I'm pretty sure most of you who are reading this blog know I'm a writer of more than just blogs. I've currently got three stories in the works: a steampunk-esque re-telling of Snow White, historical romance, and a high fantasy. Now, the historical romance is in draft number two, but the other two stories I'm still working on. And one of the reasons for this is that I get writers block and derail my story. And by derail my story, I mean that in an effort to at least keep writing I write boring and strange things. Rather than using broad strokes to at least get to the next tunnel, I pull out a microscope and start analyzing mineral content in the tunnel I'm currently in. What's even worse is I realize this is something I do, but haven't yet figured out how to stop that habit.
I've been trying to work on my high fantasy novel this weekend, and came to the realization that about 15 pages of work (minimum) need to be re-written or cut out entirely. I'm likely going to have to go through major re-writes of the entire book, but right now all I want to do is finish a first draft so that I at least have something to go off of for the re-write. I have hopes for this story. I know where I want it to go, but I don't know how to get it there. And while some days I can call myself a writer with the knowledge that that is what I am most days I wonder if I really can call myself a writer. I see and read all these amazing books and worry that I can't even finish this story even though I know what I want to happen, so how could I ever publish it? I worry that when I tell my friends about this book I'm writing and my goals for it it's really all just a lie because how can I say that my writing is good enough to get where I want it to go? Now intellectually, logically, I know that I can write well and that the more I write the better I will get. There are books, podcasts, shows, etc., that can all help me increase my skills. And practice makes better (the best paper is the published paper, the perfect one never gets there). But sometimes it can be hard to remember that. I believe in what I have to say through my writing. I think it's important. And to some extent, regardless of whether someone actually purchases a book I published (though that would be one of the most amazing things in my life) it would be enough to get a book through the process. To know I've made it that far. So I've taken those 15 pages out, saved them in a blooper document in case there's some piece of dialogue I ever want to use somewhere else, and have decided that I'm going to write a minimum of 100 words per day (whether it is planning for the rest of the book or continuing where I left off the day before). I'm going to give myself rewards (i.e., stickers or something similar) for when I do so. And hopefully by August I'll have a first draft and can start tearing it all apart. It will take a lot more work, but I can do this. Thanks for reading my self-pep-talk. If you ever need any encouragement for anything let me know and I'll write a pep-talk for you too. Happy Reading!
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Today's post should be a short one (though I've said that before and that doesn't happen, so who knows). This post will, however, be dedicated to one of my creative outlets: drawing. I'm not an amazing artist when it comes to drawing. I can make something that looks good, but I never took the time to study and make myself great. It takes a lot of time, lots of erasing, and often does not match what I wanted it to look like in my head. This does not mean it looks bad, but there are things I notice like shading, or how the body is posed, or the hands/feet of a person, that just look off. That being said, when I draw something it doesn't look horrible, and I realize this. But I've seen other people draw much better pictures than me, so when I say I'm not a "good" artist, it's because I don't think I could make a living off of my art as it stands right now. With that explanation out of the way...One of the authors I follow on Facebook (shout-out to Aidy Award and all her lovely romance novels!!! If you like romance, try her books, they're awesome), posted something that I found really awesome. Apparently, May is the month a portion of the internet dedicates to drawing mermaids. It is termed #MerMay, and it is amazing!!! Follow that hashtag (or the more specific #MerMay2019) on Twitter or Instagram if you love mermaids (which I do) because there is some lovely art out there! And what's even better is the diversity you see in the art. These aren't all Disney mermaids that are super thin with heteronormative relationships and are not all that dangerous to humans. You get some of those. There's a really cute piece of art that has Pudge from Lilo and Stitch as a mermaid hanging out with Lilo and Stitch. There are mermen, mermaids of pretty much every type of aquatic creature, every type of skin color, and every weight. I got so inspired that I decided to draw my own mermaid for #MerMay, so I thought I'd share my picture and the process it took to get me to the final product. So first steps, sketch things out. Below you can see my first "this is essentially what I want it to look like" sketch. This is after multiple erasures and dangits. I say sketch, but I don't actually know how, so I just draw lightly until I get an approximation of what I want, which is when I start drawing darker. As you can see, I don't have the face mapped out, and most of the lines are light enough that I could easily erase them without leaving too many marks on the paper. Step 2, once I'm satisfied with my sketches, is inking it out. If I'm scanning my drawings or taking a picture, sometimes pencil doesn't show up dark enough, so I tend to ink in the outlines of things. This also means that if I want to go back and make a line cleaner I can do so without worrying about erasing everything around that line too. I only ink after I'm sure of what details I want included. It's a prelude to the last step. The picture above isn't just the ink, I'd already started to color some of it in when I took the picture. At some point in my life I want to learn the art of ink drawing, but I'm not confident enough in my skills to create an entire piece of art with only pens. I like to be able to erase, or at least just make the whole thing a darker shade if I mess something up. Step 3 is coloring. As you see in the above picture, I already started. I use colored pencils mostly because if you start light enough it's relatively easy to hide any mistakes. But they're also pretty cheap and easy to find. I don't need to go to a craft store to get good ones. Below is my finished product. I've been thinking about lionfish mermaids for quite a few years, and so that's what I decided to draw. I chose brown colors because I wanted it to be somewhat realistic. I had a hard time with the hair (I was running out of browns but I also wanted everything but the dark brown streaks to be a noticeable different color) and the eyes. I had the 24-pack of Crayola colored pencils, so in some ways my color choices were limited by that. Overall, it would have been nice to have the hair and eyes blend in a bit more with the rest of the look but I'm very happy with how it turned out.
What creative pursuits do you explore sometimes? Do you have a dedicated activity? Or is it more of a "when I get the urge I do this..." type of thing for you? Let me know in the comments. Happy Reading! |
AuthorThe author is a librarian who reads "too much" (is there such a thing?) and talks just as much. As an aspiring author she gets bogged down by grammar rules when she just wants to forget them to make a sentence flow, but never seems to be able to. She appreciates thoughtful comments and constructive criticism, but internet trolls beware, she's read enough fantasy novels to know how to defeat the monsters. Archives
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