Hear ye, hear ye

So, my resolution to blog more seems to have fallen short. I really like exploring other avenues the internet has to offer lately. I've also stepped up my reading. I apologize if my unexplained hiatus put off anyone.

I have some rather exciting news. It's not writing related, but it affects me directly. I finally have a photography site! http://www.sineceraphotography.com/

It was designed by Evan Olsen with Ink Blot Media.

Please check it out. And I know it's new, so there's bound to be a few kinks. If anything's not perfect, be sure to let me know.

Creativity

More than ever, I'm striving to be creative in all I do. I was recommended The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I've only read excerpts as of yet, but it's all brilliant. Doing mundane things creatively and pushing yourself to be the best and loveliest you can be are great goals. I love to try new things and go on adventures. If you hadn't noticed, my posts dropped off a bit last month. Well, more than a bit. It's because I was out enjoying the world.

Writers can write until their fingers are numb, but without experience their words would be void. I've gotten a lot of fodder for stories and feel really refreshed.

So, good day to you. I'll be seeing you again soon.

Listography

It's that time again--time to figure out my time. Back in December I set a lot of goals for myself, including my writing, but I didn't go into specifics about the summer. Finals week is almost ended, and I have a vast expanse laying ahead of me.
My first goal has to be to write every day--no exceptions.
I've been pretty content with writing at least once a week, or even whenever I get around to it. My classes have required a lot of time this semester, and I rationalized it out freely. Now, there's plenty of time.
My second goal should deal with what type of writing I want to do.
Do I want to dedicate the summer to a single long work? I'll always free write, and I'll always get distracted by little projects. But, is that where I want to focus my time? I have a few solid concepts I'd like to expand into novels. How do I choose?
My third goal needs to be more technically oriented.
I need to better understand how the writing world works. Even though I'm not ready to send anything in, I should start practicing writing query letters. And I should find places where I'll potentially send manuscripts in the future.
I'd also like to see where short stories can be submitted. Short fiction has always been a passion of mine, and I don't want to have to wait around until my name is out there in the literary world to write a compilation of short stories ad poetry. I don't necessarily want to submit things piecemeal, but the exposure would be beneficial, and I'm impacient. There's also a writer I know who would like to submit her stuff.

To my readers: what are your writing aspirations for the next season?

I want to challenge you to really work them out. Mine definitely aren't finished here. I've got a lot of tweaking and list-making to do. I encourage you to do the same.

Waiting Builds Character

But the God of all grace, who has called us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, strengthen, settle you. 1 Peter 5:10

This is what I needed to read today, even though I didn't want to.

I hope it helps you, too.

At least napkins are less costly than tattoos

I finally started organizing my ideas today. They've gone from haphazardly scrawled fragments to haphazardly scrawled sentences in a pretty notebook. Will I ever stop scribbling all over restaurant napkins? Probably not. I've started to develop the odd Memento-reminiscent habit of leaving myself notes all over the place. The weird thing is I don't remember leaving them until much, much later, or sometimes never. Sometimes there are sticky notes in my sock drawer. Sometimes there's a letter in the fridge. Sometimes I have Sharpie all over my elbow. My eccentricities are taking me over. How does the rest of the civilized writing world keep track of all their little ideas for stories? I can't carry around notebooks wherever I go--my purse already weighs about ten pounds. I'll find a better system someday. Or maybe I won't.

You forget yourself, sir.

I wonder how many people are synesthetic. I think that everyone experiences some level of this whether they know it (or would like to admit it). In fact, this sparked a miniature debate in my philosophy class today. Philosophy was really pretty interesting. Today we moved onto David Hume, one of the last British empiricists we're taking a look at. His beliefs are really close to those of John Locke's, but he's a true cynic. He doesn't even think one can rationally believe that causes lead to effects just that causes lead to events. It's one of his main arguments. I just find stuff like that mindblowing. He's so cynical, he doesn't believe in anything outside of what can be sensed, though. He got rejected when he tried to become a member of some religious board, and I think that spurned him for good. After that he just sat around with his little intellectual group and giggled at the people who dressed up for church on Sundays.

My latest short story was work shopped yesterday. My creative writing professor enjoyed talking about it so much that she lost track of time, and we spent the entire class on it. I felt bad for my classmate, because his story won't be critiqued until Monday. Oh well. I got a lot of great feedback. It was liked unanimously. They also gave me a lot of great suggestions on how to improve what I have. I think it's going to be substantially longer when I hand in the final draft in a couple weeks.

On a much different note, I totally weirded myself out today. I'd like to weird you out, too. Last night I had some difficulty shutting my mind off in order to go to sleep. I finally wound down, and all of a sudden "Natty Bumppo" popped into my head. I thought, Natty Bumppo? Who was Natty Bumppo? Natty Bumppo. Then I fell asleep and dreamt about everything else in the world besides Natty Bumppo (as far as I can remember). I forgot about it upon waking and went on with my normal Thursday routine. In history we were talking about the literary awakening Ralph Waldo Emerson helped jumpstart, and The Last of the Mohicans was mentioned. I've never read the book, but I did see the movie quite a while ago. My teacher inquired if any of us knew the protagonist's name. No one responded, so he gave the hint that it was the same as a character on a 1960s show involving war and medicine. So I said, "Hawkeye!" My teacher smiled triumphantly. He asked if anyone knew the real name of the character. This was followed by a substantial amount of silence. He reassured us that it was real trivia and not many people really know. Natty Bumppo. Natty Bumppo.

Possibilities Before Breakfast

So, I've finally taken the first step in "putting myself out there." I'm really hoping that I can change the name of this blog later. My brain is foggy and not able to think of many unique things this early. Last night I attended a great lecture about agenting. I had the opportunity to listen to three great agents and their views on many things. I'll probably post more about this later, when I feel like getting up and grabbing the notebook I had with me at the time.
Today I have a creative writing class at 12:00. We're worshopping one of my short stories along with one from another classmate. I'm looking forward to what everyone has to say. I think my main character is very strong, but I'm really not sure if I like the way I wrote the piece. And as always, my title is a work in progress. My mother is really the one who gave me the idea for the plot. And the title. Maybe she should write her own version--she'd probably do it more justice. I started out wanting to write an action story, because that's not a usual thing for me and it seemed the thing to do. I don't know how to classify what I ended up with. It's a bit dark, like most of my other work. But, it ends happily. I just can't seem to write light or fluffy things. Maybe someday.