Art feeds Art

I don't think there is a writer out there that won't say they got their inspiration for at least one story idea from some other art form.  Conversely, I think artists in other mediums may say the same.  Let's face it, art feeds art.  When stuck for a story idea, stuck for the next path my characters might take, I don't try to force it.  I simply release myself from my goal of writing for that particular day or moment and begin to enjoy other forms of art.  Eventually, the ideas come to me.

Case in point, when I locked up at about Chapter Ten, I gave my Forever First Reader a task.  Go and find me pictures of cabins by lakes.  I knew my characters were headed to a cabin by a lake.  I could picture it in my mind, but needed something more solid.  She performed her task and sent me photos.  Those photos were just the thing.  They broke my block, gave me a solid vision of the cabin (which remains similar but in many ways very different from the photos) and Chapters Eleven through Fifteen flowed.  Five chapters in one day thanks to photographic artwork and my FFR.

Some of it is simply the fact that I have given my brain a break and allowed my subconscious to do its thing.  Some of it is the fact that by submersing myself in another form of art, I am stimulating the side of my brain that creates. (Left side? I can never remember.)

My day job is analytical and organizational.  If I don't keep myself balanced, I'd end up totally immersed in analysis.  I can't let that happen.  I begin to feel like half a person.  I don't fully contribute to all around me and I need art in my life.  It does inspire me and lead to better things.  I learned that last fall.

At the end of last year, I was listening to Bruce on my way to work, his 'Magic' CD.  The song was 'Magic'.  As I drove, magic truly did begin to happen.  The opening paragraph of a story began to take shape.  It haunted me until I HAD to sit down and write it.  More words came.  The idea and the story as it has begun to develop were not the only magics that occurred over those weeks.  I recommitted to my writing.  I recommitted to that other half of myself.  Life is suddenly much more balanced.

Music is not my only muse.  I've been inspired by paintings.  There was one in particular that my husband found in the attic of his house.  It appeared to be Venice (at least it was an old city with a canal and bridges).  I woman was in the shadows and waiting for something/someone.  Like a fool, I let him sell it at our garage sale last year (without a doubt, we will see it one day being appraised on one of these Auction TV show for $100,000).  It should have been placed in my office near my desk.  I know there were ideas from that painting that never fully formed. That painting haunted me and I should never have let it go.  

There will be other paintings.  There will be other songs.  There will be something else that inspires me...sometimes nature herself.  The gray skies, the colorful leaves and the leaf-free branches of October led to a short story idea.

It's also true that the ideas come simply from life itself.  My flash fiction, 'Grocery Shopping' came from life itself.  I hate grocery shopping as my close friends and acquaintances know all too well.  This little bit of reality became what I believe is an amusing piece of alternate reality.

I am all over the place here, but the point is as writers, as artists, we need to open up our senses, our feelings and allow our minds to roam.  We need the balance that art provides to us.  The art of others keeps the artistic side of ourselves fresh.  Perhaps, one day, my own art will inspire someone else.  It's circular and I believe art does feed art.

Am I crazy?

I've been writing and now have 17 chapters of my hopefully publishable novel complete - FIRST/ROUGH draft that is.  I figure there are probably at least 23 more chapters until completion (short chapters) then lots and lots and lots of re-writing.  As I think about eventually completing it and either self-publishing as an e-book or finding a publisher, the thought of money crosses my mind.  Years ago, I thought of writing as my way out of the 9-5 and extra money, maybe even lots of extra money.  Now, I am not so sure.

I am now in a job that for the most part, I enjoy.  Seems like, as far as 9-5 work goes, it's something I am good at, challenged by and can stand getting up to go to each day.  I don't know if this is what has caused the shift in my opinion or simply the fact that I just want to write and in writing when I feel it is ready for consumption by other than my Forever First Reader, Heather, I just want to be able to share my work with people.

Sure, money is always nice, but now the idea of getting money for what I write is secondary to having other than friends and family read what I have written.  My husband and I are definitely not rich.  The loss of a job by either of us could topple our pretty house of cards, but for now and hopefully for longer than that, we have enough.  Truthfully, we've been blessed and some times, we have more than enough.  I cannot complain.

So...am I crazy?  I think maybe not because in some ways isn't art, whether it be about writing, painting, photography, music and anything else you might consider to be art, about the creation and sharing of that creation more than the money?

Outlines? Character sketches? Plotting? Oh My!

Just curious about how many folks write an outline, character sketches and work on plotting first?  I simply cannot do it.  I find I spend more time doing all of that than actually writing.  I do keep a word document open as I am writing to note ideas or additional character background as I am writing, but I cannot, for the life of me force myself to do the other things.

I do a lot of my writing in my mind on my way to and from work.  Yeah, sometimes things get lost between there and the written page.  I probably need to turn on my phone's voice recorder and simply record as I drive.  I have found over the years, after trying outlines and some of the other things writing books recommend that I simply need to sit and write.  As I write or when I am doing something that requires minimal thought, I find that my characters speak to me.  If they are not speaking to me, it means I have little or no feeling about them.

When I finish my rough draft, I find it then helpful to go back and develop character sketches.  I have at that point learned more about my characters and by creating the sketches can help keep my subsequent rewrites true to that character.  I could probably outline at that point and review my plotting to ensure everything moves as anticipated.  But, above all else, first I need to simply sit down and write.

What about you?

Procrastinating...

Without a doubt, I am able and have always been able to take procrastinating to an art form.  Aside from currently being sick with some weird stomach, achy all over sore throat thing, I AM currently procrastinating.  I am working on a novel.  I have just started Chapter Sixteen.  I am 80 pages and about 28,000 words into it.  I really care about my characters and do not want to leave them just hanging there.  But, they are in a good place right now.  They are all happy, care-free and bonding as a new family unit.  When they leave where they are currently at, things are going to get rough.  If the whispers in my head are correct, not just rough, but REALLY rough.  This results in me procrastinating about moving them forward.  My forever, first reader reminds me that the bad will be temporary and that eventually they will be in a good place again.  That's assuming a happy ending.  I am not saying the ending won't be happy, but what if it isn't?  What if it comes at a bittersweet price?  So...I procrastinate.

It was easy to justify the procrastination during the month of October.  Who can write fantasy when it is clearly a month for horror and ghost stories?  That's what I did for the month of October.  Perfectly justified, see?

It's November now.  I should be getting back to my characters.  I miss them.  I wonder how they have been, but still I procrastinate.  How I am doing that?  Pulled out things I have written in the past.  They are all freehand - you know - paper and pen.  I am transferring them to the computer.  Some of it isn't bad.  In fact, the one I am looking at right now, might have some value in being finished some day.

I will get back to my characters.  I promise.  Soon.  Just need to give in to the procrastination for a bit.  If I force it, I think I will lose something that taking this time will bring to it.  For me, I think the procrastination and living in the novel solely in my brain is a good thing.  It will get to the computer screen eventually.  Just not today.  Maybe tomorrow.

First reaction...

So, I was perusing the top 100 free books for Kindle last night.  I was totally amazed at the number touted as 'Paranormal Romance.'  Initially, I got a bit pissed about the idea.  Typical that when one writer experiences success, others jump on the bandwagon.  I cursed the Twilight series for several minutes.  Then, the brain kicked in.  Think about it:  Dracula - paranormal romance, Frankenstein - paranormal romance, Jane Eyre - definitely paranormal romance (well, until it wasn't) and truth be told many of the Victorian Romances had a paranormal element.  Stephenie Meyer grabbed onto a mostly tried and true formula for her stories.

I am not slamming Stephenie.  I enjoyed her books for the most part.  They entertained me and mostly I felt for the characters.  Her books did leave me with a sense of unease though.  I grew up when Harlequin Romances were the thing.  What those books left me with was an expectation that I would meet a guy that would take control, could read my mind and while he might hurt me in the attempt to keep me safe, he really would care about me to a level of obsession.  WHOA!  Any wonder women are screwed up?  If this is what we've been led to believe is the ideal, it explains a lot.

I look at the 'Twilight' series and have been known to call them Harlequin for YA with vampires and werewolves.  Not so far off track there if you think about it.  My unease came from the fact that both Edward and Bella become so co-dependent that they believe they cannot really live without the other.  Then, here is Jake, he's got a thing for Bella and is for the most part (until he wolfs out) an average teenage guy.  He loves her, but she loves Edward.  Instead of showing girls that there are other fish in the sea, the books tend to say to me, it's OK to close yourself off if you've been hurt by a guy.  Hey, and be patient, he really does love you and he will come back.  Whereas the 'nice' guy, that wants only the best for you, wants your happiness sits on the sidelines as your fall-back position.  I finally got smart and married a 'nice' guy.  Guess maybe that's why I came down on the side of 'Team Jacob'.  Young girls need to know that it is OK to stick with the 'nice' guy.  He's not perfect.  He's gonna screw up.  But, he does want the best for and with you.  If he doesn't then it is time to show him the door.  There will be another guy somewhere down the road.  If there isn't, it IS OK to be alone.

Wish we could teach our young girls that instead of having them hold out for unrequited love.  Sigh...

Leave the ego at the door

I definitely have one.  An ego, that is.  Sometimes, it is too large to fit through the door.  Of course, time and life frequently shrink it down to a more manageable size.  When I finally decided to get serious about my writing, thanks to the encouragement of a wonderful friend and the realization that I could not continue my life not writing and not acknowledging my need to write, I realized my ego had to be checked at the door.

The value of the written word is really in the mind of the reader.  Not everyone is going to like what I write.  Heck!  Sometimes I don't even like something I have written, so why should someone else?  What it comes down to is if I like something I have written and feel it is worthy to share, I will do so.  If the reader or the publisher does not like it, that is really OK.  But, it does not mean that I should give up, quit writing or only write for myself.  I DO write for myself.  I write something I think I would like to read.  When I write, if I don't care about my characters (love or hate them), my readers will not care about them either.  If I don't like what I have written, why should I expect anyone else to do so?

Ego is great, but when it comes down to it, fear of a blow to my ego stopped me from stepping out.  It stopped me from sharing my writing and because I was not willing to share it, gave me no motivation to continue writing.  This year, I finally decided that whatever blows come my way, it was not worth denying the part of myself that needs to write.  Now I write.  Now I share what I write.  I committed myself to it and have been pleasantly surprised that while I may never write 'The Great American Novel', some readers like what I write and I do too.  It's a shame that the fear of a bruised ego kept my keyboard silent for so long.  But, ...  NEVERMORE.  ;-)

Ideas from the oddest places

More so than other years, this October seems more haunting.  Perhaps it is because I am beginning to believe that we are being haunted by my Mother-in-law.  Perhaps it is because the weather has been darker and more threatening this year.  I don't know.  It simply does.

Why do I think we are being haunted by my MIL?  The ceiling fan.  It keeps coming on at odd times.  It's not the cats stepping on the remote.  It's not the other remotes in our home.   So, what else could it be?  She is the most recently passed family member, having passed this February.  My first time alone in an empty house with a dead body was the day I discovered her.  Still kind of freaks me out when I think about it.  It's certain the ONLY time I have touched a dead body.  I know some folks reach out and touch or kiss their loved ones as they lie in their coffins.  I can't do it.  I mean, what if they reach back?

Anyway, I am seriously digressing.  I just know that story ideas keep coming to me this month.  It might have been that a request for short story submissions by Dark Autumn Media and accepting the gauntlet I threw down for myself to write a story has opened the flood gate of my imagination.  I don't know.  I just know that every where I turn, if I let myself dwell on something an idea pops into my head. 

I am not complaining.  This is good!  This is great!  To be a writer, one must write.  And, finally, instead of simply dabbling at the art form, dipping a toe into the waters, I AM writing.  I've jumped into the deep end.  And, I am finding that despite the murkiness of the water and the knowledge that a cold hand will surely reach up from those depths to grab my ankle and pull me under, that it isn't so bad.

The latest idea?  It came while grocery shopping...one day, I will let you know where it leads. :-)

PS - Sure, sure, the cynics will say that there is a 'logical' explanation for the ceiling fan...radio interference, a remote being used by neighbors on the same frequency...so boring bosh like that.  Me, I choose NOT to look for the logical.  It's my MIL, plain and simple.  ;-)