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 |  My blog for the blog challenge |
| Ahem, ahem, ahem ... cough cough cough ... mememememememe ... Okay, I'm ready to write now. |
| It's Wildcard Monday! Prompt for March 10, 2014 I recently rediscovered the usefulness of the library ( *Blush* ) even after working here all year, and began looking more and more in depth at the covers of books. What book are you reading now? If you aren't currently reading a book, what is the next book you want to read, or what is the last book you finished? What drew you to that book? Look specifically at the cover design, the back cover, and the inside flaps. What makes this book one that would stand out on a library shelf? Well, this will be a curious response I suppose. While I go to the library all the time and bring home real books with paper and covers and such, they are almost exclusively non-fiction books on gardening, cooking, building, etc. I currently, however, due to unforeseen circumstances, do not have a single library book in my possession. I do have several books I was given for Christmas sitting on my bedside table, however, these too I am not currently reading. I am currently reading a book on my Nook and another book on my Kindle. Neither of them have covers so to speak. One is Stephen King's latest Doctor Sleep and it could honestly have been set on fire, dragged through a manure pile, and peed on by a rapid dragon and I still would be reading it ... so yeah, that probably doesn't help in response to the prompt. I'm reading it because not only is it by Stephen King, it is a sequel to the The Shining. The other book is On The Edge of Twilight which is a collection of short stories. And that is exactly why I'm reading it. I'm writing a collection of short stories so I'm reading as many short story collections as I can to get a feel for how to do it. Once again, the cover has nothing to do with it. It was a freebie. So, I'll pick up a book from my bed side table and see what I can glean from its cover. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble because my current favorite mystery writer Tana French didn't have anything new and I wanted to read a new mystery. This author had more than one book out and it was on the same shelf with the Tana French books so I picked it up. It happened to be nominated for an Agatha award which I find to be a good sign in mysteries and I liked the short blurb on the back cover. The rest of the cover really didn't appeal to me or not appeal to me. Which I guess is kind of strange because normally I am a very visual person. I then opened the book and read several passages ... not the opening paragraph though as I've been told over and over is so important ... I want to know that the whole book is going to keep drawing me on to read more, not just page one. The other thing that stood out to me was the juxtaposition of the title. Having the words Beautiful and Death struck me as unique. Adding a color word Blue gave it visual appeal. So I guess in the end you could say that I don't pick books by their cover design but rather by their content. Those book blurbs are really important to me. |
| The Sunday News! Prompt for March 9, 2014 Provide your thoughts/opinions on a newspaper/magazine article or a radio/television news story from the past week. And if you feel inclined, let loose and blog about your week. Also, feel free to comment on your favorite blog entries from your fellow challengers from the preceding week, though this is not required. Here's a link to the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/creativity-habits_n_4859769.html 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently I chose to write about this article for a couple of reasons. First, I like the article because it helps "explain" the creative mindset. Second, I want to discuss what this is and what it isn't about. And third, It reinforces some of my own behaviors in a positive way. The creative mind is complicated. Over the years people, researchers, psychologists, etc have attempted to pinpoint what it is that makes people creative in an effort to try and harness that power. They somehow think they can "teach" other people who are not so creative to be creative if they follow the steps. And this article is great for laying out a list of things highly creative people do. It includes things like daydreaming, being alone, asking big questions, turning failure into a positive thing. And none of these things seems so out of whack that your average everyday person couldn't try to achieve them. Except maybe daydreaming ... either you do it or you don't. This isn't a skill you can learn. I do every single thing on this list to one degree or another. But no one taught me to do them nor did I learn them from some list. As a child there were murmurings of me being "gifted" and other such things. My teachers at school used it to their advantage and I was happy to play along until I realized they were just using me. My parents, well my mother to be precise, refused to allow me to participate in any of the "gifted" classes because she didn't want to me "get a big head". Read - she was jealous. Still is. Always has been. Always will be. My dad was far more encouraging but not around as much to help me out. And my friends ... well they ran the gambit. My best friend growing up was even more creative than I. It was amazing having her for a friend. We never fought, never were jealous of one another, helped each other with everything we could (including vocabulary quizzes - lol), and just all around loved being together. I guess we understood one another and in a world that didn't understand us at all that was an important thing. Needless to say I grew up knowing I was not normal but because of how I was treated I also grew up thinking that my creativity was a BAD thing, not a good thing. I've had to relearn to be happy with myself as an adult. I've had to learn to embrace all those quirky and odd things that I do. Articles like this are amazing to me because its' like having someone print a banner that reads "We understand you and everything you do is okay." What I hate about articles like this, however, is what some people do with them, what researchers try to do with them, what teachers try to teach from them. It's not that I don't want people to be more creative in their lives. Lord knows the world needs more creativity and less rules, more humanness and less formulas. But when they take articles like this and try to make them a "things to do" list, they miss the whole point. This article lists 18 things that highly creative people do different than other folks. That's it. It is a list of characteristics of people who are already highly creative. It is NOT a checklist for how to be creative yourself. It is NOT a How-to article for building a better you. It is NOT a self-help guide to become the person you've always wanted to be. It is NOT a manual on tapping into your inner child. The thing is they compiled this list of 18 things that highly creative people do different and listed each one with a small blurb about it, but what they didn't list is HOW these things are applied in the life of the highly creative individual. They've taken the creative person and tried to boil them down to fit a mold ... just like most of society does. We want everything to "fit" in somewhere. We want to define it and give it a name and hold it accountable for it's place in the world and then use it to our own advantage. And yet, the very act of doing so negates what being creative is all about. cre-ate [kree-eyt] - verb 1. to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes. 2. to evolve from one's own thought or imagination as a work of art or an invention 3. Theater to perform for the first time or in the first production of a play 4. to make by investing with new rank or by designating; constitute; appoint |
| It's Creation Saturday! Prompt for March 8, 2014 It's Saturday! Did you get to sleep in? Make a few creative excuses for why you were able to sleep in this morning. If you didn't get to sleep in, what woke you up? Sleep? You want me to sleep? I never sleep so I never sleep in. Like all the great minds before me, I sleep when I need, work when the muse strikes, and let nothing stop me in between. Or so I wish ... Typically, at four in the morning, our neighbors rusty old pickup truck rattles down the road, its engine coughing and choking with each revolution. The cacophony echoes off the canyon of homes boring into my ears jarring me wide awake. No one should have to wake up that way. Often I'll get up anyway and write for a couple of hours and then go back to bed. It's productive. This morning I was delightfully surprised by a change in routine. I slept in til half past seven, then got up and joined my husband for a breakfast date. |
It's Funny Friday! Prompt for March 7, 2014 Who is your evil twin? Write about the mischievous deeds that he/she has done today. He he he he he. My evil twin moved money from one account to another account at the bank via online banking for a 7th time in one month prompting an angry letter from the bank warning me of the evils of such a transaction. Really? Who knew? Apparently I could have done so all I wanted if I actually went to the bank instead of using the online version. Um ... My evil twin threw away the church newsletter that finally arrived today announcing all of the Lenten week activities from the previous four days along with a snarky "letter from the pastor" about giving up. I "gave up" waiting on the newsletter four days ago. My evil twin "gave up" going to church for lent. And my good twin doesn't need to go ... My evil twin slept in til 10:45 and I slept right alongside. My evil twin wrote a snarky essay in reply to a FB post about a religious movie "not being accurate". It's a MOVIE. Remember? Not real? Pretend? Entertainment? Geez ... My evil twin got out of bed ready to bite someone's head off. Thank God I have children ... My evil twin drove more than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit after flipping off the guy who pulled out in front of me and then stopped to turn while I was going 65 mph on the highway. Patience is for people who are still alive to be patient, not for those who nearly died and had to drive in the grass verge alongside the road. Of course this is supposed to be "Funny Friday" ... sigh. I guess my evil twin is compromising all the funniness right out of me too. Or it may have been that guy who pulled out in front of me ... or the idiot on FB ... or our snarky pastor ... or the letter from the bank ... |
| It's Opinion Thursday! Prompt for March 6, 2014 Mac or PC? (One word answers aren't interesting to read, so please expand on your opinion Smile ) PC Laptop PC Politically Correct PC Perpetually Confused PC Professional Con PC Penelope Cruz PC Proportionally Correct PC Perfectly Curved PC Potatoes and Corn PC Okay, I'm just being ridiculous now. Personally, I like "Perpetually Confused PC" because more often than not I am confused by the use of my computer. Whether it's in the use of said device or in a social interaction that occurs because of said device, confusion seems to follow me wherever I roam. Seriously, I find Mac to be limiting. Everything has to be special made for it, or special programmed, or it just doesn't exist. Of course there are probably things you can get on Mac you can't get on a PC. I'm not sure what those things might be but I'm sure they exist ... I have a Lenovo ideapad laptop and I LOVE IT!!! I can take it anywhere I want to go and use it for anything I need and then some. It's fast as heck and has tons of storage. And it has a touchscreen ... happy dance happy dance happy dance!! |
| It's War Chest Wednesday! Prompt for March 5, 2014 What is something you did as a kid that you still enjoy doing today? Or, what is something you did as a kid that you wish you could still do today? I stepped from the grass of Mr. Cox's yard onto the rock and waved my arms to balance myself. It was sloped and slick, wet with green algae and Teresa's muddy footprint. "Don't step in the water," I told her as she jumped to the other bank of the creek. I joined her with a practiced leap and we both knelt down, watching the clear water eddy around the flat rocks. "There's one," she said. "And another," I added. I picked up the pickle jar my mother donated to our cause and filled it to the top of the label with water. Then I wedged it into the muddy bank beside me. I watched as another one skidded under a rock by my toes. Now was my chance. With the precision of a diamond cutter, I lifted the limestone with my fingertip. And there it was. The biggest crawdad ever. "Stay calm," my best friend whispered. "Go slow." I laid the rock over and put my whole hand in the cool water stretched out flat, parallel to the bottom. And I snuck up on it from behind. In a brief flash I closed my fingers around its body right behind the head and front pinchers and pulled it from its hole. Mud clouded the water. Today, I'm not sure what it was about those adventure of catching crawdad's and playing in the creek that meant so much to me. Whether it was the absolute serenity of just being alone in what seemed like a wilderness to our childish selves or the perfect harmony of being with my best friend, both tug at my heart from time to time. Those days were magical. No worries. No cares. The terror of our lives yet to occur. We were innocent still. And we never fought. We were never jealous. There was never a time I didn't know she was my best friend and I was hers. We caught all kinds of creatures those days. Crawdads, tadpoles, bullfrogs, turtles. We even rescued a baby bird once and feed it with an eye dropper. The tadpoles had to be the most fun though. We kept them in a gallon size jar on my sister's dresser and watched them develop into tiny little frogs. One morning they were everywhere, all over the dresser, the floor, my sister's hair brush. It was a chore to gather them and escort them back to the creek. And we still found dead dried up frogs months later. As much as I would love to do those things again, they wouldn't be the same now. Although I am still amazed watching a tadpole turn into a frog and seeing crawdads scurry under rocks in a clear stream, the innocence of those days, the unburdened, worry free days just don't exist now. But I can still think back and remember and just for a moment feel that joy, that contentment, that absolute peace. |
| It's War Chest Tuesday! Prompt for March 4, 2014 There are many new, fantastic changes happening around WDC. What thrills you about the community we call Writing.com? On a broader note, what does Writing.com mean to you? How would you "sell" a community like ours to a writer friend of yours who is looking for a good writing site? wow. bummer. not my kind of prompt. Honestly, when I first joined WDC I was excited and thrilled to be joining. But my experience here has not been exciting or thrilling. Despite commenting as much as I can, entering as much as I can, blogging on a fairly regular basis, and giving heartfelt and honest helpful reviews, I have connected with almost no one. Everywhere I turn there are arbitrary rules and clicks of people who repeatedly award one another for whatever they feel like but seem to seldom venture beyond the "walls" of their group. And if you aren't connected with anyone on here, you might as well be writing in MS Word and skip learning all the complicated posting stuff, because unless you're a newbie who someone picks out to award and praise repeatedly (i'm not any more), it is extremely difficult to connect. I don't mean to sound down on this. I realize that for some people this is a happening place. But it makes me wonder, if those people are spending so much time on this site, when are they writing in the real world? The one thing I really love about this site is reading and reviewing everyone else. Reviewing has helped my own writing enormously. But once again, when I post things for review I get nothing ... so why keep posting? I like doing the blog challenges because working alone every day it gives me a goal to keep up with. Getting lost in writing my novels and short stories can be mind numbing and while I love it, I don't have a routine. The blog gives me a routine of sorts. I do it for my own reasons ... but it still hurts that despite commenting on almost everyone else's blogs each day, only a couple of people ever comment on mine. Or I get comments of "I totally disagree with everything you said." If you're going to post that, why post at all? I'm not here to argue about my viewpoints. How would I sell WDC? I probably wouldn't. I have a critique group full of writers in the real world. We all enter literary contests right and left and submit to publications. Most of us have had good success at doing so. Out of eight submissions so far since last June, I've only had one rejection and six acceptances. Two of our members even entered the Amazon novel contest this year. Two of the ladies of my critique group are already members on here. That's why I joined. But neither of them are very active. Again, they are too busy writing submission pieces and participating in workshops and conferences across the country. I did suggest this site to a couple of college students I know who like to write. One of them was intrigued by the blogging challenge and having a different prompt to write to everyday. If she joined, I don't know. We haven't discussed it since. And she had been working with an agent to publish a book, so I doubt she has time. The other one was my nephew and I think he joined but he's been busy making an animated movie that he wrote the script for so he hasn't had time to really participate either. And then there's the "publishing" thing ... if you want to publish your work in magazines or publish a novel or do an ebook even, you can't publish it here first. Publications won't accept work that is anywhere online except for review purposes and to do that means setting everything you put on here to restricted levels. I can't tell you how many nasty emails I have gotten from people angry because my work is set to a restricted level. So I post to little to nothing that can't be public like blogs and reviews. The emails are promptly deleted but still who needs that stress? Sorry. This probably isn't the response you were looking for but I just can't do the happy dance. |
| It's Wildcard Monday! Prompt for March 3, 2014 Did you watch the Oscars? Tell us about a time in your life that was worthy of being made into a movie/TV show/novel/short story. I did not watch the Oscars. Never do. Given that much of who wins is about politics in Hollywood more than who deserves the award for a job well done ... Ackkk! Who am I kidding? I don't give a flip about them because too much emphasis is put on Hollywood as it is. Should they award their own? Yeah, maybe but don't they get enough attention as it is? We already plunge billions of dollars into their pockets every year while the rest of us can't even go to the doctor when we are seriously ill and we're supposed to give them more accolades? Funny though. That's probably why my life has turned out like it has, because I don't give a flip about fame and fortune. One of the times in my life that is worthy of making into a movie would have to be while I was an architect in London. It was a wild ride complete with 1) brushes with celebrity - I met Prince Charles at a cocktail party during an architecture thing at the Victoria and Albert museum where he had watercolors he painted on display. 2) A wild romance with the prince of Kuwait, who went to architecture school with us and then camped at our flat for a while in Chelsea. 3) travel all over Europe and the British Isles 4) a touch of espionage - I was in an IRA bombing and warned never to tell anyone. I didn't for twenty years. 5) hardship - I broke my ankle 6) a little glitz and glamor - I must have been at the opening nights of at least 8 west end plays including Les Miserables. 7) a couple of weekend parties at country estates ... 8) a LOT of alcohol But if you want something more gentle for your movie, we could go with Saturday morning fishing trips with my dad complete with 1) multiple scenes of falling out of boats or tripping over roots into the lake 2) my dad being bitten by an alligator 3) creative uses for leaves 4) my sister and worms 5) interesting catches 6) snakes, snakes, and more snakes As for books and short stories - those are easier. Since I like to write characters, every relationship I've ever had is fair game for a short story and my characters often turn up to have some of the experiences I've had in life. My family members routinely show up as well. Shh. Don't tell them. What I really want to write about though is my grandparents love story ... my grandfather was in the navy between world war one and world war two. My grandmother was back home finishing high school. Their entire romance was carried out through letters which I have. The love poems my grandfather wrote are amazing and a few of them are kind of eye opening. Things you never wanted to know about your grandparents. My grandfather went through the Panama Canal, spent time in Hawaii, and even went to China in the one year they were open for trade during that time. And then, just as they married, the depression set in. I think it would make an awesome novel but I haven't quite figured out how to convert the letters into novel form yet. |
| The Sunday News! Prompt for March 2, 2014 Provide your thoughts/opinions on a newspaper/magazine article or a radio/television news story from the past week. Well, since this didn't say it had to be a national article, I breezed through my tiny little bi-weekly rag from our hometown. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to find anything that would entice me into writing on it. But, after sogging through pieces on the local standoff with police (the guy wasn't even in the house ... ) and the scandal of the city government being recalled (they refused to hold an election ... duh), I landed on a commentary piece titled "Village Idiot". Sigh. Unfortunately the name fits the article that followed. It starts out talking about how many homosexuals there are in the world by giving percentages - stating "Experts estimate the number of homosexuals in the population is somewhere between 2 and 10 percent." (Jim Mullen) And then proceeds to give us percentages of every problem known to man in society from murderers to wife beaters to traffic accidents. But the only percentage he states is 90% and it is all directed towards heterosexuals. I hate percentages. Where do people even come up with them? And why do people use them to try to make a generalized point about society? They are definitely generalized. No doubt about that. But they are so generalized that they make no point at all. No one person, group, country, society, etc is 90% anything. People are just way more complicated than that. In my opinion percentages are no better than guessing or assuming so why try to make it "seem" legitimate by adding a number to it? That just reeks of dishonesty before you even start. If you don't know something, either don't say it or preface what you say by this is my opinion. And no one's opinion is a scientific fact. But I wonder, do people do this because they are scared to be wrong? or scared that someone might question their opinion? or are they trying to look bigger than they are? or what? Have we drilled into people's heads that there is something wrong with having an actual opinion on a topic? I sure meet a lot of people who behave that way. They ask what I think, and when I tell them what I actually think, instead of what they want to hear, I get flack for it. I think, oh well and go on. But in a way, it's not "oh well". What have we done to society that we've made people feel like having a difference of opinion is evil and we can't be friends with someone who doesn't think exactly the same things we do? Of course that brings me back to the article itself. Aside from his overuse of 90%, the whole point he was trying to make comes out in the end. If only a small percentage of the population is homosexual and a larger part of society is committing the crimes, why then is the prejudice against the smaller percentage? Because ... somewhere along the line assumptions became the truth. |
| It's Creation Saturday! Prompt for March 1, 2014 Write for fifteen minutes using "I used to think..." as your sta{/c}rter. I used to think ... I used to think that I could do anything and be anything that I wanted to, Then I had a child. I used to think people in long term relationships were the luckiest people on earth, Then I got married. I used to think I wanted to travel the world and never settle in one place, Then I had no home. I used to think that everyone deserved the same level of respect as a human being, Then I was mugged. I used to think cleaning fish guts on Saturday morning was the best thing in the world, Then I learned to play the piano. I used to think ... |
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