The WINDS of Change

“The trouble is not really in being alone, it's being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don't you think?”
~ Christine Feehan

Waving Hi, from the windy state of Nebraska. Sure Chicago can claim “the Windy City” but I am here to unofficially lay claim to the name Windy State of Nebraska! As weather forecasters will lie to you and say, it’s going to be breezy, I’m here to say, 25mph sustained WINDS with gusts to 45mph does not make it ‘breezy’; where I come from (Baltimore, Md.) that is downright WINDY!

The winds have been sustained for more than a week now, I’m sure of that, which hinders any time in the garden even though I’m loving the cool temps. Last week we had record-breaking heat with temps reaching 97 and in some places 100-104! A few days before that we had SNOWFALL and today it is struggling to reach 60!

These crazy weather shifts gives rise to tornadoes and some storm-wreaking havoc. It’s made me think of the winds of change sweeping over my life as well as this lovely state of Nebraska. Living out here in isolation – yes, a closed down turkey ranch with one other house is sheer isolation for me. While I love the beauty, solitude and quietness of the place, it sure can elicit a solid empty feeling of loneliness.

An overly friendly person I am, who sees the outside physical world maybe once every two or three weeks (that being a trip to the food store or church, twenty miles away from my house) can sometimes feel the isolation as smothering. This is where my writing garden comes into play. And to think ten years ago I never TOUCHED a computer, I have now taken up one of my beau’s famed addictions and that is, life on the computer!

In this windowed world, there is no wind! There is a collage of friendships to be had and thus I find myself clinging to the writing world and the sites that have anything to do with writing, and the daily dose of facebook, mind you.

THIS is why I chose to dive headfirst into f2k again. Even IT has taken on the winds of change. Once a free writing course, now a FEE writing course, which will enable serious writer’s to take the plunge into the writing frenzy that they so desire. F2K is the birth of a silent muse. That’s right folks, as your muse lay dormant, f2k can fire up the silence with seven weeks of active writing.

Whether it is making new friends, feedbacking and critiquing others, f2k is the place to put your money where your words are. You’ll suddenly feel the winds of change in everything from writing, confidence, all the way through to a finished short story.

You too will see why I find inspiration in a fallen tree (due to winds), sprouting seeds, flowers bursting forth, the aroma of newly fallen rain (when we get it) and the humming of tractors to the hissing of pivots making their rounds.

Isolation can bring about the winds of change, as well as a lost feeling of loneliness but that is why my only ties to the enormous outside world lay right here…at my fingertips.

“Lingering is so very lonely when one lingers all alone.”
~ Mervyn Peake

The Writing Garden

It’s been a while since I’ve had a post on writing. It’s because I haven’t watered my garden lately and feel since it is spring/summer, it is high time I get to watering.

Have you ever hit a writing slump, where you want to be writing but then nothing happens? You sit day after day tapping on the keys, then you realize nothing really makes sense of what you wrote? That could be considered writer’s block, but wait, no it can’t because you did write it just didn’t sound right or make any sense.

Here in Nebraska we get very little rain. That depresses me because I love the rain and cool weather. My whole body responds and I get a lot more writing done that makes perfect logical sense. When it’s dry and you go from winter and jump right into summer with ninety-degree days, my body shuts down. The sun is scorching the land and my body responds with aches and pains I didn’t feel in the cool crisp weather.

Here’s what I noticed: We recently got out and planted our garden. Seeds sprinkled here, plants positioned there and the garden now needs tending. Miss one day of watering and a droop falls over the plants as if hanging their head low wanting to be refreshed.

Writing is a lot like that; you’ve planted the seeds whether in your heart and soul, or on the blank page. You’re all set to sit down and tap away. Blank, you draw a blank. Water, you need water, you’re in the drooping phase of your writing garden, and you need nurturing.

Slap me upside the head with a wet rag, I’ve decided to spark my muse with a little watering from an f2k session again. F2K WAS a free course, but now it is offered at a ten dollar fee, a sixty day membership with WVU, and a book Pumping Your Muse, by Donna Sunblad, author and member of WVU.

It is free to members, which I am a lifetime member so it is free to me. It looks like a promising session since a lot of the people who signed up for the FREE course, really just came to see what it was all about and soon would leave when they knew there was work involved in writing. Yes people, writing involves work, just as tending a garden.

Writer’s Village University, WVU, is a writing school that I began studying at many years ago. It has helped me tend my garden of writing. Sure I’ve had ups and downs throughout the course of my stay but really there has been more ups than downs.

I am no longer a mentor which gives me hope in a promising course after being told I would be allowed full access to all the classrooms, not just sitting in a lone room, where visitors would pop in, and classmates would dwindle. This session when the class gets low, I can actually roam the halls and visit other rooms and comment and help writer’s as I’ve been known to do in years past.

There is always hope in the Garden of Writing. I’m sure I’ll keep you abreast of what is happening and how it’s all going, so stay tuned…the garden will soon be in full bloom soon.

What Dreams May Come

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

***

Well here we are. Today I’d like to talk about a few things, if you don’t mind.

For one, I almost gave up on writing (yeah right, you say?) No, seriously, I really have not felt like writing because a few loose cannons went off, and tried to disable me, but then I realized, no one can hurt me but me! I am my own worst enemy when it comes to writing.

I’m no longer a part of a certain writing site, just too much has happened, too much pain and bitter feelings there and as I let the administration down and many writers, I have other avenues in writing to pursue. My old friends will have to visit my blog if ever to see me, or not visit me at all and let me get on with my life. Thanks for the many good years, but now it is time for me to go and grow. They know who they are, know what they did, and they have to wake every morning and live with trying to wreck a writers dreams. Personally, I hope they look in the mirror and feel good about themselves.

It is Spring as you might have all noticed, as the robins are dancing in the yard, flowers have reared their head from the soil, and a mild winter will bring us a beautiful flourishing abundant Spring and Summer for sure. Well Summer is still iffy, since I think we’ll be getting some horrendous storms that will cripple a couple places, but don’t hold me to that, okay? It might just be an amazing and uneventful summer where you are at.

Dreams come from imagination. Your conscious mind creates things and it is up to you to make that dream become reality. My dream of writing cannot be put out by a few watery hoses; someone better bring out mightier and more powerful arsenal to squelch THIS flame.

While the first three months of the year have not been uneventful with Omaha trips, infections poisoning our systems, attacking us, and months of the same from my once joyful writing site, I am heading into Spring, and my New Year (Yes, I celebrate MY new year on Easter) with promise and HOPE for a new beginning.

As I’ve peeled myself away, I have opened new layers of consciousness which have enabled me to meet new people, become a part of NEW places to advance my writing because as it is told to me often, I have a talent, and as such, I must find a way to utilize the gift given to me.

Next week, we’ll begin looking at grammar and all the useful tools available. I will not list the different sites I’ve signed up to, because I do not want the vipers to follow me and continue to haunt and taunt me. But you’ll see, as I move forward, we move forward together. New tools, new aspects of the writing field, can only mean New Growth as Spring comes alive and showers me with what dreams may come alive for me as the days roll along.

Write On!

If you have an hour, will you not improve that hour, instead of idling it away?
Lord Chesterfield
***

The world of writing is all about writing. Trying so hard to over please people, clicking the LIKE button one hundred times a day, does not make people LIKE YOU more it makes you pitied more. I have joined a couple of new writing sites where a like button is obscure. And the one site that does have a like button I haven’t seen anyone going down the board clicking like to something as simple as “my dog died”. You know these people don’t even read what they are clicking like to, they just want to BE liked and are over compensating while looking a little foolish.

No this isn’t at facebook that I’m speaking of, this is just my observance elsewhere on the net. A site that I no longer promote because honestly, its an embarrassment and I would not refer a professional, only for them to lose money because that is what they sought, a professional writing atmosphere.

Writing takes focus, writing takes commitment, writing is the breath of you and there will come a time when you can like your way into peoples lives, and some will buy it, but professionals won’t. A professional writing site is focused on your writing, your creativity, your story and structure, they don’t need the like button because everyone is equal!

That is what I seek in my writing journey, like minded people, who are creating and crafting stories, willing to give honest feedback, and are a comfort to wake up to, not a big scare. I laid my dream on the line, now I’m going after it without all the idle distractions of the day.

What will you do this new year to make your writing dream come true? Will you waste it trying to be liked? Or are you going to write, snag that keyboard by the keys and begin tapping ‘til your fingers bleed? You betcha!

Things to get you focused on WRITING:

1. Open your MS word, or whatever program you use, and begin with...”The clouds swept over the house...” or something to that affect. I notice if I open with an action line, many other words start to flow that I didn’t even know I was sitting down to write!

2. Disconnect from the internet! That is one of the main distractions to writing and that is the internet, looming in your browser, if it is open, you are more tempted to be distracted from it!

3. Focus on writing AT LEAST 500 words at one sitting. When you take away the distractions, more times than not, you can produce more than 500 words at a sitting.

4. Open the internet but only for research reasons! We may have written a 1500 word short story and need to do a reference check or something. Be strong, and focus on RESEARCH!!!

5. Have confidence in yourself. You DO NOT need a Social Scene to boost your moral, or to get you writing. If you honestly go there to boost your writing, then why all the LIKES? You are not focusing on writing, you’re more focused on being accepted, popular and LIKED. In the WRITING world, focus on WRITING!!!


So there you have it, all the tools TO WRITE! Writing software, focus, NO INTERNET, research tools, and most importantly, confidence in yourSELF! Now WRITE ON!!!

What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.
Hecato, Greek philosopher

The Writing Community

The wings of hope carry us, soaring high above the driving winds of life. ~Ana Jacob

***

It’s been one of those years where if it was not for the writing community holding my hand as I walked through some difficult days, I wonder if I would ever have been able to get through them. Well that’s silly, I know I would have made it through. I’m a strong woman and have certainly been through worse in my life.

From yesterday’s post (if you read it) you may have gathered that it is a lonely life out here in the middle of the good ol U.S of A. but maybe you didn’t notice the angst, or maybe you did. Here lately anything I do is usually so misunderstood that people either shun me, apologize for their behavior or back away from me completely. I don’t blame them I just don’t want anyone to ever feel intimidated by me. I have problems and sins just like you! This is NOT a pity party, this is a Happy-To-Be-Me Party!

It’s okay. I’m so used to being alone in this world that when I have God over for a chat, we usually talk like giddy school kids. Okay, seriously, I do all the talking and He does a whole lot of listening.

It’s ironic, I have this one friend that understands my mind completely. We’ve never met, we’ve been virtual friends for about two-three years and every word that comes out of his mouth has substance to it. Every post on his facebook wall is of intelligent, thought-provoking posting. He told me that change is inevitable (like it or not) and to be patient, and that is what I will wait for, the inevitable face of change.

As much as I depend on books to inform me, friends to support me, I also frolic in the world of change. You’d think I would have gotten the steps down by now, but with each day that I begin to dance, there is a new step to learn, a silent whisper of change that we all have to get used to as we go through our lives.

By my New Year (which I celebrate, as always, on Easter) in 2012, my world will have taken on the shape of a piece of clay. It may be molded into something spectacular, or it may remain shapeless (which I doubt very much.) I will walk with my head held high and will have either carried you all with me on the journey or by then, you will have all run for the hills screaming, “This woman is insane!” 

You tolerate me at my darkest, cheer me at my nearest, pray for me at my weakest, and you’re all still here. I hope and pray that you come along on this journey because truly, without you, my virtual friends, I may not even have made it into a ball of clay! I would definitely be a shapeless form! To the Writing/Arts World, I give three cheers! To God...I give my all!

A Writer's Life

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love. ~George Bernard Shaw
***

Sure we’re writers, but just exactly what is a Writer’s Life? Well, we wallow in words, make sense of sentences, hug our spellcheck when no one is looking, spew lies that we call “fiction”, spit out truths that we call “non-fiction”, we type until carpel tunnel syndrome sets in and we fill a page, or should I say pages and pages with...words!

When the computer is not churning, we’re at a loss as to what we’re supposed to be doing. “Was I supposed to clean the dishes again?” Confusion sets in when we’re not writing. We stand scratching our head in wonderment hoping something will come and make some sense out of the day, but we’re lost.

When the internet is not working, we’re stomping our feet, calling the ‘thing’ names so colorful we want to write them down real quick so we can give our antagonist a voice. Yes, we make our antagonists all the things we will never ever be or would ever say, out loud.

A writers life is not one of sit and spin, where we sit on our butts and spin restlessly in our swivel chairs. Wait, maybe our lives ARE of the sit-n-spin, we sit in our chairs and spin out stories, like spiders building the web of Shelob. (Shelob is Tolkiens spider creation!)

We’re creative, inspiring, smart, intelligent people who spins a web of words for other people to read. Some read, some get bored, some fan through the pages, while some get enthralled with our work.

Now the writers life becomes colored when we try out the publishing world. We then get accepted, rejected, booted, edited or tossed. We’re a tough bunch of people to endure such activity in our lives, by choice no less!

The writer’s life is also piled up with humility. We have to be of a humble nature because we are crawling on the ground begging for scraps of something, anything that the writing community can toss our way, and we feast on the tiny morsels as if we have struck a gold mine of inspiration, and always say, “Thank you kindly,” when someone has obliged us and done us a great service.

We have links to share, to help out the writer; we share other writers triumphs, as we muscle through our own meager triumphs. But I see every day that I wake up, get out of bed and face the day with a newness that only God allows, as a triumph in my writing life.

It isn’t all about writing and making money. Being a writer is a blessing that only other writers can understand and grasp. We are doing what we are called to do, and whatever fringe benefits come along, they are blessings! If none come along, it is still a blessing to be a writer!

***
What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith

Going Forward

Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.
Albert Einstein
***

I’ve been a tad bit wrapped up in seeing to it that once again, I put others before myself. I’ve decided to move on for many reasons.

One is, I have a tendency to dwell and cling to things that are really not in my control. I watch as others go on with their lives, live it to the fullest, but me, I always draw concern where others are concerned. I live vicariously through them and want to aid and assist. But when it comes to aiding myself? I’m at a loss there.

I need to take control of myself and get busy writing!!! I need to revise my novel, check out some markets and move past the past. Never did like the past anyway, too hard to get over that hurdle as it sticks out like a mountain down an innocent enough path that I’m trudging through on a daily basis. You know what I say? MOVE mountain!!! Ahhh...now that’s better.

A nice clear view ahead of me. Maybe it was the shift in temps. The other day we neared 100 and the humidity was awful, and the winds, well they didn’t go anywhere. This morning, my heat actually clicked on because of the drop in temperature and I raced to turn it off because I’m loving the swift cool breeze that is settling over me, giving me clear thoughts and inspiring me to write!

I realized that there is a lot going on in my life that is just not within my control to change or fix. It has me in a flux of mood swings and uncertainty and the kind of person I am, I like to have complete control of every situation, but I know, in the depths of my being, I am not in the driver seat, only God can do the driving. I’m just his passenger, with a seat belt on!

Life has gotten the better of me and it is only through writing that I can just be free to create characters; strong characters who overcome all the obstacles facing them. I can create worlds where the very intricate chromosome of life is in my control. I can bring forth new plant and animal life, have a hobgoblin if I so choose. It is through my writing that I can lose myself and forget that my reality even exists in this place and time.

As Joni is inundated with her present circumstances, drowning in the frothy waves that are washing over her, she will lose herself in the intimate relationship of writing that has come to be a healing and nurturing point throughout her life. 

My writing friends sustain me, are actually THERE for me. The Writing Community is MY family!!! We’ll weather this together, you and I. Now I need to write...

Is anyone else so enamored with writing as I?  Oh, you’re off writing? Glad to hear it!!