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Feb
7
Create365: Backyard Boards
Filed Under anthropology | Comments
When I was a tween, I used to set up sawhorses in the backyard with a board running across them. It was my own makeshift balance beam. I was never in gymnastics, so I didn’t feel compelled to try to tumble across my beam. Instead, I put my ballet training to use, spinning and leaping my way across to favorite tapes.
I have many happy memories of choreographing dances meant to be performed on a narrow, elevated surface.
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that someone had built a small bridge across part of our backyard using two boards and a pair of flats. It’s not stable enough to dance across, but it always reminds me of those afternoons outside in my youth.
Feb
6
A friend was drawing on the whiteboard in our dining room and I asked him why he kept drawing Disney characters. He had drawn Mickey and Pluto. Mickey was looking a bit…well…high. I commented on it, and then I bravely made my own attempt at drawing him.
Please don’t laugh. We all know my artistic abilities are sorely lacking.
Feb
4
I’m kind of enjoying this idea of using oneword to explore this idea (or more precisely, this group of characters). Today’s word was a great opportunity to let Loren through a minor teenaged fit.
My brother threw down his pencil.
I rolled my eyes, “What is it now?”
“Why do I care about the main exports and imports of the country? Doesn’t somebody else deal with this?”
“Loren, you’re going to be king. You have to understand how the kingdom works.”
“Then, maybe I don’t want to be king,” he stormed out of the library.
So, Nissa has a younger brother who is the next in line to be king, but would rather do something less stressful with his life, and an even younger sister who has taken it upon herself to look after her family. They’re almost an endearing bunch, aren’t they?
Feb
4
The Creativity Block
Filed Under creativity | Comments
All right, so we already know I suffer from the occasional Creative Block, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone, so how about a list of ways to help beat Creative Block?
First, there are always questions you can ask to help either jump start or refocus a project:
Then, you can build…on your work or someone else’s
If you keep a design notebook, a simple review of past notes can yield all sorts of work.
The possibilities are endless. You just have to leave yourself open to them.
Feb
3
I’m not usually one for writing a story in sections, but that story idea I shared a glimpse of only wants to express itself in chunks.
This can be useful when oneword gives me a word that fits so neatly into that idea:
The loss shook her to her core. Living inside the castle was a surreal existence. She knew that. It’s what drove her to sneak out to the tavern every night. She wanted to listen to what life in the world was like.
Nothing anyone said could have prepared her for this. Sure, travelers and soldiers talked about death. Losing companions, comrades, friends.
But this was her little sister. The girl who had played with her and studied by her side. The girl who had tiptoed into her room night after night for chats.
Now she was gone, and Nissa would never hear Malia’s bright laughter ever again. It tore her apart.
It feels a bit redundant there at the end, but it fits onto a scene I wrote months ago.
Feb
2
I like to follow a couple of writing sites that offer prompts routinely. I find that when I can’t or don’t want to write, a prompt can stir up something and get me writing. That’s what happened with a recent prompt from Writer’s Digest’s Promptly blog. The minute I read the prompt, I started thinking about a story world I’ve been slowly building in my head for a while now, and came up with this:
“Daddy’s going to kill you. He’s going to kill you,” she said.
I wasn’t listening, though. I was thinking about something else – something crazy. “You know what I’d like to be?” I said. “You know what I’d like to be?” Malia drew back, but I continued, “I’d like to be king.”
“Nissa…,” Malia whispered.
“Queen, really, “I finished unlacing my doublet and set it on the bed. “Think about it. Loren doesn’t want the position. I do. I’ve been studying history and politics. I’m the eldest.” I pulled on my shift. “I actually spend time among the people.” I pulled on my surcoat and started brushing out a snarl in my hair.
“And if Daddy catches you creeping in to the castle, you’ll go from princess to prisoner!” Malia took the brush and smoothed my hair before plaiting it.
“We are already prisoners, Malia. When was the last time any of us was allowed anything more than a brief walk in the gardens?”
“I’m sure Daddy has his reasons.” She pushed the braid over my shoulder. “You’re lucky no one has told him what you’re up to.”
I don’t know that this will work its way into the project or not, but I kind of like how it sets up what Malia thinks of her older sister’s brazen ways.
Feb
1
Have you ever had one of those days where you’ve finished a couple of major tasks and you have a little time left over? So, you look over your to-do list to see what could neatly fit into that time, and before you know it, Play-Doh’s in your hand, and you’re trying to figure out how to build a monkey?
Clearly, I have.
For whatever reason, I felt the need to make really long arms and tail, but I think he did come out looking relatively like a monkey.
Feb
1
The Point of Creating
Filed Under creativity | Comments
Last week, I missed a couple of days on my creativity project. The first time, nothing inspired me. I realized I hadn’t done anything creative, and started looking through my list of suggested projects, and nothing spoke to me. I looked at the OneWord prompt, and couldn’t find a story in the word. So I missed my very first day.
I missed my second day a couple of days later when I hit Day Four on a long, stress-inducing week. I came home, ate dinner, curled up in a ball, and forgot to move until the next morning. My second thought when I woke up was, “Did I forget again?”
Last year, I really struggled with getting anything out of me. True, I was rewriting a novel and editing another, but I was really dragging my feet on both. I tried various motivation programs, and nothing worked. So, when December 31 rolled around and I asked myself what really needed to change in the next year, I knew the real answer to that was being creative.
I spent the next week kicking off the Create365 Project, and wrote out a list of ways to be creative. Fields I wanted to practice and explore. Projects I’ve been meaning to work on, but keep putting off. Projects that have lived on a to-do list, forgotten. I combed through my to-do lists, my notes, and my journal, looking for ways I had said I wanted to be creative.
And then I tried to edit the list, to remove the items that weren’t “creative”. That led to a conversation with myself on what constitutes creating, a conversation I’ve since rehashed a couple of times with other artists.
Creativity is creating something. If you go look it up in a dictionary (I used dictionary.com), you will find that “creativity” is the state of being creative, and that “creative” is the likelihood to create. It never says you have to create in a specific way or that you have to create a specific product. It just says that you have to create.
If you make something, you are creating. If you build something, you are creating. If you bring something that previously wasn’t into being, you are creating.
The point of creating is to create, regardless of the form. We’ve really become bound up in this idea that being creative means you have to be innovative, artistic, and in some cases misunderstood. But we’re putting too much pressure on the creative spirit. The engineer who designs a bridge is creative just as the writer hard at work over their novel is creative. They are bringing something forth that didn’t exist before.
So, what are you creating?
Jan
31
When I first envisioned my living/work space a few years ago, I wanted colored walls and neutral linens. I almost got what I wanted. My walls are lilac. Some of my accents are nutmeg. There was a plan for sage linens that never materialized.
Fie years of living in this soothing color scheme wears on your activity level after a while, though, so I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to revamp the color scheme. I’m thinking about moving my nutmeg to the walls, and maybe switching the lilac for a rich shade of blue.
Color by COLOURlovers
Oddly enough, this was inspired by a towel thrown over a shirt. I’m not sure how I feel about the middle color, but attempts to apply color theory to the initial blue (#1) and brown (#2) made me cringe. I do love the richness of colors, and I think the browns would give this space a warmth it’s been sorely lacking for the past few years.
On a positive note, I got to name two colors: Shallow Waters and Wet Sand. There are so many “discovered” colors on the site that this is actually a bit of an accomplishment.
Jan
31
Twitter Updates for 2010-01-31
Filed Under daily tweets | Comments
- RT @jeffparks: "If you don't want to stand beside our troops, feel free to stand in front of them." #
- Someone asked to use one of Dead Bunny's videos today. I can't help but feel a little proud (and flattered). #
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