I watch a lot of movies. Not a good or a bad trait… just a trait of mine. Many of the movies I love are torn apart by critics and snarked at by my family. But I go to see these movies for my own emotional reaction to them. I can sit back and just enjoy. No heavy thought involved.

Then there are the movies which really do make me think. They evoke an entirely different emotional reaction to me. One such movie was Inception. There were a lot of things I took away from this movie. For one, the ending in another film would have left me feeling cheated with no closure but instead, like I think the character was feeling, it simply didn’t matter anymore. Another was the world building. Watching them create these dreams with everything they wanted… from the real world or a complete fantasy… was fascinating for me.

Isn’t this similar to what we do as writers? We create worlds… landscapes for our characters to play in. Some of us get really detailed in descriptions of the worlds while others keep it bare bones. A piece of advice from the movie given to the new dream architect went something along the lines of only putting in enough detail to make the dream seem real then let the dreamer fill in the blanks. This struck a chord with me as I am always struggling over how much detail to include. The landscapes in my imagination aren’t always so complete either but it doesn’t hinder my enjoyment of the characters or action. Why would it hinder the story I’m writing?

This applies to the characters too. Another struggle I have is in character physical detail. Unlike the landscape, my characters are always very vivid in my imagination. But I don’t always pay attention to those physical details. Why not? Because they really do not impact the story itself. For example, one character in By The Pen is Triston. He feels so real to me but the only physical trait which really stands out, and is mentioned a couple of times in the story draft, is his eyes. To someone who knows him they are a reflection of what he thinks and feels. To someone who doesn’t know him they are unreadable unless he wants the person to know what’s inside. One of my beta readers referred to his personality as refined. That made me smile. I would have said Triston was controlled.

So his eyes are important but is the rest of his physical description? He has to be capable of doing his job which can be very physical at times. Does being in charge reflect into his description? Those aspects come from my mental image but would that image be the same one a reader would associate with these important aspects of his personality? I don’t think so. So what is more important… that the reader see him exactly as I do or that they see him reflecting the important personality traits?

It’s something I am trying to keep in mind as I edit this story and write others.

SK

What do I do with too much free time on my hands?

Yep, I am blogging at work again. Again I will have to post this later as the firewall here won’t allow me to access it but oh well.

So, last time I discussed psychoanalyzing myself in my free time. But how exactly am I doing that? Well, as a writer of course I am doing it in writing. I am keeping a document called ‘log’ on my work laptop that is getting updated pretty much daily right now. In it I have my thoughts for the day as they happen. It is interesting to go back and read what I put down even a few days ago.

But at least I am writing… daily writing even… whether it is fiction or random squee moments doesn’t matter. I. AM. WRITING. Every piece of writing advice out there tells you to do it daily.

Today’s keyboard discussion with myself is prompted by a couple blog posts by a certain nerd actor from my childhood. He’s not much older than me so the tv memories are similar. But he reminds me that I as ever bit the geek/nerd then as I am now. Technology. Sci-Fi/Fantasy. That was my escape then as it is my escape now. I just have more access to it now. I am also free to enjoy it now as I was not then. Why not as a child? The life of a small town Midwest girl… at least my version. The tv was controlled by my mother for the most part. She taped her soaps on VHS cassettes every weekday then the evenings were all about watching said soaps. To this day I cannot force myself to watch those shows. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I got my own tv in my room. That was a little 12” that absolutely did not get cable. We had cable some of the time I was growing up but only on the main living room tv. Eventually Dad split it into their bedroom but never upstairs to my room.

But when did I get to experience the above mentioned nerd actor and all the shows he mentioned in his own blog? Summers and weekends. To a point. I still had no control over the tv thanks to an older brother but at least he watched some of the shows. More of a jock (ok, a complete and total jock… how are we related?) but with a fondness for Sci-Fi. So summer days and weekends when he could claim the tv from Mom (because she wasn’t home and he was supposed to be watching me) were our times. Godzilla was a frequent one on the weekends. When we could find it, Star Trek. I know there were others but those two stand out. Oh, and the Bela Lugosi movies. Any fear of monsters I might have had was quickly squashed under the ridicule of my older brother. One other tidbit, we had to watch these things when absolutely no parent was around. Dad might tolerate cheesy Godzilla but that was the extent of it. Said older brother and I hid our favorite novels for fear of them getting thrown out when Dad saw that we were reading about monsters and magic.

There you go… a little peak at my childhood memories. These things all go into making us who we are today. Care to share any of yours?

SK

In my ‘real life’ where I am not Signy Kuiper things have been in upheaval. I think I mentioned in my last blog that on top of personal pain (the dogs) my day job is in upheaval. Recent rumblings have me thinking that piece of my life will be in limbo until around the end of August. Of course those rumblings change frequently so we shall see what happens.

 

The impact of a lot of down time at work means I have a lot of time to psychoanalyze myself. Why am I not spending it writing? Oh I am when I can but it is difficult for me to settle into writing when surrounded by a lot of negative emotions. Trust me, there are lots of them in the office right now. Instead I get inside my own head. I have my hand written journal. I have a document on my computer to log thoughts when I feel like typing (it also looks more like I’m actually working on something that way). I also go find research items online to read… copying them into a document so if someone is checking I am not online all day at work. Officially at least. J

 

Back to the psychoanalysis. (Nope, I’m not easily distracted at all…) In the past two weeks there have been a lot of self revelations. The most recent is related to the distraction of my brain. In my life there have been three things that calm me down. Well, four but two of them are related in my opinion. Meditation, reading/writing, and exercise. I spent several years in martial arts classes so perhaps the first and last items are related too. Either way, all of them create the same reaction in my brain. The noise goes away. I do my best work when the noise goes away.

 

To the purpose of this site, writing is meditation for me. Focused and active meditation. That’s why I do so much of it handwritten… I can feel the energy flow through me to the pen to the paper. But I am typing this up at work right now. Can’t the energy flow through me to the keyboard as well? Surrounded by electronics all day I don’t notice it as well but the answer is yes. This is all information I need to keep reminding myself of to get myself back into my ‘me’ space.

 

That’s all the self revelations for now. Perhaps I will expound on my personal chaos theory next time? Meanwhile, does anyone else have some thoughts to share?

 

SK

 

Psst… firewalls at the office won’t let me in to post this right away. Once you see it, I will have had to send it home and post there. I shall attempt to not edit no matter how much the jumping thought patterns are annoying me. *grin*

On posting... I managed not to edit. You get the raw 'Signy at the day job'.

 

Hey there kiddos. A three month hiatus isn't too much is it? *grin* I hope not.

Excuses I have aplenty... mostly involving karma trying to kick my ass. Three major emotional upsets for the year is enough, no? I know I mentioned the first here... the loss of Moof. Well since then I have also lost Dozer to pneumonia and found out the company I work for is being dissolved. 'Retired' is the word our parent company used. Same diff. As of today I don't know if I will be moved somewhere else under the parent company or be given notice. That decision could take anywhere from two weeks to twelve months on top of what we've already spent in limbo since the announcement. Honestly, I don't know which decision I want to hear. So I've been getting my ducks in a row either way and we'll see where the pieces fall.

A lot of people say stress like this is inspiration to write. I've often been one of those people but 2010 has just been too much. I'm either crying, hiding from myself, or if I can write it's only in my journal. No one else sees that... sorry folks but it would either scare or hurt most of you.

The other day when I was at work with nothing to work on I started sketching out idea of a possible new story. It's more of a 'high fantasy' with a little romance spin. At this point I would call it light fluffiness. We'll see where that one goes. Could become a story or it could get added to the pile of ideas that are moldering in a computer file. That is not the idea that might bring me out of hiatus.

Q might bring me out of hiatus. I don't know much about him yet. Freaky scary dreams last night finally resolved into a very vivid set of scenes. Q never showed his face... or his voice for that matter... but he was the mastermind behind what was in my head. So today I am exploring this person. I know he's male. That alone is unusual for me... I usually start with the female lead. I know he was raised by someone not his parents. In fact, his birth mother is afraid of him. His birth father is aloof and proud, possibly using Q. Dunno yet. But somehow Q found his mysteriously disappearing mother and his half sister. How? Why? What made Mom run in the first place? All questions I'm trying to figure out. He's not the most talkative sort so it's been an interesting day of it. But it is writing and it has gotten my head out of the 'real world' for a while.

What more could I ask for at this point?

SK