"Go to the emotional epicenter, where it hurts most, and write on. If you dare."
~ Bill Donovan, editor/publisher, Creative Screenwriting

"Only connect."
~ E.M. Forster

The call to write is a call to share our emotional depth with others. It's a call to be vulnerable. It's a call to connect.

Thing is, we don’t touch others at a deep level when we connect mind-to-mind, though that connection is a powerful and important one. We touch others at a deep level when we connect heart-to-heart.

Unless we write from our deepest heart, unless we tell the stories that move us, we will never move our readers.

I spent the first chunk of my writing career avoiding writing from what Bill Donovan calls the "emotional eipcenter." I observed and reported, intellectually and dispassionately. I told stories, but without heart.

In not revealing my feelings (at times, not even to myself), I failed to engage my readers in any but superficial ways. I failed them and I failed myself.

I didn't connect.

Do you want to write truth, the truth from which both powerful fiction and nonfiction arise? If you want to write truth, if you want to write words that will touch the deepest emotions and connections and truths of your reader, then you must write what your heart calls on you to write. You must go where you've never dared go before -- in your writing, certainly; in your life, perhaps.

You must, as I write in The Voice of the Muse's "Thirteen Rules for Writing," go for the jugular, for your jugular: "Go for the demon you would run from. Go for the feeling you would flee from. Go for that emotion you would deny. Once you put it on paper, you strip it of its power over you. Once you put it on paper, you free it to empower your work."

You free it, as well, to empower your readers. You empower them to feel their emotions, to be vulnerable and to share their stories.

"We tell our stories in order to live," Joan Didion writes in The White Album

We tell our stories, too, to connect.

There is neither life nor connection outside the heart.

• Where are you refusing to be vulnerable in your writing?

• Where are you afraid to reveal your feelings, perhaps even to yourself?

• In what ways are you reluctant to connect, heart-to-heart, with your readers?

• Where, right now, can you go for the jugular -- your jugular -- and dare to write from your emotional epicenter?

Part of answering the call to write and birthing the book that's inside you involves tapping into that emotional epicenter. I'll be encouraging you to do that in both my upcoming workshops in Albuquerque. See this blog post for more details. (My calendar of upcoming book-signings, classes, workshops and other events is always posted on my page at booktour.com.

Adapted from The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, winner of a 2009 IPPY Silver Medal as one of the top writings books of the year

Photo by Mark David Gerson: Cholla cactus flower, Sandia foothills, Albuquerque, NM

I'm not the one who invents the stories; I'm like a radio... Somehow, if I move the dial very carefully, I'll pick up the wave and get the story... ~ Isabelle Allende


Your stories exist...just as your dreams do. But it's the act of setting them to the page, of letting one word follow the next and then the next and then the next, that makes them real, that "publishes" them.

That's right: The act of publishing is an act of making public.

When you take your stories, those stories that have an existence only in your heart, an existence even your brain-mind may not see, when you take them and draw out the letters, stretch those letters into words and those words into sentences and paragraphs, magic happens. You take something that exists only in the airwaves, like a radio signal that broadcasts at a frequency not normally audible by the human ear, not normally picked up by even the most sophisticated audio equipment... You take that signal, which is your story, and translate it into a frequency that is audible. In doing that, you give it -- and yourself -- a new kind of life. A life in the public realm. A place on the radio dial of your life.

Perhaps you don't seek to have your work published in a conventional sense. Perhaps you do.

At this moment, it doesn't matter.

At this moment, all that matters is answering that call to write. All that matters is tuning in to that frequency, that normally inaudible signal, the one on which your Muse alone broadcasts, tuning in to it and taking down everything you hear. Everything. Without judgment. Without question. Without second-guessing. Without censoring.

All that matters is that you listen...and write.

Can you create enough silence in your life to listen for that radio signal, to listen for the voice of your Muse?

Stop, now. Turn off the radio, the stereo or the TV. Mute your computer.

Close your eyes, open your heart and listen.

What do you hear? What can you "publish" by setting it down on paper?

Take all the time you need. Gift yourself with all the time you need. Gift yourself with your stories, the stories that already exist in the airwaves around you. Gift yourself and the world. Start writing. Now.

If nothing happens beyond the writing, you will still have experienced the miracle of creation. If no one else sees or reads it, it has still been published: It has been given a physical life it never had before.

And just as every action in the universe has an impact on every being in that universe, or so our quantum scientists would have us believe, your words made manifest will have their effect.

If you do move from that point to print, that’s a bonus. But that’s not our starting point. Our starting point is you. You and your Muse. You and your stories. You and the word.

If you'll be in New Mexico on June 20 and would welcome some help and inspiration with your writing, consider The Call to Write: Answering the Voice of Your Muse, an afternoon workshop designed to motivate you and propel you forward on your creative journey. For more information, read the next post or click here.

Adapted from The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, winner of a 2009 IPPY Silver Medal as one of the top writings books of the year

Whether you're published or just starting out, whatever your form or genre, the fact that you're writing speaks to a deep call to express yourself and share your truth with the world. And whether you've worked with me or my book before, my upcoming workshop, The Call to Write: Answering the Voice of Your Muse, will take you deeper -- to the place where your stories reside...the place from which your Muse speaks to you...the place of ease, spontaneity and natural creative flow.

If you're not writing yet or are blocked, The Call to Write will get you writing.

If you're already writing, The Call to Write will open you to new possibilities and keep you writing.

And however you view yourself today, you'll leave The Call to Write with a new appreciation for your innate eloquence and creativity.

In short, you'll never feel the same about writing again!

The workshop takes place on Saturday, June 20 from 1-5pm in the Tramway/Candelaria area of Albuquerque's Northeast Heights.

And because this is my first time offering The Call to Write in New Mexico, I'm making it available at a substantial discount: $55 if you register by June 17. (PayPal and all credit cards accepted.)

But sign up soon: Space is very limited.

You'll find more information about the workshop on the flyer (click on it to see it full size, or email me to have me send one to you). Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Please, too, share this information with anyone you think might be interested.

If you feel any pull toward joining us on June 20, I encourage you to honor it. So often, the call to participate only makes logical sense once you're in the midst of the experience. And it will be a powerful, supportive, nurturing and accelerating experience. I hope to see you there.

Remember, space is limited. So sign up today.

Warm regards,
Mark David

This piece first appeared in my New Earth Chronicles blog

"I am here to remind you that without love, your MoonQuest cannot succeed."
~ The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy

Love will turn your world around, and that world will last forever / Yes, love, love changes everything ... Nothing in the world will ever be the same.
~ from Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Aspects of Love"


Saturday, March 21 ~ Gallup, New Mexico

The black jeep drives out of Denny's parking lot, my daughter Guinevere waving from the back seat. It turns south on Muñoz Drive, then west on I-40 on its way back to Sedona, Arizona.

For ten minutes, I sit numbly in my car, unable to turn the key in the ignition and follow Muñoz to I-40's eastbound ramp, for the two-and-a-half-hour trip home to Albuquerque. When I do, it's a long time before I can turn on the radio or call a friend, the two distractions that often ease long drives for me.

Today, I need silence.

I've experienced many versions of this sadness since December 2004, when I drove out of Sedona in the wake of a marriage breakup and launched the odyssey that ultimately landed me here in New Mexico. But this is one of the most intense, and it takes me several days to figure out why.

Over the next two days, Guinevere emails me a half-dozen YouTube video clips from Easter Parade, Meet Me in St. Louis and Singin' in the Rain, the three classic movie musicals I introduced her to during our March Break visit, each accompanied by a love note. But, unusually, I don't hear from her at bedtime.

On the third night, I call. Her mom explains: Guinevere was more distraught than usual at leaving me and was afraid that talking to me would make her even more upset.

I understand. In those early months after I first left Sedona, I too hesitated to call Guinevere some nights for the same reason.

The next night, I have a seemingly unrelated experience: Someone I would never have considered pursuing romantically because of the yawning gap in our ages, pushes many of my buttons by flirting with me.

My first instinct is to recoil. Then I remember both the counsel I've given friends on that same topic in recent months and words I wrote just two weeks earlier in an online discussion thread on the subject. I was writing about two men. But the words apply to any two potential mates, regardless of gender or orientation:

"It's not age difference by itself that presents the potential problem," I wrote. "It's differences in maturity, psychology, life experience, goals, energy levels and interests that can get in the way. Sure, age differences can exacerbate those issues. But the same issues can easily arise between two men who are the same age.

"Dating someone young enough to be my son would push all sorts of buttons for me. But I wouldn't walk away from the potential for a deep, abiding love based on numbers alone. Love is too rare and special to make up artificial rules that ignore the mystical, magical illogic of the human heart.

"When love comes calling, I'm not going to ask for a birth certificate. I'm going to explore the heart connections that make love so wondrous."

When love comes calling....

Suddenly, I realize that what I've been experiencing is isn't only about me and Guinevere. Nor does it really have anything to do with this guy, who for reasons other than age may not be mate material. It's about how open I truly am to love -- however it chooses to come calling, whatever form it takes.

Back in January, I overcame some of my antipathy to The Secret movie and watched it again. The most profound thing it left me with was a call to write out all the things I was grateful for -- both those already visible in my life and those I desired but had yet to see or experience. The result was a comprehensive, four-page, ever-evolving list of statements related to every aspect of my personal, professional, creative and financial life.

I've been reading it aloud daily ever since.

When, Tuesday night, I get off the phone first with Guinevere and then with this young guy, I run to the computer and add this gratitude/joy statement to the others:

"I am so happy, joyous and grateful, now that I fully embrace and am unconditionally open to all the love directed toward me and flowing to me -- now and in all dimensions of time and space."

At first I think it's only about allowing myself to feel the fullness of my daughter's love and allowing myself to let in the kind of "loving, physically intimate and committed relationship" I've described in one of my other gratitude/joy statements. Then I realize that, as the Beatles so simply put it, "love is all there is."

Love is the energy that fuels everything and is the true source of every item on my four-page list. The only way to achieve my personal, professional, creative and financial goals is to keep opening my heart wider and wider to receive that love, however it comes calling.

The more open-hearted and vulnerable I can become, the more I can allow love in all its forms to touch and transform me. These forms can include the words of my next novel as much as the success of this one. They can include financial freedom as much as loving relationships.

They can also include pain.

The love from an unexpected source that led to my marriage became the pain of its dissolution. The joy of a week with my daughter is also the heartache of our parting.

What last week reminded me was that love can bring pain as well as joy, and that unless I'm open to a full experience of love's pain, I will never experience the heights of its joy and passion.

It also reminded me that the best inner and outer work I can be doing in these times of intense upheaval involves not only keeping my heart open but doing everything in my power to open it yet more...and more...and more -- to myself, to everyone else and to all the ways love presents itself, even if they're potentially painful to me or to someone else.

When love comes calling, whatever form it takes, I choose to be the open vessel that welcomes it and allows it to fill me with all my heart desires -- the four pages' worth that I know about as well as the infinite realms of desire I cannot yet begin to imagine.

Love does change everything. Everything.

I'm now ready to embrace it. Unconditionally.

Are you?

Please share your thoughts here.

You don't have to experience writer's block. Ever.

You don't have to sweat over the blank page. You don't have to chew your pencil (or fingernails) to the nub. You don't have to wonder where the next word is coming from.

Writer's block is a myth -- not because you won't ever feel stuck but because there's no reason for you ever to stay stuck.

Do you wonder where your next breath is coming from? Unless you suffer from some sort of lung disease, you rarely think about your breath. You assume it will come and it does. One breath and then another...and then another.

It comes because you let it, because you don't get in its way, because you're not thinking about it or worrying about it.

Words can be like that, too.

If you trust in your story, in its inherent wisdom, the words always come. The words always come because they're already there. They're there because, in some sense, your story already exists.

It exists in the same invisible realm in which your dreams, visions and ideas exist. And if you believe in that existence, if you trust in that existence, if you know deep in your heart that your story is already present and smarter than you are, you will never lack the words your story needs for its expression.

By the way, I use the word "story" in its broadest sense, to encompass all that you would write -- fiction or nonfiction, novel or screenplay, short story or poem. Everything you write, everything you experience, everything you share: It's all story.

So how do you get to that place where the story's words flow as effortlessly as your breath?

By writing. By writing without stopping...without stopping for any reason that could give your critical, judgmental, doubtful, cynical or analytical selves any opportunity for input during these initial, creative stages.

I call this nonstop approach "writing on the Muse Stream" because I believe that when we surrender to our Muse, creativity pours through us as effortlessly as water in a free-flowing stream.

It's natural to want to edit as we go, to want to stop to correct spelling, punctuation or grammar or to grope for the right word.

Don't do it. If you can't think of a word, leave a blank space or write xxx. If you don't like a word you’ve written, mark it in some way and move on. Don’t stop.

"Fine words," I hear you say. "But I'm still stuck."

You may be stuck, but you're not blocked. And you certainly haven't lost your creative ability.

You can't lose something that's an innate part of you, that's an innate part of everyone. Creativity is as natural as breathing and as long as you're breathing, you can write.

Here are seven reasons why you might be feeling stuck and some ways to get unstuck.


Fear

Are you discovering things about yourself or your beliefs through your writing that are making you uncomfortable? Is your story carrying you into new, potentially dangerous territory?

Fear will always block us from moving forward in our writing, if we let it. The only solution is to keep writing -- through the fear. Past the fear.

Your fears -- and all your emotions -- can be the most powerful components of your writing. Don't run from them. Write them.


Control

When we assume that we're in charge of the story, that it has to look or sound a specific way, conform to a particular genre or format, or match a certain outcome or expectation, we're bound to get stuck.

Your story has its own imperative and its own wisdom. You override those at your peril.

Abandon control. Let your story express itself. Let your Muse have its way with you. Let the words spill out of you -- the words your story needs, not the words you think you need.

Write on the Muse Stream, and just keep going. If you find yourself getting stuck, simply repeat your last word or sentence (or any word or sentence). Repeat them over and over and over and over again until you find yourself back in the flow. And you will.


Rhythms & Routines

Human beings like routine. We like breakfast at a certain time and a certain kind of muffin with our Starbucks coffee.

As writers, we often prefer to have set writing times and patterns: writing in a certain room, using a certain pen and sitting down at a certain time.

Routines, however, can turn into ruts. What worked yesterday may not work today...or ever again.

If you're feeling stuck, you may well be stuck -- in a pattern that's not working anymore.

Try new rhythms and routines. Break existing patterns.

Go for a walk, do yoga stretches, take a shower or do something else unrelated to writing or to your current project. Drive to a scenic spot and write in the car. Write in the morning instead of the afternoon, longhand instead of on the computer, in a café instead of at home.

Find the rhythm and routine that works for you today, and be open to changing it tomorrow.


Perfectionism

Whether in writing or in life, many of us are addicted to getting it right. Being perfect means we won't be criticized, judged or rejected. A perfect first draft means fewer revisions. Being perfect is, well, just a good thing to be. Isn't it?

I’ve got bad news: It will never be perfect. It may be excellent, accomplished, creative, innovative and insightful. But perfect? Not possible.

It's not possible because there's no perfect way to translate the intangible (ideas, thoughts, visions) into words on a page. There's no perfect way to describe a brilliant sunset or profound emotion in a way that guarantees each reader an experience identical to yours.

Do your best. But if you're intent on making it perfect, you may find yourself stuck on the same story -- or sentence -- for the rest of your writing life, never growing into something new.


Timing

Recognize that what appears as a block may be a matter of timing. If you've written as deeply into a story as you can and find yourself unable to continue, it may be that you need more life experience (or research) before you're ready to go on.

Instead of calling yourself "blocked," welcome the break -- to do research, to work on a different project or to get on with your life, trusting that you'll know when it's time to get back to it.


Passion

If you're feeling stuck, ask yourself whether the story is one that excites and impassions you, one that fires you up more than anything else you could be writing. Is it the right idea for you right now? Or is it just another good idea that anyone could write.

If you've lost the excitement (or never had it) and cannot rekindle your enthusiasm, consider that this may not be the best project for you at this time.

Lack of passion is a guaranteed recipe for stuckness. Passion, on the other hand, will always fuel your writing.


Self-Respect

Respect yourself and your writing. Respect every draft. Every word.

The more you beat yourself up over your writing, output or creative ability, the more you're inviting the kind of paralysis that feeds writer's block.

Discard judgment and punishing discipline. Cultivate discernment and discipleship. Recognize that every word, draft and emotion is an integral part of your creative journey. Honor all aspects of that journey -- including the painfully uncomfortable ones -- and writer's block will become a myth for you, too.


Adapted from The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write (LightLines Media, 2008)

This post first appeared on my New Earth Chronicles blog.

Today at noon ET, when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America, it was not only his inauguration but ours. It was an inauguration for each of us willing to step into a new world with him.

If only 10 percent of us -- in this country and around the world -- leap across the threshold today into that new beginning saying "Yes, I can. Yes, we can," and if we not only believe it but act on it and live it, this country and this planet will be changed forever.

Are you part of that 10 percent? Are you ready to turn your back on fear? Are you ready to embrace all parts of you and of each other in love and respect? Are you ready to embrace possibility, hope and potential?

What can you do in your life today -- right now -- to anchor this new beginning? How can you embody your possibility and your potential?

Share it here. Then be it. Now.