Wiley Wednesday: The Minutiae of the Mundane

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Every Wednesday, one of the writers of the Writer’s Retreat shares their thoughts on writing and the creative life. Topics range from how-to’s to inspirational thoughts about keeping the fingers moving on the page. This week, I wanted to share some more general thoughts about life and decisions about how to use one’s time on this plane. I hope you enjoy!

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor E. Frankl

I’ve been re-reading Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance, and a phrase jumped off the page at me: ‘the minutiae of the mundane.’ As in, “…a detective who searches through the minutiae of the mundane in hopes of finding clues for what was missing in her life.” (1995 edition, from Jan. 7 entry in daybook) It’s been my experience that the details are where “it” is at – that sense of peace, or of majesty, or of connection with the Universe, the Holy Spirit – whatever your name for it is. Call it the Tao, or ‘in the moment,’ but it’s in the mundane that we find it.

Have you ever driven somewhere that you drive normally, and sort of ‘wake up’ at the other end not quite remembering how you got there? Or, while taking a shower, have you had the solution to a problem pop into your head? These sorts of mundane activities, the rote activities that make up our daily round, can give us a sense of routine and order if we let them. They can also be a source of drudgery or unpleasant duty, if we choose to let them. The trick is in deciding which we want to do. The laundry must be washed, and I have yet to meet a pair of self-brushing teeth – so these kinds of tasks are part of our rounds whether we like it or not.

Today, I am reminded that “whether we like it or not” is an interesting phrase. I think it’s been used, for some of us anyway, as I way to brow-beat us into doing something for our own good or out of punishment: “You’re going to sweep this floor whether you like it or not!” “You’re going to do this homework whether you like it or not!” What if, instead of rebelling against these very routine tasks that won’t, after all, do themselves – what if we decide to love them a little and do them with a sense of gusto? Is there a way we can enhance our daily round so that instead of drudgery it becomes something of a glorying in our own abundance? After all, we must have clothes in order to have laundry; we must have a home in order to have to vacuum and dust; we must have food in order to have dirty dishes… These are all things that many people around the world do without on a regular, sometimes daily, basis. If we have these things, what if we allow our gratitude to be shown in the simple act of doing the tasks that maintain them with grace and enjoyment?

In the path of doing these things with gusto, what if we kept note of those things which brought us happiness? For example, if we serve hot cocoa with marshmallows for dessert, or if we brought out the fancy china and made a special occasion out of dinner – maybe even use candlelight? We can note what things make us happy and then begin to incorporate them more into our daily round, creating a self-sustaining cycle. For me, it’s a box of tissues that makes me happy. I like having a box of tissues when I want to blow my nose. It feels decadent. This is because, for many years, I didn’t have the money to spend on tissues and I made due with toilet paper. Now, it’s become a habit not to buy boxes of tissue. What if I made that a priority for my weekly groceries? Did you know they now make all sorts of fancy tissue boxes? They don’t even cost much more than the el cheapo grande versions, but they come in colors and patterns and all sorts of things. There are special covers for tissue boxes, too, if I really wanted to go whole hog. Yikes!

My point is, that some of the things that make us happy aren’t decadent and fancy and uber expensive. Sometimes, they’re just the small minutiae that surround us in our daily round, and they’re small touches we can add to our daily round to enhance it.

After all, there’s not a do-over option to life.

Review of “Love, Like Ghosts”

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“Love, Like Ghosts” by Ally Blue is part of her Bay City Paranormal Investigations series, but you don’t have to read any of the other books to enjoy this one. In fact, this features a character that’s not even introduced in the first book.

While “Oleander House” (Book 1 of the Investigations series) is very good, “Love, Like Ghosts” completely pulled me in from page one. Immediately, the reader is dropped in the middle of a real ghost sighting. And the first person our hero meets sees him during this encounter! Can you imagine the awkward acquaintance?

From there, the storyline takes off. I enjoyed the setting, the characters (both major and minor), and the rollercoaster ride as the young protagonist attempts to solve the mystery while overcoming his reclusive tendencies. Developing a fledgling relationship is both a wonder and a challenge for the couple, and I cheered for them all the way.

In fact, every hurdle (supernaturally based or not) is believable and realistically overcome from beginning to end. While the ghost’s story is compelling, I sought Ally Blue’s work for the m/m relationships and have yet to be disappointed. If you want to read about hot and tender man on man love, this is the book for you.

Happy New Year!

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The writers of The Writer’s Retreat Blog would like to wish you and yours a very happy and productive new year. May 2011 bring you great writing bounty, and may our writing goals and dreams come true!

Happy New Year!

Wiley Wednesday: Change, Cheese, and Conflict

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I’ve had the opportunity lately to come face-to-face with the Chinese symbol of opportunity = danger. In their written language, the symbol representing opportunity is the same as that for danger. The reasons are clear, but the emotional reality is something different – more gritty when we’re face-down in it, rather than when we’re observing it from outside.

What’s this got to do with writing?

Everything, and nothing.

Typical Zen answer.

Let’s explore why: some say that “Change is Constant.” A constant, we know from physics and chemistry, is something that doesn’t change, the thing in the equation we can depend on when we tinker with other elements in an experiment. So, change is constant. What does that mean to us mere humans as we attempt to live out our lives in perforce linear fashion, unable to teseract, as cats can? (No, really, cats can teseract – haven’t you ever seen your cat in a room when you swore he was in the room you just left? I rest my case…) What it means for us is that as we live, there are things outside our control that affect us – our jobs, our homes, our loved ones, and a host of other uncontrollable external events and influences.

As we write, we learn to record what we see. Even fiction storytellers use the fodder from their daily round in their stories – else how could they create plausible characters that become, for the reader, real people? Change is constant, and change causes conflict – and conflict is what makes a good Story. Watching the change in our own lives can help us to create plausible change, and thus conflict, for our characters.

There’s a popular management and business book called Who Moved My Cheese? (It’s even got its own website.) Personally, I hate the book, because I find it preachy and sanctimonious in tone. Its message, though, that change is constant and that learning how to navigate it can make us more versatile and agile in our work lives, is useful. Understanding the flows and ebbs of the world we’re in helps us to avoid the snags and pitfalls that inevitably come along or, if unavoidable, to handle them with grace, dignity, and professionalism. (And, truthfully, it’s not a bad idea to be familiar with the concepts in the book since many management folks are and it’ll give you a common language with them.)

This can help our writing as well. Understanding that there are immutable currents in which your characters must swim can give your stories life. For example, if you are a cubicle submariner, then you understand the dehumanization that happens in cubicle farms. This can be applied in all sorts of venues in Story – from the workers in a Babylonian stable, to farm hands in the Old West, to the crew of a spaceship lightyears from civilization. The strange behaviors that crop up in such environments as compensation for their foreignness are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but can always lend veracity to our stories.

And finally, we come to conflict. Is it inevitable? That’s a question for philosophers. In my experience, though, conflict – true, unavoidable rock-meets-hard-spot conflict – can sometimes be avoided, but not always. The trick is in recognizing when one cannot change the situation that caused the conflict, and to know when to back out and when to confront. Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese war scholar, said “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” In chess, the way to win is to play several moves out ahead of your opponent. And sometimes, the way to win, as in the movie Wargames, is not to play.

All that said, conflict is what makes a story. After all, what would Romeo and Juliet be without the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues? Just another tale of two teenagers in love, they kiss, they break up, they Twitter about it, c’est fini. Instead, it takes on a family war of epic proportions and the two lovers are doomed – as are their families, until the deaths of the lovers ends the feud… Same goes for Hamlet. What would Hamlet be if his stepfather were a stand-up man? Conflict is what draws us. Look at all the reality TV shows, the talk shows, talk radio, newspapers, etc. After all, it would be a very boring news story to say “Diane woke up on Wednesday morning, took the train to work, and made her morning audit numbers.” We’d be left wondering why we should care about Diane. But if it becomes, “Diane took the train and saw a strange man watching her, one eye covered by a patch. At lunch, she saw him again from the window of the restaurant where she ate lunch with her colleagues. Did he follow her? Was he related to her lover’s wife? He looked a little like he could be her brother…” And voila, Story is born.

If truth is stranger than fiction, then we benefit by watching for Truth in our daily round and reporting what we see.

Changing names, of course, to protect the innocent.

Getting in Gear

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Earlier today I sat in the dentist’s chair waiting for him to check my teeth. In a desperate attempt to compose a post today, I began flipping through an old notebook for ideas. Alas, none occurred to me before the dentist joined me for the examination.

However, even he recognized a principle that has become like a mantra to me: just start writing and something will come of it.

Or better or more succinctly yet, I tell myself: Write. Right?

Not only does this apply to this post but any sort of creative writing in which I endeavor. Putting fingers to the keyboard or pen to paper are the only ways to get anything down at all. Otherwise, it’s like trying to catch fish without putting a line in the water.

So, whatever your creative goal today, make that initial attempt and get yourself in the groove.

Getting to Know You: Lucius Antony

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After thinking about it for a while, I decided to make my online handle (Lucius Antony) into my official pen name. I’ve recently created a Facebook profile for my pen name, which caused my sister to mention the idea of having a a fake background to my pen name… I hadn’t thought about that before, but the idea intrigued me. I figured that I’d share some of it here, trying to figure out what type of person I want my other persona to be, if I really want him to be different at all.

Lucius Antony was born in the Rocky Mountains. He was trained in the art of fencing at an early age. This was a skill that came into much use while a brash, young man.

As a teenager, Lucius Antony fought in a series of duels, never to the death, that eventually resulted in his most defining feature: his eye patch. An opponent’s blade caused irreparable damage to his right eye that resulted in his signature eye patch.

Lucius Antony is a lover and writer of science fiction and fantasy, with his major influences (and heroes) including Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien and Orson Scott Card.

You can become a fan of and friend him on Facebook.