Cage Dunn's Blog, page 63
June 11, 2018
This may sound slightly familiar.
If you go down to the words today, you had better go under a pseudonym. If you jot down a few words today, what message will you include in ‘em? For every word you write is unique depending upon the order you seek for today’s the day that writers will…
June 9, 2018
In Plain Sight
June 5, 2018
Barcodes for Indie Authors
I’m assuming that any Indies reading this post will have gone through the same frustrations that I did, so I’ll jump straight into the how-to part of the post. Once that’s done, I’ll talk about barcodes in general and discuss why you might want one. Let’s do it! There…
June 3, 2018
Mid-year blues – or reviews?
June 2, 2018
Caturday funnies — movie edition
DRIVING MISS DAISY CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF CINDERELLA THE WEDDING SINGER DIRTY HARRY A DAY AT THE RACES DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES THE HORSE WHISPERER SPIDERMAN HARVEY PUSS IN BOOTS DAMN YANKEES ROCKY THE SECRET GARDEN OTHELLO SHINE THE BOSTON STRANGLER UP INTO THE WOODS THE…
May 30, 2018
Burglar!
May 27, 2018
Procrastination and Deflection
How does a writer find inspiration? Where do they go for help when the brain (or body) just refuses to cooperate?
I have a strategy. I write up a few (dozen) titles and associated beat sheets. Most are never going to be more than those notes. I use it as a form of inspiration, to get the creative juices flowing.
It’s not working. Not this time. I’ve been off the keys for two weeks due to ‘flu, and now my arms are braced (golfer’s elbow for someone who hasn’t touched a stick in decades!) – it’s really hard to see the screen when it’s so far away! – and my mind will not kick in. It refuses to play the game.
I need to get back to work. I think about things for the current WIP, and normally those thoughts would have me at the computer, writing it down, following the threads of that thought through the veins of the story. I keep thinking of these things.
But not writing.
The next thing was to do one of the things to put myself out there, because once you’re out there, you have to produce the goods, don’t you? I think it’s a requirement. Don’t advertise unless you’ve got stuff available is what I say. Finished it and sat down with the WIP open.
Nothing happened. The garden beckoned, and I think the only thing that stopped me was the knowledge of how painful my body would be if I did so much as watered the pots. But I sat there, mesmerised by the sun and birds (splendid wrens!) and not looking at the computer.
It took a while to drag my eyes back to the purpose for the day. To write at least one scene, or if that failed, to edit at least one scene.
Oh, come on! Do it! There’s no venom on a keyboard, there’s no pain (oh, wait – not enough pain to stop) in typing. Just do ten words. Twenty. Okay, how about one? Just one word … please.
Guess what happened?
I came here, wandered the streets of the blogosphere, chatted and read, giggled and laughed, but didn’t come back home in time for tea (or work).
I paid a bill. I got a treat out for the dog and went outside with her to sit in the sun.
I didn’t add to the WIP.
And then I considered what I would say to one of the fosters if they were in the same position. What would I say? Honesty may be required here.
It doesn’t matter if you trash it tomorrow, it only matters that you do it today.
It’s not a finished product, it’s a product in the middle of a process. A beginning, not an end.
It takes doing it to relearn how much you love it. Do a new version so you know it doesn’t matter if it’s crap.
Okay. Done. I edited one scene. I wrote 2,500 words. It took a few hours, and I missed a phone call because I was too wrapped up in what I was doing to get up fast enough to get it (but I let it ring out because some things are more important than phones).
I look forward to tomorrow, even though I know I’m going to delete those words. They were the key to get back into that mind-shape.
That’s all. Promise. Fingers crossed. Touch wood.
And those titles and beat sheets – they were all terrible, completely out of the sphere of stories I like to tell – and that should have told me what my state of mind was. But they were work, they were writing work, and I hope they lit the spark enough that it comes back on automatically tomorrow.
We’ll see.
May 26, 2018
May 25, 2018
F, F, ‘n F
Probably not what you expect. I’m sure most writers understand the fight or flight response. But guess what?
There are three responses. Yep, three. What are they?
Fight, flight and freeze.
And they each lead into each other.
The freeze response is usually the first. It’s the immediate gut reaction, that hard knot that stops your body still as death, eyes wide, mouth open. If possible, the person finds the smallest space to hide in, curls up and disappears.
Then what? If the person gets cornered, trapped in their space by a marauder, the next step is attack. Yes, fight. When trapped in a corner, with your back to the wall, there’s no other choice. Fight your way out – or die. Simple.
Then what? If it’s a bad thing – and a fight to the death situation usually is – the person takes the first opportunity to run like hell was on their tail. Right? Yes. Then what?
As soon as possible, the person finds a place to hide and recover. They make like very small and curl up to disappear and lick the wounds.
It’s a cycle. Of three responses, not two.
A lot of the stories I’ve read have a clear understanding of the two responses – fight or flight, but not the third (or, in my view, the first).
Only training and constant awareness will remove the freeze response from a person. Soldiers train, cops, ambos – well, anyone who deals with situations where life and limb may well be the cost of doing their daily work. Even fishing on a boat out in the middle of the ocean has a likelihood of death probability that costs a lot to insure. No hiding, you see, not out there.
Freeze, fight, flight – it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as the other way around, but that’s because we’ve become used to the way the fight or flight sounds. So, I say it backwards in the way of cyclic things: Fight, Flight or Freeze.
And I hope to understand that one of these is the first physiological response and leads into the others – if the danger doesn’t ease.
It happens in nature, it happens with humans. It is part of the natural effort to stay alive.
Fight, Flight, Freeze – a new form of understanding the immediate physical and physiological reactions when confronted by danger or enemies or backed into a space where there’s no way out.
Remember it, and your story characters will thank you for it (and the readers).
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Image from pixabay
May 23, 2018
Looking at Creativity the Write Way
This is the best way to say it! Long live the cooks, the builders, the artists, the day-carers …
I recently had a conversation with a friend who was upset by the snobbery she read about between creatives, specifically literary writers versus romance writers. (If it comes to fisticuffs, I’ll put my money on romance writers any day.) Setting aside personal preference regarding reading or writing a certain genre, this kind of comparison seems as rational as making fun of someone who prefers polo shirts over t-shirts or the color red over blue. I’m still trying to understand where this kind of thinking comes from.
Creativity vs. Creative Expression
Webster’s New World College Dictionary (Fourth Edition, 2001) defines “creative” as: (#2) having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness [creative writing]; and (#3) stimulating the imagination and inventive powers [creative toys]. In other words, creativity demonstrates imagination and inventiveness and stimulates the same.
Is what we think of creativity actually the expression of creativity? When we say…
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