above? Our lives are several intertwined stories, with numerous sub-plots, infinite problems needing solutions, some big, some very small, all happening at once. If you are a writer or an artist of any kind or perhaps simply a student of life, the "muddle in the middle" is life itself! Finding ways to cope and overcome adversity, helping others in their journey; we are all in search of success over our particular experience in Act I. Not only is it what we write but it is why we write.

So keep writing!

-JC Beichner

Dear Diary

This time last week I was headed to the airport for a weekend in Los Angeles to attend author James Scott Bell's "Novel & Screenplay Intensive" workshop. I was ready. Up to that point I had been making slow progress on my re-writes for my civil war novel. All last year I had worked with my editor Paul in honing an outline for the book that took into account plot, subplot, character development, suspense and credibility. When we had looked at every possible angle for creating a story with all these elements skillfully aligned, we cut the cord between us and this aspiring author was then sent to go it alone and begin re-writing and implementing all the new and exciting changes I had created with Paul leading me through the finer points of classic storytelling. Of course, I thought I would fly through theses changes and be done within a couple of months with a brilliant completed novel ready to sell to the highest bidder. Let's put it this way, my enthusiasm for life is such that I am a horrible judge of time. How's that for a positive spin?

As anyone who has ever written a novel will tell you, after so many months of nailing down in outline who your characters are, why they do what they do and what lies in store for them, you naturally have to spend some serious time in contemplation watching the movie of them in your head. It was crucial for me to sit and think about everything I had developed and what it looked like in my mind's eye so that I would later me able to put pen to paper. If I didn't spend time under the thinking tree how would I know what to write? Here's the catch, all of a sudden I was napping under that tree and not spending very much time "with butt in chair" actually working.

I had begun to procrastinate and then allowed everything in my life to over run my time, leaving me with no energy left to write. I lost my balance. Now mind you, I was completely aware that I was doing this, I could see a small snowball in my head rolling down hill, picking up speed, growing in size, consuming everything in it's path. Occasionally, I would stop it's forward motion and jot down a few notes that I would not trust my mind to commit to memory, just to slow down the inevitable crash. But I was not giving my passion enough attention or importance, and soon I began to mentally punish myself for my laziness and lack of service to the priority that is my novel. I became mad that I was not Bradly Cooper's character in "Limitless" who could sit down and finish a best selling novel in a weekend, never mind he was on drugs (I never should have seen that movie). What ever my personal insult, I started to contrive a story that this lack of progress was just a part of another past failure that was going to dictate the future of my book because their was no way I was going to have the strength to break the vicious cycle and show the world what I had to offer!

Now after a weekend in LA focused soley on my passion, I am in a completely different space and I am seeing how truly unkind I can be to myself. If a dear friend came to me with the same angst I have just described for their own work and progress and a desire to be DONE yesterday, I would tell them how completely unreasonable they are being and that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Adding that where ever they are in their process is exactly where they are supposed to be. So this is how I test my rationale. Am I taking my own advice? If the answer is no..which up until recently has indeed been the case then I stop and admit that this speed bump in the road is where I have some work to do.

James Scott Bell's workshop last weekend was a brilliant new jumping off point for me. He is a divinely talented teacher and creative doctor. I am humbled beyond belief that I have found so many amazing writers along this literary path to show me the way and share their experiences, helping me bring my first commercial novel to fruition. I have read Bell's books on writing, and attended a webinar on his plot and structure theories but what has impressed me the most about him as a teacher is his ego; he doesn't have one. He is truly a servant to writers of the written word and the art of bringing those words to life on the page or screen and how we can best survive the roller coaster journey without beating ourselves up for what we think we don't know.

We can always improve and as a testament to that we had at least two prolific authors in our midst taking notes along with us and contributing to the conversation of growth throughout the weekend. Their humble presence reminded me that we never stop learning or wanting to improve and it is entirely up to us whether or not we let our past dictate our future.

Sitting in this workshop I realized I am much further along than I thought and not only am I close to being done but I am nailing my structure and character development! Where I have faltered? I can fix it! I have all the tools I need and in the end, time is truly relative. My only deadlines are self imposed and most of the time judgemental and unreasonable and do not serve my faith that God has big plans for me.

One of the best pieces of advice that I gleaned from Mr. Bell's workshop was a bit he passed on about keeping a novel journal. He suggested as he had learned from another successful author, that in keeping a diary of your novel's journey you can vent on paper all your built up angst,  nervous energy, emotional baggage as well as side bar conversations with your characters and ways to attack problems in your story. Doing this each day before beginning your novel writing clears your mind and sharpens your creativity to begin the real work on your art. Interesting, a novel journal is kind of like a blog isn't it?

Thank you Mr. Bell and welcome to my novel journey-I mean journal!

-JC Beichner

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow" - Mary Anne Radmacher