So, I went to Google today to find a funny picture to use for today’s post. So, I says, Google, give me funny character pictures. And Google says,
Well, I’m not actually sure what this says. Isn’t he creepy? 🙂
I totally lost my original train of thought. It was going to be something magnificent, too.
By now, our regular readers have heard us talk about The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. If this is your first time, Dear Reader, hello, and welcome. I’m A. Catherine Noon, one of your hosts here at the Writer’s Retreat, and I thought I’d kick off the A-Z Blog Challenge by talking about one of my favorite tools.
I first encountered The Artist’s Way in 1995 while living on a sabbatical in Mount Shasta, California. I had left my urban, corporate life behind in search of becoming a writer. A client for whom I was doing some office work had the book and recommended I borrow it.
I still have that original copy, well-loved and falling apart, filled with notes of two decades’ worth of experience.
While there are many amazing things about The Artist’s Way, the part that most deeply changed my life, or at least the part I’m most aware of today, is that I’ve been journaling almost daily since I started. I’d been a diarist before then, off and on, but never took it seriously. Quite by accident, I’ve become a serious diarist who is never without a journal in which to think, relax, play, work, rest, rage, and write.
Above all, write.
I have learned that one does not become a writer, one is born one. Sometimes, whether by childhood trauma, societal prohibition, or simple lack of awareness, one has to remember oneself and recover one’s creativity. But we are, all of us, creative.
Noony, here! I’m tickled pink to introduce my buddy from the Nice Girls Writing Naughty group, Leela Lou Dahlin. She’s our special guest for this week’s Writer Wednesday. Please make her feel welcome!
Take it away, Leela!
Being a writer… it’s something that I’ve always done but it wasn’t until recently that I became serious about being a published author.
Someone recently I was on a site that asked how people came up with their stories and I thought it was fascinatingly funny reading about how all of these different people come up with stories. I’ve almost never heard of any one person doing it the exact same way and on that site it was no exception. One thing it showed me is there is no right or wrong way… you make it work out the way it’s best for you. Some people start with the characters, some with the troupe or storyline (unrequited love, brother’s best friend, friends to lovers, etc…), some start at the beginning and others at the end.
My story always starts with a scene. Sometimes it’s a love scene or maybe it’s an argument but it’s a passionate moment that tells me a lot about the people who are within it. I may think about this scene for a few minutes, a few days or a few weeks until more and more of the character’s personality traits are revealed (Unfortunately this usually takes place when I’m writing someone else’s story – sometimes the characters wait quietly and other times they demand to at least be written down).
After I get through the scene where I’m introduced to these people, then I have to figure out how and why they got to this point. Usually one of the characters will let something out in the conversation that will clue me in to their history. This sounds very complicated, I know, but it really isn’t. I plot out the how, when and why before figuring out what is going to break them up and what will bring them back together.
My first published book was released April 15, 2014 so I’m coming up on my Author-versary (side note – I’m the queen of making up words) for my book titled A Haught Date. It was released as an e-book almost a year ago and earlier this year they released it to the world in print form. Bwah-hahahahaha *attempting evil laugh*
So there you have it…that’s how I do it.
Feel free to come say hello on any or all my social media hang outs.
Whatever the season in your area, what are your plans? I hope you enjoy some creativity, indoors or out.
–
It’s the second day of the Keepsake Tour to celebrate the release of Emerald Keep and already, I’m pooped! Of course, that may have more to do with the fact that it’s Daylight Savings Time and we’ve lost an hour of our day.
Benjamin Franklin, inventor, politician, and writer, suggested that people could get more done if they got up an hour earlier.
He should have kept this idea to himself!
We were having a discussion today on Romance Divas about fear and success, and it got me thinking. One thing I’ve learned about fear is that conquering it doesn’t mean I don’t feel it. I used to think that being brave meant that I wouldn’t feel fear, I’d somehow achieve this Zen state of serenity where I could do those things that frightened me without feeling any fear or anything scary. Since that never happened, and I felt fear anyway, I never achieved that Zen state.
But what did happen was far more magical: after some experiments in feeling the fear but moving forward despite it, when I did the thing that frightened me, I felt a great surge of serenity. Isn’t that ironic? I had to go through the fear to get the serenity – nothing else worked. I couldn’t avoid it, or not do the thing that made me afraid, or any of a dozen other avoidance tactics. It was only by going through that I got through.
Argh…