Where You At?

Often times I find myself struggling with the idea of setting. Like I must know all the specifics of any location I want to write about. In a sense, it’s true that you must. If you are going to write about a specific place that exists in the world we know, you must have at least a basic, and preferably an extensive knowledge of the place about which you are writing. Be it through experience or research, knowing your concrete setting is important. However, have you noticed that many works take place in made up venues that simply are reminiscent of actual places? I think this is a perfectly legitimate way to go about creating a setting. To take the essence of a place you enjoy, and create a vivid new, fictional setting based on that essence. Of course there are the basic subcategories. Big city, small-town, suburbia, rural life, etc. But those are the broadest strokes a writer can make. From this broad stroke, you must create more detail. One of the best ways to go about this is to start from the largest brush stroke you make, and add vivid imagery in increasingly detailed steps until you have created a thriving, vibrant environment for your characters to thrive in.

Perhaps you are lacking on plot because you simply can’t find a realistic playground for your characters to develop themselves in. After all, even the most three dimensional of characters cannot leap off a page or transform in any literary way whilst stuck in a gray blob that vaguely resembles setting. Perhaps setting is often overlooked by readers, it becomes background, or you may think so. But honestly, how often would you continue reading a story if the surroundings weren’t vibrant, very well detailed and explained in such a way that you truly felt as though you could see them in your mind’s eye? The idea is to create an environment that is crystal clear, while still giving the reader a way to worm their own ideas into it, so as to create a deeper reader connection. It is not easy, and it is most certainly a delicate balance that can take a lot of liberties and a lot of time and care to finally end with something you truly want to share with your readers, but when all that effort ends in a dynamic setting for your characters to play around in, it is more than worth it.

Up Next

Once I get it edited, is going to be a little post about setting and such.

For now, have a pretty picture to inspire you.

Write 500 words on it, minimum. See if it gets any inspirational sparks going.

Missing Muse

Problem: Misplaced/Runaway Muse.

 

For going on two months now, my muse has run away into hiding. I’m guessing she’s out there getting all the experiences I wish I was having right now. But the thing is, while that muse is off having the time of her life, my creative life is suffering greatly back at college.

After my muse disappeared, it was a little like going through the stages of grief. You know, DABDA. At first, there was denial. I could do just fine without my muse. Who needs a muse, anyway? I didn’t need no stinkin’ muse. This stage was short-lived, followed quickly by anger, which was more like extreme frustration at my inability to wring even a drip of inspiration or creativity out of me, my utter lack of competent writing. This stage lasted the longest. Then there was bargaining. If I journaled, that would be enough. Daily journaling would make up for it until my muse came back. I was certain. Unfortunately, writing about mundane experiences in a mundane town through mundane college life week after week does not find a lost muse. Bargaining gave way to Depression. Certainly I would never find my muse. Perhaps I would be far better off if I just gave up on writing all together. Certainly there were other jobs out there that needed me to get by in this world. After all, what were my dreams worth anymore? Yes, my friends, it was a dark time in my creative life. But eventually Acceptance came around, and when it did, it was almost worse than depression.

I simply gave up, and assumed that my muse was lost, never again to be found. That perhaps one day a new muse would come along and claim me, but until then I was destined to spend my days in a fictionless blur, still alive and living, but nearly without passion. Then, a few days ago, I moved beyond acceptance to the point I find myself at now. I am searching for my muse. At times, begging for her to come back and sprinkle some sentiment of a fiction idea on me.

But the point is, I am looking. I am actively seeking. In this world, for whatever your passion may be, you will hit lulls. When this happens, I am finding that the only way to return to a place of inspiration is to continuously try to be inspired, to seek out inspiration, to never stop practicing in your passion (in this case, I am continuing to try and write daily). Especially for writers, a tip that I can never say enough times is to read. Read, read, read, read, READ. When your muse is missing, read even more. Read in genres you love, read in genres you never thought you’d touch. Read blogs with some sort of merit. Read articles online. Read the newspaper. Just, read. And when your muse returns, never forget what reading did while it was gone, and continue to read. Reading for writers is like putting extra-strength miracle gro in a plant and taking care of it in the best way you know how. It brings about beautiful, flourishing answers.

So, for now, I’m taking to a cup of tea and a book in my free time to kill this writer’s block and find my muse. She likes to come back just when I’m getting comfortable, so here’s to hoping she pops up to shake things up soon!

If your muse is missing, might I suggest a daily dose of writing something, anything, making sure you read something, and just going out there, open to finding inspiration and constantly looking for it.

It has taken me a couple months

To figure out how to start writing about my writing life in this blog. In fact, I haven’t written in quite some time. Fictionally speaking, anyway. I’ve been journaling away, but none of that is worth putting on a blog about writing.

The simple fact of the matter is, my muse has disappeared. She has run away to the Galapagos Islands for all I know, and may not be found for some time. I’m looking for her. She’s just nowhere to be found for now.

So, in just a bit, when I have time to write up something of a greater length, about how my muse has disappeared and my epic search for her. Be back with more in awhile.  Stay tuned, for the musings of a recovering writer, I suppose.

New Directions

It has been suggested to me a couple times that I take this lovely piece of work (insert sarcasm here) and turn it into a writing blog.

I never thought I’d really have enough to write about writing. Which seems silly, because I love writing, and I practice it or think about it on a daily basis. Most of the time, though, the thoughts are disjointed. And rarely do I actually have project underway with which to expand upon.

Since NaNoWriMo, though, I’ve been all about writing. The passion has come back tenfold, and with the new project I’m working on, I think I finally have enough say to turn this blog into something of a writing blog. It won’t be professional, by any means. I am not a professional writer, I do not (yet) get my paycheck based on the words I write. Someday, that is my goal, but for now I’m going to go ahead an classify myself as a very amateur/novice writing blogger.

You know what? That’s okay. Everyone’s got to start somewhere. And I’ve sure got plenty to say. So be warned. Further posts in this blog will be less about the silly trivial happenings of life, and more about writing.

Sure, I might throw an anecdote about college life, because though fiction is about reaching out into the worlds that have not yet been touched, I am inspired by the life around me, and I want to share that with you guys.

This is the start of a new era in this blog. That sounds significantly more epic than it actually will be. But we all need a little hype in our lives sometimes.

Further NaNoWriMo posts…

I decided that, as this blog has many other subjects on it other than the details around NaNoWriMo, I started a blog solely for NaNoWriMo and my other writing insanity!

http://latteandaprayer.wordpress.com/

Please enjoy me slowly losing my sanity this next month over there. I will see you back here when non-writing things occur to me.

Day Two

I was worried about my word count today when, by my afternoon classes, I had only advanced from 3,000 to 3,500. To put it lightly, I started to mildly hyperventilate that this year was going to become a failure like last year already.

However, when I got back from my afternoon classes, I sat down, plugged in my headphones and set my iTunes on shuffle and then… I typed. I typed and let the characters carry me. Unfortunately, Braden is new to me, and because of that, he isn’t jumping off the page quite how I’d like him to just yet. He needs to bring in his own sense of life that I haven’t exactly discovered yet. But it’s only a first draft.

The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to get that first draft on the page. To get a complete story, from start to finish, written out. I have so many half-finished stories in my repetoire, the prospect of a finished one, even though it will be nowhere near publishing ready at the end of the month, is so terribly exciting I can hardly describe.

As of now, I am at 5,265. I may continue for a little bit once I’m ready for bed and then call it a night, or I might consider my progress today a victory and continue tomorrow.

Either way, I’m over 1/10 of the way there, and I have to say, that alone feels rather amazing!

Insanity, I claim you this month.

Well, this will be my second year’s attempt at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

50,000 words in 30 days. So far, I’ve got 2,400. Deep breaths, and I’ll be plunging in. My goal on it this time around is to let the characters and the story guide me. It doesn’t have to be awesome this time around, it just has to be complete.

This is my log of how it is going well, or makes me want to cry in desperation. I guess it’s abotu time I get blogging again, huh?

Thus far, I really have no clue where I’m going with it. But it’s a ride. Life’s a climb. But the view is great. And this month will certainly be a climb. I’m simultaneously excited and terrified for it.

Let the noveling begin!

A pile of thoughts fell out of my head

It’s been a couple weeks into college, although it feels vaguely like it’s been forever. Seriously, I don’t know what it is, but as fast as my senior year of high school went, that’s about how slow my first year of college is going so far. I like my classes, for the most part, although I’m really not into my major. That’s the thing about a liberal arts education. They really want you to be well-rounded, which is awesome in theory, but I was most excited about the getting into what I want to be studying aspect of things, and I really haven’t reached that point yet.  It’s mildly disappointing, but the workload thus far has been so manageable that I can’t bring myself to complain much.

Last week, Callie was home, which was AMAZING! Because though I would have preferred the circumstances for her being home were better, I got to see her twice! We had a blast. I love just chilling with her, talking about life and all the ups and downs that come with it. I always feel so relaxed and de-stressed after hanging out with her. We really get everything out, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need to do. She’s such a great friend for letting me get all my stuff out and still wanting to hang around me I owe you big, Callie!

The weekend before last, since obviously a natural order of time means absolutely nothing to me in my blog, was Artapalooza in CF. Which means I headed back home for the day. I saw so many people, and it’s truly amazing how much more respect and love I have for my town now that I’ve been away from it. And the thing is, I haven’t even been away from it that long. Which makes me wonder if I’m going to really start missing home more often. I know that I can go back whenever I’d like, but really I can’t. There will be work to do and social events to attend to and WTV meetings to make and Trumpet deadlines and all these amazing college-y things that I really want to be involved in, and I’m afraid the balance will be a little harder to make. Thus far, though, I’ve been handling the freedom rather well, if I do say so myself. I haven’t cracked and I’ve been getting my work done with time to spare. But then again, I’m usually very on top of things in the first few weeks. It’s toward the second semester that things start to wear on me and I lack in the homework department. It is my goal to be better at time management this year though. I guess I don’t really have a choice about it, do I?  I slack, I fail. Failure is not an option. Because once I get through this year, I’ll get more of a chance to focus on what I want to be doing. Communication Arts.

Which brings me to another topic. I’ve recently thought about changing my major up a bit. Instead of double majoring in Comm. Arts print media and Writing, I think I’m going to be doing a double emphasis/major in Comm. Arts print and electronic medias. I don’t need a degree to write. Plus, with the print/electronic media double major, it opens up some doors for potential publishing jobs, which I’ve been recently thinking I might actually really enjoy. And no, not just because of Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal. Nice try, though. The job just seems like something I might be interested in. I’m just beginning to see the beauties of what I could do with a Comm. Arts degree.

As for back home, I miss my grandparents, and the neighbors something crazy. Luckily I’m going to have a movie night with Nicole on Friday, so that’ll be nice. Because she’s basically like a big sister to me, and I haven’t gotten to talk to her the last couple times I’ve been home, because they’ve been quick stops home. Just a few hours and stuff. Plus, I miss my “little sister” Jaylee and my (I call him this mentally, cuz he’s adorable, and if Jay is my surrogate sister, then he gets to be this) “little brother”. They’re too much fun, and I hate missing weeks at a time of them growing up. It kills me, because I got so used to being there every day for them.  Being apart for a week feels like I miss a world of things. But I know they’re always there for me, and I am always there for them. I’m only 20 minutes away, and I remind myself of that to keep me sane.

Well, as I leave, I will leave some pictures of my dorm, which really don’t do it justice.  Because it’s a pretty effin’ sweet dorm. And some things have changed since I took these pictures, so I’ll have to update in a later post. But it’s late for me on a weeknight and I really should be getting to bed soon. And also, pictures relating to the rest of the post. Me n Callie, Me n Jaylee, and Brecken bein’ silly.

Sometimes, I have theories…

I have this theory. It’s a theory that some people are just really magnificent hug-givers. I can just tell, by looking at them, that they would give those hugs that no matter how absolutely horrible your day might have been, it gets instantly better from one of their hugs. In my theory, the hug doesn’t have to be from a true love or anyone you might have particular romantic feelings for to be so awesome. I believe, simply, that there are hugs out there that can heal just about any wound. It is something of a goal of mine to get hugs from people I meet whom I believe have these awesome hug powers. In general, I believe in the power of a hug. But I’ve found recently that some people simply give better hugs than others. So, this is my salute to good hugs and my challenge for all of you to a) give more hugs, since they make people smile, and b) find your own awesome hug givers. Because really, they rock.

Annnd, I know that’s random, but I was thinking about it today after receiving a particularly awesome hug and also having a conversation with someone whom I suspect would give super hugs. More about my boring college life and adjusting to dorms and all that jazz will surely come later. But this was far more fun to write about for the time being.

And until I find an awesome tea shop like Argo Tea, I have no place to really sit for awhile and type/contemplate my thoughts. It’s a lot harder to focus and get it all down in a noisy, busy dorm than you’d suspect. For now, that is all!

Love!