Tag: ideas

Echoes Into the Void

So I was having an email conversation with a friend about social media. He was pointing out the algorithm that sucks the orginality out of social media in general. While I agree with him and sometimes I think that I would be happier without the view of humanity that I recieve from reading the interwebs, I would miss the delight of seeing the creativity in the human soul.

The conversation ended with the idea that we both often feel unseen. It is not, I am sure, a novel feeling. To feel like instead of being actually heard… You are merely sending echoes into the void.

So I think that I want to hear the echoes…tell me something that you feel like isn’t being heard. One thing that you want to say. I will listen. And then go through the comments and hear others. Or pass the post on to others. Let’s get it to where no one feels like that echo.

Originality

Ok… There’s a saying… Something like everything old is new again. So I have been told on a few occasions that my ideas for stories were already done.

My response is always yes but it was not done by me. Original content doesn’t always have to be new ideas, some times it is a new look at an old idea.

Now, be aware, I am by no means suggesting plagurism… Write the story in your own words. Your voice is what will make it original.

The banana in the picture above is original… It’s different. But it is still a banana. Serena rewrote the story of Peter Pan. She put a horror twist on the story… Her novella The Death of Neverland is nothing like the original Peter Pan. It is a dark exploration of the worst of humanity. Did it start with an old idea? Yes, it certainly did. We pull from the fount of our experience… We create from what we know. The stories from our childhood reflect in the stories we tell. No two humans have the exact same well to draw from.

Fan fiction is an often disputed art form. The first idea was put into the world as accepted cannon… But then a fan saw the way to take it in a new direction. I personally have read some amazing stories on fan fiction boards. Does that invalidate the story? No, far from it. It merely means that the author found inspiration in something that someone else wrote.

Don’t let the ones who are contrary about your inspiration dissuade you from writing. The story you want to write is original… After all, you have not written it yet.

Who am I

Writers gather their characters from various places. Some look at people in their own life, some try to create ones opposite of the people they know.

By nature, a writer is a people watcher. It helps to get descriptions and ideas.

Personally, I think that people watching should start with the mirror. Who am I? Look into your own personality traits, character flaws, desires, and fears. That gives you an idea of how to write a character. Practice describing you. Do a “character” sheet for you. In an attempt to show you what I mean… Here is a character sheet for me.

Name : Patricia Lynn Harris

Nickname /preferred name: Patti

Eyes: Chocolate Brown

Hair: natural dark brown /nearly black though she often colors it in shades of purple. Wears it between short and slightly more than shoulder length.

Height 5’2

Weight 290

Body shape pear

{Here is where you decide how in depth you want the sheet to be}

Birthplace – _________

Home – ____________

{Obviously I don’t feel personally I need those}

Strengths: Intelligence, flexibility, resilience, creativity

Flaws: Lazy, chronically ill, sloppy, physical weakness

Fears: severely claustrophobic, mildly Agoraphobia, Acrophobia

Personal descriptors: pacifist, feminist, pansexual, ptsd

Abilities : program in c#, draw, write, paint, resin, jewelry design, digital art, cover design, crotchet, needlepoint, networking, computer literacy, storytelling, sewing, piano, teaching, editing, publishing

Yeah, this is all very dry information. It gives you a skeleton to work with. Then you can take it and create an image of your character. Here’s what I see…

She was not your typical shut in. Patti was creative, and used that creativity to test her boundaries. Her dark eyes sparkled as she made the characters come alive. Running her hand through the lavender hair, she grumbled her frustration about the story not coming easy.

Though she had other projects awaiting her attention, this story was pulling at her. The self imposed deadline gave a reason to avoid doing the housework that she so wanted to avoid.

See how a few dry facts turn into a short and interesting scene? Do that with you and see what you can do. Then expand until you have a good character collection to work from. It will make character development second nature. (Also remember… Villains are characters, too)

Finding Ideas

So in today’s society it seems like there’s more than we can handle in ideas out there. If you are like me, sometimes you have too many ideas. You just need to have an outside push to get the writing going.

Stories seem to be easier as far as ideas for me, but not everyone is the same. I struggle with topics for my poetry sometimes. So that is when I crawl the net looking for prompts to spark my muse.

Where do I look? Well, I personally like tumblr for prompts. The search feature helps. Look for #poetryprompts.

I also have a Pinterest board. WordPress can be a good source and there is a few who post to Instagram.

Seems like there is a few options. Sometimes you can even just put a call out on social media for ideas.

Note that many prompts can be used for writing, for art, and are interchangeable.

Where do you seek your ideas?

Friday writing day

There is an abundance of writing tips on the net nowadays. It sometimes seems like everyone is a writer anymore. So many are offering the same advice over and over. I have been wracking my brain to make my writing posts more unique. (After all I want to give you a reason why my blog is worth your read.) I decided that writing advice should be in answer to questions asked. Prompts, while useful are often boring for me to write.

So I thought about how to fill this space. Yeah, I have topics that can be put on Friday. That is not the hard part. I think that I want to keep writing a Friday topic so to remind myself that I am more than just a poet or artist. Poetry, while a type of writing, has Monday.

My Tuesday post is now a set thing. I will be doing the Tuesday tunes thing from now on. Wednesday is for art. Thursday will be my random day. Friday is the hard one. I want to keep it mostly writing related. I will be doing prompts still. I will be doing reviews. I will be posting some stories and story ideas to see if they are worth doing. I may make posts about the technical snarls of writing, editing, and publishing. It should all fit nicely under the umbrella of Writing Day. I can add subtitles to clarify what each post is dealing with.

If any of you have questions about the writing process, indie publishing, editing, or anything else… Send me the question. I will do my best to see your questions answered. If I cannot personally answer it, I will try to find a guest blogger who can.

I am also thinking about adding to Monday. Doing something similar to what I did in April. Picking a favorite poet and talking about them and their poetry. Though I enjoy sharing my own poetry with you… Sometimes it feels like I am only feeding my own ego with this blog. I want to also teach, inform, and entertain.