Personal Inspiration Part 1

In a previous post I talked in general about inspiration and in this week’s post I would like to talk about what in particular I find inspiring. I personally find video games very inspiring and I do not think that I am alone in that. Video games are the artistic work of dozens of people from the storyline writers to the guys who write the code. Everyone working together for one common goal. To get this out of the way, yes I know that people make video games to make money. I know that everyone who works on a game is doing so with the end goal of paying the rent but the same can be said for all kinds of artists, in fact the same can be said for everyone on the planet. We are all just trying to make ends meet. So that does not bother me that all the music and stories that I love are made to make the rent. If I could I would too. So with that bit of nastiness out of the way I am going to tell you about the last thing that really inspired me.
In my house we have two PlayStation3’s. Both are loved because my spouse and I both love video games. On the PSN the online store for PS3 there is a wonderful little game called ‘Journey’. There is no real story just a basic outline of a traveler on a journey. You have your characters and sometimes if other people are playing the game too you can see other travelers. The first five minutes of watching him play this game build a fire in my brain. I had to write the story that was just bursting through me. It is flash fiction and I wrote in about 15 minutes. It is 593 words long (for now :-D) . Here is it.

The wanderer

The sand stretched endless before the wanderer. It stretched endless behind too. Nothing was here but sand, sun and the journey. No one made journey’s anymore they were the things of legend and lore. Only to be spoken of during the long winter’s nights in the place that the wanderer came from. The wanderer was clothed head to foot in a traveling cloak red as the sun that burned down on her. Under the hood some thought she was beautiful but in her small village she had the madness. It was a madness like they had not seen in four hundred years but was so bad that it was still talked of also on those long winter nights. The last one who had was also a woman, beautiful too but her beauty was nothing when seen with her madness. She wanted to see what was on the other side of the mountains. She wanted to know why the sun rose and what happened when it fell. She was wise and beautiful and untouchable because of the questions that poisoned her mind. Those questions were only for teachers to know and she was no teacher. The teachers had not come to the village in more years than could be recorded. But that was long ago and not the story of this wanderer, just the last one. The wanderer had not always been different but she learned it in small ways. When a traveling teacher had come and then stayed for the winter that was when the village elders noticed it. Boys and girls were taught whatever the teacher knew and that was as it should be. A little learning is good for the soul but it stayed in the wanderer’s mind like mud on a pair of boots. She wanted more. The teacher soon taught her everything he knew and it was not enough. Soon she knew more than he did reading every book he had with him and then she scoured the village for any books that she had never seen before. At first it was smiled at because the village needed someone who loved to learn all things but then it was frowned on because she was not doing anything but reading and talking with those who had read whatever book she had in her hand at the time. People began to talk about her behind her back then to her face. Soon her village was no home for her anymore. So she did what she had learned and went on a journey. She dressed in the robes of a wanderer and shook off her name as all wanderers’ do. She walked from sun up to sundown alone. No one bothered her because of her wanderers’ robes. All knew that only those with the madness began to leave where they were born, against how it should be, she was untouchable now to the greater beyond her small village because of her robes. She learned new things like loneliness and hunger and thirst but nothing could stop the thoughts and questions in her mind. Those were the only things that really mattered anymore to the wanderer. Slowly, like the first bub of spring, she learned how to feed herself from what was around her and what water was safest to drink in the burning sands. She learned how the stars danced in the sky and what dawn looked like on the ocean. But now she walking in the desert alone but not lonely. She had learned to be company to herself.

I personally love it but please tell me what you think. Until next week be well.

Internet writing resources

Today I would like to talk about how the Internet can help a writer not just distract us. The Internet can be a hindrance but it used with care it can help a struggling writer get through that next scene. I, personally, have a terrible time remembering how to spell words. It is a constant and annoying problem. Now, for me, when I say that I have trouble spelling words I sometimes cannot even remember what letter the word starts with. I know why I have that trouble but that does not help me when I can writing. So Google has saved my life so many times. When I cannot remember how a word starts I think about what the word means or what a synonym/antonym to the word is. Worse comes to worse I will just ask someone(usually the spouse he's good like that.).

Another excellent source for a writer who is having trouble just getting started is prompts. There are many websites that are just full with writing prompts but my personal favorite is Adam Maxwell's writing prompts. Here is website- http://www.adammaxwell.com/writers-tools/writing-prompts-generator/. When you want a or need a new prompt you just refresh the page. The prompts are to the up right under the banner but the whole page is about writing prompts and people talking in the comments. I like the whole set-up and I love to write using prompts. Prompts can give a writer a way to take a story that you never would have thought of yourself. If the prompts you get does not work will what you are trying to write just either refresh the page or try running a Google search for prompts for mystery stories or chick-lit. The Internet has all those and so many more than I can think of.

The next thing that the Internet gives writers is the ability to connect with each other. The is nothing like the support one writer or artist can give to each other. we understand each other like no one else can. I belong to some writer groups like NaNoWriMo and Master Koda on Facebook. The understanding and honesty that we have with other artists is amazing and sometimes just what you need to hear. No matter what kind of art you do you need to have support not just from family and friends but other people you need to have contact with others who do the somethings you do. That is because you need someone who not afraid to tell you the truth. People who love you may not be able to express what they really think about your work, if it not 'Everything you do is awesome!', because they do not want to hurt your feelings or discourage you. So having people who care more about your growth as an artist than your feelings is something every artist needs.

I may return to this topic again because I have not exhausted the Internets at all. Thank you for reading and see you next week!

Atmosphere

Today I really did not know what to write so I asked my spouse and he suggested atmosphere. Not setting or the atmosphere in a story but what atmosphere does someone write in? That is a very personal question that changes from writer to writer. For me I like to write in my library with some music going in my ears. The music that I listen changes from story to story that I write and even from scene to scene. I mostly like to have instrumental pieces going but not always. Now other writers like to have different things when they write. John Ringo has to have total silence and at home. I, personally, cannot write at home. Too many things that I could be doing like my yoga or something for grad school or just playing a video game. I need to be somewhere else. Something about it focuses me like nothing else.

I think that atmosphere is something that does play into the writing in of your book, poems, or music. If you need to put more action in a scene maybe you should change your scene. One thing that I have learned with all my years of writing and trying and everything else that all artists understand is that sometimes it is not the art that is the problem. Sometimes it is you. Now that does not mean stop or that you have made a mistake or anything like that. But maybe you should stop for a moment. Walk away with your thoughts and change your atmosphere. If you normally work in a loud, busy place go somewhere quiet and just feel. The same thing is true if for a quiet place. Being aware of your personal setting is just as important knowing your fictional one.

When is the best time for you to work? That is something personal again. If you do not know when the best time already is then you should try the following. Try working at different times of the day for about a week. For example work in the morning for a week and see if that works well and even if it does you should move the time by a few hours the next week. When you do get a time that you work better in then you should notice something really cool. Your body and your brain will become used to working at this time and you will see an improvement in your productivity. It is an amazing thing but it is true. Something about doing the same thing every day or so and habits do work. I need to do it again for myself if I ever want to get this writing thing as more than just fantasy. The last time I did it was for evening work but with times changing in my grad school I need to make a writing change too. I think that I should try and shoot for afternoon work. But at the moment I do not know when I will be writing again.

Dreams and goals

Today’s post is about me coming clean. I am lazy. I have not written anything but what I have had to write for Grad school for the past few months. I am not telling you this to get sympathy from any of my readers. I think it is time for me to be honest about it. I do not really know why I have had so much trouble writing these past months. I have had plenty of free time; I have not been pulling into a video game or an MMO like I have before. I think that it all comes down to self-discipline. Every successful writer that I know of has great amounts of self-discipline. They make the writing a top priority in their lives. I have talked with authors and other writers; and they all have pretty much the same story. In order to be a successful writer they make time, they make the writing everything for themselves, but that leaves me with the question. How?

How do I do that same thing in my life? So far I have not found a how. I think about writing, I think about what stories I want to get done but I have done nothing towards getting them written, editing, or anything towards being published. I am beginning to think that I like the dream of being a writer but for some reason I am not willing to anything to making less than a dream and more of a goal. The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan and I have no plan for becoming a published author. Especially sense I want to be a ‘mainstream’ author. I have problems with that word because I am a Science Fiction and Fantasy dreamer and ‘mainstream’ look down on us dreamers. I written about how Science Fiction and mainstream interact but in one of my grad school classes I wrote about Science Fiction and Society. The word ‘mainstream’ is not even in the language until 1964, by in the language I mean it was not in the Oxford English Dictionary until then. Science Fiction as a literary concept is over 100 years old. I have the position that Science Fiction has an important role in and for society.

But that is not what this post is about. This post is about how I have no real drive to make my dreams into reality. I do not know if I am just scared because to have dream be real mean that they change. Reality is never like a dream, reality is hard and scary, and things do not always work out; either for the best or for you. In the past year I have done a lot of research about publishing, publishers, copyright laws, author’s rights, and just getting published. I know that it is hard, I know that there are so many very talented people all trying for the same thing and maybe that is just it. Growing up I was told that no matter how good at something I was there will always be someone who is better at it. Maybe I just have not worked that out. The reason I think that is my problem is that I have a lot of self-discipline in so many other areas of life. I am in graduate school, I take care of myself( and I have Lupus and fibromyalgia so that is not easy at times), I am married and have been with the same guy for ten years now, and I have two blogs that I post for on a weekly basis. I have self-discipline or I would not have all the really good things in my life. I think that I am just afraid. Now I just do not know what to do with it. I know that this post has to resolution but it is honest. Thanks for reading always and see you next week.