Tag: books

Garden of Future Possibilities

There are those creatures in your mind that claim to take control of you when you are not looking.  These creatures of the mind have many names – Depression, Anger, Fear, Sadness, Melancholy, Moody, and Demon. They whisper in your mind’s inner ear hurtful; untrue things to us.  They pretend to know us with calm voices, angry voices, emotional voices to sound like you.  The way to hush these creatures inside us, these demons is to force them into submission.  Crack a whip at them like venom from a snake.  Crack that whip as loudly as you can inside your mind.

The demon Depression is among all the others in your Garden of Doubt.  You stroll through it careful not to step on any of them so not to rouse their sleeping heaps of flesh and shadow.  Soon, you find an ‘interesting’ demonic Depression or Fear.  You walk up softly to it, and as the demon awakens, snarls at you throwing its venomous words your way, you stand tall and crack that whip of Submission. The sound is mighty loud as though Zeus the God of Thunder himself threw a bolt at the Demon’s feet.

Cracking the whip once more, “NO! You are my bitch! You come with me! NOW!”

That very moment the Demon Depression has a steel collar around its neck.  Demon Depression whimpers, but then screams at you obedience hoping you’ll cave in.  You crack the whip once more, the Demon cowers back and follows you to your work space.

Crack the whip again and point, “Get over there to the wall! Chain yourself or else!” The Demon growls angerly at you, but then gazes at the whip and obediently takes its place against the mighty Wall of Faith.  Looking upon this Demon of Depression chained by all four limbs, you study it to great detail.  Then, a light bulb goes off over your head!  You star to write!  You star to paint! You take a break from the work and you dance with glee at what you created from said Demon of Depression. Soon the work is done. You admire the beauty of what you created.  As you hand your piece onto your Wall of Creation, you look back to see that the Demon of Depression has shrunk in size to that of a puppy. The darkened colors of blues, purples, sickening greens and brownish-yellows has all be faded out. All that is left of the Demon of Depression’s colors are transparent, fading ever so more and more as the life energy from it’s darkness has been transformed by your work of inspiration.

Just before the Demon of Depression fully disappears, it transforms into a seed.  A single seed in a shape it chose to be – pastel colors in oval shape?  A glorious gold in shape of a twenty side dice? Silvery shimmers come off of it like light from the sun or moon as you old it in your hand. You hold the seed close to your chest as you smile with love all around you. Turning away from the Garden of Doubt, you open a gate to another garden – the Garden of Future Possibilities. You walk through the garden with pride. For each battle with the Garden of Doubt, you reap what you sow of the seeds in which the Demons transformed into.  The Garden of Future Possibilities is colorful beyond measure. The colors are endless. The flowers of all kinds of shapes are endless and beautiful.

Finding an empty place to bury the seed, you place it in the hole and cover it in the good tilled earth. Water it with light. Give it plenty of shine from your soul. Watch your garden grow with strength of your heart.

What will you find in your Garden of Future Possibilities? You won’t know until you put that Demon of Depression into submission. You are the Master of Depression. It will be hard work to fight them all even if you have thousands to face every day. It is your job to face them, but remember you don’t have to do it alone. Call a friend to help you fight the demons with you. You are not alone in your darkened garden. There is light and love waiting to help you. Reach out. I know you can do it.

Power of Words: Old Style vs New (A Comparison)

Which is best: modern dictionary with thesaurus or old; well loved thesaurus publication? Here are some examples as I thumbed through both.

The New Roget’s Dictionary & Thesaurus Form – Edited by: Norman Lewis (edition 1931, 1936, 1959, 1961, 1964 by: G.P. Putnam’s Son

idol: n. – image, golden calf, graven image, fetish, (worship); beloved, darling, dear (love)

celebrity: n. – luminary, personage, notable (fame)

 

The Little Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus – 2003, 2008 copyright

idol: n. -1)  icon, effigy, graven image, fetish, totem 2) hero, heroine, star, celebrity, favorite, darling; inf. blue-eyed boy

celebrity: n. – star, superstar, personality, household name

 

While I compared the two widely different examples, I noticed something very disappointing: the English language is diminishing before our eyes. The language in which we speak is losing its luster and stamina.

While editing my novel “Soul’s Little Lie” I noticed something about my writing from the early stages. I repeated what I was taught in simplicity of word style. The words I used in how I wanted to express the feeling of the story and character interactions were weak; had no power to hold up against the pages. While using my old 1930s Roget’s Thesaurus I learned of words I never knew existed or the context in which they are used. My eyes, my mind expanded to a whole new (perhaps old) world. I dove into this new found adventure and began adding what I had now learned.

There are ways to to use words in explaining a time period or a type of character in how they speak. Say, in the 18th century a character would speak in a more colorful manner. So using, ‘older style’ words would be appropriate. However, that’s cheating us out of the beauty of words. I would ravel in the joy of using ‘notable’ than ‘superstar’ to describe an idolized person.

The way words are used today are extremely simplified so much that this generation and the next will not know the art in which words are created. There are many words in different languages that mean the same thing  just like the English language does, too. The difference is, older cultures try to keep to the same ways of language as long as possible. More modern, faster growing; expanding countries like the United States throw away or shift words around too much. Everyone seems to want to keep everything around them fresh, ‘novel’ as though they can’t sit still long enough to enjoy what they already had.

I ask you now, readers and writers alike: Open your old, beloved thesaurus with renewed vigor. Dive into those dust stained pages. Let your fingers do the walking. Play with the idea for a while in what new; old words you can use in your future works. You will not be disappointed. I promise you that.

 

Comfy Locations Are A Must…

Having written two novels, first original manuscript is being completely reworked now, I have found that comfortable locations to set down to work is important. I’m not just saying a place where it is most covenant – I’m saying it’s best to find multiple locations whenever possible.

You’ll have your typical locations where your desktop or laptop are located: living room, bedroom, din, or kitchen table. Those are all common places that are good to work at as long as it’s quiet and you get no disturbances. (‘Disturbances’ is for a new blog sometime) I’m talking about the uncommon locations. My current ‘uncommon’ location I’m typing right this very second and have been for the past two hours is reclining on my Liberator brand Esse chair. The chair is located in my studio/bedroom semi-apartment where I’m currently living with my elderly parents. This chair is black, velvety soft and curved to the contour of your back and legs. Plenty of pillows to support my head and neck. Price tag: $499.99 purchased at any adult sex toy shop online or in person. Comes in many different colors and a larger size, too.

Why this chair, you ask? Well, it’s comfortable for me. It’s away from my main location – my art studio desk and terrible gray; old fabric office chair. I knew I should have gone with my Dad to get a free, new office chair last month. The real, logical reason to change my location where I type is simple: the feeling, the energy to continue said scene was stagnate and unmoving with emotion. I had to find a place to feel comfortable mentally. It’s what painters do to find that right place of inspiration while they paint or draw. Same applies with writers.

Sometimes I’ll type on my bed, but that isn’t very comfortable simply because it’s where I sleep. While I typed “Soul’s Little Lie” book one, I did lay on another bed from time to time when I was married. The reason – the energy was there at that time. I even typed parts of it sitting in my childhood 1930s wood oak desk in the living room of the apartment. (since then I gave the desk away and I think I should not have, oh well.) However, trying to type in the ragged; falling apart recliner that was my ex-husband’s, didn’t fair well in energy. It smelled and was dusty. It was comfortable for a few minutes, but not for long. Then I’d find myself back in the queen size bed typing away a few more pages.

Another location I tried and I don’t recommend this for everyone, was at a cafe called Zippy’s. The atmosphere was inviting. Charming with little nick-nacks of bikes hung on the wall. Pictures of Zippy the dog. Local artists finished canvas paintings up for sale. The coffee was good. The black bean, cheese, spinach quesadilla with hummus was fantastic! However, it was noisy but not too much. I plugged in my IPod ear buds and turned on my ITunes collection. No matter how much music I drowned out of the background noise it didn’t work. I had barely typed one full sentence before I realized there were too many people around. My eyes kept getting distracted with movement around me. I would sense the presence of someone about to get up from their table or chair, or even the couch. (They had great couches there with plenty of pillows) Zippy, the male black spotted; white coat dalmatian, was walking around checking out all the customers and even came to see me. I realized this was not working. Ate my tasty, homemade quesadilla, packed up my laptop and headed home.

The basis of a comfortable location for any writer of any level is this: when the energy strikes pulling you to a part of your house or apartment or even a location in your school, listen to your instincts. The proper location can make or break the time you take to write a new story, article or full novel. Yes, by all means write anywhere when the mood strikes and always bring a notebook and pen with you just in case ideas start flowing. Not all of us have those fancy IPhones or IPads or other tablet devices.

Just like location is everything for a new store to take root, this same principle applies to writing – location, location, location. Find a place comfortable that feels just right for that special energy that will propel you forward into your next best work. When that ‘typing location’ goes stale, pick up your butt and your work and move to a new location. The same applies with finding just the right place for a picnic or a perfect tree to lean against to read a good book.