Showing posts with label Inkpageant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inkpageant. Show all posts

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Teaching Materials for Writers Ink: Unblocking Creativity

Sometimes in our lives we embark on journeys that are incredible. Sometimes they completely terrify us. I recently began a journey that does both to me. I began a writing organization on my campus at Weber State University. You might ask why would I do that? It mostly has to do with the fact that I recognize that our teachers shouldn't be solely responsible for helping us to develop our skills as writers. The following is the contents of a small booklet I made for a class I taught on Creativity today. It is my hope that the ideas expressed here will help other writers to learn craft or discover resources that can help them become better writers. Enjoy!


Unblocking Creativity

What is Creativity?

According to the Oxford Dictionary creativity means: relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. Hopefully you asked after reading that: So what? I know I did. Creativity means something different to each one of us. This personal meaning is what drives us to create and what one of the goals of Writers Ink will be to teach you to protect. But that is a different lesson.

I define creativity as the playground of the mind. We take materials and we create music in words, build worlds in imagination, learn what it means to touch a star, and some few of us will use creativity to cure cancer. Hopefully our creativity will allow us to change our world with as much impact as that team of scientists will.

What gets in the way of our creativity?

Make a list. Really make a list. Some of the things you will see on mine is: Fear of rejection keeps me from creating; I believe that being creative is a luxury I can’t afford right now; and I’m so tired of this project I’m working on that I’m done with it. I don’t know if these sound familiar to you, but I know that there tends to be a pattern with most of our reasons for not creating. That pattern is our self. We are the force that gets in the way of our creativity. So in order to embrace our creativity & develop creative confidence we have to stop getting in our own way. I’m not saying that our reasons for not creating aren’t valid, but it is our responsibility to learn how to work around them.

Tools of our Trade

As writers we must recognize that we are developing skills to enable us to build cohesive arguments, create resonating phrases, and open minds. Among the first skill we must develop is how to create ideas.

Again, make a list. Find out what you already use. Following are some of my tools:

1. A Commonplace book: A place to hold all my good and bad ideas
2. Research on my subject matter
3. My memories, your memories, fictional memories, & dreams
4. Brainstorming (Alone and with trusted friends)
5. Quotations, Art, Driving, and Showers (Places of inspiration)
6. Writing Prompts or Focused Practice

Your list of tools may be longer or look entirely different than this. And that’s okay. Now go share your list with another writer and increase their tool box.

Expressing Creativity

Of course you came to this to learn how to keep your creative flow. I like to think of creativity as a well. A well must be nurtured and taken care of if it is going to give us water throughout our lives. One of the dangers of allowing ourselves to get in the way of our creativity is that we can dry up our well. Thankfully if we tend to ourselves again we can refill our creative wells. Following are four ways we can help keep our wells full of creativity.

1. Pay attention to and explore the world around you. Have you ever seen a picture or quote on Facebook that you thought was awesome? You see things like that when you are paying attention. Take the time to collect quotes and pictures or anything else that inspires you. These put water into the creativity well.

2. Open up, be vulnerable, recognize emotion as a source of energy. This is hard. Sometimes we experience feelings that we don’t want to. We can even create experiences of emotion using music, smells, and watching memorable films. When we as artists are authentic about what we feel it can fill our well.

3. Creativity isn’t an event it is a lifestyle. I have found that the muse only regularly visits the consistent. Remember to keep writing. This is most difficult when you feel blocked. That’s okay keep writing. Having more than one creative project at a time helps with this process. The waters of creativity flow best when we live in such a way that we consistently are working on creating new projects.

4. We must embrace loss and develop creative confidence. Of all the steps this is the most difficult. Artists must endure rejection and loss throughout their lives. Does it hurt? Yes. In my opinion it always should, because we have become numb to inspiration when it ceases to hurt. Embrace the pain. Develop your skills so well that you can have confidence even in rejection. This will help you be resilient enough to keep putting your work out there to make the world a better place.

Creativity as a Journey

Now that we are finished with this class you know everything there is to know about creativity and you are ready to create worlds without end, right? Perhaps. Hopefully this has simply whetted your appetite with some tools to develop your creativity and habits to help you develop the lifestyle. Below you can find resources to help you as you continue on the journey to discover greater creativity. Including the resources I used to create this booklet. May the muse visit you often.

Resources for Creativity

The Artists Way written by Julia Cameron 
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp 
Kick-Ass Creativity by Mary Beth Maziarz 
The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley 
The Gift by Lewis Hyde 
Drawing out the Dragons by James A. Owen
David Kelley’s TED talk: How to build your creative confidence 
Julie Burstein’s TED talk: Four lessons in creativity


Monday, May 20, 2013

Mistakes, Vulnerability, and Critiques


It has been almost five months since I last posted to this blog. I feel guilty about that. I started out about a year and a half ago with high hopes of being able to create content for this to share with you, my audience, and I was doing a good job – up until I returned to school last year. It sucked my time and my energy to blog away from me and I found that regardless of my desires, I had to re-prioritize  my life to put family, school, and personal writing first before I could return to blogging. It was a hard decision and counting the cost was more challenging than I expected it to be. However I recently published an article with the Evolllution, an online newspaper on adult education (you can find that article here), and I discovered in my bio that they linked back to my blog. A blog that hadn’t been given any new content in a long time. So I return to blogging at a pace I believe I can handle. One post per week. We’ll see how that goes.

My mother and I on Graduation Day.
This mistake of judgment is one of many I’ve made in my life. I’ve often over burdened myself because I’ve thought that I need to be perfect and that a perfect person could juggle 20 different hats in their life successfully. Some of my role models can do this, but that doesn’t mean that is a standard for me to attempt to live up to. Every time I have tried I have found myself dropping priorities and attempting to clean up the mess later. I’ve been doing that for the past eight years as I have been working towards graduating from Weber State University. I recently received my Associates of Science and it began a period of reflection for me on all that I have gone through to get there. Mistakes that were necessary for me to come to know the person that I am.

I have a tendency to overburden myself in seeking my own standard of perfection. I am very expressive in person, but I tend to blunt my feelings when I speak with others about them. I have a need to remain busy all of the time. I take all the bad things that happen in my life and use them to make lemonade which I tell people I like because I enjoy lemonade, only they can’t see I didn’t make the juice with lemons but rather with my heart. You see I’m afraid to be vulnerable. It terrifies me. So instead of allowing myself to be human and feel and express emotion, I numb myself.

Growing up this was an unintentional theme in my home.
I numb myself to get rid of the messages that run inside my head like the ones to the left. Doubts plague me about being smart enough, good enough, strong enough, stable enough. Though there is one place in my life I don't suffer thoughts like these that I suspect other writers do. And that is in the world of critiques. Anyone who wants to have their work read by others and valued has to learn how to have their work critiqued by others. At first this may not sound terribly difficult, but for myself and I believe a great many other writers the act of writing is expressing one's own identity in words. You expose yourself more fully than you can in any other medium, because you don't express just what you believe, or what you like, but the very nature of the thoughts you have. And someone else is going to tell you what they think of your thoughts. Kinda scary, yes? But it doesn't have to be. Here are three tips about how to receive a critique with grace.

One: Critique often hurts.
I know a writer who it doesn't seem to matter what is said to them, they just won't change anything about their story. It didn't make much sense until one day I heard through the grapevine in our class they only got one good piece of advice for their story. This was after having spent hours on their work trying to find things to help them. And it was a workshop class of roughly twenty students and our professor. I've puzzled for months over why they couldn't accept what was said. And it boils down to the fact that they were not willing to be vulnerable about their writing. And if a writer cannot be vulnerable they cannot grow nor can anyone help them to grow.

Anyone who spends weeks or months on a writing project, dreaming up things to make their fiction or poetry thought provoking, laugh worthy, or emotional has every right to be vulnerable about what they wrote. Personally I look at it like this, the more red that a critiquer can put on my story and still be invested in the world and learning more about it, the better of a job I've done. All the markings can be symbolic of the work I've put into my story. And by allowing another to invest in your world they can point out the things that you can't see while you are inside it. It may hurt like exercise does, but once you allow yourself to get used to it your writing will get stronger just like your body would.

Two: The critiquer doesn't know all you know.
This is how I felt that day, but less elegant.
Story time. So I had my critique group over one day and we were going over one of our members stories. I opened with the critique on this specific story. And I just tore into it, I saw so many things on the story level that just didn't make sense to me. Like why would a fortune teller allow someone close enough to have somebody watch what they were telling someone. Or why would a girl allow a guy to take her to an abandoned building to have sex. And it was strange because this was a person who I typically enjoy their writing. I just went at them honestly about how I felt about the work. At the end of my rant my group decided to inform me that the story wasn't fiction. It was nonfiction about the author. I wanted to crawl under the table and then out of the room. At that point all of my critique held no water. My points may have had validity for a different story, but not for that one.

Remember the critiquer doesn't know all you know about your story. If what they say resonates with you and points you towards crafting a better story note it. If it doesn't resonate with what you are trying to write or causes you to feel less excited about your story, it probably isn't right. And if what they say makes you angry note it especially, because often these are the things you need to sleep on to find out if they resonate or not.

Three: Listen and ask questions.
Critique is a unique time in the telling of a story. It is based on it that you are going to develop your next story. Listen for everything that you can. For this purpose some people only critique in person and they actually read the entire piece aloud. You get to hear peoples first hand reactions to reading your work then. That information is crucial to you crafting the story you want to tell.

Don't be afraid to ask your critiquer to get specific about what things they are having trouble understanding. If they say they can see a problem somewhere ask them why they feel that way. Require them to express their emotions about what they are feeling when you are writing. This allows you to know what you are guiding people towards emotionally. Writing fiction is all about what the reader feels as they read and if you don't know what they are feeling you can't create the emotional experience. Your vulnerability in writing is what creates their experience.

I'm at a place in my life where I have tried to stop numbing, but it is hard. It frightens me often and I try to open up to my wife and my friends what I am feeling. Often they help me to identify what is really going on inside of me and that is what I attempt to put into my writing. Having people you can trust with your vulnerability is a precious thing and shouldn't be taken lightly. This journey we call writing can take us through the storms of our own vulnerability and teach us that strength is not found in the numbing, but rather in opening up and allowing others in. But only if we let it.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Writer's Lifestyle & the Laws of the Harvest

I remember years ago when I read Stephen King's On Writing the sentence I hated most in that book: "You must not come to the blank page lightly."  I realize now that he wasn't accusing me of that, but telling me what I shouldn't do, but for some reason when I read it I know I felt, "You haven't brought your best work to the blank page yet.  You're still just doing it lightly.  Stop and start over."  And it was that which made me so angry that I devoured every last word of the rest of his book.  It was a very good book, but I still didn't understand what coming to the blank page lightly meant until recently.

As I've been working on "Crimes of the Umbramancer," I realize there are times that I have come to it very lightly.  I've come to the blank page writing out of obligation.  I've come to the blank page writing out of need.  I've come to the blank page writing out of fear.  And you may sit there and say that that's not coming to the blank page lightly, but I would have to disagree, because I know that when obligation, need, or fear are the primary motivators of my writing that it sowing seeds for later writing.  And when the seeds sown are seeds that eventually drive people from writing, the writing is light.  It didn't lay seeds that could reach into the soil of life and build a lifestyle.  It didn't lay seeds that could reach the depths of the concrete jungle of publishing and build me a career.  It didn't lay seeds that could touch the hearts of an audience that would care about what I wrote.  I approached the blank page lightly.
By John W. Lawrence

During NaNoWriMo when I originally wrote the first draft, I never sat down one day and came to it lightly.  Instead I came with hope, love, and enjoyment of what I was doing.  I started out blogging that same way.  But it has been hard and I'm still learning lessons about what it means to come to things "lightly."  Recently I came across a quote that really got me thinking though, from a book called The Seven Laws of the Harvest.  I would like to share those laws with you in hopes that they help you as much as they have helped me since I ran across them.

Wild Rose Seeds
Let's start with the first law: We reap only what has been sown.  What does this mean for us as writers?  It has a lot to do with the emotional sets we choose when we go out to do any writing project. If you write out of obligation, what you are sowing is that you want to write out of obligation.  That can create positive pressure to write, but what if it doesn't?  What if you find yourself unable to write because you are obligated to do it?  I think this often happens to us young writers, because we want certain things to happen on a specific timeline.  We obligate ourselves to write instead of enjoy our writing.  We stop enjoying the process, the adventure, and the story and get caught up in all the details such as "I have to take that adverb out", "That isn't going to be realistic", or my personal favorite "This isn't good.  I should start over."  Stop sowing obligation and start sowing joy again.  We write because we love it.  Some of us will be able to make a living off of it.  Others of us will entertain our children with our stories.  All of us should be invested in making a life out of it.  And life is meant to be enjoyed.

White Wild Roses
The Second Law: We reap in same kind as we sow.  If you want wild roses you plant a wild rose seed, not a rose seed.  If you want a thoughtful research paper for a paper on genetics you do good thoughtful research on genetics, not research on how many hours it took you to get to the end of Halo Reach.  If you want to have a book loved and read by many, you spend the hours writing that book.  What you sow will be the same kind when you go to reap.  And you cannot reap the full benefits of something you did not sow.  When you cook the microwave dinner you don't reap the benefit of the feeling of having cooked a meal for your family, you reap the feeling of convenience.  It has been my experience that we sow what is easy and complain during the reaping season about not getting the rewards of sowing something hard.  If you really want something beautiful, you're going to have give hard work to make certain that it comes to pass.

The Third Law: We reap in a different season than we sow.  So many things in life come so easily. The internet equals instant knowledge.  Our microwaves equal instant food.  Our televisions equal instant entertainment.  But we so frequently forget that in those endeavors we are reaping the reward of what someone else sowed.  And when we buy into that thinking, we forget that to really get the best things in life we have to give them time, nurturing, love, and work to bring them to life.  Writing a good novel is like raising a child.  We sow the seeds and a child is born.  Then it takes eighteen to twenty years of work to make certain that child becomes a good person.  The season of sowing is eighteen years away from when you reap the full benefits.  A good novel requires the same kind of dedication and love.  (Just hopefully not eighteen or twenty years worth.)

The Fourth Law: We reap more than we sow.  Think of a single seed of corn seed.  If you plant this you will get one ear of corn that has at least 600 kernels.  So the yield you get for each seed of corn is at least six hundred fold.  An acre at 84 rows of corn will plant at least 22,000 stalks of corn.  And if you consider each stalk to only give you one ear of corn that becomes 13,200,000 kernels of corn.  So the return on what is sowed is huge.  It gives you good reason to practice.  And make sure you do all you can to take care of what you have sown.  Because when the time for harvest comes, you are going to be pulling in a lot more than what you put into it.  And that is a beautiful thing.

The Fifth Law: We reap in proportion to what we sow.  Back to the corn analogy, if you only sow a half acre of corn at 11,000 stalks and only get 6,600,000 kernels you got what you deserved.  You can only reap what you actually sow.  A master pianist didn't get that way because they played piano once when they were a child.  No, they had to practice and work at that talent until they nurtured it into a gift that could touch lives and enable them to find an audience to listen to their music.  Writing is the same way.  We reap in proportion to what we sow.  Our seeds are different so some of us may reap the benefits of writing poetry for our families.  Others of us may make careers out of our writing.  What makes all the difference in the world is the fact that we sow enough seeds to get the return we are looking for.

The Sixth Law: >We reap the full harvest of the good only if we persevere; the evil comes to harvest on its own.   Often times when we sow our seeds, we will discover that weeds come in and try to grow along with our harvest.  Even though this can seem bad, we can't stop this process.  The good and bad seeds both desire the same ground to use for their growth.  What we can control is where we nourish and strengthen.  If we spend our time nourishing and strengthening our good seeds until the time comes to harvest we will be able to take the good part and destroy the chaff.  As writers this means we have to invest in our story until we finish it.  If we spend all our time revising, editing, and in other words not getting to the end of our story we will lose it.  However if we strengthen it along the way and learn what we can from the process when we get to the end we will be able to remove all the ugliness we are able at the end.


The Seventh Law: We cannot do anything about last years harvest, but we can about this years.  So you failed last year to get your harvest to come to pass?  Or you didn't get the book written?  Well guess what?  That's okay.  There is this year.  Don't make the same mistakes this year that you made last year.  That is one of the best parts about this entire process.  You learn from it the entire time.  If you learn you reap the benefits of greater understanding of yourself and how you function.  You know what you need to do to motivate yourself to write.  (Like I motivate myself with saying I can have an orange soda each time I write.)  The past is there to learn from, the future is before us to prepare for, and today is for us to act.  Make this year the best you can make it.  Plant hope to become a better writer.  Plant love for storytelling.  Plant an enjoyment of sharing your heart with others.  And as you plant those things this years harvest will be different than last years.

To date this has been the best year I've ever had writing.  And I've loved the majority of it.  I just had to learn a lesson about what it means to come to the blank page with intent to make a story that I love, instead of writing out of obligation to anyone or anything.  Writing is my lifestyle.  I am getting better at living this lifestyle all the time.  And I know that one day, that investment is going to get me what I really want.  An ability to touch the hearts of people with the words I write.

This is two bits.
That's my two bits for this week.  I'd love to hear about your two bits.  Tell me about the kinds of harvests you have had writing.  Good ones, bad, or somewhere in the middle?  Hope everyone has a wonderful week!  I'll catch ya later!  Peace.



Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Rain: A source of ebb and flow.

Ever felt like the heavens just opened up and poured out all the pain, worry, and negativity of years upon you? I think that's where I've found myself for the past month. And it has really bothered me. I had wonderful plans for doing Camp NaNoWriMo and JuNoWriMo, work with my writing group, and getting through some particularly hard scenes in my fiction and everything concerning my writing came to a screeching halt as this hurricane began in my life.

I usually write to be able to get through the storms anymore and when the hurricane came I found myself completely blocked. I couldn't blog, when I tried to work on my story it all felt wrong, and piece after piece of my life just fell out of place. And you know what, today a piece just fell that I didn't think I could take. And after a difficult conversation with someone yesterday, the storm should have washed me away. But it was that piece that is washing away in the grand scheme of things that brought me here today to write. Because this is the first time since the hurricane began that I've seen a better tomorrow. Perhaps that means I'm in the eye of the storm. If so that means I need to get myself prepared for the other side, because I'm not about to let myself fall apart for a hurricane that I'm going to survive.

That's why I'm writing today, and I hope that my blocked period of writing is over. But as I think about all this it got me to thinking about why people have writers block and what keeps them from putting words down on the page. In my opinion writers block is a real thing, but it has a lot less to do with our actual ability to write words and a lot more to do with the emotional state that we reside in.

For example I remember hearing on a Writing Excuses Episode (Season 1, episode 16) once that Howard Taylor once had a block when he was writing Schlock Mercenary strip. He was trying to make it work, but he found himself needing to know the mathematics to how fast the space station was spinning. He did that and suddenly he was able to write again. As I think about that it wasn't an inability to write, it was the fact that emotionally he couldn't connect with flow any longer and that kept him from writing.

Ebb and flow are terms that we typically use when we talk about water, but creativity works in a very similar way. Sometimes the creativity is in high gear and beauty seems to come effortlessly, this state is known as flow. We can create because we have done the work, both mentally and emotionally to be able to flow. However there is also the state of ebb. Ebb is when we are preparing for our work, doing our prewriting, researching, and even when we are exercising.  These are times when we are preparing for flow once again. If we stayed in a constant state of flow our work would actually over time get worse because we wouldn't have anything left after a while to give. Our energy would be exhausted, our knowledge would fail, and we wouldn't have any experiences left to draw upon. Howard's experience was one of knowledge, and because he is a professional he realized what was going on, allowed himself the time to be in ebb and once he had the knowledge that he needed he shifted back into flow.

Buy this book.
Steven King describes a similar experience in his book "On Writing." He talks about "The Stand" and how when he was writing it he had a point where he didn't know what was going to happen next. It was the first time he had ever experienced writers block and he had no idea how to deal with it. After a month or so the answer came to him as to what he needed to do and it drove him through the rest of the novel. It was something that he needed to learn about the process of writing that enabled him to make that book so much better. It was simply that everything had grown quiet in his story and he needed to change up things. He changed them with a bomb. Changing the direction of the story was exactly what he needed to do to produce flow.

An effective means of using ebb.

But when you start to think of writers block as ebb it changes things for you. The first thing it changes is that you cannot think of writers block as a negative any longer. You must think of it as what it really is. It is your soul crying at you that you need something else at the moment. Usually it is one of two things. One: You don't want to be writing right now.  And if you don't want to write right now, that's okay. Go do something else. Exercise, read, or do some research. Do something that helps you get in the mood to write. Or it could be number two: You need to pay attention to what you need right now to be able to write. Sometimes you need to do some research. &Sometimes you need to put your life in order. Sometimes you just need time away from your story. When you are experienced you know exactly what you need, but I am still building my library of experiences in writing and that means sometimes I don't know what I need. But it does mean I need to be patient with myself and allow myself the time to be away.

Some professionals tell you that you need to write through block. And I agree with that.  Just because I haven't been able to make much progress this past month, I've still been writing. Just nothing that I feel I can share with anyone, because I have zero confidence in it. You must be willing to shut the door on your writing sometimes to be able to find out what you need to find your flow again.

For me I have had the hurricane interrupt my life with pain, fear, and worry. It got me to think to ask people about the things I didn't know. It got me to consider whether or not I'm a professional or not. It got me to look in the mirror and make a choice.  I choose to write.  Not because I can't do anything else. I could become a social worker, or a teacher, or even a politician, but none of those even come close to the joy I get out of writing.

So in your journey to becoming a professional, remember that you are going to have ebb and flow. Anticipate it. And find your rhythm, because Writers Block ends the day you understand your writing rhythms. And you can experience regular flow.

Sorry I left for so long. It won't happen again.  I'll be back with you on next Monday with another post. I'm giving myself time to get in rhythm again.  Because I'm going to be patient with myself and give you my best. Thanks for sticking around during my drought. Catch ya'll soon.


This is the OG signing out.  Peace.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

War Post: 2nd June Late Mashup & Goals


Good Morning folks!  So this Saturday Morning I am finally getting to my Mashup for the week.  As I was getting ready for it earlier this week I had a lot of things that took place that kept me from getting to it any earlier.  Today is the second day of Camp NaNoWriMo & JuNoWriMo and thus far I'm keeping up with my goals for each day.  Todays Mashup is focused on things that might help folks to get through the next month of writing.  The community of writers is our greatest strength and we must help one another if we expect to make it.  Here's my contribution today.

David Powers King has a guest blogger by the name of Shallee McArthur this week and she's wonderful. Read on at: "Shallee McArthur: The Key to Writing a Deeper Book - Get Outside Yourself!"

Rebecca Hoffman also has a guest blogger who shares about her own writing experiences in: "Guest Post by Cynthia Ravinski."

Ellen Oh, an up and coming YA diversity author, interviews another author about why they write diverse fiction in: "What Diversity Means to Me - Featuring Zoe Marriott."

Angela Ackerman has a guest blogger  giving away a copy of their book Keep Calm and Query On.  Read on and register for a chance to win at: "Keep Calm And Query On + Giveaway!"

Anthony Dutson gives some solid advice about how to set up realistic goals in: "Reevaluating Your Goals."

Adam Gaylord talks about something that is worth thinking about, if you write sex scenes, in: "Who's Up For Some Bad Sex?"

Mary Ann, of the Prosers, shares a compelling blog on why flaws are necessary in characters in: "Even the Noblest Characters Need Flaws."

Jeff Hargett weighs in on the ages long battle of opinion between authors about: "Prologues."

Callie Leuck brings in the big guns with Jamie Gibbs to bring a bit more culture to her blog in: "Guest Post: Adding Culture To Your Fantasy World."

Morgan Shamy, The Redhead, helps us to see the difference between reality and fantasy in: "The Writer Community: Real or Fake?."

Donna K. Weaver has a lightbulb moment concerning how to do Show versus Tell in: "My Epiphany."

K.M. Weiland shares some great time saving resources in: "Resource Roundup: 5 Time Savers for Writers."

Nathan Bradford tells us all about the the war between Traditional and Self Publishing in: "Traditional vs. Self-publishing is a False Dichotomy."

And I'm sorry, I had to post this.  This is from Heidy Murphy sharing stories from soldiers for Memorial Day (And in my opinion, the most important blog of all of these to read).  Please read: "I Remember You."

And now for some amazing music.  If you have heard "Sexy and you Know It" and hated it, give this version a try.  It is amazing!



I told you it was amazing!


The thought that occurred to me is that I should make myself accountable for reaching my goals.  But I also realized that I need to do my goal keeping here in a method by which simplify what I need to do for goals.  In my group therapy we have the meat and potatoes of the program which are called daily's.   And I wanted a way to make certain I keep better track of my dailies.  I do well with writing, and sometimes exercise, but I struggle on day to day goal keeping.  So here are my daily's for the upcoming week.

Daily #1: Eat Three Times Daily.  
This looks like an easy goal, but I actually struggle with this, because when I get caught up in activities, I tend to forget to eat.  And myriads of problems actually begin when I forget to eat, so I'm just focusing on eating at a regular frequency through the day.

Daily #2: Sleep Eight Hours each night.
I am trying to keep this goal more and more often (except this week has just been terrible for this).  I know that when I get less than eight, everything is impacted negatively for the next day.  I feel sluggish,  achy, and dull and I am less likely to get proper rest the following night.

Daily #3: Write Frequently.
This one I'm not aiming for daily on.  I need time to recharge my writing batteries so I plan on doing this one off and on (Even during Camp NaNoWriMo and JuNoWriMo).  I am a social writer so stuff like write ins and writing sprints help me a great deal.  Writing is one of the activities that grounds me and helps me to cope especially when I'm feeling angry or down.

Daily #4: Spiritual Time Daily.
Once upon a time I was capable of reading from the scriptures daily and drinking from that fountain was enough to satisfy me.  I've grown a little since then and I guess I need more sources of spiritual food to help sustain me.  I decided to not make this goal about reading, and more about spending time daily thinking about things of a spiritual nature.  A few days this week I listened to gospel music, and today I plan on reading.  I don't know all of what I'll include in this, but I got to change this one up.

Daily #5: Helping out around the House.
This is another mundane thing that keeps me sane.  I've started doing the dishes regularly and cleaning up around the house.  Funny thing is that as I do this my wife has become more supportive of my writing, and has started to enjoy more of the housework she does.  It makes all the difference to my healthy state of mind, and it's effects on my wife make this one that I need to keep around to help me.

Daily #6: Frequent Exercise.
I've been getting out around three to five times a week for a while now.  I thought the best way to kick this up a notch would be to attempt to find a set time each weekday for exercise.  And I hope to drag my son with me.  He needs the help just as much as I do.

Daily #7: Reading Daily.
This one has been struggling for months.  I just haven't been reading much of late.  I have several books that I've started, but none that I've finished for a while now.  So I'm going to set a half hour for reading each day.  I figure if nothing else it will put me in a state of mind where I have more ideas.

The list right now is incomplete.  I'm still trying to find out what things balance me and enable me to get through the more difficult times.  But I'm certain that if I keep at it I'll find my way.  This month, I'm focused a lot on the writing.  Because I am out to win Camp NaNoWriMo and JuNoWriMo.  I three to four hours set aside most days to get some quality writing done and my family knows during that time I'll be unavailable.  (And I won't waste it just to sit online and do nothing.)

That's all for this week folks.  I'll catch you again on Monday with another blog about writing.  Thanks for reading our ramblngs here.  It's really appreciated.  This is the First OG, Jayrod Garrett, saying that  hope you have a a beautiful week and go out and enjoy the sunshine.  And if you have any ideas for new hobbies I can take up, or things I can do to help me establish my new daily order.  Feel free to leave them in the comments.  Have a great day!  Peace!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

War Post: May 9th Mashup & ROW80 Goals

This was made by a fan before the movie came out.
So it would appear that the Avengers was a hit.  I was in my seat on Friday Morning at 12:01 cheering with everyone else in my theatre when it began.  If you haven't seen the movie yet, you have to see it!  It is probably the best piece of cinematic storytelling that I have ever seen.  Sure there are things they got wrong, but in a movie this size, those are easy to ignore.

Now that I've plugged Avengers, we'll move on to the Mashup.  Most of them are writer related today, just to let you know.

David Powers King shows us how to set up a villian in: "Tuesday Tropes: Kick the Dog."

Heather Adkins, a formatting Guru shares tips on how to format ebooks in: "Ask a Formating Expert: Answers."

J.A. Bennett shares a few great high school dating stories in "Pancakes, Blue Suits, and U-hauls."

Lisa J. Jackson talks about how she deals with super typing in writers flow in: "Grammar-ease – When the words outpace the fingers."

Donna K. Weaver shares something she learned on how to make better characters in: "Storymaker Conference Report - POV."

Shah Wharton has a great contest going for Storytellers you can read more about here in: "The Storyteller Writing Challenge."

Nathan Bransford had a really great article that helped lift me up called: "How to Keep Writing When the S*** Hits the Fan ."

Jay Noel shares some awesome music for writing to as well as why a person might use music when writing in: "Music to Write To."

Karen Sandler points out how the unimportant has no place in fiction in: "Give Every Scene a Purpose."

S.E. Sinkhorn teaches us all how we can use Pinterest to help us with our writing in: "Pinterest Tips for Writing."

Ingrid Schaffenburg as always shares some great relationship advice that everyone should remember in: "Lookin' for Love."

Kristen Lamb shares more her ideas about how Writers can survive in the new world in: "The Age of the Artist–Time for a Revolution."

Piper Bayard spreads sunshine and happiness in her post titled: "Making TSA Underwear Bomber Gropes Exciting."

Lisa Taylor brings it home for us today with sharing about Science and Writing in: "ScienceBucks and Scientific Writing!"

Now listen to Classical Spy Music.  Enjoy!


This is a local music group that I absolutely love.  Check them out!



Sometimes I get down on myself about my goals and the fact that I'm not making the progress that I think I should.  But it occurs to me that I shouldn't get down on myself too much seeing as in the past seven months I have written more than I have in the seven years before.  Writing is becoming a lifestyle for me and I am thrilled so much that you wouldn't be able to believe it.  But without challenging yourself, growth ends.  So I keep pushing hard to have growth, and I just get frustrated at how many little things get in my way on that journey.  So if I ever sound critical or negative of myself, just realize that I know I'm growing, I'm just trying to spur greater growth.  Now for the goals!

1. Finishing Chapter Two and starting Chapter Three of "Crimes of the Umbramancer by next week.
     Yeah, I'm half way through Chapter Two.  Which is wonderful.  I've struggled because I didn't know what was wrong with certain scenes, but I'm figuring that out and I think it will be as strong as my chapter one once I finish.   

2. Write seven thousand words per week. (Between blog & fiction.)
     I think I finished about four thousand this past week.  Much of my time was put into building a stronger relationship with our foster son, who was at our home all weekend long rather than with his parents.  It was a blessing to spend time with him and frankly it was more important than getting through the writing.

3. Exercise five times a week.
     I made it out about three out of four days this past week.  And I'm grateful for the progress I'm making there.  Getting out and moving my body feels really good and it has given me a great deal of time to work out prewriting ideas so that my story will move along much more smoothly.  And it is really quite peaceful (once your legs are prepared for the pain).

4. Finishing up my school work from my last semester in College.
     I'm not complaining this week.  I'm still struggling with this goal, but you'll know when its done.  I'll probably post my essay on Pride and Prejudice here when I'm done.

5. Spending time everyday with a spiritual source.
     Morning and Evening is still a great resource and I'm working hard at making more time for prayer too.

6. Finishing homework from Group Therapy.
     Last week I finished my Homework for Group Therapy, and this week I'm running behind because my wife has been sick and our foster has been home a lot.  But I'm hoping to get through the rest of this today.  Therapy is tonight and when you don't have the work done, it is harder to share in group.

I'm feeling really good about this past week.  Don't ask me why.  I didn't meet my goals as well as I would have liked, but I feel like I'm in a better place in the journey than I was a week ago.  And perhaps that is the most important thing.  Thanks for reading and here's the link if you would like check out my friends in ROW80.  I'm Jayrod Garrett, the First OG.  Peace People!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Culture Blogs: The Weapons Cache (Swords)

Those of you who follow my blog already know, I'm a fan of "The Legend of Zelda" series of games.  As I've grown up becoming a knight has always been one of my dreams.  Running around with a sword and a shield defending right and defeating evil.  I learned from Link that being a knight was a state of mind rather than a title, because throughout the series of games, he is never once a knight of his Kingdom.  The culture that it established between knighthood and being a good person is the reason I still play the games today.

Weapons play an interesting role in how a culture works.   For example the Samurai and their law of Bushido is often represented in the katana.  Knighthood or the idea of good verses evil is represented by the English broadsword or longsword.   An ax usually represents a lumberjack or an explorer of some kind.  Each of these different weapons has a very specific way they define the culture they belong to.  From time to time I plan on coming back to this series on weapons to present new ideas and concepts to you.  However for our purposes today I thought it best if we began with a weapon everyone is familiar with: The Sword. 

Most folks are familiar with Star Wars and the Jedi-Sith's iconic lightsaber.  These marvelous weapons create an entire culture on their own.  While it is possible to see in the Star Wars movies folks who aren't Jedi or Sith wielding them, you won't see (or rather read about) anything other than a Jedi or a Sith make one.  This is because the process of building the lightsaber is intrinsic to the training process of both Jedi and Sith.  Each one makes their own lightsaber.  Like in the example to our right you see both Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi with their lightsabers.  Each one was handmade by the Jedi themselves.  Not only handmade, but they found all of the resources to build the lightsaber themselves.  So when you are looking at a lightsaber, you aren't just seeing a man with a blade of light, but instead it is a man with blade of their own light.  This culture is developed further in the movies, because all Sith have red lightsabers and each Jedi has their own iconic color.  Anakin or Darth Vader and his son Luke are the only characters who change throughout the series and this has much to do with their identities changing.  Anakin the legendary Jedi uses a blue lightsaber, and later becomes Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, with a red lightsaber.  As opposed to Luke who begins with his father's blue lightsaber, and eventually builds a green lightsaber like Master Yoda's.  This represents his progression from student to master (by default of being the only Jedi).  This is a great example of how a weapon defines not only the culture, but the people inside of it.

Perhaps one of the most renowned swordsmen of all time is a Japanese Kensei by the name of Miyamoto Musashi.  From the age of sixteen he fought in various duels.  He never lost a duel in his life.  It is reported that he fought in about sixty duels during his life, but this estimate is low because he also fought in a several wars also.  What defines him best is his style of fighting, because he is the father of the two sword method of fighting with katana and wakasashi.  This is described in his most famous book known as The Book of Five Rings.  Most folks don't know when they are watching various movies with two sword fighting in it they are learning about the way this man fought.

The iconic battle of which he is most famous is between him and Sasaki Kojirō, better known as The Demon of the Western Provinences.  Sasaki was famous for his ability to wield a nodachi.  Musashi arrived not only to the duel three hours late, but he didn't even bring a metal sword, instead he had a bokken (that legend says he carved from the oar of his boat).  The duel was a short one and Musashi killed his opponent with the bokken.  There are tons of theories behind why he won so quickly or easily, but the fact of the matter is that he knew enough about swordsmanship to recognize that the material of sword didn't matter, but rather the material of the swordsman.

A common trope of the sword is the Legendary Sword.  Arthur and Excaliber, Link and the Master Sword, and even the mighty Sword of Gryffindor are all examples of this.  Each one of these is an example of a sword creating a culture though.  Excaliber was how England would know its true King had arrived.  The Hero of most Zelda games is established by the possession of the Master Sword.  And the Sword of Gryffindor not only was prized by the House of Gryffindor in Harry Potter, but also by the Goblin community.  Each of these swords are precious not only because of the special powers they have, but the fact that they are unlike any real sword.  A real sword gets chipped and it warped by use in battle.  But have you ever heard of any of these blades being destroyed by use in battle?  They are nigh indestructible.  And that can be a very important part of the culture the sword can create.  If there is one sword more precious than others it has to have some special quality that affects the culture. Remember Anduril?  In the Lord of the Rings books that sword would only be wielded by the man who was the true King of Gondor.  And when Aragorn received it we knew that there would be changes culturally that would take place because of it.

Regardless of how you choose to use swords or other weapons in your stories, always make certain you do your research on the type of sword you are using and the culture it represents.  And if it doesn't have a culture that it is attached to, make certain to give it some sort of culture.  A weapon without culture isn't a weapon, but a prop that reveals the hand of the author in fiction.

And as I reveal my hand in gratitude near the end of each blog for your continued readership and deepening our conversation, I wish to remind you of our books of the month.  Tankborn by Karen Sandler and Dhalgren by Samuel Delany.  Both of these are excellent books and I'm giving them away this month to a lucky follower of the blog.  Cause I know that not everyone can follow my blog there are two ways to get entries.  One is to actually follow the blog this will get your name put into my hat three times, and the other is to leave a comment on the blog.  For each comment I receive on my blog during the month of February I'll put your name into the hat once.  I actually really enjoy doing this because it gets me reading different books, supporting authors I love, and it allows me an opportunity to give back to the audience I am building.

Next time our discussion will be on the Hypocrisy of Religion.  (I'll be doing more weapons blogs over time, be patient.)  This is Jayrod Garrett, the First OG, with one question for you.  What swords have inspired you over the years?


By the Power of Grayskull!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

War Post: Feb 29, 2012 and the Weekly Mashup

Well folks, in the Writing War it is Mashup Wednesday and I have had the blessing of being by a ton of great blogs this week.  Hopefully in your journeys to become better authors some of these will be helpful to you.  And if during your week you see anything awesome feel free to send it to me so I can include it here!  Thanks so much!

Miss Bennett asks the question of the century in: "Should your author blog be about writing?"

Paul Goat Allen writes about exploring diversity in: "Neo-Retro: Saladin Ahmed's Stellar Debut Novel is New 'Old School' Sword and Sorcery."

Angela fulfills our deepest needs as human beings in: "Lessons in Storytelling– I need you."

Jason shares with us a bittersweet evocative of why we make art in: "A Foreign Concept."

Debbie while boiling rice gives great writing advice in: "Six free tools to help you write your best novel ever."

Krys Lee reminds us of how insensitive we can be to each other in: "Should we still be using the term 'Ethnic Literature.'"

L.A Christensen shares about the mysteries of the writing universe in: "Alpha Reading."

io9 introduces us to perhaps the most important video game for Science Fiction ever in: "Why Mass Effect is the most important science fiction universe of our generation."

Marji Laine explains the pros and cons of blogging platforms in: "Blogger vs. Wordpress."

This will be posted on my blog permanently, Samuel Delany on: "Racism and Science Fiction."

I really loved reading Samuel's essay particularly because I haven't read him before.  I find myself feeling behind in reading ethnic literature because of where I have lived, but I'm trying to make up for that now.  Hopefully my efforts will be seen as enough.  As for my writing goals for this war post, here we are.

1. Finishing Draft Two of "Crimes of the Umbramancer" by the 30th of April.
     Okay I'll be honest, I haven't gotten much actual writing done on Crimes.  At a third of the way through I've done a lot of work on my outline.  It is still skeletal to anyone who would look at it, and it seems like the various things I have going on in it are spaced way out.   But I now know the entire outline of the story and I'm really thrilled to be working on it.  I suspect that as I continue through the story that there will be more done to the outline so by the end I'll not only know how I write a novel, but specifically how I outline a novel too.
2. Comment on ten blogs in ROW80:
     I've barely started for this week.  I've seen so many blogs lately and blogged so much lately that I haven't had a lot of time to work on my writing.  I'm really struggling here and trying to figure out what I should do here.  If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to offer them in the comments.
3. Walking at least a mile five times a week.
     Still failing, still keeping.  This one will change eventually trust me.
4. Building a new blog for my diversity issue.
   I think this is going well.  I would love more followers still and comments, but I'm starting to think Marji has a point about Wordpress.  I've heard from so many folks who I've talked with all this about that they have a difficult time posting on my blog.  And that by itself bothers me.  I'm wondering if I can keep an identical blog on Wordpress and then both communities would be able to hear from me.  I don't know right now, just bouncing ideas around.
5. Going back to my writing ritual.
   Still not been reading from the scriptures before my writing too often, but if I can get into a schedule in this next week perhaps that will change.  We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow the month is over and so will my first giveaway for N.K. Jemisin's book, "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms."  And for every person who leaves a comment I'm putting your name into a hat for an opportunity to win a book by N.K. Jemisin called "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms."  Mind you it is the first in a Trilogy and each book in the Trilogy has been nominated for a Nebula Award!  I'm super excited to give three copies of this book away and been thrilled with all the folks who've commented thus far!  If you have more to say, please comment again and get your name in the hat more than once!  On Friday's post I plan on sharing who the lucky winners are!  Whoo hoo!


As always, my name is Jayrod Garrett and I am the First OG.  Okay honestly, what do you think is better:

Wordpress or Blogger?
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