Category: Thoughts and Ramblings

What did I miss?

Hey everyone.

Did you miss me? It’s been a while (December? Yikes!), but I’m glad to be back. Thought I would offer up a quick update and plans for the future going forward.

First of all, I finished my classes! I’m now a Certified Vet Assistant and my office has been taking full advantage of that. I’ve been trying to shift back into “civilian life” after months of double dipping into both school and work. It was a heavy time, but I managed to get through it! This is good for two reasons: 1) I no longer regularly work/go to class from 8 to 8 three times a week with full schedule on the other days. This will be a massive improvement to my social/sleep schedule as I’ll be able to actually do things beyond work or school work.
2) I’ll be able to get back into my writing!

I’m stretching some old muscles and blow off the dust from a few old projects. I’m starting to feel my creative impulses return and I’m feeling better about the things I create. My day job is one I can easily leave at the office, so I’m going to be able to put more of my time and energy back into creative projects. What does that mean? I’m not sure yet. But the absolute base means that I’ll be trying to get to posting Writing Scribbles!

I’m glad to be back and I’ve had a good long rest to recover from school, but now it’s time to get back to what I want out of life. The exact definition of that is yet to be known, but I’m looking forward to the ride.

A Brief Pause

Hello Everyone! As we come creeping up on the holidays, I’ve decided to take a brief break from the usual monthly fiction posts.

Those closest to me know that I’m currently in classes to get my Veterinary Assistant Certification. This, on top of my regular, full-time work schedule and the normal rush of the holidays has started to take a toll on me.

When I have more energy again, I’ll be coming back. For now? I’m deciding to prioritize my time and maintain some of my energy for other things. I’ll be back to the old routines soon, but these 50+ hour weeks are starting to stack up.

In short, I’ll be back. Thanks for staying and looking forward to what the future holds!

An Intermission

So, a couple of changes will be coming up in the near future. I’ve got some things in the works, so there will be some things changing priority.

This will be the last scheduled “Blog Post” for a while. I feel like I don’t have enough happening with my writing/publishing journey to justify having a super regular post. I get anxious about repeating ideas or reposting old blog posts. This means the first Sunday of the month will no longer be regular posts. When ideas come up, I’ll probably create a blog post, but I’m running out of ideas to keep up with a monthly Non-Fiction post. I’ll continue doing monthly fiction, both as a way to keep the blog active and give myself the motivation to keep writing even when I run out of ideas. I’m hoping that having this be the primary focus of my time outside of work will mean more quality writing to continue providing to you for free.

Secondly, like many other people, I’ll be closing down my Twitter. I no longer use it and it’s frankly not really bringing in a ton of traffic. If you only follow me there, please consider signing up for my newsletter or following my page on Facebook!

The Artificial Creative

While I’m sure this has been done to death, I wanted to talk a little about the applications of AI in the creative space. We’ve all seen those posts online about “I made a bot watch 5,000 of Hell’s Kitchen and had it write an episode” and allowed a sigh of relief. “At least computers won’t take away jobs from novelists and TV writers,” we laugh and move on with our day.

However, Artificial Intelligence has been created to generate any text. Students can get computer software to write complete essays, songs can be written to mimic certain artists and their genre styles, and people have even submitted full AI-written short stories to major fiction magazines like Asimov. It feels a little bit backward that we’re using something that has the ability to do so much of our work to give us more leisure and creative time as something to create so we have more work time. It makes me feel a bit odd about our trajectory as a creative in society.

This is not to say “Technology is Evil and Edison is a witch.” I’m writing this on my computer and I use technology in a million ways throughout my day. I think the question isn’t “should we have AI working in classically ‘human’ arenas?” but “How can we work with AI?”

With the rise of all the AI-generated art out there, I do worry about what it will mean for our future as a society. It’s easy to set up a program that will scan the internet for various features of paintings, analyze songs for musical patterns, and–yes–even write whole books based on a single sentence prompt. But what is the value of that? Without going into the ethics of copyright and ownership (which is a whole different subject I’m not qualified to speak on), are these pieces of ‘art’ worth our time? Beyond the novelty of ‘AI-Generated Profile Pics’ or something similar, how long will these endure the test of time? Will we be looking at these the same way we look at the Mona Lisa or The Birth of Venus? They’re cool tricks, but I don’t think they’ll ever properly replace human talent and creativity. In the future, it could exist, but I really hope humans don’t lose the passion to create ourselves when a computer can do it the same way. Will we be advertising ‘No Machine Novels’ or ‘Code-Free Art’ as an alternative? I can’t say for sure.

I certainly hope that we don’t lose sight of how writing binds us together as humans. We always talk about how humans are more ‘advanced’ than animals. Some people say it’s empathy, some people say it’s tool use, and some people claim it’s the moment we walked upright that sets us apart. Truthfully, I believe it is our ability to create and tell stories. From oral traditions around the fire and cave paintings to digital art and blogs, we have always been a species that thrives on the idea of stories and creation.

The truth is, we already use AI as writers a lot. A basic spelling and grammar check requires some amount of AI and there are all kinds of writing prompt generators out there that use formulas to derive everything from character names to ideas for novels. We have AI to help us edit our work into something more concise and comprehensive, we have software that can proofread our work. All of these things are crucial to any writer with a pulse. In my mind, we should use AI as a companion to our creative endeavors, not as authors.

Piecing Together

Every writer–no matter where they are in their writing journey–has a Trunk Book. It’s a story you started when you weren’t ready and had to give up. A story you wrote that never quite came together or a series of ideas you didn’t know how to connect beyond a few scenes and a loose plot. Maybe time got the better of you, or a busy schedule determined that your story would be put on hold, or perhaps you just lost steam about it and moved on to another idea. The Lost Characters, the Abandoned Quests, and the Snippets of Dialogue that you loved all linger together in the bottom of a trunk: digital, physical, or mental.

Personally, I have a particular file on my computer that I call the Graveyard: projects that didn’t quite pan out, short things I wrote in high school, and things that just never settled quite right for whatever reason. Sometimes, like a literary corpse snatcher, I go back to old projects and do a bit of grave robbing to piece together old ideas into something new. I have found myself revisiting this folder a lot recently.

The question that hits me again and again is “What needs to be fixed?” before I can do anything with it. Is it the tone of the story? Does a character not have enough motivation or do their actions seem inconsistent? Who or what would be needed to drive the story forward and what is stagnant that doesn’t seem to fit the pace? Answering these questions help me decide what to do with these old cadavers of story. Some stay in the Graveyard to age a bit, but some seem ripe enough to try and resurrect.

I am, admittedly, guilty of Email Writing a Novel. While working desk jobs–stuck behind a computer with shifting workflow–I would often send emails to myself. When an idea hit me that was remotely more interesting than another spreadsheet or company email, I would email my personal email what was on my mind. Trapped behind a desk, I built gateways to my own adventures. I uncovered an old email thread I had written and decided to tackle it again.

The most important thing about Graveyards or Trunk Books is that it doesn’t destroy things that didn’t work at the time. It saves them so they can percolate in a safe place without constantly trying to fix what’s broken. The most important part of writing is–unsurprisingly–writing. If you’re stuck in a Trunk Book, sometimes it’s healthy to set it aside until you’re ready to stitch together a new monster. Hopefully, your results will be more beneficial than Dr. Frankenstein’s body building.

Expert Insight

I have recently been doing some job shadowing. I’m looking to find work that is fulfilling and gratifying in a similar way to writing while still allowing time for it. Talking with people I know who are well-versed in their fields has gotten me thinking about one of the most important aspects of researching for writing: Experts.

Whether you’re writing non-fiction that is purely factual or a fantasy just barely clinging to aspects of our reality, having the correct view of things is essential to making your writing more realistic. I keep an active list of people I consider experts in everything. Whether they’re long-time professionals or experienced hobbyists, I like to keep track of what my friends consider themselves experts in. An element of realism is important so the audience of a story feels connected. I have friends who are photographers, veterinarians, horse handlers, gardeners, and crafters of all sorts. If I ever decide to include elements of these in a story, I find it better to research on my own and ask questions of these experts in my life.

Shadowing also gives an opportunity to collect important sensory details. All the information in the world is fantastic to bring reality to your writing, but it is equally as crucial to get your reader into the place you’re experiencing. I’ve started keeping a small notebook with me to write down sensory experiences in places I visit. The smell of a horse barn, the sounds of the forest, the feel of soft soil in one’s hands, and the visuals of an active surgery are all fantastic ways to add reality to your writing. Humans are naturally observant, even if we aren’t consciously doing it. Think of somewhere you go every day: your office, your favorite coffee shop, your friend’s house. What do you see when you think of it? What sounds do you associate with it? Any smells that come to mind? Imagine that level of detail in your writing, not just creating a visual snapshot, but adding more realism to the reality you created.

Try writing a description of a room that you’re in without being there (using as many of your senses as possible). Read your description later. What did you include? What did you leave out? Rewrite it again and revisit it in a month. When you can start to create a vivid picture of this place, start doing it with other places.

Now, see if you have a friend who you consider an expert. Ask them over for coffee or a drink and ask them about their expertise! People love talking about things they love, so use this as an opportunity to become a mini-expert in a new field! Learn something new and try writing about their day. Now try working it into a narrative! You’ll find that you can create more realistic worlds in arenas you were previously a novice at. It doesn’t have to be technically perfect, but it can appear very real!

New Beginnings

Here we are again! Another year in which we try to find ways to improve ourselves across the spectrum. New skills to learn, new commitments to ourselves, and new beginnings to the year. Sometimes, they see us through to the end of the year; other times, not so much. Either way, I think it’s healthy to look back on the year and try to figure out where we can use improvement or even just to take stock and see if we’re where we want to be in our lives. The last few years have certainly been full of challenges and changes, but also a lot of things that have improved us (or perhaps are still in the course of improving us). Whatever the circumstances, I always like to try and put some goals down in order to fully take advantage of the year, especially when it comes to my writing. So, here are my Writer’s Resolutions for 2023:

Write for 1 Hour Every Day: I have, admittedly, slipped a little bit in the past few months. I’ve gone through some pretty drastic changes in my work life and part of me is still recovering from the ricochet of all that. Still, going into 2023, I’m feeling more comfortable about that situation and I’m ready to start committing my time more intentionally. I want to get back to writing at the same interval every day. My old schedule doesn’t quite fit with my new routine, but I’m trying to carve out time to work on my writing more diligently and keep that consistent every day (the easiest way to form a habit is repetition). I want to make that time sacred and keep to it as much as I would to any work schedule.

Submit Once A Week: The easiest way to win at poker is when you’re holding all the cards. Granted, that’s not how poker is supposed to be played, but the metaphor stands. I want to regularly and diligently query my novel and submit my short fiction to magazines, etc. I blame this falling off on a number of factors, but won’t go into that. The point is, I need to do more to get my work seen and read if I want it to go anywhere. So I want to submit more of what I write rather than let it simmer in my hard drive while running off of hope. You can only win if you play.

Find a Writing Group: This one is one I should have done a while ago, but with the state of things when I moved back, it got more and more difficult to make that happen. I would like to find a group of individuals who also write. This would be partly to talk shop, but also to share victories and commiserate on the challenges. Writing classes and workshops are great to work on your craft, but there’s the emotional aspect of things that a lot of non-writers don’t fully appreciate. Having that built-in support network of people who are also working on telling stories would be a tremendous help to getting that social aspect of writing life back on track.

So, there you have it. Three, solid, actionable goals for 2023. It will require some discipline on my part, but I think there’s a way to make it all come together in the end. More goals will probably come up as the year progresses, but there’s never a bad time to start thinking ahead and getting things in order. Do you have any goals for the coming year?

Arranging Titles

I’ve been considering re-shelving my books recently. Between a few moves, borrowing books and trying to construct a To Read Pile out of the book fort that is becoming my apartment, I’ve wanted to arrange them in a way that would please me and make them more accessable.

In my mind, there are two main obstacles when it comes to book shelving and both of them come from size. The first is oversized books: large in either length or width in a way that makes them difficult to shelve. The second is paperbacks, which are easy to find space for but don’t use all of the space efficiently. Bookshelves are designed for the larger end of books, but don’t always allow the user to optimize the space. So, how do I make all my books fit without losing too many in the process? Personally, I think bookshelves should come with mini-shelf attachments: just enough to hold another row of paperbacks a little above the row in front of it. This would really help the paperback problem to optimize the shelf space without having to double stack and lose the titles behind them. I tend to keep Oversized books on top of shelves with bookends to support them or arrange them in their own section. Dungeons and Dragons Manuals tend to make their own section next to my TV rather than a shelf (any Ikea bookshelf would crumble under the weight).

I like to arrange my books by subject as much as possible. Most of my books are fiction (Sci-Fi and Fantasy, mostly), but I also have books that are on different sciences, writing practices, history and mental health. With all the moves, my shelving recently has been “where’s the space?” and that hasn’t been working for me recently. I’d like to get that to be my main organization system and kind of build from there. Right now, I have a few paperbacks stacked on the shelf over my fireplace, but I want to try and work out something to prop up a second row of paperback for my regular bookshelves to make use of that space. I want to try and put all my nonfiction books together at the very least, but I have to take stock of what I have and what I don’t. With the holidays and my birthday approaching, I want to try and make any room I can for new additions to the collection.

How do you organize your books? Subject? Size? Author Name? Color?