Your Transformation Station - 10. Angie Rooker and the "Transformation Arc" of Stories PT TWO w/ Favazza

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

"How can you create a transformation in others if there's no transformation in yourself?" Join Greg Favazza podcast host and creator as he interviews Angie Rooker on Part Two: The Transformation Arc, the major component of your processing of fiction writing your story. Support the showPODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://ytspod.comApple Podcasts: https://ytspod.com/appleSpotify: https://ytspod.com/spotifyRSS: https://ytspod.com/rssYouTube: https://ytspod.com/youtubeSUPPORT & CONNECT:- Check out the sponsors below, it's the best way to support this podcast- Outgrow: https://www.ytspod.com/outgrow- Quillbot Flow: https://ytspod.com/quilbot - LearnWorlds: https://ytspod.com/learnworlds- Facebook: https://ytspod.com/facebook- Instagram: https://ytspod.com/instagram- TikTok: https://ytspod.com/tiktok- Twitter: https://ytspod.com/x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to your transformation station. Socrates once wrote, The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. It's time to rediscover your true identity and purpose on this planet. Together, we can transform our community one topic at a time. From groundbreaking performers, making their elixir your dose of reality. your transformation arc.

This is your transformation station, and this is your host, Greg Favaza. Angie, welcome back to part two. Are you doing anything for your advanced readers? Any promotions? Throughout April, it's pretty much a big party because I had this whole big plan that I was going to do a celebration

with my friends and family the day of the release, and then I was going to do a book signing and a reading at a bookstableness. store locally and then the virus thing so had to had to seriously like shift gears it's been cool how it's transformed and it's shifted in different direction so I'm still going to do a reading and a Q&A at a bookstore but it's going to be virtually in a Zoom meeting with a bookstore that's based out of Kansas what's fun about this is that like the excitement comes in waves the first moment that I saw the cover design, I was completely blown away, not just because of the artistry that was,

you know, in terms of like what was created with the designer, anything like that. But the thing that blew me away was the fact that the person who, Eben Schumacher, who created the work, he never read anything. He never read any aspect of the story. He never really knew very much about it, except for one Skype meeting with the publisher. And I showed him, a Pinterest board of some ideas that I had for, you know, dragon concepts and kind of how I saw her in my mind's eye and how I saw the world in my mind's eye. But even in that conversation, I felt like I didn't translate it very well because it was all just in my head. So he was able to extract from that conversation, from his own creativity, I don't know, but it was pretty magic and recreate

this thing that I had in my heart and in my head about what I wanted to see that was just pure magic and I saw it and I was like, oh my God. So just being completely elated. And I think the fun part about it too is the fact that he, you know, he created a making of video, which is always interesting to kind of see the early stages and how for me learning about art and creating art, there's always kind of an ugly stage where you're like in between and fiddling around with and you're not quite finished. And sometimes people stop at that stage and they're like, this is just trash and they'll just like crumpled it up and throw it away. What I've learned is in those places, it might be a time to kind of step back and wait for whatever it used to come through. It's not finished. It's still kind

of cultivating inside of you ideas or inspirations and it's not finished percolating from your experiences or from your vision or whatever that looks like. And so sometimes you just have to go back and finish it later. And that's been the case for a lot of works where I have a painting I haven't touched in like five years. But so with him, he explored from start to finish how this started out as a sketch. And it's going to be the full form of the cover. And it's anytime that I've seen him do these videos, the making of videos, they're just, they're just, they, I'm like giddy like a little kid.

So that's kind of how I am right now. It's just, I'm excited. I'm excited about the story getting out there. And I think that that has helped with the encouragement from those that have already read the book. and have given me really good feedback because I think I had just a lot of fear that this is kind of a cool idea in my head but you know out in the world is going to flop so like maybe my family will just kind of humor me and they'll read it and they'll be like oh this is nice pat pat pat right and just kind of that's where it stops but from what I'm it's gaining a weird traction that I'm

I guess I wasn't prepared for people are asking me about it and they're asking me about how did I created what you know what inspired me and all of those things which I'm sharing all those things pretty openly too because I'm surrounded by a lot of different, I call them creatives, but I'm surrounded by a lot of different creatives who either express themselves through art or through writing. And they asked me the big question, how did you do this? Like, how do you manage to go from nothing on the page to like a published book? It's exciting and it's exhausting, but it's a time to celebrate for sure. In the last interview, you were talking about staying right-sized about it and there's moments when I'm like super giddy and then I'm like I have to be have like a

party with myself because like I can't share these things yet and it's a little frustrating but it's still fun it's still fun to just feel that celebration inside and be happy about what I've kind of put in the world and see where it'll take everybody and take myself I'd like that I really do this is part two. What type of character arcs do you have in the story? And how do you recognize and craft each one of them? I was told to craft the arcs after I was already doing it. So the arcs didn't actually start to get formulated until the editing process because I was just kind of writing.

Whatever was kind of coming to the page. And that was actually a second. It was a secondary thought. It wasn't something that I had planned for. And there are, in the writing community that I'm in, there's two different types of a writer. You're either a planner or a pancer. So, like, you're either, like, flying by the seat of your pants and just, like, going with whatever, or you're outlining or you're researching or your world building.

And, like, you're going down some serious rabbit holes doing all those things. So I'm a little bit of both. I start off with the panting, and then I go back, and then I add, little more structure. Moving forward with the books, though, I've actually started to be more of a planner because more bits and pieces are kind of coming in so I can actually see more of the formula of how the plot's going to kind of unravel. And it's pretty cool. The arcs that are in Dragon, at least, throughout the series, I mean, there's going to be six books in the entire series and throughout the entire series. There are several, like all of the protagonists are going through, like,

transformation and they're all going to be working together, working for the common good, to reclaim sense of magic in their world. Individually in their own stories, they kind of have to go through their own transformations to get to that point where they're able to work with each other to do that. But specifically in Dragon, you've got that going on for Dragon and she's learning how to find her strength and find her identity and find her value in her community with her gnome family, but also with her peers. Like, she's kind of in this in-between state of where do I belong. So she's got that internal battle going on. And she's got to come to peace with that. So that's

part of the arc for her. And then her interacting with some of the other characters, the bullies, there's a bit of growth arc in one of the characters. I was considering whether or not the other character, it was a fall arc, but it's not. Because I went back and I was reading more thoroughly about what a fall arc is, because you kind of stay good. And then you go, and you turn evil. That's not the case for her, because she's just kind of evil throughout the whole thing. So there's no turning good for her in the beginning. But for Kieran is one of the secondary characters. His growth arc actually gets triggered because of Dragon's transformation that she's going through. Like, his cannot occur unless she instigates her own change. So it's

really interesting, and it's interconnected in that way. They're not friends. You know, they have this kind of this weird dynamic where she wants to be closer to him and she wants to wants to be a part of his kindred. They're not in the same clan either because that's kind of the thing with the dragons is they all have their different clans, but they all intermingle with each other. And so she's just trying to blend in with her peers and having really a bit of a hard time with that. So their clans are pretty much in a human world like social norms, but separate it in its own culture.

Would you say? So the clans are very similar. And this was kind of borrowed from. like aspects of like Scottish heritage or Celtic heritage where you've got names, like surnames being the clan of the lineage. And so that's kind of the piece is you've got dragons that have their own eggshell connection that they have where they have that's part of the, I don't want to go too much in any of it because it's like, I don't want to reveal so much.

But so they kind of they unlock their purpose with their own personal lineage and they have their own gifts that they kind of have to attune to for the most part. And Dragon gets thrown into this adolescent group that they're all just a bunch of, you know, they're, I mean, they're acting like kids. They're just immature and ready to tease each other and, you know, just socially awkward. and then there's a group that are the influencers of that age group and influencers in a negative way. So in terms of like you've got Delia who is, she's like the main bully and whoever she's surrounded by is basically just kind of staying put because they don't want to be the target of her of her aggression. So it's kind of like keep your enemies close because you don't want to be the enemy. of the enemy, which causes, yeah, it causes, it causes a lot of strife for dragon because, you know, she's like, why aren't, why isn't anybody trying to stop her, you know, and it's,

it's peer pressure in that sense where everybody's trying to stay close to the aggressor, really, to, out of like self-preservation for the most part. Yes. It's an interesting social dynamic that I don't think really gets displayed very often in the media, whether it's books or film. And I wanted to explore that a little bit because I've had conversations with, with, with, about that, you know, and what makes up a bully? What is what is the anatomy of a bully? And why don't people stand up and say something when this happens? Why don't teachers, you know,

stand up and say something or what does it take to actually do that to try and stop that from occurring? And there's a lot of conversations about courage and what that takes and, and courage is a word and bravery is doing what you're saying you're going to do in the vein of courage. And it's been amazing having these seventh graders and eighth graders and sixth graders and sixth graders. just blow my mind with this insight and nobody's talking to them about it. And they have, they have so much to say about this topic. And it's just been fun to really kind of open the door and see what they, what they feel about it and how they want to actually shift and change the world from their standpoint. And they have a lot of power. They have a lot of potential.

And I think that's been the heart of the work that I've been doing with youth is helping to kind of stoke the flame, you know, so that they can keep doing the work that they want to do to see the changes that they want to, you know, accomplish. So would you say they're your target audience? I mean, you know, in terms of the story is written specifically for middle grade. So middle school, early high school, you know, fifth, sixth graders, something like that. That's kind of the age range of the characters. Technically speaking, when you write your main, you know, your main character or your protagonist

in that age bracket, then specifically, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're writing for that audience. But what I have found is that a lot of people who have read the book so far or the books are not middle schoolers or high schoolers even. They're adult people who are like, I needed this. I needed this when I was that age and I'm like, tell me about it. So it's a conversation started. It's been a conversation started with pretty much every reader that has picked the book up.

And we've talked about the struggle of what it means. to the impacts of bullying because these things leave a scar years later. You know, I'm almost 40 and I'm still having to like revisit this stuff pretty tenderly because it's still, it's still delicate. Do you think that we're haunted by our past regressions? Is it because of our social upbringing and having that I said so generation that we couldn't become vulnerable is why we're currently living in this sadness? there's two directions I want to go with that because you're asking like why are we haunted

why are we haunted by past transgressions done to us you know I try to keep it from my lens because I can't speak for other people but for me I never had the opportunity to stand up for myself with those people that treated me like garbage I never had the opportunity to give it back to them I just internalized everything that was offered and I believed it about myself So all of the terrible things that were told to me, I hooked into it. And I started feeding myself those lies. And by interling that stuff, I think that's the damage. And the important work in it is if we don't go back and we say,

this isn't even my stuff to begin with and we don't give it back to the originator, right, the source of where it came from, then at that point, we've become our own aggressors by believing those things about ourselves. Like, so for me, if I'm internally telling myself that I'm not worth anything or my writing isn't worth anything

or I'm stupid or I'm ugly or whatever is going on, you know, internal dialogue is super important. If I'm telling myself those things and I start my day out that way, you think I'm going to have a good day? No, you're not.

And that's going to stretch out, you know, for how I interact with other people. I'm going to be sour. I'm going to be, bitter. I'm going to, you know, be defensive. And so that's going to impact my interactions with other people. And then that's going to plant a seed with them. So how I treat them, they can internalize it. And then they can there for either be like, dude, that's your stuff and like not take it on or they could take it on and then create a bigger ripple. It's toxic. Yeah. It's contagious and it's toxic. And

It's pervasive, you know, it's... Yes. We talked about it in the last episode, and I just want to reiterate a little bit since we're on the topic. But how did you change your self-image, even when you had all that going on in your head? You still kept going. You still kept writing. And look at you today. I mean, I had to make a commitment to myself to not believe that stuff anymore.

One, I had to realize that it was a false truth that I had just kind of... to take and on. But if I wasn't willing to like spend time with those feelings and spend time with that internal dialogue that was just kind of rattling off in my head, one of the things that I did to actually kind of spend time with that was an element of my personal life is I'm a practicing Buddhist. And so I engaged in meditation. And in one of my meditations, I sat with the shame and the guilt and the fear, you know, if I'm kind of trying to step back into this 13-year-old version of me, 14-year-old version of me, that was a really, that was a traumatized kid, right? And a really scared kid, I was very alone, I was very isolated. It's not a fun place to visit. It's not a good

territory to explore. And I don't necessarily recommend it unless you have really good self-care tools set in place to do this. So that's one of the things is I learn how to gain self-care tools so that I could embrace these things in terms of like counseling and, you know, working with support group and identifying the elements of my PTSD and having a good safety net so that I could explore this territory in a way where it was little bits at a time and it was just going to dive in blindly or wildly and kind of thrash about because. that's dangerous too. I had to do it over a long amount of time. It wasn't just like, I'm going to do this thing and it's going to be done and I'll be fixed and I'm healed and I move forward and like

close the book and I'm done. Like this is an ongoing thing for me. And there are more layers and more layers of past hurt kind of come up. And I approach them different. I think each time that they come up because I have an understanding of it in a different way tomorrow or the next day than what I had yesterday. some days I'm scared to look at this stuff. Some days I feel a little more brave. In that fear, I sit with that. And in that meditation, this is where I was kind of spiraled away from, but coming back to that, I sat with those internal voices of shame,

like, you're no good or you're this or you're that. And it was all just negative. And seeing in my mind's eye, the original sources of where those messages came from, like, this is the first person that offered me that message about myself. I gave that back. This was the first time I heard this about my creativity. I gave that back.

And so by the end of that meditation, I'd empty myself of all those things that I had been storing for such a long time. And it was like this freedom that I had never experienced. And it was like, none of that stuff is mine to begin with. Why am I just keeping it like trash? You know, it's just kind of, so it's kind of clearing out the clutter. The emotional clutter. But like I said, you have to be willing to do that.

in a way where a lot of people, they just don't want to do the work. It's like, I want to feel better, but I don't want to do the work to get there. And the work can be painful. Unfortunately, that's the reality of it. And for me, I was willing to take responsibility for going through the difficulty in order to get to the other side. Wow. That's really powerful.

Did you start off in the beginning, just going to go through the motions and then it will happen? Or did you make a commitment? going to stick to this to the very end. So, yeah, going back to me in high school running away from all my problems and using drugs and alcohol as a quick fix for everything, once I got sober, I went into treatment. I went to a treatment center at 17,

and I got out, the day after I got out, I turned 18. And I kind of was like, Gandalf staff on the ground was like, this shall not pass. Like, this is not coming. forward with me. I mean, it was like, yeah, it was like a vow that I made with myself of, I'm going to do whatever is necessary to look this thing in the face and to be introspective and to not run away from these things because that doesn't serve me and it doesn't serve anybody. And it wasn't. It wasn't proving to be successful either. I mean, I was a mess. But what's

interesting about like spending time and learning about my anxiety and my depression and those things when they come up from PTSD. Is there personified them? I've written letters to them. I've drawn art that have personified them as well and have conversations. So like I'll have a letter to fear or I'll have like a conversation with like guilt or shame and creating artwork so that I can engage with it and learn from it instead of like this thing just feeling like it's inside of me and taking over and I have no control.

It's being in a place of imposter. versus feeling a victim to it. Let's zoom out with author and character role and development and leading into metamorphosis in your past that's implementing this transformational change onto these characters. So like what parts of me are making their way into those character arcs? Is that you're saying? Okay. Correct.

I can lightly. I can lightly tread that territory without giving too much away. So Dragon was, we've kind of talked to, you know, thoroughly about this, about not letting the past influence you into a way where you are shut off and bitter, um, based on past pain. That was, that's been an ongoing thing is like how to not just shut off the world because you're afraid that the world is not going to be receptive to you and it's not okay to be vulnerable and authentic. Um, the second book is Shayla and she's the Faye. she's, it's her journey very roughly has to do with learning how to find her individuality amongst the many.

So to not fall in line with consensus when consensus is either in alignment with injustice or malignancy, if that makes sense. So you got to find a way to be true to yourself despite the pressure to socially conform when it's not as toxic, but it's very toxic. So that's kind of her thing. And then for Tara, she is, what's funny is her story. The story is kind of like they will emerge in ways where originally Tara was based on I wanted to do kind of a play on mythology, like Greek mythology, and work with Agaya elements.

And so originally I wanted to make it so that she had this relationship with self-acceptance. And I think that's where I'm going to stick with. This thing kind of alters on me. So that was the intention when this all started out and there were supposed to be short stories, was she was going to have this deep conversation and this introspection about how she can accept herself. It was focused more on like body image and that kind of thing. And if you look at traditional images of Gaia and the earth goddess, she's a well-formed figure. And so there were some things I was going to tie into that because there's huge conversations about body image and self-esteem and that that I was working with at the time.

I think that's changing. I think her story is definitely changing. I think there's definitely going to be some elements of self-acceptance in there. It's going to look different, though. And then for Zinia, she is all about, she's the unicorn. She's all about finding her magic and not relying on other people's magic in order to ignite her own. So that's about as best as I can do without giving too much away. And then Delia is, so she was, you know, the nemesis in the first book,

you kind of get the inside lens of what instigated all of her anger and her bitterness. And she does a bit of an arc of eventually kind of learning how to embrace forgiveness. And the transformation for her is self-forgiveness, which was a big root of her of her anger and her lashing out. So it's like self-hatred and like how that can be one of the most bitter poisons that we can swallow. And then with Virtue is the Mermaid, she's changing too. So initially she was going to be about like losing yourself in the depths of your really intense emotions. That's kind of how it came out originally in the poetry and the writings when this was all in the original form. And her storyline, she's going to be the toughest one to reconcile.

I know that for sure about her. I feel like I can't say too much because that's going to be the end of the series, you know? So I just, I'll just leave it at that. Like, there's elements of reconciliation within herself and within her realm. And I think, like, forgiveness is going to be compassion and forgiveness are going to be some really big links as well in her storyline. But that one's going to be pretty explosive. I'm super excited about that last book. I've already, like, I can see what's happened in there.

It's pretty cool. Thank you. Yeah, I was going to say, hopefully, hopefully I didn't, like, give too much away. and my publisher's usually, what have you done? So let's transition into fantasy writing. I wanted to get some writing tips out there that who want to become a better writer. But before we get to those, what are some essential elements in fantasy writing? Throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.

Like I honestly, for the most part, have just been trial and error in. and luckily it's worked. So I think that would be my tip is to just try. I think Pinterest has been a really good tool to learn about, so like book release parties or celebrations. I think that's a really, really important thing to do. I'm totally like jumping to the end, like once you finish the thing, but it's super important to celebrate your work.

It's super important to celebrate the energy. and the time that you put into this thing. So do it well, you know, throw extra money into it. You deserve it. So that's my advice in that direction is the first, for the first edition, I threw a party. We had face painters. I had a cellist. We did bingo.

I had door prizes. I had my gallery of artwork displayed. We did a photo booth. Like it was just all sorts of fun things that, I just wanted to celebrate the magic that was the book. And I think we did really well with that. But celebrate with his as, because it's important to believe in the things that you're putting out there. Confidence and support.

And anyway, along that vein. I like it. I have a few close-out questions I wanted to get for our listeners and for myself, because I'm striving to become a better person myself every day. Good advice to follow. And what is some bad advice to avoid? Okay. Things to avoid is to let, I mean, the main teaching point for Dragon is don't let the pain in the past poison you in a way where you are harming yourself and other people. That's how I'm going to embrace this is you step away from these things and then walk towards these things. Step away from the tendency to poison yourself with anger or fuel yourself with anger based on whatever's happened in the past. It's caustic and it can only get you so. far. I understand that at some point it helps to protect you. It was a tool for a while for me,

but at some point you start to push away not just the people that you're trying to keep out, you start to push away the people that want to be there for you as a result. And that is a catastrophic. So just avoid that at all costs. And then step towards responsibility, taking responsibility for your actions and for the impact that you make in the world. So if you make mistakes. If you step on people's toes, do the right thing, say you're sorry. Don't just say you're sorry, but act differently. That's a big piece of my journey has been like, don't just apologize for what you've done in the past or what you're doing presently. You act differently to support the words that you're offering somebody. It's not just an empty promise. Be true to your word

is what I would say in that sense. Make sure that your word is something that you can offer with integrity. I like that. I really do. And I'm going to switch my questions over. Start using yours. Stepping towards and stepping away. I like that. That's really good. And just one last one as far as, well, no, I got two more. What's an action item that people can start implementing today? And what is that primary driver to hold yourself accountable? How can our listeners resonate from that driver? So set a timer. It's fine. I totally get what you're saying. So if we've got listeners that are learning to become better writers, what tips do I have for them? Right? Yes. You have whatever your tool is, whatever your medium is to create your work, whether that is a napkin, whether that's a laptop, whether that is your cell phone, whether whatever it looks like. It could be pin on paper. It could be keys on a keyboard.

you set a timer for at least five minutes a day and you do what you can to get as many words in that five minutes and that's daily. So even if that's going back and you're editing what you've already written in that five minutes, you are engaged. You are making a commitment to show up no matter what happens. Like I showed up when I was recovering from getting my gallbladder removed.

Like that was a weird crazy thing. I don't know how it happened. And I finished a book. I had a deadline around the same time that that happened. So it was crazy miraculous. Because I had created that consistency, I was able to do that in little bits and pieces. Like, you can't just be like, I'm going to write this thing one day. There are some authors that can do that.

There are some writers that can whip something out in a day or two. And they're like, there are people who can whip out books in like a month. That is not me. I work full time. I am a mom. I have all of these other things and roles that I am responsible to. and accountable to, and I just can't. I can do a rewrite in four months, and that's if I show up every single day. Making an unbreakable vow to yourself, unbreakable meaning you set aside a certain

amount of time each day to do this thing, to show up and be consistent about it. So whatever you've got that are going to be things that can impede upon your time or that privacy or that space, you've got to learn how to set boundaries. And that's going to be probably some difficult work in and of itself is learning how to communicate to your loved ones or your work or whatever that looks like and stay true to this thing. Because only in these small bites are you going to be able to move forward and make this thing an actual book or whatever this is supposed to be.

How can our listeners get in touch with you and where can they find your book? So pretty much if you're looking for me, I'm under, it's, I come across as a dreamer creations. That's my website. That's my Instagram. That's my Facebook. On my Facebook, I also have a private group right now called Stay Enchanted. So if you were to go into the search option in Facebook and you look up Stay Enchanted and you see a really cool, scaly image of something that says Dragon, that's me.

That's going to be my group. And that's where all the magic is happening on book release stuff, activities, giveaways. That's where it's going to be. The Facebook page, that's a dreamer creations as well. It's plural. Website is www. www. dot a dreamer creations.com.

You can sign up for the newsletter on the website, as well as you'll be able to pre-order the book on the website as well. In all of those social media interactive spaces, I will be promoting, I will be talking about, I will be sharing snippets here and there, cover releases, all of that. So whatever you like to fan, See, some people are moving away from Facebook and they're going to the Instagram. I am there. It is fun.

Can I go on Amazon and just type you in and can I find you on there? You can find the first edition. Yeah, yeah, you can. If you type an enchanted sacred garden dragon, you will find it on, it's not available. We took it off. Anybody who has it now is that those are very rare forms. The illustrated first editions are no longer available. As of April 6th at 7 p.m. Central Time, Central Standard Time, be able to pre-order the book, and then it will be released May 1st.

Angie, I appreciate you coming on the show. This has been quite an adventure for us. Is there anything else that you wanted to get in there? I'm really grateful for all the support that I've gained up to this point. I know that my husband and my daughter have been relentlessly supportive, and they've just giving me space to do this thing. And so I have a lot of love and a lot of gratitude for them. Being able to hold space for me to do this thing and birth this thing into the world has been just I don't think I could ever think them enough.

You've been listening to Your Transformation Station. Rediscovering your true identity and purpose on this planet. We hope you enjoyed the show and we hope you've gotten some useful and practical information. Join us weekly on Monday for the YTS Challenge and bi-weekly on Wednesday for the exclusive interviews. at 8 p.m. Central Time. In the meantime, connect with us on Facebook and Instagram at YTS, the podcast. We'll be back soon. Until then, this is your transformation station.

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