Beth Navarro's Blog, page 4
January 27, 2014
Hi I'm Beth and I Used to be an Actor.
That really sounds like a confession. Don't get me wrong. I loved being an actor. At least there were things I loved about it. I had a bit of an epiphany last year that was so incredibly freeing. I thought I'd share it.
Ever since I was little I thought I wanted to be an actor. I acted in every school play. I loved it. I pursued it through college at Northern Arizona University where I was on the speech team. I moved to Los Angeles after graduation to continue chasing the dream. In acting class I learned so much about story and characters and imagination work. But there was something missing. At the time I don't think I would have ever admitted it. I wouldn't have known to admit it, because I didn't know what the void I felt was telling me. There was a frustration, a dissatisfaction, with acting that I couldn't put my finger on. There were moments I loved it, but it felt out of grasp a lot of the time. The satisfaction was fleeting. I'd finish a scene in class and it would felt great, but soon I felt like I was back a square one. Not knowing anything. I always felt like I was starting over. One day my amazing teacher, Stuart Rogers, assigned me a personal monologue. A monologue I had to write and perform. This felt amazing. And one of the only successes that didn't seem fleeting. I'll never forget Stuart asked me after I'd performed it, "Did you know you were a writer?" I didn't. But it would be a long time before I really took that to heart.
I struggled for years trying to make acting fit. It started to feel like a chore. I wrote on the side for fun and slowly it started to take over. Suddenly what was fuzzy and out of reach with acting was clear and firmly held in hand with writing. I thought I loved acting because I got to be inside the story as the character and I thought writers were outside the story looking in. For me I realized that is not the case. As a writer, I get to be every bit of the story. That is so intoxicating.What I did love about acting was storytelling. I just had the wrong outlet. I am a writer through and through. Even after a year of not acting, I was still holding onto that title of actress. Afraid if I let go that meant I was giving up on my dream. Finally last year I had the epiphany. I wasn't giving up my dream. I was discovering what my true dream was. I can't tell you how great that feels.
I can honestly say I get excited every time I write. Sometimes it takes a bit of self-bribing to get my butt in the chair, but I LOVE it. I've been working on Abel, my novel, for longer then I'd like to admit, but I still get just as excited as I did when I saw a bandaid at the bottom of the pool and thought, "What if…." (Yes the origin story of Abel is a strange one.) I am eternally grateful for Stuart Rogers and all my acting comrades. Without them I would not be where I am with my writing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dreams change and that's okay! Follow them. They can lead you to some amazing places.
On a different note, flower pants. Good? Not good? Whatever I love em.Write on everybody! Follow whatever your dreams, if they include flower pants or not.
Ever since I was little I thought I wanted to be an actor. I acted in every school play. I loved it. I pursued it through college at Northern Arizona University where I was on the speech team. I moved to Los Angeles after graduation to continue chasing the dream. In acting class I learned so much about story and characters and imagination work. But there was something missing. At the time I don't think I would have ever admitted it. I wouldn't have known to admit it, because I didn't know what the void I felt was telling me. There was a frustration, a dissatisfaction, with acting that I couldn't put my finger on. There were moments I loved it, but it felt out of grasp a lot of the time. The satisfaction was fleeting. I'd finish a scene in class and it would felt great, but soon I felt like I was back a square one. Not knowing anything. I always felt like I was starting over. One day my amazing teacher, Stuart Rogers, assigned me a personal monologue. A monologue I had to write and perform. This felt amazing. And one of the only successes that didn't seem fleeting. I'll never forget Stuart asked me after I'd performed it, "Did you know you were a writer?" I didn't. But it would be a long time before I really took that to heart.
I struggled for years trying to make acting fit. It started to feel like a chore. I wrote on the side for fun and slowly it started to take over. Suddenly what was fuzzy and out of reach with acting was clear and firmly held in hand with writing. I thought I loved acting because I got to be inside the story as the character and I thought writers were outside the story looking in. For me I realized that is not the case. As a writer, I get to be every bit of the story. That is so intoxicating.What I did love about acting was storytelling. I just had the wrong outlet. I am a writer through and through. Even after a year of not acting, I was still holding onto that title of actress. Afraid if I let go that meant I was giving up on my dream. Finally last year I had the epiphany. I wasn't giving up my dream. I was discovering what my true dream was. I can't tell you how great that feels.
I can honestly say I get excited every time I write. Sometimes it takes a bit of self-bribing to get my butt in the chair, but I LOVE it. I've been working on Abel, my novel, for longer then I'd like to admit, but I still get just as excited as I did when I saw a bandaid at the bottom of the pool and thought, "What if…." (Yes the origin story of Abel is a strange one.) I am eternally grateful for Stuart Rogers and all my acting comrades. Without them I would not be where I am with my writing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dreams change and that's okay! Follow them. They can lead you to some amazing places.
On a different note, flower pants. Good? Not good? Whatever I love em.Write on everybody! Follow whatever your dreams, if they include flower pants or not.
January 4, 2014
Dystopian Rumblings
I've heard some rumblings 'round the net lately concerning dystopian books.
"I don't want my kids to read them."
"They are too violent!"
"They are dark and disturbed!"
"They are depressing."
(I heard these statements in connection with The Hunger Games and Divergent in particular.)
Sigh. Okay I can't let this go.
I love these types of books. (I also have been called "dark and disturbed" so maybe I'm biased because I consider it a compliment. I'm sort of like a tootsie pop with the hard outer shell, but with a soft squishy center. Just like a dystopian book! But that's another story.) I love them, because underneath it all, the darkness is not what they are about. To me these stories are the opposite of depressing. They are hope-filled. They are about how amazing and resilient human beings are. The epic journeys and extraordinary circumstances in these stories translate to our everyday life. And the kids who read these books get this.
Should 6, 8, 10-year-olds read these books? Or see the movies based on these books? No. Teens? Yes. Absolutely. They will get it. Give them credit. They will get the yearning for connection, freedom, love and kindness. The pursuit of happiness. They will get the rebellion and standing up for what is right because it is what we humans are made of. It's what we want and need.
The dark and disturbed worlds are there to illuminate the light. The violence in these books is not gratuitous. This are not some silly action film. The violence is there for a reason. A real reason. It isn't shock value. It's emphasis. It's an illuminator. It makes the reader to see how hope will overcome. Anything.
So when I hear the internet rumblings jumping to the conclusion that kids should not be reading these books, I get a little testy. The people rumbling are missing the entire point. These books are not revering violence and hate, at least the good ones aren't. They are sending the best possible message: Love wins.
Anyway, rant over.
Read on, love outlaws!
"I don't want my kids to read them."
"They are too violent!"
"They are dark and disturbed!"
"They are depressing."
(I heard these statements in connection with The Hunger Games and Divergent in particular.)
Sigh. Okay I can't let this go.
I love these types of books. (I also have been called "dark and disturbed" so maybe I'm biased because I consider it a compliment. I'm sort of like a tootsie pop with the hard outer shell, but with a soft squishy center. Just like a dystopian book! But that's another story.) I love them, because underneath it all, the darkness is not what they are about. To me these stories are the opposite of depressing. They are hope-filled. They are about how amazing and resilient human beings are. The epic journeys and extraordinary circumstances in these stories translate to our everyday life. And the kids who read these books get this.
Should 6, 8, 10-year-olds read these books? Or see the movies based on these books? No. Teens? Yes. Absolutely. They will get it. Give them credit. They will get the yearning for connection, freedom, love and kindness. The pursuit of happiness. They will get the rebellion and standing up for what is right because it is what we humans are made of. It's what we want and need.
The dark and disturbed worlds are there to illuminate the light. The violence in these books is not gratuitous. This are not some silly action film. The violence is there for a reason. A real reason. It isn't shock value. It's emphasis. It's an illuminator. It makes the reader to see how hope will overcome. Anything.
So when I hear the internet rumblings jumping to the conclusion that kids should not be reading these books, I get a little testy. The people rumbling are missing the entire point. These books are not revering violence and hate, at least the good ones aren't. They are sending the best possible message: Love wins.
Anyway, rant over.
Read on, love outlaws!
December 28, 2013
2013: my favorite books
Here they are in no particular order. They are my absolute favorites of the books I read this year. Not too out of the box I'm afraid, but I love them none the less. I am very surprised two of the three are contemporary novels. I don't tend to gravitate toward those, but man when they are good. THEY ARE GOOD.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
"Well, she is kind of weird, isn't she?"Park didn't have the energy to be angry. He sighed and let his head fall back on the chair.His dad kept talking. "Isn't that why you like her?
I wish I had read this in high school. This book is rough on the emotions at times, not easy or happy. But it's an honest and true love story and when that happens I can't look away.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
When a book makes you sob uncontrollably and also makes you smile so hard it hurts, there is something brilliant there. It's a beauty of a heartbreaker. I loved every bit of this story. Hazel and Gus forever. Okay? Okay. DFTBA.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
There isn't any one reason why I loved this book. There are so many reasons it's hard to pinpoint No one does magical realism quite like Neil Gaiman does. Reading this book felt like a gift. It also made me feel less alone, yet brutally vulnerable. It made me smile. It let me into a world I longed to be in.
Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman's wife, wrote amazing review of it worth checking out: http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20130618/
I'm already looking forward to what's on my to read shelf for 2014. Sitting there is Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of A Funny Story. A book I've been meaning to read for years. And sadly enough his suicide earlier this month is what's prompting me to finally read it.
I hope you all had a wonderful reading year.
Next blog post: Dystopian Rumblings. I've been overhearing some internet chatter that is making me crazy about Dystopian books. Time to write about it.
December 11, 2013
Yes, Another Writing Blog (worth reading)
Another blog on writing??? Yep. Believe it.
I want to chronicle my writing journey. I want to look back at what I did and see proof that I really did do it. And how I did it. "See there! It's published on the internet. No denying it." I need proof. Written proof. I know, I know. I could just look back at my completed manuscript/book in hand. But I need more. I'm a Virgo, you see.
The cliff notes of me. I'm writer who lives in Los Angeles though I grew up in Chicagoland. I am a mother of two amazing and crazy daughters, 6 and 4. I am the co-editor for SCBWI's (Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators) Southern California tri-region newsletter. (I already feel like I owe SCBWI so much. I can't tell you how much I've gained from being a member.) I freelance quite a bit writing articles and blogs about parenting, but my deep down true love is children's stories. I've published two epicture books through a fabulous small publisher, Be There Bedtime Stories. And currently I'm working on writing my first young adult novel. Now I haven't just started the process. I'm on draft six and that's just the ones I've counted. I've been working on it since the idea fell into my head while I was swimming laps when I was eight months pregnant with my first. But I'm finally getting close to the critical I-think-it's-ready-for-an-agent stage! So here we go. Let's do this.
There's a reason I'm not capturing all these beautifully hard and awesome memories in my own private journal. I want to share stories, different viewpoints, laughs, struggles and successes. Please comment away! We're all in this together, right?
Happy writing and reading all!
P.S. I firmly believe in the mantra: Art before housework. So if you come over and there's still popcorn all over the floor, that's why.
I want to chronicle my writing journey. I want to look back at what I did and see proof that I really did do it. And how I did it. "See there! It's published on the internet. No denying it." I need proof. Written proof. I know, I know. I could just look back at my completed manuscript/book in hand. But I need more. I'm a Virgo, you see.
The cliff notes of me. I'm writer who lives in Los Angeles though I grew up in Chicagoland. I am a mother of two amazing and crazy daughters, 6 and 4. I am the co-editor for SCBWI's (Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators) Southern California tri-region newsletter. (I already feel like I owe SCBWI so much. I can't tell you how much I've gained from being a member.) I freelance quite a bit writing articles and blogs about parenting, but my deep down true love is children's stories. I've published two epicture books through a fabulous small publisher, Be There Bedtime Stories. And currently I'm working on writing my first young adult novel. Now I haven't just started the process. I'm on draft six and that's just the ones I've counted. I've been working on it since the idea fell into my head while I was swimming laps when I was eight months pregnant with my first. But I'm finally getting close to the critical I-think-it's-ready-for-an-agent stage! So here we go. Let's do this.
There's a reason I'm not capturing all these beautifully hard and awesome memories in my own private journal. I want to share stories, different viewpoints, laughs, struggles and successes. Please comment away! We're all in this together, right?
Happy writing and reading all!
P.S. I firmly believe in the mantra: Art before housework. So if you come over and there's still popcorn all over the floor, that's why.
