Categories
#amwriting Slice of Life

The irony of the months.

It seems like I hit a bit of a dry spell each month when it comes to overall inspiration. No, I wouldn’t think it’s because of “that” time of the month, but it seems to be a monthly thing for me nonetheless. Last month, around this same time, I lost motivation/inspiration for doing much writing or anything else that involved creativity. And here I am, one month later, feeling about the same. My grocery shopping this week has been uninspired, yawn-inducing for me.

It’s ironic to me, in many ways: lately I have been doing more things that are out-of-the-ordinary from my routine, e.g., going out and discovering different local events. Most of the time, I go out alone since I feel a strange sense of comfort for doing things on my own rather than having a friend around and feeling like I have to accommodate their wishes. There’s just more of a sense of freedom involved when I am able to decide what I want to do with my free time.

So, one would think that with the explorations I have done recently, I would find some inspiration for writing, for cooking, and so forth. But no, not really; it’s already good enough that I’m able to find material to continue to blog with, but in terms of writing stories/finally beginning on that rewrite of Novel 1, I hit a block. Same goes for cooking.

Some say there’s no such thing as Writer’s Block; the muse is just missing, and I just have to hunt it down in order to start writing again.

Categories
#amreading feelings life memories

Planting Thoughts & Fountains of Conversation

This day has already started off on a strangely nice note.

I was perhaps a little groggy this morning before my commute; couldn’t muster up enough energy to have a full-blown workout so I did yoga instead. I didn’t even have my morning tea or coffee before I hopped onto the bus…

While on the bus, I immediately whipped out the book I’ve been reading, Three Cups of Tea, which one of my sisters had recommended to me. I began reading this book last Monday and already I’m over halfway through with the book. It’s a truly inspirational read, and what makes it even more inspirational/invigorating to my spirit is that it all is true. I was reading Chapter 15, which was about Mr. Greg Mortenson in action with building more schools in Pakistan (after the initial school in Korphe was completed). It’s a series of encounters that were destined, of meetings that were more than mere coincidences.

The chapter planted a thought in my head as I prepared to get off the bus; I was lost in this thought for a few seconds when suddenly I was jarred back to reality by a kind fellow bus rider’s comment about the book I held in my hands. “That is quite a wonderful read, isn’t it?” the man said to me. I was taken aback by his comment, but I nodded quickly in acknowledgement. By that point, we were both getting off the bus, so there was no time to really seek a further conversation. That small encounter itself was enough to put me in a good mood….

And then, I entered into the building where I work, and the bodyguard downstairs was a different person from the usual morning bodyguard. She stopped me before I went up the elevator and also made a comment about the book I held in my hands. “Wow, that book, I’ve seen it everywhere–“

That icebreaker broke open a fountain of conversation over general life topics, how our parents’ outlooks on life differ from ours, the opportunities/hardships we ourselves seek out in the circumstances we are given, and so forth. Most of the time I was just the listener in the discussion, but it was still refreshing to have such an encounter, even before work. It wasn’t at all awkward, either; just good, genuine talk with a new acquaintance.

It was a great way to start off an already full day, and I can’t help but keep this smile upon my face. Just goes to show that, even in this anonymous world of a city, personal touch can still exist.

Categories
#amwriting Work in Progress

Writing as a man.

Over the past several months, since I’ve begun writing more on a daily/regular basis, I notice a lot of my protagonists tend to be male. I had admitted it before to myself, but this week my reason for this was emphasized more as I felt myself thrown into the “wonderful” moods of being a woman:

I write from the male perspective because, when I write from the female perspective, I feel overly frilly, i.e., girly. Nothing wrong with being girly, but when I read my writing (from the female standpoint), there’s this sensation I feel where I’m just irritated by my words. The cliche feelings, the same struggles…

Not to say that writing from the male point of view does not have its stereotypes, but I don’t play into those stereotypes as much since I myself am not a man. However, because I’m well familiar with the female gender, I know the stereotypes all too well and find that, as hard as I try to avoid the stereotypes, I play into them too well when I write.

It isn’t to say that my writing may be more interesting with a male protagonist; in fact, out of the three novels I have completed so far, the one novel that seems coherent enough (in the first draft) is my first one, which has a female protagonist. With the other two completed novels and the fourth novel I’m working on, they all have male protagonists. However, the plots have been more or less complex than the first novel.

I am hoping that I will soon be able to find a good balance between writing from both male and female standpoints.

Categories
#amwriting

Inspiration when away from home:

For the past week, I’ve been finding myself writing email “blurbs”/prompts to myself regarding some observations/thoughts I’ve made while away from my personal computer. Here are a couple I’ve written so far:

1. He felt fretful from watching the curtain fall across another store, closing due to the sluggish economy. He watched the workers file out of the store and he felt himself clinching his own chest, wondering what would happen to his own job eventually. His office was located on the tenth floor of the building, yet he could see clearly the faces of distraught and worried pain across the street. The Great Behemoth was falling; which would fall next?

2. Two and a half cups of coffee later…

Just some things to jump-start some future projects. I usually keep a small notebook on me when I’m on-the-go, but sometimes it’s easier to type a fleeting thought than to write it down. That’s just how my mind works at certain points in the day.

Categories
news Scribd short works

Winter Box of Memory Uploaded.

It seems to take me some time to get through revisions for my short stories; tonight I got around to uploading another story to my website and to Scribd. This one is titled “Winter Box of Memory,” and, as you can tell from the title, it has a winter/holiday theme to it since I wrote it in mid-December.

You can view the story either via Scribd (must have iPaper software/application installed) or download it as a PDF from my website. As always, feedback is appreciated at my Comments blog post.