Why I Write

I have given the question 'why do I write?' a lot of thought lately.  And honestly, I'm still not entirely sure.  I think it has to do with people. 

People are a complete mystery to me.  They do things that are totally illogical and every single one of them is different.  They don't make sense in my head.  And that is why I find them so fascinating.

Writing, for me, is about discovery of people through the creation and stories of the people I create.  It's about trying to understand why they do what they do - that is the most important thing for me.  The why of a person.

Other than that, I enjoy the feeling of having a great idea, of seeing words appear on a blank page, of knowing that I am creating.  And that is why I write.

Spiral

You remember when I took part in Creativity Boot Camp?  Well, the organiser Maegan now hosts The Sunday Creative so I thought I'd give it a go.  This week's prompt is Spiral.  Feedback is always welcome.

A hanging glass spiral hung in the window. Karla watched as the pearls of reflected light moved about the room; over the brown seats, the brown carpet, the beige walls and the stack of out-of-date magazines beside her.  The clock ticked. 

There was one other person in the waiting room, probably feeling just as anxious and worried as Karla herself was feeling.  She picked up the top magazine – Hello.  She hated gossip weeklies, they rarely had anything useful in them, but right now it was a distraction.  Anything to stop herself thinking what was being said behind the closed door.  Every now and again the flicking light caused by the spiral would draw Karla’s eyes to that door.  Or perhaps it was Karla herself wanting it to open, for the waiting to end.

And then it opened.  There was the doctor.  And there was her mother, dressed impeccably as always.  She always worried what other people thought about her and so only had clothes she deemed ‘best’ in her wardrobe, hair and make-up always done perfectly and daring red nails which didn’t imply her age.

Karla looked up hopefully, wanting to see relief on her mother’s face, wanting to know that everything would be okay.  Instead she was met with her mother standing straight, not showing any emotion.

  

“So we’ll get you an appointment, it may be a week, perhaps a few days longer.”

    

 “Thank you.”  Was her mother’s short reply.

    

And Karla knew that her life was about to change and that the diagnoses was positive.  Her mum had cancer.

Reminding You to Smile

 

 

 

Sunday Shout Out

This week I want to send you to a blog I only recently started following Eat, Move, Write.  This blog is filled with so much truth about living life, healthy eating, obesity, family and everything else that life incompasses.  Jasmine is a writer but she doesn't often write about writing like so many other writer bloggers (myself included) as her blog is more a place for her to write about issues she feels passionately about and share them with the world.  I would seriously suggest you take the time out of your day to take a look at her blog if you've ever felt that it's hard to be truthful, have had body issues, want to be a writer, or feel the need to connect to other people (if I didn't just describe you then jealous much).  So what are you waiting for?  Go, read.

Oh and for the writers who read this blog, Eat, Move, Write also holds weekly writing competitions and every Sunday you can read the winners.

Review: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this film - but hey, the poster looked good so why not give it a shot.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was created from Greek Mythology.  I love anything to do with fairytales and myths, so that gave it a big thumbs up in my book.  However, it gave the myths a modern and unusual twist by focusing on the demi-gods who have one human parent and one god parent, and of course our hero, Percy Jackson, is even more special by being the son of one of the top three gods (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades for those who aren't in the know).

Honestly, I didn't enjoy this film as much as I thought I would as while I knew it was an adventure film, it seemed a bit contrived to me.  Percy is accused of stealing Zeus' thunder which ends up with him on a quest.  That in itself doesn't sound so bad, but the quest to me seemed very, point A (face an enemy), point B (face an enemy), point C (face an enemy), face the main enemy, the end.  And the way that Percy defeats all his enemies seemed a little lame to me as most of it was through luck or someone/thing else coming to the rescue.

So I'd say this film is probably fine if you're looking for very light entertainment without much hidden meaning or thought provoking scenes, or for children who know nothing about Greek Mythology (as it's sort of informational) but for me, I prefer a little more depth to my films.

Finding My Genre

In the past I have mainly written what I suppose is contemporary fiction.  I've never really known what genre I was drawn to except that all my novel length ideas seemed to be designed for Young Adults and were pretty high-concept.  The problem with this was that, barring Harry Potter, I don't really read that genre.  And the advice of write the genre you read was always in the back of my mind.

I read Chick Lit.  There, I've said it.  In the past I have always been slightly ashamed of reading this but that wasn't the reason I never thought to write it.  The problem I had was how would I come up with an idea that was unique enough to be different from the thousands of other books in this genre, and yet include the tropes that make up this genre?  That was until recently.

I was trying to think of an idea for my main project for my final year and I went through quite a few - including the high-concept YA ideas, and also writing it as a blog format.  It turned out that neither of those were what really sparked my interest.  And to be honest I was quite surprised by what did.  Because, as you've probably guessed by now, the idea is sort of a chick lit.  I say sort-of as it's not strictly set in the modern world.  Well, it is, but includes an element of the unnatural, similar to the ideas in a few of Cecelia Ahern's books (which I strongly recommend).

So I had my idea, but I still wasn't sure if I'd be able to write it (and to be honest I'm still not sure, but I'm going to give it a damn good try) so I tried writing a few unrelated scenes that could place in a chick lit book, and was surprised to find that not only did I really enjoy writing them, but they didn't feel as if I was simply reguritating other books.  I realised that if I have my own style then my stories will automatically seperate themselves from the masses (whether it's positively or negatively is yet to be decided). 

So I guess I'm trying to say that genre and voice are inseperable.  While we may be able to write in more than one genre, it is our voice and style that keep our stories fresh and new and hopefully interesting enough for a publisher/agent/reader to buy.  So I'm going to give the Chick Lit style a go as a sort of test-run and perhaps if I love it enough, I will have found my niche.

Seeing the Finish Line

Lately I've been doing a lot of cross-stitching.  I have dabbled in it before but now I'm finding myself drawn to it a lot more often, almost every day.  Mainly I've been stitching small kits although I have a few larger projects on the go, and I have finally realised why I love this craft.  It is different from my other hobbies in one special way - I can see how far I need to go to get to the finish line.

I am a competitive person and I also love a challenge.  But there's nothing more depressing than when you can't see the end of the challenge.  When you're writing a story you can't see how many more words you'll need, when you're tidying you can see what you've achieved but the chances are you'll be more preoccupied with everything that you haven't and that always seems to be a never-ending list.  With cross-stitch you have the pattern in front of you.  To begin with it may seem like it will never be finished - after all, you start with some fabric and some threads.  But then the pattern starts to form and suddenly you can see what you have left to do.  Not to mention the amazing feeling I get when I consider that I've made something beautiful with so little.

And that's why I cross-stitch.  What's your hobby and why are you drawn to it?