Hi there!
I'm here to tell you to take heart when you find yourself stuck... as I have been of late with my writing.
Even though I have not taken any direct action to act on my inspirations by writing, I have been thoroughly inspired with my new experiences lately. But when I'm feeling particularly uninspired I simply just escape for a while to the beach or my own front yard. Recently I decided to spontaneously go to one of my favorite beaches here in Northern Cali, and it was beautiful. I watched the storm clouds roll in from the ocean, poked at some sea anenomes and sea stars, felt the waves rolling around my ankles and tripped a few times by sinking in the wet sand. It was a dazzling experience!
Besides going to your happy place, I would recommend just seeking out whatever inspired you in the first place with your idea for whatever work you have at the moment. For me, many of the places I pulled inspiration from are from my favorite fantasy fiction novels. Specifically, for one of my WIP's I am writing a Beauty and the Beast fiction novel. I am not sure how well it will go, but I have a pretty solid idea for what I want this world to be like. My inspiration for that came from the story of the Beauty and the Beast, (obviously) but more specifically the Disney movie. I love the way that story version is written. In part I think the reason why it inspires me so much is because it's got a lot of beautiful music in it. For my WIP Beauty and the Beast story I drew different parts from the movie and the original story itself to make my work my own. I may be stuck on it now, but every time I watch something or listen to something related to Beauty and the Beast I get a little spark of inspiration.
If you are feeling stuck, you need to go back to the source material that brought you to this brilliant idea in the first place. And if you're in the first draft, all you need to be concerned about is letting your characters story play out and not worry to much about the giant plot holes or gaping inconsistencies.
Hope this inspires someone,
Love,
Jazmine
Writer, crazy horse girl, artist, musician, stage actress, sister, daughter, and follower of Jesus Christ... Passion and love are my everything
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
The Things We Want
Hi again!
Yes, this is my first post in a long-long time. I am making plans to get back on track and post at least once a week on my blog about writerly things. I think it would be good for me.
Anyway, about what I wanted to write this post for... this is something that's been on my heart lately as I've been praying about things in my life. There are many things we want in life: a wonderful job, someone to fall in love with, best friends, a great family, a new car, a million bucks. I could go on with that list but it would be lengthy, to say the least. If we bring that list into more of a writerly realm, it would include things like: more books to read, to be on the New York Times bestseller list, to have your job BE writing, and most of all have people love the stories you so laboriously put together.
Well, for me, it's been a great struggle to see people around me who I know like me as a person have great fun with their friends, yet, I don't really have as many as they do. Or more to the point, I don't have that "core" group of friends to hang out with like many people around me do. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out at college Bible group with all the lovely people there and the other places I go where I meet people. But there as never been a group of people where I've connected with them and we become that "group of friends".
I am BEYOND thankful for the amazing friends I consider sisters to myself, but their lives don't ever intersect all that often and it's not that "group of friends". If you haven't noticed yet, I really want to have that "group of friends". I've been clawing at the wall of despair because I don't have an answer to why no core group of people have ever connected with me where it's stayed that way for a long time. There have definitely been times in the past where there have been short bursts of a "group of friends", but more often than not we've grown up and grown apart, or they've moved away to another city a hundred or more miles away.
Part of it could be me, blocking myself subconsciously because of my insecurities with my age or any other thing. Even though my age does not matter when it comes down to it, I always find myself at the top of the group age wise and not really connecting with any particular person just because we're in a different stage in life... or I find myself the baby of the people I'm around. This has been the case recently, even though I know in my heart that age does not matter, and it shouldn't.
I've been very seriously praying to God asking questions of "WHY?!" mostly. Over the past few months it seems I've been getting the recurring message of "Be thankful for the blessings you have, stop yearning for something you think you need, look to Me and follow. I will provide for you."
There is also another thing I wrote down just as a note to myself... "I need to stop looking for relationships I think I need and open my heart to God instead." What's funny is that just now something occurred to me as I was typing: my best friend came into my life long before my insecurities about friendships came to the surface. A good few years before... yet she's the closest thing I have to a sister. ( You know who you are girlie! )
That in itself has just proved itself in this moment to be a testimony to myself and to anyone reading that God provides what we truly need. When He provides he does not fail, and does it in his timing, and far beyond our expectations.
The friend I wrote about a moment ago is proof of that, she's become my closest of friends over the past 7 years (WOW! That's a long time! Awesome!) I've known her. All of that despite the fact she lives 2,092 miles away from me (I counted girl, oh yes I did... google helped a little haha).
So, whether you are upset because you haven't made your WIP novel the perfect draft ready for publishing, or if you haven't gotten published yet, or you're just dealing with life issues of any kind at all... I hope this encourages you.
I thought I would share my experiences and the things I've discovered over these past months. Things can be extremely frustrating, but God will provide and the struggle with reach the peak eventually and the thing you were getting to will finally come. If not that thing, then something equally (or more likely, greater) awesome.
Love,
Jazmine
P.S.
I'll be trying to blog post more frequently. We will see how that goes with my second semester of college coming up. Not making any promises "etched in stone". Haha.
Yes, this is my first post in a long-long time. I am making plans to get back on track and post at least once a week on my blog about writerly things. I think it would be good for me.
Anyway, about what I wanted to write this post for... this is something that's been on my heart lately as I've been praying about things in my life. There are many things we want in life: a wonderful job, someone to fall in love with, best friends, a great family, a new car, a million bucks. I could go on with that list but it would be lengthy, to say the least. If we bring that list into more of a writerly realm, it would include things like: more books to read, to be on the New York Times bestseller list, to have your job BE writing, and most of all have people love the stories you so laboriously put together.
Well, for me, it's been a great struggle to see people around me who I know like me as a person have great fun with their friends, yet, I don't really have as many as they do. Or more to the point, I don't have that "core" group of friends to hang out with like many people around me do. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out at college Bible group with all the lovely people there and the other places I go where I meet people. But there as never been a group of people where I've connected with them and we become that "group of friends".
I am BEYOND thankful for the amazing friends I consider sisters to myself, but their lives don't ever intersect all that often and it's not that "group of friends". If you haven't noticed yet, I really want to have that "group of friends". I've been clawing at the wall of despair because I don't have an answer to why no core group of people have ever connected with me where it's stayed that way for a long time. There have definitely been times in the past where there have been short bursts of a "group of friends", but more often than not we've grown up and grown apart, or they've moved away to another city a hundred or more miles away.
Part of it could be me, blocking myself subconsciously because of my insecurities with my age or any other thing. Even though my age does not matter when it comes down to it, I always find myself at the top of the group age wise and not really connecting with any particular person just because we're in a different stage in life... or I find myself the baby of the people I'm around. This has been the case recently, even though I know in my heart that age does not matter, and it shouldn't.
I've been very seriously praying to God asking questions of "WHY?!" mostly. Over the past few months it seems I've been getting the recurring message of "Be thankful for the blessings you have, stop yearning for something you think you need, look to Me and follow. I will provide for you."
There is also another thing I wrote down just as a note to myself... "I need to stop looking for relationships I think I need and open my heart to God instead." What's funny is that just now something occurred to me as I was typing: my best friend came into my life long before my insecurities about friendships came to the surface. A good few years before... yet she's the closest thing I have to a sister. ( You know who you are girlie! )
That in itself has just proved itself in this moment to be a testimony to myself and to anyone reading that God provides what we truly need. When He provides he does not fail, and does it in his timing, and far beyond our expectations.
The friend I wrote about a moment ago is proof of that, she's become my closest of friends over the past 7 years (WOW! That's a long time! Awesome!) I've known her. All of that despite the fact she lives 2,092 miles away from me (I counted girl, oh yes I did... google helped a little haha).
So, whether you are upset because you haven't made your WIP novel the perfect draft ready for publishing, or if you haven't gotten published yet, or you're just dealing with life issues of any kind at all... I hope this encourages you.
I thought I would share my experiences and the things I've discovered over these past months. Things can be extremely frustrating, but God will provide and the struggle with reach the peak eventually and the thing you were getting to will finally come. If not that thing, then something equally (or more likely, greater) awesome.
Love,
Jazmine
P.S.
I'll be trying to blog post more frequently. We will see how that goes with my second semester of college coming up. Not making any promises "etched in stone". Haha.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)