Writer’s Gold: Zena Dell Lowe’s Bite-Sized Brilliance

EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Hey there, writers! Today’s episode is a special treat as we’re diving into some awesome advice from the fantastic Zena Dell Lowe. We’ve pulled together a bunch of her best tips and insights into quick, bite-sized segments just for you. Whether you're stuck in a creative rut or just looking to level up your writing game, Zena’s got you covered with practical advice and inspiration. So grab your notebook and get ready to soak up some wisdom that’s sure to spark your creativity and help you write your best stuff yet!


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Transcript

[00:00:00] Zena: so that we get out of the idea of perfection.

[00:00:04] And we get out of the idea that it has to be right. So you can just vomit all over the page and let it be messy for that first draft and then

[00:00:11] 

[00:00:22] Zena: So you're going to find if you continue to listen to my podcast you'll find that the whole thing I'm starting out the whole thing. Okay. Why are Christians afraid to tell R rated stories? That's what we need. We need R rated stories. But what does that mean for Christians?

[00:00:39] Because there's so much fear. So I'm, I want to liberate you from the trappings of Christianity without having you violate Christianity, 

[00:00:50] you'll find that, people have a very visceral reaction to my content. People either really resonate with it or they really hate it. So I've always been one of those people that ruffle feathers, but my heart's in the right place. And I think I'm right. So good. Ruffle those feathers. 

[00:01:08] I think people move to long form projects too quickly

[00:01:13] and the truth is where the work of learning the craft comes in, it's in the, it's in scenes. If you can't write a great scene or a great sequence, which is, you know, basically several scenes that make one basic thing, but it's still shorter. Then you will never be able to complete a long form project and long form projects put so much pressure on you.

[00:01:36] And what if it's not even good? And one of the things that I really like about scenes, you know, like the prompts,

[00:01:43] what I like about prompts is it takes the pressure off you to have solved all the problems and you get to just. Experiment. And I think that's missing. A lot of times when we're starting off, we're really trying to find that one project or that great screenplay and idea and that sort of thing.

[00:02:01] And so the playfulness goes away. but sometimes it's in that playfulness that you'll stumble across something That ends up being your gem. It ends up being the thing that is just so great, but it's because you weren't putting any pressure on yourself. You got to play.

[00:02:20] So I think the play gets lost in screen play sometimes. So I hope that that will also be a habit as you sit down to write. 

[00:02:31] You'll never get it quote right in the first draft. Like I remember early on I heard feedback from you guys like, Oh, I won't make those mistakes again.

[00:02:43] Or sorry, I did it wrong. And I was trying to say, no, no, no. You did it perfect. This is the work that we do for the second draft. So you actually did the first draft perfectly. It's exactly how it should be. Now we go back and we do the rewrite, which is the work of the rewrite, so that we get out of the idea of perfection.

[00:03:08] And we get out of the idea that it has to be right. So you can just vomit all over the page and let it be messy for that first draft and then figure out what to keep and what to throw away and how to hone it and how to fix it and how to craft it. That's the fun part, 

[00:03:22] It's okay to not get it exactly right the first time. In fact, you shouldn't, you can't, it's impossible. So don't try that. See what can be improved for the second draft. And just reframing that is often very freeing.

[00:03:37] there's a lot of different structures for writing groups. but I have found that the ideal writing group size is four.

[00:03:45] And the reason I found that is because I find it to be the most efficient and effective in terms of the material that's covered because every person gets one week in a month. So you meet four times and Matthew presents on the first, Monday of every month, and then you've got, the next guy, the second, and then everybody else, they have to read your stuff, and that's why, like, the way I've structured it in the writers group of rules that I've written up are like, you turn it in on Sunday by midnight.

[00:04:19] And then you have the meeting on Tuesday. so that gives people that much time to read your material and be ready to give you feedback. So they read it in advance. There's a lot of writers groups where you read it when you get there. I don't find those to be as effective because you can only get through a few pages.

[00:04:36] So, and I do think there should be a page limit. So I usually say, you know, two 10 to 15 pages is all you would turn in at a time or a chapter if you were writing a book or you know, 15 pages in a screenplay or something like that. But it helps to continue. And here's the other thing that that helps. It gives you a deadline.

[00:04:59] Notice you wouldn't have written any of the scenes that you wrote for this class without a deadline. Deadlines is what makes us do s***. It just is. We can't, I don't know why it's just, what's the saying? a goal without a deadline is a pipe dream. And it just is a goal without a deadline is a pipe dream.

[00:05:19] And, and here's the thing. This is also why having a writer's group out of, say, a class like this would be really helpful because you guys all had the same training under me. And so, granted, it's just this one class, but nevertheless, you've learned a lot of the principles that I would teach, and so you have the same language now.

[00:05:40] You'll be looking for the same things. You've been, you've been Trained in the same way. So you'll be of more value to each other. You won't be coming at it from a different everybody with a different philosophy or a different way of doing things, even, even the feedback sessions, like we did the thing where it's like, okay, let's start with the things we liked.

[00:06:02] And now what are the things that could use improvement and phrasing it in a way that makes it helpful for the person rather than harmful. Full we are fragile artists. and again, here's the other reason, when you are in a class like this where it's elevating your craft, I hope now there's more of a.

[00:06:23] Desire to impress. I don't know if that's the right way to put it, but you don't want to waste your fellow artists time because now you hopefully value them as artists and you see that they actually have merit. And so you're less likely to waste their time on And you want to contribute. And so it holds you to a higher caliber of art than say, if you start a writer's group with a bunch of Yahoo's that you haven't met and you haven't seen their work and you don't know what they bring to the table.

[00:06:54] And so you're kind of testing that out for a while, blah, blah, blah. Uh, and maybe you're just not as motivated. Maybe you don't like how they write and you're just not as motivated to really give them any, you know, to really be invested or, you know, And now you don't take it very seriously. So the idea is that if you could, if you could, I would encourage you guys to keep meeting 

[00:07:19] But if you did that, I think it would behoove you. People need writing groups. I need a writing group. 

[00:07:25]