She inhaled sharply, assessing the damage. She knew she didn’t have many other options. She had to be quick, people, neighbours would be coming past soon, asking their questions. She gripped the wire coat hanger in her hand and looked around to see if anyone was watching. All clear. She took a deep breath, set her eyes, put one hand slowly on to the gate, and quickly got to work.
She bent the last part of the wire with the pliers, twisting it around itself. It was secure. She had not thought that a fix was possible, or even in her control, but here she was. She had fixed the fence herself. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t perfect, but it was practical, and affordable, and she did it with her own hands. She smiled to herself as she put her tools away. “If I can do this, imagine what else I can do!”
Dear friend I think you would like my creative newsletter, do you want to check it out? love, Me
Dear friend sometimes it feels like I’m invisible because you only initiate contact maybe four times a year. I had hoped I was more special than that? love, Me.
Dear friend I’m too afraid to ask you if you want to chat or call or hang out for coffee because I will get my hopes up or you just won’t answer the question. love, Me.
Dear friend I really need someone to talk to regularly, will you be that person? Love, Me.
Dear friend Will you please bake me a cake and we can sit together and eat it all and watch a movie? love, Me
Dear Whale I really want to see you in person. Could you please time a spectacular jump for when I am gazing out at the ocean? Thank you.
Dear Stranger I need help working through this new area, will you please take me under your wing? Thank you!
Dear Rain I need you but you are making me angry at the moment and your mess is encroaching on my space. I need some alone time then we can go back to rainbows and jumping in puddles together again. Love, Me
Dear Family I love you, I’m flawed. You know this. So please stop pointing out my imperfections, while being surprised that I’m not wonder woman in the space of two minutes. I’m not your saviour. Use Jesus for that. Love, me
Dear Me I love you. I don’t tell you enough. Thanks for being you, I really enjoy it, and I enjoy hanging out with you. We have lots of fun and I’m thankful. Love, Me.
Story: When you make a connection with a girl at a party, but wake up to find that she didn’t write her number on your arm as you’d hoped. All you have left of her memory is a meaningless diagram drawn on your skin in permanent marker. Did she ghost you or does the drawing mean something more?
I’ve been thinking about that window for as long as I can remember. There is a blue wall against my back, an eggshell green wall to my right, and to my left is a mustardy wall with a door. But right across from me is a golden yellow wall, with a window.
At first all I did was glance at it now and again, playing with the small thought about how nice it would be to look out, or to even climb out, but those wonderings never remained. As the years go on, however, the more I find myself looking at it, admiring the colour and the peeling paint. I watch the panes, and the light reflecting through them. Every now and again I even catch myself staring.
I could move my position of course and look at the door, and some days I do. I know what is behind the door, but it breaks up the continuation of walls.
I begin to suspect that this window fascination is going to be a problem, when I begin reading books about windows, and all the beautiful things beyond. I read stories about people gathering up the courage to look out, and eat up everything they learned. I’m in awe of the people, and characters that open the windows and even climb out! Can you believe that?
It seems impossible for me. A nice dream to have. Special people, talented people look out windows. Brave people open them, and the truly heroic leap into the unknown. I was neither special, nor talented, brave, or heroic. It was nice to imagine, to lose myself in the fantasy of maybe.
I would never admit to anyone that I even think about looking out a window, or that I read about them. I’ve seen the looks that people give those people who swear they have seen the light, and cannot do anything but obsess about how to get out there. Every now and then one of them disappears and I wonder what really happened to them.
One day I was feeling a bit sick, or maybe a smidge abnormal, a tad reckless even, and I peeked up and looked out. Just like that. No thought about it or anything. I sat down underneath the sill in shock. What had possessed me to do that? I was overwhelmed with the light, movement and colour! I was very very clearly not cut out for looking out windows!
I put the idea out of my mind for a very long time. Then another day, I found one of those old stories, and I began to doubt my assertation. Perhaps my ego was out of balance that day, but I gripped the window ledge, took some deep breaths and tried again.
Oh it was amazing, and terrifying, exhilarating and overwhelming. My eyes were tired from the colours and movement, and my brain struggled to understand what I was seeing. Everything frightened me! Some days all I did was stare out the window and the things it showed, other days I couldn’t even bring myself to look at it, and this continued for days on end.
One thing was certain, I couldn’t go back. My eyes adjusted, my habits adjusted. And even if I didn’t look at it, or look out it’s panes, I thought about looking, and that was something. I was feeling entirely rebellious and reckless the day just before the new year, and I put my hand on the latch. Surely if other people had opened windows, I could too!?
I was practiced at looking out now, and I was sure I could work out how to open the mechanism. After all I had read books about it, and numerous explanations of how a window was to be opened, it was high time I tried. Who knew when I’d get a moment like this again? Surely I was wasting my life if I didn’t try?
Or was I? What if I tried and I couldn’t do it? What if someone wrote a book about how horrible I was at opening a window? What if I wasn’t strong enough? Was I really brave enough?
I wasn’t sure, so I lay back and stared at the ceiling instead. This continued for many weeks, many months and many years. Many doubts were discussed. Nothing was decided for sure. Should I? or should I not?Could I? Or could I not?
So one day, I tried.
It was hard to breathe but there it was. The window was sitting open, and I had opened it.
My heart was racing.
What could I do now?
Want to join in? The next prompt is
Don’t worry about how good it is, it’s all just good practice!
Setting: In the universe where a newly turned Vampire is sticking to his morals. Or trying to.
The stench of blood is in the air, every way I turn.
It seems inescapable, it’s maddening, a craving I can not turn off.
Yes I know, craving and stench don’t usually go well together, but old habits die hard, and besides, I like some of those old sayings.
As weird as they seem now, they tell a story, my story.
Well the biggest part of what I know so far, which was when I breathed and my heart worked. When I was human.
But that is all behind me now. I’m eternally a Millennial. Heh, that’s pretty funny.
What was I saying? Right, back to the stench.
I still say stench because that is what it smelt like before.
That metallic zing that is blood in the air.
Women seem to recognise it faster than men do, but I suppose that makes sense really.
It’s not pleasant, or the type of smell one would crave, like a good roast dinner, or a chocolate cake in the oven.
But that too has changed.
I think that was the first thing I noticed after my rebirth to this new life.
The stench wasn’t so much a cover your nose and mouth kind of smell, it was a wafting, alluring, promise like the warm promises that assault our noses when it’s almost dinner time, or dessert has warmed up.
That’s the problem with this life, really, you don’t have to wait.
Blood is everywhere, fresh, although let’s be honest, some fresher than others.
Everyone says children taste underripe, and I’m going to take their word for it. That just seems immoral to me, biting children, vampire or not.
I have to take a stand somewhere.
Some say the aged taste rich and thick, as long as they aren’t dying. Some of us apparently love the kick their cocktail of medications bring to the table, but I’m not so sure.
Those vampires call themselves guardians, like they are the saviors of the elderly they bite. They seem like gluttons to me, and have forgotten that they once had a soul.
Me? I stick within my age group, well what should be my age group.
25-45, non smoker, preferably lactose intolerant, who likes their vegetables.
Normal food tastes like ash to me now, but I still cry when I think about donuts.
Did you know your food leaves an aftertaste?
I prefer the ones who like salad.
How odd, right?
But I’ve got to have rules, better rules than they’ve got about how many vampires you can spawn in a year, or about crossing thresholds, tanning beds or holy water.
Is it ironic that now I am what I am, powerful, immortal and kick ass, that I’ve realised how much I need rules or my life is going to be more hell than it was before?
I probably should look up the definition of irony.
Writers make up pure fiction all the time, however usually our best work has some basis in reality. Many writing sages suggest to write what you know, but what if our experience doesn’t go that far? How do we write a romance novel or romantic story that is believable without a lot of experience with romance?
If you are a fan of the genre I’m sure you would have already done your research on how romance is portrayed in fiction. I’m sure from the books you have read that a few key words or phrases might come to mind if you are thinking about the passionate bits. A lot of stories can sound the same when it comes to the confessing feelings part of it. So what to do?
Firstly, I would suggest stopping for a moment and journal some romantic stories you liked, and some that were memorably bad. Even keeping a key list of phrases you like or don’t like can help. If you want to go further, you could brainstorm other ways to say the same thing. For example, instead of: his heart slammed into his ribs You could say: his pulse raced, his pulse sped up, his heart paced, and if you want you can add all sorts of other words into there too, like madly, wildly, quickly, etc. Your writing can be as simple as ‘his pulse quickened’, to as elaborate as you want, like ‘his heart paced wildly like a hungry lion’.
Hopefully from that example you will see that just writing simple and straightforward “his pulse quickened” adds just as much, and if not more than the fancy stuff. Thankfully no one expects a lot of detail on kissing or other intimate details to do a romance story well. You can acknowledge the romance and celebrate it, even if you don’t go into every detail. Also, you don’t need to make up details to make the reader feel something. Think…”what words would a friend use to describe their first kiss to me?” Probably a lot less description of mechanics and a lot more about how they are feeling, and what it means to them. You don’t need the details of your friend’s love life in order to be brimming with excitement for them. If your reader is invested in the character and their journey, they don’t need all the details to feel satisfied with the story either.
My next suggestion is to listen to people’s real life stories. “How did you guys meet? How did you get together?” These questions can be the gateway to many very interesting stories. It’s fascinating to hear about all the unbelievable that things that can happen in real life! Listen to people’s stories, borrow from them, weave them, and your writing with echo with truth.
Also my last point is, don’t undervalue your experience. Even if you don’t have a romantic partner or a lot of romantic experience, romance stories have a lot of other elements in it that most people have experience with or can relate to. For example, caring for someone, friendship, sacrifice, thoughtfulness, admiring beauty, adventure, belonging, are just some of them. Draw on those experiences, and any crushes you might have had and use that knowledge to illustrate the romance. Use the journal again! How did you feel? What did you want to do? What attracted you to the person? What was something special you liked about the person? For example: When I think of crushes I think of lots of eye contact, some giggling, wanting to hang out all the time, wanting to talk or text a lot, lots of things reminding me of them, when you catch each other’s gaze you smile. It’s just a few little details, but it’s enough to build a good story and romance on!
So I hope that has given you the confidence to keep going with your romance writing, and also some tools that will help the truth echo through your fiction. Don’t forget there are also some great writing communities, who are happy to read drafts and give gentle feedback on areas you find challenging! Happy writing!
Have you ever been in a creative space where it seemed like you were transcendent? Like the words or art were just flowing, even though you weren’t really thinking about it? There were no busy thoughts, just a steady quiet, paying attention to the flow, the next prompting of what the next sentence might be, or where the next brush stroke will land? You could not explain your reasoning, why you chose those words or to draw it that way, but it works, it fits, it flows. You are in the zone.
On the other hand… Have you ever felt like everything is clunky? Your sentences don’t make sense, don’t flow, and it’s an effort to even write 100 words? You keep rubbing out what you have drawn because it’s all wrong? Something happens so you have to keep starting again, and again? Or nothing happens and creating feels like scraping your nails down a chalk board?
I would say that the majority of the time I’m in the cringing at myself basket. Often my creating feels like I’m trying to play a violin with zero instructions. However, I have had a couple of experiences of being in the zone this week! Wow what a blessing, it was great! And so I got to wondering, how on earth can I repeat this? What was so different about this week? I came up with two thoughts, which I submit to you below. Preparedness and Joy.
Firstly let’s talk about preparedness! Having a set time and space to create, helps you prepare, and get in the zone. Thinking about creating ahead of time, can help your brain work on it while it’s waiting to create. For example, thinking about a topic, or a subject will also draw your attention to things that may be useful from the environment around you to help you prepare further. How I work this in my life: Thursday I have art class, so during my walks on that day I scan the ground for fallen leaves or flowers that I could paint or for anything unusual. Before I get to class I’m already looking at my subject, thinking about the colours and how I would like to tackle it, so when it comes time to go, I’m prepared, it’s easier to get into the zone because all that thinking has already been done!
When it comes to preparedness a lot can also be said for regular practice. I honestly only spend a couple of hours every fortnight on my art, but I have grown so much even with that small amount of consistency. Also practice really helps with the next point which is JOY!
Joy! On the day I am writing this, we have just performed our third and last concert on Jonah for the dance group that I am part of. This morning, driving to the production I was thinking, this is our last one, it’s our chance to have some fun, to chuck out all the fear and really go for it, because after this there are no do overs. And then I went…I wish I had that attitude at Performance 1! I wish I had said…focus on the joy! You are nervous to get stuff right but you know you will dance better if you are having a great time. So chuck out those insecurities and have a blast! Let’s have no regrets! I had put in the practice, I had put in the time and the work, but I was choosing to let the fear stay, rather than kicking it out! Because with dancing (well for me anyway) I have to be very present with the music, and my balance and my body (in the flow) or my steps get all muddled and everything goes to pieces. I can’t think about what step is next, I’m not really thinking at all, because I’ve done the work, my body knows what to do, I just have to get into the flow, and being relaxed and joyful really helps! Also it’s obvious, but being excited and full of joy about what you are creating, and why, and thinking about the pleasure your creation is going to bring someone, and the difference it might make in the world helps unblock those creative channels!
So I hope this gives you something to ponder, and helps you get in the zone! Fight the good fight! Happy Creating!
We ask ourselves a version of this question, every day. “What do I need to do to get to work on time?” “How am I going to get dinner ready and return this phone call?”
Most days, we do figure out what we need to do to get it done, and we make it happen! Multiple times over But why is it so hard to get the project done when it comes to creating?
I’m sorry but I do not have all the answers. I’m still asking myself, “what do I need to do in order to get this book done?” (over and over again) but here are some thoughts which might help us both!
Make a list. Make a list of achievement steps and break them down as far as you can. Include how much time you would like to allocate to that task. Things can suddenly seem much more achievable! For eg. Step 1: Write 43 extra scenes for the new characters. I allocate 15 mins each scene. So that is about 11 hours total If I decide to allocate an hour of each day to write four scenes. I could be done in 11 days!
Make your project smaller. (at least to begin with) If you have never finished a creative project before, it’s far easier to start small and work your way up. For example if you want to write a novel- Start with a short, but complete story, then repeat, and gradually lengthen the stories as you go. Break the novel down into chapters and outline them, and write a chapter at a time.
Get gathering. Working with others can give you an outside source of motivation, ideas, encouragement and also accountability. Choose your circle wisely and they will enrich your creativity and productivity immensely.
Believe in yourself. Others already believe in you, probably more than you do. Take some encouragement out of their book. Repeat some affirmations to yourself, and act like you believe you will achieve it. If you believe that you can achieve the project in 11 days if you prioritise it, you will prioritise it.
Ask yourself why? Why is this project so important? Is it feeding your curiosity, your ego, or is it serving a better purpose? Maybe you discover that the reason for the project isn’t as important as the space and freedom you will feel in your mind and heart if you let the project go instead. Yes there may be a bit of grief, but that shouldn’t be a weight if the why is not worth it. If you remember the why, this can also help you harness the motivation you had for beginning it and use it to help you complete it.
I’m sure there are more great strategies out there, and please when you come across them, send them my way!
I don’t know about anyone else, but listening the way I think about myself, you would think I am a monster.
For example, my brain seems to act like I do not give permission for myself to create anything that just I want. Like my creativity has to be of benefit to others (I do not count) and wanted by others to be worth anything.
Where did this craziness come from?
Why do I need to give myself permission to do something I want to do? It’s not even like writing or creating is illegal in this country!
It makes no sense to me, yet I keep finding it lurking there over and over again when I try to examine why I feel so unmotivated to create, or do anything else but the thing that gives me passion and joy and I love?
I suppose framing the arts as a guilty pleasure can be seen in our consumerist and also our culture where our value is driven by money. Is that the root of the problem?
Do you feel like you are fighting a battle with yourself to create? Do you feel held back, like you haven’t got permission to be doing this? Like you feel inferior? Not good enough? Perhaps a waste of space?
How can we win this battle?
I don’t know, but I’m going to start with this.
“I am not good enough!” It’s a lie. It’s a flat out lie. It should not relate to creating at all.
We can all create. Toddlers tell stories and draw pictures. They are simple, and reflect their experience and the amount of practice they have had. They enjoy it, and that is the only reason they do it. We marvel in the toddler stories and their pictures, not because they are genius or very good. They move us, they are showing the world from their perspective, it’s amazing to see what these little hands are trying to communicate, it’s ugly, and sometimes it doesn’t make sense. But it’s still amazing! Our work reflects our experience and amount of practice we have had. Us not being good enough at whatever we are trying to do, has no impact on the value of the enjoyment of it, or whether it will amaze.
Why do our reasons for creating become value driven?
Why does the feeling that we are not good enough, stop us completely? I suppose the fear of failure and embarrassment? But isn’t it more embarrassing that we wanted to do something, but we stopped practicing and getting experience in it, because we felt we weren’t good enough, which is exactly what might be helped if we kept going?
So please, please, please…dont stop! Keep going.
Write those words, dream big dreams, put them first. You can do it.
The truth is that you really are good enough, and you need to keep going.
This battle is just one, of those that you will face to birth this creation, but it’s going to be worth it.
I’m surprised to say that even doing this for four days is making a difference to me.
In four days of showing up, I’ve learned quite a bit.
I’ve thought about problems in a new way, and solutions have come to problems I couldn’t even conceptualise. I am looking forward to seeing where we will be by the end of this month!
I’m trying to think about what other things I can challenge myself with.
Cleaning? Drinking 2L of water a day? I already know I can read a novel a day for a month. I know I can write 1700 words a day for a month and end up with a 50000 word novel draft. I can draw a picture a day for 30 days. What is next?
Is there something that you need to overcome?
Maybe all you need is a bit of practice?
I know there is a challenge I’m following right now which is all about decluttering and ridding your house of something, one a day for 30 days.
Maybe it’s not for you, but what if you did give a 30 day challenge a try? What if 30 days was all it took to solve that problem for you?
