Collective Inspiration ~ Thank You All

So, I've been blogging for almost a year, and in that time, many people have found my blog through various search engine terms. My new blog friend, Sandy, pieced together a brilliant poem using word-for-word search lines that have ushered people to her blog. You can read that bit of fabulousness here. Most of my terms involve prose, artistic voice and stuff like that, or my highest "weird true stories" which currently tallies 37 hits, and I didn't get any gems as precious as hers, but I was inspired to see if I could find something at least kinda sorta sparkly in my own heap.

Everyone who faithfully reads my blog knows I love challenges and have a hard time keeping my pen quiet and still. I was able to make sense of madness and piece together my own poem, a poem that fits my blog's theme and doesn't entirely suck. These are actual search terms. No doctoring involved. From trash to treasure, here it is. I call it Creative Burst:

listening ears
find a symphonic zone
while running
falling in love
crying on a pillow

in the dark of night
during wild sex
in fits of mania
from yesterday
beyond twilight

be weird and crazy
stir curiosity
stretch for greatness
be passionate
find artistic voice

you superstar
queen of hearts
sex goddess
homeless man
child born with pen

to be or not to be,
that is the question
find the story
the untold story
poetic license

deep within
springing out
like glorious angels
like soul's fire
in a creative burst

Thanks for all your help, guys and dolls. I never could have created this poem without all the fine people who have paid a visit to my blog. Sometimes art can be found in the strangest places. Thanks for the tip, Sandy. See if you can create your own.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs

Discovering Art in Randomness

When are you most creative? First thing in the morning? After an espresso shot, a run or a shower? In the dead of night? I find inspiration bites me at sporadic times. I’ll have a dream so lively and strange, that I wake up with an urgent need to pen it. Or I’ll be up late, stuck in the sillies and an idea will come to me.

The concept for Sapphire Reign, the book I’m working on now, came to me from a dream, two actually, now spliced together, as did its prequel, Kings & Queens, so I guess that says something about dreams for me. Dreams are beyond our conscious imagination so that’s where interesting plots are born, characters introduce themselves, and circumstances aren’t hemmed in by time or space or practicality or realism. One night you’re attempting to evade shark jaws while surfing and the next, you’re under a purple sky in a land where everyone, man and beast, gets along until you arrive and destroy the balance, and as you strive to make things right, you only make them worse.

One night at 2 AM, I was writing a forum post and jotting down songs singers should avoid on American Idol. Some are so owned, they should never grace the stage again, some were the kiss of death, some totally bit—TOTALLY—, and some are just not, um, Idol material. In my post, which was making me crack up, a story emerged, so I arranged the song titles into a lose poem. Here’s that 2 AM creative burst:

~ Songs to Avoid on American Idol ~

Hello
Imagine
Yesterday
I Am I Said
Dust in the Wind
Welcome to My Life
The Long and Winding Road

I Feel So
Like a Virgin
Cherry Pie
I'm Too Sexy
Born to be Wild
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
(You Gotta ) Fight For Your Right (to Party)
It's My Life

I Drove All Night
I Want Your Sex
Eight Days a Week
Time After Time
Any Way You Want It
All I Want Is You
Faithfully

I'm On Fire
Burning Love
Outta My Head
Hungry Like the Wolf
Crazy for You
My Immortal
Desire

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Livin La Vida Loca
It's All Wrong, But It's All Right
Is This Love
Love Bites
Love Is A Battlefield
Fallin'
Going Under
Bring Me to Life

Devil Inside
Highway to Hell
Some Like It Hot
Inside the Fire
I Have Nothing
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Smashed Into Pieces
Helplessly Hoping

I Wanna Know What Love Is
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
How Do I Live
My Life
Good Enough
Empty Me
Save a Prayer
Pour Some Sugar on Me

A Change is Gonna Come
Karma Chameleon
Today
Macarena
Shake Your Love
Shout to the Lord
Dare You to Move

I Believe
I'm a Believer
Travelin' Thru
The Greatest Love of All
Jesus Christ Superstar
A Perfect Love
Love of a Lifetime
Stairway to Heaven

Tomorrow
I'll Fly Away
High Enough
Inside Your Heaven
To Be With You
Forever
Always
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

This is just a crazy list of song titles, but it tells a story, a journey about life. There’s a character here who’s searching for true love and finds it in an unexpected place.

During a moment when you’re most likely to be creative or even a moment when you're totally not, like exhausted maybe or distraught, pick a topic and brainstorm. Go with it, write whatever crazy thing comes to your mind. You could end up with a poem, a song, a short story sketch, a new plot concept for a novel or character who wants his story told. Never assume your random thoughts are just rubbish. Often times, when you clear away the haze and dust and look at something in a different way, you’ll discover your junk is actually precious art. Inspiration is waiting in the oddest places and during the most unthinkable times, so go find it.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #30

In order to be a good writer, you must know what makes good writing. Take any book you enjoy and dissect the first chapter. Did it have a gripping first sentence or first paragraph at least? Did you get a sense of the story's promise? Is the character presented one that moves you in some way, either in being able to sympathize with or loathe or care about? If it's in first, is the voice vibrant and engaging or does it fall flat?

Stretch # 30

Once you begin asking questions and dissect the chapter bit by bit, exposing all the pros and cons, write down all your impressions and also what you would do the same and what you would do differently.

By analyzing a published work, you will be able to then apply that same eye to your own pieces. Be great in all you do.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #29

Usually when we're thirsty, we just guzzle liquids and don't give much thought to any sensations beyond taste. We desire to quench thirst and that's about it. But there's more to a drink than taste and the feel of it in your mouth and sliding down your throat. Discover the sensory explosion in one of your favorite drinks.

Once you have your favorite drink in hand, describe everything about it. Is it fizzing? Are effervescent bubbles tickling your upper lip or steam? How does it smell, taste and feel in your mouth. What kind of things does it do to your body. Does it calm, delight you or make you tingle all over. Does it warm you up, cool you off? Write down all of your impressions. Lemonade reminds me of summer, swimming and eating watermelon, even if I drink it in the dead of winter. Does your drink draw connections to seasons or memories? Explore it all and think outside the box.

I love discovering the extra things that often get overlooked. So go find for some literary treasures in refreshments.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #28

Summer is fast approaching, which means the beach, amusement parks and Jim Rice's Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be calling. It seems that summer is the busiest season for traveling. Wouldn't it be great to have unlimited resources to go wherever you wanted? To stay in the Waldorf every time you go to NYC instead of the cheapest place you can get? I'm sure some of you can at the drop of a hat. Don't think I'll be taking a trip this year. It's not looking likely, not unless money falls out of the sky.

Money isn't everything though. For this creative writing exercise, create a character who has everything at his or her fingertips, can go anywhere he or she wants, buy whatever is desired, but is still missing something. What? What does your character want most? A passion, love, true friendship, a new career path, joy, zest for life, to catch the person who killed his/her parents, to unearth the buried sins and secrets in the family. Then create a catalyst, something that spurs the person to chase after the one thing that is most desired. Will it be achieved and how? What obstacles do or will stand in the way? What is at stake if it's not obtained?

Creating a character in a specific circumstance with a goal and a challenge in attaining an end result is all you really need to get a story going. Write on!

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #27

My little kidlets have their own beds, but they enjoy clustering together on one mattress like a litter of puppies. I'm not sure why. But they do. Every night. And my youngest son and my baby girl, who just turned three and is no longer a baby, were lying down, facing each other, having pillow talk the other night, cracking each other up with their own brand of sillies. It struck me as so adorable. But face to face pillow talk is more than cute, it's a good springboard for inspiration.

Your creative writing exercise is to write a scene or a short story where two characters are together and engaging in some kind of pillow talk: two kids trying to be brave and ignore the growl during their first camp out in the backyard, two lovers after a dud sexual encounter, two strangers trying to comfort each other on an overnight flight during extreme turbulence, one character dying and another clinging to their beloved's last minutes on earth, a surprised thief with a knife to the throat of the hollering college student who wasn't supposed to be in the dorm during winter break.

At first glance, pillow talk seems too fluffy and soft, all whispers and giggles, but oh no, when you let your imagination run wild, a multitude of scenarios and conflicts can rush to the surface and create the basis for an amazing story. So fluff your pillow, pick up that favorite pen of yours with the purple ink and just write your characters into trouble and then back out.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #26

Ever see a movie or read a book that left you totally annoyed because the ending sucked? While reading or watching something, we intrinsically know what will bring about a satisfactory finish and we get frustrated when art falls short of our expectations. In real life, sometimes endings are messy and unsatisfying and heart-wrenching. Nothing can change facts. They're fixed in stone. And nothing is more depressing than the unchangeable bad news we find in reality. It seems we get no respite from it. So why not make some good news.

Rip this creative writing exercise from the headlines: Take an article from a magazine, newspaper or webpage with bad news and rewrite it with alterations so that it becomes good news.

An ending can change in the hands of a writer. Write one that makes you smile.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #25

Today in America we celebrate Memorial Day to pay tribute to heroes who lost their lives in battle or service for this country. I always tear up for the lives lost, those people I've never met or faces I have no names for, those who gave their lives for freedom. It infuriates me that the freedom so many willingly spilled their blood for is dissolving faster than we can keep tabs on, not because of Muslim extremists but purposely by powermongers sitting in or behind Capitol Hill. And Veterans are on a watchlist now? A watchlist! Really? People who have risked their lives for YOU and YOURS are too extreme and radical for your global agenda? The more I think about that, the more livid I become.

Think of something that incenses you and dissect why. Dig into that frustration and fury and let it pour out in 200 words of raw emotion.

It's okay to flow with that angry current if you have a suitable outlet like a writing exercise. Gunning people down at work or cutting someone off on the highway is not recommended. Instead, get mad and write.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #24

Addictions can trip up even the strongest of us. At first you're watching a baseball game every now and then, and before you know it, you're TiVoing every main sporting event known to man. Okay, maybe that's just me, but anyway...People can become obsessed with or addicted to almost anything, one particular person, video games, sex, books, food, cats, shopping, nasal spray—uh, it happens, hand raised but kicked the habit years ago. An unquenchable desire in a character can be the basis for a story or even a novel.

Write from the POV of someone who has an addiction or obsession. Will he/she continue chasing what is craved? What lengths will he/she go to to get it? Will others get hurt? Does you character care? Does your character want help or merely to keep from getting caught? Continue asking questions and pick your addict's mind.

Dig into some ugliness and begin asking questions and hounding your character for answers. Maybe you'll find a psycho killer on the rise or a church-going soccer mom hidden in the shadows of shame. Find illumination in an addiction.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #23

Almost any song you hear has a story encased in it, but the characters in that story often flutter in and out of existence, pushed aside by new chart toppers and more popular iTunes downloads. Give a song new life in story form.

Find a song that stirs you in some way like You're Beautiful by James Blunt or Incomplete by Backstreet Boys or Janie's Got a Gun by Aerosmith or The Christmas Shoes by Newsong or Ohio by CSNY and write from the standpoint of the one relaying the song or as one of the persons in the song's setting and tell the story in your own words, give it a fresh spin.

Like maybe the girl in You're Beautiful is totally unaware of any charm she may possess since she's been overlooked by guys her whole life. She even had to lamely hire an escort to take her to her company gala so she wouldn't look like a loser. But when she catches an adorable guy on the subway looking at her, really looking at her...for the first time in her life, she wishes she were alone.

Stories are in everything, especially in music. Go find one and make it your own.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #22

Some of the funniest, shake-your-head moments are bestowed upon society by fools. Did you hear about that teen in North Carolina who held up a store with a banana and then ate the evidence, or the man in Texas who rented a car to rob a bank, completely taking for granted that the car dealership had his personal information? Admit it! You love laughing at idiots. So why not write about one?

Think of a scheme gone wrong because of stupidity and write a scene from the POV of a witness, police officer or reporter. Or go for ironic karma, like a college student running a plagiarism ring gets his I.D. stolen by a hacker.

Stupidity can be a good springboard for humorous writing, so brainstorm some strokes of non-brilliance and get crackin'.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hug.

May Mania ~ Stretch #21

Dip your plume in ink and try your hand at a rigid form of poetry like a villanelle. The villanelle consists of 19 lines: 5 tercets [3 lines] and 1 quatrain [4 lines]. The 1st line of the 1st tercet is repeated as the last of the 2nd and 4th. The last line of the 1st tercet is repeated as last of the 3rd and 5th. Then, those two repeated lines end the quatrain. And the rhyming structure is basically like a stack of Oreos, all the chocolate cookies have to rhyme, and all the cream filling has to rhyme. And at the very bottom is an extra chocolate piece.

You can use iambic tetrameter, in essence eight beats per line, or iambic pentameter, ten beats per line.

Try writing a villanelle. It seems difficult but start small. First, brainstorm several lists of words that rhyme so you build a good pool to dip into for inspiration and direction. Once you have some pieces to work with, think of a concept, the point of your poem You can go for any concept like frustration over not being able to find what you need at the mall or a wedding that's gone horribly wrong. Then start experimenting and stringing some sentences together.

Here's an example of a villanelle I wrote:

~ The Chill ~

Though warmth of sun doth not end nights
As haunting voice springs from the tomb
Love’s whispers break the chill that bites

My broken wings don’t soar in flights
At dawn you come and fill my room
Though warmth of sun doth not end nights

You raise me up to higher heights
Replace my frost with heat in womb
Love’s whispers break the chill that bites

Your presence here rids all my frights
The darkness fades along with gloom
Though warmth of sun doth not end nights

Fret not, my love, the call to lights
Find warmth inside, beyond the doom
Love’s whispers break the chill that bites

I’ll miss your touch, these hints and sights
But peace has now become my groom
Though warmth of sun doth not end nights
Love’s whispers break the chill that bites

Push yourself in new directions. Creative exercise is fun and awesome, especially when you accomplish a feat you never thought you could. Keep at it.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #20

As a child did you ever wish you had a super power, that you could fly, become invisible, hear people's thoughts? It's fun to imagine the strangely impossible. Dipping into a realm of weirdness also makes for great fiction.

Invent a superpower and then construct a character who has it. Write at least 200 words about your freak.

In Wicked Lovely the MC can see and talk to faeries. In 18 Seconds a blind woman can experience the last eighteen seconds of a person's life, their thoughts, sights, sounds, everything, when she touches a corpse. Stepping outside of the norm can be an extremely fun exercise. Who knows? You just may come up with a fabulous concept for a future work.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #19

Everyone is aware of their five senses, but we can gather details and information in other ways too. Tap into those weird, almost inexplicable moments in life and write about them.

Think back to a time when you experienced an epiphany, gut instinct, discernment, deja' vu, a premonition, intuition, a spiritual vision or dream, a hallucination, a spiritual nudge to go somewhere or do something or not to, the presence of something good or evil that you couldn't see, hear or feel but just somehow knew was there. Then try and put that experience into words and recapture your feelings about it.

Because we are visceral beings, sometimes our minds and spirits detect or experience things that our obvious, physical senses don't. Like, how many times do you get a sense about someone and then learn later that you were right? Or for whatever reason you go a different way back home, only to learn of a pile-up on your habitual route. Those strange moments are often neglected in fiction. They are also difficult to put into words, so this will be a nice stretch for you. Work it out!

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #18

My grandmother died on this day in 1985. Even though it's been more than 20 years, her absence still bites like a bitter cold. I wish she would have been here to see me get married and have kids of my own. None of my grandparents were alive to see my best blessings. Each of them, in one way or another, in their lives, lessons, mistakes and deaths helped shape the person and the kind of writer I am today.

Write an essay or a short story on who or what inspired you to write. If you published a book or if you hope to be published, who would you dedicate your book to and why?

My first published work will be dedicated to my grandparents. It's not that I'm not thankful for the support of others around me like my husband and parents, but my stirring to write came from the Annual All-Star cookouts, the best Christmases ever, watching baseball with the men, walking to Dunkin' Donuts with my grandfather and getting Munchkins, being dragged along from tag sale to tag sale, going to Hammonasset every summer where my grandparents camped, my grandmother melting away from cancer, me being at college and not getting to spend time with my dying grandfather. Events of the past, good and bad, are a wellspring of inspiration. Where is your wellspring? Find it and pay a tribute.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #17

Sometimes inspiration can be found in otherworldly or non-human creatures. A sparkling vampire in a dream kicked off Stephenie's Meyer's Twilight Saga. Whether you like the books or not is irrelevant. [Haven't read them yet. I know. I'll get there. And I plan to do blogs posts about them. So look out for that.] She went with her spark of creativity and made it work for her, and that's something to emulate: going with inspiration when you find it.

Write from the point of view of something non-human. This can mean a werewolf, a faery, an animal, an angel, a doll or even a pen. Write at least 500 words or enough to get a feel for and adequately express a new voice. Getting into a non-human mindset and writing from that POV will help you think outside the box with tone, dialogue, actions, motivation, needs, etc. When your narrator is not confined to human conventions, morality, the laws of physics, your imagination can run wild. Go for it!

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #16

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. Prove it.

Find a picture in a magazine, a calendar or even on Flickr or Photobucket that captures your interest. If the subject is an old woman, imagine the life she's led. Did a hard life cause her wrinkles or did she get them from a life spent busting a gut? A nice, cookie-cutter home in suburbia. What secret is buried in that tire-swing yard? That unassuming, church-going librarian moonlights as a callgirl as soon as the sun sets. How does she maintain a double life and will she get caught in her lies? Stories are hidden in every good composition. Find one that sparks your imagination and write at least 1000 words about it. That's approximately a scene-length piece. You can do it.

Never say you can't come up with good story ideas. They're all around. Like in the picture above. It's just flowers in the dirt, right? But why are they there anyway, discarded, tied together with string like a present? Why are they crushed, left to wilt? Did a stalker find his lovely with her boyfriend, again, even after his countless threats, and chuck his gift to the ground, determined to return with something much more fitting? Did a nine-year-old tomboy pick flowers for her mother only to get snatched by a stranger on her way home? There's a story in discarded flowers, just lying in the dirt. What is it? You just have to scrutinize things much closer and look for the peculiarities and interesting facets in photos, people, locations, etc, like a comedian looks for humor in the mundane. Look around, find some treasures and just write.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #15

All writing, from poetry to lyrics to novels, needs to stir some kind of emotion in a recipient. But sometimes words strung together are so convoluted and dense that true meaning gets lost. And when the meaning is lost, reactions are too. You want to strive to make your point known in your writing, to allow your audience to understand what you're saying so they can feel the emotion in the words you've written.

Work on fully capturing an emotion for a specific circumstance. This isn't a scene or a story, per se, just a written expression of pure emotion. Tap into God losing His Son, a sprinter not winning again, a lover kissing THE ONE for the first time, a wife whose long-deplored husband just came home, a mother who gave birth but went home empty-handed, a groom left at the alter. Show it all. Make that emotion as tangible and in-your-face as you can. Let it pop off the page.

You can't make an impact unless you can make an emotional connection. So dig deep, get raw, gritty and real. Lay it all out there to draw readers in and hook them on your every word.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs

May Mania ~ Stretch #14

In the similar vein of using a phrase as a writing prompt, you can also use any word like, baseball, wedding, beach. This creative writing exercise you should do with a paper and pen, so your thoughts can flow freely. If you're an exceptional typist, you can key it in, but there's something nearly magical for me about the motion of scribbling and letting my thoughts flow. Plus, I'm a fumbly typist. Even though I hold a degree in Journalism Advertising, I often need to correct many, many flubs. The shame! With a pen, I can just write and not worry about technicalities.

Choose a juicy word, set a timer for fifteen minutes and write freely. Don't think too much, just brainstorm, jot whatever comes to mind, go. You shouldn't edit. This is just about writing.

Free writing can help clear a stubborn logjam and release great ideas and new, cool directions for long fiction. Some people refer to it as stream of consciousness. Whenever I'm trying to figure out a plot point or turn in my story, because I'm a just-wing-it kind of writer and sometimes get stuck, a good brainstorm session or creative wrestling match always helps me find the direction I need. Give the crazy pen a shot.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

May Mania ~ Stretch #13

All stories take place somewhere, in little towns like Forks or ancient worlds like Middle Earth. Sometimes inspiration can be found in the setting itself. Try and break through the norm. Instead of setting a romance in Paris or on a cruise ship, what about in a Rescue Mission? Not so glamorous and full of potential character conflicts. Go for something unexpected and offbeat.

Stage a story in an environment you've never used before. And pick a situation for that setting which would not be likely or pretty or easy. Make it challenging for yourself and stretch.

There are so many worlds to explore in fiction, so go find one that's intriguing and new to you and just write.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.