I Write To Understand. I Write To Stop Time
This is a weekly post I do to highlight blogs or bloggers who have inspired me in some way during this week – another car on my imagination train!
1. I’m not normally a poetry kind of girl, but as I was writing this week, I felt like I wanted to. I found, on this post from Writer’s Digest, a list of different styles of poetry, explaining thme and giving me examples. As I was looking, I was inspired to try it a few times on different topics. Stay tuned for future efforts. 🙂
Something I was thinking about this morning coincides with the Writing 101 prompt to write about a loss: my birth father and the loss of him, or rather, the absence of him, in my life. I don’t know that I can say “loss,” ‘cause I don’t remember a time I “had” him. I’ve talked about him a bit before, and I’ve said that he’s abusive, but I haven’t gone into detail about what he did.
Three songs that are the most important to me
An exercise in the WordPress writing 101 exercises, just type and go for 15 minutes without stopping or editing or fixing or crossing out. So here we go.
It’s hard to pick three. The first one that comes to mind is Silent Lucidity by Queensreich. That was a big deal for me when I was a kid. When I was in eigth grade. Dad was abusive and school sucked and I was lost. That song made me feel like maybe I wasn’t so fucked up as I thought, but maybe everything else was fucked up. Maybe I was a normal reaction to a fucked up situation. I thought it was SOO deep, and I loved the voice of the woman plainly asking, “help me.” Because no one was helping me at the time.
His booted feet covered the dew-covered grass of the empty field until he reached the well-worn wooden bridge. The creek below was slightly swollen and the thick air around him hung low, promising to entrap anything in its grasp. The smell of mud was strong around him, but the white gravel on the main road protected him from sinking too deep into it.
He continued off the main pebble-covered path to another bridge, this one covered by vines from nearby trees and adorned with plaid red and blue ribbons and bells. Here in the glen the trees were thicker, but so was the mud.
Containing my emotions a challenge that I have yet to surmount. Like Mary Ann Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, I have always worn my heart on my sleeve.
When I was a kid, I thought that these emotions were good, like that had power outside of me. Perhaps this was a reflection of the many ways I was powerless, but that’s another story.
This is my second-to-last weekend of my first season as a Scots cast member of a Ren Faire, and I’ll miss it. It was a bit of a slow start for me, but I’m fully bought in now, for many reasons:
Continue reading “Seven Sunday Speculations on the Renaissance Faire”
As I commented to this blogger, I think a well-developed character is the MOST important part of a really good story. When I think about books that fully engage me, that leave me wanting more, the unifying characteristic is that they have good characters. As I writer, I would/do want to emulate and create this, and I wanted to share this blogger’s thoughts on what makes a well-developed character.
What do you think makes a book or story engaging? Think about the last one you were sad to put down – what made it hard to finish?
Update:
More thoughts on character development
You’ve all heard me say “I didn’t think the characters were well-developed” in a book review before, and I’ve gotten a request to tell you just what that means. It entails the character having qualities that
Of course I would love to tell you, and if you ever find yourself disagreeing with me over a character’s development, you can see if what you require for well-development is the same as what I require.
My Well-Development Checklist
– The character has a well-developed background. This might include family members (deceased or living doesn’t matter), friends, special interests, or special talents.
– The character has a set appearance. I can envision them in my head.
– The character has a distinct personality. They have certain likes/dislikes, special interests, and personal taste in many categories.
– The character makes me feel emotions. Whether I’m annoyed at them or sad for them, they…
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This is a weekly post I do to highlight blogs or bloggers who have inspired me in some way during this week – another car on my imagination train!
Health and getting older has been on my mind a lot this week. (Skip this section if you don’t want TMI): I’m getting older. It’s really and truly happening; it’s not longer a cognitive eventuality. I woke up with a hot and sweaty face the other night and I couldn’t sleep – Night sweat? My period is late this month (not pregnant). I have arthritis that, no matter how much I hope and pretend otherwise, finds new ways to hurt every day. I also had an emotionally trying week last week, and am still trying to find footing in the sifting sands of truth and dysfunction.
My new favorite blog on feminism and body positivity: Talkin’ Reckless.
And then these posts on yoga and meditation: Amanda Green Yoga and
Maybe these things will help me find my footing and accept the changes. What works for you?
The return of the ’90s – something I have started dreaming about maybe last year. You see, I realized that the fashion of the late 80s and early 90s was coming back, but also – and this is a bonus I didn’t expect – I knew what did and didn’t look good on me. So I was already ahead of the game!
I’m waiting for the baby doll tees and baggy jeans, because I can wear those like it’s my job. I think we have about a year or so.
In my guild at the Ren Fair, we’re going to make t-shirts and stuff for this year’s cast. This past week, we were presented with the opportunity to come up with a new slogan which would require a new image. (Our guild chief got conked in the back of a head during the keg toss – and he was a good 20 feet away.) We were talking about other slogans, kind of playing on that incident (which could have been horrible but wasn’t,) and I drew a few sketches of a sheep in a kilt to work with it.
I don’t know if they will be used and I’m trying to surrender any expectations I have to that end, but it felt nice to do. I’ve never tried to draw anything for anything other than my own enjoyment before. (Perhaps for good reason.. 🙂
I even gave them both names.
I Didn't Just Wake Up This Morning With A Craving 