Tag: writing

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Getting to Know You–One Way or the Other

Daily writing prompt
In what ways do you communicate online?
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I have to admit, I haven’t really gotten into too much online communication other than this blog. Okay, I’m on Facebook, but I rarely post. WhatsApp is something I’d like to explore since my uncle, who now lives in Portugal, uses that. But Instagram, Tik Tok, all the rest hold no interest for me.

I work with a woman who uses Tik Tok excessively. She gets all her news from that app, and it’s often wrong. I’ve told her she should find her news from reputable sources, but she just shrugs. While I’m sure some of what she reads is accurate, I know a lot of it is not.

What’s interesting to me is she wasn’t aware of the looming Tik Tok ban. It’s possible, although no one is quite certain about this, that the app could go dark after January 19. I’m not sure what my colleague would do after that, given her reliance on Tik Tok for news, entertainment, makeup tips, and a dozen other things I don’t remember right now.

I hate the thought of relying so much on social media, although I’ll be the first to admit it’s the only way I stay in contact with many of my friends from college. I’ve found it interesting to see how much some of us have changed our world views from one end of the spectrum to the other. We bond together and support each other through Facebook (as I’ve said before, I rarely post, but I keep up with other’s posts). I also get really good book suggestions from my friend Sue.

I still favor more personal communication, such as meeting in person with my friends or phone calls. Okay, I rarely use the phone, but I do text. The one-on-one conversations are much more satisfying to me than anything I can get on social media.

Still, I’ve made some friends through this blog, and I care about all of them. I want to know what’s next in their lives. Through our posts I’ve gotten to know about how they relate to the world around them and some details that delight me, for example, a love of cats. If something happened to one of them, I would grieve.

Will my relationship with social media change? Who knows. My life is bound to be different in the next couple of years, so perhaps my dependence on social media will be, too.

Image Credits: Wooden Figurines © Valerii Evlakhov–stock.adobe.com; New View © muhammad–stock.adobe.com; Cat © Yana–stock.adobe.com

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Perfect Space? Probably Not–Yet Still…

Daily writing prompt
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
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Some time back I bought a book called “At Work At Home” about building the perfect office space. It had a multitude of ideas, none of them practical for me–my budget didn’t stretch that far. Since that time I’ve perused many books on the same topic, and keep coming back to a favorite kind of space. It’s a cubby with a sofa, surrounded by bookshelves on top and each side, bursting with books. Add a spacious desk nearby and I know I could be inspired by something like that.

Maybe a desk like this?

Instead what I have is much simpler. A small corner desk in my spare bedroom, a room which doubles as a storage space, and a few sparse bookshelves in my living room. I don’t have room for anything more. Still, somehow, I manage to write on a regular basis. I read every work day at lunch in my car, although I’ve learned not to buy books, in part because I don’t have room for them and in part because on hot summer days the binding comes apart. So I Kindle it.

Let’s face it, I’ll likely never have a dream reading and writing space. So I work on ways to make mine better. A nicer lamp, for instance, instead of the thirty-year-old thing I’ve got. I can’t even use the lampshade because it’s too dark, so my lamp is this unattractive base with a light bulb on top. Okay, let’s move on from there. I could be better organized. I have papers overflowing the desk file holders I have. I’d like the walls to be less sparse. Perhaps I could hang up something besides my Peanuts “Happiness Is…” calendar?

If I kept looking for the ideal space, I’d never find it. But dreams are good. They fuel the imagination and give us hope. I guess that’s why I still haven’t gotten rid of my copy of “At Work At Home.”

Image Credit: Office Space © thejokercze–stock.adobe.com Glasses on book © Sippung–stock.adobe.com

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Time and Talent

Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned

AdobeStock_130629499 pngThat’s the full quote, from William Congreve, a popular playwright from the late 17th-early 18th centuries. Specifically, it’s from his 1697 play, The Mourning Bride. (It’s also the play with the quote “Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,” frequently misquoted as “beast.”) Suffice to say, Mr. Congreve knew a little about human nature. “No rage like love to hatred turned” is well understood by every divorce lawyer in this country, if not the world.

We count on playwrights and fiction authors of every genre to tell us tales we can relate to, even if they’re set in some sort of alternate reality. It takes time and talent to develop those skills. Each author has his or her voice, or a collective voice when there are multiple authors. It’s not something AI can duplicate, as I’ve discovered through my writing group.

We did some experimenting with AI, and the results surprised–and pleased–me. While the same story might have been told, it wasn’t with the same voice. It was flat and, frankly, sounded like a mass market novel, not something original. Now, I know AI can be tweaked to come closer to that reality. But there is still room for the talented writer.

I understand, however, why the screenwriters are so concerned. So much of their voice is subject to interpretation by actors anyway. AI may come closer to mimicking their work with some skill. But it can’t truly do the job. Not yet. After all, AI pulls from work that’s already been created. Can it create plot twists? Political satire? I don’t know, and to a great extent, I don’t care.

As a writer myself, I sympathize with the screenwriters and wish them well in their negotiations. It’s more than just AI, of course, and I believe they’re trying to get ahead of the game with that one. The other issues they’re dealing with are apparently numerous, including fair pay.

AdobeStock_284900920 [Converted] smThe next time you watch TV, send a silent thanks to the writers and recognize their worth in the world of entertainment. The good ones will be quoted for a long time, because they know what makes us tick. And like I said, that takes time and talent.

Image Credits: Broken Heart © Galyna_P–stock.adobe.com; Television © Irene–stock.adobe.com

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What to Say, What Not to Say

As some of you know, I’ve been trying to write a novel. Originally when I joined my writer’s group, I had planned to write a memoir, and had gotten pretty far in outlining my efforts. I was going to focus on some of the mental health issues I’ve faced and their consequences, among other things.

Problem is, my mental health issues are tame compared to what many people face. I’ve struggled with depression and was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder not otherwise specified. In my case that meant there were identifiable episodes of bipolar depression, but it didn’t appear to be an ongoing problem. I do take medication, but for many years now there’s been no sign of anything resembling bipolar disorder.

A lot of my problems come from family issues when I was growing up. I struggled with these all through my 20s and 30s, but now I’ve gotten past them (for the most part) and have healed several of the relationships that brought me down previously.

AdobeStock_563786899I’ve watched young women I know fairly well deal with-or not deal with–many of the same sort of issues I faced at their age, and at least one of them is notorious for saying, “you have no idea what I’m going through.” Those of us who are older and wiser just shake our heads and say to each other, “yeah, right. Like we didn’t go through the same thing.”

If I had a better recall of the specifics of what I went through, it probably would make for some good essays, but I’ve moved past that era of my life and I simply don’t remember the day-to-day struggles. Either that, or I don’t want to.

And here’s the other thing about writing a memoir: in order for it to be any good, I have to be painfully honest, and I have no desire to do that. There’s no healing value in it for me anymore, and other people in my life don’t need to see that part of my life. I’m a fairly private person and I’d like to keep it that way.

Beautiful daisy isolated on white background

Many people I know, in fact, think I had an idyllic childhood. I don’t necessarily want to let them keep believing that, but I don’t really want to go into any detail about why that isn’t true. It’s not that I want to keep secrets, mind you. There’s a difference between secrets and private matters.

Which leads me back to where I began with this post. I’ve been trying to write a novel. I think I’ll stick with that.

Image Credits: Daisy © Leonid Ikan–stock.adobe.com; Both line images © OneLineStock–stock.adobe.com;

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A Writer Writes

When I was thirteen, my dad brought home the family’s first typewriter, an IBM correcting Selectric II. I was fascinated, and spent hours writing back-cover blurbs to books that stood no chance of being written. They typically went something like this:

“Brittany is torn between her love for two men–the boy-next-door Jake and the dashing stranger Xavier. Knowing that fully loving one would mean giving up the other makes for an impossible choice…until someone new enters her life and gives her the courage to see things clearly.”

Nothing like a cheap romance. I could never write a book like that today (well, never say never, I suppose), but there was a time in my life when I contemplated writing Harlequin romances to make some money. I’d never read one, but I figured, how hard can it be? Then I read one, and thought, I’d be selling my soul. So much for that writing career.

AdobeStock_529380913I turned to my next writing venture, the one I’d studied for–newspaper reporting. For two years I covered city council meetings for a weekly newspaper. I loved it. I especially loved the fact that my coverage of some controversial issues garnered criticism from some city council members. This was to a point where one city took to having their “real” meetings before the scheduled time, only to put on a show of solidarity for me. They got in big trouble for that one.

I didn’t see a future in journalism, however, and got a series of  jobs in communications. Still, they couldn’t (and still can’t) completely take the journalist out of me. My strength was in media relations, pitching stories to newspapers and television newsrooms. I was, if I do say so myself, pretty good at it.

Today my writing is solely for personal, and not professional, satisfaction. I’m working on a novel, although I struggle with it mightily. I belong to a writer’s group that provides critiques and encouragement for my efforts. So far, the first few chapters are going well. I just don’t really know where the book is going. Hence my struggle.

To all you writers out there (and I know there a many in the blogasphere), I say, keep on writing. Find others who are doing the same and share stories and ideas with each other. You may never make a profit with your writing, but that’s not the point. The point is your soul needs it. And that’s enough to hit those ol’ typewriter, I mean laptop, keys again and again.

Image Credits: Typewriter keys © Miguel A Padriñán–stock.adobe.com; Reporter © Sergio J Lievano–stock.adobe.com.