Kibkabe Araya's Blog, page 46
December 19, 2016
"I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house."
- Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hollywood actress & socialite. Maybe not a writer, but she had a way with words.
December 3, 2016
Just Two Hours
Today’s Shine text message: “Tapping your creativity for just 2 hours a day = a more relaxed you.”
The positive sunlight that arrives to my smartphone every weekday morning usually carries a significant message, but this one caught my attention. I had suffered a bronchospasm - a random respiratory flare-up - and was still recovering from it after doctors said it could’ve came from the cold air, anxiety, stress, etc. Their eyes rose up on the stress part though I convinced myself it’s the cold air. But it got me thinking about how I can relax.
Two hours is all I need to take out of my day to do something relaxing, according to the Shine message and the articles it linked me to. I used to follow that rule long ago to write. Now, I have to reestablish that rule despite working full-time and binge-watching TV afterward.
I have the handy stopwatch on my phone that I only use in the laundromat but should use it to time my focus on writing. It’s so easy to drop good habits and so hard to pick them back up.
December 1, 2016
Those Places of Inspiration
Watching the “Gilmore Girls” revival on Netflix reminded me of how once upon a time I imagined living in Stars Hollow because it was the perfect place to be a novelist. And with Rory being a book devourer, the bookstores had to be ideal with the classics and the new releases with themes from the classics. But it doesn’t exist, so I must put effort into making my own writing paradise exist.
Earlier this fall, I noticed a Tweet from @Keidi_Keating, an author and editor I follow for good advice, about finding a space to write and how decluttering may be the answer. Or that’s what I got out of the Tweet while looking at my desk stocked up with junk mail, an oversized vision board, and numerous desk furniture piled with papers from forgettable events. This was before NaNoWriMo, so I checked out “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo because it was annoyingly on the best-seller list forever with readers I knew telling me about how the magic worked.
I audio-read the book while picking up questionable pieces on my desk trying to find the forsaken desk calendar, where I used to document the number of words I wrote each day. So many things didn’t spark joy, so they were tossed in the Goodwill bag. I got rid of a lot of things, with more things needing another revision, but better organizers could do wonders for more room to write. This hasn’t happened yet.
NaNoWriMo rushed by, and I only participated for the first week. I lost my steam, upset about how I couldn’t focus for the one month designated for novelists to focus. I won last year. I had to deal with my parked car dying from a hit-and-run, a new car purchase, a visit home for the holidays, etc., and I still won. This year, nothing happened. The desk was messy, the futon wasn’t comfortable; I hadn’t made my place of inspiration that makes me want to write.
Because street/paid parking kills most other options, my place of inspiration needs to be in my snuggly home. I decided a large rug would work because I had done some of my best writing on the floor. Then a seat pillow with a back would add finesse. That’s all I have so far.
I sat on carpeting to concoct stories years ago. Back when I was hopping from city to city for temporary reporting gigs and wrote to keep grounded in a strange atmosphere. Now, after stabilizing my career in a big city, I haven’t written much. I’ve been forcing myself to, but it didn’t come naturally like NaNoWriMo not working out this time around. I had stories circling in my head, characters beseeching to get on paper without the place of inspiration to birth them properly.
Thankfully, NaNoWriMo is over without the glances at the calendar to see if I could squeeze any words out to catch up to the winner’s circle, so now I must create my space and fix my deadline for the end of the year to relight my literary nature in 2017. More writing-related New Year’s resolutions to come.
November 28, 2016
"I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that..."
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Louisa May Alcott as Jo March in “Little Women”
November 12, 2016
That Election Stress
All week, I was suffering from election stress disorder.
It’s a real condition, according to Los Angeles Times. The article only had one source, which is questionable reporting even on a simple story for hypochondriacs, but I believed every word because my symptoms of stress distracted me from writing.
It started last Monday when I had to study all the propositions that could change the state from marijuana legalization to highway repair. I reverted to a nervous college student trying to absorb information before class in the morning. So this gave me jitters. The next day, waiting in line became looking at my phone every five seconds to make sure I wouldn’t be late to work with voting in the morning. Then the whole day, as a journalist, getting consumed by the election wrap-up. I fell asleep to slow down, but inconveniently woke up in time to see the next president be named. The nerves of the election stole my slumber, and I went to work like a zombie the next morning. I couldn’t focus for the rest of the week, with coming up with post-election stories.
With that, NaNoWriMo slipped. I had the time to brainstorm my novel and write, but the focus dissipated amid the national upheaval. I tried to summon my characters back to my mind, but I could barely recall their names or situations. This new week means a restart to get back on schedule, back on the creative grind with leaving the news at the office.
But that election threw me off for days. Let’s see how NaNoWriMo will fare during Thanksgiving.
October 29, 2016
NANOWRIMO PREP FAIL
A cluster of adults eyeing questionable...
NANOWRIMO PREP FAIL
My version of stuffing myself in a Cinderella dress is cramming my head with thoughts on which novel idea to use. The problem: I have too many ideas. Did I know this situation would ever arise after years of writer’s block? Nope. But it’s happening. It’s overwhelming.
I have a young adult novel modernizing “The Little Mermaid” tale with a teen girl in Chicago falling hopelessly in love with the popular guy. I started it months ago during a workshop but had the hardest time conjuring up emotions to write about 16-year-olds. So it was dropped for the time being.
I have a chick lit novel about a Silicon Beach romance between a tech blogger and an up-and-coming entrepreneur where the blogger feels their relationship is threatening her journalistic integrity. This was my NaNoWriMo project from last year. I had reached the 50,000-word goal and won a digital pat on the back. I even completed the rest of the novel, an additional 30,000 words, in December. I was so proud of myself. Fast forward a year later, when an idea to make it a funny superficial thriller popped up in my head, so now I’m thinking about redoing that project.
Then, of course, there are a few other unbaked ideas that I hoped would be baked by this time, but they’re still suffering from the lack of literary oxygen.
Mind you, this should’ve all been straigthened out earlier this month. This last week should’ve been spent on meditating. Nov. 1 will roll around, and I might not be able to find the old file, or my pens wil run out of ink at the same time, or something disastrously awful would happen because of my lack of preparation.
I will blog about my NaNoWriMo adventures or misadventures. I might do my own alternative or keep up with the international program. Either way I’ll be a creative mess all month.
NaNoWriMo Prep Fail
A cluster of adults eyeing questionable...
NaNoWriMo Prep Fail
My version of stuffing myself in a Cinderella dress is cramming my head with thoughts on which novel idea to use. The problem: I have too many ideas. Did I know this situation would ever arise after years of writer’s block? Nope. But it’s happening. It’s overwhelming.
I have a young adult novel modernizing “The Little Mermaid” tale with a teen girl in Chicago falling hopelessly in love with the popular guy. I started it months ago during a workshop but had the hardest time conjuring up emotions to write about 16-year-olds. So it was dropped for the time being.
I have a chick lit novel about a Silicon Beach romance between a tech blogger and an up-and-coming entrepreneur where the blogger feels their relationship is threatening her journalistic integrity. This was my NaNoWriMo project from last year. I had reached the 50,000-word goal and won a digital pat on the back. I even completed the rest of the novel, an additional 30,000 words, in December. I was so proud of myself. Fast forward a year later, when an idea to make it a funny superficial thriller popped up in my head, so now I’m thinking about redoing that project.
Then, of course, there are a few other unbaked ideas that I hoped would be baked by this time, but they’re still suffering from the lack of literary oxygen.
Mind you, this should’ve all been straigthened out earlier this month. This last week should’ve been spent on meditating. Nov. 1 will roll around, and I might not be able to find the old file, or my pens wil run out of ink at the same time, or something disastrously awful would happen because of my lack of preparation.
I will blog about my NaNoWriMo adventures or misadventures. I might do my own alternative or keep up with the international program. Either way I’ll be a creative mess all month.
October 27, 2016
'The Outsiders' author S.E. Hinton is in hot water with gay-rights supporters
In college, a friend and I decided to wind down with a movie. I suggested some major recent movies most likely with superheroes, but he wasn’t feeling them. Then he suggested “The Outsiders.” As in the movie from the ‘80s with every young heartthrob actor who existed at the time — Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, and Rob Lowe, to name a few.
I gave him that look. There was nothing sexy about that movie 20+ years later. But he told me it was the first movie he received when he arrived in the U.S. from Ethiopia as a teenager and it helped him improve his English. So it had sentimental value.
Handling the DVD case, I looked at the back, transported to seventh grade English class where I soaked up the novel about the rival teen gangs. With characters named like Ponyboy, Dallas, and Sodapop, I became engrossed in one of the original young adult novels with fitting in and getting caught up were relatable themes. I had never seen the theaterical version, so I accepted the choice, and we enjoyed it.
When I came across the article above this week with author S.E. Hinton — who wrote the novel in high school — was being attacked for not liking a reader assuming two characters as gay, I was surprised it was an issue. I didn’t see the closeness between Johnny and Dallas as a romantic relationship either.
As I write, I do realize the way my characters interact will be seen differently to me than to a reader. We will all interpret storylines and themes differently, so though Hinton may have seem to snap at the idea to the questioner, it’s understandable she wrote the characters a certain way and saw them in this light for the past 50 years. How your story is perceived by others is hard to hear when you’re a writer sometimes.
October 23, 2016
Enjoyed the @mochagirlsread 5th anniversary party last night at...
Enjoyed the @mochagirlsread 5th anniversary party last night at the most adorable romance bookstore. Glad I got a chance to check out @therippedbodice and loved the sign for Jo March. More glad that I’m part of a thriving sisterhood based on the love of books. #mochagirlsread #bookclub #bookparty (at The Ripped Bodice)
October 20, 2016
"The Pieces of Zadie Smith"
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“White Teeth” is on my bookshelf longing to be read finally. I hope I’ll get to it before the end of the year, so I can be consumed by the new “Swing Time.”
“Every people have their trauma… . But they’re different in nature.” Zadie Smith talks to Jeffrey Eugenides. https://t.co/OEzPOosdPO
— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) October 19, 2016
