Category: art

art, creativity, writing

Inspired: How to weather storms

Christa Avampato
All storms eventually give way to brighter skies
All storms eventually give way to brighter skies

A few days ago, I wrote the most difficult scene in my novel. It was difficult to write because it has to raise the stakes of Emerson Page, the heroine, to a level that cause her life to change forever. While I was writing it, I kept thinking of Haruki Murakami’s beautiful quote about the reason for storms:

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

All the storms of our lives have a purpose. Some show us how strong we are. Others show us what we care about and how much. And others are just there to show us how wonderful life can be when the storm has passed. Whatever the reason, they all matter, and the goal isn’t simply to survive, but to thrive in their aftermath and delight in what remains.

If you’re facing storms now, and who among us isn’t?, I hope you find some comfort in the idea that no matter what the reason for your particular storm, there is something to learn. It may be buried deep; you may not see the learning until the skies brighten again. But it’s there; like the sun and the moon and the stars, it’s always there.

action, art, creativity, writer, writing

Inspired: I practice method writing to get into character

Christa Avampato
Choose your own adventure
Choose your own adventure

Writers spend a lot of time writing, and they also need to *really* live to infuse life and authenticity into their writing. Writing is theater; it’s a one person show and the writer plays all the parts. To help me get into character, I practice method writing. Like method acting, I imagine how the characters in my writing would act when they experience events in my every day life. I read the news with their eyes. I consider how they’d make the decisions that I face. As an author, I live life many times over; it’s like skipping ahead in a choose your own adventure story to see which ending I like best. Despite deadlines, all writers need a life. Your characters will thank you for it, and so will your readers.

art, creativity, passion, time, writer, writing

Inspired: Writer Toni Morrison proves we have time to follow our passions

Christa Avampato
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison

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.

art, balance, writer, writing

Inspired: What the U.S. Constitution taught me about writing and perfectionism

Christa Avampato

U.S. ConstitutionThe 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!

adventure, art, creativity, discovery, story, writing

Inspired: What fiction writers learn from Michelangelo and Indiana Jones

Christa Avampato
Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones

Legend has it that Michelangelo conducted autopsies to heighten his understanding, and thus his art, of the human body. Fiction writers must also conduct autopsies, though their subjects are stories. Compelling, intricate, luscious stories.

I’m reading and watching a lot of fiction as I prepare to write Where the Light Enters during National Novel Writing Month. As I read and watch, I sketch the story. At the end of every scene, I answer these questions:

  • Whose POV is represented?
  • What happens?
  • What did I learn about the characters and the story?
  • What were the interesting turns of phrase and images?
  • What did I learn about the characters through their actions?
  • How did it end?
  • What questions am I asking that move me to keep reading and watching?

At the end, I answer these questions:

  • What was the story about?
  • What happened?
  • Who’s story is it?
  • Do I care and if so, why?
  • What questions remain?
  • Did I get what was promised at the beginning of the story? And what was it?

This exercise is immensely valuable and fun.Like Indiana Jones, an archeologist who digs in the dirt for buried treasure, I’m discovering the bone structure, value, and meaning of the words that comprise page-turning books.

What have your learned about writing from reading?

art, books, child, childhood, children, creativity, literature, museum, New York City, story, writer, writing

Inspired: Madeline in New York – Ludwig Bemelmans Art Exhibit at New-York Historical Society

Christa Avampato
Exhibit at the New-York Historical Society

“For me Madeline is therapy in the dark hours.” ~ Ludwig Bemelmans

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines…” is one of the most famous introductions to one of the most famous characters in children’s literature: Madeline. Ludwig Bemelmans created Madeline after a terrible accident that left him hospitalized at the age of 39. His hospital roommate was a young girl who had her appendix removed. Her stories of her life inspired Bemelmans to create Madeline.

Eventually Bemelmans recovered from his injuries and published his first Madeline book at age 41 after 20+ years of working in hotels in New York. During those two decades, he consistently practiced his art and slowly built up his freelance portfolio. His example has been a great inspiration to me as a writer.

Madeline was Bemelmans’ second act after many years of difficult work in a completely different industry. He never lost his optimism and never gave up. And thank goodness. Not only is Madeline therapy for him, but it’s therapy for all of his readers and admirers, particularly little girls who strive to be strong, brave, and courageous. The New-York Historical Society has mounted a retrospective of Bemelmans’ life and art with Madeline in New York: The Art of Ludwig Bemelmans.

Bemelmans Bar is one of my favorite bars in New York – tucked away in the Carlyle Hotel on East 76th Street. The walls are covered with his original drawings. It’s a good place to dream, and drink. If you’re in New York, I highly recommend it.

adventure, art, books, creativity, story, writer, writing

Inspired: If we keep writing, the pieces will snap together

Christa Avampato
One of the pictures from my Pinterest board that inspires Emerson Page.
One of the pictures from my Pinterest board that inspires Emerson Page.

“Early on, all our movies suck. Saying that in a softer way fails to convey how bad the first versions really are. Pixar films are not good at first, and our job is to make them so–to go ‘from suck to not-suck’.” ~ Ed Catmull, President of Pixar

I’ve been working through my story plan checklist for my novel, Where the Light Enters. I’ve got lists, notes, index cards, links, and photos that I’m using for inspiration. What seemed like a lot of disparate pieces are now gelling together, and the story barely resembles the original idea. To make this progress, I had to stay open to possibilities, remain aware of new information that could help move the story forward, and begin to share bits and pieces of ideas with others to get their feedback. You can be part of the process and follow Emerson Page, the heroine of Where the Light Enters, on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. She’s loved to talk to you.

 

 

art, happiness, movie

Inspired: Figure out how to be happy and then do it – a lesson from The Angriest Man in Brooklyn

Christa Avampato
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn

“Would you want to know when you’re going to die?”
“No.”
“But if you could, what would you do with the time you had left?”
“I’d try to figure out how to be happy.”
“Then why don’t you?” ~ From The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, one of the last films staring Robin Williams

I hear a lot of people say that finding what makes us happy and doing it is easier said than done. I used to be one of those people. Now that I’m doing what makes me happy, I realize the action of deciding to do what makes me happy is easier than anything else I’ve ever done because it’s just who I am. My heart, head, and hands are all aligned toward the same goal: to be the best writer I can be and to tell stories that help people. I figured out how to be happy and then just did it. And it feels pretty darn good. I recommend it. 

art, commitment, courage, creativity, theatre

Inspired: How Sing After Storms Won at the Thespis Theater Festival

Christa Avampato

Sing After Storms For the team that worked feverishly on-stage and behind-the-scenes at Sing After Storms, I will be forever grateful, forever standing on my feet and giving you a standing ovation of wild applause for your courage and commitment to create. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

We didn’t win the Thespis Theater Festival in the traditional sense.* We were one of 6 finalists nominated for best play out of 39 plays presented, and we didn’t walk away with any prize money. To me, we won in every sense that matters: getting down a painful, powerful, and thought-provoking story to free it in the hopes that it helps to free others.

Theater is hard, so damn hard. It’s more difficult to create than many other art forms because we must build it together. That togetherness must then be orchestrated and tuned with a light, but steady and confident hand. It’s about giving boundaries—the story lines, the confines of the physical space, time—and then just letting people play within those boundaries. It’s a heavy burden and a limitless gift. We put our story out there into the world for judgement and critique, and then allow others to change it, color it, and give it its own life separate and apart from the life the playwright infused into it.

It hurts to let a story go out into the world to fend for itself, and yet in that letting go it saves, serves, and heals. Perhaps that’s the greatest gift that this show has given me—the chance to be free and whole all at once, and the chance to find and sing my song.

*Comparing large-scale musicals to intimate relationship-based dramas, and films of staged shows to live performances, seems a bit odd to me. It also seems unfair to expect a show that was staged two and a half months ago to pull a cast and crew back together with 5 days notice over a holiday weekend to give a performance to be judged against shows that closed much more recently. However, I’m willing to put that aside now that I’ve written it down and expressed my opinion so I can feel nothing but pride for our team. Thanks for allowing me to digress for a moment. 

art, books, story, writer, writing

Inspired: Meet Emerson Page—the heroine of my first novel, Where the Light Enters

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I want you to meet someone I’m going to spend a lot of time with this Fall. This is a sketch of Emerson Page, the heroine of my first novel, Where the Light Enters. She’s 15, strong-willed, curious, and battling both personal and external demons. She’s stronger than she thinks she is, more talented than she ever imagined in ways she never knew were possible, and is about to learn some deep secrets about her heritage, the world around her, and the world that exists just below the surface of our awareness. Emerson loves technology, is fascinated by the weather and nature, happily gets lost in stories, and is devoted to animals, especially her therapy dog, Friday. For now, she lives in New York City, but that’s about to change, sort of.

I’ll write the first draft of Where the Light Enters this November as part of National Novel Writing Month. The title is inspired by this quote from Leonard Cohen’s song, Anthem: “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” And by this quote from Rumi: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

I found this picture while scrolling through Pinterest and pinned it up at my desk. This visual helps me watch the story unfold. I tried to figure out who the artist is, but no luck. If you recognize this sketch, please let me know!