Category: creativity

books, courage, creativity, dreams, fiction, love, story

Inspired: Why I’m Really Writing a Novel

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

People say they care about issues, but what people really care about are people who have issues they care about. To motivate someone to reflect and then act, we need to give them a flawed character, someone who’s far from perfect but incredibly likable. Give us a hero or heroine to root for in an against-all-odds quest that forces him or her to grow, evolve, and rise up to a seemingly impossible challenge. We care about that, and that is the seed of all fiction. It’s about character.

My novel, Where the Light Enters, is about Emerson Page, a 15-year old girl who’s been dealt a tough hand and is forced to take an improbable journey that only she can take to save a world she never knew existed and that we all desperately need to remain intact. My book is really about the two greatest sources of magic we will ever have: love and stories. It’s about being brave enough to follow the light that is within us. It’s about the goodness we create when we have the courage to manifest the gifts and talents we are all born with and to celebrate our ability to craft a world in which we take care of each other.

Fiction isn’t invented. It’s with us all the time; it’s the very best part of us. It’s grounded in our potential and our aspirations. Fiction is who we are and who we want to be. That’s why I’m writing a novel: to inspire everyone who reads it to figure out who they are, who they want to be, and how to cross the bridge that connects the two. That’s my issue.

action, creativity, decision-making, time, work, writer, writing

Inspired: The 2 ingredients you need to do great work

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” ~ Leonard Bernstein

This philosophy of time and planning really resonates with me. I’ve always found deadlines and outsized goals to be great motivators. They give me something to aspire to with just enough doubt to make me put my best foot forward. We don’t have forever to maximize and reach the potential within us. We have to act, sooner rather than later, with attention, determination, and energy, and that idea gets my blood pumping. Certainly, the process can feel daunting and scary, though when I look back on my life the things I treasure most are the things that required me to take big chances on big dreams that had an expiration date. That’s as true right now, as I transition to writing full-time, as it’s ever been. The time is now.

action, adventure, creativity, discovery, New York, New York City

Inspired: The future takes shape one piece at a time

Christa Avampato

imageI was in a holding pattern on leaving New York for a long time because I didn’t know where to go. I knew it was time for new adventures but I wasn’t sure where to find them. I still don’t know for sure. I’m going to Orlando to see if that’s the right place. It feels like the right next place, and that’s all that matters right now. Nothing lasts forever. We change our minds. We grow, evolve, and get new information. The only step we ever need is the next one. The road ahead will reveal itself when it’s good and ready, and in pieces. I’m trying to live my life that way, just one step at a time.

creativity, product, product development, productivity

Inspired: We get things done by putting things together

Christa Avampato

A Boeing 747 has 6 million parts; half of them are fasteners. Making something, anything, work is about putting thing together. The magic of any achievement isn’t in the big and flashy, but rather it’s in the small intricate details that often go unseen and unsung. Remember that.

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.

action, adventure, change, creativity, home, moving, New York City

Inspired: I’m Moving to Orlando, Florida

Christa Avampato

From PinterestAfter years of debate, I’ve made the decision to move to Orlando, Florida at least through the end of the year. I’ve been visiting my family there for long stretches of time while keeping my home in New York City. Now I’m flipping the paradigm to have my home in Florida with stretches of time spent visiting New York.

Some of the reasons are economic. How much higher can New York City rent climb? The answer is always higher, and I really want to own a home, a near-impossibility for me in New York. I could fork over an insane amount of monthly rent for a less and less appealing apartment, but that seems foolish. Better to buy a beautiful place in Florida and Airbnb the time I want to be in New York.

Some of the reasons are personal. My mom’s getting older. My little nieces are getting older. I want more space in my life for travel and exploration, and that’s a tough conundrum to crack with the cost of New York City living.

Many of the reasons are professional. I’m turning most of my attention to writing. That includes journalism, copywriting, playwright, and writing my first novel this Fall. I’ll likely add some teaching into the mix in some way. I’ve also got a few product ideas up my sleeves that I want to be able to build and test. In a less expensive city, this multi-faceted career is possible without sacrificing quality of life.

And it’s time for adventure. If New York has taught me anything it’s that I can survive and thrive and be okay anywhere I go. So I’m going to scale some mountains that have been calling my name for a long time. It’s time to meet them where they are.

I’ll have much more to say in the coming weeks about my move out of New York and into Florida. If nothing else, it’s going to be great material. It’s all great material.

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, 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. 

creativity

Inspired: Let your writing teach you how to live well

Christa Avampato

This seems as good a strategy as any for handling change and stress. Isn’t this exactly what we do for our characters in our writing?

image

creativity, simplicity, writing

Inspired: A carpenter’s approach to writing

Christa Avampato

A few weeks ago Seth Godin wrote a blog post about the two questions we should ask before we build anything. I also think they’re worth asking before we begin any creative project and before we start any piece of writing.

What’s it for and how will we know if it worked?

Think of a carpenter. He or she builds a house to provide shelter from the elements. If it keeps out the rain, sleet, or snow, it works. Simple. Elegant. Understandable.

Imagine if we began everything we do with these two questions. Everything we create would have a reason for being and a usefulness that’s clear. Don’t make it any more complicated than that.