Author R.A. Gasparac

I remember the moment I knew I was meant to be a writer. Before then I knew I WANTED to be a writer, but it wasn’t until that one day I confirmed it. All my life I have been writing, wether it was on something, or inside my head. I would make up stories about people I would see walking on the street, and had no idea as a child that was not normal.

Oddly enough it first occurred when I completed my first screenplay, and received feedback from the actress I wanted to star as the lead. A little bit of info about that project was that it was a zombie film. This actress had seen her fair share of B Horror scripts before her and she would frequently pass. She loved my screenplay and wanted to talk about how I developed it.

She told me I had obscene writing talent, and depth. Here’s why. That script was my process of coping with my fathers death. I chose to write about cancer as the Zombie horde, and chose to stress the interpersonal relationships between characters in an abstract fashion. I also took the time to turn generic tropes of the Genera around.

So I challenge you to look at your writing with new critical eyes. If the underlying conflict isn’t breaking your heart a bit, tweak it until it does.

With the current state of the world and the pandemic, I take my chosen career as a writer very seriously.

First and foremost, people need content right now. They are terrified and they need to have something to immerse themselves into instead of refreshing minute by minute updates on their respective news apps. We are on the frontlines of caring for our community and fellow humans. In the most dire of services. Maintaining someone’s mental health through escapism.

Second, with the devastating death toll in Italy, we learn how important it is to honor our lineage and culture. Italian blood runs through my veins, and with these deaths a part of my bloodlines way of life as well. Even though (for the time being before the virus inevitably mutates) mostly the elderly have died, that was a huge chunk of our culture. The elderly were walking encyclopedias of information we took for granted.

These people were open books to remind us of who we are and how we conduct ourselves, like we have for thousands of years. It is the equivalent of a book burning. When they die, a part of us will loose who we are as a whole. We are what is left of humanities culture.

Something magical occurred to me. As writers, we don’t read in order to be entertained and/or learn. We consume the words of others and use those words to build our stories.

Think about it. You are what you eat. You write what you read.

This thought made me stop and truly think about how many books I had read before I finished my first novel. Ten. I read ten during that time. It is important to note they were all over 50k words. That’s OVER 500 THOUSAND words that went through my brain before I stopped my stories narrative.

After you realize that it is only a numbers game – the more you read, the more you write. The more quickly you are finished.

Full disclosure- I’m writing this on my mobile phone. It’s clunky and autocorrect is behind the corner ready to gossip inappropriately (her game of telephone.)

I took a calculated risk in my life last weekend, and it paid off. I let myself get wrapped up in the current of life and I am glad I did. With my divorce on the horizon, and separation concrete I accepted a lost soul into my life.

This made me think. What risks are you taking with what you are writing? Answer honestly. Without risk there is no reward. (On that note I have yet to submit my work to agents as planned- damnit.)

When we write, we must ask ourselves if we are creating the highest risk possible for our characters. Others often refer this to me ‘raising the stakes’, but I choose to look at it as the former. When we write we are to put characters we love into the worst possible rock vs. hard place scenarios.

So, in your writing what is the absolute worst thing that could happen to your main character? Better yet- what are the THREE worst things that could happen? Write out how that would play out. Do it now. I’ll wait.

Often taking the easy way out is just that- easy. Our job as writers is to ask ourself that question and write our character’s in and out of said situation. That is the heart of the conflict and action. If you choose to not do this, you are not an writer.

I know what I said in a previous post about writing several simultaneous things at once, and that I would be focusing on one thing at a time.

While I was working towards my art degree in college I spent a lot of time in the painting studio. My professor was an avid painter who had previously worked as an assistant to Picasso’s son, and his art career.

There is a creative method that Picasso himself taught his son, who taught my professor, who taught yours truly. When painting you need to be working on two projects. ( I know how that sounds contradictory to what I posted previously – just hear me out.)

I favored the abstract method when I painted, which turned into a slightly realistic pop art look. Examples below:

I show you these because of two reasons. One – creatives need more than one type of creative outlet as mine are traditional media, and writing. Two – when creating it is important to have one abstract project, and one of realism. The reason is simple. There are two halves of the brain, and given the day we will be stuck on one or the other side of that brain.

The same is true for writing. While I was attempting to write up to seven different titles, I narrowed my focus down to ONE NONFICTION, and ONE FICTION title. This way no matter what type of project falls out of me for the day, I can maintain my focus.

Try this method out. Hopefully, your stream of narrative flows more easily. After all, it worked for Picasso.