Joseph Hunt's Blog, page 26

The Daily Haiku

Whilst reading my university text book; Creative Writing by Linda Anderson, I came across a very interesting activity and it ties in with my poetry month theme, so I decided to blog to you guys about it.

First off, let's talk about the haiku!



What is it?

It's a Japanese poetry form concerned with sound and syllables. As the picture tells, the first line consists of 5 syllables, the middle line, 7, and the last line, 5, to create a total of 17 syllables and none of them rhyme.

Traditional Japanese haiku poems are about nature, but now we have contemporary English haiku poems which do not adhere to the typical syllable count, some falling to 15 or 10 syllables in a poem or exceeding the 3 line structure.




However, for the purposes of this little exercise, let's say that a haiku is 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables respectively and do not rhyme.






EXERCISE! If you're stuck in a writer's rut and can't find the right words to say, why not play around with some poetry! Because after all, poetry is all about placing your words carefully and choosing the right ones--it's also very gratifying when you know after reading your own poem back that you chose wisely. You might want to look at posters to inspire these little pockets of joy or just find inspiration from your everyday lives--it can be done.




You might even want to write a haiku each day, it's something I'd be willing to try, but I wouldn't be able to post a haiku on here as it would take up too much blogging space--so I'll try and post a new haiku on my Facebook: Joseph Eastwood everyday, I'm not sure when in the day, but I will do it (or fail trying).




What do you think? Are you up to the challenge of writing one 3 lined poem everyday?



I've wrote a few haiku but none of them are like the ones which I've already read--but I'm not going to change them, I'd like to think it's my style.




The soft melting snow

Slips through warm, embracing hands,

And turns to water.




The cold moonlight sun

Falls deathly on complexion,

Casting us in black.




Swish blades, green grass,

Drowning in murky lake,

Liquid earth at war.

This is my favourite haiku, and it's printed on a t-shirt, which I also want. I just love the humour of it and how simple it is.


Haiku are easy

But sometimes they don't make sense

Refrigerator





Why not post your haiku here!

-Joseph

Early Stages!

The early stages of everything are slow at first and then they gradually increase their pace and before you know it, that snowball effect happens and things are go very fast and everything is either going horribly, or pretty damn good. I'd like to say I've experienced both of these snowballs, both in life and in writing.

So the real reason why I wrote this blog post was to and is to, raise awareness for my new blog. Is that big headed? I hope not, but everyone likes having followers and I had/have lots of things planned for this blog, but I felt like it just didn't go with it, so I created another: The Supernatural and as the titles tells, it's about the supernatural.





Click Me!


I plan to write about the shows, Supernatural, The Secret Circle, The Vampire Diaries, and many more when shows start popping up. I'm also going to be using this second blog as a place of shared research, such as posting about witches, werewolves, vampires etc. and hopefully more different types of supernatural creatures and beings. I want 'The Supernatural' to be a blog where I don't tell people what I did today, or this is how I overcame such a thing like this blog, but I want this to be more informative---although this blog is informative, I want it to focus on supernatural/paranormal things.




As well as a new blog, I have a new Facebook page: it's there on the side bar and also here: Joseph Eastwood it's different to my other page: Joseph's Writing for obvious reasons and I would like the first page to become my main page because there are so many Joseph's in the world that having my full name as a page will be better for getting my name out there.




I hope you can all pop on by my new page and my new blog!



Keep on blogging guys!



-Joseph

Poetic Justice!

I started university two weeks ago, or 10/11 days ago, can't really remember, but that's not the point, it was my first ever creative writing class, in fact it was more of an introduction to creative writing, but nonetheless it was creative writing.



There were about 25 or so of us in this class and we were told to mingle and ask people what there hobbies were and why they were doing creative writing, what was so interesting about the subject that they thought, yeah, you know what, I'm want to get a degree in that.



So I told everyone who asked about my novels, about my blog, about my Facebook etc. and I felt really self-conscious that I was talking too much about myself and boasting about my writing--which I was, but that was the task.



And here I am again, digressing about myself---this post is about the importance of poetry, not me. However, the story continues with everyone introducing someone else and there were a few people who were introduced as "hating poetry", one girl even said (something along the lines) "I don't know why people write poetry, if they feel so emotional about something then they should stick in some characters, a plot and write a story" and my bottom lip dropped, as did the lecturer, she did this whole flustered shock thing, stuttering to reply with "I'm not going to say anything on that" and fanning her face.





I couldn't believe someone would say such a thing, after all, she had just called poetry redundant. Of course poetry is something we can live without, it's not one of the physiological needs, but saying that a poem might as well be a short story is just silly, because surely the author of the work knew what they were doing, surely they knew that what they were writing was SUPPOSED to be poetry or prose.



The last point I made, "poetry or prose" well poetry can be written in prose format, it's just that I often associate prose with novels, short stories etc.



Please can I draw your attention to a previous blog post which mentions poetry--12 Writing Rules! and if you scroll down to writing rule #4 you'll see this, "Poetry does NOT have to rhyme. Poetry does NOT have to rhyme." It's very true, poetry does not have to rhyme, and although most of the time I do write poetry that rhymes throughout, I like to throw the poem off balance and put in some words which do not rhyme with the line before it or the line below it etc. and see what happens to it then.



I feel that people don't know enough about poetry, and when you don't know about something, you tend to become ignorant about it or scared, it's a universal fact that when you come into contact with something foreign the body will reject it.



So I'm going to be posting more of my own poetry and articles about poetry types, poetry techniques, different poets etc. and start archiving them under the Poetry page, I have a few poems already posted but soon it will become an active beacon of poetry knowledge, so if you're interested in learning about how to read poetry and how to write poetry, follow my blog...



Keep Writing & Keep Reading!



-Joseph

Supernatural: Meet The New Boss

Total shock and awe at how awesome the first episode of season 7 was! And that promo poster to your right is my favourite one. I love Supernatural and I am in the middle of creating a new blog where I can dedicate more of a bloggy atmosphere to the program Supernatural and perhaps other similar programs and even the supernatural itself.



So here's the new blog for you all to check out and follow: The Supernatural, I hope through having another blog I can use this one for more writing and me things because at the moment I feel like it's a little bit all over the place.



Okay, so let the show begin. Season 6 recap--Castiel has just taken all of the souls of purgatory which means that he is no longer an angel, Sam's wall has crumbled and now all the bad things that happened to him in Lucifer's cage are eating him alive. So, the very very end of season 6 left us with Sam, Dean, Bobby and the newly self-proclaimed god, Castiel.



SPOILERS!

Unless you've watched season 7 episode 1, please do not read on.



First thing first! CASTIEL! He turned evil, and although he has that childish act to him, he did scare me a little bit, right at the beginning, just where season 6 had finished, which I liked about it because it would have pee'd me off a little if it had jumped into the future.



Sam's condition got a lot worse! I knew they would have done something more with this and I liked it, they played with his mind and Lucifer told him that this was his greatest trick so far, and I believed him, or I played with the thought that it was true.



Dean is my favourite of the two brothers and he hasn't changed, there is nothing really big to comment on. I'm not 100% sure about his storyline, but when he summons Death and binds Death to him, that was a huge thing, especially when Dean tells death to kill Cas--it was quite shocking because Cas is one of my favourite characters and I didn't want him to die, but we all know he didn't so phew.



Another character I love is Death, I don't know who the actor is, but he's great! And I can see him getting a bigger role, he was very important in that last season, well he was towards the end, and now right at the beginning of this season he makes an appearance, plus, he's says a lot of things about the future and the importance of Dean, so maybe we will see more of Death.



Leviathans

What the hell (purgatory)? Is all I can say, WHOA! Cas is gone, and in his place is some creature...but I like how it all turned out. Cas was dead, and then he's alive and then we're told he's dead again by this Leviathan creature.



Storyline

Where's is going now? Dean is tortured by his past, so much so, I think he's going to let Lucifer out of his cage just to be sure that he's not down there, as there are no angels now and God isn't around, it could be a blood bath--and I kind of hope there is a blood bath, because there's been all this build up for that Apocalypse and then BOOM nothing happened.



If you'd like to continue with my Supernatural Season Seven blog posts then come and follow me at my blog dedicated to The Supernatural! Where I'll talk about supernatural shows such as Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle etc. and it will be an all around supernatural/paranormal research blog.



So please, join me next week over there--a lot earlier and more in-depth!



-Joseph

Take A Break! #BeatTheBlock

I haven't posted in a while, but someone asked me to do a blog post about ideas, and how I come up with them (asked by Eveli Acosta) and today I came up with an answer to that. I haven't posted for a few days, but I've felt worn down. All refereshed now though!

Like I said, today I came up with an answer to that, it was like I've always known subconsciously how I've sought my inspiration and concluded my ideas and today it was like BOOM---"Joe, you know what this means right. You can now bottle what it is that makes your inspiration POP!" Believe me guys, I speak to myself all of the time, and often in third person! It's therapeutic, and doesn't mean your crazy--at least not completely. 

On my little outing today, I created 3 new short stories for my collection, Over My Spilled Blood, and also a novel, and I was in a world of my own--I could feel it, I was trying to live it because I messed up and forget my notepad and pen (unhappy Joe) but I remember them all clearly.

I love just strolling around in these picturesque places, just me and my mind. So I'm gonna be blunt about this get your face out of your laptop and stop fussing about your WiP, just go get some fresh air--don't stress your writing, if you do, then it will only grow more resistant and that's not good for anyone.



When I'm older I'd like to have my own secret thinking place. A garden, with a path like the one Google images has so kindly provided. Maybe a garden that goes round in circles, someplace where I don't have to keep picking my head up to see where I'm going. Alternatively, I could take up running--but I wouldn't be able to carry a notepad and pen (well, without dropping one or both of them).



I hope I answered what you came here for in the midst of all this waffle. Long story short, taking a walk and getting away from your laptop, get away from ALL electronics, just detox yourself, and when you do that, or at least when I do this, I come back to my laptop raring to go! :D I hope you can try this and I hope it works out for you!



If you want to read more blog posts about inspiration and ideas about overcoming your writer's block, then come to the page and #BeatTheBlock once and for all!



-Joseph

Standalone or Series?

Everyone I talk to I ask this question, and the usual consensus is that there isn't one answer. The Harry Potter books could not have been  just one stand alone novel--because it would be a BRICK! While Stephen King mainly writes stand alone novels.



I'm a series novelist--I have (let me count) planned 5 series which accumulates 27 books. I have planned all 27 books roughly, or outlined them--I lead a very indoorsy life, in fact I rarely go out. I planned 12 of those books when I was 14-16 and I was absolutely horrendous at writing, but I've grown a lot since then, both in maturity and in my writing style, and now that I am 18 I am going to write all of these (well, that's the plan anyway).



You might be asking, why have you planned so many series of books? Apart from staying indoors at all times, I like to make spider diagrams and brainstorm until the early hours of the morning (which I used to get told off about) and another reason why I like to plan and write them is because I'm no good at goodbyes and I did address how connected I am with my characters in an earlier post.



I also like reading series, they are my preferred choice--I like them because I know that when I've finished one book, I'm going to have another to read, whereas if it was a standalone novel I might want to read more of them, this is especially frustrating when you fall in love with a character, or absolutely hate a character and want to hate them some more .



I've enjoyed planning each of my series and so far I am enjoying writing them as well. I enjoy the character development that goes through the series and also the variety of characters that can be introduced.



And for all those people who are marketing savvy, writing a series is especially good because one book will lead to the next as one book alone out there might not sell as well, but that wasn't the slant I took on the different series when I was 14 because in all honesty I didn't have a clue about marketing and publicity. Now that I know, I'm sharing this little gem of information with you--so that's why I prefer series, both reading and writing!



-Joseph



Okay--Question time! From a writer's perspective, what do you prefer to write? And what do you prefer to read?

Author Interview -- Jamie Salisbury

[image error] Go ahead introduce yourself. We won't bite.



Jamie Salisbury. My age? Well, on being carded years ago at a club in NYC, a friend told the doorman this: "It's okay. She's older than God!" And we'll leave it at that (LOL).



Where are you from?



Where am I from. Hmmm. . .I was raised in the Pacific Northwest and spent a number of years in Chile. Currently, I live outside Atlanta.



What genre are you most comfortable writing?





Right now I'm writing historical romantic fiction and it seems to come easy for me. I have a love of history so I guess it's a natural.



Do you ever try out other genres?





Yes, right now I've got a thriller/mystery type set in modern era I'm working on. And I've got an idea/WIP for something non-fiction.



What do you write?



My latest release is a full blown novel. My first is book one of a series, which will end up being one or two more books.



How long have you been writing and is it your full time job?



I've been writing most all my life in one form or another. And yes, It is my full-time job, even if it is almost working for free! I'm fortunate to be at a place in my life where I can devote my time to something I love and hopefully make something of it.

I'd love to be a full time author, but I'm still prepping my first release---maybe one day, when I finish university.



What do you prefer to read, a stand alone novel or a series?



Both. If a series catches me in the first book, I'll continue the series.



Who is your favorite author?



I really don't have a favorite, favorite author persay. But if I were to narrow it to a author who writes historical, romantic fiction with strong women as characters I'd have to say Isabelle Allende. Daughter of Fortune is an amazing book. As I was already writing when I discovered her, I can't say she inspired me to write, but she inspired me in the way I write my female characters. The author I loved as a child, who influenced me into writing was the late Margarite Henry. She wrote fantastic books about horses that were wonderfully illustrated.



So, who or what inspired you?



A big influence who inspired me to write was a creative writing teacher I had in high school. She was a wonderful mentor to her students.



Do you have a favourite book?



I honestly do not have a favorite book. And that would probably be because there are so many I've read that are incredible works.



Do you have any fears? Give us a list!



Ha! Are we talking writing fears or life fears? The only real fear (if you want to call it that) is that of heights, which most people have. I get unnerved going in a ski lift, or a way too high balcony.

Heights make me excited, I hate them so much, but there's just something about them that gets me all riled up and I want to jump for the sake of jumping.



Do you write with music, or without?



Depends. Some times I prefer the silence so I can hear myself think.



Are you forever caffeinated?



No, I've pretty much given it up. I go back and forth between morning coffee (Starbucks Pike Place Roast) and English tea.



What's your poison ;)?



It would be water (LOL! ) Seriously, I don't have one anymore. Sad but true.

Ah, but you would have had one at one stage xD



Are you planner or are you pantser?



I have to say I'm a planner, not a super strict planner, but a planner non the less. If I didn't I would procrastinate big time and chaos would ensue!



Would you like to share any writing tips?



Write, just keep writing. Because in all the madness something awesome will come of it.



Do you have anything published (self-published)?



I have two self-published ebooks out. The first is called Perpetual Love and the most recent, Blood Lust.



And what are they about?



Perpetual Love is a 19th century historical romance, set in the American west. It is about a young couple who meet via their father's friendship, fall in love, etc. But Anne's father has a deep, dark secret as to why he moved his daughter all the way across country and he is not about to let anyone stand in his way!





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Blood Lust is a 18th century historical romance, set in London. William Spencer is seeking justice for a crime he did not commit. With the help of some very good friends, he sets out to prove who actually did the crime. He has to however, be discreet not to alert people that he is in their midst.



Where can people find YOU!

Blog: http://www.jamiesalisburyauthor.blogspot.com



Facebook: Jamie Salisbury Woman's Fiction Author



Twitter: @JamieRSalisbury



Other: Email: Wuzupbury@hotmail.com



Thanks for joining me on my blog and answering some questions!



If you're a writer and want to be interviewed then drop by Be Interviewed! it's also full of other author/writer interviews!



-Joseph

Emotional Implosion of Epic Proportions

I'm serious guys, all of this writing (15,000 words in a week) has allowed me to live through someone else, and although I wasn't as connected with my protagonist through the planning stages of my novel, now I feel all of his pain. It's a common thing to feel your character's feelings. I laugh when he laughs, smiles when he smiles, and I'm upset because of the dreadful turn his life has taken.



I'm writing Clandestine in first person, so of course all of these emotions are supposed to rub from the writer to the reader, and as I am both of them, this all seems a little too self-inflicted. But isn't a good thing that I can feel the emotions, or am I feeling the emotions because I know that they're supposed to be there. I guess only beta readers and time will tell.



A novel is like a baby, it's always crying for my attention in the middle of the night when I'm trying to get to sleep (I'm 18--I haven'y had any children, but I do have a lot of brothers and sisters), in fact, I have twins at the moment--working on two novels, but I'm giving one of them more attention than I am the other, I can barely even here the cries of my other novel, but I don't want to stop caring and planning that novel, it's just that I've done more on Clandestine than I have done on The Salem Gates.



I said at the start of the second paragraph that Clandestine is being written in first person, does this immediately make me put at the top of the list because The Salem Gates is third person so I'm not as emotionally attached to it. You know, if someone had told me their predicament, I would normally say something enthusiastic like, "just power through it, you can always edit out the bad bits later," so maybe I should take my own advise and power through the issue.



Maybe the two novels are like the angel and the demon in the picture Google has so kindly provided--ah, love for Google images. Clandestine is the devil, taking all of my attention and making me nose dive into the reality that is, while The Salem Gates is the angel, patiently waiting for its turn at my imagination and 70+ pages of planning.



Well one thing's for sure, if I keep absorbing all of my character's emotions I'll be needing some kind of therapy. But it's addictive, putting your character through things you have only ever dreamed of, situations where it's life or death and you're so close to dying that your heart is thumping in your ears and gnawing at the nape of your neck, trying to severe the bond between your spinal column and your brain.



Do any of you feel the emotional ties to your characters? Do you write more than one novel at once, or is that too emotionally draining, because I could understand that. I hope you are all writing, and I hope you're all being sucked into to the alternate realities which you've set in your novel.



-Joseph

Pseudonym Me!

Do you have a pen name? Nom de plume? Pseudonym? In fact, do you need one?



I've never considering changing my name because I wanted to take full credit for my writing, and I've always wondered why some people do change there names--actors, singers, writers, authors, just people in general.



Okay, well I'm not sure why other people may change their name, probably because it just doesn't suit them--or they're in love with another name. So this might be a little bit the same with artists; singers, authors etc. and I've been wondering whether or not I need a pen name, and although I love my name, I've just been thinking, what if I was change it.



I read an article, a few months ago now and it was about an author who wrote erotica under a pen name and she also taught at a high school, but when the parents of her students found out about her other name and published books, she was marred a disgrace--I'm not sure what happened to her, but she is still writing, and in the article, she said she wouldn't give up that. Of course I see how a pseudonym was relevant here.



And here are some of the other reasons people may change their names:



Their last name is unpronounceable, this is very common with recording artists (so I've found).
because they are named after someone who is already famous, I know this is what Katy Perry did, formally Katy "Kate" Hudson--so you can see the confusion here.
There name is common i.e. John Smith, and an exotic sounding name might stick better--and separate you from everyone else in Google search ;)
because they've already published in a genre under one name.


Now that last point is where I am. I'm currently only working on several YA fantasy novels, and each of them will be under my name, 'Joseph Eastwood' but I also want to write a gory horror and a gay romance novel, and hey, I might even give erotica a go, I sure know I have the mind for it--but I can't stick them with my name as well, right.



I don't want to change my name at all--my full name is Joseph Thomas James Eastwood, and I'd like to work with that, maybe move things around, take things out, shorten the names etc. and I was thinking for horrors, I could be J. T. James or something and for romance I could be Thomas Jay.



What do you think? And do you have a pseudonym? I'd love to hear how you came to it.



-Joseph

Music Will Be The Death Of Me.

I really love listening to music while I write---it can set the mood to a scene, and it also drowns out the dreadful sound of the fans beneath my laptop. BUT when I do listen to music, I start to sing along and do a little shuffle dance thing.



And then there was something that a teacher had told me, "the best work he'd seen a student do, was whilst they were listening to Mozart." I might be wrong on the composer, but it was along the lines of one of those classical guys, he was also speaking about an art student--would it be the same for a writer?



I haven't done any writing whilst listening to classical music yet, so I was wondering where you stand on listening to music whilst writing, because I've found that I write better when I'm not listening to any music at all. I'm also a lot quicker because my thoughts aren't jumbled with lyrics which I'm usually lip syncing along to. So maybe I'll try and cut down on music, but not too much, because that would be the death of me. (I added that last part for effect--like when you're watching a film and one of the actors says the title of the film, it send tingles down my spine.)



Oh, and don't you like the picture--I nabbed it from Google, it looks pretty authentic as well, and goes nicely with the classical composer theme. Have any of you listened to classical music whilst writing? I suppose it could work--it has no lyrics to distract you with, so I guess it's mood food.



-Joseph.