writing,

Creativity

With fall coming up, I feel like I am more creative than ever! All those crisp leaves, those bright colors, cool mornings, hot chocolate, the list goes on! Yet there is a price to pay with being creative.

Sometimes I feel it is both a blessing and a curse. It’s easy enough to see the benefits of being creative. I mean, I know I can see it every time I go to my office. There are fabrics, papers, notes, and so many other items that represent a project I’m working on. I love it, almost as much as I love fall!

But there is a down side. Not many know this, but I have six books that may work themselves into a series, four short novel sized ones, and two short stories that I am working on. Craft wise, I have a partially completed sign, and over two dozen handcrafted books that are also in the works.

The blessing is that once I finish them all, I’ll have a lot to show for all the time, effort, and supplies I put into each project. The curse? I’m left with what feels like an overwhelming amount of work. So how do I manage to keep my stories straight and my crafting within budget?

When it comes to the stories, I write down an outline of the book, short story, or novel idea. If I have a moment of inspiration, I do my best to give myself time to work on that story despite working on a separate project. Otherwise, I force myself to focus on ONE story only, and occasionally I’ll take a break with a short story. Those breaks are also great for motivation as they allow me to quickly complete a writing project. Plus, at some point, I can publish a Short Story Collection. So, time not wasted!

As for crafting. It is always difficult for me to not go out and buy more materials. New fabrics are so tempting! I force myself to only buy fabrics and papers after I complete my current list of crafting projects. Although, I also try to keep in mind just how much material I still have, and the goal is always to use that up before buying more…it’s a good goal. *sigh

In the end, the curse is only a curse if I lose focus and try doing too much all at once. Now to get back to work and keep on being creative! I hope this keeps you inspired as you work on different crafts this fall, too!

Photo Credit: Anni Roenkae

First Novel

I’ve mentioned before in my first blog, Hello World, that I have been working on my first novel. Its creation has been a bumpy one, but I finally have a completed draft!

There are still a few minor changes to be made before I send it off to a publisher, but for now, it at least feels done. If you don’t know me or haven’t heard me talk about the book before, then you’re probably wondering what it’s about. Well it’s a science fiction novel with a side of mystery.

In it, the main character, Ruby, becomes addicted to the popular MMORPG Monsters and Demons, more popularly referred to as MAD. While she struggles to become a better player, the creators of the game work to perfect a secret new technology that will sync a player’s mind with that of their avatar. When the unfinished technology is leaked to the public and results in a death, the corporation is forced to cover their tracks. They create a team of synced players to track down and delete any unfortunate enough to enter the game. Ruby, unaware of the danger, uses one such device and finds herself in the hellish world of Monsters and Demons. Taking on the identity of her avatar, Guinevere, she must find a way out before the Hunters find her.

And that’s it! I hope to have the finishing touches done soon so I can send it off and ‘fingers crossed’ get published!

Photo Credit: Nitin Arya

Magical Prison Architect

Writing prompts can be a great way to spark your creativity. This is the prompt I used to write this story; I hope you enjoy it!


Demigod

“What is going on here?!” A surly looking dwarf demanded.

The question happened to be quite justified. All around magical beings ran to and fro in utter chaos. There were fire imps flying haphazardly through the air, orcs sprinting about trying to replace fallen bricks from toppled structures, a magician staring at a burning brick wall, a harpy chasing after fleeing orcs (who were actually construction workers), and in the middle of it all stood a lone orc oblivious to the chaos around him. All around him walls lay in crumbled heaps, some of which were still crumbling. The scene looked like a city that had suddenly suffered a massive earthquake throwing its poor citizens into a massive panic. Only, the destruction had not been accidental and the ‘poor citizens’ were actually inmates from the recently destroyed prison.

“You! Orc! What is the meaning of this?” The angry dwarf from before demanded of the one orc who was not busy carrying bricks around.

“Oh, Commissioner…Well, you see-“

“Yes! I can see quite clearly what has happened. The question is, why isn’t anyone taking charge? Speaking of which, where is the person in charge here?!”

“Oh, that would be him,” the orc said with a downward thrust of his thumb. Sitting innocently at his feet sat an infant covered from head to toe in soot.

“What.” It was incredible how one word could hold such power with the right inflection and a great deal of anger behind it.

“Uh, well. He’s the one in charge.”

“No, he is not. That is an infant.” It was taking a great deal of self-control for the dwarf to even speak to the dull witted orc in front of him. “Where is the person that I left in charge?” the dwarf enunciated every word carefully so there could be no confusion.

“Oh, the wizardy guy? He got too close to a banshee and she uh…killed him.”

“D’von is dead?” The news rocked the dwarf back on his feet, but he soon recovered. “Then who put this infant in charge?”

“Oh, I did, sir! Yep, that was my idea.” The orc stood straighter, his chest puffed up, his chin lifted, and he grinned from tusk to ugly tusk.

“That’s nothing to be proud of!”

“Oh, sorry, sir. It just…”
“Get a hold of yourself you blasted orc! We need someone with backbone, with grit! This is a prison we’re running here and so far the only thing running is all the damn prisoners!!”

The furious dwarf took a deep steadying breath. As an added precaution, he took a few steps back for fear he would clobber the orc. True, dwarves and orcs rarely if ever got along, but this one truly behaved in a way that only a good clobbering could fix…permanently. At least the other orcs were busy trying to rebuild the shattered prison walls. He dared not look too closely for fear he would discover what they were actually doing.

“Well, sir. I did pick a rather good substitute for ol’ D’von. Ya see-“

“Do explain how a babe can be a replacement for D’von,” the dwarf’s voice dripped with acidity.

“Ya see, sir. He’s a demigod. And not just any demigod either! He’s a son of Zeus!” The orc grinned his big stupid grin.

“Demigods are great!” There was such exuberance in the dwarf’s voice that the orc’s grin actually widened. “Especially when they’re full grown ones.” Those last words ripped the stupid grin off the stupid orc’s face.

“But, sir! This is a son of Zeus!” He pointed again at the child at his feet. The son of Zeus giggled as he blew sooty bubbles from his nose.

“Just ‘cause he’s a son of Zeus, that don’t make him all powerful! Do you know how many women Zeus has lain with? How many children he has? Did you know some of ‘em ain’t even his own species? And what good is some untested BABE going to do when it comes to running a prison? Oh, he may a demigod by birth, which wasn’t all that long ago…” the dwarf coughed the last under his breath before continuing, “but that don’t make him qualified! We need more than just power! We need someone experienced in breaking out of prisons to make this the best damn prison around!”

“But, sir!” the orc interjected.

“What is it?!” The rant should have been enough to knock some figurative sense into the orc. But judging by the way the orc shook with excitement, or something else, it was clear he felt justified in his choice yet again.

“But he is an escapee!”

“What?” The dwarf wondered how an orc had ever been put in charge, even as second in command. D’von sure knew how to pick ‘em!

“The demigod is an escapee.”

“What?” He asked with the same flat tone as before. Nothing made sense to him anymore! Orcs in charge of prisons and prisons run by infants. What was the world coming to?

“He was in his crib and-”

“Cribs aren’t prisons!”

“But they are! At least to babies they are.” The orc looked pensive for a moment as though trying to picture what a crib looked like from an infant’s perspective.

“I’m done. I’m just done. I’m taking this project elsewhere!”

“Elsewhere? But we have everything under control.”

“Under control?” The commissioner pivoted on his heels and turned back to face the orc. “You call this under control?! This isn’t under control!! Look around you! The walls are all toppled over. The inmates are all free. Some of them are eating each other! There’s a pyromaniac burning your brick walls and just standing there watching them burn. He’s completely oblivious to everything! Just look at him!”

They looked and sure enough there was an escapee standing by a brick wall watching it burn. He was naked too, aside from his flopped over wizard’s hat.

“Instead of focusing on rounding up prisoners, or at least taking that blasted hat from that maniac to stop him from being able to gather magic, your men run around gathering fallen bricks! Bricks! Like that’s going to fix things!”

“My men are doing what the demigod told them to do.”

“What?” He really needed to stop saying that, he admonished himself. “The baby spoke to them?”

“Well, not exactly.”

The commissioner rocked back on his heels. Of course that had not been the truth! Besides, since when did orcs ever tell you the truth, the first time around?

When the dwarf made no move to either leave or to respond, the orc continued. “You see, I was the one who actually gave the order to the troops. He-”

“And the prisoners?” The Commissioner said, cutting the orc off. He had no desire to hear what lamebrain idea or concoction the orc had made to somehow hear the baby’s thoughts. In fact, he really had no idea why he even bothered to ask the follow up question. The situation demanded serious action, and he was wasting precious time. He needed to get someone else in charge and get things cleaned up and real construction underway. The only thing keeping him from panicking lay in the fact that this particular prison had been a test. So, luckily most of the inmates were relatively minor aggravations to society.

“Oh, we hired medusa to collect them all.”

“Medusa, huh. And how exactly did you convince that snake head to help you?”

“Shortened sentence!”

“And she agreed?”

“Oh, not exactly.” That seemed to be his favorite phrase.

“Not exactly. Well, I’m done here. I’m going to go get the board together and we’re going to get a real prison put together. While I’m gone, I expect this mess to be cleaned up!” In an angry huff the dwarf turned and started on his way. As he passed the wizard staring at the burning wall, the dwarf clamored up a few fallen bricks, snatched the hat, and jumped back down to the ground. The now completely naked wizard never even noticed.

“What a jerk,” the demigod said in his tiny baby voice once the Commissioner had left.

“Would you like me to take care of him?” a beautiful woman asked as she stepped out from behind a pile of bricks. The orc coughed as he forgot to breathe, the woman was so beautiful. A thin protective veil covered her face and dangerous eyes. As the orc coughed, the woman smiled.

“No, leave him be for now,” the child of Zeus said with a wave of his tiny hand. “I’m more worried about the board…Are you done turning the escapees to stone?”

“Of course. On both accounts. If the board worries you so much, I could easily take care of them. As for the escapees…All except that insane wizard have been accounted for. And he seems content right where he is.”

“Good. Now Orc.”

“Yes, master!” Orc dutifully turned his gaze to the child of Zeus.

“How much longer is it going to take your men to finish moving all of those bodies?” the demigod demanded.

“Not much longer, sir! They were nearly done when the Commissioner arrived, sir!”

“Good, I don’t want him coming back and realizing all those bricks he saw being moved were actually petrified inmates. When they’re done with that, order them to start reconstruction. This time I want those walls enhanced with magic after they’ve been built. It does no good bolstering their strength as individual bricks. The stronger creatures just push them out. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir! I’ll get my men on it right away, sir!” With that, Orc ran off to the nearest band of orcs.

“You’re so cruel calling him that.”

“Ha! You should have seen how long it took me to even get that name out of him,” the infant grumbled. “The dwarf was right about one thing. That orc is an idiot.”

 

Positivity Camp Chapter 1

I started working on a short story that I wanted to share here, but it’s turning into something else. As a writer, I feel this often happens; I start out with an idea and it branches off into something beyond the original scope of my vision. Well, that happened this time, too! What started out as a simple story about a strange camp turned into more of a social commentary.

Rainy Days

Rainy days can drain my energy levels faster than bad news or a failed project. Now, this is not to be confused with stormy days. Those days are just awesome! I might struggle to focus on stormy days, but at least my energy levels are just fine!

No, it’s those overcast days with those painfully bright grey skies that suck all the energy out of me. If you’re like me and need to stay energized and focused no matter the weather outside, then here are some things that have helped me.

If I want to be productive, I have to make sure I dress right. Even if the weather tells me I won’t be going outside, I still dress like I might be seen by people. That means brushing my hair and putting on blue jeans and a nice shirt. If I wear pajamas, I may as well carry my pillow and blanket around too because odds are a nap will be my next step after getting up. So no, I can’t wear pajamas and be productive. Some people probably can, but I’m not one of them.

Next, I get my music going, and I get it going loud enough to rock out to, but not loud enough to anger the neighbors. I might turn the music down when I start writing, but initially it gets me energized and moving.

After that, I remove all excuses. In other words, I get breakfast, grab a water for my desk, clear all non-essential items from my work area, and I make sure to put my phone in a different room. If I have it with me, I WILL play Castle Clash. With everything in order, I open up the word document I was last on or I start a new one. Same with my crafting projects. I pull out the materials and figure out where I left off. Once everything is in order, then I start working. Eventually my mind gets into the task and I stop focusing on the gloomy world outside my window.

If, or rather when, I catch myself daydreaming or losing focus, then I think about the next few steps of my project. Again, this forces me to think about the task rather than my surroundings. Each time I lose focus, I do that. I also set alarms that go off every hour or so. When the alarm goes off, I walk away from my project and stretch or get more water. This helps break things up, gives me a little reward for focusing, and it helps to relieve any eye strain I might have. Plus, getting water helps me stay hydrated and keeps the headaches away.

I hope this helps the next time you have a rainy day curbing your productivity! :)

Photo Credit: Bibhukalyan Acharya

Working from Home

Working from home isn’t easy; however, once you set up a good routine, it can become easier. The key is to avoid distractions. For me, it’s my phone and the internet. I can be lost on Facebook for hours if I’m not careful! Pinterest is another black hole that steals the time away.

Well, if you’re easily distracted from a writing or crafting project, like I am, here are some simple steps I’ve used to keep myself on track.

1. Have a dedicated workspace

2. Keep it organized

3. Set aside time each day for writing or crafting

4. Remove distractions

5. Take time at the end of each day to tidy things up

6. Make sure other people know to respect your work space and the time you’re in it

Simple, right? It is if you know where to start anyway, and I don’t always have much luck with that! When I struggle to actually start a project, or jump right back into one, I tend to do three things before starting.

1. Remember where I left off

2. Visualize the next steps

3. Gather resources I’ll need

Then I start! There are other things that can help too, of course. Like how I dress can sometimes influence my productivity. Wearing pajamas, while super comfy, rarely leads to anything other than a nap. Yet, when I have nice clothes and my tennis shoes on, I tend to focus on work better.

Music can often set the mood or provide white noise that helps me focus as well. Aside from that, alarms for breaks or when I’m done for the day really help as well. These simple tips hopefully are enough to get the ball rolling :)

CAFFEINE IS MY MUSE

Read plenty, read often

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