Good morning everyone,
This 4th of July week has been fun so far. However, I’m not here to write about the fun times my husband and I spent with my daughter at the park, at the pool, and going out to lunch, I’m here to write about brainstorming.
I’m playing with an idea for a story about a character and her husband who are forced to live in a cabbin. In the process of planning for this story, I did something I don’t usually do. I asked my facebook friends for some ideas, and the conversation gave me a lot of food for thought. I haven’t decided whether I am going to use this for NaNoWriMo, or for a just because kind of story.
I have a bit of brainstorming advice for new writers,and veteran writers alike. There is nothing wrong with asking your friends and fellow writers for ideas to help you move your story along. Some people would tell me that the story is mine and I should move it the way I want it to go, but when you ask those in your close circle of friends, their ideas can give you a wonderful foundation to get those creative juices flowing.
Have you had a good brainstorming session with your friends? How did your story turn out after this discussion? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Happy reading, writing, and God bless.
The sound of silence: A distraction, or the opening for creative inspiration?
I wasreading some writing prompts at random, and there was one in particular that got me to thinking. The question I asked myself, was whether the sound of total silence, either from my being totally silent, or from the silence of a room, could serve as a distraction or if it could open me up and lead to creative inspiration.
First of all, I have come to this conclusion: some days, the complete sound of silence can lead to inspiration after reading a good book, or watching a movie or documentary. However, when I am working on some professional writing, the sound of silence could serve as a distraction, therefore I play music, or I either like to hear the sound of a clock or my Braille display ticking in the background to keep me going. By the same token, too much noise, or a TV show that is easy to get hooked into can be a serious distraction for me when I am working as well.
What do you think, is the total sound of silence a distraction, or can it give you the opportunity to become inspired to write something creative? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
wrap yourself in the blanket of peaceful music
I float away on the wings of the wind, as a soft melody plays all around me. The gentle breeze takes me to new places, where dreams come true, and the wings of imagination can take you anywhere.
Let your mind wonder as you listen to the soft music from witin your heart. Where will the music take you? Where will the journey begin and where will it end? It’s all left up to the music, so don’t stop the flow, just let yourself go, and let the soothing soundscapes take you where they will.
Let the soft music wrap you in a blanket of peace and love, as the waters of stress and trouble drift away on the ebbing tide of relaxation as you drift into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
If you do not wish to fall into the arms of the music and let it take you to a distant dream land, let the blanket of calm and tranquility inspire you to be creative. Don’t think about what you will write, draw, make, just let the thoughts and words flow from your heart, to your fingers, to the pen, computer screen, or into your creative projects.
God gave us the gift of peaceful music, so let’s take it and alow it to mold us in the way it desires. We will love the changes it makes in our lives. Happy reading, writing, and may you be richly blessed. May the peace of the soothing music flow over you like a river.
The winds of change
The winds of change are blowing all around me as I walk down a darkened street. The traffic roars at my side, as I make my waydown the deserted sitewalk. The wind is cold, and it whipps around my jacket as I am covered from head to toe in my warmest winter garb. My nose is nearly frozen, and I can see my breath in front of my face as I walk.
Thunder rolls in the distant sky, and the smallest raindrops sprinkle to the ground and freeze into tiny ice kristals.
The question that comes to my mine is: What does this cold rainy wind a signification of? Are these winds of change meant to tell me that there is a shift in my life, or will life remain stagnant as it sometimes seems to me?
Thought of the day, a creative storm
The following is a poem I wrote this evening after having a jam session with my husband and a friend of ours:
Floating on the wings of the wind in a gental storm. Rain falls all around me, but I am safe from the storm. I am wrapped in a white robe, and nestled in a warm blanket of love! My hammock sways in the trees, rocking me to sleep. I awake in the morning light, with the sun shining over the newly washed ground.
Weird ideas that lead to creativity
Remember my last post about getting weird and wacky thoughts and ideas stuck in my head? Well, this is a continuation of that post, but from a creative perspective.
Take a look at my blog, go a few months back into last year. Remember the post I wrote about my fascination with lighthouses? There’s a reason for this post. As I was reading The Lighthouse Collection, a collection of novellas by five Christian romance authors, I could picture myself standing in a small room at the top of a set of stairs leading up to a lighthouse. Sometimes, I stood on the catwalk outside this room, in the scene that played out in my head. Truth be told, that lead to me writing this lighthouse scene into a children’s story I’d been working on a few weeks before that.
The reason I point this out now, so many months later, is the fact that some of the interesting thoughts that get stuck in my head, lead to story ideas. For example, Last night, while reading the current issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery magazine, and half listening to a documentary about Tupac, I saw myself sitting inside a convenience store, surrounded by drink coolers and ice cream freezers. In my scene, a young girl walked in to get her favorite ice cream. While talking to a dear friend of mine, I sat down and started writing a new story.
The point that I am trying to make in this post, is that there’s nothing wrong with getting images stuck in your head. These weird and wacky ideas are the perfect fodder for short stories, and even full length novels. Have your weird ideas lead to new stories? How have these ideas enhanced or improved your writing? Please leave your answers in the comments. Please share my posts, so I can get more readers as well.
Happy writing, reading, and may you have lots of inspiration.
The weird and wacky thoughts and ideas that get stuck in my head
Over the past few days, I was thinking a lot about the crazy thoughts and ideas that get stuck in my head. If you get a song stuck in your head, that’s called an earworm. There are numerous ways to get rid of the unwanted songs in your head, but there are those you want to remember. One of the ways to get rid of the entire songs or snippet from the songs is to play the song, whether online or from a CD. However, I have done that, and a certain segment of the song in my head gets royally stuck, and I definitely can’t get rid of it, because I am so drawn to that certain chord progression. This type of earworm is difficult to get rid of.
You may think this is about songs that get stuck in your head, right? Wrong. I not only get bits and pieces, or maybe even entire songs stuck in my head, but there are other sounds, creative thoughts, and observations about the world around me that I either can’t get my head around, or that just won’t turn loose. For instance, if I meet a person who has different values, aspects of his or her culture or different abilities that I can’t seem to let go of. Different types of disabilities even fascinate me. For example, I read a couple of novels that featured characters with Asperger’s syndrome, the high end of the Autism spectrum. Not only was I fascinated to learn about the disability itself, but there was something about one of the characters hearing the sound of plans dying. I didn’t actually hear this sound for myself, but I read online about the sound of corn stalks making a popping sound when they are dying of thirst.
Sometimes the simple sound of a phone’s ringer shorting out can get stuck in my head, or any weird sound that signifies as a problem with an electronic piece of equipment, or even the oddest sound in a vehicle. For instance, I remember one time when I was a kid at the Georgia Academy for the Blind, and the intercom system started squeaking on a very rainy day. No matter whether the secretaries were making announcements or trying to communicate with the teachers, the system would emit a high pitched squeal. I remember having a dream about that very glitch with the intercom, years later.
Although some may think my thought process is strange, I strongly believe that my thought process leads to my creativity. For instance, if I get a scene stuck in my head, it won’t let go of me until I write it down. Remember the article about the CB radio I posted a while back? That is just one example of a creative idea that I couldn’t turn loose of.
Here’s my question for you: Have you ever gotten an unusual thought that you couldn’t let go of? How did it influence your writing? Did it inspire some other aspect of creativity or did the thought lead you to conduct further research on the topic surrounding it? Leave your feedback either in the comments below, or by filling out my contact form. Happy reading and God bless each and every one of you.
