Dream Your Grandest Dream #IWSG #AmWriting
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support and encouragement to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here
Thank you to our awesome co-hosts this month: Jemima Pett, Beth Camp, Beverly Stowe McClure, and Gwen Gardner!
Check out our IWSG homepage for recent news and events. And as always, thank you to founder Alex J. Cavaugh 🙂
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Do you visualize your success? How often? Daily? Weekly? Every New Year’s when resolutions come around?
Recently I was reminded in the importance of taking time to remember what makes our hearts truly happy. Asking ourselves why we love what we love and do what we do. My son sweetly said just last night, “I love my video game world, mom. I can be anyone I want to be. I’m accepted. I can solve puzzles and figure out strategies.” I thought to myself ok. He’s got something that makes him smile every day and it gets him through the struggles of some of the chaos we encounter in this new ever-changing world. I asked my daughter something similar in regards to her love for dance. She said, “Mom. I have to dance. Dancing is in my soul.”
This month’s IWSG question asks “When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?
I’m definitely not where I want to be as a working writer, and what I mean by that, is someone who brings in enough income to support household and living expenses. No, I’m not even close. But I do visualize where I want to be in my writing life. I do set goals. I work hard at writing, because like my daughter, it’s in my soul, and I’m hoping one day my higher vision of my writer self will aspire to exactly what I see in my head and feel in my heart.
Happy IWSG Day 🙂
Believing In Better Days #IWSG #AMWRITING
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support and encouragement to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here
Thank you to our awesome co-hosts this month: PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise – Fundy Blue! Check out our IWSG homepage for recent news and events. And as always, thank you to founder Alex J. Cavaugh 🙂
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August and September have been sort of tornadoish swirly. Will schools open for kids? If so, when? Will I be able to finally see my family, my mother and brother I haven’t seen in more than 6 months? Will I be able to leave my state of Missouri, knowing the numbers are on the rise? And what about writing? Will I break out of sleeping more, slipping in more time to write?
I was a lucky one this past month. I did make it out of state. I did see my family. School will start after a two week push back the day after Labor Day, and I’m sending mine to to in-person school. Will it last? Who knows at this point. But I’m looking up through the rainbow umbrella. I’m forcing my gaze through the rain, the clouds and I’m searching for the sunshine I know is up there, somewhere.
With the upturn of events in my world, I’ve also managed to set my alarm a little earlier. First it was 15 minutes. Then it was 20, then it was 30, but thirty is something. I’ve also reached out to my editor and asked to double our time each month together. I need the accountability right now.
I know I’m not really answering this month’s IWSG Question, which is really great one by the way, but I’m giving this month’s post all I’ve got.
Happy IWSG Day, friends. Cheers to a bit of sunshine through the rainy skies. At some point, they’ll clear. I believe it. I hope you do too.
Why Theme Matters #AuthorToolboxBlogHop #Amwriting
The Author Toolbox Blog Hop is “a monthly blog hop on the theme of resources/learning for authors: posts related to the craft of writing, editing, querying, marketing, publishing, blogging tips for authors, reviews of author-related products, anything that an author would find helpful.” Want to jump into the writing tool box? Search #AuthorToolboxBlogHop or to join via blog, click here.
When writing, speaking, or listening to a podcast of something you love, isn’t there usually a bottom line? Isn’t there a point you want to make or hear? This is theme. Theme is the backbone of storytelling. I never realized the importance of interlacing key theme in thoughts and dialogue until I met my editor, and boy, did she really show me how to make it shine.
So how do you make theme shine as you write? The first thought I’d like to point out comes from the website “well-storied” by Kristen Kieffer. She states: “However, a story’s most important thematic statement is often that which lives at the heart of its characters’ experiences.”
So how do you get to the heart? Kieffer mentions the difference in theme and a thematic statement. Examples of literacy themes might be: coming of age, prejudice, discrimination, courage and heroism. From what I understand, thematic statements are more about the character your showing to the world.
Questions Kieffer asks when writing a specific statement are:
- “Who are your characters when the story begins?”
- “What conflicts will they experience?”
- “Who do they become when the story ends?”
An example of a theme in lord of the rings might be war and power, immortality at any price, even forgiveness. Taking it deeper, I can’t help but think of how many times Gollum could have been killed and yet he wasn’t. How the Elven princess gave her own immortality away so freely for love. How grander power means more hunger for more power and causes the loss of heart, of soul. So maybe a thematic statement might explore the price of immortality on the loss of the soul and the only way to remain rooted in soul is to give the power back. In any case, check out the article for all sorts of great examples. Happy Hop Day 🙂
Dream then Write #IWSG #amwriting #lostinthought
[I wrote this post as a member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our worries and also offer support and encouragement to each other on the first Wednesday of every month. If you’re a writer like me and you’re looking for a bit of support, you can click the link and sign up here
Thank you to our awesome co-hosts this month: Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!
Check out our IWSG homepage for recent news and events. And as always, thank you to founder Alex J. Cavaugh 🙂
***
Writing is a dream.
Have you ever seen a photograph or read an article or listened to song and instantly, pictured a world in your mind?
That’s how I write. First, I dream. I create a world and a problem. I drop a character into this new world who doesn’t seem to fit. The voice often comes to me first as I free write. Before I know it, I see the face, the family, the dilemma, and I keep flushing the rest of the world out.
This month’s question asks: “Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don’t write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be.” Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn’t planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?
To answer the question, I’ve written stories both ways. The one I’m currently working on is an answer to a challenge and a genre I’d never choose on my own. It seems to work though, because I’m in love with so many of the characters who’ve resulted from my free write times.
What about you? Where do you start when you write something new? Have you ever birthed a book out of a challenge?
One last thought:
“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”
— Anne Frank
