Writing Sick

Do you write when you’re under the weather?

I generally go about my day if I’m not terribly sick. However, stomach bugs and harsh maladies keep me off the keyboard. I might take those days to contemplate my writing. Sometimes a poem emerges, but, honestly, if I’m very ill my doing things is at a ruminating lull.

Some writers will tell you never to stop, never to rest your pen, especially if you have a quiet moment. I disagree. Silence, sometimes, is the medicine. Letting your brain and body rest can be just what your plots and characters need. Going back to the written word after recuperating can bring fresh air, and don’t we all need that sometimes.

Journaling

Journaling

Break from Breaks

It’s hard for me to keep a routine. I know I’m not alone, but I also know so many other people live for their routines. Sometimes taking things out of my life feels necessary, but other times it might be unhealthy. How can you tell?

Learning to analyze your choices can be a lot like analyzing your writing, or any art form. One deleted line, one covered-up brush stroke, might be exactly what your piece needed. Let’s take my diet choices as an example. I decided to stop buying donuts. They were starting to replace my healthier breakfasts, so I took donuts off my grocery order and put oats there instead. It was a healthy choice, a wise delete, if you will. There are some things that should not be changed. Sometimes, my choices put me in a spot where I need to add something back in, and hopefully I know exactly what it is.

Writing this blog is one of the things I constantly find I need to add back in. When I write, I like to write fiction or poetry. I can see and feel my own progress toward a dream. It feels like walking down a warm, sunny path knowing my dream home is waiting just over the hill. What a great feeling. Writing a blog is different for me. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a solid stepping stone on my path. Having a professional blog is the most important form of social media for a writer. It’s not a good idea to skip over it.

Like so many other things in life, it’s important not to leave out essentials. I can’t eat donuts every day and expect a good health report from my doctor. I can’t avoid doctors appointments and expect to avoid health problems. In the same way, it’s important to make healthy choices as an entrepreneur, an artist, or a writer. Writing a blog and keeping up with important posts, not just pictures, is the equivalent of taking my vitamins and exercising. If I want to reach my goals of being a published author, I need to keep adding this blog back into my routine until I no longer leave it out of my weekly writer’s diet. That is also my advice to you, fellow artists and entrepreneurs. Treat your blog like a healthy diet. It’s that important.

Simplicity

Simplicity

Morning Reads

Morning Reads

The Passage Graveyard

Yes, I have one. All the sentences that I love but highlight to delete go first into the passage graveyard. It is a word document filled with sentences and paragraphs, sometimes just a few words, all with documentation.

I do this for two reasons. Firstly, it is simply easier, as I am a wildly sentimental person. However, I have a second, more logical reason. It is possible that a passage may find an appropriate place in a different chapter, or even a different story. It is rare, I admit, but passage resurrection can not be ruled out.

Yesterday I eliminated quite a powerful sentence, but I can not tell you what it was. I wholeheartedly plan to bring it back. On the off chance that I never do, I can at least look back on it in times of acute self-consciousness as a reminder that I am capable enough.

So, really, there are three reasons to have a passage graveyard. Perhaps there’s even a fourth, being that eccentricities have a tendency to nurture creativity. So, if you don’t have enough already, this one’s for free.

Dreary Dawn

Those mornings where my youngest begs for oatmeal only to pick the blueberries out. When the cat wants something, but has everything. When all the socks have gone, and for some reason I pour myself a whole cup of coffee when I know I will only be able to drink half before it goes cold. The dawn breaks, but the smoke from western fires blocks out the silky pinks and purples. I turn on the car radio and, yes, the end is apparently still near.

I realize my fictional characters need more days like these. But now, the sun is peeking through the haze. Maybe there are exceptional moments just ahead.

The Two Dimensional

A character is still a character in two dimensional form, but watch out. Have you ever written a story where the main character turns out not to have depth?

I’m looking at this picture of a tree that I drew, and it took me a minute to realize what on earth was wrong. It’s a nice tree, my daughter said. Yes, nice. But there was something wrong. Then it just hit me. It’s a two dimensional in a three dimensional drawing. It makes no sense.

A two dimensional character is like that. It can work if it’s like the grass, kind of blending in with everything else in the background. It does not work if it’s a main focus.

Let’s climb into this one.

Two-Dimensional Sally: Sally decided to climb the tree. It wasn’t hard, and she made it halfway up. She smiled. Now she had done it.

Three-Dimensional Sally: Sally stretched her arm as high as it would go. She was short for her age, but strong from swinging on the monkey bars all summer. It wasn’t hard to pull herself up once she had a firm grip on the first branch. She grabbed another branch, feeling the rough skin of the tree scuff her soft palm. Her dress snagged, the blue chiffon catching on a twig. She sighed. This was worth it. She made it all the way to the halfway point, where her brother used to taunt her from. She smoothed her dress and straddled the big branch. Sally smiled. She had finally done it, and she wasn’t scared at all.

In the first one, you have a picture of Sally climbing a tree. That’s it. That’s all you see. In the second sketch, you are with Sally as she climbs. You know she is short and strong, wears a fancy dress, and has soft hands. You start to know Sally. You are also left with questions. Why was Sally scared? Where is her brother now? This makes the reader interested. Just like having a three-dimensional tree with a branch that might be hiding part of the trunk. It adds depth and character. If the whole sketch is two-dimensional, like in a first phonics book where a dog catches a ball, that works. You just can’t have a two-dimensional Sally as the protagonist (or antagonist) of three-dimensional story.

Secrets

So, this guy, Robert J Randisi has written over 500 novels. He doesn’t always stick to one or two genres, but he is most known for his mysteries and western novels. Now, granted, I am not one to go out and buy a mystery or western, but that doesn’t make me less impressed. In fact, now I’m intrigued.

Beginnings

Yesterday, I looked at the sky over the stop light and imagined people, at least a couple, bursting through the meteorological gloom with all their joy. Just the thought made me feel kind of strange, like when you pass two kids having their first kiss and you know that your trajectory is an insignificant tangent off their cloud 9. Today, I am on the other side of that experience.

Status · October 3, 2015October 3, 2015 · Leave a comment ·