I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
Author: Christa Avampato
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
Every once in a while, usually in the middle of the night, I question everything I’m doing. “This is insane to try to be a full-time writer given my business background and education,” I think. It is insane, and it’s also necessary. I have to do this or for the rest of my life I’ll wonder what I could have done if I had just had the guts to try. The future doesn’t make any promises to anyone. It doesn’t owe us anything. It won’t work for us, nor against us. It’s going to just be, and what we do with it is entirely up to us. If you really want something, the time to go for it is now.
Toni Morrison taught me two priceless lessons: I can always make time to write and never give up. As a single mom with 2 kids, Morrison wrote her first novel, The Bluest Eye, in 15-minute increments each day. That’s all the free time she had. It took her 5 years to write it. She kept writing despite her novel’s low sales. 3 years later, her next novel was nominated for the American Book Award. Her following novels received mixed reviews, but she remained determined. In 1987, 17 years after publishing her first novel, she won the Pulitzer. If you have a dream project, work on it bit by bit. Don’t let critics sap the joy you get from your work. Morrison followed her passion. You can, too.
The original U.S. Constitution is filled with flaws: typos, changed words, carets with additions, notes in the margins. It’s all there for us to see, encased in thick glass in D.C.’s National Archives. It has an underground where it will retreat should the nation come under attack. The Founding Fathers had no idea how to create a democracy. They wrote a draft document, and a rough one at that, but they went for it full throttle. They didn’t get it perfect, but they got it right enough to keep going. We revere a draft.
If the Founding Fathers can let go of perfectionism, then so can you and I. With National Novel Writing Month, I’m doing just that. I’m cooking up some plans to give everyone everywhere access to my first draft in a variety of formats in real-time. I want feedback to bring Emerson Page to life and make her story an inspiring beacon to encourage all people to courageously and compassionately create. I’m working on the details of my sharing plans and will have them solidified next week. Let’s do this together!
Writers know where their characters will be on the last page of the book. That focus creates the flow of our characters’ actions and ups the ante when the many necessary conflicts and complications arise. Here’s the game of writing fiction: my character is on this side of the field and what she wants is on the other side. A million proverbial land mines lie in wait for her missteps. (And misstep she will!) She must learn to deftly navigate her way across the field to claim her prize. She needs to get help from others, build skills, and ditch her fears to fulfill her potential. By the time I type those two sweet words “The End”, she has to transform into the person who can traverse the risky landscape that stretches as far as her eyes can see in every direction. Writing fiction is an adventure.
I learned about Scrivener, a software package for writers, through National Novel Writing Month. As a sponsor of the event, Scrivener is offering a free extended trial for NaNoWriMo participants. Did you just groan? I did, at first. I’m usually wary of sponsor-offered trials, but the community around NaNoWriMo is so generous and supportive that I decided to at least give Scrivener a look. Apparently the snappy inventors of the software got inside my brain when I wasn’t looking and built me exactly what I’ve always wanted – writing software that makes me a better writer.
For writers of every feather I’ve shied away from other writing software packages because my writing varies widely: blog posts, essays, journalism, web copy, playwriting, nonfiction books, and now a novel. Many software options cover only one or two of these options. Scrivener works for all of them.
Organization I’m usually guilty of harboring numerous Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, photographs, scribbled notes on post-its and napkins, and a mess of links that resemble a giant blob of letters. I constantly worry that I’ll forget or miss a key lightbulb moment that I had somewhere along the way. Scrivener keeps even the most copious note takers organized and makes the mind numbing tasks of project management a joy.
Inspiration I’m not a terribly visual person by nature. I’m one of those oddball auditory learners. However, fiction pushes me to use my words to illustrate visuals. To help me in that process, I often pin photographs, sketches, graphs, and art onto several Pinterest boards that I consult during the writing process. I’m also a big believer in the power of inspirational quotes (and incidentally so is Emerson Page, the heroine in my current novel, Where the Light Enters.) Scrivener’s split screen option makes it possible for me to open a portion of my writing on one side of the screen and have images and virtual posts that I created on the other side. Scrivener makes these visuals a constant reminder and inspiration to me without hindering the act of writing.
Research incorporation Curious to the nth degree, the research aspect of writing gets me jazzed about a new project no matter what genre it takes. I love being an archaeologist of words and ideas. Scrivener helps me keep all of that research organized and on-hand with its research folders, easy-to-build research templates, bulletin board functionality, and synopsis creator.
Putting it all together God bless copyeditors. I adore them. I’m so glad there are people who love that work because it drives me bonkers. I also hate that my dislike for copyediting makes life for my copyeditors more difficult. The compiler feature of Scrivener helps lessen my copyediting guilt. With a few simple clicks, Scrivener assembles all the pieces of my manuscript into a cohesive whole in a variety of formats so at least the formatting is uniform and my copyeditors can focus on editing at the word level.
Support I hate to download software and then feel like I’m on my own to figure it out. Given all the work I’m doing to prepare for NaNoWriMo, I didn’t want software that would take weeks to learn nor a tool that would be clunky to use during the mad dash of the month-long event. Scrivener has a comprehensive set of informative and entertaining videos that show you its power to enhance your writing. The basic 10-minute video explains all of the key features any writer needs to dive into Scrivener. For those who want to use the more advanced features, there are short videos to explain each of those features. There’s even an interactive demo available to you at all times. Have specific question? Just email them. They got back to me in 24 hours with a detailed answer. Scrivener is a feature buffet: use as many or as few as you like and be a better writer for it.
Other goodies
Scrivener takes dictation and integrates with my audio recording software that I use for my voiceover work. This is perfect for getting true-to-life down on paper. Creating revisions in one document is a snap and the Scrivener dovetails well with Microsoft Word. Importing and exporting content is a snap with drag and drop. For fiction writers, it’s got a groovy name generator tool. Outliners (like me) rejoice – outline until your heart’s content with many layers of organized detail available as you build your story from the ground up.
I could go on, but just go see it for yourself. Invest 10 minutes to watch the intro video and you may discover your new perfect writing partner. I certainly did. Now if they could make my meals, do my laundry, and walk my dog during NaNoWriMo, that would be perfect!
If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year, may the force be with you and let’s connect to cheer each other to the finish line of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. You can find me on the NaNoWriMo platform as christanyc.
Ever wonder how dolphins sleep without drowning? So did I so I asked one of the biologists at Sea World. Dolphins (and whales) are unihemispheric: one half of their brain sleeps while the other half stays awake because they must actively decide to take every breath. This idea is mind-boggling to me. Imagine what we could do with that kind of brain! There is no such thing as impossible, not even if you live in water and breathe air.Sometimes to live a good life with the situation that presents itself, we have to do something insane that’s never been done before. When there’s a will to live, there’s a way. Nature is flipping amazing.
I’m researching and writing like a madwoman for National Novel Writing Month. Truthfully, all I need to do is begin and finish, in that order. 50,000 words in 30 days, roughly 1,800 words per day. There will be many round of revisions after November 30th; most of writing is rewriting. I don’t need any part of it to be perfect this first time around. I’m free to play, experiment, and explore. I have to remember that if I can breathe, then the story will breathe, too.
Time doesn’t get away from us. Put a plate of your favorite food in front of you when you’re starving and then force yourself to stare at it for 10 minutes without moving a muscle. That 10 minutes will feel like an eternity when in reality it passes just as quickly as any other 10 minutes of your life.
What matters is attention and intention. What we focus on and what we do with that focus is what allows us to give our time meaning and value. Don’t throw it away and don’t let other people waste it for you. Treasure your time. It’s a gift, and it’s yours, and only you decide how to spend it. Master its use. Make it count.
To write a compelling story, the characters must want something that matters to them in every scene. If that line isn’t art reflecting life, I don’t know what is. Why are any of us doing anything if we don’t know why we’re doing it? We wouldn’t follow (nor write) a story if the characters weren’t clear on their deepest desire, so why would we live our lives that way? Dorothy didn’t go to Oz because she thought it might be a nice walk. Alice didn’t traipse through Wonderland because she was bored. Characters go in search of something that’s meaningful. And so should we.
My 4-year old niece, Aubree, asked me to pick her up so she could see herself in the mirror. She looked at our reflection and hugged my face. “We are the same!”, she said. She has blond hair and blue eyes. I absolutely don’t.
Kids are amazing because the first thing they see are our similarities. They bring people together. Adults immediately look for differences and divide people. Let’s let kids lead, in our daily lives and on the world stage. We are so much more like all people than we realize. There is always common ground.
Christa Avampato 