A trick for increasing creativity

It's simple, and I've known so many people who did it accidentally, or out of habit, that I never asked myself if there might be a positive reason for what seemed a scattered and haphazard behavior.  It is this: read more than one book at the same time.  Deliberately. And one of them should be non-fiction.  This works just as well if, like me, you get a huge portion of your input from audio sources.  for instance, I listen to one CD in the morning during my "Golden Hour", but recently started listening to another in my car when I'm taking Jason to his babysitter every morning.  I realized that the idea from one were "bumping up against" the ideas in the other in a very pleasant way, and some of those ideas were getting warm and friendly and making babies.  Tons of my very smartest friends do the same thing, but I'd never heard them explain it in just this way--it was just a habit pattern, and sometimes they were even sheepish about it.  Give it a try!

Fire, Storytelling, and Human Consciousness

The following is an approximation of a talk given in 2004 at the Smithsonian Institute by yours truly. 
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Approximately 30,000 years ago there was a major shift in human consciousness, if one judges by cave paintings in France and South Africa.Human beings who, before, had been exquisitely aware of their environment suddenly seemed to become aware that THEY were in the environment.  It was as if the ego suddenly awakened.
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For centuries, people have theorized about what separates humanity from other animals.  I've heard a lot of things, most of them have either been disproven or depend upon discounting apparently similar behaviors in other species: speech, tool-using, dreaming, year-round sexuality, all kindsa interesting stuff.  I decided on my own theory, one that definitely irritated my cultural and biological anthropologist friends--although they couldn't disprove it.  My distinction is this: human beings are that group of creatures that make and use fire as a tool.  All human societies use fire.  No animals do.  So there.
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What relationship might one draw between fire and consciousness, however?  And how is it linked to storytelling?  Well...
Fire was probably first observed through spontaneous combustion, volcanic activity, or lightning strikes.  Humans used it, and then somehow tamed it.  It was a great weapon against predators, and allowed people to control light.  This was vital, because we aren't great nocturnal hunters, and many of the things that killed us were.  Fire also allowed us to harden the tips of spears, making them more effective killing tools--making hunting more efficient.  Fire could also be used to drive herds of animals too large to be easily hunted by puny human muscles--drive them into defiles and over cliffs.  The acquisition of large amounts of high-grade protein became a reality.  Fire could also be used to cook that meat, making the protein more bioavailable, leading to the expansion of cranial size in subsequent generations, increasing intelligence and leading to the development of more complex and efficient hunting strategies--an ascending spiral that lead to human beings being the most efficient predators that have ever lived.
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But these more efficient hunting strategies lead to the need to communicate with other hunters, both ON the hunt and during preparatory periods.  A successful tactic can't just be rediscovered accidentally over and over--it needs to be taught to the younger hunters.  Pantomime, hand signs, and auditory symbols became even more vital to the maintenance of that flow of high-quality protein, and as societies became larger and more complex, that protein flow became more and more important.  After all, nobody every referred to the chief's elite guard as "beet-eaters," did they?
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Fire allowed another fascinating development: controlled shadows on rocks and cave walls. Rather than just being limited to shadows thrown by the sun, medicine men and women had controlled light, could plan shadow-dances (such as the Southwest Indian "Kochina Dances") to "reveal the spirits" of the young males and females.  As fire extended the hours of social interaction, group communication blossomed, and with controlled shadows came the awareness that 3-dimensional forms could create 2-dimensional images: the beginnings of abstract art, and perhaps abstract thought itself.  The beginnings of cave painting,  anyone?
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Symbols on cave walls and rocks and trees, more permanent than shamanic symbols drawn in dirt, created proto-written language.  Complex series of pantomimed motions around the fire evolved into stories: those who kept their children's interest best communicated their messages best. To the degree that those messages enhanced survival, their children survived: THE STORYTELLER'S CHILDREN SURVIVED, and those who could not arrange their messages in such a fashion were less successful at passing on these memes.
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Storytelling allowed us to bind information in nonlinear matrices: not just sequenced by temporal order, but accented by emotional meaning.  After all, your first kiss, shared thirty years ago, is more significant than the cheese sandwich you ate yesterday.  The creation of origin stories--which in all cultures connect the people directly to the Gods and Goddesses--became important to the unity of a people.  I suspect that the admirable resiliency of the Jewish people is due partly to the strength of their stories.  And note this: if you want my opinion of one of the core reasons black Americans have struggled so much, they may be the ONLY people in the history of the world who have been so utterly cut off from their own creation myths--they have no language, no ancient heroes, and worship a god-figure that resembles their oppressor.  Scary.  When you have no story, you accept whatever you are told.
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Storytelling allowed people to carry their identity with them, to travel to other lands and communicate, through shamanic symbols, that they were the great people of the valley, or the mountain, who have traveled far and wish only peace...or demand tribute...or wish to marry their sons and daughters.  Whatever.  It allowed them to control their identity, which is critical to emotional and social health.
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Each of us has the ability, and the right, and the obligation to investigate our cultural  and personal myths.  Our ancestors fought for uncounted thousands of years to develop the sophisticated tools ow available to us.  Pray to god we won't waste them on "Baywatch." 
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But then...oops!  I wrote four episodes of that noble show, didn't I...

A letter on the 5MM

Steve,
It is good to have your blog as a means to keep 'in touch' with you. I am
following your constant (and quite excellent) suggestions. And I just had to
tell you what happened today:

I found myself having to walk home from work, about 1 1/2 - 2 miles, no
biggie, and I was carrying 2 bags, one weighing about 5 lbs and the other
about 7. It was pretty cold outside, maybe 43 degrees and raining, and I
decided to practice the "Be Breathed" technique. Well, two specific things
happened: 1) Once I became 'immersed' in the technique it was very hard to
stop, and 2) I began to feel... heat, like a turned up heating pad, in my
belly and lower abdomen, that intensified the more and 'better' I breathed.
It was strange and exciting and I thought, Damn! I should tell Steve! And
here I am! Any insights?
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Our bodies have incredible abilities to protect and make themselves comfortable.  Using the Be Breathed technique during any exercise or exertion increases the effects many fold...this particular effect I hadn't seen while practising it, but HAVE seen during other breathing activities, and Be Breathed is super-compatible.  In fact, more than anything it is a new way to view a variety of powerful techniques, linking them together into what might almost be considered a "super-technique."  If you haven't gotten your copy of the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE, do it!

Steve

She Hate Me (2004)

This film of a black executive, fired for being a whistle-blower, forced to make a living impregnating lesbians (!) qualifies as one of the most vilified films of the year.  I think it's one of director Spike Lee's best films--although it contains his trademarked tirades, they are integrated into the story better than most.  Those who have been reading this blog would guess why I think it was so incredibly vilfied: the sexual content.  You might agree, you might disagree.  But go to
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/she_hate_me/
to see a sampling of the nation's critical response.  Then rent the film and tell me if you think it deserved such approbation.  Perhaps it did. Individual films are impossible to evaluate on a "did it fail because of factor X" basis.  Only a CLASS of films, dozens or hundreds deep, can reveal a statistical abberation.  Still, I invite the look.  In a saner world, "She Hate Me" is a tale of sexuality, personal responsiblity, a cry to black fathers to take responsibility for the children they make--ultimately a moral, challenging tale.  And one that was absolutely doomed from the start.  I can only say that I loved it--I can't say it's good.  I'm sure that some of the critics trashed it with reason.  I am also certain that some of those reasons would never be admitted publicly...or perhaps even to themselves.  An "A-"

Women and Men round Two: duck and cover

Ah, things are heating up.  I love it.  Time to make my attitude clear enough for folks to attack me for what I really mean, rather than what they THINK I meant.
1)  women are not superior to men.  When I said that the world could use more feminine energy, it's not that I'd like there to be more feminine than masculine energy.  It's that I think we're a little out of balance in the direction of the male. I also think this was inevitable, and a consequence of the type of organizational structure necessary to get through the Industrial Revolution--so far as I know, every society that made that leap organized itself in a more or less heirarchical, patriarchal form.  I love the line in "The Chalice and the Blade"--Matriarchies are the best places to live in times of peace.  and the worst to live in times of war.  Because I believe wars are caused by the "zero sum" mentality that most men and women have, the increase in population naturally causes people to come into conflict over philosophies and resources. 
2) Like everyone out there, I have the right to an opinion about men and women.  If we don't know each other, we must be walking through life with our eyes closed.  It's a fact: I've probably spent more time around women than the average heterosexual woman. I was raised by my mother and my sister, have lived with one of three different women my entire adult life, and have an 18 year old daughter.  I've spent WAY more time around women than men, and would have to be a moron not to have an informed opinion.
3) I tend to consider groups equal, and then modify the opinion from there.  I've found that this works lots better than considering them wildly different, and then searching for similarities.  Men and women have different types of strength, but both are strong.  Ultramarathon events?  That would definitely shade toward women, who are physiologically set for a "big painful push" lasting several hours.  On the other hand, watching men and women suffering similar injuries, they seem to bitch and wail and moan about equally.  I think people are more impressed by a woman not losing her cool under such circumstances because of cultural b.s., and more contemptuous of, say, a big bad football player wailing his woe because of similar cultural expectations.
4)  Men and women have horrific capacities for cruelty, and similar capacities for kindness.  I think the enlightened human being is a blend of the male and female, and that if you tilt too far in either direction you get something monstrous.  But women tend to excuse their own brand of monstrousness--or suggest that these are not "true" feminine characteristics.  Men do the same.  We have blind spots for our own group's particular brand of evil.  Men TEND to do their evil more directly, women TEND to do their evil more indirectly, by manipulation.  But you know what?  In situations where women have a physical advantage of size over men or other women?  They act just about as directly as men. 
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I tend to think that an example of "out of balance" was the current Bush White house, the most ultra-male I've seen in my lifetime. Colin Powell seemed to me the most "feminine" voice of the bunch, with Condoleza Rice clearly considering herself a mated pair to Bush (her famous gaff about "my husband" surprised me not even a little.)  With such a testosterone-heavy bunch, it was logical for them to look at the American military, the most fearsome death machine ever created, and be incapable of believing that this blunt tool could not fix any problem.  You know what?  You can't fix a television set with a hammer.  But they eschewed a more "feminine", non-heirarchical approach (namely, get more of the world in cooperation.  Understand what motivations the terrorists have, and do what is honorable to remove any rational motivations.  Simultaneously, of course, you use the more masculine approach of killing each and every son of a bitch responsible for 9/11, and grinding their organization into dust.  A nice, balanced approach) in favor of attacking Iraq.  There may well be many good reasons for attacking Iraq, but there are also some damned fine arguments why it was a freaking world-class cock-up as well.
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So--As with all the themes on this blog, the question is balance.  I think that we are headed into an era of greater feminine influence, and I'm all for that.  But if the women ever gained total control, we'd be in just as much sewage as we are when the men have it.  Of course,  that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Steve

Men and Women

Ah. Who has it worse?  I think in some isolated circumstances the answers are obvious one way or another, but in general, I think that nature screws 'em both over to make more babies.  How in the world could we come to any kind of a metric that would farily estimate?  Now, let me make it clear: I am not happy that average income for the same work is not equal.  Not happy that we've never had a serious female candidate for president.  Not happy about a lot of things...but I think they are coming.  In fact, I see nothing that could really prevent them from coming other than a collapse of civilization.  If that happens, of course, slavery and complete domination are right around the corner.  But I digress.
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The problem with coming up with some way to evaluate comparitive freedoms, satisfactions, or whatever between the genders is a huge one.  For one thing, any method suggested is likely to be loaded in favor of the proposer's pet position.  The fun thing would be to have male and female chauvenists facing off against each other and let 'em have it.  Unfortunately, most of the folks interested in a forum like this share my feeling that more feminine balance in the world is a good thing--as long as we don't weaken in the process.

Some time ago, maybe a couple of years, I was asked when I might think black/white disparities had been erased.  It took months to come up with what I thought was a good standard:
1) equal life expectancies.
2) Equal incarceration rates.
3) Equal amounts of inherited wealth passing from generation to generation.
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Now, the interesting thing is that when I apply this standard to men and women, women are already winning on 2/3rds of 'em.  That doesn't necessarily mean anything--one could take the position that one can't port such statistics from race to gender.  It is, however, interesting, and has the virtue of being non-loaded: that is, I created it for one situation, and almost accidentally applied it to another.  I don't propose it as any kind of answer.  Is interesting, though, and might make for some good conversation.  What non-subjective standards for male/female equality would you folks like to see? 
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My Topics at Storycon/Brain conference

I thought I'd list the subject matters and capsule descriptions, since I'm going to be referencing these in the days to come.  Feel free to write me at lifewrite@aol.com or to add a message concerning those topics you would most like me to expand on.

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Friday workshop--(The Genius zone). Two hours. The first holistic writing system.   A practical method of both reaching your ultimate potential as a writer and human being.  You are the instrument that writes, that senses and experiences the world.  It is your energy, your mind, your heart that will determine the quality, creativity and honesty of your work, and the success of your career.  How to organize your life to harvest the maximum number of “peak performance” moments. How to use the “Golden Hour” concept to ensure consistent, stress-free improvement in every arena of your life.


Saturday-- Storytelling and the Origin of human consciousness. Saturday.  Originally presented at the Smithsonian Institute  in April of 2004, this talk deals with  two powerful forces that interacted to define and accelerate human consciousness: fire and storytelling

Sunday--40 minutes to talk about Creativity/ Mind-body.
The Mastery Technique: secrets of Self-Directed Human evolution.  This talk, based partially on a century of Soviet research, analyzes the common threads between martial arts, yoga, sufi dancing, and other advanced body/mind dynamic systems to reveal a safe, consistently effective path to personal mastery that begins with an investment of only five minutes a day!
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And it was that last talk, on the "Mastery" technique, that generated the most interest.  Great fun was had by all...

Men and women

all right--controversy time again.  Last week we concentrated on tribal issues--the question of black and white and yellow.  I laid out my thoughts on race relations and privilege, and we went around and around (as if we were going to resolve THAT one in a week!).  This week, thoughts on gender.
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To me, men and women are two halves of the same organism, inseparable.  We fulfill different biological functions (women are the ones who get pregnant) and have differing advantages and disadvantages by nature.  Society over-emphasizes those differences, perhaps, and at times men take advantage of their overt 'over-structure" power to dominate women.  Of course, women use every advantage they have, as well.  I remember during the slasher movie era, all of the emphasis was on how these movies placed women in peril.  Well, duh.  The reason is that NO ONE CARES if you put men in jeopardy.  If a slasher kills a man, the audience damned near cheered.  If the slob can't fight back, to hell with him!  But if a woman was placed in jeopardy, the entire audience was reacting with "save that poor woman!"  I saw movies in which two women died, six men died, and NO ONE REMEMBERED the men's deaths. It just didn't register. 
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Any culture that doesn't produce a certain number of crazy, aggressive over-confident young warrior males will die unless it is protected by natural barriers: atop a mountain, on an island, out in the desert, etc.  Check out all the listings of the "peaceful" cultures--they can't compete with the warlike ones.  Cultures become warlike BECAUSE IT IS SUCCESSFUL.  If we want to evolve as a species, we'd better understand this, so that we can develop what I would call TRUE warrior cultures: capable of defense, but committed to peace. 
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In order to convince these young males to march off and die in defense, a culture creates a mythology about how this is just peachy.  Just wonderful.  And women collaborate in this, you bet your butt.  In my entire life, I have NEVER heard a man criticise a woman for her lack of courage.  I don't doubt it happens, but I've never heard it.  Both men and women have contempt for men who will not place themselves at risk.  Remember: young males will do anything to have access to sex.  The most "beautiful" (I understand how subjective that term is, but please don't nit-pick) women in almost any culture go to the most aggressive and powerful males (thank goodness that in our culture intelligence is starting to be considered powerful!).  So young males are trained to be aggressive, to embrace their testosterone.  Other males encourage them too, of course--I only emphasize the women because of the number of women who have been callous enough to suggest that it is appropriate for men to die in war because they are the ones who start them.  That's like saying it is appropriate for women to have full and sole responsibility for raising children because they are the ones who get pregnant.  WE CREATE THIS WORLD TOGETHER, male and female, and the patterns that we see are those which were most successful in allowing a culture to increase population and pass their cultural memes along. 
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What exactly are the differences between men and women?  Where do they originate?  How malleable are their natures? This is fodder for countless stories.  I have presented my basic position above, but it can be enlarged on endlessly.  We'll play with it a bit more, but remember: to me, men and women are almost exactly the same, with some leetle teeny differences that have been over-emphasized.  In my experience, the less successful people are with sustaining relationships, the vaster they tend to think these differences are.  What do you think? 

Week #4--Yearlong Writer program

So...if you're on week #4 (and of course you can start week #1 at any time), you'll be writing your fourth rough draft this week (keep those stories SHORT!) and polishing the sotry you wrote in week #2. At the end of the week, you'll send it out for editorial purusal.  Maybe it will be accepted, probably it will be rejected.  Can you deal with rejection?  If not, you'd better learn to!  Rejection is the door to success, people.  You must develop the hide of a rhino if you want to protect your heart.  Even more valuable will be to develop a core so strong that your skin can be torn away, and you remain the centered, spiritual being that you are.  You become invulnerable if you go deeply enough into your creative process.  This is what meditation is for, to find the fortress within.  I would suggest the heartbeat meditation for those who are unfamiliar with the inner world.  It is safe, and powerful, and doesn't cost a dime.  You need no gurus or biofeedback tapes.  Just sit quietly, and listen to/feel your heartbeat. The more you relax, the easier it is to find that steady life rhythm.  this is the real you--or at least it is closer to your core.  To reach your goal of being a professional writer, you will need to write a million words.  That's a thousand words a day for three years.  Or three thousand words a day for a year.  Or five hundred words a day for six years--the choice is up to you.  But you must burn your way through the cliched phrasing and hacknied Tolkein knock-offs and the adolescent sexual fantasies and the overly-intellectual treatises. You need volume.  Just as with your kids: the "quality time" concept sucks.  What there is, is quantity time. Quality arises spontaneously, chaotically, according to patterns that are beyond our conscious control.  We must live in mthe space of creativity, breathe it, sleep it. And then, one day when we are not looking the dragons within awaken as our servants instead of our opponents.  And that is a wonderful day.
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So what will you write about this week?  Look at the chakras again. If your body healed and healthy?  Your sex drive appropriate and strong?  If not, create a metaphorical story functioning on one of these levels, and write it.  Or take a look at your heart.  Where is the great damage in your heart?  I had issues of love and family, issues of race and culture, issues of identity and self-worth.  Read my work, and you will see these issues played out again and again--self-therapy, therapeutic metaphor plaed out in the arena of commercial writing.  It works so well it's almost cheating. Give it a try!

Steve

Blind Spots and Privilege

Some may disagree, but I think that the major communication problem that has kept the discussion about Race going is that those who recieve privilege have an excruciatingly difficult time seeing it.   Often, people believe that if they were members of a disadvantaged group, they would actually have done BETTER in life (I can hardly think of a greater insult.)  There are so many gradients of advantage that almost everyone has experienced the positive and negative results, and most of us are in more than one category at the same time: White, male, Christian, American, lean-bodied, heterosexual, wealthy, educated, tall--these are just some of the "advantage" categories, and there are many others, and in different cultures you can plug in different values.  Of course, there are specific social situations where being gay, working-class, non-Christian, female, black or Asian, etc. can also have advantages.  In general, most of these are more restricted.  One of the exceptions, is the Male-Female dichotomy, which I think really doesn't work as strongly to the detriment of women as many women think.  It can't be argued that in countries like  Afghanistan women suffer  terribly--but note that this created the highest infant mortality rate in the world, a condition that would have crippled their society within a couple of generations.  When it comes to men and women, I tend to think that women's dreams are disposible, and men's lives are disposible--that each side pays massively to create a society in which the maximum number of children have a chance to survive into the next generation...but that is a subject for another time.
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What IS a subject is, if I am correct, it is horrendously difficult for the people who have recieved privilege to see it.  They usually just can't.  Until the thing about black men and sex is pointed out, white folks cannot see it.  It has amazed me, but it's true.  And I think Americans don't tend to see or believe the way their advantages have caused misery to others.  It is just hard.  It triggers guilt, and even more, I think it triggers a sense of: "Hey--I worked damned hard for everything I've gotten.  Now you're telling me I got it because I was Group X?  Thats Bull@#$#!" 
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This is so common, so almost universal, that we drop the facts and observations that are obvious to others into some emotional black hole until we are ready to deal with it.  But this also happens about weight issues, relationship dysfunction issues, alcoholic issues--the dysfunctional family is a dishonest family.  This happens on a personal level, a family level, a social level, a national level. WE NEED OUR MYTHS.  Most human beings have an incredibly difficult time accepting a truth that is hurtful.  Unless we can see a solution, we don't want to know the truth ("if there's no cure for the cancer, I don't even want to know the diagnosis.")
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I believe that we need exactly the opposite approach. To be able to see the positive and negative aspects of our behaviors clearly, to clearly define the problem is to be half-way to the answer.  Without claiming I am "right" about the topics we've been covering, I wanted to thank those who participated in the discussions, because hopefully they've provided us with glowing examples of just how hard communication is here.  Every single communication was polite, humane, intelligent, speaking of issues that both sides were knowlegeable of, and look how hard it is to come to a consensus?  Can we not be incredibly proud of ourselves as a country that we've managed to hammer out agreement on so many hairy and painful topics?  I know I surely am.
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Most importantly, where are YOUR blind spots?  Where do YOU hide the things that are painful.  You know what?  Unless you have some kind of B.S. detector operating in your life, I guarantee that you have honking big ones.   Even with the best B.S. detectors I know of, manure will creep into your living room.  Yet and still, I implore you  to adapt the Triangle approach of Body, Mind, and Spirit. Goals you are committed to.  And where you have flaws, consider your B.S. detector to be triggered.  Something is wrong.  Your reality map is warped.  You have hidden or negative belief patterns.  GET TO WORK.  Our time on this planet is so limited.  Fear is the divider.  Love is the uniter.  Trust your hearts, people--each and every one of us deserve the best.  Especially from ourselves.

Steve

Palm Springs

I'm here with my family in Palm Springs, lecturingat Rob Kall's Storycon/Biofeedback event. Great fun, hanging around with folks involved in quantifying the body-mind connection, and having a chance to share some of the concepts I've been working with for the last few years. Yesterday, I gave a complete overview of the Lifewriting system--only the second time I've done that. Today, it's a talk on Storytelling and the origin of human consciousness. That should be great fun, and a version of the talk I gave at the Smithsonian. What that will stress is that storytelling allowed people to create non-linear maps of their experience, connected within a matrix of emotional relevance. We don't live reality just in temporal reality:we "flashback" all the time to events that changed our lives that have more impact than that cheese sandwich we had yesterday. I'll talk about that more next week. Meanwhile, my son is calling for me: we both need a hug before I greet the day. Hopefully, later I'll do some Warrior Wellness, and sme body flow to break a darned good sweat.

Steve

Finding your own style

Really, just writing lots and lots of stuff will take care of this, but here's a suggestion that has worked for my students:
1) Choose two of your favorite writers.  Call them "A" and "B".
2) Write one story imitating writer "A"
3) Write a second story imitating writer "B"
4) Write a third story imitating the way writer "A" might imitate  writer "B"
5) Write a fourth story imitating the way writer "B" might imitate writer "A".
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By the time you've finished the fourth story, you will have begun to create your own quirky approach to storytelling and prose craft...and be well on your way to a style of your own.
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By the way--one of the most common stupid things young writers say is: I don't read, because I'm afraid of stealing someone else's stuff.  Oh, please.  Steal.  Steal from everyone.  Everywhere.  And make it better.  If it was good enough for the Bard, it's darned well good enough for you.

Have Faith

Many people are afraid of hard questions if they cannot already see the answers.  This can lead to a "head-in-the-sand" attitude that destroys your life and dreams.  Here's a core belief system that empowers me:
1)  The truth is always better.
2) There is always an answer. 
3)  A clearly stated problem is half-way to a solution.
4) Resolve the dualities.  The problem is never in "others."  It is always found within the shadowed caverns of the human heart. 
5)  A clearly stated problem/solution pair brings people closer together.  An answer that divides is only a temporary patch.
6) The natural state of life is to evolve.  Remove the fear and pain, and a human being will grow to their next level.  In that next level, apparently insoluable problems are revealed as no more impassable than lines on paper.

Steve

Modeling

One of the best things to come out of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is the concept of modeling.  What Bandler and Grinder said, in essence, is that if you can extract from a role model his mental syntax, belief systems, and usage of physiology, and implant them in your own subconscious, that you can learn their skills at a drastically accelerated rate.  Let me put this another way:
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If you want to learn how to bake a cake, there are several approaches. 
1) you can just sort of "figger out" what a cake is, throw some flour and eggs together, leave the mess in the sun.  Try a different jerry-rigged method every day, and eventually, you'll come up with something that tastes pretty much like a cake.  Frankly, 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters have about as good a chance of coming up with HAMLET.
2) You can ask random strangers for their approach.  This will definitely produce interesting and tastier results--especially if  you take careful notes.
3) You can get a recipe book written by an acknowledged "expert", follow the directions, and you will have an even better chance.  In fact, this is a common and excellent approach.
4) the best approach: taste a lot of cakes.  Find one that tastes EXACTLY like you want yours to taste.  Find the cook, and arrange to be with them the next time they bake that cake.  Follow them around the store, and then around the kitchen: learn exactly what ingredients they use, and in what proportions.  In what order to they mix them, and with what implements at what settings, and with a kitchen at what temperature and humidity.  How do they cook it, in what oven, at what setting for what time.  To the degree that  you can accurately observe what they did AND THEN DUPLICATE IT, in one day you can learn to make a cake it took someone thirty years to learn to bake.
Please re-read that last sentence.
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What in the heck do you think this column is?  It is teachng you my mental syntax (the order in  which I do things), belief systems, and use of physiology.  Gee, does that sound like Mind, Spirit and Body?  it darned well should--that Triangle just done popped up again!  Let's look at those three things as I've used them in my life, especially my writing life.
1) Mental syntax: read ten times as much as you write.  Write every day.  Structure emotional arcs to reflect the Hero's Journey.  Understand as many different reality models as possible.  Set measurable goals and refer to them daily.
2) Belief systems: I can do it.  Writing is a valuable contribution to society.  Talent doesn't exist--just honesty and hard work.  I can improve constantly. 
3) Use of physiology: Keep energy high.  Get plenty of sleep.  Eat today for how I want to feel tomorrow.  Apply butt to chair.  Keep proper posture.  Exercise for energy and health--daily.
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Those are very rough guidelines.  I would suggest that you talk to your favorite writers,and do what you can to extract THEIR Triangle.  Then use the techniques presented here, or researched on your own, to  implant them. 
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And, of course--the cornerstone of my daily physical practise, whether doing Yoga, Clubbells, Kettlebells, Hindu Pushups/Squats or anything else is the Be Breathed technique and the Five Minute Miracle.  If you haven't made this modest investment in your future, please don't hesitate.  For the cost of a decent Sushi dinner, you can change your life.
End of commercial.

Choosing examples to make my point

""Barnes, my man:

) No hourlong dramatic television series starred a non-Caucasian until "Deep Space Nine."

Yes, "I Spy" counts. You know why Bob Culp's name was first -- he had acting credits and Cosby didn't, and who gets the first credit depends on how good their agent is, because ego and money go hand in hand in LaLaLand."--Steve Perry
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Of course I chose my examples to make my point.  My point being
1) if you look at hour-long network dramas (and I stretched a point to give "Deep Space Nine" that status--it was actually syndicated.  So, I was being kind.
2) and you define "Star" as the person whose name appears first in the titles.
3) Take the position that a "successful" television show is one lasting into its third season
Then--

There was no example of such a successful dramatic show with a non-Caucasian star until the late 90's.  What happens if I don't create such a non-subjective standard?  Why, then, you could say Greg Morris on "Mission Impossible" was the star.  Or Nichelle Nicoles on "Star Trek."  It's purely subjective, right?  I'm perfectly aware that the 1st name is an ego game, but isn't it interesting that that ego game NEVER worked out the other way?  Or that in ensemble shows, they often list alphabetically--but isn't it interesting that it NEVER worked the other way?  Seven nights a week, three networks, four hours of prime time programming, and NEVER?  Do you really believe that was just a statistical fluke, guy?  And, yes, there were comedies.  Lots and lots and lots of comedies.  Hmmm.  What do you think (clowns) Barnes might make of that? (clowns) What possible relationship to his model of human behavior (laughter as a release of tension) could Barnes make? (avoidance of serious role models in a dramatic context behaving in sensible ways)
Offhand, I can't think of even one (Amos and Andy being no worse than Abbot and Costello, except A& C being balanced by countless thousands of positive images)
##
Well, I think you've got me there.

Signed,
Thoroughly chastened Steve.

More from Bro Perry

"If somebody can put it on the page, that's what will sell it. And I have yet to hear any reason what a black guy can't put in on the page."

Yes, if he writes about white people. And let me tell you what that does: for the average person, I believe that that decreases the sense of self-worth.  And decreases the belief that it is safe to reveal Self to the audience--the very core of artistic expression.  "I'm writing to people who think those of my color are beneath them."  THAT is the reaction of the average person, Steve.  So it "drops the curve" in the sense that when you come from one culture and write about another
1) you don't have the same fluidity of referants of someone born into that culture.
2) you don't get to write heroic stories that nurture your inner self to the same degree
3) you are writing for editors and readers who, on the average, have a little less automatic respect for you than they have for someone of lighter skin.  I cannot begin to tell you how sick I am of white folks telling me how well spoken I am, or if "they" were like me there would be no problem, or in essence challenging me to prove I belong in their company.  This was my life, guys, from the day in 1st grade when they automatically put me in the slow reading group because of my skin color.  Can you grasp that?  That I got this crap handed to me a hundred times a day, every single day of my life, with every billboard I saw, every dollar bill in my pocket, every image of Christ and the Saints, every hero in every movie or television show I ever loved.  This crap adds up, and most people don't have the stomach to wade through  it.  
4) (the following is difficult to prove, but would make sense based on those box office numbers) You will sell fewer copies of a book of equal quality to a book written by a white writer, because the cultural empathy factor kicks in.
###
I remember one of the most valuable conversations I ever had. I was discussing these matters with a friend, a black computer software engineer named Darnell Gadberry.  I told him that I was certain, from a decade spent studying the market, that if I began writing books with black characters, my sales would drop.  But if I didn't, I would feel that I was betraying myself.  And he said:
"Steve, someone has got to start writing science fiction and adventure books with black characters.  If not you, who?  If not now, when?  And anyway, why would you want to write books for the pleasure of people you wouldn't even want to have in your home?"
and that's the crux of it.  The black people who can write pretending to be something other than what they are, are those who can stomach entertaining people with contempt for them.  And that is far less than 100% of the black folks who might otherwise be capable of making the grade.  Add it all up, and what's left is me, and Octavia, and Chip.  Oh, wait.  Chip left the party, didn't he? 

Steve

St. Larry

"Meanwhile, please talk a little bit more about the Niven 'protection'? I'd never thought of it in those terms, but I have wondered off and on over the years."--Pam
###
Larry was my mentor.  He read some of my early stories, believed in my talent, and gave me a chance.  He got me my first agents, helped me publish my first book.  He (and uber-conservative Jerry Pournelle) taught me much of what I understand about SF extrapolation.  On occassion, he helped me out financially when I was struggling.  When "The Kundalini Equation", my first attempt to write a mature novel, died horribly, I was crushed.  The publishing company literally "forgot" to publicise all the books that came out that month.  Arrgh. I had put material into that book that was achingly personal--my mother's death, my view of the ethical structure of the universe, my belief in human potential.  I had never researched so much, worked so hard, been so honest.  And it just died.  I even made the lead character white.  Nothing helped.  It died.  I was devastated, and spent the next eight years writing rote adventure novels (more or less), hiding behind Larry's name.  If I hadn't had Larry to help me through that period--as a friend, as a collaborator, as evidence that not every male of his social class was distainful of my efforts--I think I would have bailed.  Maybe so, maybe not.  But he gave me an opportunity to find my voice.  At the least, he gave me a five year jump on my career.  I love him more than I can say.  He is very human, as are we all, but also a good and decent man (as well as having a wildly creative intelligence), and I will always acknowledge him as the father of my creative heart.

Steve

Being a Potato

Is a good thing.  Being "solid all the way through."  Our philosophies of life should be in alignment with our actions and beliefs.  People should look at us and know us--or, more honestly, we should be AWARE that the world knows us from our actions.  We must be AWARE that our values and beliefs are displayed through our human relationships, our physical bodies, our career choices and excellence.  Our spoken words are taken to reflect our inner thoughts.  Don't be like a light bulb, with waves going in all directions.  Be more like a laser, with the waves--our beliefs, values, actions, emotions, thoughts--all going in the same direction.  I've never met a human being who was perfect at this, but this is the direction of personal evolution. The best way I know to begin this process is with
1) focused, balanced goals. and
2) A spiritual/mental breathing discipline. 
###
Find a teacher, please.  Or do the research necessary to begin this path.  Or buy the Five Minute Miracle.  An individual breath is the smallest unit of conscious attention.  It is the elementry consciousness component.  A cathedral of excellence can be constructed using such building blocks.

End of today's commercial.

Back to writing...

I want to thank everyone who responded to the recent discussions about race. It is appropriate here in the Lifewriting blog because societies are the macrocosm of inter-personal relationship, which are the macrocosm of the intrapersonal--the way our inner world, our "internal community", our "parts party" of psychological aspects operates within us.  who can think of a story idea using this thought?
##
Recently here in southern California, a despondant man parked a truck across a railroad track.  At the last moment he freaked and bailed, but the resultant collision killed many people.  What would it feel like to be this man?  Who can think of a story based on this idea?
##
Suicide might seem to violate the "moving away from pain" theory, or the "all creatures seek to preserve life" theory, but it does not.  Remember the Chakras.  Physical survival is the base, but as we resolve basic needs, we automatically evolve to the next level of concerns.  Young men regularly risk life and limb to improve their position on the power heirarchy--or to impress women.   Read up on the Civil War...or any other war (pre-Vietnam) to see how women encourage their men to go off and fight.  People endure pain to gain fitness (3rd chakra).  They risk their lives for their families and loved ones (4th chakra).  People will die for self-expression (5th Chakra), intellectual freedom (6th), and of course spiritual freedom (7th).  There are seven story ideas, right there.  Try breaking one of these down into a Swain pattern.
##
From my perspective, the question of life and death is a highly personal, individual matter, perhaps the most important a human being can face.  In my mind, religious and social institutions have nothing to say about it, except to the extent that it serves them to manipulate and control our lives.  I believe that much hand-wringing about suicide comes from this place: not compassion (although many such people are compassionate) , but from a need to control your actions in this world, and, presumably, the next.  This is why I'd rather live in a country run by the Mafia than the Church--any Church.  The Mafia can only claim to control your life in This world.  The Church will try to control you for all eternity, and will torture you to death for your own good.  Tony Soprano would  never have the gall to suggest he was fitting you with concrete shoes for YOUR good.  That takes the existential cake.
##
In the above paragraphs there would have to be fodder for hundreds of stories.  Try jumping over to the 5MM forum, and posting some of your ideas.  Remember--those of you working to be published writers in one year need to be discussing your process, sharing your thoughts with each other.  Right now, the traffic is slow on the forum, probably because I'm asking  you to think and speak about personal things.  Let me know what I can do to facilitate, and I'll be happy.

Steve

Back to Perry

"And you still danced around my point -- black folks weren't invited to the literature, but they also weren't invited to the lunch counters, the front of the bus, the all-white schools and the white-only water fountains. They went anyway."

##
Yes..
1) because they HAD to have doctors and lawyers, or the community would die. Sf wasn't as pressing a need.
2) You can pass medical and law school by objective knowledge of facts. The subjective judgements of teachers doesn't impact as much as the subjective judgements of editors and readers. What someone enjoys is PURELY subjective, and that "disconnect" then reduces the amoutn of money earned, which in turn makes it harder to succeed--a steeper hill. Fewer would want to try to climb it. In other words, I'm saying that there are so few black or Asian SF writers for the same reason that:

1) Black and Asian males don't have much sex in movies.
2) No hourlong dramatic television series starred a non-Caucasian until "Deep Space Nine."
3) Only one Non-Caucasian won a "Best Actor or Actress" Oscar in the 20th Century
4) No non-Caucasian has ever won a "Best novel" Hugo.
5) Traditionally, Black or brown men would die to protect white folks in films, but not the other way around.
6) There were no images of blacks in Disney theatricals during the entire 20th century

A simple phenomenon of human consciousness that manifests in thousands of little ways. In the aggregate, they help to explain the persistent gap in life expectancy, income, education, and incarceration rates. I AM NOT SAYING THESE SOCIAL FACTORS ARE THE ONLY REASONS FOR THESE THINGS: that would make me 100% "nurture", which I am not. But I see so little reasoned discussion, possibly because this stuff is so difficult to quantify. Ah...but if you look at the box-office statistics concerning black and white sexuality, I think an undeniable pattern emerges, and we can use that as a wedge to enter other realms of discussion...

###
My theory is elegant in the sense that
1) it is predictive. For twenty years I've been able to predict the failure of feature films, way beyond probability, based upon sexual imagery.
2) It singles out no group for positive or negative characteristics.
3) It suggests a solution: vigilant consciousness against our tendency for complacency.
4) It asks no one to feel guilty for being who and what they are.
5) I believe that it raises the net amount of love and compassion in the world...we are all in this mess together.

to me, this stuff is all clustered.