Writing Class Update

From my book arts class 

So, remember how I'm taking a writing class at the local community college? It has been a real eye-opener! Let me just make an analogy for you so you get the idea... let's say that writing is like knitting. I knew that you needed needles, and yarn, and desire to make something.... but now I'm learning about how to cast on and off, all the different stitches, how to piece things together, all the different types of yarn and patterns that you can use, and how to make an actual sweater that someone would love to wear. It's complicated!


I had no idea of the very many aspects of novel-writing that there were! Character archetypes, writing devices, plot devices, weaving it all together has been mind-boggling for me! I'm still excited and charged up, but my mind is actually spinning around in my brain because it's all just more than I ever knew was out there. So many types of fiction, and so many ways of creating a story.... I thought I knew what I wanted to write about, right? I had it started and everything! But now I find out that the way I was writing it wouldn't be a very successful novel, because I was putting things together wrong... like knitting the arm to the bottom of the sweater, instead of to the arm holes. Ha ha ha! Well! Better to learn this now, than after I had worked on my story a lot longer, right?


So things are going well... I have another four weeks of classes, and by then I should know exactly what I'm doing! (I hope, I hope, I hope...) It's been fun, anyway. Meeting people in class who enjoy the same types of books that I do is always cool. Also, it's giving my brain a much-needed work out! I'll admit I was letting my brain relax for way too long! It's ready for scholastic and social stimulation! I was letting myself turn into a shut-in, and that's not really my personality. I can have hermit-like leanings, yes, but I do enjoy meeting and talking to people, and I like being a part of the human race! Especially in a setting of mutual interest and learning! 


Have you ever taken a class at a community college or community center? Or if you're still in school, a class out of your own curriculum, just for the hell of it? I've done it a few times, and I always get a lot of enjoyment out of it, whether it's a dance class, and art class, or an academically oriented class. I'd love to learn another language, next! Or take a pottery class! What about you? What would YOU like to learn to add onto what is already YOU?

Following Your Dream

Hello Friends... guess what? Tomorrow is the first day of a writing class that I signed up for back in January! I told you guys a while back that I wanted to write a book, right? Well, I started writing, and am well into the fourth chapter of my book! I know that isn't very far from when I started, but I feel like my story is going well and I am still feeling inspired to write it... which is awesome!


As I progress in class, I'll let you know what I think of it and how it goes. This is me following my dream! Okay, it's a newer dream... I think the first time I realized that I wanted to write books for kids was when I was still living in Fremont, California. I have some story lines written down from around 2008. I didn't do much with them because at the time I was also a project manager for a construction company, and working around 60 hours a week. I would come home nearly brain-dead, and sit in front of the TV, or lay on the sofa and read a book. I didn't have enough creative energy left to write, and barely enough to work on such an engrossing project. I was happy to sometimes make a handmade book, or paint a watercolor. 


So, now... I don't have a stressful job. Heck, I don't have ANY job!! And though I will need to get one this year, for now, I will use my time to do the creative things that I have always wanted to do! Like write my first novel! 

This class will hopefully help give me some direction and advice. The instructor is a published author, who wants to help new writers by telling us what we need to know about the process of writing and getting published. I'm super excited! (I'm still also taking the Blogging Your Way E-Course, and I LOVE IT. If you are a blogger, and feel like your blog might be floundering, or that you don't really know what you're doing, then I suggest signing up for this course the next time it's available! You will be given so much valuable information, and you'll be energized about blogging again!) 


I was not a very good college student.... I'm the first to admit it. I was in college for over seven years, and left without a degree. I changed my major three times, I took classes that I enjoyed and didn't spend a lot of time on the course work for classes I wasn't interested in. I hated homework!... when it was from a class that I disliked, anyway! But taking classes that are pertinent to ME, that's another story. I LOVE learning! Are you like me? I used to be a good student in high school, but for me, it wasn't that difficult. I was taking college prep classes, too, and had a good time. But college was another matter entirely, and it could be because I had moved out on my own and had rent to worry about, as well as my ever-increasing credit card debt that I was getting into. School became a secondary concern to getting creditors off my back and buying groceries! (I had two jobs most of the time I was going to school.) Maybe also, it was because I didn't know enough about myself yet. Declaring a major was premature, and changing it set me back and cost more money.

Image Source

 (Please check out the blogs linked to the images I have chosen. I felt like they were more than coincidence! The first one is a free image that I found, but the last two are from blogs.)


Do I regret the choices that I made back then? I honestly don't think so. There was a time when I would have said, "Absolutely. Yes, I should have stayed in school and gotten a degree. Any degree." But for me to say that now wouldn't be honest. Because I would not be true to myself. I know this is probably like heresy to say, but college (as it was when I was there) just wasn't for me and wasn't helping me to grow or learn about anything pertinent to me. My belief is that we all have different paths to take, and that's what makes us all unique. There is no "right or wrong" as to what you do in life. It's all just one choice or another. Who can say what is right? Why do they have the power to say it? I know lots of successful (as defined by society) people who didn't go to college, or maybe went for a year and then left. I know people who went to college, got one or two degrees, and are working in fields widely different from what their degrees were in, and aren't happy. So... who's to say? Only you. Only me. We are the only ones who can say what is right for us in our lives, and I would hope that you stay true to yourself, and don't let anyone tell you that you're wrong. Don't allow people's judgement to follow you around like a yapping little dog. Be true to yourself! Do what you do, and make no apologies for it! (As long as you aren't hurting anyone, or yourself, of course!) I think you will be a LOT happier for it! I know that I am.
  

Image source

Personal Update

Previously, I had talked about working on my studio, organizing it, and making room so I could work more easily and happily. I showed you some progress, but never really got any further for a while. I finally found an affordable cabinet in which I could store some stuff. For $40, I purchased from a guy on Craigslist, because of the Easy Button, which I discovered here, on Shannon's blog, a wonderfully useful cabinet!

Check it out:

New cabinet found using CraigsEasy

I can set up little vignettes for inspiration

I can store my goodies

I have a glass slider area, where I can have some of my inspiration and cooler looking storage, and then I have the solid doors underneath for more storage! Plus, there's a shelf for books and framed photos. There's still work to do... but it's getting so much closer to completion, and I've only had to spend a few dollars on cigar boxes, and the one cabinet! When I'm totally done, I will take a series of photos showing the 360 degree view of the room. :-) There are still things in the room that won't end up staying, but I feel more and more drawn to my studio/craft room! I enjoy being in here more, with the clutter mostly put away or tossed into the recycle bin.

The other part of the update is that I have indeed been writing, working on my book! I'm on chapter four, all just the first draft. I've signed up for a writing workshop, where the instructor is also an author and will share her knowledge on finding an agent and getting published. I'm really excited, as I feel that my story is coming along really well! I think that this winter has had it's purpose for me in my life... keeping me inside, to write more, and to be more introspective, and to organize my life more for the upcoming year. If the weather were too nice, well, let's be honest... I'd be outside!! Yes, there is often a silver lining on that dark, cold cloud above you. You just don't always see it until your angle of view shifts just a little. I hope you're all finding your silver lining....

xoxo

Today Starts My Writing....

For those of you who know me, you know that I left a career in construction this past January. I worked for a great company that supported my desires to try different things and learn different disciplines. I was there for 12-1/2 years! It was a wonderful, stressful, and fun place to work... I  miss my coworker/friends there, and I miss other things as well. Like having a regular income, ha ha. The place really was like my second home, after all.

I have been searching, since leaving there, for my Self. I've wanted to reinvent myself. I need to risk things, and to push my self-drawn boundaries. I decided back in January, that if I were to leave construction, and all the money that came with my job, I wasn't going to go out and get the same thing again, though I could. I had already decided that what I wanted was to live in a much more creative and exciting world of artists, writers, Bohemians, Beatniks, and most of all, Happy People. I had already worked with the intelligent, hard-working, stressed out group of jocks and heavy-drinkers. I really wanted to try something different. 

I moved from California (land that I love) to Pennsylvania (land that I'm starting to love,) to be with my boyfriend/soul-mate, and I set out to search for what would work for me.... as a continuation of my productive life. I started out by making art journals. I even sold some in LA, though I haven't sold many since. I made jewelry and ornaments, and sold some of that, from my etsy shop. I have had some freedom to try to sell the things that I enjoy making, and to soul-search for "what next?" I think I found my answer, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. But without risking something of yourself, you can not expect to gain anything fantastic, and so, I step out of my comfort zone, and I begin something new. A story book. 

I have always loved children's books, as well as adult books.... I ALWAYS have my nose in a book, as a matter of fact, if not two or three at once. I've never directed myself to write anything, though. Well, that's a lie. I actually started several stories when I was young, but they were terribly dramatic stories steeped in the world of fantasy, as that's what I was reading at the time. My best friend and I would work on our stories, and share the pages, and it was wonderful, hilarious, and embarrassing! I think our lack of general life experiences made the stories a bit flat and juvenile. Ha ha. Though, I still believe there was something there. I don't think we were devoid of talent. We just never really took ourselves too seriously, is all.

So.... I've started several stories, as well as an article or two. I am making this my next big effort, along with my other creative outlets. It's hard for me to stop all completely, so I won't bother. I need to have my hand in many different things at any given time, or I get antsy. I think that this is the training I received at my last job as a project manager for our Small Projects Department! I was always running many projects at once, and had to know what the stages and issues were for each of my projects at any given time. It is a learned skill that I use in my daily life. It seems that I actually need to have several things going on... I feel good that way!

I will still be blogging, though possibly not as often. I don't know yet. Being at the computer keyboard too much tends to wreak havoc on my tendonitis. (Which is why I've cut back a bit of late.) But I will post updates, and photos of things around me that inspire. I will possibly put more recipes on my blog, also. I've been cooking & baking like crazy in this cold weather! I'll be asking for advice from all of you in the blogging community, as well as my readers.... so please stay tuned! Wish me luck on my next escapade!! I'm hoping that I can nurse into existence a new career as an author of many stories and books. I would so love a profession where I dictate my schedule and have loads of money coming in so I can shower my family & friends with gifts and travel with my boyfriend, and really excel at being a human being. I will be journaling, as well, and will try to post the best pages here.

Peace and good will to all.... I'll be back! (Probably sooner than I think because it's hard to stay away. I NEED human connections!) 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo   

Journaling... Primary Beliefs

One of the exercises that I've done for my journaling pages is defining what my Primary Beliefs are about these five main areas of belief systems:

Life
Self
People
Love
Abundance

The exercise was to write down one empowering and one disempowering idea that I have about each of my specific belief systems. It was really fascinating! I found that each of my disempowering ideas was in direct contrast to my empowering ideas! That means that I have been working against myself in my adult lifetime. You honestly can't get anywhere in life if you are pushing and pulling at the same time. You just end up in exactly the same place!

For example: one of my empowering ideas about Love is that it is a beautiful thing. Love is beautiful. Love is all-important. One of my disempowering ideas about Love is that people can get jaded and close themselves off from love. However, the type of love that caused me to originally formulate that specific idea wasn't a love borne of real power. It was a love that I had for people where the love wasn't reciprocated, and therefore, it was the kind of love that stems from my ego's need for approval/validation/etc. It wasn't the kind of love that comes from spirit and truth. Yet, I have been hanging onto that as part of my belief system about Love!

If you try to do this exercise yourself, I think you'll find some similar eye-opening contradictions in your own belief system.... it's apparently very typical. We base our belief systems on past experiences, even though we may have been very young, inexperienced, or uninformed, at the time of the experience. Then we hold onto those experiences as the basis for how we perceive the rest of our experiences. It's easy to fall into, isn't it? I mean, I've grown so much since the times when my heart was broken by someone, and have learned so much more about myself and about love since those times, and yet, when asked about what my beliefs about Love are, I found that they were based on those old experiences, and not the new ones that I've formed in my adult years!

Breaking down those "supports" for your beliefs are a way to open up your eyes (and heart) to what is important and wonderful about this world that we live in. It's a way to break the chains that hold us to behaviors and thought patterns that could be holding us back from our true happiness! I challenge you to do this exercise for yourself, and see what you find out about your own belief systems! Happy journaling! Blessings to all.... xoxo
   

Reasons for journaling

I used to be an avid journaler when I was younger... sometimes I would rather journal than go out with my boyfriend, or work on homework. I would carry my current journal with me to the beach, or the park, or camping, or at a sleep-over. It was like my friend, this little book. It was the friend I would tell my secrets to, and be silly with, without fearing any ridicule or judgment. Well, that is, until my mom read my personal journal and grounded me for life for "going all the way" with my high school boyfriend.... and then my jealous post-high school boyfriend read about the friends I'd made in college, and we argued and fought until I vowed never to put my personal thoughts into my journal anymore. It ceased, at that time, to be my retreat. And thus, I lost myself for a while. Has this ever happened to anyone else? It was almost like being unable to write things down caused me to lose touch with who I was at that time. My creativity stopped flowing. I got sick a lot more. Strange.

After a time, I started to journal again, but not in writing. I started working on art journals instead. Small projects that were only a page or two in size, and where I could be unabashedly creative or lame or silly or ugly or cool.... I found that I had gotten in touch with myself again after years of disconnect. And it was very interesting! I had changed and grown quite a bit... though I hadn't grown UP. (Thank goodness!) In making small pages of art that had no real purpose, I found a freedom that I had never known before! A release from my ego, I guess. I also enjoyed the feeling of completion that so seldom comes to a person like me: the ultimate non-finisher! The only time I ever finished anything was when I was creating it for someone else! What does that say about me? I don't care!

I really don't know where I'm going with this. I've gotten quite good at not finishing things. I just may leave it at that. For now. :-)