I thought I said this would be brief. Clearly I lied. So where were we? Ah, the sharing of my stories. By the time I was ready to share my stories with someone other than my best friend, we were in college. The time between the comics and sharing short stories was spent drawing. Somewhere in this house is a folder filled with things I drew freehand or traced into something different. I was getting really good at it too, but my true creative passion was writing. My friend and I took a once a week creative writing class together. We had a short story, between 1,000 and 5,000 words due every class, a story I usually wrote either the day before or morning of (even a few hours before in some cases) and always got an A. Here was where I really started to open up about my creations. Being in a room with other creative people, some of who felt the same way I did about sharing, really helped me out in that area. I learned that I could share things, hear their thoughts, and I wouldn’t die. One day, the teacher told us she didn’t want us to be stuck in the same genre for the entire semester and our next assignment was to write a story in a genre that was outside of our comfort zone. (And apparently, according to her, I’m too lovely a lady to write such gruesome stories anyway.) Pretty sure I got a B on that story, but it made me think. The teacher had mentioned that everyone’s grades fell on that assignment, but she wanted us to do it once more because she saw that the exercise made us all extend our range and would make us better writers in our own genres. We could choose the same genre we tried before or choose a different one. I gave fantasy a shot. It was so much harder to write, but I enjoyed it. From there I wanted to try my hand at an epic fantasy. Seems like a leap, but The Lord of the Rings came out around then so…. Well, that first fantasy turned into a world of nonsense and pain. I wrote more trying to figure out this place I created than I did actually writing about a plot. Then once I figured that out, I found that the story couldn’t start where it did. I went back and restarted at least three different times before giving up and leaving it for dead, but fantasy had grown into my system by then. So when I learned about National Novel Writing Month, I always tried fantasy again. Many of my ideas come from weird dreams, so fantasy was the perfect outlet to feature those dreams. What I find extremely odd about most of my dreams is that they seem to happen in the same place. There’s a little town built around one large building that’s a school, movie theater, and hotel all in one. It also has an Olympic sized indoor pool and the town recently put up a Wal-Mart in a cul-de-sac. I wasn’t aware Wal-Mart was looking for locations in people’s dreams. Weird. I find that keeping track of my dreams and writing down all the mundane things that happen during the course of the day really help my creative process. I’m not sure why. I’ve heard that doing boring things can spark the creative side of your brain. I suppose it’s like turning the creative center off and then back on. Another thing that helps my creative process is a character interrogation. Back when Facebook was in its infancy (only for college students), and MySpace was a big deal, there were a bunch of “getting to know you” type questionnaires floating around. I copied several of these and pasted them in a word doc with a few questions of my own. I ended up with over 100 questions to ask a fictional character. Things like appearance, likes, and dislikes are basic things on the questionnaire, but I doubt I would’ve come up with asking a character how old they were when they got their first kiss and who it was with without some of those questionnaires. It never seemed like an important thing to ask, but it really helps when I’m trying to understand their mannerisms. At one point during a character interrogation, one of my characters formed directly in front of me and we had a conversation. I was halfway through the interrogation before I started to think that maybe I was insane and should seek professional help. He disappeared then, but I could still hear his voice. I can always hear their voices. Eventually I edited that epic fantasy I started several times and now it’s going to be a published novel in August. I suppose I should finish up at least one of the sequels that was started before this one. I’ll get around to it. I never really gave up on it, I just put it on the back burner to simmer for awhile. Well, I suppose that’s good enough. Maybe next time I’ll just post my character interrogation. The more a writer can learn about their characters the better, even if it’s not something that’s ever going to be revealed unless the author just feels like it later in life in another medium like a blog or interview. Apparently I’m ending all the blogs this way now, so… Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you want more random streams of consciousness sent directly to your inbox, consider signing up for the newsletter.
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I know what you’re thinking. After that big hullaballoo about being consistent, I stopped being consistent. Well guess what, I’m consistently not consistent. Seems every time I say I’m going to do something, I immediately don’t do it. Now how strange is that? If I only tell myself I’m going to do it, I have a much better chance of getting it done. But the second I tell someone else, it never happens. Of course, fighting off the flu does have something to do with it. I’m not even sure if it was the flu. I could just be depressed with severe allergies. I just generally associate sudden tiredness and scratchy throat with the beginnings of a cold.
Did I have a point? No. No I didn’t. In any event, it has come to my attention that a thing I should have on my consistently non-consistent blog is the inspiration behind my books and why I wrote them. Maybe my ramblings on this train of thought will help someone else find a creative outlet that works for them. For me, writing is just something I have to do. I have to get the stories out. I was never really consistent with it, writing was never a daily thing, but I never went more than a couple of weeks without writing something. Somewhere, hopefully somewhere in my house, is a notebook filled with stories from when I was younger. I had chosen a person I had named Bethany Sara Brisket and wrote an entire series of horror short stories, if you want to call anything written by an eight year old “horror.” She was a twelve year old girl with long, curly red hair, bright blue eyes, and freckles around her nose. Her and her friends were always exploring places they shouldn’t and would often get into trouble, but Bethany always found a way out. I don’t remember all the stories or even who all her friends were, but I still remember her. One day her stories just stopped. It was like she stopped talking to me or something and I had to find a new friend to write about. In my search for a muse, my mom suggested I try journalism, so I started writing a secret newspaper filled with all the happenings of the kids on my block. I remember writing about the time someone cut down my extremely tall tree. I think it had white wood. It may have been a birch but I’m not sure. In any event, the neighborhood kids had gathered around it and we started using the little stump as a stage for playing rock star or circus. I remember that when I started writing about it, I got bored out of my mind and started making things up so it would be interesting. I learned then that I was never going to be a journalist because the truth of everyday life was just too dull. Even if what the kids did was actually fun and interesting, I’d have to toss in some kind of monster or ghost before I cared. Next up I tried comics. They were nothing fancy, but it gave me something to do while I was ignoring my teachers. I wasn’t a bad student, mind you. I just either finished the assignment and wanted to keep myself busy or already knew the subject matter and wanted to look busy. In any event, somewhere in this house is a binder filled with my comic, Mooreal the box cat. I drew him like a box. He had a box body with a smaller box for a head, squiggly feet, and giant ears. I recently tried to draw him again. I think it looked better back then. Anyway, I sent him on all kinds of adventures I thought cats went on and copied some of the ones I had read in a Garfield or Heathcliff book. (And now I’m wondering why I got rid of those books.) I also had another comic with some weird eyeball people with big kissy lips. That one was mostly drama about who was dating who. I remember the girl broke up with the guy and started dating another guy who was a complete jerk so she went back to her first guy who really didn’t want anything to do with her anymore because of how she treated him. In the end they got back together, but I don’t remember how or why. There was also a period of time where I wrote Star Trek TNG fanfiction. I think that’s pretty self explanatory. This is too much about me, but I suppose that’s the point if you want to get to know me a little better and find out what I’m all about. I never shared any of my previous works with anyone. My mom knew I wrote stories, but she never got to read any of them because I couldn’t handle the possible criticism. So they remain unseen wherever I lost them. Anyway, that’s enough for this session. I guess I’ll do a part two that will actually explain what I started out to explain, the inspiration about the stories I actually did share. Maybe in writing the whys I can get back to a place that will help me create again, finding my own voice and all that. Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you want more random streams of consciousness sent directly to your inbox, consider signing up for the newsletter. Have you ever encountered a driving situation when the city decided to move/add more traffic signs and then your entire route is ruined? Maybe they told you about it, most likely they didn’t. Then you’re driving 47 mph in a 30 mph area and get pulled over and the cop asks stupid questions like “didn’t you see that sign?” and you’re like “what sign?” and he’s all “it’s clearly marked” and you’re all confused because you know there’s not a 30 mph speed limit sign for another six blocks so you look back and see it like “when did that get there?” and he tells you it’s new and gives you an $80 ticket anyway.
Or when you’re driving your normal route to work and all the stop signs for the last mile or so have changed or switched so you’re stopping when you didn’t need to and running signs that didn’t used to exist and then suddenly the local news does a story about how many people did the same thing you did. Or when you return to your home town after a few years away and stop signs that have been there for years have moved down three blocks and there are two new traffic lights at seemingly random locations. Then you’re out driving around minding your own business when someone runs their red light driving north and almost crash into you as you’re moving through a green light heading west and they look at you like it’s your fault you almost crashed. My light was green, pal. I suppose I could edit this so it might make more sense… but where’s the fun in that. Experience my stream of consciousness as I do. Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that we all sort of fall into these routines and it gets really hard to break them, you know, if you wanted to. Like when I used to do all of my creative writing for two straight hours at a certain time every day. After awhile, that was the time of day I started getting ideas. If I didn’t focus that energy on one story, then those ideas would just fly all over the place and I’d have to jump up and grab them so I could slap them haphazardly on some paper for later projects. I need to get back into that kind of routine. Not all routines are fun are like that. Wait? Is that a habit or a routine? What’s the difference? Oh, Google! Oh, okay Feyyaz Alingan who wrote an article in 2015 you can read here, that basically says you need a routine to build a habit but you can’t have a habit without a routine. I’ll just say it like this: whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is you want to accomplish, you must work at it consistently and with purpose if you’re ever going to get it done. I'm sure I got that from someone else, but I'm not sure who at the moment. Probably several people. Want to lose weight? Start by doing one thing every day toward that goal like taking a short walk. If you can’t walk a mile in under 15 minutes, you can use that as your first goal. It doesn’t matter how small you start, just start. Then, you also have to make smart food choices, right? So start with one of your meals. Make a goal to incorporate more veggies into your diet or to increase your water intake. You don’t have to do all the things at once. Develop a plan that increases weekly and go from there. I’d start with diet over exercise, but if you can handle one change in each, go for it! As for me, finding my voice again is my goal, one of 4 goals for 2018 but a goal nonetheless. So now I’m considering how often I should write in this blog versus my story outlets like this one and this one and occasionally over here. Every day might be a bit much to start with, so maybe every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday to start. Perhaps I’ll do more, I might do less, but it’s a goal I think I can start with. I also have a newsletter I’d like to write at least twice a month. Am I taking on too much? Only I can tell myself that. The persistent go getter in me says “no way” but the lazy person who just wants to watch YouTube videos says “that’s way too much work.” I’ll figure it out. Let’s all work together to make a better world. We can be each other’s cheerleader. We all rise together. Did I leave one out? Anyway, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you want more random streams of consciousness sent directly to your inbox, consider signing up for the newsletter. So, here it is, my first blog post on this site. I bet you're wondering what I'll blog about. To tell you the truth, so do I. There are good, established sites out there that probably discourage this approach, but since writing anything and everything helps a person's creativity, I'll be writing about many different and seemingly random topics. Rest assured that these topics will probably end up in a creative project somewhere down the line. We learn and grow from doing, and if we waited until we were ready, it would never happen.
The other day I walked outside and saw two geese flying overhead on their way to the lake. They were making a lot of noise. Since it was so late in the day, I figured they were arguing with each other about who was to blame for their late arrival. Maybe they got lost. Maybe one of them was a late riser. Maybe someone forgot to set the alarm after staying out all night at some goose party. Hmm... that sounds worse than I meant it to. Another random story, I was heating some leftover dinner rolls in the toaster but they didn't come up all the way. Naturally, I grabbed a sharp knife and went fishing trying not to touch the sides of the toaster since I never unplugged it. As i was doing this, I thought about the game Operation and wondered if this was how it was created. Toasters have been around for a long time, I believe longer than the game. Maybe the guy who invented it shocked himself and the game came to him when he recovered and now it trains others how to fish things out of the toaster with sharp objects. So that's the kind of randomness you're in for with my blog. It'll no doubt grow and change and perhaps find some sort of purpose, or it'll forever stay the same, who knows. Here's to new beginnings. |
AuthorYA Fantasy author and amateur photographer living in New Mexico. A reflection of herself, her characters are timid at first but tend to stand up and push through when times get tough. Archives
April 2020
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