Month: July 2017

Friday Fun-Day Writing Prompt: Object at Hand

TGIF, readers and writers! Today I’m going to borrow a writing exercise from the virtual summer school I attended for my Master’s program last year. In this exercise, you will be writing a short prose piece or poem about an object that you “have to hand” (the tutors’ words, not mine). Think pencil, ladle, orange, etc.

Spend ten minutes meditating on the object and jot down notes regarding your observations. Don’t just look at the object; engage all of your senses with it. This exercise is meant to help you learn description and imagery beyond what you see. What does the object feel like? Sound like? Smell like? Of course you should observe what it looks like as well but don’t limit yourself to that. What sort of feelings do you associate with the object, both through your senses and through your emotions?

After those initial ten minutes, set everything aside and walk away for a while. Do anything you like so long as you get your mind off the exercise for a short time.

When you come back, read over your notes. Choose whichever images and phrases from your notes you think are the strongest–the most vivid, the least cliché, and so on–and string those images and phrases together to create a short piece of prose or a poem about that object.

Here’s the piece I came up with when we did this exercise for the virtual summer school:

“Pen”

Look at this highly-decorated usurper. See how it boasts its silver engravings—tributes to its maker—like a Squid boasts his tats after a drawn-out deployment. And French—a tramp stamp to boot! That peacock! Pimped out in blue from splashes of orphan to slit-views of the Mariana Trench. Who is this kid to take the place of such worthy predecessors: the thespian quill, the proletarian pencil?

Beware the silver finger trap, more apt for clipping to your skin than your pocket. Resist, if you can, the temptation to fidget with the top (an addiction I fight quite hard). Feel the power of the button shove the needle out from this imposter, an I.V. that drips its blue blood at your command: c-click c-click, l-life d-death. But not too often. One click too many, you’re stuck for life.

Look! What’s this? The finger trap is loose! The needle refuses your command to retreat; the button won’t budge to your fidget. The dandy’s collapse has begun with the multi-gig generation looming. Yet like a car limping through its last few miles, jerry-rigged repairs will pull the blue soldier through for another day.

The pen from the above piece

More than anything, remember to have fun with this. This exercise is only to loosen you up and strengthen your observation skills; it’s not like you’re looking to win the Nobel Prize in Literature over a poem about a pen.

What was your experience with this exercise? Have any thoughts? Did you write anything you’d like to share? Drop a line in the comments, on our Facebook page, or join our Facebook group to talk with other writers.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011

Are Writers Workaholics?

Let’s face it, writers tend to have obsessive personalities. I know I do. Harry Potter, Disney, Dragonriders of Pern role play, I can even become obsessed with school and freelance work. Perhaps that’s why writers are able to write; our brains simply won’t let the material go until we have completed the project to our satisfaction. Sometimes that means that we never let a project go, instead turning it into an entire series of books, stories, poems, or essays. That’s great. After all, that means we will never be wanting for material. But what about when we become obsessed with our work, to the point that we snap if we get interrupted? It makes me wonder: are writers workaholics?

Writers are rather contradictory by nature. We dread writing and yet we dread not writing even more. I’ve been busy with various freelance jobs recently and, as a result, I haven’t been able to focus my imaginative power enough to work on my own writing. It’s killing me. I’m riding a high from working on other projects but a part of me dies when I don’t write. I know that other writers feel the same way.

I suppose that people can easily become workaholics when they love what they do. As they say, those who do what they love will never work a day in their lives. Since writers simultaneously love and dread what they do, it’s no wonder they pick up workaholic traits. Add to that the obsessive behavior and you will no longer be mystified by writers who lock themselves away for days on end working on their latest novel or poetry collection.

Image retrieved from “7 Signs of Being a Workaholic”

So, we’re workaholics. All artists are. Is that a bad thing? Not always.

On the one hand, workaholic behavior can increase productivity. That’s a given. You work more and more work gets done. As long as we have something to focus on, we’re also happy. Frustrated, perhaps, especially when we have writer’s block or get interrupted, but happy nonetheless. Eventually, that increased productivity may also lead to more money if our work sells.

Increased productivity, happiness, and money, what could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately, as with most workaholics, writers burn the candle at both ends. We push ourselves to our absolute limits, ignoring our other needs and the needs of those who rely on us. We may feel happy while we’re working but, in the long run, we risk destroying other aspects of our lives.

In life and in writing, we have to balance work and other needs/desires very carefully. If we don’t write at all, we die inside. If we let writing take over our lives entirely, we lose those relationships and experiences that enrich our art. When we finally achieve that balance, that is when we are truly happy and successful. More importantly, that is when our work becomes its best, infused with the passion of our minds and the richness of real life experiences.

Do you think writers are workaholics? Obsessive? How do you handle the work/life balance? Leave your thoughts in the comments or join the conversation on our Facebook page.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011

Writers on Writing: Anne Rice

Well readers, it’s almost Thursday. Two days stand between us and the weekend. To help you pull through it, I’ve decided to discuss a rather encouraging quote on writing by beloved Gothic and supernatural.paranormal writer Anne Rice.

Image retrieved from Anne Rice’s Facebook page

For those who don’t know, Anne Rice is a popular author best known for The Vampire Chronicles and the iconic Lestat, known lovingly by fans as the “Brat Prince.” She also wrote The Witching Hour and other books about the Mayfair Witches, The Wolf Gift Chronicles, the Sleeping Beauty erotica series, and Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, on which the 2016 film The Young Messiah is based.

I hate to admit this but I have yet to read any of Rice’s books. I know, I know, how can I be a fan of the supernatural/paranormal and Gothic genres in this day and age if I haven’t read The Vampire Chronicles? I could defend myself by saying that I’ve seen both Interview with a Vampire and The Queen of the Damned but I know as well as every other reader or writer that the movies can never hold a candle to the books. I plan to read and review Memnoch the Devil before the summer is over, and my mother is a huge Anne Rice fan.

I do, however, follow Rice on social media for the interesting news articles she posts and her invaluable advice on writing and succeeding in the publishing industry.

I decided to focus on the following quote, advice which she has posted many times and re-posted on her Facebook page the other day:

In your writing, go where the pain is; go where the excitement is. Believe in your own original approach, voice, characters, story. Ignore the critics. Have nerve. Be stubborn.

–Anne Rice

We all know that, at its core, writing is an act of courage. Writers dig deep into their psyche, their emotions, and harness that raw power to create something that, hopefully, someone will want to read. All writers put a chunk of their souls into their work, no matter the subject matter or genre. That’s how all creative types do, whether they’re writers, painters, architects, or even scientists. That’s why we take negative feedback so personally.

It takes courage to experiment in writing and to continue writing what you love. Step too far outside the box and the work will be pushed aside, sometimes ridiculed. Stay too far inside the box and the work will be ignored and labelled “cliché.” If readers have become accustomed to you writing in one genre, stepping outside of it may alienate them (which is why some writers opt to use pen names). If you stick with your preferred genre too long, you’ll be called a one-trick pony and forever associated with that genre, for better or for worse.

People will judge you so long as you’re brave enough to put your work out there.

This Vampire Queen knows very well how to go where the pain is and come back out alive and healing.

Image retrieved from Anne Rice’s Wikipedia entry

That’s why Rice’s words are so potent. Writers must dig deep and go where they have the most passion, whether that passion be pain or pleasure. I know from personal experience that it’s hard–I often freeze up at the thought of going into the more…passionate areas of my psyche–but the effort pays off.

More importantly, writers have to let themselves use that passion without worrying what others will think. That first draft is for you alone. Tap into the pain, pleasure, depression, anger, and excitement and let it lead you where it may. After that, rewrite it into something you would want to read. You will want to keep an audience in mind but don’t censor yourself because you’re worried that some critics will throw their two cents in. Remember, some of the biggest literary classics started as failures during their first run.

With that thought in mind, I release you to your writing endeavors. Just remember the key theme of this blog as you move forward: write for yourself first.

Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions for future “Writers on Writing”? Drop a line in the comments, and don’t forget to follow our new Facebook page.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011

Official Writer’s Scrap Bin Facebook Page

I am happy to announce that I have created an official Facebook page for The Writer’s Scrap Bin. It’s pretty sparse right now but I’ll be using the page to connect with readers, make announcements, and, of course, provide links to new blog posts.

Readers can use the Facebook page to message The Writer’s Scrap Bin directly if they do not wish to e-mail or leave a comment on individual blog posts. Have any suggestions for future blog posts or have a cool story you’d like to share with other writers? You can do that, too. More than anything else, I want the Facebook page to encourage a stronger community and more connection among my readers. After all, I started this blog to help and connect with other writers.

Here’s the link, which you can also find on this blog’s “Writing Resources” page: www.facebook.com/thewritersscrapbin.

I hope to see many faces, both new and old, on the page.

Have any suggestions for what I should add to the Facebook page? Other social media outlets on which you think I should create an account for this site? Feel free to contact me through the comments section, an e-mail to thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com, and now Facebook.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011

Coping with Mental Illness

Today I’m going on a tangent. I’ve been dancing around this subject for a few days now, perhaps since the beginning of this blog. Because I recently read The Beauty of the Fall and Sherman Alexie announced that he would be cancelling his book tour due to depression, I figured that now is the time to discuss a very fragile but very important issue: mental illness.

A supposed link between artists and mental illness has been a source of laughter, fear, and debate in the creative community, from writers to painters to engineers. I recently read an interesting blog post on the website for Scientific American in which the author discusses a link between creative people and mental illness which most people may not consider.

I’m not going to arguing for or against the link. As the above article mentions, most researchers agree that “mental illness is neither necessary nor sufficient for creativity.” I trust the science behind this conclusion but you cannot deny that many well-known creative people have suffered, or at least seem to have suffered, from some form of mental illness. Van Gogh. Hemingway. Woolf. Plath. Rowling. Many, if not all, of my creative friends have some form of mental illness. I suffer from crippling anxiety and depression.

Does that mean mental illness aids creativity? While it can serve as experience-gathering and inspiration after one has overcome or gained control of it, I would generally say no, mental illness does not help creativity. In fact, as the Scientific American blog post suggests, the opposite is true.

Remember, mental illness can take over your mind and push out everything else, including creativity.

Image retrieved from this Bitcoin forum

I can only speak from personal experience. The days when my anxiety overwhelms me or I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel due to depression, I can’t write a thing. I doubt that anything I could possibly write would be worth reading and I feel like some invisible force keeps shoving me away from the creative and cognitive functions of my brain.

Perhaps that’s why so many creative types who suffer from mental illness self-destruct. Like anyone else, we’re afraid of the stigma surrounding depression, anxiety, and similar illnesses and want everyone to think that we’re doing fine. We trick ourselves into thinking that so long as we stay busy, so long as we keep writing or engage in whichever creative outlet we prefer, that we will be fine. It’s just another source of inspiration.

We’re wrong.

Eventually, mental illness wins out over creative action if we don’t get help. I know this view is rather pessimistic but it’s the truth. We try and push through our inhibitions but we wear down.

Art therapy can help with mental illness, but what happens when the artist doesn’t address his/her struggles?

Image retrieved from Psychology Today

Daily creative acts can ease mental illness. Still, that doesn’t mean that they will make the problem go away entirely. We can’t ignore the issue and hope it’ll get better.

We have to let people we trust know about our experiences. The stigma is strong but we have to break it. Support from loved ones, therapy, daily life changes, medication, many options to improve our mental conditions exist if only we choose to pursue them. I know that, in the United States, it can be hard enough to get the medical support due to health cost restrictions. Why deprive ourselves from the other options, too, because we’re scared of what other people will think?

Remember, you can’t write if you’re too overwhelmed and not taking care of yourself.

If you find that you’re suffering from mental illness and don’t know where to go (or don’t want to start out locally due to finances and/or privacy), check out this article about 81 mental health resources for when you can’t afford therapy.

Do you have any experiences with mental illness you wish to share? Words of advice, encouragement, or additional resources? Feel free to drop a line in the comments. Remember, this is a safe place. No one will judge you and, if anyone starts to troll you on here, please contact me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011