Since I’m getting a few visitors I thought I should offer a progress report on this blog’s development. My plan is to do a hack to the comments section, hopefully to get rid of the comment popup altogether or, at the very least, change the way it displays the text. It now causes the reader to scroll sideways in order to read the comments. Ugh! Not a pleasant experience for anyone, including myself.

My plans have been stalled due to a family crises. I have a gravely ill aunt who is preparing to depart this world. My brother flew in from Seattle a few days ago and will be leaving soon. My online time is very limited and will continue to be limited for the next few weeks.

This is not the first death watch I’ve experienced in my lifetime but it’s the first one that I’ve been able to observe my family as they care for the one departing. My heart goes out to my cousins and my wish for them is that they find the peace needed to resolve their differences and allow their mother to depart knowing they will be okay as a family.

I’m going to have to write about this experience someday, perhaps when my emotions clam to a low roar. For the most part, it has been a rewarding experience to watch my cousins come together and care for their mother. I pray that they stay together after she is gone.

I don’t like to categorize anything into specific little boxes but sometimes it’s the best way to explore the differences in how we function as we travel life’s journey. Carlos Castaneda writes about stalkers and dreamers in his books based on shamanism. Without getting into the mystical practices of shamanism, I’d like to use his concepts of stalker and dreamer to loosely describe two distinctively different ways of learning and then relate them to the writing process.

Stalkers learn by instruction, whether it’s watching how something is done, by reading, or by verbal instruction. Like a hunter, they watch, they listen, and they are attentive to their external environment. Once stalkers learn something it confirms their understanding and gives them confidence but their lives aren’t fundamentally changed.

Dreamers learn by doing. They learn from the inside out, they have an inner vision and often have to figure it out themselves. They are driven, persistent, and passionate about any creative pursuits. This is not the easiest way to learn but it’s the best way for dreamers. Once dreamers have learned something they feel victorious and their lives are changed.

Some writes have to know all the rules of writing before they lay a single word onto the page. Some may have to write a complete diagram of a novel before they ever begin to write. Some need to map out their characters before starting a new novel. And some need writing groups to help guide, instruct, and motivate them to completion. These are stalkers and many great writers use these practices successfully.

Then you have those that have to go it alone. They just write. Many write without a real plot yet materialized in their minds or without fully developed characters, they just write until the plot and characters unfold. If they were to get their work critiqued too soon, their innate creativity would be compromised and their writing would become flat, lifeless, or completely non-existent. This doesn’t mean they should never get help or have their work critiqued; they just shouldn’t get help too soon. Dreamers should wait until their creative juices run their course, then they are ready to edit their writing.

If you are a dreamer trying to write like a stalker, you will fall pray to writers block and vice-versa. Knowing your writing method will greatly enhance your final product. One method isn’t better than the other. Both can and do facilitate great writing. My experience is that dreamers often find themselves trying to be a stalker and hit a great wall of resistance. Their work becomes shallow or non-existent, if this is true for you, then try the dreamers’ way, you may surprise yourself.