Author: Martin Johnson

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Live in The Moment

Recently, I spent time talking with a neighbor whom I got to know during the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. We spent many days in her living room talking about life and connecting. I never knew she was originally from North Georgia where my mentor lives.

I stopped in to check in on my neighbor because I knew she had been having health issues and wasn’t home for a month. What started as sepsis ended up revealing she had stage IV colon cancer. Needless to say, everyone was shocked and saddened by her diagnosis.

We were all relieved to finally have her back home after 30 days bouncing between hospitals and rehabilitation centers and now she begins her chemotherapy for her second battle with cancer. During those days we spent talking at her home after the storm, we never imagined she would soon face a personal storm that few could understand.

It reminded me how we get too focused on the future or what we want instead of living one day at a time. We avoid the present out of our ignorance of the future for various reasons.

  • Hopeful
  • Stressed
  • Inpatient

After my accident, I was headstrong about speeding through my recovery so I could get back to my normal life and finish school. I was so laser-focused on my goals and my hopes that I was out of touch with reality.

Even with the doctor’s warnings, I foolishly tried my best to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. I didn’t know at the time how my brain injury had changed me forever. I didn’t understand that my TBI caused me to be impatient, made it harder for me to process information, and caused me to struggle to focus. My T. B. I. taught me to live in the moment, instead of being fixated on the future or the past.

Live in the Moment

It’s been a hard year for a lot of people, especially for those of us living in the southeast. People have lost their lives and loved ones. Others have lost their livelihood and many more have lost their homes.

Perhaps that’s why many of us all looking forward to the holidays and the new year. We want to get lost in the hustle of the holidays and forget the hardships of 2024. Hopefully, the holidays will distract us from the hardships of the year.

We want to spend time with our friends and loved ones whom we don’t get to enjoy quite enough throughout the year. However, the holidays seem to speed by themselves.

Instead of trying to rush through life, we need to slow down appreciate what we have, and live in the moment. If anything, 2024 should have taught all of us that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and no one knows what the future holds.

Many people didn’t live to see the holidays and many who did have no homes to celebrate with their loved ones. It shouldn’t take the holidays to help us make memories and appreciate the time together.  Daily living in the moment helps us enjoy the journey, instead of dreading it.

The Writing Journey

As writers, we have goals and dreams that each of us is working towards. Sometimes we are focused more on the destination, than the journey. We learn early on from the writing community, that a writing career is a marathon and not a sprint.

Even as writers, we need to slow down and live in the moment. Because when we rush the process and the journey, we miss out on the information and opportunities that are critical for the writing path.

It is the journey that prepares us for the career and helps us to polish our prose so it stands the test of time. The journey is what prepares us for the destination. There are benefits for writers to live in the moment, instead of stressing and focusing on the future.

  1. Shape your voice
  2. Hone your skills
  3. Network
  4. Build platform and brand
  5. Health benefits

Journeys are best experienced, not exacerbated. When we rush the process, we short ourselves invaluable experiences and wisdom. Some ways we can live in the moment as writers are: grounding techniques and mindfulness exercises, putting away distractions, plan our to-do’s so you can focus on the moment, practicing gratitude, rest, be habitual.

Don’t miss the little things on the journey to your big destination or dream. Be thankful for the little things and even the hard things. Writers need to learn to practice an attitude of gratitude.

Be Thankful

Now that the holidays have officially arrived, most of us will slow down and give thanks for the blessings we have been given. However, we often forget to be grateful for our hardships.

It is our struggles that make us stronger and help build our endurance. As writers, we can be thankful for closed doors, rejections, and lost opportunities. Learning to accept our disappointments helps us be present and prepares us for the future. Below are some fruits of enduring the disappointments of the writing journey.

  • Experience
  • Humility
  • Wisdom
  • Thick skin

If you haven’t learned by now, a writing career comes with criticism and professional feedback. After my accident, the hardest lesson for me to learn was that I would never be the same.

I will never forget the time I fell off of the toilet in the hospital (disclaimer: this video contains medically graphic images), because it taught me that I was not ready to go home or return to my daily routines. It humbled me. It also taught me to appreciate the little things of life. Hardships can force us to learn to live in the moment.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Helping Hands

It has now been over a month since Hurricane Helene tore through north-central Georgia where I live. The historical storm ripped through my community as a category one hurricane catching everyone off guard, including weather forecasters. No one predicted the severity of damage we experienced in the Central Savannah River area (CSRA).

  • Downed power towers
  • Downed cell phone towers
  • Thousands of trees uprooted blocking roads and destroying homes.
  • Loss of water supply
  • Food shortages
  • Fuel shortages

It didn’t matter who you were or where you lived in the CSRA, you experienced loss and hardships. Regardless of your financial status, race, religion, or political preference, people came together to get hot meals from local churches or the Red Cross.

For weeks after the hurricane, neighbors were out helping neighbors by removing debris from their property, sharing necessities, or simply just encouraging one another. So, I decided to use my health and physical abilities to get out and help others in my community also.

There are still people in my region who don’t have power or water. They will be the first to tell you the importance of getting a helping hand.  It will take months to years for many communities affected by Hurricane Helene to recover. It’s okay if people need a helping hand to get through the recovery process.

Helping Hands

I am old enough to know that we all need help at some point. Life was never meant to be a solo journey, but a community experience. We need others in our life to help and encourage us during the hard times.

Being part of the disabled community has humbled me. They taught me the importance of accepting help from them as well as others. I would have never made it through those first few months after my accident if it wasn’t for community. I can humbly share that help from others isn’t a handout, it is a helping hand when we need it the most. At first, my pride kept me from accepting help from others.

Various organizations are part of the Helping Hands initiative; most deal with persons with mental and cognitive special needs. These organizations come alongside persons with disabilities to help them navigate life. We cannot devalue a life because it is not like our own. Pride makes us think we can do things on our own, humility reminds us that we can’t and will need help from others at some point.

My disability is a constant reminder that it is better to be humble than to be humbled by a hardship in life. I have also seen the importance of asking for a helping hand within the writing community.

Writing Help

Most writers start out believing that the writing career is a solo process. I get it, we think since we have the “Great idea,” we can do everything from the beginning to the end by ourselves. It doesn’t take long for us to realize we have a fantasized understanding of the writing process and writing careers. Don’t laugh yet!

Because at some point the pressures and reality of publishing and writing careers break us and we each find ourselves looking for help from someone, anyone who can help us fulfill our writing passions. Writers need help throughout their writing journey from each other and others in the industry. The writing and publication process can be hard and can be discouraging.

You don’t have to be legally blind or have a TBI (traumatic brain injury) like me to learn you can’t do it all by yourself. That is why writers need community to help them on their writing journey. Help them by giving:

  1. Support
  2. Feedback
  3. Advice
  4. Reach
  5. Inspiration
  6. Help others

Recently, I found a typo in something I posted online—being a perfectionist, this mistake discouraged me. Often, I am my own worst critic, especially when it comes to mistakes. 

I shared my disappointment with my writer friend in Georgia. Her advice helped me push past my negative feelings and encouraged me to keep on posting. I was relieved to hear her similar experiences and the truth that, “Every writer misses typos at some point.” So, if you are like me, haunted by careless typos, rest assured you are in good company.

To my fellow wordsmith in Georgia, I say thank you for your help and encouragement. And to all of the other writers who have traveled this journey with me, I can never repay you for your help and guidance.

What I can do is press onward and pay it forward. For those of us who have received invaluable support and advice from other writers who are with us on our journeys, there is an inaudible obligation to help other writers who are struggling on their writing journeys.

Pay It Forward!

Being part of the disabled community, I don’t have a lot of resources to share with others. I do have time, physical health, and experience I can put to use or share with others. One of my promises to God after my accident was, I wouldn’t take my legs or physical health for granted. I would use my abilities to serve Him if He gave me the ability to move again.

God has blessed me with health and abilities beyond most people my age. In a lot of ways, I am in better shape than I was before my accident, and not just spiritually. I can run, walk, and lift more weight than most people half my age.

I have also learned the skills and art of writing during my 20+ years of pursuing the craft. Patience, wisdom, and strength come from enduring hardships and trials, not from living a happy-go-lucky life. So, what better way to show God my gratitude than to pay it forward to others who may be struggling in life or their writing goals?

  • Encourage
  • Share
  • Inspire
  • Advise

Recently, I connected with another writer online who lives in Colorado, a state I will always call home.Not only do we connect on our passion for the “Springs,” we both aspire to use our abilities and craft for a higher purpose. She has already used her abilities and faith to write her inspirational fantasies. Since she recently released her latest books, I decided to offer her some advice to help her grow her social media platforms and pointed her toward a mutual friend to help her with marketing.

How can you pay it forward to others in your community or circles of influence to help others who are struggling?  Sometimes it is the simple things that others need from our helping hands.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Don’t Rush the Process

Earlier this month, my friend suffered a stroke while working. He struggled with the effects of the stroke on his body. After starting physical therapy, he was eager to return to work and his daily routines.

Since I’ve suffered both strokes and a traumatic brain injury (TBI), I decided to share my experience of life after a stroke. Some things may never return to normal and we need to accept our lives have changed.

  • Inpatient
  • Depressed
  • Struggle to focus

As hard as it is to believe, we need to understand there is a reason for the rehabilitation process. It is a time to test our abilities. It is a season to learn how our lives have changed. The hardest part is learning we cannot rush recovery; it takes time to gather and process the information.

It’s a Process

Let’s be honest, no one likes to wait, especially when it comes to life events. We set goals and make plans and hope to achieve them. We are taught that if we put in the work and believe, we can do anything.

And then we are off in a sprint towards our goals. This can be devastating for a person with a TBI or health issues because it puts us at a higher risk of injury. That is why we need to understand the recovery process is a grueling marathon, not a fast-paced sprint.

The rehabilitation process is a systematic way of assessing limitations and strengthening our areas of weakness. Skipping any step in the process will affect an individual negatively in the long run.

My accident humbled me and slowed my life and body down; I had to learn to listen to others who understood my brain injury better than I did. I also needed to trust others and the recovery process.

I learned to take health matters more seriously if I wanted my life to improve. It was clear to me that I needed to slow down to rest my body and my brain. This is also true for writers who are serious about pursuing a writing career.

The Writing Race

If you are like me, you like to be productive as a writer and you understand the need to be proactive as a writer. Isn’t that why so many of us set word count goals for each day?

Unfortunately, some writers focus too much on quantity rather than quality. As a freelancer, I sometimes think I can make more money if I can write more words. However, trying to get more words down quickly can have a negative impact if the quality of the words written is subpar.

FYI, I write using speech dictation software and can write a lot of words in a short amount of time, but my words have to work—they need to be quality content. Clients and their audiences don’t like poor quality or filler words. If our words lack power or influence, then they are useless.

I can also make hasty mistakes by writing quickly and for a perfectionist like myself; careless mistakes are like salt in the wound on top of poor-quality content.  As writers, we cannot rush the writing process or the publication process. Below are some tips to navigate your writing process.

  1. Identify the next step: don’t attempt everything at once.
  2. Give that next step your full attention.
  3. Recognize when it’s good enough.
  4. Take breaks.
  5. Edit later.

I was taught to be professional in my writing at all times. Nothing says amateur like rushing the writing process. Professionals learn the craft and hone their skills. It doesn’t matter if we meet our word count if my words don’t make sense. One of my life hacks is to focus on quality more than quantity.

Quality

if you have ever suffered a health issue or near-death experience, you’ve heard the doctors discuss the “Quality of life” implications and effects that follow life-changing events. I can attest that surviving an accident isn’t always positive if it severely hinders one’s quality of life.

TBI and stroke survivors quickly understand their lives have been changed forever and they must learn to focus on a new quality of life. I will be blunt; my standard of life is not like most people who take simple things for granted.

Many people focus too much on big accomplishments and temporary happiness. The quality of life for a disabled person may be different but is still a valuable life. I try not to focus too much on what I do or don’t have, because I almost lost it all.

  • Health
  • Faith
  • Possessions

This month my friend, who had an epileptic family member (whom I mentioned last month), had another family member diagnosed with brain cancer. This diagnosis came while the family was at the hospital together with the aforementioned family member.

She was so concerned about getting one family back to normal life, that she didn’t expect another to have health issues. Now her doctors are assessing the quality of life for yet another family member after trying to rush through the recovery of another.

Have you learned not rush the process?

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Healthy Habits For Writers and the Disabled

Recently I talked with an acquaintance who has an epileptic family member. Lately,  their family member suffered from intense seizures and my friend was curious about how I manage my seizures.

Although I’m not epileptic, my brain injury puts me at high risk for seizures and strokes. If I have a seizure, it’s a grand mal seizure, which are the worst you can have. And it usually takes a few days for me to recover from 100%.

I am glad it’s been over a decade since my last seizure. My friend asked how I stayed seizure-free for so long, especially without taking any anti-seizure medications. I explained to her the lifestyle changes I made in order to improve my health and reduce my risk of seizures naturally.

  • Get more sleep
  • Stay active
  • Stay well hydrated
  • Exercising my brain and body

Growing up I remember the health campaign, “Your mind is a terrible thing to waste.” However, I was ignorant and foolish and never took my health seriously. Like most people, I lived for the moment and was more concerned with being happy, than being healthy.

If we take our bodies and brains for granted, they will fail us sooner, rather than later. I have already explained how important it is for disabled persons to stay active to help keep the muscles from atrophying, and I’m not talking about stretching them either.

Stretching is a healthy habit, but when done wrong it is extremely bad for us. We all need to learn better health habits.

Healthy Habits

One of the surest signs someone does not know what they’re doing when it comes to exercise is stretching before they exercise. Most people confuse stretching for warming up, but warming up is meant to keep us from overstretching cold muscles and damaging them.

Whereas when the muscle is properly stretched, it releases lactic acid and reduces soreness and pain after exercise, these are basic health habits for staying strong and healthy.

It is important to remember that being healthy encompasses a lot more than just our bodies. Healthy bodies are only one piece of the puzzle to being healthy. Our brains and our nervous system are what control our bodies, we must not neglect our brains, that is why I limit caffeine intake, I don’t want to damage my nervous system any more than it already is from my TBI.

Mental health, emotional and spiritual well-being all impact our overall health. We can’t focus on our physical bodies without exercising and taking care of our mental health and that means eliminating the bad influences that distract or hinder us. This is especially important for writers.

Writers Health

A writer’s mental health and well-being are critical to our craft. Our brains are the most important tool in our toolboxes. Computers, pens, pencils, and editing apps are useless without a healthy and focused mind.

Overall health begins with the brain. If we want to be productive and healthy, we need to learn some basic health habits for maximizing our brain health.

  1. Quit smoking
  2. Stay physically active
  3. Manage a healthy blood pressure
  4. Maintain a healthy weight
  5. Eat healthy
  6. Manage blood sugar levels
  7. Stay engaged
  8. Get enough sleep

I cannot over-emphasize the need for sleep. Many people view being sleepy as a feeling of simply being tired, but this could mean you’re not getting enough sleep which is a vital function in life. Sleep plays such an important role in maintaining our bodies and our brains. It detoxes the brain, repairs damaged cells, regulates blood sugars and hormones; it takes more than just a few hours of sleep to get it all done.

Sleep is when writers often dream up new ideas or work out issues in what they’re writing about. It’s true we can’t control what we dream about, but, we do need to protect our sleeping hours and bedrooms from being misused. I have learned to stop practicing bad bedroom habits.

Watching TV, reading, writing, or playing on our phones in bed, reprograms our brains not to rest and sleep when we go to bed at night. I turn my phone off before I go to bed and put it on a charging stand. I don’t want my brain or body to think my bed is my workspace.

Work It out

One of the hardest lessons for many writers to learn is our bodies were never meant to be sedative. We are designed and enabled to move regularly. And movement is an important way for us to improve our health.

Our bodies are amazing instruments of movement. I took that for granted before my accident and losing the ability to walk and feed myself. Recently I shared with some other friends in the gym, I am paranoid about being sedentary and unable to move freely.

If God has given you the ability to move in any way, please don’t abuse it or take it for granted.You never know when you might lose those abilities. Unfortunately, 98% of the writer’s life is spent sitting down.

  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Proofreading

As I write this, I am taking another rest week from the gym. But, I am not being lazy, just changing my activities up and focusing more on biking. Biking helps me sleep even better at night because I have worked my heart more.

Our fitness goal should always be to meet our target heart rate because that increases blood flow to the brain and the rest of our body. Maintaining a strong heart is the best way to improve our overall health.

Writer friend, do you have any healthy habit tips to share?

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Be Disciplined

After I hit my head earlier this year, it took me a few days to get back to my normal routines. Having stitches on my face threw me off mentally and physically. I couldn’t focus and my creative juices didn’t flow.

Living with a disability means you are better off sticking to your routines if you want to be more productive. Persons with brain injuries really need to understand the benefits of daily routines. Benefits like . . .

  • Easier to focus
  • Motor memory kicks in
  • Less stressful

Most of us as children, hated the daily chores our parents gave us when we were little. We didn’t understand what disciplines they were trying to instill in us. After my accident, I learned the importance of staying disciplined daily.

Because of my TBI, I pay closer attention to my surroundings and try to use all of my senses to compensate for my lack of feeling and limited eyesight.

I also learned to pay closer attention to my body and feelings, to be aware of any potentially negative changes that may cause further harm to myself. Persons with brain injuries are commonly hypersensitive for the rest of their lives.

Over the years I have learned other disciplines that help me feel and function much better. For instance, limiting my caffeine, getting at least eight hours of sleep each night, and staying hydrated are daily disciplines I practice.

Discipline

Growing up we didn’t like the rules or the discipline our parents gave us, but as adults, we better understand how both discipline and rules help us mature. Discipline is defined as, “Training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental facilities or moral character; instruction.”

Discipline isn’t just a consequence for bad behavior; it is also for encouraging better habits. Healthy disciplines are the practices we employ to be productive, safe, and have a strong body. Sometimes these practices may be routine or boring. However strong disciplines increase focus and productivity. These are especially beneficial for writers.

Writing Disciplines

Every writer knows writing isn’t as easy as simply sitting down at a computer and magically creating wonderful prose with little effort. It may take hours, days, or weeks to breathe life into our writing and get it where we want it to be.

We understand writing is a process that requires specific skillsets and disciplines to make our words shine, which take time to develop. We also must protect and respect the disciplines of the writing life.  Below are some disciplines from successful writers on how to stay healthy and productive.

  1. Maintain a dedicated workspace and routine.
  2. Writing is a business, not a hobby.
  3. Stay connected with other writers and editors.

Since every writer is different, we may need different disciplines or habits to produce our best work. The point is to find what works best for you.

Some people like writing late at night, but I prefer to sleep at night for at least eight hours. Some people like listening to music while they write, I prefer peace and quiet to help me focus. Some people eat while they write, I prefer to enjoy my food and words separately and view eating at my computer as a bad habit.

Habits

Habits can be hard to break, but bad habits can break us. This may surprise you if you have followed my column for a while, but before my accident, I wasn’t a health fanatic and I didn’t take care of myself. I had a lot of bad habits from childhood and some I picked up in college. I drank soft drinks and alcohol and never drank water. I ate more junk food than nutritious food. At most, I would get only four hours of sleep each night.

I read more comic books than I did actual books. I rarely exercised, except hanging out at the gym with my friends. And the biggest shocker is, I hadn’t ridden a bicycle in over a decade before my accident. After my accident, I realized I needed to grow up and be more health conscious. I stopped smoking and drinking alcohol. Ironically, now my normal adult bedtime is the time my parents taught me to go to bed when I was a kid, 9 PM.

Living with a brain injury has forced me to develop healthier lifestyle disciplines over the last 27 years, including . . .

  • Limit caffeine
  • Drink a gallon of water per day
  • Eat healthier
  • Get more sleep and rest
  • Exercise daily

I have learned “adulting” means developing better health habits and taking care of myself physically and mentally. As we age, most of us learn to make lifestyle changes to live healthier lives. Our fitness goals become survival goals. Most of us look back and wish we made better choices in life when we were younger.

What are some habits you can learn as a writer to be more disciplined?

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Refreshed and Restored

As 80% of the country is suffering from extreme heatwaves, many people are looking for relief from the summer temperatures that have overtaken most of the country. Many people are heading to the nearest beach or lake to try and cool off in the water.

I recently took a rest week and headed to one of my favorite trails to bike for a refreshing ride near some water. During my time in rehab, I learned about the benefits of aquatic therapy, below are just a few benefits.

  • Decreases pain
  • Lowers swelling
  • Improves range of motion
  • Reduces stress
  • Relaxes muscles and tendons

To be honest, I am not much of a beach or swimming fan and I tend to avoid bodies of water like a cat. However, after my accident, I quickly learned to appreciate biking on this particular trail between the mighty Savannah River and the tranquil Augusta Canal.

The soothing sounds of the water always calm my spirit and I enjoy watching creation relax in or near the water. Even if you are in perfect health, it is important to make time to be rehydrated, restored, and refreshed.

Refreshed

Most of us understand the importance of staying hydrated and the need to get enough rest. That is why most people enjoy summer vacations.

However, for people with brain injuries like me, rest and hydration are crucial to functioning the best we can with our brain injuries.

The human body is 60% water and the human brain is 80% water. Dehydration can be lethal to anyone, especially for somebody with a brain injury. When I become overly dehydrated, I have severe seizures that take a few days for me to recover from.

Spending time in the water may benefit our skin, staying properly hydrated benefits our brains and every organ in our body. A healthy lifestyle requires understanding the balance between work and play, as well as hydration and activity.

Writers may not be as physically active as other professionals, but it’s still important for writers to take time to be refreshed and to restore their creative juices.

Writing Flow

Most writers experience and dread the grind of the writing life. We understand writing is a lot more than just sitting down behind a computer and just typing words to express ourselves.

We know, writing is just a small part of the writer’s life puzzle. We cannot micromanage the hustle of a daily writing grind. Often, the writing life can become overwhelming, especially if you’re focused on always meeting your deadlines.

Mental exhaustion can easily overtake us as physical exhaustion does. This is why writers need to take time to be restored and refreshed. Water can help heal and restore our minds as easily as it sees our bodies.

 Our creative juices can be recharged if we properly balance our work with times of being refreshed. Below are some helpful tips from one of my writer friends on how writers can refill and refresh our creative spirit.

  1. Take a spiritual inventory.
  2. Evaluate what’s on your schedule.
  3. Admit you are dealing with mental fatigue.
  4. Take a look at your disrupted routine.
  5. Feed your creative spirit.

The point isn’t to add more things to our stress. Find what refreshes you and make a conscious effort to disconnect from your work. Just like an unhealthy and unrested body cannot function properly, an unhealthy and unrested writer cannot produce quality writing.

One of my writing friends enjoys taking long walks on the beach looking for seaglass or rare hidden treasures. Another writing friend enjoys taking walks in the rain like I do myself. There’s nothing like a soothing rain to refresh the body and soul.  However, I absently hate riding my bike in the rain, because it frustrates me and hinders my focus.

Don’t Focus

I have already shared how it can be difficult for me to focus due to my brain injury. On the flip side, when I overfocus, it has a negative impact on both my brain and my body.

 For instance, if I try to type using my left hand, my left hand will spaz up or began to cramp. I will also get a headache if I overfocus or become slightly dehydrated.

As writers, we tend to add pressure to our lives by striving for perfection in our prose or procrastinating before a looming deadline. The added pressure can cause our writing to become forced.

When we force our writing we produce poor quality work. Readers can tell when our stories and words are forced. Respect the reader and don’t force your writing. Below are some telltale signs of forced writing.

  • Vague writing
  • Awkward transitions
  • Filler words
  • Clichés

The best writers know when it is time to step away from the computer. Some of my best writing is done when I am outside and soaking up the sun. My creative juices are always refreshed when I give my body fresh air to clear my head.

Hours spent slaving away at a computer don’t always produce great writing. We don’t need a summer break to learn how to refresh our creative spirit. What activity helps you to feel more refreshed and recharged?

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

The Power of Encouraging Words

Earlier this month I received feedback and critique on my latest screenplay from the professional screenwriting website which currently hosts my screenplay. The professional’s thoughts on my WIP (work in progress) were beyond my wildest expectations. They enjoyed my screenplay so much I was awarded another month of free hosting and another free evaluation.

After years of researching, plotting, and problem-solving, I was hopeful, but not confident my narrative would capture the hearts and minds of others, especially in the industry that is hard to break into. After reading the comments about my character and his journey, I was on cloud nine and excited to take the professional feedback and put it to use in polishing and perfecting my passion project.

My screenplay isn’t perfect, but it has tremendous commercial potential for a worldwide audience and tackles a lot of current issues in this “high-octane” inspirational cyber terrorism spec. Proofreading and a little dialogue polishing are my main focus now.

While there is still a little work to be done, the encouraging words inspired and motivated me to take action. I  am focused more on the story and even stopped procrastinating and doing what needs to be done to get my story and its message where it needs to be for a sale and production.

Encouragement

Personally, I struggle with a lack of self-confidence since I wasn’t able to finish college after sustaining my brain injury during my junior year. Although I did eventually take professional writing classes and was mentored by others in the industry, I still question my calling and writing ability.

So any word of encouragement affirms and energizes my writing chops. Encouragement is defined as, “The action of giving someone support, confidence or hope.” At this stage of my writing journey, I can use all of the support I can get.

Life is hard and I don’t know anyone who couldn’t use a little bit of encouragement. Some of the benefits of encouragement are; it provides awareness, creates belief, builds confidence, improves attitude, and it promotes action. If you are struggling with anything in life, I hope this post lifts your spirits and encourages you.

As writers, we have the tools, means, and opportunities to encourage others with our words and that is what I try to do with my writing. We each need to harness the power of our words.

Power of words

The irony of being wordsmiths is we understand the power of our words, yet the writing life can be so overwhelming, we ourselves need words of encouragement to keep writing.

Being a writer is both hard and enjoyable in a weird kind of way. The reward doesn’t always outweigh the risk for most of us. Striving for publication is like reaching for the stars a lot of times.

We can see them and know which way to go, but there’s no guarantee we will ever achieve our writing goals. In times when we fall short of the stars, we need encouraging words ourselves.

We must believe that our words can bring hope or change to the lives of our readers. One of my writing mentors is the first to cheer me on during times I feel like I cannot go on.

She uses her words to encourage her readers and other writers to use the power of their words to encourage others. Below are some of the tips to help us encourage others with our words.

  1. Acceptance
  2. Awareness
  3. Determination
  4. Joy
  5. Love
  6. Passion
  7. Sacrifice
  8. Servanthood
  9. Transparency
  10. Willingness

As writers we have an opportunity to do more than just make a living, we can make a difference in the world we live in. Inspire others to be positive. Give others hope. Educate others about what we have learned on our journeys. Motivate others to press on through the pain.

Motivated

Motivation is a psychological stimulant that affects our minds and bodies positively. During those early days in the hospital after my accident, I lacked the motivation to even live. My life was over as I knew it.

Neither my body nor my brain will ever be the same as they were before my accident. It doesn’t matter how severe an injury to the brain is, the slightest injury to the brain can affect the body for the rest of a person’s life.

The main thing that kept me going during those dark days was the encouragement from my friends and family who came to visit me in the hospital and during my time in rehab.

Recently, a childhood pastor who came to see me while I was in a rehabilitation hospital almost 30 years ago again left encouraging words on my Facebook page about how proud he was of how I was using my words and story to uplift others.

Recovering from a T.B.I. is just as much mental and psychological as it is physical. Below are some of the ways brain injuries affect our brains, even years after the injury.

  • Sensory sensitivity
  • Depression
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Problems sleeping
  • Cognitive impairment
  • Fatigue
  • Hormone dysregulation

Motivation is a key to staying positive while living with a TBI. Traumatic brain injuries are life-changing events with no guarantee of improvement. Mental abilities can become impeded or severely limited.

With such a negative outlook, it is clear why survivors need to hear the power of an encouraging word!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Stay in the FIght

Like most people, I was saddened to hear the news about the passing of Christian recording artist Mandisa. She didn’t hide the fact that she was struggling and that her success and fame couldn’t fulfill her. I respect her vulnerability about the battles she fought because I have struggled with them as well.

  • Depression
  • Low self-esteem
  • Health issues

Her song “Overcomer” encouraged people to keep fighting. About the time it was released, I was struggling with my faith, broken relationships, and the loss of close friends. Her encouraging words helped me get through some of the darkest days of my life.

Today, many people are struggling to deal with daily life, whether it’s finances, mental health, or physical health concerns. We all need a little help and encouragement if we’re going to stay in the fight of life.

The Fight

While I am a firm believer that it’s the fight that makes us stronger in life, I am also keenly aware that sometimes the fight can overwhelm us, even if we have a strong faith. If you think life is hard, try living with a severe brain injury.

The side effects of living with a brain injury range from physical to mental and emotional challenges. Alone, any of them may cause a person to want to give up and quit life.

Statistics show that fifty-seven percent of TBI (traumatic brain injury) survivors are moderately to severely disabled. Fifty percent of survivors are hospitalized again at some point. Thirty-three percent must rely on others for help with daily activities

It doesn’t take much for disabled persons to become depressed or discouraged. The Brain Injury Association of America advises survivors to practice self-care and self-affirmations to stay encouraged and healthy. Many of these practices are beneficial if you are struggling with the grind of a writer’s life.

The Grind

 Most of us writers have experienced the grind of the writer’s life and know how it can wear us down. Social media and marketing can suck the life out of the craft of writing. The writing process itself can sometimes be difficult.

There are times when brainstorming, writing, and editing just seem to drain us of our creative passion. Add to that the rejection letters and no guarantee of being published. It’s clear why so many choose to throw in the towel.

If you have found yourself overwhelmed by the grind of a writing career, you are not alone. The odds of making a living as a writer are stacked against us. But don’t give up the fight just yet, below are some tips for staying motivated and staying in the fight for your writing dreams.

  1. Find your why.
  2. Find your motivational triggers.
  3. Make sure you’re not chasing someone else’s goal.
  4. Picture yourself as a successful writer.
  5. Create a roadmap and stick to it.
  6. Reward yourself
  7. Establish a routine
  8. Create a vision board
  9. Let go of perfectionism
  10. Cultivate community
  11. Read
  12. Reevaluate constantly

Over the years I have almost given up numerous times and each time I have stepped away to reevaluate my goals and options. I can attest it is wise to take a break and regroup. My initial writing goals had nothing to do with writing books.

As an English major in college, I wanted to write screenplays that made a difference. Life had different plans. My desire to write books was encouraged by mentors who believed in me and nudged me in the direction of writing books.

However, I never completely gave up on my dreams of screenwriting. Earlier this year, I decided to take the time to do another revision of my latest screenplay.

While rearranging the order of the plot points, I had an epiphany. Sometimes life also takes us down unexpected paths on our journeys.

Different Paths

I’ve said it before and I will reiterate it here, every brain injury is different and each person’s recovery will be unique to their brain injuries. I have seen people with less damage to their brains who are worse off than I am.

Our brains are amazing organs that can be reprogrammed and rewired to do common tasks in not-so-ordinary ways, that’s why no two people are the same; even conjoined twins can follow different paths.

I have learned over the last 27 years just how unique my recovery has been because the brain surgeries performed on me are rarely performed. I am one of the last persons to receive a partial frontal-lobe lobotomy due to the risk to the patient.

Likewise, a path to publication or literary representation looks different for every writer. We cannot follow the same course to success as other writers, because we are different writers and unfortunately the publication industry is constantly changing.

That’s why, this year I made the hard choice not to attend an annual writing conference I usually go to in the spring. I felt like it was time to take a break, regroup, and see what doors would open. Fortunately, the doors and opportunities are already opening.

  • I am about to celebrate one year of writing a successful spiritual column that reaches around the globe.
  • A popular screenwriting website has offered me free hosting and evaluations for my revised screenplay.
  • I am in my seventh year writing this column.

My path to success is different because my goals, gifts, and story are different. I must use my voice and skill set to achieve my goals. I get to encourage other writers through my writing. I can educate others about persons with disabilities and I get to help others struggling in their writing journeys. Together these are enough reasons for me to stay in the fight!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Overwhelmed or Overcomer

Recently, I was screened to take part in a brain injury survivor case study. During the brief interview, the memories of those early days after my accident came crashing down on me reminding me of the pain I’ve worked so hard to put behind me.

It was difficult for me to remember all of the negative emotions and situations I endured during that life-changing season. I have struggled with many of the same issues over the last 27 years.

  • Depression
  • Loneliness
  • Shock
  • Fear

To my surprise, due to my remarkable recovery, I did not qualify to take part in the case study survey. My accomplishments over the last 27 years exceeded the study’s parameters.

I’m not referring to any spectacular feats of strength, but typical everyday chores and tasks individuals must perform to take care of themselves—activities I couldn’t do in the weeks following my accident.

In the end I remembered how far I’ve come since those difficult days when I was overwhelmed by my TBI and felt like giving up.

Overwhelmed

Webster’s dictionary defines overwhelmed as, “Upset, overthrow; to cover completely. Overcome by superior forces or numbers or to overpower in thought or feeling.”

Certainly, we have all experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed at some point in our lives. However, for persons with disabilities, these feelings or situations can be exceedingly debilitating.

Because our bodies and emotions are literally out of our control; those first few weeks after my accident were so difficult for me, that I became suicidal. It was humiliating to need help to do common tasks like feeding myself or using the restroom.

After I finished therapy I began trying to write again and found myself hitting another brick wall. Due to my brain injury, I lost all fine-tuned motor skills in my left hand. Although I am right-handed, I am still unable to type at a productive are feasible level.

As an English major with writing aspirations, this presented another obstacle for me to navigate. After a few days of struggling to type, I learned about speech dictation software that I could purchase to write.

Twenty-six years later I still use the same software to write everything, including the posts you read here in this column. It’s humorous to say, but I am more of a speaker than a writer!

Writers Life

I have been pursuing traditional publication for the last decade. Now once again I have started feeling overwhelmed as I continue to navigate the hurdles of a writer’s life.

As aspiring writers, we’ve all had to start on the same playing field with nothing but a good story or prose that we want to share with the world. As Jerry B Jenkins asks, “What’s your story?”

As communicators, we know ideas are only as good as we can communicate them to others. Learning how to communicate more effectively is a big part of being a writer. That is why we must continually study and learn the craft.

Then we can masterfully create our fictional or nonfictional narratives. A fantastic idea can lose its persuasion or entertainment value if it is not communicated effectively.

Let me go ahead and confess now, I also understand just how overwhelming the writing life can be. Seeking an agent and maintaining an author’s newsletter can be overwhelming and time-consuming, but wait there’s more. There are countless aspects of the journey we each must learn and master in route to publication.

  1. Curating ideas
  2. Research
  3. Writing
  4. Editing
  5. Rewriting
  6. Building a platform
  7. Managing social media
  8. Book Promotion
  9. Book tours
  10. Speaking engagements

Each one of these functions can be overwhelming in and of themselves. This is why writers need mentors and cheerleaders to nudge them along in the grind of the writing life.

Have you ever felt like giving up? You’re not alone if the writer’s life has overwhelmed you. I cannot count how many times I’ve wanted to step away from my computer and never write another word.

Each time, I have leaned into the writing community and reached out to others for help and advice. At the beginning of last year, I resolved to give up my writing passion.

And just as I was ready to quit, I became a finalist in a Christian writing competition, that third-place win reminded me of what it means to be an overcomer. Just because the chips are down doesn’t mean we have to cash in. Just because we fell overwhelmed, doesn’t mean we can’t become overcomers.

Overcomer

Overcomers are defined as persons who overcome something; one who succeeds in dealing with or gaining control over some problem or difficulty. March 31 will mark the 27th anniversary of my accident which almost overcame me both physically and mentally.

However, I am not the same person I was before. I have worked hard to overcome countless obstacles to live life this long. I have allowed these obstacles to make me stronger, just as fire refines and strengthens precious metals.

There have been times in my life when I’ve come close to giving up, that’s when I remind myself to get up instead. I have learned there is beauty in the trial. We can be overwhelmed by hardships or overcome them and let them work good in our lives.

  • Humble us
  • Guide us
  • Strengthen us

Hardships can allow writers to grow as people and as professional writers. The cliché is true, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” As writers, we must find our way to becoming overcomers.

Sometimes it’s the struggles of publication that give writers their voice and story. Just like it’s the struggle of breaking free from a cocoon that gives butterflies stronger wings to fly higher.

The struggles of life may be overwhelming like a cocoon, however like a butterfly in the spring, we can become overcomers!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Divergence And A Writer’s Life

As 2024 rolls away, it is still not playing out as I hoped it would. It is a different kind of year for me. Because of my brain injury, I plan and prepare for daily activities more than the average person.

Unexpected events can be hard for me to adjust to, sometimes even to the point of paralyzing me with fear. Still, I am learning God had different plans for me this year. Taking me out of my comfort zone and challenging me to grow as a person and as a writer. Most of us have a healthy fear of the unknown.

  • Unpredictable
  • Scary
  • Out of our control

After my accident, my life drastically changed and I had no idea what to expect of my new normal. Nor did my doctors and therapists know how I would live, because as our motto goes, “Every brain injury is different. “

Divergence

Growing up as an Army brat, I was used to being different, every few years I had to change schools, homes, and friends. It’s no wonder I enjoyed college so much and being around people from different cultures. However, my accident took being different to another level for me; I live as a divergent of a normal person.

Divergence is a deviation from a course or standard. It means a process of a person doesn’t work in typical ways. The reason why there was so much uncertainty about me after my accident is the doctors performed a risky operation to remove the right side of the frontal lobe of my brain; this caused my brain to rewire itself and diverge from the typical neural pathways.

 My brain injury changes the way every process of my body works. Every function both voluntary and involuntary is altered from the normal process. As an example, I have to consciously think about swinging my left arm when I walk and I have to consciously think about moving my left leg also.

That is how my TBI affects me; however, each brain injury comes with its own challenges and uniqueness, because each brain injury truly is different.

Different

The name of this column reflects persons of different abilities, the mindset is we are not less than healthy individuals, we just have different abilities. Persons with brain injuries like me may function differently only than other people, but we are no less human; even if some may think so.

 We may think and function differently, but we still live, breathe, and bleed like everyone else. Having a brain injury makes me part of the neurodivergent community. This community’s brains receive, process, and filter information in a nontypical fashion. Below are some common diagnoses of the neurodivergent community.

  1. ADHD
  2. Autism
  3. Dyslexia
  4. Dyspraxia
  5. Dyscalculia
  6. Dysgraphia
  7. Tourette Syndrome
  8. Intellectual disabilities
  9. Bipolar disorder
  10. Social anxieties
  11. Traumatic brain injuries

Living with a brain injury for 26 years has taught me to understand and accept different people and lifestyles. As writers, we don’t have the same goals, skills, or paths to success.

I often find myself looking at the success of other writers and feeling inadequate or overcome with disappointment because my writing journey isn’t the same as my writing friends’.

It is easy to get discouraged when we view our differences as roadblocks to success. Instead, we need to learn to celebrate our unique writing journey, skills, and success.

Celebrate

Next month brain injury survivors around the world will celebrate Brain Injury Awareness Month to shed light on brain injury awareness and to celebrate our uniqueness and successes.

We have learned to celebrate the small victories in life. The road to recovery is traveled one small step at a time. My first big success after my accident was learning how to feed myself without the aid of a nurse.

Don’t get me wrong it didn’t feel simple at the time; it was all I could do to keep the food from falling out of my mouth while I ate. Every brain injury comes with its difficulties and successes.

As writers, we each have different strengths and different weaknesses, I don’t know a writer who doesn’t have an area in their skills that they are trying to improve. Writing success and progress looks different for each of us, below are some common steps writers must take on their writing journey.

  • Blogging
  • Starting a newsletter
  • Getting bylines
  • Growing their platform
  • Growing the social media
  • Acquiring an agent
  • Signing a book contract

Each step takes a writer closer to their writing dream; learn to celebrate each success, no matter what the size. Take the time to grow as a writer and process what you learn.

Neurodivergent persons may see and process things differently, but that doesn’t mean they can’t celebrate the progress. Sometimes all I can hope for is a good day when I don’t wake up feeling confused or depressed.

Writers don’t have to wait to celebrate when they get published, we can also celebrate simply meeting our writing goal for the day. Even our daily writing goals can be divergent!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Great Expectations

Like most people, I entered the new year with high hopes and great expectations. Last year was a mixed bag of highs and lows. However, I ended 2023 feeling low and discouraged about my writing career.

Even after winning a writing award, I failed to secure a literary agent and questioned continuing my writing journey. I had high hopes for this year, a writing breakthrough or possibly an opportunity to relocate from the southeast. A new year is full of possibilities.

  • Better health
  • New opportunities
  • Achieving writing goals

However, the new year hasn’t been easy for me. I have struggled to get motivated to do daily routines, much less keep in the discipline of writing. My creative juices aren’t flowing and I am struggling to be inspired to use my skills and be productive. So much for my great expectations for the new year.

Expectations

An expectation is a strong belief that something will happen in the future or a belief that someone should achieve something. After my accident, I had high expectations about how my recovery would go.

To be honest, I was ignorant of how serious brain injuries are and how hard the recovery process would be. My expectations weren’t realistic. I learned that the hard way the night I fell off the commode in my hospital room before I ever made it to a rehabilitation hospital.

I didn’t get the recovery I expected and I never returned to college as I planned. I had to learn to lower my expectations and develop new realistic goals. I had to learn to make do with the skills and abilities I had, instead of hoping for more.

Brain injury survivors struggle with unrealistic expectations, just like many writers have about their writing careers

“You don’t begin your writing career by writing a book. Start with shorter stuff. Blogs, articles, e-zine pieces. Learn the trade, the business, how to be edited, and work with editors.”

Jerry B Jenkins

Like brain injury survivors, writers need to build their writing muscles before they can take on big projects. Just because you know the basics of writing, doesn’t mean you’re ready for the big leagues of professional publication.

Unfortunately, many writers begin their writing careers with great expectations because they believe the myths about a writing career.

  1. Overnight success is easy.
  2. Virality.
  3. It doesn’t take much time.
  4. I can strike it rich
  5. Writing is easy

Anyone who thinks writing is easy has never tried to write professionally. Writers wear many hats and often spend more time doing other things than writing. Very few writers make a good living off of just writing.

Most writers have side hustels or other sources of income. The reality is the writing life is not always glamorous or rewarding.

Reality

Reality often hits us hard and we have too high expectations. Reality hit me hard after my accident when I wasn’t able to feed myself. It took me time to realize that my limitations were.

After being depressed for a few weeks, I decided to set new goals that were doable with the realities of living with a disability. I had to learn the beauty of letting go and that made my reality a little easier.

I am disabled, but I am not dead. I am legally blind, not physically blind. I am still alive, just living with a different reality. In the brain injury community, the understanding is, “No two brain injuries are alike, each one is different and comes with its own reality.“

As writers, we need to understand success looks different for each of us also and we will find it in different ways.

  • Pleasure of the craft
  • Fame
  • Meeting the needs of others
  • Financial freedom

Publication is constantly changing. Regardless, there may come a time when we each need to lower our expectations!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Rest and Relaxation

As I write this post, soldiers from a local Army base are departing for a time of R&R and to spend time with their friends and family over the Christmas holiday. If you are active duty or a veteran of our military, thank you for your service. There is a special joy we experience during Christmas, despite the chaos going on in the world around us.

We understand that at Christmas we need to slow down and enjoy the little things in life like conversations with friends. Or simply being still and doing nothing other than enjoying being in the company of our loved ones.

However, there is also irony to the Christmas holidays, the holiday rush is also one of the most stressful times of year for many; we just fill our slower schedules with different tasks.

  • Shopping
  • Shipping
  • Cooking
  • Traveling

A recent study used shows how people’s stress levels increase during the holidays. I learned after my accident just how important rest is to the ebb and flow of life.

I learned in rehabilitation after my accident that stress and not getting enough rest can damage our brains. That is why I protect my downtime and sleep time.

Rest isn’t limited to sleep. It’s a change of pace and change of our routines or habits. Rest helps us keep our lives from becoming stagnant or overbearing. We all need to learn to practice the art of resting and relaxation.

R&R

The slang term, “R&R” has been used in the armed forces for decades and is short for, “rest and recuperation, rest and relaxation, or rest and rehabilitation.” The term applies to a type of leave granted to personnel which allows them to return home to visit their family.

The military understands the importance and need of soldiers having free time to rest and recharge from their service to the country. The stress of serving our country and being away from loved ones can be depressing, stressful, and lonely for our servicemen and women.

I can attest to the stress, growing up as an Army brat while my father served in the Army for over 21 years. While I was young my father spent most of his time in mess halls around the world training soldiers how to cook and preparing meals for our troops.

Now my younger brother is preparing to retire from the Army after 20 years, next month he will have a total shoulder replacement before his wife gives birth to their first child next year. He also suffers from PTSD after serving three tours overseas.

His go-to stress release is long-distance running as an ultra-marathoner. Again, rest doesn’t necessarily mean sleeping; R&R focuses on a change of pace and doing what we enjoy the most. Regardless of our vocation in life, life can become overbearing or monotonous, especially for us writers.

Writer’s Life

  The writer’s life can be just as hectic and restless as a soldier’s life. Writers are always writing, even when not at a desk or computer. Our minds are constantly thinking of new ideas or ways to improve and edit what we have already written.

Burnout usually develops when we fail to take breaks or get enough rest. Writer’s block occurs when we overthink. Psychologically, our minds lock down when we push them too hard .

We resist slowing down and resting for many reasons: fear, perfectionism, self-criticism, and external pressure. Overworked minds perform less efficiently, just like an exhausted body does. Below are four reasons writers need to get more rest from derbyshirewritingschool.com.

  1. Become better writers
  2. Develop more ideas
  3. Understand who we are
  4. Curate and create material to write about.

Let me clarify, resting doesn’t mean being lazy or unproductive. Rest is simply a change of pace to help refuel our creative juices and give our minds and break. It helps our bodies relax and recover from the stress of the writer’s life.  It gives our brains time to slow down and refocus.

Focus

I have already explained how hard it can be for someone with a brain injury to stay focused, even perfectly healthy people can have difficulty focusing if they fail to get enough rest.

Distractions are anything that inhibits our ability to focus, if we fail to get enough rest, our attention spans are inhibited and we are more easily distracted.

And we all know how easily people are distracted today thanks to technology. The human brain can only process so much information at any time. If our minds are not working at 100%, our processing abilities will not be 100%. The military understands that a rested soldier is a more capable soldier.

A rested writer is a more productive writer in the long run. Our brains are the CPU for our nervous systems. The better we take care of our brains, the better our performance will be, will be able to focus better. Below are some tips on how to improve our focus.

  • Minimize distractions
  • Get enough sleep
  • Eat better
  • Meditation
  • Take regular breaks

As writers, we understand the importance of staying focused in our writing. Writers need to stay on point in their prose. The best writers understand how to say more by writing less. Healthy and productive writers understand the need to get enough rest. Just because the holidays are ending, doesn’t mean we don’t need R&R!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Stronger Together

As I write, the holiday season has begun and most people are spending time with friends and family. The holidays are about a lot more than just having fun together. There are reasons we like getting together with other people.

  • Encouragement
  • Resting
  • Helping others
  • Sharing

However, the holidays aren’t pleasant for everyone. Recently the mother of my best friend from college passed away unexpectedly. I decided to reach out and encourage him.

I can still remember her coming to see me in the hospital after my accident. She assured me there was a reason I didn’t die and she would pray for me to get better.

Over two decades later, I can still remember how much better I felt after her brief visit with me in the hospital. I can still remember her smile the first time I entered her home after I finished my rehabilitation.

It was extremely important for me to get all of the support and encouragement I could in those early days after my accident, especially once I finally was able to think clearly. It was their support that helped me to get stronger.

Stronger

I cannot express enough how important it is for us to grow in life and for healthy brains to grow neurologically. That is why I continue to work out and focus on my health.

There are numerous benefits of staying physically active for our brains. I benefit by lowering my stroke threshold. Recent studies have shown that physical activity helps reduce the risk of dementia.

The older I get the more thankful I am for my health, especially considering my brain injury. But, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for getting help and advice from other health-conscious people.

The gym is more than just a place to exercise, it is a place to build relationships and community. Often, it is in the gym where I learn about other things going on in the community I live in.

Recently I shared with a brother from church a new back exercise I learned and he told me today that he, too, really likes the exercise. It’s not always about showing off or who looks the best in the fitness community, in the gym I have accountability and encouragement; gym rats know we are stronger together.

Together

Being together doesn’t always mean being in the same place. My best friend from college lives in Texas now and we still support each other from afar. I have learned new exercises from friends across the country and on YouTube.

There is a psychological bond that connects us with other people with similar interests and goals. We’ve experienced what others have experienced and we strive for similar goals.

Recently, I received another rejection email from a literary agent and of course, I was pretty depressed. However, thanks to my writing friends across the country whom I keep in touch with, I received the encouragement and advice I needed to continue in my writing journey.

Most of us have experienced how lonely and disappointing the writing life can be at times, we’ve all faced rejection at some point; even best-selling authors have experienced rejection and discouragement in their writing journeys.

We are a weird sort of community because we know we’ll face painful moments. Just like with the fitness community, we need the support and guidance of others to help us get stronger and to motivate us not to give up.

Friendships and community are important, regardless of their nature. Below are some benefits of building stronger friendships from betterhealth.com.

  1. Lower rates of anxiety
  2. Lower rates of depression
  3. Higher self-esteem
  4. Greater empathy
  5. Stronger immune system

As writers, we understand the demands and the pitfalls of the writing life. We can help encourage other writers who are struggling. We can also receive encouragement from others within the community.

Encouragement

Recently, I reconnected with another disabled person in my community. I had actually met him at the local gym about a decade ago. He is a brain cancer survivor who is wheelchair-bound.

I had the chance to share with him about my experiences after my accident. All of these years later we’re both feeling depressed and forgotten.

I offered to help him with his problem, just knowing I could help someone else made me feel better. Community has its advantages.

  1. Encouragement
  2. Opportunity
  3. Sense of belonging

Having a place to fit in is rewarding in itself. It isn’t about getting paid. A stronger community benefits us all. Ask Matthew Whitaker, a blind musician who returned to the school that taught him music to give back. That is how we become stronger together!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Be Flexible

Recently, I discussed with a fellow health nut at the gym that I was wanting to try something new in my fitness cycle. My goal is to maximize the benefits of the time I spend in the gym.

During my time in rehabilitation after my accident, I learned the importance of being flexible. I’m not talking about lots of stretching of the body, but not being so set in my ways or movements. Being flexible in life has lots of benefits.

  • Opportunities to learn new things
  • Decreases stress
  • Keeps the mind active

Of course, we understand the need to stay physically active for overall health. However, over time our exercise habits can become routine, boring, and less effective.

The age-old adage is true.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

The more we perform activities and movements, the more our bodies become used to them, and that decreases the benefits.

I have already shared how I only do a particular exercise routine for eight weeks at a time before changing my routines to different exercises. A brain that isn’t stimulated ceases to grow. According to VeryWellMind, we need to practice psychological flexibility to help our brains adapt and stay healthy and creative.

Flexibility

To be flexible means, “Able to be easily modified to respond to altered circumstances or conditions.” Flexibility can be applied to every area of our lives, from relationships to finances and healthy lifestyles. Flexibility is a key trait to being a successful writer.

Writer’s Life

Writers need to be flexible with both their skills and time. I have been writing for almost 20 years. I have learned that writing is easier at certain times than at others, unfortunately, it isn’t always the most opportune time for me.

I have also experienced what I set out to write isn’t what I end up with in the final draft. The writing process can change the focus of our prose. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the privilege of writing what we want.

Writers are at the mercy of publishers, editors and what is in demand at the time. The writing community is continually evolving; whether it’s traditional, self-publishing, or hybrid, a writer needs to be able to adapt to trends and genre expectations.

Writers must learn to be flexible if they want to be successful. Every writing journey will be different and a writer can’t expect to follow the same path as other writers.

Niches are comfortable and help us get experience, however, expanding our writing repertoire gives us more opportunities to grow our skills and connect with different audiences. Flexibility is one of the five F’s writers need to become better writers from Writer Unboxed.

  1. Forgiveness
  2. Flexibility
  3. Food
  4. Fun
  5. Friends

Being more flexible in our writing can also help keep the creative juices flowing. It helps overcome writer’s block. It gives us more opportunities to work as writers. It can open new doors for relationships in the writing community. And it will help our writing become stronger overall.

Stronger

The goal of good writers is to be strong writers. I do not mean being strongly opinionated. Certainly don’t be rude. And for heaven’s sake, please don’t get too wordy.

Get to the point and get out of the readers’ way. Below are a few more tips for strong writing from Writer’s Digest.

  • Never let the truth get in the way of your story.
  • Never use two words when one will do.
  • Use the active voice
  • Use parallel construction.

One of the biggest mistakes people make in exercising is over training. They think if they do more weight, more reps, or spend more time in the gym that is how they will get stronger. However, it is best to pick one or the other and learn to be flexible.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Get It Done

If you are like most people, you are excited about the arrival of fall this month. I have been looking forward to it myself, although I have mixed feelings about the season. But I guess I have to take the bad with the good.

  • Windy days
  • Cooler temperatures
  • Fall colors
  • Shorter days

Shorter days mean less sunlight and with the arrival of September comes my S.A.D. (seasonal effective disorder). While the cooler temperatures are nice, less sunlight can have negative effects on brain and body.

Sunlight helps strengthen bones by increasing vitamin D, which also helps fight depression. Sunlight increases serotonin levels that helps us feel calm and be more focused.

September is also national suicide prevention month. The days will only get shorter from now until the first day of winter. So, we must make the most of the daylight hours we have.

For someone with a brain injury, like me, less sunlight can worsen the effects of living with a brain injury. I already have a hard time staying focused and motivated. Some days, I don’t accomplish much of anything, even though I have a lot that needs to get done.

Get It Done

The demands of the writing life can put a lot of pressure on us. We have to create original content, stories, and articles, then proofread and edit. And yet somehow there always seems to be a typo that slips through, despite our best efforts.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the demands of writing can be overwhelming at times. Feeling overwhelmed can be paralyzing for someone with a brain injury or disability.

Overwhelmed

Being overwhelmed means we feel an unbearable weight or pressure that causes stress. As I have stated before, stress is not good for someone with a brain injury. In some cases, too much stress can be lethal.

After my accident, I learned about my need to avoid overly stressful situations in both my personal and vocational life. Stress damages both the structure and function of the brain which can lead to severe impairment.

One way to reduce stress levels is to work on time management skills. This ensures enough time to get work done, which is key to our lives being less stressful.

Below are some ways we can stay productive without feeling overwhelmed from Redbooth.com

  1. Keep it simple
  2. Eliminate distractions
  3. Identify and organize tasks
  4. Just dive in
  5. Don’t get bogged down
  6. Ask for help
  7. Delegate/swap assignments when possible
  8. Take care of yourself
  9. Make your work environment pleasant

My goal isn’t to be less productive, just more efficient with my life, skills, and time. The old adage, “We all have the same amount of time in a day,” comes to mind.

When we focus more on reducing stress, we can be more productive with whatever time we have and will be able to stay focused.

Stay Focused

When I take care of myself physically and mentally, I am able to be more efficient with my time and workload. Make time to take care of yourself and your writing will follow. Don’t let your deadline be the death of you.

Professional writers understand the importance of meeting or beating deadlines. However, we all know how stressful deadlines can be. Below are a few tips for meeting deadlines from mindtools.com

  • Evaluate what’s required
  • Allow for problems
  • Plan in detail
  • Limit the damage of a missed deadline

Having a brain injury has taught me to be proactive instead of reactive with my health to help me stay on task. Focused productivity is the best way to get things done.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

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Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Take a Break

While working on this month’s post, I am taking a much-needed “rest” weekend. I am not talking about spending the weekend doing nothing but sleeping, I am simply changing up my weekend activities and letting my body rest and recover from strenuous activities.

Downtime is important for everyone, especially if you have a disability or a minor injury. Rest is an important part of the rhythm of life. A lot of things are happening when we slow our bodies and brains down.

  • Our body heals
  • Our energy levels recharge
  • Our brains refocus

After my accident, I learned the importance of taking breaks to let my body and brain recover from daily activities. My brain was in the process of healing from my accident and needed more time to recover.

The creative life can be just as overwhelming as a physically active life. The creative process has different stages; most of the “work” is done in our brains. Before we even write the first word our bodies need rest.

Rest

As a gym rat, I understand that the workout is accomplished by getting adequate sleep and rest. An exhausted body and brain cannot perform at 100%. For over a decade now I have incorporated “rest” days, weeks, and weekends into my exercise routine.

These allow my body to heal and recover from my vigorous workout routines. They also keep me from getting burned out in my fitness goals. I always feel better and more focused in the gym, after I’ve taken time away. This principle applies to a lot more than just health goals.

Writer’s Life

We writers can also benefit from taking breaks from being creatively productive, not extended time away, because then we just procrastinate getting back to work. But enough time to let our minds rest and recharge.

After this year’s Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers’ conference, I felt overwhelmed and unable to focus. The intensive week-long training drains my creative juices. So I decided to take a mental break before jumping into my writing projects.

Writer’s conferences can be both physically and mentally demanding, then there’s the emotional aspect. It’s like a week long crash-study course we experience while meeting new friends and catching up with old ones.

All the while most writers tend not to get enough sleep during the conference. I am a big proponent of getting a minimum of eight hours of sleep every night, which is an essential function of living a healthy life. Below are some of the benefits of getting a good night’s sleep:

  1. Aids in weight loss.
  2. Improves concentration and productivity.
  3. Can maximize athletic performance.
  4. Strengthens the heart.
  5. Helps sugar metabolism and lowers type II diabetes risk
  6. Lowers risk of depression.
  7. Strengthens immune system.
  8. Lowers risk of inflammation
  9. Improves emotions and social interaction.
  10. Increases alertness.

Clearly, breaks and rest help our bodies and brains function better. Studies even show that lack of sleep can impair creative thinking. Less sleep is a cause of poor memory and inability to focus, leaving individuals more prone to making mistakes.

Although we are all living busy lives, neglecting time to sleep and rest doesn’t aid in increasing production and often does more harm than good. As writers, we are goal-oriented and need to focus on getting things done.

Get It Done

People who know me, have witnessed how frustrated and irritable I get when I don’t get a good night’s sleep. Due to my brain injury, there are times I have a hard time focusing and need to disconnect to be able to think clearly.

Persons with brain injuries need to protect their times of rest, below are common ways we can take a break during the day to rest.

  • Short walks
  • Meditate
  • Quiet time alone
  • Eat a snack
  • Naps

Personally, I don’t like taking naps or even laying down too long during the day, because it messes up my circadian rhythm and I cannot sleep at night. I may lean back and close my eyes or just daydream, but nothing more.

Power walks are my favorite way to rest because I get outside and get fresh air and are where I take my breaks.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Try Something New

After returning from this year’s Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writing Conference (BRMCWC), I was excited about the new writing opportunities I had. Doors were opening before I even attended the conference. I was selected to be one of the new columnists on Patheos.com.

Not only will this be a great platform builder, it will introduce a new audience to my writing, beliefs, and style. It is important for writers to keep writing and learning the craft, which improves our writing in a few ways.

  • Diminishes fear
  • Develops style
  • Develops strong writing disciplines

“Learn as if you were not reaching your goal and as though you were scared of missing it.”

Confucius

After my accident, I not only had to relearn everything, I needed to learn new skills and processes to help my brain and body heal. Adaptation is a healing process.

Know to Grow

Albert Einstein observed, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and only ceases at death.”

 After my accident, the doctors removed the right side of the frontal lobe of my brain so my brain could form new pathways to functioning.

Doing new things helps stimulate brain growth and health. Our brains finish growing by age 25. However, there are things we can do that help our brains form new pathways and abilities.

Learning new things actually rewires your brain, because of its neuroplasticity. Reading and writing are two of the main ways we can increase our brain’s neuroplasticity. So, the more you read and write, the more efficient your brain will be.

Music, dance, and exercise also help improve our brain’s neuroplasticity. The old cliché about a body in motion staying in motion applies to our brains as well.

Keep Going

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.”

Dr. Seuss

Our writing improves because it helps our brains. Below are a few tips to help improve your writing from wordstream.com.

  1. Brush up on the basics
  2. Write like it’s your job
  3. Read like it’s your job
  4. Find a writing partner
  5. Join a workshop or take a night class
  6. Dissect writing that you admire
  7. Imitate writers you admire
  8. Remember that outlines are your friend
  9. Edit your work ruthlessly
  10. Accept that first drafts are almost always crap

Just like staying active keeps the body going strong, consistent writing helps make our brain and writing skills stronger. Just because our brains have finished growing, doesn’t mean we can’t help improve their performance or focus.

By trying new things, we will test our mental and physical stamina. Improving our brain functions will improve our physical health also. Don’t be afraid to try something new, we’re all beginners at some point.

Don’t Be Afraid

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

Henry Ford

The reason why we like staying in our comfort zones, because they are familiar, less stressful, and are less challenging. However, comfort zones don’t challenge our brains and that can be harmful.

When our bodies are inactive for long periods of time, atrophy can set in and cause our muscles to deteriorate. Neuroscientists have learned that we can lose brain cells when we fail to use our brains more often.

This is why it is good to try new things as a writer, even if we are scared or untrained in a particular area. Below are a few new writing areas I am interested in trying.

  • Poetry
  • Journaling
  • Ghostwriting

My motto in school was, never rest until you know you can pass the test. There are plenty of writing opportunities for writers to explore. New opportunities challenge our brains and sharpen our writing skills. With new skills comes new growth in both our health and careers. I challenge you to think about new chances you have to grow and create as a writer, don’t be afraid to try something new!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Screenwriting

White Space

Recently, I decided to enter my latest screenplay into another screenwriting competition. Before I submitted my screenplay, I decided to do another rewrite to make it easier to read. I started out with the basic writing rule; storytelling is more about showing than it is telling— especially with screenplays. So there are a few things I wanted to accomplish with this version.

  • Tighten dialogue up
  • Removing unnecessary repetitions
  • Condensing scene descriptions

I hoped to create more white space to make it easier to read. Before screenplays ever make it to the big screen, they will be read by a reader who must read hundreds of screenplays each day.

Thus we must make our screenplays more readable so they stand out amongst the countless other aspiring screenwriter’s work. Screenplays need to be a fast read for Hollywood’s screenplay readers.

“Script readers know about the trend to write shorter paragraphs of scene description so they will likely bring that expectation to a reading assignment. If they see long blocks of scene description, that will probably suggest to them the writer is an amateur.”

Scott Myers (Screen Writer)

If a screenplay is too bulky or wordy, it will never make it past a reader’s desk. So screenwriters need to be able to tell the most visually entertaining story without using a lot of unnecessary wordage that weighs a story down like too much baggage on a plane.

I have read a lot of produced screenplays in the last year and there is an obvious trend towards leaner screenplays. One of the biggest trends in screenwriting today is lean screenplays with lots of white space.

White Space

To be clear, white space is used in all forms of writing, from advertising to poetry and screenwriting, and it is simply the unprinted area of a piece of writing, a blank in a newspaper or advertisement.

White space can even be used in a sentence to structure and pace it. The never-ending sentence. In recent years white space has become a great tool in screenwriting.

Here are a few purposes of white space.

  1. It unclutters pages of information.
  2. It allows breathing room for the reader to intake and interpret information for any specific image that is necessary to visualize.
  3. It emphasizes important elements, leading readers’ eyes to the focal areas of a script.
  4. It showcases a shift from one visual to the next.
  5. It gives a reader comfort.
  6. It helps the reader better understand and interpret the visuals.[2]

Always Remember storytelling is more about showing than telling every minor detail. Leave room for the audience’s imagination and for the production team to put everything else where it goes.

Where Things Go

I am not talking about screenplay structure here, but more about movie production. Like any other piece of writing, screenplays are a combination of information for other people to consume and interpret.

Directors, producers, and production teams need to be able to clearly understand the story and the instructions you put into your screenplay. Huge chunks of information can hinder the ability of others to understand the information in your story.

Writers who don’t study the craft clutter up a page with lots of information and fail to learn the basics of screenwriting.

  • Font
  • Margins
  • Spacing

Amateurs try to manipulate a screenplay’s margins and font to try to fit more information into their screenplays. Spacing keeps the reader from getting overwhelmed and keeps the story flowing smoothly without abusing a page’s white space!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Delusions of Granduer

Last month, I attended an annual writer’s conference to further learn the craft and potentially win an award. Each year, hundreds of aspiring authors gather at this mountainside resort for the conference. Most of us arrived with high hopes for a writing career.

  • Becoming experts in the craft
  • Acquiring an agent
  • Meeting potential publishers

While having aspirations and being ambitious are great, we must also be realistic about how the industry works. Often writers arrive with many goals but not enough understanding or experience. This leads to disappointment.

There is a lot going on during a packed week of highs and lows: classes, networking, catching up with friends, and often interruptions by God all crammed into a daily schedule.

Multiply everything by a couple of hundred attendees and there will be some confusion and disappointment. Barney was wrong. Everyone isn’t a winner. He had delusions of grandeur!

Delusions of Grandeur

“No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”

Christian Bovee

After my accident, I had a lot of delusions about my health and my recovery. I wanted to return to college to finish my English degree and write my first screenplay as soon as possible.

However, my reality was I had to relearn how to do basic functions of life just to live. It wasn’t until 20 years later that I learned my vision limitations made me legally blind. I was so focused on my goals and hopes, I lost touch with reality.

According to Web M.D., delusional disorder is a serious mental illness where a person can’t distinguish between what is real and what isn’t. Even people without a brain injury can have unreasonably high opinions of themselves.

Let me be clear there is nothing wrong with having hopes and dreams, just having an unhealthy view or need of them. Only by focusing too much on our hopes or goals, we can easily become delusional. Below are a few possible causes of delusions of grandeur:

  1. Bipolar disorder
  2. Schizophrenia
  3. An imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters
  4. Stress
  5. Social isolation or lack of close relationships

A lot of aspiring writers suffer from delusions of grandeur about writing because they ignore the facts and statistics about writing careers and chances of success. Again, writing isn’t for the faint of heart. A great idea doesn’t guarantee publication. Talent only opens the door, but it doesn’t guarantee anything.

“Only the top 2% of writers make a good living and are successful. Most only make $1000 a year from writing.”

Publishing Perspectives

It can also take years for a new author to get a book published. Most writers know that writing isn’t for the faint of heart or cash-strapped dreamers. Eugene Peterson once said, “Writing is a vocation; it’s not just a way to get published.”

The truth is writers can end up with rejection from agents or publishers because the writing is one thing and publication is entirely something else! Author and speaker Bryant H. McGill once said, “Rejection is merely a redirection; a course correction to your destiny.”

Redirection

One of the common themes I hear repeated at writers’ conferences is, “A rejection is only a redirection.” When things don’t work out like we hope they will in our publication journey and we realize our delusions of grandeur aren’t true. It’s not the end of the world, but perhaps redirection.

When our hopes and plans don’t work out, we are to look at it as a redirection instead of a rejection. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been rejected by an agent I was hoping to impress and found myself sitting across the table from a different agent that was the better fit for me and my style of writing.

At a conference, writers try to choose the right agent, find a path to publication, and on occasion try to determine what kind of writer they are. Sometimes, dreams unravel. Broken dreams aren’t end of the writing journey, but could be a redirection.

It took less than a year after my accident for me to realize that going back to college wasn’t a possibility for me. And not just that, I couldn’t do any of the hobbies I once enjoyed. I needed to reassess and redirect my abilities. After grieving my losses, I learned to focus on my new abilities and new opportunities. I learned new hobbies and developed new passions.

  • Biking
  • Weight training
  • Reading more
  • Writing more
  • Resting more

After spending most of my life trying to fit in with the crowd, I learned to accept that I am different, with different needs and goals. I no longer have to stress myself out by trying to keep up with the Jonese’s. I have surrendered my delusions of grandeur!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Screenwriting

Subtext

I’m binging on the superhero series The Punisher. Not because I am a comic book junkie, but because I like this series’ emphasis on mental health and how trauma can affect our lives.

In the season one finale there is a powerful scene where The Punisher, Frank Castle, locks eyes with a former military buddy and best friend after he was tortured by their colonel turned bad guy.

After a brief, subtle stare, the Punisher breaks free from his shackles, quickly kills the Colonel while the friend watches. A lot happens on screen without a single word being spoken. Still, the audience understands everything that is happening.

The writers of the show masterfully use subtext via action and pauses to tell a powerful story of revenge and friendship. In screenwriting, there are a few ways to tell a story without explaining everything.

  • Action
  • Dialogue
  • Inaudibles
  • Subtext

Movies and TV are the ultimate examples of showing versus telling! On-screen the audience can see all of the action, settings, and emotions. We can also hear the dialogue and audible cues (crying, sighs, and screams.)

However, all of these can take up a lot of space in a screenplay. A common “rule” is to not have huge boxes of dialogue. Dialogue blocks are a form of information overload and they clutter up a screenplay.

They can also bore a reader and the audience by telling them everything they want or need to know. Generally, dialogue should be no more than a few sentences long, so this forces a writer to show more than tell and to use subtext.

Subtext

If you are a fiction writer, then you probably understand that subtext is important to the storytelling process. Because in screenwriting, subtext leaves more white space on the page and it adds layers to your narrative.

“The underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text.”  

In screenwriting, subtext is the unspoken words, emotions, or desires. Although screenwriting is a visual art form, there are emotional and soul elements that cannot always be expressed in words, which invites the audience into our stories.

“Text means the sensory surface of a work of art. Subtext is the life under that surface—thoughts and feelings both known and unknown, hidden by behavior.”

Robert McKee

Writers know to avoid “on-the-nose dialogue.” On-the-nose is when what is said states the obvious or tells the exact thoughts or feelings of the character without action or subtext.

Another use of subtext is the underlying meaning behind a scene in a movie. The adage is, “If the scene is really about what the scene is about, then you’re screwed.” Subtext gives every scene in your screenplay more depth.

Think of two star-crossed lovers who cannot put their feelings into words, their avoidance or lack of interaction can imply what words can’t.

On the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, a young doctor, Simone, struggled with her feelings for her roommate, but couldn’t tell him because she was getting married. Everyone could see in her eyes, whenever the two were around one another, her feelings for him were strong. It was no surprise when she left her groom at the altar for her roommate. By then, the audience wanted her to do this. The subtext in the previous scenes built the anticipation of this unlikely couple.

Sure, we see this dynamic play out in many movies and TV shows, because subtext is crucial to visual storytelling.

Seven tips on writing subtext into your screenplays from Masterclass.

  1. Study subtext in film and novels.
  2. Get into your character’s head.
  3. Write the subtext in your notes.
  4. Apply the iceberg theory.
  5. Practice with hypothetical characters.
  6. Think about a real-life event that could contain subtext.
  7. Edit out unnecessary dialogue.

The best screenwriters have mastered the art of subtext, but all writers need to use this technique to tell the clearest and leanest story. It is a chance to practice “show don’t tell.”

And this dynamic goes beyond what the audience sees or perceives. Subtext keeps writers from telling actors what to do or how to act. It is the actor’s job to bring the character and their emotions out.

Subtext lets more action out than simply telling everything that is happening in a scene or character. Keep it on the stage, not on the page. Movies let the action out!

Act it Out

By now, I hope you know there is a lot more to the movie-making process, than just writing a screenplay. As I recently shared with a fellow writer, this is a business and everyone has a specific part in the business. You do your part and get out of the way.

Only a finished movie can bring our words alive, amateurs fill pages with lots of unnecessary words, imagery, and dialogue. Leave room for everybody in the movie-making process to do their job.

  • Writers write
  • Directors direct
  • Actors act

A few years ago, I had a writer friend, who also worked as an actor in Atlanta, tell me that actors hate being told how to act. So, limit parentheticals and acting cues, and let the actor bring the character to life; it is their job.

Subtext helps everyone do their job. Writing is a process that needs to be paced. Writers cannot dump a bunch of information, regardless of its function: dialogue, action, and descriptions can all be expressed through subtext.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

It’s Okay To Ask For Help

Recently, I had a bad fall off  my bike, it was the first time in years I had fallen while biking on the road. I forgot how terrible the sting of asphalt on the flesh is. Although I was able to quickly get up, fix my bike, and get back on the road to finish my ride; I  have felt embarrassed since the fall.

Maybe it was embarrassment or pride, but I didn’t want to go see my doctor and decided to let a few friends know about my painful experience. No one likes having to ask for help for whatever reason. Take your pick from.

  • We don’t want to be a burden
  • We don’t want to be seen as vulnerable
  • We make assumptions

After my car accident in college, there were a lot of things I couldn’t do and some I didn’t know that I couldn’t do. Of course, I didn’t want to ask for help, especially for basic things like feeding myself or using the bathroom in an actual bathroom.

It wasn’t until I fell off the toilet that I realized just how helpless I was. Even one nurse couldn’t help me. Nope. It took two nurses cramming into the bathroom to get me up and back to my bed.

I don’t know about you, but I consider using the restroom a private matter and I hadn’t needed help using it since I was a toddler. Back then, I also didn’t know I needed help. 

“As to diseases, make a habit of two things – to help, or at least, to do no harm.”

Hippocrates (Greek physician)

Helpless

Living with a disability for the past 26+ years has taught me that it is okay to need and ask for help. Regardless of who you are, though, in time you will need some form of help. When I began the process of returning to work after my accident, I learned about the Americans with disability Act’s provisions for disabled persons.

Under the ADA persons with disabilities can ask for reasonable accommodations to help them do their job, ask for equipment or devices to help them do the job, and request modified work schedules to help disabled persons perform at their best.

Still, for me and many others, it can be hard to ask for help. But, if we swallow our pride there are many benefits to asking for help according to Restless.co/UK.

  1. Asking for help can boost happiness and improve connection with others.
  2. Seeking help is important for health.
  3. Asking for help encourages healthy relationships.
  4. Asking for help can boost confidence and self-esteem
  5. Asking for help can increase productivity

Since falling off of my bicycle, I have been struggling to prepare for an annual writer’s conference I attend, so I decided to reach out to a few writer friends for help and advice.  Being hurt both slowed me down and reminded me of the importance of asking for help.

Thanks to the help from my writer friends, I have been able to get everything I needed done to prepare for the conference. I have learned in the past decade that writers enjoy helping other writers because they know we are better together!

Better Together?

 It is important to understand we are better together because that is when and how we can help each other. Even if you don’t have a disability, at some point in life will humble you and you will have to ask for help.

By the time you read this, I’ll be attending the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference to get help learning more about the craft, networking, and helping other writers who are attending for the first time.

 No writer starts at the top of the writing chain; we each must endure the pitfalls of the writing journey. It is important to network with other writers. Below are five ways writers helping other writers helps you from Writers in the Storm.

  • Read and review
  • Beta reading
  • Critique groups
  • Blogging
  • Social Media

If you are attending a writer’s conference this year, please keep in mind it is more than just an opportunity to see friends and socialize, it is an opportunity to get the help you need and to help others get the help they need.

 We are all on the writing journey together, just at different stages of the journey.    Serious writers attend writing conferences because they understand it is okay to ask for help!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Screenwriting

Screenplay Format

For some reason, most writers are curious about writing screenplays. And they come to me with many questions about the craft below are just a few questions I am routinely asked.

  • How long should my script be?
  • How do you write the dialogue?
  • What is the correct script format?

First things first, scripts and screenplays are different arts.

“A ‘script’ is the written document version of a visual art form and is used across multiple mediums, while a ‘screenplay’ refers to a script specifically for movies or television. When you read a script, it could be for a play, movie, television show, comic book, or video game, while a screenplay is specific to movies and tv shows. Each script has its own formatting rules to help you tell what type of script it is; whether it’s a screenplay, teleplay, stage play, or something else.”

Film Draft

Writers ask about format a lot because they’ve been taught and know the format and technicalities of both nonfiction and novel writing. Writers know, depending on the genre they write, there are specific formats publishers, editors and agents follow. And they correctly assume that screenplays have guidelines for formatting. So this month I will look at screenplay format and some of the differences between it and what most writers are used to.

Screenplay Format

All writing categories have specific formats and guidelines writers know to follow. Knowing the correct way to write and present their writing helps separate amateurs from professionals.

And this is why we all study the craft, no one wants to look like an amateur even though we are all at some point. Before I continue I want to emphasize there’s a difference between format and formula. The format is a guide for our narratives. Formulas are rigid, not fluid, and can hinder our writing.

Screenwriter and writing coach Scott Myers explains,

“Screenplays are stories, not formulas— if you go in with formula, you come out with formula.”

Knowing the correct format will help you guide the audience or reader through your story most clearly and quickly. Of course, there are plenty of screenwriting programs to help writers write screenplays, but still, writers need to know basic formatting for screenplays.

With that said below are the main components of a screenplay writers need to know from the Scriptlab.

  1. Slug Lines: These are the scene headings in a screenplay, a key difference is slug lines also include both the time of day and whether a location is inside or outside.
  2. Subheader: These headers indicate movement from locale to locale with and a specific location.
  3. Action lines:  These are the short description lines beneath the slug lines that describe what we are seeing. They should be in the present tense with an active voice.
  4. Dialogue: In film, dialogue should be snappy and get to the point. Occasionally a monologue is warranted in film, but rarely. Keep in mind that the best dialogue contains subtext, or the unwritten meaning behind the words. sing (V.O.), (O.S.), or (O.C.) next to a character name is a way to tell the reader there is a provision or special circumstance to the following dialogue.
  5. Wrylies (parentheticals): These are short emotional or delivery directions for the actor regarding that specific line.
  6. Transitions: There is an implied transition from one scene to another as indicated whenever there’s a new slug line. Adding “Cut to:” isn’t necessary and only takes up much-needed space in your screenplay.

A few things I wanted to add are, most writers know the importance of white space in the writing. When giving a scene description under the slug line, limit the description to one or two lines. Also, keep dialogue short. Make scene transitions brief and use parentheticals scarcely.

Not only do actors not want to be told how to act, but brevity also helps keep a page from being cluttered with too much information that will more than likely only slow a reader down. Screenplay readers have a lot of screenplays to read and you don’t want to make their job any harder by filling a page with too much information that will only slow them down. White space allows our eyes to take a break.

Take a Break

The best writers understand the importance of leaving room for the audience’s imagination. We’ve all experienced information overload when reading. If not, please understand too much information can confuse a reader and will slow the story down. Imagine going on a road trip and hitting the brakes every time you see a landmark. The trip will both exhaust you and take forever, perhaps even ruin the trip altogether for you. White space gives the reader a break from all the action and visuals, it’s the old adage, “less is more.” Below are a few types of information overload a writer can unknowingly put into their screenplays.

  • Excessive exposition
  • Unnecessary actors instructions
  • Artsy camera angles
  • Unnecessary dialogue

Leaving subtext in your dialogue and not using acting instructions, allows the actors to act. Limiting camera angles allows the director to direct, and limiting exposition allows the set designer to create the perfect imaginary world, none of which are necessary in proper screenplay format.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Community Matters

After a few years of procrastinating, I recently decided to start working on my author’s newsletter again. However, because it had been years since I last attempted to create a newsletter, I have forgotten most of the information I had learned about putting together a quality newsletter and how to implement sending it to my subscribers.

So I decided to reach out to my writing mentor and other writing friends in the writing community for help. If I have learned anything over the last decade being part of the writers’ community it is this, writers like to help other writers if possible.

After my accident, I depended on both the medical community and the brain injury community to help guide me on my recovery journey. I wasn’t aware of how my brain injury affected my health. I didn’t expect the setbacks I would face. The community of doctors and therapists and survivors all pushed, encouraged and helped me get better.

Below are some ways support groups help TBI survivors recover after injuries from everyday (health.com).

  • Support groups help people feel less isolated
  • Support groups provide practical knowledge, resources, and networking
  • Support groups answer questions doctors can’t
  • Support groups provide comfort for families and caregivers
  • Support groups help survivors regain a sense of identity

I have experienced similar support over the last few years with my peers in the writing community. Whenever I get stuck or lost in the process, I know there is a listening ear somewhere for me to turn to for help. And because of them my writing has improved over the past 10 years, it only happened because community matters.

Community Matters

Webster defines community as, “A unified body of individuals: such as:  people with common interests living in a particular area; a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society.”

Community is important to the growth and success of society. It brings people together for many reasons: encouragement, entertainment, and enlightenment. Community helps us grow together. We each have a place to contribute within our communities.

Other writers have different goals, styles, purposes, and voices we each belong to a creative community that graciously helps one another. Below are a few benefits of the writing community from Leap Forward Publishing

  1. You can share your work and get feedback.
  2. Bounce ideas off of one another.
  3. Motivate and encourage one another.
  4. Promote each other’s work.
  5. Share writing tips and information about writing and the publishing process.
  6. Network and make connections.

Whether you are just starting out on your writing journey or a seasoned published writer you have a place in the writing community! There are countless resources for growing in the craft and there are also many opportunities to help others who are struggling in their pursuit of publication. The most important thing to remember is that community works together for the greater good.

Community Works

After my accident, I spent 11 months of my life either in the hospital, in rehab, or going to outpatient therapy. It was during that time that I had to listen carefully to my doctors, therapists, psychologists, and other brain injury survivors.

I can still remember waking up in rehab that first morning and having a nurse push me to a breakfast room for non-ambulatory (unable to walk) patients. At that point, I still didn’t believe my health was that bad. I didn’t want anyone to help me.

It wasn’t until I felt milk and cereal seeping out of my mouth and into my lap that I realized I really was paralyzed! My new reality only depressed me more. My friends and family were powerless to help me. It was then that I began going to talk with the neuropsychologist on staff. The neuropsychologist gave me so many words of wisdom: “Healing takes time, we all need help at some point, and when in doubt—wait it out.”

That is how a community is supposed to work. The writing community is just as kind and helpful. Below are a few more ways the writing community helps one another from medium.com

  • Fellowship
  • Advice
  • Accountability
  • Networking

Community is a group effort. One of the hardest things to do in life is to ask for help, when hours younger I was self-sufficient until I had my accident. Pride and youth blind us all. After beating the odds and surviving my accident, pride made me feel indestructible. But the truth is, none of us are perfect.

As writers, we can become so focused on our goals and careers that we don’t see our mistakes or where we need to improve. But if we plug into the community, others are willing to help us and that is why community matters!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Screenwriting

Tell A Story

Recently, I reconnected with an old Christian writer friend on Facebook. We hadn’t seen each other in about a decade when we used to go to church together. She began asking me a lot of questions about screenwriting. She is interested in turning a couple of the books she’s written into movies.

Most writers feel that because they enjoy writing and telling stories, screenwriting is an easy task. Yes, all writers are storytellers, but not all storytellers are screenwriters. Below are different types of storytellers found in the writing community.

  • Authors/editors
  • Professional storytellers
  • Content writers
  • Screenwriters

Each of these niches has its own conventions and purposes. They may even have some similarities but they are different professions altogether, success in one doesn’t mean success in another; because each medium has its unique characteristics and technicalities. Deep inside most writers understand this.

This is why I have so many writers asked me how to write a screenplay. Not that I am an expert myself or claim to be one. I’ve just studied the conventions, techniques, and process of screenwriting for the last two decades. Still, there is no magic formula, approach, or secret to screenwriting.

Screenwriters can face the age-old dilemma of story versus structure just like most storytellers do. Most screenwriting coaches emphasize, “There are no screenwriting rules, but conventions and guidelines to help a story flow better.” Screenwriting coach Scott Myers explains that “structure is only half of the story.”

American theater producer and director George Abbott shares, “In the first act you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act you let him down.”

Structure Or Story?

Author and writer Steven James explains, “The beginning isn’t simply the first in a series of events, but the originating event of all that follows. The middle isn’t just the next event, but the story’s central struggle. And the ending isn’t just the last event, but the culminating event.”

For as long as I can remember, there has been a debate in literary circles about what is more important in writing—structure or story. My personal, unprofessional opinion is you can’t have one to the fullest without the other.

What I mean is, if you want to tell the best and clearest story, you need some form of structure. Legendary screenwriting professor Robert McKee explains,

“Structure is a selection of events from the characters’ life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions and to express a specific view of life.”[1]

When writers over-focus on the “structure” the story ends up suffering: meaning the story does not flow naturally and can come off as being formulated. Structure should always make a story clearer, but not predictable. True screenwriters have learned how to use structure to tell a better and clearer story. Below are seven steps to writing a screenplay from the Pond5 blog:

  1. Craft a logline
  2. Write a treatment
  3. Develop your characters
  4. Plot and outline
  5. Write a first draft
  6. Step back and take a break
  7. Rewrite

Notice the writer doesn’t mention any formulas or formats. The focus is more on getting the concept of your story on paper and then reworking it into a clear order. If you are still curious or worried about a screenplay format or structure there are plenty of books and resources you can purchase to learn the layout of a script, but never let structure kill the story inside of your head.

My first guide to screenwriting was The Screenwriters Bible, it is a great guide for learning the do’s and don’ts of screenwriting conventions. Always remember to keep your story clear and flowing.

Then you can choose a structure that complements your story.

“A whole [story] is that which has beginning, middle, and end. A beginning is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else, and which has naturally something else after it; an end is that which is naturally after something itself, either as its necessary or usual consequent, and with nothing else after it; and a middle, that which is by nature after one thing and has also another after it. A well-constructed Plot, therefore, cannot either begin or end at any point one likes; beginning and end in it must be of the kind just described.”

Scott Myers,quotes Aristotle

Structure?

Dick Doherty explains, “When you get a story underway, refrain from interrupting the flow. Avoid digression. Don’t go parenthetical.” Don’t let structure kill your story!

Most writers understand basic story structure. Regardless of the type of writing you do, “story” will follow a pattern from point A to point B. The only difference is the timing and how you get from one to the other.

“Story structure helps guide your audience from the beginning to the end of your book by introducing characters and settings, setting up the conflict, developing the main plot points, and finally resolving that conflict. It also helps create tension, suspense, and surprise—essential components of almost any story.”

Blurb.com

In the writing community, writers have a choice about how their story unfolds, below are three of the most common story structures used in storytelling.

  • Three act structure
  • Five act structure
  • Seven act structure

If you’re wondering what structure works best for screenwriting, it really depends on the type of story you’re telling, but the five-act structure is what I have found used in most of the screenplays I’ve read.

“Screenplay Structure Simplified: “Plot is critical, but how a writer ‘gets’ to plot is even more critical.”

Scott Myers

Whichever structure you choose, just be sure you tell a great story.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Grow as We Go

Earlier this month I learned an article I wrote was a finalist in the 2023 Selah writing awards contest. The Selahs are Christian writing contests. I was so surprised by this great honor because last year I decided to give up on pursuing writing altogether.

The nomination was more than affirmation, it is proof that I have improved and grown in my writing skills over the years. Recently I caught up with an old writing friend from church who shared with me how impressed with how much my writing has improved. Over the last year, I decided to focus on a few aspects of my writing.

  • My voice
  • Polishing my writing
  • Growing my brand/platform

Since I have a brain injury, I decided to get more active in the brain injury community. Living with a brain injury means I have to fight hard to stay focused on whatever I am doing. Brain injuries can limit a person’s attention span, and I can get distracted easily.

Since this month is brain injury awareness month, I wanted to focus more on being vocal on social media about the community. In the meantime, I couldn’t concentrate on a lot of my writing projects. In the early days after my accident, my neuropsychologist worked with me on staying focused on one task at a time, she told me that as I improved in each area, I would grow as I go.

Grow As We Go

A lot of times, we writers get so focused on our writing goals and careers, we forget to continue learning the craft and polishing our writing and fail to be prepared for our goals when we achieve them. Remember our journeys to publication are meant to prepare and equip us for it.

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.”

Ernest Hemingway

Writing requires consistency; the best writers are always learning and growing in their craft!

This is why I encouraged my old writer friend to attend her first writers’ conference at the Blue Ridge Christian Writer’s conference this year. When she saw the faculty and the schedule, she was almost overwhelmed by the opportunities she had to learn.

”In any writer, I look for the –ilities: humility, teachability, coachability, availability, and flexibility.”

Jerry B Jenkins

Writers must grow in their craft before reaching their destination; they must improve their skills while they are on the journey.

Below are skills for writers can work on while on the journey from Coursera:

  1. Grammar
  2. Vocabulary
  3. Spelling
  4. Sentence construction
  5. Structure
  6. Research and accuracy
  7. Clarity
  8. Persuasiveness

Writers must keep growing, and that is why each year most of us try to attend at least one writer’s conference, it’s not about seeing our friends, we are growing in the craft together.

I apply the same mindset to living with a disability, it has been 26 years since my life-changing accident and I am still learning new things about my injuries and how the brain works. If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I have been using info-graphics almost daily to share facts and information about the brain.

My goal is not only to get stronger despite my disability but to help others grow stronger in their recovery as well. For the past two decades, my motto has been, “Make progress, not excuses.”

Progress

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

Benjamin Franklin

As writers, we each strive to improve in the craft of writing. Sometimes progress comes easily, others it is a labor of love. Regardless of how it comes, writers should strive to get better in the craft. If I hadn’t pushed myself I would’ve never become a finalist in the Selahs.

Likewise, people with brain injuries are constantly trying to improve their health and strive to make progress in recovery every day. March 31 will be the 26th anniversary of the accident that resulted in my brain injury. It hasn’t been an easy journey and I have faced a lot of setbacks, but with help of others in the brain injury community, I have made a lot of progress over the years.

  • Mental focus
  • Relearning to walk
  • Learning how to talk again

I am fortunate to be part of two amazing supportive communities, the brain injury community, and the writing community. Both of these have given me resources and encouragement to continue to make progress and that helps us grow as we go!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.