yourwords

Lately I’ve gotten pretty lazy with my writing. I know I’m supposed to write every day, and I know that I have a goal to finish this book by April 2010, but it’s falling on the back burner. Things come up, and when I do get free time I lament spending it on anything except veg-time. Even something as fascinating and wonderful as writing!! ;)

And I hate to force it, so if you find yourself, like me, unable to prep yourself up for a long writing session, maybe you’d like to hear my compromises. There’s little writing involved, but I still feel like I’ve done my quota for the day. No guilt, but no writing either. It’s like sinning in the catholic church- you can always confess to it later … right?

Here we go:

• When I veg out on the couch, exhausted form my day, I bring my notebook with me. I think I’ve said this before, but sometimes mindless tv shows can help you the most with creative difficulties. Sometimes you’ll see something that catches your fancy, and you’ll think “This should be in my book!” Well with your notebook right there, you can get the idea down right away before you lose momentum! yay!
• There’s a point in everyone’s day when they get to sit for a long time with nothing to exercise your brain muscles. I call it the commute. Obviously it’s best if you’re not the one driving, but even if I am I find that my mind wanders like crazy. If you ride a bus or something, it’s even better. The point is, use this time to keep your idea-seeking eyes open. I don’t like saying that you should seek ideas, because the best ones come to you when you’re not looking, but try to let yourself be open to ideas anyway. For example: I was getting a ride yesterday, and somewhere in the middle of it I decided that my main character is vegan. Where did it come from?? I don’t know lol but come it did
• My most guilt free idea is to use a tape recorder. I’ve been doing little increments on mine, maybe 5-20 minutes long, of just plot/character evaluation. I only got five minute on there yesterday before someone came home (I don’t like recording when other people are around) and it was enough to explore my vegan/environmentalist idea better, as well as get it recorded before I lost momentum

So those are some tips on guilt-free non-writing writing. Honestly, it’s best to write, but sometimes I just can’t. Especially because I’m trying a new approach to my new book- Figuring the whole thing out before I write a word. OR at least get most of the world created, that way I hope to ensure that daily writing will be possible. Because, remember, the number one cause of writer’s block is not enough information…

Prompt:

I’m most impressed by writers who are able to write a main character in first person that is total opposite of who the writer is. A mini-example would be like a woman writing as a man, or visa-versa.  In that context, I have been reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. It’s written kind of slow, but what I wanted to say about it was that he writes as three or so different characters, all first person, throughout the book. And he does it well, I think. That’s talent.

Think about what you admire most in the books and authors that you’ve read. Can you incorporate that style into your own writing? Personally, I’m trying to take baby steps towards writing from very different points of view, and I feel like I’m failing every step of the way- but I’m going to keep trying, because I want to be one of those kinds of writers that someone like me could say ‘wow’ to.

There are two ways to make a decision- quickly, and sloooowly.

As you can see from the illustration above (not my work, I snatched it from this guy) I prefer the quick decision method. It suits me. I’d rather have the decision made, and deal with the results, than to sit for weeks (or even minutes) d e l i b e r a t i n g over which course of action would have the better outcome. I used to think I was very patient until I realized I can’t even spend a full hour or two pondering important decisions. Make ‘em, get it over with, right?

Well, maybe not. The quick thinking hasn’t exactly done me right. Today, for instance, I heard my alarm clock and decided to turn it off and go back to sleep. Very quick decision, with very long term negative results. If I miss two days of school in one module (it’s like a semester that only lasts a month) then I supposedly fail the whole module and have to repeat it again before I can graduate. One quick blink and I extended my school one more month. My ‘unfallible’ philosophy covers this in chapter 5- titled “quick decision, faster backlash”

That’s a bad example, though. When I’m barely able to open my eyes, and my cat is curled up on my chest, and my earplugs don’t make it out of my ears, I don’t blame myself for wanting desperately to stay in bed. I can see where things like choosing an apartment, a spouse, a job, an exercise plan, a car- would be bad to make on the fly. They might take at-least a day for me, if I were to look online for the best deals or talk to someone more experienced than I am. But it still stands that once I am pulled one way or the other, based on gathered evidence, I make that decision right then and there, and I don’t usually ask for ‘re-dos.’

And now I’ve reached my point. It doesn’t matter if I make a decision in half a blink, or if my neighbor takes weeks and weeks to go through the pros and cons, what I think matters is sticking to that decision. Now I don’t mean that once you decide to marry someone you can never rethink that decision. I just mean I see people that I love beating themselves up over all kinds of things, doubting whether they made the right decision or not. To me, that’s needless suffering. Say you bought a new SUV, and it seems nice enough except the gas is killing your bank account. Rather than wonder for a year and a half if you should have ever bought the car, (doubting that initial decision), make a new decision. Like deciding to sell the car, or deciding that the benefits outweigh the negative. New decisions, especially quick ones, can be made everyday. The argument might be that if one had done more research into the cars, they wouldn’t have to make any ‘new decisions’. No, I say, you can never predict everything. And, lord, even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. Perhaps that’s why I make quick decisions, to keep things interesting.

Prompt:

Look back on a decision you’ve made that changed your life. Did you make that decision on the fly? Did you sit for weeks deliberating? Whichever you you did it, imagine you had done it differently. Would you still have made the same ultimate decision if you hadn’t sat for weeks? Or would you have changed your mind if you hadn’t decided right away? If you’re not happy that you made that decision (because no matter which method of decision making you use, mistakes are made) imagine if you could have known what you do now. At the time, if you had considered the exact effects of it, the ones that are making you miserable now, would you have taken those possibilities into consideration?

I’d like to believe that I have no regrets. If I got the chance to change one decision I made, I’d like to think I wouldn’t take the opportunity. My beliefs revolve around the concept that everything happens for a reason, and mistakes make you stronger. But if I really got the chance to go back, I think I would take it. It would be nice to have avoided some things.

My brain is warm and flaky like baking a pie. A nice apple cinnamon pie. Now I’m warm, flaky, and hungry. Diagnosis- I only had three days this week of hell (school) no school tomorrow, and so I believe my brain shut off a little early. To comply with my incoherency, I want to blog a little today about metaphysics. More specifically about long distance connections.

Some people are more connected than others. Have you ever had the feeling that even though a person is three oceans away, they’re right beside you? I wonder sometimes if it has so much to do with imagination or with psychic energy waves or past lives. I wonder sometimes about wishful thinking too. If you want someone to be beside you so much that you can imagine them there, holding your hand, and see them there when you close your eyes, is it not real? Does it have to mean that you’re creating a happy delusion? Maybe the will of the two people to be together makes it so, on a spiritual, metaphysical level. So much has happened to me in this past year that has made me question the boundaries of common knowledge. To me, paranormal is even common knowledge, it was in my family at least. Even those lines are blurring between what the logically minded discovery channel says ‘ghosts’ mean, and what I’m learning about that world outside of our own. Is it so impossible to believe that you can reach out and touch someone when they aren’t there? I know I would have thought so yesterday, and I’ll think so again tomorrow, but today… when my brain is as fuzzy as a toddler’s graffiti… I swear I just spent twenty minutes with a person that’s in another state.

I wonder if he knew knew he was here, or I was there. I’ll ask him, maybe he can confirm the connection.

Prompt:

Meditation is medically proven to be good for stress levels as well as improving memory and overall well being. Write about a place you go in meditation, or would like to go. Write about what you picture yourself doing there that’s so fulfilling. Here’s my example:

Close your eyes, relax your muscles one by one paying special attention to the jaw and shoulders. Breath deeply. Picture yourself by a lake, or a well, or the ocean. Make it as serene and comfortable as you need. I picture myself in a very lush and green forest, in a clearing, on a cloudy day, with an old stone well. When you feel that you are there, picture yourself physically dropping images of your stress and frustrations into the well, or lake, or ocean. With the frustrations in water, watch them dissolve beneath the surface. Or you may put a rock on top of them, or a lid on top of the well. this signifies to your subconscious that you are letting go of your anxiety, and trust me, you will feel better afterwards. Once the anxiety is gone, then you allow yourself to pass through any scenery which may come to mind. Nature is probably your best bet, however, so try to guide yourself away from any cities or man made settings. A cottage or sail boat might work, though. You’ll know when you are ready to resurface. Do so slowly, letting your eyes stay closed until you become aware of all of your body parts and muscles again. Sounds nice, huh?  

Recently I turned twenty one, just this past sunday to be precise. I don’t have anything profound to say about it, I’m just excited :)

Anyhow, on to the real stuff.  I’m basking today in the writer’s new born glow. If my book were a child, this would be an accidental pregnancy, and I would be sooo happy that I didn’t think to have a condom at hand. Oh, and the discovery channel would be the baby’s daddy.

Yesterday, I was mentally zombified, and planned to further that zombification by digging a groove into the couch and hunkering down for the winter. But I thought ‘You know, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to bring my notebook out here, and jot down some ideas if they happen to come up.” I didn’t think anything would blossom from that endeavor, but as I was watching ‘A Haunting’ on discovery channel, it came to me! My characters mother was not only dead, but she had also been a paranormal investigator. Yeah, it’s not as exciting to you, but I tell ya, it opened my creative flood gates! I haven’t been this excited about ideas since the first time I tried writing this book… lol

And another little insight, I made my original character from the first version of this novel, into my new character’s mother. It’s kind of a symbolic move, I’d been trying to make the plot thicker by giving my girl a little child of her own that her sister raised- with a baby’s daddy that she loathes. Now that I’ve really revamped the plot (gave it drippy gravy dressings to match it’s new modern setting) I wanted to make my character the one who had been raised by and aunt, having never met her mother. It seemed natural to make Jalini, my favorite main character to date, into my new main charcter’s mother. She really doesn’t have a place in the new story, but I couldn’t kick her out competely. I had to pay homage to the original. And I’m glad that I did, because now I have an excuse to give my new girl some qualities of her dear mother. Like a pinch of hard-core feminism. That was my favorite thing to write, and I think it’s the reason I never stopped dreaming of revamping Peridot Earth. Now I even have to change the title… that’s sad but fulfilling in a sense.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that maybe it’s not such a good idea to force yourself to only write at this time of day, in this particular setting. Inspiration doesn’t come when it’s called, but it does pop up randomly. I’m going to try and start writing more randomly throughout my days, in new settings, to mix it up. But!! I still stand by my conviction that you should write everyday.

Prompt:

A lot of people I know smoke the cig. Nicotine addiction is fascinating, because people who have never smoked don’t understand and are disgusted by people who have to smoke a couple times a day. People I know who have quit smoking are usually repulsed by the smell now that they don’t need it anymore. My friends are apologetic for smoking, but still do it. Like a necessary evil. There’s a girl in my pharmacy tech program who has financial trouble, and is very knowledgable about the effects of smoking- yet she still smokes two packs or so a day. She also drinks three coke’s a day, and feels exhausted most of the time. These unhealthy and expensive habits are her vice.

Excluding the chemical side of addictions, what is it about things that aren’t good for us? Is the danger appealling? Or for the thrill of the rebellion?  People know things are bad for them, yet they do them anyway. The lifestyle may suck them in. Explore the idea of someone who’s in three stages of addiction-

• The first taste. What made them try it in the first place? Was it spur of the moment whim? Were their friends encouraging them? Take a look into the character’s age, social status, and play around with time settings. For example, maybe it’s back in the day before nicotine was a dirty word.
• Deep in it. Three packs a day. Four bottles a night. Five times in one weekend. Are they disgusted with themselves, but feel stuck? Why are they stuck? Is it mostly the physical dependancy, or did the lifestyle drag them in and they don’t know how to live any other way? This maybe should be years after their first taste, to give your character the comfort in longevity. Adds conflict :)
• Finally- post-addiction. They quit. Why? How long did it take? Did they need professional help or was it cold-turkey? How do they feel towards their former friends that are still addicted? Maybe they want to help people now, or can they not even handle entering that world again… Whowie, that’s lots of lovely conflict for a simple prompt :) I’m proud of this one