Writing group?

I don’t know how many of you enjoy writing, but I really want to get motivated with my writing. I realized that part of what’s holding me back is no one ever asks me to see my writing and so I don’t show anyone, and so there’s nothing motivating me except myself. And while I’m good at motivating myself for the most part, I really want to write a lot more. So I was thinking - how about a writer’s community? A small, tight-knit, password protected group where you can post up your work and read and comment on other people’s work. It’d be like a Wordpress blog, and anyone who’s interested would be a user on the blog, and the entire blog would be closed off to non-registered users.

I really want writers who will be pretty active, posting up at least something maybe once a week or once ever week and a half, but really I just want people at all to post stuff. I also want to keep this really small so that it’s not overwhelming and so people aren’t so afraid to post. If you’ve always wanted to get motivated, the best way is to be part of a supportive community like the one I’m thinking about.

So, anybody interested? Let me know. If I get at least three or four people, I’m going to set it up. I’ve already got one person: Stephanie, but we’d love to get more people! Let me know in a comment if you’re interested, or if you know someone that might be interested.

Oh, also, any kind of writing would be awesome - journal entries, fiction, novels, poetry, etc. As long as it’s creative writing, it works.

March 12, 2009 @ 3:41 pm . Comments (3)

Art — Tags: writing

It all started with a Sailor Moon

Things have been hectic lately. We decided that we would take the house, despite some unforeseen issues, and so I’ve been signing leases, paying deposits, giving them my soul - you know, the usual. Valentine’s Day was nice - in fact, the entire weekend was nice. We lazed around on Saturday, more so than usual, which involved walking to the grocery store to buy tea, chocolate, and strawberries, and then on the way back stopping by the pond to feed the ducks, which was hilarious and fun. We headed back and had afternoon tea while I read a book and J made chocolate covered strawberries. Way better than the storebought ones, let me tell you. For dinner we headed over to my parent’s for spaghetti. It was a great day, full of family and love.

Last week I drew a silly sketch of Sailor Moon on my notebook in class to make a few friends laugh. One of them said, “That’s not half bad.”

For some reason, I needed that encouragement. I used to be an avid sketcher, always doodling on the sides of my homework, but lately I’ve stopped. I don’t know if people understand the power of unwarranted criticism. It can break a person. They show you a short story they’ve written or a picture they’ve drawn and say, “I want to show this to you.” They didn’t ask you for your advice on how to improve, they didn’t ask you whether their metaphors make sense or their style is too organic. They have made someone, and you have the honor of viewing it. Give them the same honor back of enjoying this. Leave the criticism for the art instructor or the editors.

Unless they ask. “Give me an honest critique.” “Tell me whether you think the pose is off.” “Tell me what I should improve.”

I had the unfortunate circumstance of dating a guy who had the potential to ruin my life. I got out of the relationship within about six months but I still remember his harsh words even today. He destroyed drawing for me. Every piece I produced, every painting I tried, he found fault with, criticized, tore apart. Never once said he liked them. And it ruined me. I never drew seriously for a long time, and after that it was just a few things. I turned my attention to writing.

I know what you’re thinking - you’re thinking that I can’t take criticism. No one likes to hear their work isn’t perfect, but it’s the only way you learn. I took an art class and the criticism I had there was what made me grow as an artist. It made me realize what I’m good at and what I’m bad at, because BOTH of these were pointed out. There’s a difference between criticism in an art class and an attack from your boyfriend that wasn’t even asked for.

But then I had someone tell me my Sailor Moon was pretty good.

As people, and as artists, we need honest criticism as much as we need honest encouragement. Encouragement is telling the person to keep going, keep going! Criticism is telling them how to get even better! But we need both. Criticism without encouragement is painful - encouragement without criticism keeps us doing the exact same thing over and over.

Last night as soon as I was done with a school paper, I took out my old sketchbook and I opened it to a new page, and I drew a small picture. And I liked it. And I showed it to J and he said, “Keep going.”

Drawing will never become anything more for me than just something fun, but I’m glad to have it back again.

February 17, 2009 @ 10:49 am . Comments (4)

Art — Tags: creativity, lessons

Nanowrimo!

Nanowrimo has actually been going really well so far. We’ll see if that keeps up. I have a lot of projects and homework assignments to finish up this week, but my game plan so far is to just write during class. Also, it’s been hot (in the 80s), which is just obnoxious. I haven’t lived in Texas for too long, but I can’t remember a fall that’s been this warm before. I mean, it’s NOVEMBER. I’m tired of sweating, frankly, and I’m still very tired of air conditioning.

But I digress. So, what’s really funny is how this year’s Nanowrimo IS going so well. I’m taking more classes and more difficult classes than last year. I also had food poisoning yesterday. I’m also working almost twice as many hours as last year. AND last year I had spent days plotting out my story - my characters were all in my plotting notebook, my plot was on notecards, so I had one planned-out scene for each day, and I knew everything that was going to happen, beginning, middle, end. I didn’t think I was being really micro-management about it, but I really was. It’s funny how each year my writing gets better and better when I write stuff outside of Nanowrimo, but within it it all depends on what I’m writing and how.

This year I had done the same thing, though not quite to the same extent. In fact, I had actually planned on finishing up the one from last year, writing the second part of it (for I had, conveniently, planned it so that it would be exactly 100,000 words long). November 1st, when I woke up, my subconscious smacked me across the face with a half-baked idea, not even a plot, and told me to write it.

So I am, despite my better judgment and everyone else’s advice. And, shockingly enough, it’s working wonderfully. I don’t know how that happens but apparently you can write a story without plotting everything out down to the individual scene. Who knew?

In conclusion, everyone should do Nanowrimo. Because it’s actually more fun than even I thought it was, and I thought it was pretty fun most of the years I did it (since 2002, actually, which makes me feel really old, even though I certainly haven’t been doing it for as long as some people). So, it’s not too late to start, guys. Day 4. Grab your pen and let’s go!

ps: did you guys know Charles Stross is doing Nanowrimo? Ultimate coolness!

November 4, 2008 @ 7:40 am . Comments (3)

Art — Tags: creativity, nanowrimo, writing

Today’s resolution

Today I am taking my camera. And I am ACTUALLY GOING TO TAKE PICTURES.

I am also taking my sketchbook.

That is all.

Pictures tonight, I promise.

October 1, 2008 @ 8:29 am . Comments (4)

Art — Tags: creativity, design

Creativity

Stephanie recently made a post about how she’s going to challenge herself creatively, which is also a contest at this knitting website. I don’t really care about the contest (but you might), but what I do care about is thinking about how I’m going to challenge myself in the next year.

This year is a lot of upcoming craziness for me, with the whole “finding a job” thing. The number one thing I am going to do to is going to happen in the next few weeks, let alone the next year! I’m going to convert my main domain lunsh.net into my design portfolio - a collection of my web designs, patterns, art, etcetera. My blog will sit on a separate subdomain (probably tasty.lunsh.net. :D).

The second thing I’m going to do is create business cards and distribute them to potential employers. That’ll put my contact info and my portfolio at the center of their attention. Ideally, I’ll be hired at a web design firm, or at a Small, Pretty Software Company where I can make usability and design the focus of my work. Ideally. We’ll see.

Another challenge is decorating my apartment and TAKING MORE PICTURES. My lack of pictures has been twofold - I don’t really have a camera. I borrow J’s for all my camera needs but obviously I can’t just steal his camera all the time. Secondly, I don’t like Flickr because of their upload limit (and do not want to pay for a better account), but I still would like a place to put my pictures. In all honesty, I’m probably going to have to end up with a server-side gallery on my domain. Either way, though, I’d like to take more pictures of random stuff, to make it seem more like I’m a real person and not a robot. Plus I love blogs with pictures - they’re just more interactive and fun to read.

These are the main ways I’m going to be challenging myself and I think they’re good ways. Creativity is so fleeting that we can’t force ourselves to be creative - we can only search for that moment of inspiration and then go with it. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but good ideas are few and far between. What can we do but try to find them?

You cannot wake up and suddenly BE creative. I also don’t believe that by doing things you’ll come up with ideas more frequently. I fully believe that you already have the creativity, you already have the ideas. Ideas come frequently and subconsciously - maybe you see something and get an idea for something you want to create, but you don’t even realize you’re thinking about it, not consciously anyway. Or you think of something but forget it. The key is tapping that well, and forcing yourself to become conscious of the thought when you have it. You will lose some, but you will win some too if you force yourself to write it down. Creativity is like a dream, easy to get, easier to forget.

I also believe a lot of people simply put creativity off, and instead do other things first. They often talk about how they want or need to do certain things (people who talk about the book that they’re writing, that they’ve been writing for the past ten years, or people who tell you about their latest cross-stitching, which has been half-done since they were fifteen). Creativity doesn’t work like that. Once you let it go, more often than not it’s gone.

Here is the secret: when an idea comes to you, do it.

Do it right that minute. If you can’t do it, start planning it. At the very least, write it down. But get to it as soon as you possibly can. Creativity WILL NOT wait for you.

And don’t be afraid of it, either. The act of creating is joyful, even if in the end you do not like the finished piece. It is the process that matters more than the result.

September 3, 2008 @ 5:51 pm . Comments (4)

Art — Tags: creativity, well-being