The Art of Old Stuff
For the past couple weeks, Mondays have become “clean the entire house” days. My big project for today was to go through a big stack of papers and toss out the old junk. There was a lot of junk.
I found several copies of some work that I’d done in high school all marked up in pretty colors. I’d forgotten that I’d written these short (SHORT) pieces and about the group of writers who took the time to look them over. Just looking at the names of those writers brought back a lot of great memories from that group, and a lot of not so great ones of the divorce I was going through at the time.
I think after I get my to-do list caught up on (if I ever) I may go back through those old things and actually read them. Maybe I’ll even tweak them and make them better. Who knows, I might even post one of them.
I’ve always liked going through old stories. It’s like going through an old photo album. You get to re-live the moments. Some of them aren’t always great, like remembering how you tortured yourself over coming up with the perfect word for any given sentence. Or how late you stayed up trying to remember what you’d written on a draft that your word processor decided to dump.
Some of the memories, though, are wonderful. You don’t forget the thrill of having found that perfect word, getting lost in the draft, and being able to see nothing but the scene before your eyes and not realizing that you’ve written for hours and the rest of the house has long since gone to bed. Its moments like that which make writing more addictive than any drug. It make you a crazy person.
I wouldn’t wish this addiction on anyone who hasn’t already had a taste. To those that have, revel in it. There’s nothing else on earth like it, and don’t get discouraged when people look at you strange when you start talking to yourself. Usually, that means you’re doing something right.
So, perhaps later, I will relive the moments nearly 10 years old now. I wonder how horrible I used to write. LOL It will really be fun to see what kind of progress I’ve made. (Because writing is both a craft and an art, and still requires practice at any stage.)
The Non-Resolution Resolutions
The new year has been here for a while now and so has my new daughter. She was born on Christmas Eve. Despite several attempts to get me to name her Holly, Noël, Eve and many other clichéd festive names, we stuck with the first name we liked: Fallon Evangeline.
As far as writing goes, I’ve had a lot of time during my “maternity leave” to think about the things I’d like to do and the projects I had going on at the time. Some of them no longer seem as important as they did two months ago, and one in particular hasn’t left me alone. Every time I think about writing, I get the images in my head of a couple scenes I’d thought of.
For the first time in my life, I’m going to have to really become a self-motivator and learn to balance my work life and my home life, while I’m at home. I’d forgotten how much attention babies require, and while I love every minute with my daughter, some moments are very frustrating. There are times when I would love to sit at my computer picking out colors for a new jewelry design or jotting down thoughts about character, setting, etc. and I just can’t. These times are also made even more frustrating when you add in a five -year old who wants to know everything about everything and chooses that moment to ask all the wrong questions.
Priorities are so important now, and I need to stick to them or I will get lost in yet another year flushed down the drain. I fail at a lot of things I attempt, but I value those failures. They teach me my limits and my short comings. My biggest short coming is sticking with something. I give up easy, or rather, I like instant gratification.
Storytelling is not instantly gratifying.
Another thing that might need work is consistency. I’m pretty spontaneous. I do what I want when I want to and drop everything and go somewhere when the mood strikes me. Usually, this makes for fun times. Most of the time, it makes for unfinished projects.
In an attempt to get one of these “flaws” under control, I will be attempting to update my blog more regularly. I am not going to say that I will do X amount of posts every X amount of days. What I will say, however, is that I will do at least one post per week and try one book review a month. (I say try because I do have a five-year old and a newborn. Time to read isn’t always an option.)
You might ask yourself why you should care what books I review or why you would read the books. Well, you don’t have to. No one is going to make you. If you do choose to read what I’ve read and reviewed, you should do it because you enjoy reading new books; or seeing if others have had the same thoughts that you did about books you have read. A bonus to reading my reviews is that I tend to read books that I like (duh) and I write books that I like. (So if one plus one equals two…) Theoretically, if you enjoy the same books I do, you’d enjoy the books I write (short stories are a whole different issue).
Now that all that is off my chest, I really should use little girl’s nap time to push out a page or two for the launch of Enchanted Storytellers in three weeks. Yipes!
February’s theme/prompt is “Fairytales and Legends.” I have no idea what I’m going to write for it! LOL I came up with a few ideas, but March’s theme is “Destined for Death” and I’m having a field day with that one. There are more ideas than I need.
I’m really excited to see what the other girls come up with. I’m really excited to see what I come up with! LOL
-Jaeden
Gone With the Pen 