Thursday, September 20, 2012

All Aboard!

Enjoy the Cheer Up Picture <3
Disappointment. The problem everyone struggles with. Disappointment is, well, disappointing. It's depressing when you were really looking forward to something, and then you realize that no matter what you do, it's probably not going to happen. I can say I'm planning on being an astronaut. I can go through all the training and get all the qualifications, spend years hoping and wishing and waiting and planning, but when it's all said and done, most likely I'm not gonna be spending any time outside of planet Earth. In sarcasm, for those of you who don't speak it, disappointment is called "a healthy dose of reality." In my book it feels more like a splash of cold water in the face on a freezing January morning. That chilly feeling you just can't shake. It hurts to be disappointed, especially when it happens because of someone else. When you were really counting on Becky to drive you down to B&N for that new book you've been waiting all year for! And then she calls an hour later because she over slept. Or when your mom absolutely promised you'd go to the midnight premier that movie you've been wanting to see, and then she gets stuck in bed with a cold. You can't do anything about these things. You can't prevent or change them. They happen. Life happens. But when someone else is involved we tend to blame the other person. Wrong! It's not their fault. They have lives too and the world does not revolve around you, no matter how many times you forget that you aren't the sun. The important thing is learning how to pick up and move on. This happens to be something I struggle with. Yes, it's easy to be hurt and to heap blame on people. It's easy to wallow in self-pity because things didn't go your way. It's hard to be mature and grown up and say "Hey, I didn't really need to go to the beach this weekend. It'll be there next week." So my challenge, to myself and to anyone else who's reading this, is to remember that when you're disappointed by someone, it's not always their fault. And even if it is, blaming them only hurts you. So be the mature one. Pick up. And move on. Life happens. We can't sit waiting for it to happen our way. If we did, we'd be waiting a very long time! So stop waiting, hop up on life's train, and take off!

Catch ya later!


New Wrapping! Is Christmas coming early?

Have you ever had the feeling something is missed? Like there is a piece to the puzzle of life you just can't find. When you're sitting at work or flipping through channels or cooking dinner and you just stop and think to yourself "I need... something... But what?" It seems I've been having those moments more often then not these days when I sit down to write. I have the idea running through my head, I know what I want to say, but after writing - and rewriting - the same three pages over and over... All that's left to do at the end of the day is sit back and admit that it needs...something. But what? I truly wish I could figure out what that something was. Passion? Emotion? Some other "shun"? Perhaps my characters are too boring, I found myself wondering today. Too flat. Perhaps if you write for too long without seeking new inspiration, your writing becomes as familiarly repetitive as a singer who writers too many songs all at once. It all starts to sound the same. This week I've trashed three stories. Three. I never thought in a million years that would happen! It's been hard to part with them, and yet...I keep finding these stories in other stories. "Nothing new under the sun" is a rather depressing concept when you're trying to think of something new and interesting for people to want to read. But then... and I'm just thinking out loud here... maybe people don't want to read something new. Maybe they just want new wrapping on it. Gail Carson Levine has made her career retelling popular and well known fairy tales and elaborating on the ones that tell us too little to begin with. She had some of her own, but Ella Enchanted is really just Cinderella with an amazingly brilliant and clever array of twists and turns and flip-flops. And there are plenty of other examples. Some of them not so well disguised. Beastly is obviously Beauty and the Beast. And with or without a name, who hasn't heard the human/vampire love story a million and three times? So maybe, as a writer, I shouldn't be so focused on trying to write what is new and exciting. But more focused on my story and telling it the way I want it to be told. Perhaps it is better to explore the characters more. To get to know and understand them the way I should before trying to force them into situations impossible for them to climb out of. This is my challenge to myself for the rest of this week. To focus on the story the way it ought to be told. I'll do my best to keep you posted.

So Until Next Time!
And check out these amazing women!
Alex Flinn and Gail Carson Levine. 
They deserve much Praise!!