December 31, 2012

Can Making a List Change Your Life?

In the spirit of the New Year, I've completely gutted my desk. Threw out dead pens, empty tape rolls, crumpled receipts, and tattered notebooks. What should have taken an hour, took several because I got all swept up reading through some of these old notebooks. 

I've discovered I have a serious list-making addiction. Grocery lists, party-planning lists, gifts to get BoyChild lists. And then I stumbled upon another list, a little different from the rest. In fact, it was a series of 4 lists: "How to Get Happy Starting Now - 2011".

"Colours" by Camdiluv via foter.com
 

December 23, 2012

Merry Christmas Everyone!




I want to take this brief moment to wish you all the best over this holiday season. 
I hope that this time of family and friends brings you comfort and peace in these troubled times. 
I wish you and yours health and happiness.

Thank you for visiting me here on Scribbles & Strikethroughs and welcoming me into your online family. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope to see you again in 2013: Year of the Snake

XOXO
AJ

December 04, 2012

4 Things That Kept Me Writing: Lessons from NaNoLand

Garry-Tony's-Cave USA by Christian Panama
Here are 4 things I want to share with you; things that I've learned, mostly over the last year, but more profoundly over the course of my NaNoWriMo experience.

1. 

Myelin, Baby!: Learning by Doing.

See, there's this stuff called myelin in our brain. I learned about it by reading this post by Justine Musk called The Dirty Secret Truth about Talent - and How to Grow It. We grow myelin by struggling, by learning something new and challenging. 

"...every time you struggle with a new skill, every time you push yourself,  you’re firing the right signals through the right neural channels.  Myelin adds itself to your neural circuitry…until one day the skill comes so “naturally” that it looks and seems effortless.  You are “talented”. But that “breakthrough” you experienced didn’t come out of nowhere.  It’s not a gift from the gods."

 It's hard work and myelin working together to 'grow' your skill, your talent.

So keep pushing yourself, keep working hard, keep striving. It will pay.


2.

Give up on Passion: What I Mean, is this...

November 01, 2012

NaNoWriMo Progress Report


NOVEMBER 29th:
So, BAM! I did it. 
My first time ever attempting NaNoWriMo, and I 'won'...!!

I learned a lot this month, and I've already started planning a whole blog post about this (because, omg, time to get blogging again!), but I can't not say right now, what is the most important thing that I learned. It's so simple, and so powerful.

I CAN DO IT.

October 28, 2012

So Long, Farewell...Till December Anyway.

Working Late by Thomas Rockstar via foter.com
So, there are only four sleeps until NaNoWriMo starts. I'm currently in the throes of outlining and am writing this little post as a classic exercise in avoidance (been doing this a lot this week). 

I don't think I'll be writing any new posts until NaNo is over (it's possible, but doubtful). 

I anticipate many a late night spent hovering over my keyboard, my thoughts whirling around in an amorphous tangle, and my coffee cup woefully cold.

October 18, 2012

The Next Big Thing: Blog Hop

Happy Girl Hopscotch in Strawberry by Pink Sherbet Photography
Holy Smackers, I've been blog hop tagged! 

The amazing, generous Cat York is curious about my WIP (!) and decided to include me in this epic blog hop. 

The idea is to answer ten questions about my current WIP and then 'tag' 3-5 other writers to also complete the survey.

I'm nervous and humbled, because I'm not an author. The WIP I'm writing is my first. But, I can't say no to Cat, so I'll do my best.


1: What is the working title of your book?

A Bird's Eye View - I'm horrible with titles (my first idea was The Trickster Crow, eek). Lucky for me I know this really great writer who is BRILLIANT at titles, so she named the book for me. Thanks C!

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?

The long answer to this question can be found at this blog post. The short answer is that I wondered what it would be like to turn into one of the crows hanging around my deck and just fly, fly, fly. It's funny to think back on that now, because my WIP has moved away from this rather dramatically.


October 13, 2012

NaNoWriMo and World-Building Hell

All rights reserved © AJ Bradley 2012


You can see by this picture why I'm no artist (wink, wink). I'm ok with it.

I've been (like almost everyone else, it seems!) preparing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month-November). NaNo, for those of you who may not know, is an exercise in "quantity not quality" writing. It's a way (for me) to write without being enslaved by my internal editor; that little voice that questions every word of every sentence as I write it, which really slows me down. Because in NaNo, you have to write 50,000 words in 30 days or less to "win", I figure I'd have no choice but to ignore the editor and just write like my fingers are on fire. 

September 23, 2012

There's Only One Way From Here to There

Leg Warmers by Harvey Edwards
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” - George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the  courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

What they don't talk about is how bloody, fucking hard it is to make your dreams come true. 

It requires an enormous investment of time and effort to bridge that creative gap and get from where we are (super-sucky-omg-I'll-never-be-good-at-this) to where we want to be (holy-crap-I'm-the-next-Stephen-King). 

And there's only one road on that map. It's called Bleed Onto The Page Road. And there can only be arrived at from here. You can't be good, without getting good first. And the only way to get good, is to practice. And not just half-assed, I wrote 10,000 words today, and logged my 1,000 hours this year. It has to be hard work. It has to be deliberate practice. It creates bruises, and twisted joints. Ripped up legwarmers and broken toes. Nightmares and multi-vitamin dependencies. 

I know this is true. 
Because I've tried every other way.

September 01, 2012

Which Comes First: The Passion or the Will?

Which comes first: your passion to do something, or the will to do it? 
Do you do something because you're good at it, or so you can get good at it? 

Sneaking my own poem in with a duotang full of my favourites when I was 14.


I read a great post by Justine Musk and it has kept popping up in my mind ever since:

You might think passion comes first, and mastery second – but what if it’s the other way around? You might feel drawn to something but drop it as soon as it gets difficult or tedious or boring or unpleasant. You take this as a sign that you don’t have any passion for it. But what if passion comes after you’ve closed the creative gap (or at least worked your way partway through it)?


It's like she was speaking directly to me. I can't tell you how grateful I am for this sentiment; because I find writing excruciating. But I have reached a point in my life where I just can't abandon my WIP. You don't know me, so you don't know what this means. I assumed I would grow up to be a writer. I'm thirty-eight years old and I'm about 25% into the first novel I've ever written. I've walked away from writing all my life. Because it's really hard. Because I am afraid I have no talent for it. Because wanting to be a writer when you grow up is like wanting to be a rock star: impossible. 

She goes on to say:


Sometimes you have to choose – and commit – based on little more than instinct and faith: instinct that somewhere deep inside you, perhaps very very deep, is the ability to be good at this, and faith that the passion will grow with your ability.


"The passion will grow with your ability." AWESOME. And you know what? I think it's starting to work. Slowly, the writing is coming easier. The last two chapters I wrote were fun. Fun! And this is so kick-ass-hallelujah-restore-my-faith awesome because I will not walk away from my writing this time.

So, I may wonder sometimes that perhaps writing isn't really my calling, and I'm just being stubborn by coming back to it time and again. Because there isn't a lot of passion there...it takes a huge disciplinary effort on my part to sit at the machine and punch out some words. It's awkward, and embarrassing, and everyone else can spew out thousands of words in a day, no problem. 

But whatever. I'm doing it. 

And if things keep going the way they have been lately, perhaps the passion will grow and it'll just get more and more fun. Woot!

August 19, 2012

Steinbeck's Nobel Speech

Saw this today and had to share it: Steinbeck's Nobel Speech. 

Also puts me in mind of what has happened with the band Pussy Riot in Russia (follow the link, for real).

Let's never underestimate the power and responsibility of words, especially when expressed through art.





August 05, 2012

New Toolbox & A Borrowed Mantra

I've been obsessing over my new writing program, Scrivener (for Windows). If you've never tried it, I recommend giving it a go (you can get a free 30 day trial here)!

As with anything, there is a learning curve. But, I now have ALL of my notes (from 2009 through last night's 3:00am wake-up-with-an-idea scribble), all my pictures, all my lists, all my music, all the tools, (not to mention the actual manuscript) in one big glorious toolbox that I can navigate with ease. With ease, people! And it's so nice not have my desk caked with yellow post-its anymore.

A new toy can be a distraction. But, it can also be an inspiration. I've been watching a lot of tutorials and playing around with the program and, as with the 7 Sentence Story Test from my last post, I found areas that need some attention. Just by setting up the scrivener file.

If nothing else, learning something new makes you use your brain. The brain is lazy, it loves assumptions. "Don't worry, AJ," it says, "There are no causality issues in your outline. Just keep going and you'll be fine."  Until I hit those issues and am knocked on my ass. Learning something new, doing something new, is like a storm-warning blast to the brain. It resists, but then it starts to hum and jump, and before you know it, you're solving problems that save you from that ass-hitting-pavement moment.

Learning, doing, something we've never done before (like writing a damn novel!) is hard. But you know what? It is fun. And it's noble. As Phedre no Delaunay learned, "All knowledge is worth having."

So I will leave you with this. I watch it. OFTEN. It gets me inspired, every time.


 
zefrank.com

PS: Someday, BoyChild is going to ask me what I wanted to be when I  grew up. My answer will be "a writer". Then he'll ask, "Then why aren't you a writer, Mommy?" I refuse to accept that my answer could be, "Because I never tried."

July 22, 2012

The Seven Sentence Story


By nakae via foter.com
The title of my blog mentions that I am a neophyte writer, and I mean it. I’m really new. I am writing a novel for the very first time. I am unschooled and inexperienced. So, when I stumble upon a little tool like The Seven Sentence Story structure, I get really jazzed.

Sometimes, when I sit down to write, I have a really hard time getting started. I need some sort of warm up. Often, I read the last chapter I wrote, or my favourite chapter. But today, I read my outline, and wow, did I find some holes.  I stared blankly at it, temporarily defeated.

So, I surfed. I checked out my blog and admired my little Goodreads widget, the one that shows, in little thumbnails, all the books that I’ve read in the last several years. I saw one of them, and I admit, I was a little embarrassed that it was there. Out of curiosity I clicked on it to see if I’d reviewed it, and I had. I read my review and scrolled down and read some more reviews (most of which were much more virulent than mine) and one of the reviewers tried to show the plotless-ness of the book by applying the Seven Sentence Story structure to it. This structure, transposed over that story, showed how abysmally plotted it was (or rather, wasn’t), which was fun to read, and it offered a really keen insight into the tent poles of story. I applied it to my WIP, and it forced me back further than I'd wanted to go; but once I hunkered down and repositioned (and re-wrote) the major stepping stones, I had a much stronger, and more helpful outline. YAY!

I was so excited about it that as soon as I was finished typing up the new outline, I published this post. I’m sure many of you know of the Seven Sentence Story already, but just in case you don’t, here it is (as per Edward Willet):

  1. Introduce what the main character wants and the first action he/she takes to accomplish the goal.
  2. The results of the action the character takes from sentence #1 has to make the situation worse.  The character should be farther from the goal now. 
  3. Based on the new situation, the character takes a second action to accomplish the goal.
  4. The results of the second action the character takes from sentence #3 is to make the situation worse.  The character should be even farther from the goal now.  
  5. Based on the new situation, the character takes a third and final action to accomplish the goal.  
  6. This third action either accomplishes the character’s goal, fails to accomplish the goal, or there is an unusual but oddly satisfying different result of the last action.  
  7. The denouement.  This sentence wraps the story up.  It could tell the reader how the character felt about the results, or provide a moral, or tell how the character’s life continued on.

Cheers!
AJ



July 08, 2012

The Not-So-Tangled Web


RickyNJ / Foter
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve gone back to the beginning of my antagonist’s journey to make sure I really know him and understand him; to flesh him out. I learned some really cool stuff about him and how his journey leads him, inevitably, to the climax of the book. His story is compelling and hopefully, he’ll come off that way on the page. 

Because compelling is what we want.

Are all my character’s compelling? Does their journey lead them, inexorably, to the conclusion I have in mind for them?

Well, to make sure, I’m re-constructing my outline from each character’s perspective. Plotting the points of connectivity among all the characters’ timelines. It’s amazing to see how each of them follows their own path to a point of crisis together.

I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with this idea, but it feels freakin’ brilliant; and I’m stoked at all the sub-plots that are introducing themselves. What crazy, heartbreaking, fateful lives my characters have led.

It’s a not-so-tangled web of stories that must lead, with logic and causality, to the resolution of the plot. Like a spider’s web, each strand is woven in and around the others until they are all massed together at the strongest point of the structure, the centre. Or, for the purpose of my metaphor, the climax of the story.

So, perhaps, if you’re finding a need for depth in your writing, try seeing the story from a satellite character’s point of view. It may get you over a plateau, out of your writer’s block, or maybe even lead you into a sequel (yay!); either way, it will strengthen your bond with your characters and hopefully, your readers’ bond also.

June 26, 2012

Oh Right, I'm the Bad Guy

piccsy.com

I'm approaching a scene in my WIP that presents our first view of the antagonist. I want to do him justice. So, I've been researching a lot about developing good 'villains'. (See what I did there? "good" villains ;) I've realized that the antagonist that I see in my head, is flat on the page. What's the problem, how can I make him more compelling? Well, my young padawan, it's all about duality.

We all have good and bad within us (see my last post). Whether we are good or bad people is determined by what forces within get our focus.

The trick is to apply this to all of our characters. We know that the best protagonist is one that overcomes inner demons to grow into a hero that we can get behind. But let's not forget about the antagonist. At some point he fought his inner demons too, and lost.

Yesterday, I was watching BoyChild playing with his toys. One toy said to the other one, "Wait, wait! You're the Bad Guy!" To which, the other toy replied, "Oh right, I'm the Bad Guy. Mwahahaha!" And off they went, battling against each other, my son accessing his perception of good and evil in equal measure to make an epic battle. The Bad Guy didn't know he was the Bad Guy, he was just doing his thing. Oh, what our young can teach us!

So, I'm going back to the beginning, exploring my antagonist's history, learning how he got the way he is. I'm making sure I find his strengths as well as his weaknesses. His attributes as well as his flaws. Respecting his Journey.

After all, the best Bad Guys are the ones we feel sorry for, in the end.

May 20, 2012

Feeding My Wolf

www.whitewolfpack.com
There is an old, native legend (Cherokee, I believe) that tells of a grandfather talking to his grandson about an epic battle. This battle is waged within each of us. A white wolf pitched in an eternal war against a black wolf. The white wolf symbolizes all things good within us; joy, peace, love, hope, wisdom, kindness, compassion, etc. He battles to the death against the black wolf, which symbolizes all things evil within us; envy, anger, regret, sorrow, greed, guilt, dishonesty, etc. The grandfather told his progeny that these two wolves fight always in each person on the earth. The grandfather is tired from this never ending fight. Sometimes the white wolf is winning, sometimes the black wolf is winning. It is a long fight. It can be saddening. But they fight on. And on. The grandfather told his grandson that there are two such wolves within him also, fighting this same battle. The grandson was silent, thinking of all his grandfather had told him. After some time, he lifted his head and asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win, Grandfather?" The grandfather smiled and said, "The one you feed."

I first heard this story about a year and a half ago and I've thought of it often since. Today's world can be an ugly, confusing, frustrating place. Our lives swing on a pendulum; good times, bad times, balance. But it never lasts. Love is born, love dies. We are well, we are sick. We are content. For a time. There is little we can do to control the world at large. But we have absolute control over ourselves, over our attitude. We choose, every moment of every day, which wolf will get the steak. It's in how we react to the guy that just cut us off in the merge lane or the sound (and I swear there is a sound) of the sun bursting from behind a cloud and blazing down on the top of your head. 

Maybe it's me, but it seems like too many of us must have bloated black wolves inside us sitting on top of a wasted but stubborn white wolf. Everyone is so quick to yell and blame and throw dirty, angry looks around like spears. It's so easy to be angry. So easy to come home and bitch and moan about your crappy day. So easy to feel defeated. Exhausted. It's so easy to give up.

I can't write when I've allowed myself to wallow in my own acidic self-doubt; when the black wolf is on top. But I've learned that, despite appearances, the little white wolf in me is a lot scrappier than she looks. Every time I think I've had enough, that's it, I'm done...there is a shiver in my belly. And I know that it's not true. My lips purse, I take a deep breath, I sit at the keyboard, and I just keep going on. It isn't pretty. I keep stumbling. I sit and rest for looooooong stretches of time. But I keep getting back up. I need to know. 

I need to know that the white wolf will win.

April 18, 2012

Commitment Phobe

Vaishak Suresh

I’m having trouble getting into my writing again, of which anyone who has ever read any of my posts will be tediously aware. I read what I’ve written and it seems…flat. There’s no texture, no mood. Sometimes, I just can’t feel the scene. And as soon as that thought occurs to me I realize what (at least, part of) the problem is, and actually has been for some time. Setting. I can’t seem to commit to a time setting. When I first conceptualized A Bird’s Eye View, I saw it on an old fairytale forest island; but I’m terrified (and overwhelmed) by the idea of being factually inaccurate (re: vehicles, tools, etc). So, I re-started the book in a more modern time, the 1960’s (because I really don’t want to deal with cell phones and internet). But it isn’t working. It’s not the right…feel. When I think of my setting, I feel something old. But when I think of my characters, I hear their youth, their modernity.

Part of me says, “Just write the damn thing already and fix it later.” But I know I’m not underestimating the importance of the setting.

Donald Maass said, “Highly memorable settings have a palpable reality that is larger than the characters…It lives in the readers’ mind after the plot is long forgotten.”

Setting is what most strongly conveys mood, in my humble opinion. New Orleans is a city on my Bucket List because I read The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. Could Jack London’s White Fang have been set anywhere other than Canada’s Deep North, or Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City in any city other than New York? Even Forks, a place you know (and I know you know it) because of a book that somehow made the town so real for readers that when you set the book down, you’re shocked to find yourself here instead of there (especially if it’s sunny).

So, I need to really hammer it out. Commit. I close my eyes. And the island wins out. My story is set on an ancient, living island. The characters come after. 

Now, how do I show my readers what the island is all about?

I’m reading a book right now that has a setting that makes me so cold every night, I’ve been sleeping with my socks on….really. I have no idea when this book is set, and it doesn’t seem to matter. How does she do it, this author?

Well, I googled it.

And Google told me that it’s all about the senses. (Oh God, I know, it’s so obvious! But when you’re writing a scene, ok when I’m writing a scene, you’re so focused on the movement of it. The dialogue, the plot points, the character development. Sometimes I forget to treat the setting like another character of the story. Sorry, Setting.)

The Bookshelf Muse has a great post called the Setting Thesaurus.

“So how do we achieve great setting description? Two words, people: Sensory information. The five senses Sight, Touch, Smell, Taste and Sound are key to involving the reader, because they transform descriptive word choices into experiences.”

They go on to list dozens of descriptive words to help convey sensory information for a particular setting. For example, I clicked on “forest” and some of the results were:

Sounds: soughing wind, groaning trees
Tastes: bitter, gritty, mushrooms
Touch: knobby roots, spider webs on skin

At first, I’m unimpressed. But then, I think of the island, and I see how these words can act as a guide. Using these types of words will help me show the island and how she reaches out and touches her people; she whispers to them in the winds and strokes them with fingers of moss. (See? It worked! I’m inspired.)

So, here’s my plan. The island is not just a place; she’s a character in my story. She’s ancient, timeless. She is, always has been, and always will be. The characters are just telling her their little story.  I need to develop her involvement. I’m going to write each scene making sure that she is present, that the other characters are influenced by her, that the reader is aware of her, write it from her perspective.

But AJ, you ask, what about your youthful characters? Well, I have an idea. I’m going to plant a time specific object. Anyone reading my story can either let me take them where I’m going, or if they want more detail, they can research this object, which will reveal a more obvious, more modern, time frame.

So maybe, I can have my yewts and my fairytale forest too.

I won’t go back and re-write though, not yet, because I really do just have to get the damn thing done already. 

Cheers, 
A.J.

April 01, 2012

Lotus Shmotus, Hrmph!

Lotus Blossom in Summer Rain - Eddie C3

So, I wrote poetry this weekend, for the first time since I was about fifteen years old. It’s shocking how completely impossible it is for me to be objective about my writing. Is it any good at all? I suspect not, but c’mon, I haven’t written since high school. So that’s where I’m starting from, with whatever skill/talent I had twenty years ago. I find it enormously difficult to allow myself to be bad, even though I know I have to, if I want to get good. I wish this wasn’t so. But then, that is always what has held me back. I expect myself to be brilliant at everything I try and if (when) I’m not, I tend to walk away. I don’t want to learn, I just want to know.

Several years ago I traveled to Thailand, a land where Birds of Paradise grow through cracks in the pavement like dandelions. And lotuses are revered for their perseverance.

Like a lotus, my writing has to grow through the muck to get to the sky. I wish it could just grow straight from seed to flower. I wish I didn’t have to fight my way through the black muck, past slimy pond floor pebbles, avoiding the nibbling fish and frogs, and splashing dogs all the way up to the glittering surface where I have to build a lily pad on which to rest my big fat beautiful blossom. But, unfortunately, I do. Hrmph.

So, if you feel inclined, check out my poem, even give a critique if you want – it’s the only way I can get up out of the muck. 

Cheers!
A.J.

March 23, 2012

Let Me Out!

Martin Creasey

I’ve been nervous lately. My writing seems stale. So many writers have personality drenched blogs and I wonder how to break the cage I’ve built around my own creative self. It seems like something that must be done from the outside. The tiny screeching beastie flying around inside can’t seem to get out on her own. I’ve been trying to free her by indulging in the things that made her happy, back in the days when she was free. I’ve been listening to music more, looking at more artwork, taking pictures, singing, writing. Every now and then, we can hold hands through the bars, but I can’t seem to get the fucking door open. I’m feeling desperate. Like if I can’t free her now, she’s doomed. She’s fading away, her little wings fraying, her glittery skin turning sallow, her eyes becoming sunken. Once in a while, she grabs the bars and shakes them furiously, screaming her frustration and I weep on the outside, knowing I have the key…somewhere.  But WHERE?!

I’ve been pouring over the internet searching for inspiration.  For a while, I found it here at S&S. I spent enormous amounts of time and had a blast building the blog, my twitter presence and even a facebook page. I’ve been delving deeper into the internet and the rabbit hole sucked me in. Eventually, my eyes lost the ability to focus in the real world, I had something like sun-blindness every time I turned away from the computer; and my brain, my poor brain, it started to hum, then rattle and finally it shuddered to a halt. I’d lost the spark. The artwork, the music, the other fantastic bloggers, didn’t get me in the mood for writing anymore. I almost shut down the computer. But like an addict, I kept at it, a burnout with glassy eyes and twitching fingers.  

I hit on a horoscope widget site. I don’t even remember how I got there, but it reminded me of how much fun I used to have with astrology and tarot cards, I even have my own tarot deck (where IS that?). I kept randomly surfing the net, like a rat foraging for food in the landfill. I ended up on Pinterest and saw an image of a beautiful “Moon” tarot card, and I thought, what if I tried to break through this malaise by writing flash fiction inspired by this card? What if I did this for all the cards? Hmn, that would be really hard. But maybe this is the key…but what if it takes away from working on my novel? But I haven’t been writing my novel...maybe this will help me create a habit of writing. Maybe this will help me break that damn cage. 

I really hope so, dead fairies make me sad.

PS: This is the long-winded introduction to my new page: Tarot Inspired Flash Fiction.
UPDATE: Sorry, guys, I've disabled the Flash Fiction page: to see the tarot inspired poetry I've written check out my wattpad page, it's all there. Thanks! 

March 16, 2012

Multi Media: Art Feeds Art

I have a writer friend who has spent enormous amounts of time online, downloading songs that help inspire her writing. When I say "enormous amounts of time", I mean, like, weeks. I owe her an apology because I always secretly thought it was just a way to waste time. Sorry CMF, I get it now.

Several weeks ago, I heard Adele's Rolling in the Deep for the first time. (I know, have I been living under a rock, or what?) This song gave me chills, in fact it still gives me chills. Because I see and hear one of my characters raging at my face every time I hear it. This song has made this character real for me. Totally, (furious, sad, confused) vengefully, real.

So now, I'm all about helping my creative soul find its nourishment in art. Art feeds art. This is why vision boards are so loudly touted, and why I now have one in the works. Nothing inspires beauty, and the desire for beauty, like beauty itself. As I pour over beautiful imagery and close my eyes into a rocking song, I am reminded of my teenage days when everything I did had a soundtrack. When I went out with my camera I always had my walkman (yes, I'm that old) strapped to my belt loop. Every time I sketched, the boombox was blaring. (It used to drive my brothers crazy.) And even late at night when I was reading with a flashlight, I still wore my headphones. It's no wonder my creative mind was starved into near extinction as I moved away from this lifestyle and into the corporate world; consumed with the driving need to achieve some kind of financial pot of gold, all the while my hated job slowly sucking my joie de vivre. It's time to go back. Back to a place inside that allows, needs, begs for, beauty and art.

Thank you to all my friends (you know who you are!) that over the years have encouraged me to go back to myself. To feed my self. I'm working on it.

Cheers!
A.J.

I'm working on a big scene in my WIP. My MC has run away, and as she rolls farther and farther on her own road, she is overwhelmed by a sense of guilt at the debilitating fear and despair she knows she has caused her guardian. 

The song I hear for this is Done All Wrong by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This image represents the moment well.

Happy soul-feeding, friends.








Pink Sherbet Photography /Free Photos

March 07, 2012

5 Random Things About Me

A writer friend of mine recently posted a blog called  Five Random Things About Me You Didn't Know Before and I thought, well hell, I can do that.
  1. I have a few tattoos. My favourite is of a phoenix in flight on my lower back. I know this is the hag-tag/bitch-badge spot for tattoos, but I didn’t know that when I got it, and I still love it. Actually, I think I’ll expand on it, make its wings soar all the way up my back, maybe fighting with a tiger or a dragon between my shoulder blades…hmn, LOVE that...
  2. I have a potty mouth. My favourite curse word being the "f" word, because seriously, it says SO MUCH that no other word can say. It’s really problematic for me because I also have a BoyChild. Most of the time I can control myself, except when I’m driving…
  3. I HATE cooking – In this culture of pseudo-foodies I try to keep it under wraps, but I REALLY hate cooking. Don’t email me your latest recipe or talk to me about the best EVOO on the local market. I have no interest in learning how to ‘de-glaze’ my frying pan. In fact, it goes even further, here’s the scary truth: I hate eating. I know; crazy, right? But true. If I could get away with it, I would totally cut eating out of my daily routine. About 10 years ago I heard a rumour that the military was developing a vitamin patch that would give soldiers all the nutrients they need to survive without food. I’m hoping this will eventually hit the mainstream market, because I am ALL OVER that! Don’t get me wrong, there are foods that I like, but not enough to keep me on board if there was a way off.
  4. My first crush was on Ethan Hawke after I saw Dead Poet's Society and White Fang. It was further advanced after watching  Reality Bites but pretty much killed stone dead after Before Sunrise. He’s still cute, just way too skinny.
  5. I’m really good at doing all the things I dislike, and really bad at doing all the things that I enjoy. For instance, I hate cooking but I’m actually pretty good at it. I hate bookkeeping, but I’m good at that too, same with filing, telephone message making and party planning. I love singing, but I’m seriously BAD at it, same with painting, drawing, photography and tennis. It’s enormously frustrating!
 Play along! Tell me something random about you.

February 21, 2012

Social Media: My Drill Sergeant

I've always been uncomfortably aware that I am not a very good self-taskmaster. If I'm accountable only to myself, nothing gets done. How many gym memberships have I purchased? How many craft projects have I taken on? How often have I joined Creative Writing classes? How much weight have I lost, how much hot glue do I have in my closet, unopened? How much written material do I have in my portfolio? Let's not go there. I'm just too forgiving of myself. 

Well, possibly, 'forgiving' is the wrong word. ;)

When I asked my BF to start yoga with me, we did it, for the entire duration of two programs! (And we're doing it again when I move back into town) When I asked her to make me email her my food diary every week, I lost weight! And now, it's Twitter and this blog, S&S. In the week since I first started Scribbles & Strikethroughs, (and started tweeting) I've written many thousands of words in a book that hasn't seen any productivity since Autumn.

It puts me in mind of a debate that took over my ethics philosophy course in college. What prevents a person from doing bad? What makes a person do good? The majority of the time, a person will decide against doing something he knows is wrong only when he fears getting caught. So too the person doing right; he will prefer to do so when he knows it will be acknowledged.  

We are each others' checks and balances. This is, of course, old news to anyone who's ever thought about it (sociologists). But social media is new. It's a wider pool of finger-pointers and back-clappers. And let me say, I intend to take advantage of your attention (I'm pretending you're out there reading this!). I hope you will give credit when I do good (write), and take me to task when I do bad (not writing). 

So thank you tweeters, and bloggers, and facebook frienders. Is it so bad to allow oneself to be held accountable to another, at least, until a new habit is firmly established?

No, really, I'm asking....

February 18, 2012

Twitter, I'm here!

I've been deeply resistant to using Twitter. First of all, to be embarrassingly honest, I'm not all that social of a person and the idea of maintaining such a social site exhausts me (I'm also easily exhausted!). Second, my inner demon is rather convincing when it tells me I have nothing interesting to 'tweet' (is that the right usage?). That being said, I am forced to acknowledge that Twitter is a valuable tool for networking and that if I'm serious about being an author, Twitter can only help me accomplish that goal. Sigh. So, Twitter, here I am! Follow me! ;)

The whole issue illuminates an interesting duality to writing. In my mind, writing is an art. Marketing/networking is a business. I am no business mogul. However, to be a writer, I must become one. It's an old-world (extinct) sensibility crashing into a modern world reality. It becomes very clear that one's success lies with oneself. This is both empowering and terrifying. Hmph, time to grow up, eh? 

February 13, 2012

Ah, the Internet

I spent most of the weekend online researching place names for my book. It was exhausting but totally gratifying. I stumbled across a Haida-English dictionary from the 1800's (how accurate it is may be questionable, but still a really cool read, and what a beautiful language) and I got so jazzed reading through it that I developed an entire creation myth for my story world. And, from that, came the ultimate resolution of my plot! I was so excited I wrote the whole thing down in one sitting; it is so perfect that the end is a direct result of the very beginning, events that happened even before my story starts! (My poor son will probably develop carpel tunnel syndrome from spending too much time playing video games as a result of my distraction, hopefully he'll forgive me when he grows up obese and socially inept.) 

So it just goes to show, that if you're feeling lost and don't know what to do next, pull yourself out of your own head and look around, inspiration will strike, if you give it a place to aim!

Cheers!
A.J.

February 12, 2012

Reminiscing

This morning I was sitting on my sofa watching one of my favourite tv shows, Fashion TV, and I was assailed by a sense of nostalgia, sad for my lost youth, lost opportunity. When I was in high school, I was addicted to fashion magazines, Mirabella (anyone remember that one?), Vogue, and Elle were my favourites. I used to pour over the fashion spreads. I knew that this was art at its finest. Yes, I said 'finest'. Because this was art that was accessible. With $4, I could run down to the Pharmasave and buy a mag that inspired me; to take photos, to dream of distant exotic places, to wear exciting statement-making clothes, to build my idea of what kind of life I wanted to live. I am so envious of these people, photographers and journalists, designers and models, who had decided what they wanted to do with their lives and did it, with success. What would my life be if I'd approached my adulthood with an assumption of success rather than one of failure?


I marvel at my ‘niece’, who graduated high school and decided to become a hairstylist. Now, less than 2 years later, she’s got her own apartment in the downtown core and has a chair in one of the most prestigious salons in the city (kudos to her aunt who raised her!). I left high school and became a shiftless waitress. Here I am now, pushing 40, still wondering how to be the me I was always supposed to be. It's so trite to say it's all in your attitude, but holy shit, it really is.

So, I'm hoping that if "it's all in your attitude" is true, so will "it's never too late" also be true.
Every day, is a new day. A chance to try again, with new wisdom, knowledge of the stakes, and hopefully, a better attitude. An assumption of success.

Cheers!
A.J.

February 11, 2012

Please Bear with Me


So, way back in the spring of 2009 I was feeding my toddler and staring out of our glass doors watching a bunch of crows dive bombing something in the back alley. They were utterly silent which is what caught my attention, it seemed so unusual. I wondered what it would be like to be them, flying around the trees; no worries about a stalled career, or gaining weight, or being a bare-minimum mom and less-than-bare-minimum spouse. Not for them any worries about addictions, mis-managed money, or dilapidated transmissions. 
I wanted to be a crow.
This is how my book was born.
It's almost three years later, and I'm totally stoked because last night I finished writing chapter two.

When I was 8 years old, I read the Little House on the Prairie series. It wasn't until after I'd finished it that I learned that the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, was dead. Long dead. I was gobsmacked. HOW could a person who was DEAD make my laugh, make me cry? It's some kind of magic. Then I realized that I could write words that people a hundred years from today could read! (Insert angels singing here.) That was it, I was going to be a writer when I grew up. Unfortunately, something happened along the way, or rather, nothing happened. I stopped writing in my late teens. And I never picked it up again; until that afternoon sitting at my dining table trying not to watch my son paint his highchair tabletop with spaghetti sauce while digging chewed up noodles out of his eyelashes.

What happened that derailed my going-to-be-a-famous-writer train? Well....doesn't matter. It got derailed, like, right off the tracks. So now, I'm on a whole new train, it's an old steam engine (slow) with a lot of cars (can you say, 'baggage'?), but I'm the engineer and I'm knocking down all the bloated cows and fallen trees that get in my way.

Let my keystrokes be true, my plotting be timely, and my voice be worth reading.
Cheers,
A.J.
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