Dreaming of a writing Christmas

As many peopel across the country are dig out of the snow, wait on santa, eat Christmas dinner, I have spent the day preparing for a trip to New Orleans and scolding myself for not doing my blog or writing enough this last week.  I hear my negative self talk shouting in my head, and other people's negative self talk filling the room.  So what should I do? Give up, end this years goals before the year even starts.

Nope not this time.

Instead I pulled out my phone and began typing.  Just to get a blog started. But really because all I wanted for Christmas was to write, and no one was stopping me from writing.  Unless I look in the mirror.  So like a two year old, I put metaphorical fingers in my ears and go nananana to drown out all the noise around me, and type. But type what? This blog but what else. Letting my mind drift...

Snow, Christmas, travel: all bring to mind an old Christmas movie" I Have Been Dreaming of A White Christmas", used to watch with my mom and grandma; before they passed.  I quite the noise around me shutting the world off and let my mind drift to old movies and love stories, dancing and singing. I begin my story...

She  stands, sad, lonely looking into the restaurant's window at people eating fancy dinners in fancier clothes. The wind bites through the thin fabric of her coat reminding her winter is here. She can almost taste the burgundy sauce, and prime rib, potatoes, carrots; the smell of bread makes her salivate, turning she walks into the city away from a life no longer hers and back into her new reality.

Reality the ever shifting landscape around her,  a mirage she is never fully equipped to handle this is her new life, the old one died on an untended vine. Waundering, wondering and willfully she lingers for a heart beat between her past, present and future of possibilities then steps into traffic. Cars whiz by someone honks, no one stops. She emerges from the traffic she on the other side of street and the veil. 

The city gone, a seaside town stands in its stead the roar of a storm approaching makes her shiver even as the temperature rises around her.

The loss of love ones lingers on her, a stench of death a cloud that follows her even as she runs across her multitude of worlds.  Never staying, always hoping one day to find him again.

So an impromptu section of The Veil a story i had considered shelving for good.  Maybe it still has potential?

Writing prompts the how, why and what of them

Currently, I am looking for new was to revive the creativity in my life and writing. I have looked around for ideas and ways to ignite the writing process. One technique frequently put out into the ether is the writing prompt.  There are a number of sites that provide writing prompts.  But do they really work.  Well that depends, on what you mean by work. 

Yes, a writing prompt can get you to start writing.  It can even help you to put words on paper.  It can be a start.  Maybe even an end. Is this all a writing prompt is good for?  I don't think so.  A writing prompt can also show you the primary archetypes of story telling, and allow you to explore these archetypes in short burst writing sessions.  Writing prompts can lead to brainstorming on ideas and characters that come from the prompt or are in your other writing.  Sometimes I use a prompt to move along or explore one of my current characters,  this allows me to take the character out of the larger story and create back story, or other information, create and explore personality traits that flush out the character.  These are some of the ways I use writing prompts that work.

I have also used writing prompts and failed.  This does not mean the prompt was bad,  though it may have been, it means that I did not explore the prompt in a manner that pushes me within my craft.  Writing prompts can be a useful tool to further explore the craft and art of writing, or they can be dead ends that lead to words on pages and nothing more.  Some may say words on paper in of itself is a success, I for one do not believe this to be true.  Thus this is the manner in which writing prompts do not work, in my opinion.

I personally have found that canned writing prompts are not very helpful in exploring certain aspects of my writing and craft.  This is why I have taken to creating my own writing prompts.   You may ask how and why I would do this.  First by creating your own prompt it can be targeted to your specific interests.  Second, the process of creating a prompt takes brainstorming and creativity which primes the creative writing processes.  So how do I create my own writing prompts. The easiest way is to take an image, normally a picture I have taken, or something I have drawn and write a story to explain, lead up to, or tell where the characters are going.  This leads to creative stories it also can be therapeutic. If you focus on images and stories that revolve around and then solve problems in your life. 

Winter is coming to NYC

November has come to an end and the holidays are just beginning and with it a new year. 

For me it is time to start putting in place a life balance plan, which I have attempted to do in the past.  I like many writers have numerous responsibilities: family, work, volunteering, writing and life. 

Each year I try and find a way to balance these and other responsibilities but inevitably somethings do not get as much attention and time as they need or I would like to give. Normally, my writing is the first on the chopping block. Until last year,  when writing became a second source of income. But then the writing I was doing was more for profit then to tell my stories.

Now that I write on a daily basis, be it a legal memorandum, copy for a project or some other paid work; i need to add in writing my books, short stories, and bloggs.

So I'm putting into place a creative writing schdule. 
Sundays will be the day I do my blogg post.  I'm hoping to cover a variety of topics, from why i write and writing process, to samples or drafts of my work. I also might  be posting on what is informing my writing such a current events or about the research, and maybe even a how too.

Monday will be a day that I set a side 2.to3 hour for creative writing.  This will be on my novel, one of my short stories or just what ever comes to mind.

Then Wednesday will be the day i do editing for my creative writing.

I think this will give me a good schdule for my creative writing without being to overwhelming.

Now that you've seen my plan for the year.  What is yours? Post in the comments how you plan to keep writing a part of your daily life.

p.s.  i also want to start journaling which will be a new endeavor all together.

I imagine, dream, believe of new worlds

As a writer I frequently find myself imagining, dreaming and believing in  other worlds, having conversations with people that do not exist about various mundane topics such as what color the sky is and why; or how their government does or does not work.  Really this is my mind searching for answers to the problems of the world around me, be it high levels of unemployment, under employment, falling literacy rates, or the increased cost of education. The perverse way the constitution is used or not used and abused.

With each novel, story short or long; I am attempting to create worlds were our problems have  come to a head or better full circle.  The issue is the answers are never truly satisfying. And hence the next story and world is created.

I wonder am I the only author that tries to solve and sometimes explore our own problems?

Maybe you write for some other reason. If so, what are your reasons for writing? 

Coffee House

As a writer Coffee houses are one of the places I frequent,  for a number of reasons.  Mostly I'm looking for caffeine and a break from writing on my couch.  Well antics at coffee houses can get out of hand especially when you have a number of creative overly caffeinated people striving to escape boredom... What you get is a mini movie of Coffee Houses gone bad.

To ISBN or not to ISBN

You have a finshed book, be it a novel, a novella, a compilation of shorties, or maybe it's a cookbook; and now you want to self publish.  You read through each websites requirements, or should I say skim then you come to the question about ISBN.  Scratching your head you decide to Google it but this leads to more confusion. 

This blog is going to give you answer in what an ISBN is, and the different types. The legal ramifications of how you choose to get your ISBN. And how to avoid these ramifications. 

Blogging by train

So I have been busier than I thought I would be working and writing in New York.  My blogg has suffered because of time.  Tonight sitting here on the train surfing facebook i may have found my time. I have gotten less done on the train than I excepted. now is the time to remedy both issues.

So here is my new plan.  I'll spend my time on the train between Brooklyn and Glen cove blogging, by using the app on my phone.  So excuse typos and auto correct as I get this process down.  The plan will be to research and then post all blogs from my phone. 

To make this even more interesting, I'm going to start a series of blogs concerning the legal side of writing, from what are ISBNs to how to split copywrite.  If you have a question about writing and the law post it and I'll see about writing a blog to answer your questions.

On otherhand my writing is going well this fish has found a couple of great ponds and looking to expand. I've joined two great writing groups and one writer's workshop. I've meet some great peeps in the Big Apple.

So here is to train blogging and new adventures.

Sam A. Fix