Tag: Inspiration

Fear As Fuel (Editing My Hair)

I think it’s been two years since I’ve gotten my hair cut. Not good. I know. I didn’t know who to go to without spending an exuberant amount of money. But I needed a haircut. The only way my comb made it through my hair was with a lot of tugging and some ripping sounds. I went to the place around the corner and made an appointment. I cut off maybe six inches and it feels good. It feels light, free, maybe a bit wild but looking healthy. I know now I’ll get a comb through it and it will curl more when it dries.

I haven’t had many bad experiences with my hair. I have always been clear about what I want done and so far most have listened. Also, hair grows back and mine grows fast. Why did I wait so long to get my haircut? Fear. Entering a new location, meeting the hair stylist, and sitting in the chair can all be scary. I had to stop avoiding feeling fear.  Just like the writing or editing life. With writing I had to stop fearing rejection, rereading my past work, and cutting writing that didn’t fit even if it sounded good. Fear is there to protect us from pain. There can be more pain never trying. Fear can help writing. It can be used as energy for inspiration. I didn’t think I would have an article this week. I had nothing to write about. This haircut inspirited me and reminded me that I have fears of trusting new people with parts of me but not letting those fears take charge.

While my hair looks good I have learn not to strive for perfection with my writing the first time around. I can continue cringing while reading but not stop editing. There may be a promising sentence that can make all the difference. I might have reached trying to find similarity with life and writing. However, I’m glad I did and do something that scares me. Next time it will be easier.

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Healthy hair on my head.

Writer’s Cafe Account

I forgot all about it. I have a Writer’s Cafe account. I was looking through old emails and I found the creation profile email. I returned to the webpage and good news I remembered my username and password. I was met with a friend request and someone gave me helpful criticism on a poem I had posted 2 years ago. It was six months ago I got this review and I’m only answering back now but now I have a renewed curiosity in the site. I have been writing more often the last few months and since leaving school I don’t have the outside creative criticism on hand I think I need. This is now looking like the next step I’ll need to help my writing take shape into full body stories others will understand and love.

If anyone reading this has a Writer’s Cafe account feel free to friend me. If you have never heard of this website check it out. It is a free online writing community writers can meet other writers, post work, get constructive criticism and even enter contests. I love finding a renewed interest in something once forgotten. There is that instinct to protect my writing and my own self-esteem but I have to get over my fears and move forward.

Pinterest For Novel Outlines

I’ve been trying to write and edit a few novels and I have come across a useful tool to help visualize characters, places, and things. What I was normally doing for my character’s description was trying to write everything I envisioned down  in a notebook. Each character would get a page. The page would list physical appearances, personality, and motive. It wasn’t until I saw a post by blogger Shannon A. Thompson called, “Writing Tips: Picture Book” I realized how much detail I was missing by not using this useful tool. Pictures.

I never thought of using pictures to help inspire and build images of characters, places, or objects. I’ve had a Pinterest account for years. When I first signed up I used it a few times but it wasn’t long that I left it having found no use for it. Now I can’t help but think, here was a writing instrument at my fingertips and I have left it idle.  Well, no longer, I have started to use it to help with my novel’s vision. Pinterest has an a great number of pictures, easy access for pinning from other websites, and a board privacy setting (so the world doesn’t have to know what you’re planning). Also, saves on paper and ink, which helps me, keep my limited budget from going over. Also, it adds a bit more of creative fun to the process. I find creating a character board or looking at a few photos can be all the pop I need for a shot of inspiration. Even on days writing is slow I can get a daily writing exercise from a few pinned pictures.

If there is anyone out there who is struggling to write a novel, I hope this helps. It has sure has helped me. If you would like to see Shannon A. Thomas’s examples I have linked to her website and her “Picture Book” blog above.

What’s My Motivation?

August 16, 2012

Having trouble finding writing motivation today. Worried if I don’t write today and stick to my schedule it could all fall out from under me. I won’t open up the program and continue on. I can say this is me writing and it’s something, which is better than nothing but it could get me no where with my story.

Achievement Unlocked

July 24, 2012

I have written for thirty days straight. I have twittered my daily word count and a continual total word count. Even on Tumblr I have written of some of the stuggles I have discovered as I wrote. As I have said in the pass I have read that 21 days can break or make a habit. At the beginning of this project I decided thirty straight days should break my procrastination and difficulty I face just trying to sit down and write. Thirty days could make a habit where I didn’t just wait for inspiration but exercised my brain. 

In these thirty days I found that writing everyday was harder then I expected. But I didn’t let event plans or hanging out stop me. Even when I wanted to let plans stop me. I told myself I had my reward before my work and I would get no where if I just kept going without the hard work it takes to be accomplished. I sometimes only wrote for half an hour but hey, I wrote even if I only produced over 400 or 500 words. At night I gave less time to my writing as it slowed and my bed called me to sleep. The best days was the full hour that seem to fly away as I typed away at my story. I learned I like writing in the morning or early afternoon better then at night. I liked walking around the rest of the day with the inner knowledge of what I accomplished. I am still amazed at all the times I broke 1,000 words in a section. 

Twitter became another positive. I had a few people cheering me on and being inspired by me. (What?!) I was/am shocked by the new followers, all strangers, I have just because we share an interest. That inspired me.  

I have ended this month with a story word total of 22,336 words. A story still in the process of it’s first draft. A first draft that sucks but I can finally say I’m okay with how horrible it is. A story I hope will improve with all the rewrites I plan to work on in future drafts.  

So, what is next? I hope to make a writing schedule I will stick to. Maybe five days a week at least an hour a day. Work on this story. Maybe work on an outline to another story I have been thinking about. I’m still looking for a job but now I don’t feel I should apologized for ”slacking”. This month’s writing showed me so much more about myself I didn’t know I had in me. Maybe writing was always suppose to be the path I went down. 

Achievement Unlocked

July 24, 2012

I have written for thirty days straight. I have twittered my daily word count and a continual total word count. Even on Tumblr I have written of some of the stuggles I have discovered as I wrote. As I have said in the pass I have read that 21 days can break or make a habit. At the beginning of this project I decided thirty straight days should break my procrastination and difficulty I face just trying to sit down and write. Thirty days could make a habit where I didn’t just wait for inspiration but exercised my brain. 

In these thirty days I found that writing everyday was harder then I expected. But I didn’t let event plans or hanging out stop me. Even when I wanted to let plans stop me. I told myself I had my reward before my work and I would get no where if I just kept going without the hard work it takes to be accomplished. I sometimes only wrote for half an hour but hey, I wrote even if I only produced over 400 or 500 words. At night I gave less time to my writing as it slowed and my bed called me to sleep. The best days was the full hour that seem to fly away as I typed away at my story. I learned I like writing in the morning or early afternoon better then at night. I liked walking around the rest of the day with the inner knowledge of what I accomplished. I am still amazed at all the times I broke 1,000 words in a section. 

Twitter became another positive. I had a few people cheering me on and being inspired by me. (What?!) I was/am shocked by the new followers, all strangers, I have just because we share an interest. That inspired me.  

I have ended this month with a story word total of 22,336 words. A story still in the process of it’s first draft. A first draft that sucks but I can finally say I’m okay with how horrible it is. A story I hope will improve with all the rewrites I plan to work on in future drafts.  

So, what is next? I hope to make a writing schedule I will stick to. Maybe five days a week at least an hour a day. Work on this story. Maybe work on an outline to another story I have been thinking about. I’m still looking for a job but now I don’t feel I should apologized for ”slacking”. This month’s writing showed me so much more about myself I didn’t know I had in me. Maybe writing was always suppose to be the path I went down. 

Lost Inspiration

May 18, 2012

I was writing. This night in this car a moment of inspiration struck and I was typing it down on my phone, thumbs moving around the small smooth screen mixing in neighbor letter bringing red lines until my phone died. My inner voice still talked. I took out a pen from my bag but I had no paper. In a moment I started gliding the words out on my hand.

The driver broke in and asked, “why I was writing on my hand?”
I continued to write. “I had all these thoughts in my head and I just felt I had to get them down.” 
The driver smirked, “Why don’t you write on paper.” 
If I wasn’t in the car I probably would have made a sarcastic comment but all that was said, “I don’t have any and in this moment I hate I have relied on my phone because I stopped carrying paper and now it died.”
The driver asked, “What are you writing?” 
I realized I stopped writing somewhere in the talking. I had lost my thought. I couldn’t read my hand to see if the writing could help me get a hold again. The street light was to dim and moved to fast over my palm for me to read and retrace, find, pick up. I forfeit, “Nothing. I lost it when I started explaining.”
I could see the driver was culpable as he said, “Oh. Sorry.”
I held on to the pen and mustered, “it’s find.” But it wasn’t. I felt I lost so much. I don’t know where it went. It seemed so implanted now it was gone. I tried to see in the dark. Tired to read a word with every passing, dim light. My voice said to the driver, to my feelings, “I would have ran out of room.” But I knew I would have kept writing on the back of my hand, and up the arm if I had to. The driver tried to hang on to my distancing self, “You will have to learn to write with your left hand.” 

A ‘Click’ shut the pen closed and I shoved it back in my bag.