I am sitting here trying to get a handle on the first chapter of my story about the little girl who may or may not have a supernatural friend. I have the hook but how to get it together from there is a presenting a challenge to me.
I compare this challenge to trying to get a cat (my cat) down from the roof. My cat has discovered a way to get on the roof - it is a one story house - but has also discovered that it is a one way route - once up there is no way down.
I have to convince this former stray cat to trust me enough to let me bring it back to earth. I try all the tricks in the book and then some and nothing works. The cat looks at me as if I am the crazy one.
In the manner, trying to get a story to do what you want it to do will sometimes make you crazy. No matter what you try nothing works. You know you have a great story there in your brain but it just won't come out onto your paper.
My answer to both problems is the two P's: patience and persistence. Keep trying and take time to rest but don't give up - that cat will come to you sooner or later. (It did). The same result will happen with your story - keep trying it will come. 

Yes, this is the greatest news ever. It will greatly help you do everything. Here it is:

Practice
Makes
 Perfect.
Take a look at the picture above. Do you think that the photographer just went outside and took that picture. Well, yes she did. But how do you think that she knew to get the right exposure and blend of colors and camera angle and all that other picture taking knowledge - by practicing that's how. By taking picture after picture - downloading them into Photoshop and learning what works and what does not.
The same is true with writing. If you want to be a good writer - practice at it - everyday.
Read books - find out what style works for you and what style does not. Fan the flames of your writing passion by trying new genres and writing techniques. Keep practicing, and do not be afraid to throw something out that just does not work. It might be the best idea you ever had - but if you just can't make it work it will end up draining you of all your writing and creative energy.
Your creative energy is what you hope to use to get you through the hours and hours of practice. Your passion. You must practice like a kid playing a video game (unless of course you are a kid, in which case be yourself). When playing the video game, you do not quit the first time you die - if so you never get far into the game. You never become the master of the game. To master anything, you need to practice it. Even Kung-Fu masters have to do this - so why not you?
If you can't get the passion to practice, if you want to be perfect with every draft you write (then you are just like me) then you will not master writing (unless of course you are a natural writer or you are rich and can afford a ghost writer/editor).
The purpose of this whole website, is to give me an outlet for my writing practice. I strive to write everyday - twice a day (and edit it for readibility too). I have to get better - there is only so many times I can claim the dog ate my post before people stop reading.
So to sum up today's writing lesson - practice, practice, practice
Or
Make lots of money, get famous, and then start writing - the publishers will publish you no matter what then.

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There is no point in running as they are everywhere. Even if you buy a house in the woods or a desert, they will find you. It does not matter what kind of electric fence or any other security devices you install, they will find a way around them. They are Zombies - dull uncreative and drab and they are out to get you.
Zombies exist everywhere - you might have a couple in your family. They eat, drink, sleep, watch television and offer their opinions about everything. They wish to rot your brain so that you will be like them. They offer you candy to ride in the backseat of their expensive cars - but don't get in. Don't give into their temptations - they don't really care about you (they only want to rot your brain.)
I have survived Zombie attacks all my life. Therefore I can offer a few tips on how to survive a zombie attack.
1) Be a chameleon - This works if you are vastly outnumbered, say the only creative type in a roomful of zombies - you just pretend you are a zombie too. Ask when Dog the bounty hunter is coming on, or some other reality cable show. Works everytime.
2) Hold up an icon of Thought (a book perhaps) - this scares Zombies much like a crucifix scares vampires. They will shield their eyes and that will give you the space to escape.
3) Use drugs or alcohol to slow them down - If you choose to drink or smoke with them be careful what you say - you might arouse them. However most times, zombies will just look at you funny as if you are talking a different language. For example, once I got drunk with some zombies and started reciting poetry. They moved away from me and believed that I was being possessed by some demon. I then farted and everything returned to normal.
4)Burp or fart (or joke about burps or farts) - this always brings laughs and relieves the tension. Try to fade away quietly after this though or all night you will be stalked by Zombies wanting you to do it again.
5)Use this technique only if all else fails and you are backed into a corner by several layers of Zombies {pull out your iPhone (or any other hi-tech gear), drop it to the side of you and claim it is a very expensive cool gadget. For some unexplainable reason, Zombies are attracted to high tech things such as smart phones. Once you drop the iPhone, slowly walk away - you will never see your gadget in one piece again anyway.
Zombies almost always break high tech gadgets by checking to see if they'll float, survive a hammer blow or some other inane test.

The reason Zombies are so deadly is their numbers. They believe that anyone who is creative is crazy and would be better off dead (in the brain that is). They will do anything to get you to quit writing, even offer sexual favors (this is a rumor - it has never happened to me). Zombies will yell at you, tell you that you stink, laugh at you (the zombie's laugh is the worst thing in the universe), and offer you soda pop. I have seen good writers prey to Zombie-ism with their first burp or fart.

When Zombies come knocking at your door, tell them that you are being given a genius grant from the National Endowment for the Arts - they hate that. Zombies ususally hang out in the south but they can be found in a town  that has a tea party chapter. I have to go now - I hear an angry mob of zombies  on my lawn complaining about my television being set for PBS. Luckily, I have an old iPhone sitting around.

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Every now and then, (actually almost everyday) I am tempted to look at some old story I wrote and try to bring it back to life - try to make it fresh, something that I might want to finish.
The reason the story is considered dead by me is simple - it is lost in the pages of the computer hard drive where I store my stories.

Most of these dead stories started out as raving good ideas - a talking sassy dog, a house that eats people - a television that talks back. The problem is I found that a lot of raving good ideas do not make good stories - there has to be a good plot attached. A good plot involves a lot of idea that come together.

There is another reason, I started these stories then abandoned them - I lost the enthusiasm  for writing  on these topics or stories - I no longer had the desire to write a long story about a sassy dog eating television set as big as a house. But now that I am thinking about these ideas again, I feel there pull - pick me, they say, write about me - I will make a great story - I will make you rich.

My advice is to leave these old stories alone. They are like old lovers - the memory of them is better than the actual thing. Unless that old lover was the one that got away. And now she lives in a people eating house with a sassy dog that tells everyone to shut the door, because the television is about to speak. (Take that Stephen King). I have to get back to her - I have to show the love poetry I wrote her. Yes, she is worth it. (at least until tomorrow when I wake up and forget about this post).

Yes, even the best design needs editing. However, over editing can be the death of your creativity. If you are like me, then you are in trouble. I like to write spontaneously and I can write a whole chapter easily in one sitting, but that is where the danger comes in - in the editing phase. I am like an editing addict. I just can't stop once I start.
Take the following sentence as an example:
Wicked Wanda wafted, waving her hands in ironic agony, as she screamed "Yellow Zonkers to you all".
I might start my editing by correcting any spelling mistakes (witch I did before I aloud this too be printed). Next, I fixed the verb tense mistakes. But the reel dance begins when I consider changing the way the parts of the sentence are ordered.
Waving her hands in ironic agony, Wicked Wanda screamed "Yellow Zonkers to you all" while wafting. I tell myself that sounds better but a few seconds later, I feel the knead to make changes again - something just is not right.
Wicked Wanda really was in pain, her hands were killing her, and she screamed at everybody in the room some nonsense about Yellow and Zonkers and oh yes she was wafting the whole time.
Now I might think that the problem of Wanda screaming might be solved but perhaps this is too wordy.
Wicked Wanda hands were in pain, everyone could see this, and they understood why she screamed but they could not understand why she was wafting.
And so it goes until hours later, I either give up the task or I get the dog to choose the best one (note - because the dog seems to be the last person I have asked about this.)
(the dog is no help - he liked them all - in fact he ate my story)
But I saved the original on the computer - so it is the original I will go with.
So save yourself time with editing and get the dog to do it. Or be satisfied when the publisher tells you their editor will make the changes.

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subtitle - don't tell your family you want to be a writer

I know that the urge will come to you but don't give in to it. I know that you want to be affirmed by those closest to you. I do not care if you have written the next great American novel - do not show it to your family.
Very few families believe that anyone can make a living by writing. Most families view writing as on a par with joining the circus or being a mime. Actually, they might hold the latter two with a higher esteem. So even if you are great and this is apparent to your family - they will try to talk you out of a writing career or even writing as a hobby.
The worst woodcarver is given more encouragement than most writers, simply because woodcarving can be put on the wall and shown. Try that with a novel.
No, there simply isn't much about writing that most families can understand.
Worse still, most family members think you have cast the worst character in your novel as them. They see things you the author never thought of.
Example: "That guy in the last scene who shot everybody - that's me isn't it ?
That woman who killed her children and then cooked them - that's me isn't it ?
That four headed monster with the tentacles - that's me isn't it ?
Yes, they really believe that you are out to get them, to show the world the horror of them, your family members.
But to tell the truth - they are right. I am out to get them - after all they were ones who told my I stink and I will never make a dime.

That is the question that I ask myself as I listen to Billy Collins reading a poem he composed after he read another poets work. Mr. Collins was  poet laureate of the USA once and that means he is a well read and accomplished poet. He however, did not like the words of the other poet and he used these words to make a witty and thoughtful poem called - well I forget what it is called but you get the point, right?
I did. After hearing Billy words on YouTube today, I found myself with three poetry books in hand and I was also viewing a poetry website for clues too - all at the same time. It worked. I started writing a poem which I titled the Waves of Heaven. I did like my first version of it but I think I will make it a finished product tomorrow. Or the next day - The point is I was able to find inspiration from the works of others. This is a perfectly acceptable thing to do - as long as you give the other work some credit for inspiring you and as long as you do not copy large chunks of the others work (or even small chunks). You want to make your stories and poems works that reflect you - your feelings or your ideas. I just finished a chapter of a story which was inspired by a novel I was reading. I did not like the start of the novel - I felt the hook was loose and vague and not very entertaining. As a reader, I was disappointed. I could do better I said to myself. Prove it, I answered back. Four pages later, I felt I had won the argument. I called in my wife to judge and smart woman that she is - she sided with my version. Much more exciting she said.
I am still basking in the glow of that praise.
That is my second lesson of this post:
Take praise wherever and whenever you can get it - there is never too much of it no matter how good you are.
I must go steal, I mean, inspire myself further - books to read. Bye for now.

This picture currently represents nothing to me. But it could be my inspiration for a story.
I have several ideas banging about in my head waiting for me to expound upon them. I was hoping that I could meditate and in my meditation visualize these ideas forming a plot - sort of a Tetris for stories - with pieces of plot floating in a and fitting next to each other.
But every time I meditate, I get the urge to write and every time I write I get the urge to meditate. What is this writer to do?

I thought it might be a good idea to put some ideas down here and see if they make any more sense to me. So here goes:
One idea is about a spiritual teacher and his/her pupil. Another idea is about an adventure story involving mysterious happening and solving those mysteries.
Another idea is to take an old story and polish it up into a finished product.
Normally, I write very well in the stream of consciousness mode but I never write a finished product. I want to do that now. I just don't know what story to start with.  I have a concept of a woman on the run learning secrets (magic) as fast as she can because she needs this magic to save her life. I think this might work but it is a lengthy product - novella at the shortest. I think this is something I can do - I will call it the woman of the wind. And now I even have a cover art - just have to get permission.
I think I have solved my dilemma. All thanks to this blog. Thank you blog.

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Call it the look in your eye when you stand in front of the mirror. Call it the way people are acting all around you. Call it the wind always being in your way. Whatever you might call it - I call it Krazy (with a capital K as in that is not the way its supposed to be).

Today was supposed to be a light and easy day full of rest relaxation and more than anything else - sleep. But from the get go, today has been that way. From the five minute visitor at 2 AM to the ten o'clock session with the karate kids, today has been crazy. Not choatic but crazy. I am tempted to get in the car and drive, somewhere, anywhere just to get some quiet - enough serenity to be creative. But that would be crazy or carzy.

What I want to do is show people who wish to write that even on crazy, carzy days there is opportunity to write. That is why I am here typing in this blog, pretending that there are not several people running around me, trying to get me to pay attention to them. I am like the three monkeys combined - I can't see them, I can't hear them and I definitely won't talk to them. So they don't exist, right ?
And pretending that they don't exist is how I am able to make this posting coherent. (I hope).
There is still the smell of bleach on my hands, the result of my intervention upon a washing machine disaster in the making. My legs are still crossed due to someone's two hour visit to the washroom. (Currently in progress) Yet I persevere.
The picture above might not convey the essence of craziness, but it is the best I was able to come up with after my first seven choices failed. I think that when I finish this posting, I will get in the car, cry, and then drive to nearest public toilet - that is if I do not get pulled over for Carzy driving.

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My pages are what I call my warm-up exercise for writing. The idea is to write three double spaced pages on the computer putting down anything that comes into my mind. The idea behind this exercise is to clear the mind of the clutter that blocks the creative juices and also to get my mind and fingers used to typing. I do this exercise as soon as possible in the day. I find that if I do not do this exercise - I do not write.
So for the last few weeks I have made myself write pages everyday.
The results have been promising. I have gone from not caring about writing (I would be better off dead) to wanting to write blogs and poems and stories every day.
But in the last three days the form of my pages has changed (I think for the better). I used to write my three pages alternating from being preachy (I am right, the world is wrong) to just being crabby (the world is wrong and I am too). Occasionally, I would write nice things but not too much.
Three days ago, I decided to change the tone of my pages. I would no longer write what came to my head - I would write as if I were actually writing a real piece of writing. I found that it was easier to keep my attention fixed on the three pages and I did not suddenly want to watch the grass grow (or whatever distraction seemed cool at the time) (usually these distractions stop distracting me as soon as I get up from the desk that I am writing at). (I wonder why).
So I feel like a new man and the sky is bright with the light of a new day. I think I might be on to something but you never know. I will keep you posted as to what happens over the weekend with all its myriad distractions.