Advice — expert series

When I speak of a great story, I mean stories or films that are critically acclaimed and generally acknowledged to be classics. I also mean bestsellers, box office successes, and stories that have lived for hundreds or even thousands of years. So I'm talking about stories like The Iliad and The Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, The Godfather and The Silence of the Lambs, Batman and Superman, Milk and Charlie Wilson's War, The Verdict, The Lion King, Groundhog Day, Shrek and Macbeth, plus the hundreds of other stories that fit into this category. Being familiar with...

Read the rest of the series: Part 1; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6 Conscious Media is Transformative Media. What is that? How can you create it? Writers schooled in the ageless Wisdom have been consciously creating transformative myths and rituals for thousands and thousands of years. That's nothing new. What is new is that you don't have to go sit in a cave in the Himalayas for ten years, living on cold rice and yak butter to get the information. Much of this formerly secret information is now - on purpose - available to practically anybody with...

"The first draft of everything is shit." -Ernest Hemingway Hemingway, charming as ever, was correct. Everybody's first draft is shit. Even his. Yours too! You have to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until you nail it. Then you stop. The good news is, you can fix just about anything. It only takes elbow grease and time. "I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter." -James A. Michener "Hear hear!" -William M. Akers After your idea, rewriting is the single most important thing. If you've got a good idea, no matter how lousy your first draft is, you...

You're not a New York Times bestselling author. You don't have a publicist. And your Amazon sales numbers are awful. Should you quit writing books?Absolutely not.No matter what kind of book you've written (or plan to write) there are many ways to reach your audience. Each of the DIY tools listed here are low or no-cost, and each of them works in its own way. One or more may be perfect for you.Fifteen ideas might seem overwhelming, but remember that you only need to do one thing at a time. As one clicks and then another, you'll soon be reaching...

Read the rest of the series: Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6 Conscious Media is nothing new. Initiates of the ancient and modern Mystery Schools have always crafted stories that carry universal truths dressed up in a particular way for a particular time and culture. That's why you can even have such a thing as comparative mythology - there are consistent similarities in stories and characters whether on weathered temple walls, in spiritual disciplines, initiatory systems, the Kabala, Masonry, Mithraicism, mystic Christianity, Tarot, alchemy, etc. This extant wealth of ancient media does not mean we don't...