- I think I may love LittleKuriboh after this one! (Not that I didn't already…) RT @yugiohtas: http://bit.ly/6dZQAY New Evil Council! #
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2009 marks my seventh year attempting National Novel Writing Month. This was the first time in a couple of years that I was really excited about participating. I had no idea what I was going to do. I had just lost all of my writing notes in a hard drive meltdown. My job has become so stressful that imagining anything has become utterly impossible. Participating seemed both right and insane.
After several people told me that my life would make for an interesting read, I thought about writing a therapeutic fiction. I’ve never really thought about writing as therapy, but there is a lot in my head that needs to be worked out. It seemed reasonable that I could create this fictional setting where fictional characters, each wrestling with one of my problems, could experiment with possible solutions. I became even more excited to start NaNoWriMo.
I even got off to a good start, but then something happened. In trying to develop these troubled characters, I learned something about myself. I’m a poor candidate for the “write what you know” camp. The closer I got to each character, the more slowly I started writing until I finally just stopped opening the file altogether. When I’d finally re-open the file, I’d take characters as far away from their original intention as I could.
Keep in mind, I struggle with character development already.
In an attempt to keep the word count climbing, I tried to give in to the change in characters. Soon enough, though, I found myself fighting the storyline in my head. I couldn’t break from the story I was trying to tell, and I needed this first draft to have as few storytelling issues as possible to balance out the insanity that had become my characters.
For a while, I thought maybe I was just digging in my heels and trying to avoid my NaNovel, but I’ve been revising an older NaNovel (re-writing it, really) this month as well. While it seems more free from the character development issues that plague my fiction, it only highlighted the need to keep a logical story flow going in my rough draft. The first draft is about getting it down, and a re-write is effectively a first draft, just with more guidance. Neither is the right place to worry about whether or not a character did what you claim they did. That’s what revising is for.
Right now, the NaNovel has 13,000-14,000 words on it with no hope of being completed on time. The rewrite has three chapters left to go, and will more than likely be finished some time this weekend. Hopefully somewhere in the next couple of days, I’ll figure out how to mediate my issues with character development and logical story flow in the first draft.
- Finished with Pastworld by Ian Beck http://bit.ly/7J6Xix #
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Nov 232009
I was seriously into creative play as a kid. Building blocks. LEGO. Play-Doh. Crayons (my own Crayola carousel and a coffee can of crayon remnants).A dress-up box full of clothes, discarded cloth, jewelry, and safety pins. I even collected two or three lines of pop-beads.
That was my childhood. That pile of toys. Sure, I played video games and read books and rode my bike, but even through high school, these were my preferred toys. I loved creating things and experimenting with what each medium could do and how I could blend them.
Reading this comic brought back memories of hours spent drawing and coloring and molding props for different games, of taking a base piece of clothing and using ribbons and safety pins to embellish and change the clothing to fit a game. I spent so much time creating things for whatever game I was playing or that I was playing with my cousins, and then taking everything apart and putting it away so that it was ready to become something else next time.
My play was creative and modular. Sometimes, I wanted to preserve something so I didn’t have to recreate it next time, but often I didn’t give a second thought to smashing a Play-doh creation or trying to find interesting ways to dismantle a LEGO construct. The destruction was almost as much fun as the building.
Children don’t need more specialized toys (although I do admittedly wish I’d had a rough-and-tumble digital camera when I was little). They need toys that encourage them to look at a bunch of material and see a cup and plate, and then to look at the same bunch of material the next day and see ponies. They need toys that allow them to explore both the toy and their own imaginations.
Oh, and Mom, Play-Doh and LEGO make small packs perfect for care packages. Big kids need creative low-tech toys, too!
- It's weird having to remind myself a jewelry sketch goes to a style project, not a jewelry project. #
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Nov 232009
author: Ian Beck
name: Rebecca
average rating: 2.80
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2009/11/22
date added: 2009/11/22
shelves: 2009, borrowed, science-fiction
review:
- I spent the first half of the month reading. Now, I get to spend the last half of the month writing. I'm okay with that. #
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- Finished with Bizenghast #1. Lovely artwork. http://bit.ly/4cp8hb #
- I think I want to make color swatches for my current design project using macrame and Chinese knotting. #
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Nov 192009
author: M. Alice LeGrow
name: Rebecca
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2009/11/19
date added: 2009/11/19
shelves: 2009, borrowed, fantasy, manga
review:
Usually when I agonize over whether or not to pick up a book, it becomes one of my favorite books/series. This is the exception, apparently. I can’t tell you how often I’ve considered this book, only to walk away. The artwork, which is what was drawing me in, is lovely. I’d love to take one of the panels and turn it into a piece of framed art for my room. The story, on the other hand, did nothing for me. It felt like a handful of ideas rolled together without the fresh take that such things need.
Sadly, I won’t be continuing with this series.
In preparation for watching the finale tonight, I’ve been watching the Project Runway extras. Extended judging. Designer interviews. One thing really stood out to me as I listened to each one discuss where he or she came from: Where you start doesn’t have to be where you’ll end up, but what you do on the way can guide, shape, and have a profound effect on your ultimate destination.
Some of this season’s contestants have been designing from the get-go. They knew early on what they wanted to do, and they’ve followed their heart. Others had to “arrive”. One of them actually started out as a med student. He found the human body fascinating, but not enough to repair it. Going through med school, though, gave him a better understanding of the human body, which has, in turn, made him a good designer.
I think that’s one benefit creatives have — they can take what they’ve seen and done, and apply it to make their work stronger and more personal. Every life experience becomes one more layer in their work. When you aren’t doing creative work, it’s easy to take a narrow-minded approach to your work. Instead of embracing what you’ve done and been, you get yourself locked into the role you’re currently in.
This is my current struggle. I went from creating workshops, educational programs, and mini-games to doing nothing but teaching someone else’s curriculum and doing admin work. When I started realizing I wasn’t happy with where I was, I started looking to jobs I probably never would have considered and naturally couldn’t figure out how to make myself fit into them. I even lost my love of volunteering because I kept trying to serve companies and causes I just wasn’t interested in.
A few months ago, I started actually looking at my own path, at where I’ve been, and I noticed something. My path has been filled with the kind of organizing, creative, and educational work that I enjoy. I’ve had it with me all along. Years of assisting with curating and managing collections, both at work and privately. Years of writing, crafting, designing. Years of not only teaching, but coaching, mentoring, and directing. It’s all right there, waiting to be added up to something I’m really going to shine at and enjoy.
And then I started running into this message everywhere.
I actually share it with my students now when they worry that what they decide to do in their electives at school or in their college work will tie them down forever. I tell them to study what interests them right now and let it become part of who they are, because they honestly never know how an interest from their youth will help shape and direct their future.
