People feel all sorts of ways about crying. I feel it’s cathartic, sometimes needed. Sometimes I worry our world is headed in a different direction. My new story explores a world that feels differently.
Let me know what you think. The Crier on Kindle.
The idea farm is a creation – where we keep all of our ideas planted, waiting for the spring.
PLANT:
There’s a time for the planting – every day, every minute, every conversation, every silence. But pick and choose. My favorite place to get ideas is from overheard snippets of conversations, words and lines heard in passing or overheard in a coffee shop. Sometimes, it’s just a word someone throws out that sticks. It might be an image. Someone posted a photo and it was eerie, strangely haunting to my strange little perception. I have notebooks, torn papers, lists of ideas. And the ideas do come to live when they’re ready.
FERTILIZE:
To keep the idea farm going, we need to keep it fresh. New ideas coming, water flowing, fertilizer tossed around. Water is connected, according to Freud, to our unconscious. Taking a bath before bed is a great way to feed your muse. Fertilize – remember to go back, reread, add a word or two, subtract a word or two, think about it before you go to bed, when you first wake up. Something will bloom. Sometimes it blooms prematurely and I’m up at 3am writing like a madwoman. But it works. I wrote a number of poems and short stories struck by a fever of words and rhythm. Of Strays and Exes and The Gold Tooth were written under one of those spells.
HARVEST:
When the time is right, you write. You’ll pluck that idea out of the ground and start massaging it into what it was meant to be. Eddy was on a list. It sat there for quite some time waiting for me to be brave enough to pull it out, confident enough to put the words to paper, and strong enough to show it to others. So many more stories came like that – waiting for just the right time, ripe from the time and the fertilizer and ready to burst forth.
Much love and luck.
I’ve always chuckled at those dating profiles that read: No baggage.
Jim Morrison said it best – No one here gets out alive. We all have some baggage and we need to claim it!
Some of the baggage is pretty clear and we know what we’re dealing with; however, I think the truth is we all have unidentified baggage hanging around our emotional center.
While some people have a handle on the small things that effect their reactions, many people skim blithely by without questioning their own behavior. They accept that they’ve just always handled certain things in the same way.
I’m thinking road rage, getting overly angry when someone else does something like cuts you off, gets in line in front of you, says certain things, or acts in certain ways – and something comes bubbling up. Sometimes it’s the opposite: a small word, a sideways glance, and something feels like it’s breaking down. We know something is wrong. It feels bad. It makes us feel bad and we overreact.
I believe these things come from our core issues, things done or said to us before we could even learned the difference between right and wrong, left or right.
To be happy, to keep our peace of mind,
and control of our emotional center, these things need to be sussed out. We need to realize when we get upset with the cashier for not giving us the correct change, it’s not the mistake we’re upset with. It’s something deep down inside that we feel someone wronged us, cheated us, was unfair with us. We take it out on the cashier, but the poor underpaid soul most likely made an error and the feelings we are feeling are from something deeper.
These are the things hindering us from living life with joy. Deal with those.
I realize I am fortunate, but not for reasons some may think.
Some people think I’m wealthy. 😂😂 Did they miss the whole teacher thing? However, I acknowledge many people have it more challenging.
But it’s not wealth, material things, or luck that makes me fortunate. Some people have those things and are unhappy.
I have some family, a few friends, a job I love, and those make life feel easier. However, like everyone I have my issues. Sometimes it feels as if I’ve had more than my share, but maybe we all feel like that at times.
Unexpected bills come up, broken this or that, car repairs. I’ve lost a few friends, been ripped off, scammed, and menaced.
But…
I go to bed every night looking forward to the first hints of sunrise sneaking through my blinds, the whistle of the tea pot (seriously, my coffee/tea pot broke – I’m brewing it old school), that first sip of hot tea in the chill of the morning, then the launch into the day – whatever that may bring.
Outside my window, the birds sing in the trees, the sky is usually blue, I’m healthy.
Gosh – that last one – health: we don’t think about that until we’re not! We don’t think about how easily and naturally our bodies flow until there’s an injury, a stoppage, a pain.
We need to acknowledge the good things in our lives, no matter how small.
The bad things seem to outweigh the good only if we focus on them. Focus on the good things, every tiny, little, great thing that makes our lives beautiful.
Gratitude!
I think this is my word for 2020.
I feel I’m always authentic, being me, to the best of my abilities.
I reach for the positive in the majority of my interactions. (I admit sometimes I fall short – no one’s perfect.)
That being said, some research seems to suggests positive people ignore the negative. So, when I said to someone today, I’m into the whole positive psychology movement, she stated, “I believe in being authentic.”
I thought about the statement, and her misconception that by being positive I’m ignoring some negative or darker emotions (uhm, have you read my work?) . However, I think of it differently. It’s a way to handle the negative, it’s not about ignoring it, (which is what I explained to her).
Last year, this blog was about writing. In looking at statistics, there were a great number of readers. Good. I hope you guys got some good advice. This year, however, I want it to be more about joy and authenticity.
I think my writing is authentic, sometimes raw, sometimes dark, but always with hope.
I knew a writer who created drama whenever and wherever he could. His eyes would light up and he’d say, “stories, writers need to create drama for stories.”
However, he rarely ever got any writing done because he had so much drama and backlash from the things he’d do.
For me, I find that creating or being a party to drama and chaos extinguishes my creative flow.
Just the everydayness of life is enough for writers to gain enough insight and experience to write and create drama in their stories. They do not need to create it or go take an active part in it.
For me – I want to stay far, far away from anyone and anything that affects my serenity which will, in turn, dampen my creativity.
Watching After Life, which about a man who wants to die because the love of his life passed. The way he talks about her and the things they shared is lovely.
I don’t know if people – couples – love this way. I haven’t been that lucky. The loves of my life are my children and my new grandbaby. They are the ones who I want to spend my time with, I want to give everything to.
I believe, however, we are all here for a purpose. Some people are here to find that love, to give that love. Those are the lessons they are here to learn.
I do believe in love. There is so much in life and about life that I am in love with. Sometimes I’m so happy that this is my life that I marvel at how I got this lucky!
But I also believe I am here for something else… to write.
She will want to build a life.
It rained at the beginning of school break. I discovered my window was leaking. It didn’t seem to need much, maybe new caulk.
When that was finished, I painted the sill. I discovered other parts of the room which needed a touch up.
Do you see where this is going?
I spent much of the break fixing, painting, home repairing, and cleaning out clutter.
I don’t consider this a distraction but another aspect of my being.
As writers, we need to be vigilant about distractions, but we also need to feed the other parts of us which make us who we are.
Home repairs remind me I’m strong and self sufficient. The accomplishment feeds my brain much needed dopamine we don’t always receive from writing.
Home repairs remind me I’m capable and flexible. My writing schedule sometimes gets the better of me and I become all work and no play.
Home repairs are nostalgic. My father raised us to do for ourselves. And it got me pretty far.
Honoring all parts of ourselves is an investment to those who surround us as well as to our writing.
It makes us better humans and more invested writers.
Happy Monday!
You may have heard this before –
1. If you anger a writer, you will die – in their story!
The good news is – you get to live to die another day
2. Any little tick you have, one of the characters will probably get.
You’ll probably never notice
3. Anything you say can and will be used … in a story.
If it’s good, anyway.
However –
Noreen Lace 
You must be logged in to post a comment.