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Strikes, Foul Balls, and Home Runs.

Posted on by Clay Rivers

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This week’s Monday Maxim is of particular relevance to me. I’m well into the first draft of The Raindancer; granted, not as far as I’d like to be right now, but I’ll save that story for another day. The basic idea behind a first draft is to just get the book out of your head and onto paper (be it real or virtual) within the most basic parameters of your outline without editing yourself into writer’s block. The consensus among great writing minds is that there’ll be plenty of time to edit, re-edit, and edit some more later. (For more on the rigors also known as writing, click here.)

Unknowing, that’s exactly what I did when I wrote the first draft of Walking Tall. I set limits for what the book would include, fired up my laptop, and wrote straight through to the end. (That’s the beauty of non-fiction: you tell it like you saw it.) At the completion of the first draft, I moved into the second draft cutting, copying, and pasting sections all over the place; adding newly gathered facts; and conducting interviews to job my memory.

I’m finding that writing this first draft of The Raindancer is a whole-nother animal altogether. While it is based on real life events, it’s a fictionalized account. What that means is I’m taking the truth of certain incidents and having to create richly textured world and populate it with believable doppelgängers.

The challenge in writing this first draft has been that I’ve been trying to make sense of it all much too soon when the rule of thumb is “just get something on the page.” Why?

I’ve been afraid of hitting a foul ball. Or worse yet, striking out.

But thanks to encouragement from writers and non-writers alike, things are rolling along.

Do you remember any recent incidents where you were plagued with fear instead of giving yourself permission to make an occasional strike?

The Raindancer

Posted on by Clay Rivers

the-raindancer-type

For the past year, I’ve been in research mode and talks with friends of mine who are the subject of my next book, entitled The Raindancer: Finding Joy in the Storm. Without giving away too much, the book will be a fictionalized account of the real life events of one man’s experience in using the power of a positive attitude, faith, and laughter in dire circumstances and how he and his family changed the lives of everyone he came in contact with.

At some point in the future, I’ll explain how this all came about; but for now all I can say that I’ve been given the green light and have begun writing the first draft.

From this point on, you’re going to see a noticeable shift in my posts to content that’s tied into The Raindancer themes. On Mondays I’ll post one of several pithy sayings several of you found inspirational. On Tuesdays, you can look for posts written by notable personalities that also tie-in to The Raindancer. And maybe a few written by me here and there. If there’s a topic you’d like me to tackle, I’m open to that to. Drop me a line and consider it done.

You’ll notice a couple of additions to the post pages: social media sharing and “like” buttons. If you see a post or video that strikes you as encouraging, or relevant, I invite you to like it, and then share it. And of course, as always, I look forward to reading your comments and questions. (To leave a comment, click on the thought balloon to the right of the headline.)

Tapestry.

Posted on by Clay Rivers
The Metropolitan Museum, The Cloisters New York Dimensions: 8" x 12"
The Metropolitan Museum, The Cloisters New York
Dimensions: 8″ x 12″

If your life is currently brimming with all sorts of good things of your own making — and a few you had absolutely nothing to do with — this post is not for you. Of course, you’re welcome to read any post of mine; but this is probably the type of post you might not be interested in squandering time on when you could be living la vida loca. If, on the other hand, your immediate response to the current state of your union can be summed up in a facepalm, this post might make your heart smile.

I’ve transitioned from the outlining and plotting phase of my next book, The Raindancer: Finding Joy in the Storm, into that creative free-fall phase where I barf up the book page by page free of any self-editing knowing full well that this first draft will be — as Ernest Hemingway said so eloquently — shit.

Today I had the honor and privilege of interviewing the wife of the real-life inspiration for one of my principal characters. My purpose: to gain a little more insight into this person’s backstory to flesh out my character’s motives. As with any principal character in a book or movie, the reader is introduced to my character at a pivotal point in his life and over the course of the story through a series of choices (disguised as seemingly unrelated circumstances) the characters winds up irreversibly changed. For the better.

Shortly after our two-hour conversation, I had the following epiphany.

Life’s events — past, present, and future — are woven together like an elaborate tapestry. Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to see the tapestry as a whole. We’re limited to kinda maybe sorta seeing the present with very limited information about why others did the things they did, not to mention how our own choices affected others. And we can only view the past only through the gift of hindsight coupled with time.

It’s kinda crazy.

But at the same time it’s not.

My muse went through a ton of crap. He didn’t know which way was up. Life knocked him down, beat him up, and put him through the wringer on many fronts. But he had a unique quality: he was (and is) a man of his word and just kept plugging away.

And now?

This guy is on top of the world! And living a life he could’ve never imagined a few years ago. He’s married to a wonderful wife, has a blossoming career in music, and is an all-around changed man. (If you think that sounds pretty cool, just wait till you read about him in the book.)

The Take-away  There’s a few you out there in some really dire situations — medical challenges, family challenges, financial challenges, the loss of loved ones, employment situations, marital uncertainties, and more — but hang in there. You may not see the point of it all, but remember this: all things work together for good to those who love God. (Romans 8:28) A better day is coming.

An Encouraging Word: Why and How to Offer More Compliments

Posted on by Clay Rivers

By Brett and Kate McKay, for The Art of Manliness.

“Idle words are characterless and die upon utterance. Evil words rankle for a while, make contentions, and then die. But the hopeful, kind, cheering word sinks into a man’s heart and goes on bearing fruit forever. How many beautiful written words—words in book and song and story—are still inspiring men and making the world fragrant with their beauty! It is just so with the words you write, not on paper, but on the hearts of men. I wish there were room to mention here the testimonies of great men to the power of some hopeful, encouraging word they had spoken to them in youth and in the days of struggle. But every autobiography records this thing. Booker T. Washington tells how the encouragement of General Armstrong saved the future for him. I know a young man who is to-day filling a large and useful place in the world, who was kept to his high purpose in a time of discouragement by just an encouraging word from a man he greatly admired. That man’s word will live and grow in the increasing influence of the younger man. This world is full of men bearing in their minds deathless words of inspiration heard in youth from lips now still forever. Speak hopeful words every chance you get. Always send your young friends from you bearing a word that they will take into the years and fulfill for you.”

—The Enlargement of Life (1903) By Frederick Henry Lynch

On Rejection

Posted on by Clay Rivers

By Kirk Douglas, for the Huffington Post

Portrait of Kirk Douglas with his back against an enormous fallen tree trunk, circa 1945. (Huffington Post)
Portrait of Kirk Douglas with his back against an enormous fallen tree trunk, circa 1945. (Huffington Post)

Actors are often described as “people who love rejection.” That’s not true. Every year hundreds of young boys and girls come to New York or Hollywood with dreams of becoming an actor and having their name in lights. They never expect to meet with rejection. “Too fat! Too thin! Too loud! Too soft!” Most of them go home. I stayed.