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Mind The Gap: Write Details

/ LKWeir

by LK Weir

“One of the hidden gems of becoming a writer is the ability to see the world differently.”

– AUTHOR LK WEIR

Immersive writing requires details that allows the reader to hear, see, taste, and feel the story as it unfolds. It’s about making the story tangible, a place where the reader can forget who they are, and live in your world.

This may seem like a daunting task, but it’s an excuse to study the world. A reason to observe the smallest details, the things that most people wouldn’t notice as they go about their life.

What does the air taste like?

What is that sound in the distance?

How would you describe that colour?

Storytelling is a fantastic excuse to stay present and live the world around you.

An example:

Boarding a London train, rough draft:
I’m standing on the platform waiting for the train. People stare at their phones, but some still read actual books. The train approaches, and I get on. Hopefully, I don’t get lost. London is a big city.

With detail observed from the world around me:
The underground of London is a vast network of crisscrossing lines. I stand in awe, staring at the complex map decorating the tunnel entry. After two abnormally long escalator rides down into the earth, I can’t quite fathom how far I have travelled into the belly of the city.
Blue, red, grey, yellow, green—woven together like a spider’s web, connecting at strategic junctions. I try to find my destination by matching the spider’s lines to the one on my phone. My network cut out on the second escalator down, and all I have is the last version of the map Google gave me. None of it looks quite right.
I decide to trust Google, rather than the stationary map, and hope that I don’t end up on the wrong side of these tracks. I step back from my examination of the wall and realize the platform is filling quickly. Londoners of all types, staring at their phones or reading a good book. Yes, reading is still a popular activity in the underground. It gives the author in me hope.
The tunnel is dim and smells of soot. A display board tells me that a train is approaching in orange typeface, the one after is in 3 minutes. I check the destination name against the one on my phone. It agrees.
Warm earthy air blows strands of my hair in a scattered dance across my face. Headlights brighten the black hole and finally the high humming sound of the train as it shoots out of the tunnel. It speeds by at a pace that makes me wonder why the yellow safety line is so close to the edge. The blurred train slows and stops. The doors side out, then apart. A voice announces, “Please, mind the gap between the train and the platform.”
I do.

The gift we receive as writers is the ability to transform the world around us into a beautifully crafted and immersive story. The more we can observe our world, the better writers we can become.

So listen to the dripping faucet, smell the flowers in the air, taste lemon on your lips. Live the moment and let those small details transform your story!

Potential Energy

/ LKWeir

by LK Weir

Starting a project is fun. Full of potential energy to power the initial stages. The planning, the purchasing, the first few steps towards completion. Energy to get the task moving, without a single doubt that the energy is enough to pull you through to the end. And what a beautiful finished project it will be—the portrait, flower garden, new business, manuscript…

The hardest part of any project is finishing it. 

A few days go by, weeks, months and one odd day it dawns on you. The potential energy fizzled out. You don’t know when it stopped, it just did. And now the project sits, partially completed and itching to be finished. 

“I struggle to finish anything I start. Reading a book, painting by numbers, even menial tasks such as cleaning out a closet. I feel the energy to start, get excited about how it will make me better, and then promptly forget that I set out to do the task in the first place.” — LK Weir

It’s a frustrating conundrum because, let’s face it, we are all busy people. Sometimes a project just gets forgotten about. Or subtly ignored until we walk by the half-finished construction for the hundredth time and our loved one asks us why we never finished… sigh. 

Not finishing used to be my greatest weakness. It made me feel like I would spend my life never fully realizing my potential. That all my energy would be wasted and I would be left feeling inadequate. 

Until I made a change. 

It started with books. I love stories, but every time I picked up a novel, I would stop after the first few pages and not give it enough time to get ‘hooked’. So I made myself a promise. If I started a book, I would deliberately finish it. No matter how hard it might be.

The goal would be small. A step I could take each day. If I had to, I would put the book on my pillow or plaster sticky notes around my room to remind myself that I had to hit that goal every day—15 minutes of reading or one chapter a day. A goal that, in itself, was not difficult to achieve. 

And it turned out to be fun! Who knew that there were so many great novels out there? I would never have found a love for reading if I hadn’t forced myself to read enough to get ‘hooked’. Finishing the book was easy after that!

I realized the issue was not with my ability but with my mindset. Energy takes work (sounds obvious doesn’t it?). I was naïve in thinking that potential energy would pull me through to the project’s end, but in reality, I had to reconstruct that energy on a daily basis. Small intentional bursts, directed at the thing I wanted to achieve. 

So I took this tactic and started applying it to bigger and bigger projects. The rule was, if I started something, I had to finish it—even something as big as a manuscript. 

Getting it right took a while, but in the end I settled on mounting my projects on the wall. I would list the end goal, the steps to get there, and the task I had to perform each day. A daily burst of intentional energy, 15 minutes, one chapter, 1000 words. Whatever was achievable and I could feel proud of. 

Potential energy is unsustainable because it’s not real energy.

Real energy is intentional, directional and used to further ourselves. It’s replenished by the feeling of accomplishment we get when we complete that task, that step, that goal, and ultimately that project. 

So turn that potential into actual; finish that project one small task at a time! I promise, it will feel fantastic. 

Pragmatic Passion: The Journey Up

/ LKWeir

Pragmatic Passion – two words that seem in opposition of each other.

My mind is prone to dreaming. Day and night, always scheming and imagining adventures for the soul. A bestselling novelist, a world traveller, a motivational speaker, a philanthropist. All very big dreams and all seemingly impossible to achieve.

I’ve spent the better part of my life, trying to figure out how to find the path to passion. The path to following my heart, rather than just my head; how to balance reality with fantasy.

My pragmatic side needs eat with a roof over my head. My passionate side needs to make something beautiful in this world. Most of the time, my pragmatic side overpowers my passionate side, because really, how can these two coexist? Dream too big and pragmatism says it’s impossible. Stop dreaming and passion stalls all momentum forward. So how do you find balance?

By not believing it has to be one or the other. They can coexist and, in fact, are both necessary.

Dreams are our unique identity; they makes us…us. But passion without pragmatism can turn dreams into regret and missed opportunities. We need a clearly defined path forward.

And if you try but fall short? You have to be ok with that. After all, how can you possibly achieve a dream if you never try?

The trick is to enjoy each step toward the dream as an achievement in itself. Finishing the chapter of a book, booking that plane ticket, writing a motivational post. Each achievement is a step along the path of the soul’s great adventure. We are allowed to celebrate even the smallest of tasks and to relish in the beauty of the journey.

So dream BIG… with Pragmatic Passion