Write to Dream Radio Show-Writing from the Authentic Voice-Q&A

Write to Dream Radio Show

Writing from your Authentic Voice

Questions and Answers

This blog entry features the questions posted to Write to Dream Radio Show for the program aired on June 16, 2008. This radio program is hosted by Maria Mar and sponsored by www.writetodream.com




Topic: Writing from your Authentic Voice
Guest: Corazon Tierra
Fiction and non-fiction writer, editor, performer and expert creator of the Beloved BodySoul system to help women live happily in their bodies. Corazon's book, No te hagas pequena, will be published by ShamansDance Books in Fall 2008. She is the food and health editor of Siempre Mujer, a spanish-language magazine, and has published several ebooks to help women live happily in their bodies. Visit her websites at:

English: http://www.belovedbodysoul.com
Spanish: http://www.notehagaspequena.com


The questions posted by people who attended the show can be heard in the recording at:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/1-writing_from_your_authentic_voice.htm

The questions posted by people who are not present during the show cannot be answered in the show, in consideration to those who do show up. As a courtesy, Maria Mar answers as many as we can here in the blog.

Question: Posted by Glorya

Letting go of self-doubt when writing.

Answer:

We talked a lot in the show about the place that we need to go in order to tap into our Authentic Voice. Corazon Tierra described this place beautifully as a center of silence where your heart is open and you are connected to the reader because you are in Oneness. She described it as a conversation. You are having a conversation with your reader, and you need to keep honest by keep your own connection to your heart.

When you are there, in that silent, core place within you, you are listening to your Soul. That is the place of your Authentic Voice.

When self-doubt enters, you have disconnected from that place. Self-doubt comes from your Ego-mind, that tries to control how things "should" be instead of connecting and being present to what is.

Self-doubt also comes from self-sabotaging MOs that bring with them your Inner Enemies, carrying the negative scripts you internalized from your childhood or society. The Perfectionist, the Inner Critic and the Controller live there. They are enemies of your creative writing.

To address self-doubt, you need to return to the place where your Authentic Voice lives. You need to return to the silent place of soul. Here are some tips.

1. Listen to all the doubts, put downs and self-deprecation. You can even write them. Then acknowledge that these are simple Inner Enemies, your Shadows and their negative scripts. Release them and use the next step to go back to your Soul connection.

2. Practice the Breath of Life. Seat or lie down comfortably. Rotate your shoulders and release all tension in them. Begin breathing softly. Inhale and feel your whole body, especially your belly, filling up with air, like a balloon. Exhale slowly and release tension, fear and control as you do. Practice the Breath of Life until your heartbeat has slowed down and you have entered silence. Do this for at least 5 minutes.

3. Listen to music, poetry or a song that brings you to your Soul and opens your heart and that brings peace to your mind.

4. Include the doubts in your writing, keep digging into them, writing through them, writing through the fear, writing through whatever, incorporating everything into the writing, until you release it and reach the place of Soul, where you will feel your Authentic Voice, "like a river running without obstacles," to quote Corazon Tierra.

You can access the recording for this show at:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/1-writing_from_your_authentic_voice.htm

Light and Love,
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
http://www.writetodream.com



Question: Posted by Gabrielle

How to assemble the skeleton of my story. How to find the heart of my story, and how to recognize the archetypal roles that my characters played in the story.

Answer:

Wow! That's three questions, and more like a writing course. ): But I'll do my best.

Corazon Tierra talked a lot about developing a central image. This was a good resource that we discussed for a while. She starts by finding a central image that comes from her body and guts, from her Soul, and that conveys the "movement" or substance of what she wants to write. The example she gave was from her novel-in-progress, Almost Disappearing: Reclaiming the Territory of the Body. The central image for this work is a spiral. Because the work is about anorexia, and Corazon feels this condition as a spiral rotating inwards, constricting and trying to control, the spiral in her central image is unraveling. Therefore, she has a central image, an action and a movement. With that, the chapters flow, and there you have a skeleton.

Another advantage of this central image is that it generates great visuals around the book. Here I include the book cover I created for Corazon, and you can see that her image gave me all the clues I needed.


Corazon also talked about her central image for No te hagas pequena, her upcoming book. It is the shrinking body of a woman, a body that is being cut-off in parts: the voice, hips, breasts, to diminish and fragment her power. Each part of the body, then, becomes a section or chapter in the novel. As you can see, the central image comes from your Soul, guts or heart and carries within it the bones of your book or script.

In this sense, the central image is about cohesion, integrity, integration and bone marrow. It is the heart of the book and pumps the blood, keeping it alive. If you are going off, the image weakens, and the body sounds its alarms.

For me, in Catch the Dream Express:Alchemical Journey to Manifest your Dream (Self-help novel and Dream Kit), the central image came from my intention of taking the readers on a female quest. My book is a journey. I often describe the compulsive rush in which we live, that takes away self-time for women, as a train that is out of order and cannot stop. I went for that image to create the journey in my self-help novel.

The character is taking a train in her ordinary reality, where she is trapped in her limited beliefs and her emotional baggage, and winds up in a different dimension, in the Dream Express. There she meets her own Dreamscape and must quest to retrieve her DreamSelf. The train gives me not only the central image, but the structure. I have stops. Where does the train stop? I had my chapters.

To determined what where the stops in this journey, I looked at my expert system and my own journey. Well, first is the moment when guidance comes and you are unaware, trapped in your trance, so you don't see it. That's the first chapter. Then comes your fear of change and your need to stay in your comfort zone. Chapter two is there. Then opportunity comes, but you miss it because you are not listening to your Inner child, your innocence, your faith. There is a third chapter. By following a route I know, because I have walked it and I have helped other walk it, I was able to come up with chapter after chapter, and finish the book and workbook in six months. I didn't even wrote on off-course draft. That's how focused the image kept me!

In this approach, the central image depicts the movement, the journey, the transformation process. It helps you see time frames, stages of growth or change, progression, resistance and regression. It has something of the heroic quest.

As you can see in the cover I created for the book, the key feature is movement, and the movement seems to leap towards the reader. Again, the central image offers the substance, bones, progress, sections, movement and visuals for the book and its marketing. In your case, the visual suggestions are even more important, because you are writing a script for a movie.

One clue to find your central image is to look at the images that keep repeating themselves in your mind, the recurrent memories, the dreams in connection to your story, the verbs and words you keep using in your journal entries or conversations, and the moments or places that evoke specific emotions or scenes from your story.

As for archetypal roles, don't get mental. If they come, welcome them. Otherwise, don't push. Archetypes come from the deep well of our unconscious and cannot be produced by your will. They emerge from listening to Soul and honoring the mystery of what is happening in the present. Dive into the empty page, land in your soul and let them come if they will.

Hope this helps.

You can access the recording of this show at:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/1-writing_from_your_authentic_voice.htm


Light and Love,
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
http://www.writetodream.com


QUESTION: Luz Maria

Has there been any evolvement there in the respect for honoring author's rights? I ask because XXX Press recently violated my copyrights and I want to get a feel if this is something that is happening to others?

Note: Mention of the specific press has been ommitted for legal reasons.

ANSWER:

Since you do not explain the specific case, I can't tell if this is something happening among other writers and experts. Here's what I've experienced, heard through the networks of women writers or learned in workshops with copyright lawyers.

The first thing you need to do when signing a contract with a publisher, is get a lawyer! Seriously. I was just talking to a writer who would not hear of this. She thought that the publisher had been so generous that she didn't have to, and besides she couldn't afford one. While I sympathize, the consequence can be fatal.

Can you afford losing thousands of dollars, perhaps millions because you signed a contract that forfeited some marketing rights, foreign publishing rights, co-products rights, even workshops or lectures rights?!

It is not the publisher's role to look out for YOUR rights. They are offering contracts that are either standard or in THEIR best interest. This is not because they are bad. This is because they are business. And if you are publishing a book, so are you. Get a lawyer who specializes in copyright law. Go over the contract with her. Ask questions. Visualize future scenarios and what you could want to do with your book and ask her about other scenarios. There are so many technicalities and possibilities involved! You need help.

Here's a good site to start:

http://www.copylaw.com

Do online research. Go to Writer's guilds and Professional Associations.

Intellectual Theft
Is well and alive in the USA, thank you very much. That is why we need to do our copyrighting, trademark, etc. I've had friends whose whole translations or articles have been stolen and published under a different name. Sometimes they go to court and win. Sometimes they let it be because it's not worth the hazard and your health is worth more.

Go to the site above to find out your options. Prevention is the best tactic, which is in your hands.

After the damage, a good lawyer can tell you if you have a good case to fight. If not, call it a lesson and move on. There is a rich well of creativity within you and there's plenty more to come.

I hope this helps.

You can access the recording of this show at:

http://www.writetodream.com/radioshow/1-writing_from_your_authentic_voice.htm


Light and Love,
Maria Mar
The Dream Alchemist
http://www.writetodream.com