Mood music for writing

Hello again!

Last week I promised that I’d write about mood music for writing at some point; how does now sound?

There are a thousand “classical” composers out there, and I won’t pretend to know all of them… but I do listen to more than my fair share, and I’ve found that different composers, nationalities of music, and instruments really lend themselves to different moods. And choosing the right mood of music can really help lead your writing; especially on an “off” day.

I’ve only written in a few genre’s as of yet, so I won’t go into genre-specific composers at this time, but I may come back to this when I have a bit more experience in different types of writing.

Note; if you’re looking for an emotion that I don’t cover, or don’t like my options, you can always go to Youtube and look up “________ classical music” and that usually pulls up a handful of options.

Calming music- for general writing.

French composers- 

Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, are pretty good for this. You can also branch into Brahms if you feel like something a little more familiar.

Any bowed instruments are also a good go-to, IE cello, or violin.  

I go to these when I’m just writing generally, especially if I’m writing something in an older era, IE my Steampunk Spy trilogy.

Intense music- a bit broody.

Russian composers,

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff are good choices for this, but you can also go to Beethoven and Mozart if you want something a little more typical.

I use these when I’m writing something a bit darker, they have a lot of depth, but also plenty of weight behind them when you need it. 

High emotion- Nothing specific but a lot of heart.

Ballet.

Instrumental opera. 

Full orchestra. 

I haven’t found a lot of specifics for this, but if you want something that’ll get a story flowing these can really work.

Deep focus/editing-

Piano music.

I don’t know what it is about the piano, but it’s unrivaled for focusing your mind without distracting you. 

That’s about it for my list, although I’m sure that I’ll add to it later. 

I feel like I should note here that music is nice, but at the end of the day you’re the one who needs to sit down and start writing, these can only help you get in the right headspace if you’re willing to do the work.

Thanks for the read!

A dream-inspired story.

Welcome to my very last Flash Fiction Friday! Thanks for taking this adventure with me!

I draw inspiration for my stories from thousands of places, one of these happens to be my own dreams; so for this last story, I thought that I'd share one of my dreams that I thought would make a cute if slightly melancholy story.

I had this dream a few weeks before my 16th birthday party, which was Audrey Hepburn themed, as I love her movies, and I also think that she was a pretty awesome human being, even if I don't agree with every element of her life. So I guess the fact that I had a dream about her shouldn't be that big of a surprise, but for some reason or other, this dream has really stuck with me.

I wouldn't say that this story was written for kids, but I also wouldn't say that kids can't or shouldn't read it, I'm just not sure how many of them would really know who Audrey Hepburn is. This story is a tad bittersweet, but nothing is particularly inappropriate about it, death, and letting go of imaginary friends is discussed lightly, so if you don't think that your kid is ready for that, then keep them away.

I met Audrey Hepburn, although she died seven years before my birth, and I’d like to tell you about it.

I first encountered her cowering and hiding in fear, my family had found her, I took it upon myself to befriend her. It didn’t take me long to learn that she feared she would die if people discovered that she was still alive and that her solitude kept her safe. 

In time I managed to break down that wall, and we became fast friends, although this is far from the norm for me, but it was the eve of my birthday party when everything changed, and that’s what I’d like to tell you about. 

It was an elaborate affair, far more then I would ever wish for myself, yet a scene where she seemed to fit right in, and when she told me that she was going to look for some of her old Hollywood friends, I had no problem believing that she would succeed.

The party continued for perhaps an hour when she came to talk to me; I can’t remember her exact words, but by the faces around her, I could tell that no one else could see her, although they had been before.

She could see this, and when someone actually walked through her she became frightened, I knew what had happened, but I didn’t know how to say it. Her pleading confused eyes begged for an answer so I stumblingly tried to explain,

“I don’t know how to tell you this… You’ve been amazing, exactly like I always imagined, and I guess that should have been a clue…” 

There was no doubt that she now understood what had happened herself, as she smiled with a note of wisdom and replied,

“Then I guess this one last hug will imagine me away.”

Her guess was right as she disappeared, my newfound friend, one of few people who really seemed to understand me. Despite the confusion I should have felt, somehow I understood everything which had just happened; my mind had created a friend for me, one who understood me, and now it was time to let go.

A single tear glittered down my cheek as I said goodbye to my own imaginary friend, and then I awoke with real tears in my eyes, and an oddly light heart. 

Thanks for the read!

And thank you for sticking with me through this adventure!

Be well.

How to write that Novel

Hi there!

A lot of people are talking about “finally writing that novel” due to social isolation, and the unexpected free time that has come with it; but how are you actually supposed to do that?

Well, I may not have been published yet, but I have plenty of experience with beginners woes and writing; so I thought I would share a few tips on “how to write” and tricks to help the process to go easier.

How to write a novel in three easy steps;

1. Grap a pencil/pen/crayon/marker/computer/wordprosessor/tablet/typewriter.
2.  If necessary, grab some paper.
3.  Start writing.

That’s it! I truly believe that anything else that you read that you “need” to do is just gatekeeping, which I am firmly opposed to. But that’s not to say that there is nothing that you can do to improve your writing, or help the process go smoother, so here are 5 tricks that I wish someone would have shared with me when I started. 

1. Learn to touch-type- unless you are one of those people who would rather write out your manuscript by hand, then spending a bit of time working on your typing skills will be well spent.

2. Set a schedule and stick to it- A lot of people say that you should write every day, and they have a very good point, every day you write, you will improve, and it’ll also get easier, but it’s important to take time off too so that you don’t burn yourself out. You can have a very vague schedule if that suits your personality, such as “I’ll write every other day” or “I’ll write 2000 words a week”, or it can be very structured if that suits you; “I’ll write 500 words every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.” Just do your best to stick to it.  

3. Write regularly, not just when you feel like it- I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory, especially with the last point, but really, just keep writing, even when it doesn’t flow. 

4. Finish dreams- You know how you wake up in the middle of a dream, and it sucks ‘cause you want to know how it ended? Well, finish it! This is a great exercise for flexing your creative muscles and forcing yourself to follow a pre-set mold. 

5. Find a way to break through writer’s block- This can be absolutely anything, two of my favorite tricks are turning on mood music, (I’ll release a post on this later.) or talking through a scene, literally putting myself in the place of my characters and speaking as them (complete with absolutely terrible accents)- talking about what’s going on, what’ll happen next, or just letting them have a conversation. I know this sounds crazy, but I sware it helps break the “blocked” mindset and helps my creative juices start flowing forward. 

So there you go, one last note, and a word of caution for you, your first draft will never look as good as you think when you are reading it through for the first time, this is okay, I sware. And please don’t forget to take breaks when your brain is absolutely splitting.

Thanks for the read!

Chasing horizons

Welcome to my 9th Flash Fiction Friday!

This week's story is called Chasing horizons, and it's honestly not aimed at any particular age group, but there's nothing really age limiting about it either.

Chasing horizons.

You know how us cowboys are supposed to ride off into the horizon after we get the bad guy and rescue the lady fair? Well, it’s not quite as easy as it sounds.

The thing that everyone forgets to tell you is that the horizon is simply the line where the sun sets, it’s not really a location. But I didn’t know that when I started out as a horizon chaser… and now it’s far too late for me to stop.

I did the classic midday shootout thing, and I saved the town just like a penny novel hero would so I figured that their happy ending would work just as well for me. 

Maybe I should have been suspicious when I hit the water, but I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that deter me, even though the sun had set hours before. I figured when I reached the horizon I’d be in a land of eternal sunshine… so I bought a ship just large enough for me, rations, and my horse; and off we went.

I've got to tell you, there is nothing so pretty as a sunrise at sea. It looked like the whole world was glowing; and for a moment, I thought that I’d done it. I thought that I had reached the horizon… but then the sun continued to rise, and I was lost at sea.

I followed the sunset to more places then you can dream of. I’ve seen wonders you can’t imagine, tasted foods with more flavor then you knew existed, and seen horrors that I fear I will never forget. But one thing I've never seen is the horizon itself. Sure, we all see it for a short amount of time each day, but even though I sought it for years meeting friends, foes, and even my wife along the way, I never learned where the sun rises and sets, it’s always just out of reach.

Looking back on my life, I guess I was pretty selfish. I wanted to live on the horizon like it somehow belonged to me, and maybe that’s why so many old-timers looked at me cockeyed when I told them about my plans, but in their crooked smiles I knew even then, that a lesson lay ahead of me, though I figured that it lay in my destination; not my journey.

You want to know the pearl of wisdom that I picked up along the way? The golden nugget of truth that no one would share with me? That they insisted I learn for myself?

The horizon belongs to everyone, just like rainbows and flowers. If you live on a mountain, island, or farm, they may look a little different depending on where your from, but they are yours just as much as mine, they’re a beautiful gift from God, and you can’t just live there. You need to wait ‘till He decides to bless you with them.

Thanks for the read!

If you have any ideas for a story that you'd like to see me tackle, please share them below!

1 week with me!

Hello again! 

This week I'll be taking with you with me throughout the last week. Full disclosure, I was going to write this post last week, but I didn't take notes throughout the week, and forgot half of what I had done throughout the week by the time I sat down to actually write about it... plus it was a very rough-unproductive week. Also, this week was normal in some respects, but in many others, it was far from it, especially as we are in the middle of minor house renovations at the moment.

Without any further ado, here is my week.

Monday: 

My alarm went off at 9:30 every day this week, but I'm working on backing up my wake up time by 15-minute increments, with the hopes of reaching an 8:30 wake up time.

Devotional. I try to start every day with a short prayer time, and a short, simple devotional. I'm currently in the middle of "A Gentle Spirit: Devotions for Women" Sometimes they are really on the nose, and sometimes they really miss the mark, (these were written for married mothers, not single 20-somethings; something I didn't know before I started.) but I still find that it's a good idea, plus even when they miss the mark a bit I can still try to learn something from them.

Breakfast: homemade banana bars, and chai.

Checked my Etsy and social media stats. 15 minutes

Wrote my blog in a grammar checker, tweaked as I went, and scheduled it. 60 minutes.

Instagram photos: changed character and setting (Alice vs Christine and Lemon flower vs lemon leaves) at the last moment. I took photos, chose the best ones, cropped them, and posted them, 45 minutes.

Blog prep with photos: weeded, cropped, and added digital cleaner. 20 min.

Wrote out weekly schedule (not social media) I don't always write out a schedule for the week or day, but I thought it may help if I had a few visual aids for the blog. Also, I write out my social media schedule following a very simple template for the blog at the end of each month, and schedule them to an app which reminds me when they need to come out, and what exactly I planned to schedule... although I often need to make tiny changes or swap posts throughout the week.

Weekly schedule, tasks.

Weekly schedule at a glance.

Schedule for the day.

Monthly blog template.

1:30 Lunch: Vegan burger patty with mashed potatoes with corn, and lime water. I tend to take a short break over lunch to refresh my brain by watching a short episode of a retro show, just 24 minutes.

Rooted study: This is a devotional I guess? I've been going through it with my small group at church, and it's nothing like any devotionals I've run into before; it's better.

General house cleaning.

Editing my book: ½ chapter, 3.5 pages. 1 ½ hour work

Exercises: 30 minutes hula hooping and 99 reps on arms with dumbells.

Dinner: 6:30 crackers, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, dressing, and NY Cheesecake and cherry pie filling for dessert, with a movie.

I go to sleep around 11:30-12:00 every night, plus I have insomnia, so sometimes that doesn't work out even with hot milk and melatonin. 

Tuesday:

I didn’t sleep well.

Posted my blog manually, and posted it to Facebook. Although I always auto-schedule my posts, sometimes something goes wrong with the program and I need to post it manually. Not a big deal, just annoying.

Devotional.

Breakfast: Irish breakfast tea with milk, chocolate mint oatmeal.

Blog prep with photos: weeded them and edited. 5 min.

Washed the doggy's dishes.

Exercises: 15 routine- torso twists, 15 side-side and 15 obliques, 15 half-crunches, 15 obliques, 2 15 second ab holds 1 30 second ab hold. 15 toe taps, 15 double toe taps, cobra pose, child's pose twice.  

Lunch: mashed potatoes with sour cream spring onions vegan bacon bits cheese and sparkling juice.

Editing: 50 minutes.

Rooted Study: (I had a headache, hence the break.)

Editing: 25 minutes.

Snack: trail mix.

Small group.

Dinner: vegan chicken quesadillas with homemade mango salsa, gluten-free chocolate cakey things, and iced tea.

Wednesday:

Devotional.

Breakfast: Irish breakfast tea, scrambled eggs, and remaining mango salsa.

The internet was out for the majority of the morning, so I waited until it was up properly to get started.

Blog prep with photos: 15 min.

My desk actually tried to fall off the wall right before small group, so I temporarily changed my workspace and swapped my planned post for my Etsy Facebook account.

From this;

To this.

Wrote Etsy Facebook post+scheduleed it: 20 min.

Lunch: fluffernutter sandwich with more tea.

Wrote short story+scheduled it: 30 min.

Rooted Study.

Ice cream+chocolate cakey thing break.

Edit ½ chapter: 80 min.

Dinner: noodle hot dish with sparkling juice.

Thursday:

Devotional.

Breakfast: fluffernutter with tea.

Our weekly game day was canceled in favor of fixing the subfloor, I stayed in my room for most of the day due to a mold allergy.

Blog photos: weeded and took them twice, and edited-5 min.

Lunch: fast food.

Editing: full chapter and grammar checker.- 105min.

Trimmed and washed the dog.

Dinner: more fast food, (the kitchen was out of sorts all day)

Friday:

Woke up 8:15.

Transplanted tomatoes.

Wrote author bio, and tweaked back cover: 25 min.

Lunch: leftovers.

Dinner: Peanut banana milkshakes.

Note: we had a friend come over to help put our subfloor back to rights, and I wanted to make sure that I was available to help if needed, plus I couldn't focus with all the confusion in the house.

Saturday.

Devotional.

Breakfast: tea with rocky road baked oatmeal.

Put the house back to rights.

Snacks: chips and juice.

Dinner: cookie dough, apples, and hot milk. (I'm pretty sure we had vegetables with this or something, I just can't remember what.)

Again, I should have edited this day as well, but I was losing my mind at the moment.

Sunday was reserved for Church and Mothers day, but I typically don't work on Sundays any week, unless I really need to.

So what is the moral of this insanity? With a little faith, and a lot of tea, you too can lose your mind... or was that work from home? :)

Thanks for the read!

Bigfoot.

Week 8 of my Flash Fiction Fridays!

This week I have another in my series of kiddie cryptic stories, this one is about Bigfoot; enjoy!

Bigfoot.

Did you ever play hide-and-seek in the woods? That’s what I do every day!

Hi there! My name is Bigfoot, but I’m really only a little Bigfoot or a Littlefoot. I live in the woods, and I probably even have cousins living somewhere near you!

We live ALL over the place; almost every continent! We like the woods mostly… but a couple of my cousins, called “Yetis” like the snow and mountains. 

But… just like my friend Nessie, a lot of people don’t think that we’re real! We’ve got a game where we try to see which of us can hide the best, but Nessie is winning… there are SOO many of us that it’s hard for all of us to hide all the time.

Some mean people make up bad stories about us; they say that we EAT PEOPLE! Can you believe that?!? Who would want to eat a people? They don’t smell like they’d be good to eat, especially because we eat leaves and fruit most of the time, not other animals!

We just want to play and live with the other animals, we don’t want to hurt you at all! I think that they are just scared of us because peoples are so small, and we’re so much bigger than them.

We see people all the time… ‘Cause we live in the woods, and peoples like the woods, we see you doing strange things like fishing… we have friends that fish too, like bears… but you do it so strangely! Why would you use those great big sticks? Our friends just use their teeth. And what is this “camping” that you do all the time? You have nice warm cabins… why would you want to sleep outside? To see the stars? Then why do you use those “tent” things? You can’t see through those!

I think peoples must be much more shy then us; you spend so much of your time inside cabins and tents! We just hide behind trees and bushes, you hide in big wooden cabins and tents. But other times you seem so brave… you sit next to fires on purpose! How do you not singe your fur?

I guess I’ll never understand peoples… But I still like you!

Thanks for the read!
If you have any ideas for a story that you'd like to see me tackle, please share it below!

The waiting game

Hi there!

Often when I talk about work I write in a very upbeat manner- “Yeah it’s hard but whatever.” Today… isn’t going to be exactly like that… TBH I wasn’t supposed to write this post till next week, but for reasons I’ll go into then I decided to write this one instead.

By now you are probably wondering what my title has to do with my post; “what is the waiting game?” Well, in this case, the waiting game is waiting for orders on my Etsy. It’s been up for 3 months to the day by the time you are reading this… but I have yet to net a single sale.

Since starting the store I’ve; written weekly posts on my business FB page, made and posted to my business Instagram weekly, pinned all of my jewelry to a business Pinterest profile,re-strung most of my necklaces to correct a small error, and run a Covid sale- not to mention constantly double-checking my stats on all of these sites, and Etsy to boot. 

Don’t get me wrong, I never expected instant success, I knew that there would be a period of growth extending a couple of years even… but I at least thought that I would have a couple of sales by now. 

So what is the waiting game? It evolves with time; at the beginning, it was obsessively checking my stats every couple of minutes, which in time stretched into hours… and now I’m down to checking every day, even skipping some of my media stats on some days!

How long am I going to keep my Etsy up without sales… I need to renew my business name by next year… and if I don’t see any sales by then, (or only see one or two,) I’ll need to consider closing it down so that I can better spend my energy elsewhere. 

Sorry, I know that this is a bit of a downer in a world full of downers, but I’ve got to be honest, it’s who I am, and I don’t want to give anyone any false impressions of what this all looks like. Rest assured, my contingencies have contingencies, and truly Etsy has never been my passion… that honor belongs to writing and teaching.

To end this post on a slightly higher note, it’s possible that my Etsy will grow in the coming months, and it’s equally possible that God is closing this door for a reason… either way, I guess I’ll figure it out in the coming months. 

Thanks for the read!

Dainty Dragons

Week 7 of my Flash Fiction Friday's!

It's a little odd to break from the mold the week after I set it... but I decided to write another kiddie story this week instead of a grown-up one, 'cause I think they're more fun anyways.

As such I don't feel that they're is any real need for a common sense rating this week; this story was written for kids, but I think that adults would enjoy it as well.

So without any farther ado, here is "Dainty Dragons."

I feel left out… everyone talks about the great big dragons who live in towers, but no one talks about the little dragons like me. 

I’m a dainty dragon, and I’m only 600 years old, just a kid. I’m only an inch and a half long, but if I grow up to be a REALLY big dragon like my daddy I might be 4 whole inches!

We breathe fire too, but we don’t roast knights or hurt people, we usually only light the candles on birthday cakes, and roast marshmallows with our firey breath.

We live all over the place, but we’re so small that most people look right past us, ‘cause they think that we’re just little birds; sometimes they even think that the extra little dragons like me are bugs! And I don’t think that’s fair. Smetimes I wish I could blow a little bit of smoke into their noses when they say that, but my parents say that I shouldn’t.

I do want to be a nice dragon, and grow up into a respectable dragon like my parents, (they are in charge of drying wood out for campers after rainstorms) but it’s just so hard when no one knows that I am here!

I wish that people knew I wasn’t just a “dragonfly”... but a real flying dragon right in front of them! But my green shimmering scales and my super long tail confuses people when they aren’t super close. 

Once in a while, I’ve met a few people-kids who could see me, and who knew what I was! They always get excited and ask me to blow fire for them… but then I get so excited that I can barely even summon an ember for them.

But most of the time when they try to tell their parents about me, their parents say that I’m not real. Once or twice, when I was still an extra young dragon, (only 200 years old) I bit them, but they just complained about “those darn mosquitoes” and left. But some parents know that I’m real… they are the extra nice, extra fun ones. They help look for me, but my mommy says that I should hide from adults so that they won’t find me. Because if they did, they would just get picked on by the other grown-up people. 

I've got to go now, so that I can practice breathing fire, and lighting candles... I hope that I will be able to breathe big fires for birthday candles soon… did you have your birthday already this year? Maybe I can light your next candle for you!

Thanks for the read!

If you have any ideas for a story that you would like to see me tackle please share them below!