Finding the Words

            I often find that it isn’t easy to find the right words when I’m working on a story. I’m left struggling to come up with the right phrasing to convey my intentions for the scene. The effort to come up with the right combination can either flow easily like water from a faucet or, as it happens most of the time, feels like I’m bashing my head against a brick wall. I know what I want to happen in my writing but left stalled by the inability to write a single word.

            It is puzzling to know that you have an idea of what you want to happen but struggle to find the right way in which to say it. After all, the best writers show what’s going on rather than tell the audience. That is a hard balance to find, especially for an amateur writer trying to practice their craft before taking it to the professional scene. Perhaps, that’s often what stops me from finding my way even through my first draft of my novel. I worry so much about how bad it is currently that I forget that it’s a first draft.

            However, help has been found online. Trolling pinterest and other parts of the net has turned up several aids for writers looking for help on how to do certain things in their work. I found these sources very helpful even if I’m working on side projects like the occasional fan fictions that I work on. It is all practice no matter what form the writing takes. So with these aids at my fingertips I’ve begun working once more. If any of you want to find these helps for yourself I’ll leave a link to my creative writing pin board below.

            I hope to see you all again next week with more from either of my stories for you to read over.

~ChildofCourage~    

Creative Writing pin board

The End of an Era

As some of you on Facebook already know, I’m leaving the art website known as Deviantart. I’ve been on that site for four years. Two of those years was during a hard time in my life where I could do little more than lie in bed, watch T.V., write, and draw. This was due to my (at the time undiagnosed) condition known as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (or POTS).

The site was an escape for me and allowed me to maintain my sanity during the two years I was bound to my bed. However, after I got my condition under control I still continued posting on the site. It was mostly due to the emotional ties I had to the site and the friends I’d made there. Problems soon arose during the next few years that made it hard to want to stay.

Most of those problems were due to the community on the site, especially some of the fandoms I was participating in. Particularly, the Legend of Zelda fandom. They were the most obnoxious and mean group if you didn’t conform to the status quo in the clubs. Many of the character pairings were what cause the most grievance. However, the worst group were the ones demanding that Nintendo give us a timeline. Eventually, the company did give us one but it was obviously thrown together.

Other issues I’ve had with the site had to do with how it was run. I drove me crazy when they made different changes that made no sense. Also warning users that if you weren’t active enough that they’d shut down your account. That was scary. However, it’s unclear if that ever really went through. Either way, I’m now leaving the sites so that I can protect my work from being stolen by thieves on the site.

I’m sad to be leaving a site that has given me a lot of joy over the years but it’s time to move on to other places where I feel that my art will be viewed by a better class of people.  

My Own Personal Looking Glass

            I recently saw the film, Alice Through the Looking Glass. I loved the film and overall message of the film. However, I’m not going to spoil it for you. If you want to know more about the actual events of the film you have to go and watch it. It’s well worth the money to watch.

            With that out of the way I can begin. As I watched the film I couldn’t help drawing parallels between myself and the main character. How my own nature is much like Alice. However, as the movie went on I began to wonder. What is my own version of Wonderland and the looking glass Alice uses to get there? And what can I draw on when I enter my personal looking glass?

            I went on an exploration through my own life and found that my looking glass is my own wild imagination. My ability to make up vivid fantasy worlds and bring them to life is my Wonderland. It’s a place I go when I need to escape from the pressure of the world around me. However, unlike many who disappear down the rabbit whole never to return my Wonderland helps me. Often times, when I escape to the other side of the Looking Glass my own mind helps me to work out the problems I face without making me feel so stressed in the process.

            I, much like Alice, am a headstrong, independent and peculiar person. However, my personal Wonderland holds not just my own thoughts but often the voices of others who have guided me along my own path. Each person filling the roles of the caterpillar, Cheshire cat, March Hare, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, White Queen, etc. All of them have a lesson to give me and guidance to share.

            Yet, just like Alice, I often forget about this little place and forget sometimes in my hardest moments to step back through and listen to my old friends. I think it’s about time I went back and perhaps fixed the problems that my own Wonderland may be currently experiencing. Honestly, I’ve already started on it. Let’s just say I’ve let the Queen of Hearts have too much control. It’s time to set things right and just like Alice in this newest movie I can use the lessons of the past help me shape my future.

            So, don’t worry too much about me. I’ll be back from Wonderland very soon and perhaps heading to my own real version of Wonderland in real life. I’m referring to my upcoming transfer (after graduating) to BYU Idaho. This Wonderland will be full of new twists and turns that I’m very excited to see.

See you next week!

~ChildofCourage~  

Rant #1

Walking on the street has become a dangerous proposition at best. You set out and some moron thinks he can bend the rules. This is done in numerous ways. They can inch up on you. Often they try to squeeze by you. There are some that almost don’t seem to see you at all or notice that the light at the cross walk is green for pedestrians. What makes these people so stupid? Is it impatience? Or seer lack of caring about the world around them?

One wonders if it is because of how society today has train many to be so self-involved. So much of society encourages such behavior. Things like selfies, instant messaging (and practically everything else), Facebook, twitter, and even how parents raise their children feed this. We want what we want and we have to have it now. People are conditioned to think that the world revolves around them because so much of the way things are promotes that.

How can we expect the next generation to be anything but self-obsessed, technologically enslaved, morons? We have to change the way things are heading. Yet so many see no problem with this. How can anybody not notice how drastically this world is becoming corrupt? It’s amazing to thing how many people just want to live off the government and never work because of this entitled mentality. What’s worse is that the government does little to stop this.

To think just how much damage can be done by people who think that they don’t even have to try to find a job suck our system dry is staggering. Who raised these victim minded idiots? Some don’t even see a problem in how they view life through this lens. They just want to sit around and be lazy. Life isn’t about laziness it’s about hard work and growth.

Thus leading to the entitlement mentality of all people. Nothing in life is truly free. Everything has some kind of string attached to it. It hard to tell what kind of hook you’ll end up on if you’re not careful. So much of this world is lost behind smoke and mirrors. Hardly anything is truly real. So many people aren’t as they appear to be. We live in a world that doesn’t value true creativity or hard work. Those who work hard are often overlooked and instead those who are the most popular and loudest get what the other person deserved.

How can and one expect not to have people who don’t even care about the basics of the traffic laws with this kind of atmosphere? It’s no surprise that when you step out onto a side walk that you are taking your life into your hands. It’s no better than betting that you’ll win the lottery. Though you have better chances of getting hit by a car than winning the lottery.

Honestly, people need to get their heads out of themselves and start caring about others more. However, the evidence to human nature now points to quite the opposite happening. It’s just sad. How can the human race have fallen so far?