Motivational Monday: What Motivates me today?

My motivation today is to finish a story. I started The Power Behind the Throne last week with about 300 words and then got stuck. This morning I realized that the words I have written do not go with this story. This means I either have to change the title, which is based on a poem I wrote several years ago, or start over again. I am starting over again, but I am not going to get rid of the words I have written because I can use them in another story. 

I have another idea for a story, which does not work with either story I have started. My third idea is about a Jackalope. I did some research on the myth of the Jackalope this last weekend. I think a Jackalope would make a good character is a fantasy story, so I will use it. This means I am now working on three stories instead of two. 

Success Saturday: The Last Saturday in November 2015

This month I've encountered setbacks and success. I didn't finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I did finish several poems and stories. I did some port housekeeping in my writing.com portfolio. I reviewed numerous items on writing.com. I made responded the several blog prompts and posted several blog entries. I ate turkey, dressing, and cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. November was a month filled with successes and failures. November was a normal month.

Writing about Falling Down and Getting Back Up

“Falling down is part of life. Getting back up is living.”
—Unknown

I have fallen down many times in my 68 years on this planet. I have always gotten back up and pushed forward. Sometimes it took me a few minutes to get up. Sometimes I needed help getting up. However, I always got up and moved forward even if that moving forward meant changing the direction I was traveling.

Now I am incorporating those falls and risings in my poems and stories. I have a lot of experience and wisdom to share with younger folks. I know that they will not always listens because the youth and young people of today have to make their own mistakes. The only way we humans learn is by making mistakes, by falling down, and by getting up again. This does not mean that I cannot share my wisdom when asked directly or by writing it into stories and poems.

We senior citizens of today have a duty to leave our wisdom behind. At death our souls and bodies separate; our bodies go into the ground and our souls ascend into the next world. The only thing we leave behind is our written wisdom. Even if we incorporate that wisdom into fiction or poetry it still remains behind for the youth of today and tomorrow to read.

Sunday Speculations: Can I bake a cherry pie?

Can I bake a cherry pie? I don't know but I am going to try. On Friday, when I went to the grocer y store I purchased a frozen cherry pie because I wanted to try out the oven in this apartment. I have not baked a pie in a long time, which is why I got the frozen pie. The pie gives the baking directions on the back of the box, so all I have to do is set the oven temperature and time. After I try out the oven then I am going to use the top of the stove to fix either bacon or rather sausage and eggs. Perhaps I will warm over the chicken I have in the fridge with some sort of canned vegetable.

This experience aught to give me some ideas for stories or poems. I noticed that I have a tendency to use my surroundings and experiences in some of my stories. I noticed this when I reread a romance story I wrote last month. I used the apartment I lived in as the home of the main character. I am now living in a two bedroom apartment with a real kitchen in a separate room which will become the setting in some of my stories.

Where do Writing ideas come from?

My stories run up and bite me on the leg -I respond
by writing down everything that goes on during the bite.

When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

Ray Bradbury

  Sometime I wish my stories or poems would bit me on the leg because lately they've been hiding from me. On February 1, I started to write a poem about spiritual liberty, it took me seven days to finally come up with the first lines. Even then, the first two lines I wrote were from a poem I started several years ago. After I got the first rhyming couple down, then the other six lines came to me. After that, I changed the lines that didn't fit in the poem.

I have the idea for a story peeking out of the back of my mind, but every time I focus on it the idea runs away and hides. I'm not sure whether it will be a fantasy or science fiction story, the only thing I'm sure about is that it has something to do with the weird noises a house or apartment make when I'm the only one living there. I got the idea when I was living in the house before I moved to this apartment.

Perhaps it's a ghost story I'm attempting to write. The sounds could suggest a ghost rather then just the house or the apartment settling. Some of the noises I hear don't sound like a building settling on its foundations. Most of the noises I can explain as water running through the pipes or the neighbors, but a few of the other noises I'm not sure what's making them. That was the problem I encountered when I was living in the house.

I know the noise of a refrigerator running or an environmental unit kicking on, but some of the knocks and bangs stump me. Especially when they come from an empty room or the three-bedroom apartment to my east. It's empty, so noises shouldn't be coming from that direction; however, they do. Maybe the noises are ideas knocking at the door of my mind asking to come in.

The Stories I Tell My Mother

Mom has Alzheimer’s disease; as a result, there are certain things she does not remember. One of the things that have slipped her mind is the death of her parents. Mom does not remember my Grandparents death or funeral.

Mom misses her parents. She wants to see them, but she does not know where they are and she cries because they do not live with us. To calm Mom down, I tell her stories about where they are. I do not mention that we buried them in Blackwell, Oklahoma, in the last century.

One of the stories I tell Mom, is that Grandpa sold the house and they moved into a retirement community that lets them travel all over the world. Yesterday, Mom came home crying and missing her parents. I told her they called from Israel. My Grandmother always wanted to visit the Holy Land and never got to; so I told Mom Grandpa took her on a trip to Israel and that they called to give her their love.

Searching for Writer’s Tools

Words a writer’s tools
Black words typed on a white page
A fresh perspective

I did an internet search for writer’s tools and found some helpful sources that I will review in later posts. Some of the sources were of no help because they were out dated. This caused me to think about words, the basic tool of a writer.

Words make up phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, which we use to create posts, stories, poems, and novels. The words we use must be fresh, so when we research our sources must be recent. In stories and poems, our words find their basis in memory, imagination and research; therefore, the sources of our research must be fresh to help spur on our words.