Climbing My Mountains, One Step at a Time

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

In case you didn’t notice…I had a bit of a rough time last night.

The weight of the world was on my shoulders and sometimes you can’t help it, you feel yourself sinking down into that deep, dark abyss.

Heavy and dreary skies at the beach at Wilmington, NC.

I watched my niece earlier today and as I was playing the “Be Patient” song to her on YouTube from the music machine, it had me thinking about the other songs my mother used to play for us as kids, and among them were the Psalty Song Book Praises.

Now, for those who don’t know who or what I’m talking about it was a series of music tapes created by a church group aimed to spread the love of God through kids songs.

And yes…I grew up in a very christian home and as I’m certainly not as innocent and trusting as I was back then…sometimes a message meant for kids, hits just as close to home when you are an adult.

And that is a song called “One Step at a Time.”

No matter what gets you down in life, you can climb your mountains… one step at a time.

Whether it be school, job, your kids, your homework…everything is easier to tackle little by little. I shouldn’t let that mountain-load of stress get me down…even if it does seem a heavy load to bear…

Rainbow in the sky over Binghamton University. Taken about April 2011.

Remembering that if I climb on top of it, look at the larger picture, one itty-bitty step at a time… “I’m gonna make it!”

And whether it be God, your parents, your husband or your best friend, no one is alone in their troubles…or you don’t have to be. A friend is there to lighten the load. Just like laughter is, just like love.

And loving something or someone other than yourself, other than your troubles…makes the world brighten.

Hello World – You Suck

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

I wasn’t going to post tonight, and as it is exactly 12AM… I will not post tonight, but will say hello to tomorrow morning and hope that it does me better as soon as the sun comes up.

Well, I might have mentioned that I do not have a job. I worked for a company for about a month, and then I got a startling “You’re not working fast enough” and the company let me go. I had quit two part time jobs to work for this company full-time and suddenly I find myself out of work and on unemployment and bored as hell.

Hence, the birth of this blog. I would not have created it had I not thought, hey, now is a time to focus on the writer part of me as I apply for other jobs…

A happy cupcake I made some time ago…if I only I had one now. Another solution to stress…CHOCOLATE!!!

Well, I thought I’d take this time to express my extreme frustration in the fact that I am a college educated individual that A) seems qualified for nothing and B) cannot find anything full-time that will help me pay my bills. Sure, I can go back to retail and work for $7.75 an hour again, but I did not get a degree for nothing and I owe it to myself to try, right? (There is also the sad fact that I have the potential to make more on unemployment than if I took a part-time job working 15 hours a week. Which is what you’ll get in a lot of retail jobs.)

There’s also the sad, sad fact that I have not had health insurance since I was about 19 years old. (I am now 24.) And dammit, I want health insurance! With the right full-time, I just may get that.

Now, that I’ve whined and complained for a bit, I feel a tad better. (My poor mother, she got the brunt of it, you lucky, lucky bastards…)

And now I am going to go play a rousing game of Bloxorz and try to forget that the world sucks, and ultimately, I am a writer who is qualified for nothing. Oh, and there is the fact that the world is falling about our ears…economy…economy…economy…

I’m sure things will look better in the morning… :/  Right? Honestly, what’s the world coming to??

I can honestly understand now why someone might think that a “Revolution” might be a good idea…

Revolution Review – When the world goes crazy, what will you care about?

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

Well, for starters – I’m hooked!

With the characters that we see so far, the mystery, and the eerie yet beautiful scenes we see of broken down buildings, cars with plants in them, candlelight and goats…Revolution is stunning in that it brings a world to our eyes that is chilling yet thought-provoking.

From the very get go, the focus is on the electronics and how as children, Charlie and Danny are glued to the television set. When all those material and worldly possessions disappear, what is the focus?

Children. Family. Love, togetherness. The things that should matter now, but somehow get pushed to the side. I love how it makes you think: When the world goes crazy around you, what will you care about?

As for characters that caught my attention: We’ve got a comic relief of a man who used to work for Google, and who is allergic to bees; a young, hott militia man, an Uncle Miles who just might be some kind of super man, and then there’s Charlie.

A strong, young woman with a purpose and with a goal, who just happens to carry a cross-bow and wears a leather jacket. She’s stubborn, but she’s got compassion, too. And any one who has a reason to keep fighting is going to keep fighting, especially when it’s for someone they care about.

My one complaint about her: if you’re going to look so bad-ass, why must you have a cute militia man save you all the time? Although, I love the start of romance there…forbidden, no? Sexy and interesting…I’d love to see more of him too!

So far, we’ve got great things to keep me tuning in next week. The promise of romance, a great world, characters that need more explaining about, and the question that everyone wants answered: Why did the lights go out in the first place?

To quote my sister: “I have yet to decide if this will be a good enough substitution for LOST.” And me too.

There hasn’t been many shows that have been able to fill the LOST-void, but at least Revolution has one thing about it that is similar: One question answered and we only have about twenty more!

I cannot wait for next week!

The Words – Choosing Between One Reality and the Next

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

Last night, I saw the movie, The Words. It was a last minute decision, there was honestly nothing better to watch and I thought, hey, I’ve seen a trailer for this, it looks romantic.

Little did I know, that it was going to be completely different than what I expected…what a relief!

***I recommend this for anyone looking for a thought provoking film and if you just happen to be a writer, you’ll love it too!

This movie is intelligent, and just very well written. The Words is the name of a novel, which is narrated by the author throughout the movie; it is about a writer who finds a story, which he takes as his own.

The music is beautiful, the acting is superb and  it easily sucks a viewer in; the scenes are intricately woven and well placed ***this would be one of my examples of how to write a great plot!!

Anyway, the movie brings up questions about a writer’s capability and what it truly means to be a writer and the sacrifices that are made; about choosing between fiction and reality and that all writers eventually make a choice.

“Hitting a little close to home?” asked my friend in my ear during the movie, and well, yeah, it does!

I sometimes wonder if I don’t take too much time with my imaginary worlds. I’ll emerge hours later with a sort of glazed over expression and a dumb look on my face. My mother will be asking me a question but I’m still off in the story, I’ve still got the character’s voice in my head, I still feel their emotions.

Sometimes, it makes me worry, because it is so difficult to come back to the real world…to connect, to pay the bills, to do the laundry, to answer a friend’s text. Especially when things aren’t going well.

Sometimes the fiction world becomes an escape mechanism, a therapy. There is nothing wrong with this to a point, but suddenly I’m afraid. If you get too lost in your fiction, do you miss the real world, too?

Because, well…there is also beauty in reality, too.

Good Food, Good Breathing, Good Life

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

Well, what can I say? Life sucks really, and the more you try to make it better sometimes…the more things fall to the wayside. Feel like crawling back into bed and hiding under a blanket yet?

I guess the only thing I can do now is share this picture:

Garlic toast with freshly chopped tomatoes and Parmesan cheese, topped with parsley and freshly ground salt and pepper.

My lunch. Sometimes when life gets you down, you got to be creative. I’m no great cook by any means, but I love getting creative with food sometimes, and when you can make something beautiful out of something so simple…it reminds me to relax, take a deep breath and realize that there can be something good about the everyday goings of life, no matter how mundane they seem to be.

When I was in college and stressed out, I used to send food pictures to my sister all the time. Although, it probably helped me gain that extra freshman fifteen, it was such a comfort.

Remember that food is something you can control, too. Even if it has to be healthy, it can still be tasty! And isn’t control what some of us want just a little bit out of life?

The Boy with the Bread

/ Ajmorse / 1 Comment

Been reading The Hunger Games today because I recently watched the movie last night and am struck with a particular scene in the novel: Where Peeta, the bread boy, throws a starving Katniss burned bread from his kitchen.

For those of you who haven’t read the book, I suggest you go read it now. Not only is it great reading, but great writing too! From the first page you are drawn into Katniss’s world, you feel her emotion, and the unrest in the dystopian society that she lives in. (I can’t tell you how much I don’t like that word, for some reason it just irks me.) It is a fast read, but not a read for the faint of heart, certainly.

Anyway, I guess the English Major in me is stuck on the Boy with the Bread Scene and the juicy little bits that scene may or may not represent. Oh, it certainly doesn’t have to represent anything, but I love that it can and that Suzanne Collins isn’t dumb. That deliberately or not, she has created a scene that sums up the heart of the novel, or at the very least a great portion of it and that is:

Sacrifice.

What does Peeta sacrifice when he throws Katniss the bread? Well, he certainly didn’t get hurt for nothing. He was willing to risk injury to himself, in order to be “kind” to help out Katniss, who was someone in need.
His motives? Well, love. He later claims that he’s been in love with Katniss ever since a young age. (Although it certainly takes her awhile to believe it).

And isn’t that at the very heart of the novel? Peeta’s initial sacrifice only goes to emphasize Katniss’s sacrifice; the offer of her own life in exchange for her sister’s at the reaping. It is because of her love for her sister that she sacrifices herself. And other characters experience their own sacrifices as well. It is the love and the sacrifices accompanying them that says a lot about family, about life and death throughout the novel.

Any thoughts? What do you love about the novel? About the characters? About Katniss?

Iconic Characters in Movies and TV

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

Just finished watching Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and I guess I am struck tonight by how inspiring great movie characters are and the writing behind them.

When you see the silhouette of Indiana Jones on the big screen, one doesn’t always see the great writing that went into such a script, but its been something that I’ve been thinking about lately. How great movie/TV characters stay with you and are a great inspiration for me, especially as a writer.

Everything about the characterization of Indiana Jones is well thought out, so cleverly or accidentally crafted; right down to the name of course. I did not know that Indiana was the name of George Lucas’ dog at the time! Hah!

But I was just telling my mother earlier today: “Look at a great character like Sawyer from Lost.”

Mom: “Yeah, what about him?”

Me: “Everything about the character is Sawyer, even the name. You can say the name Sawyer and you automatically know who or what that person is and (in Sawyer’s case) what clever lines he might have.”

Mom: “Okay…”

But my line of thinking is this: Who wouldn’t want to create a character as great as Sawyer, or Indiana Jones or Han Solo? To write something that has become legendary and I guess that’s the ultimate success, isn’t it? When the character becomes more than what’s on the page. It just simply IS.

(Here’s hoping that the new show Revolution has a similar feel, yeah? Even some of the lines we see in the trailer look good. But ah, I digress…)

When a character, or when a character’s lines or scenes or actions get inside you and make you laugh, cry or feel something – that is the ultimate success, too. Who wouldn’t want to create a character that quite literally flies off the page and reaches others? Because I know I definitely would!

The excitement of it…every little detail; to a head nod, to a muscle twitch in someone’s left hand…to their rumpled clothes. The perfect details. The perfect character. Ah… now who wouldn’t call that poetry?

New page check it out!!

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

I just added a new page at the left there in my menu settings, “About this Blog.”  So have a go and find out what The Writer’s Hub is all about! 🙂

<====It’s over there. Just to be obnoxious. And yeah, because sometimes people are blind. And dumb. Or their brains got hijacked by space monkeys. Ever seen a space monkey? Hmm. What an interesting thing to write about…

Rainy Writer’s Block

/ Ajmorse / Leave a comment

It is raining here in upstate, New York (thank you, hurricane, Isaac,) and I am having one of those days where the couch, a nice, warm blanket is where I want to spend the rest of my day. Suffice to say, you might think that this might be a nice time to write…NOT.

A view from my front porch; rain dripping off my mother’s hummingbird feeder.

The more I know I need to write, the more I can’t. When writing becomes an obligation, it becomes not fun anymore and then I  get that dreaded writer’s block. (This has been happening more often than not lately, now that I’ve given myself a deadline for this eBook and definitely want to see this one completed! I think I’m going to aim for November. I want a draft and some finalizations for November at the latest.)

I’m reminded of a fantastic article I found on Patricia Briggs’ website. (Patricia Briggs is one of my favorite authors…she writes primarily Urban Fantasy; the Mercy Thompson series…amoung other things.)

Anyway…where was that article again?

Ah, well I couldn’t find the article I wanted…buut, at any rate, the main gist of it was this: to find a way to make writing fun again.

  •  Go out for a walk, take a break from it, phone a friend…etc.
  • Try another project than the current one.
  • Write in a different character’s perspective for a while.
  • Think outside the box…think outside the current chapter you are working on.
  • Start writing in another place.
  • Research.

What I do sometimes: Take a character in your novel or current idea and have that character write a letter to another character. The end result is this: You get to know what your character is feeling, you know their relationship with that other character based on the letter that he or she wrote, and you get a better understanding of the motivation behind why he or she does what he or she does.

I like this technique because it is very personal and because it’s so personal, you can really understand and hear the particular voice that your character has. (I’m not just talking about the voices that writers hear in their heads, although, there is that too.) I’m talking about the voice, the mannerisms of your character; why he or she is the way he or she is.

Anyway, perhaps, I’ll go follow my own advice now…

Because when it comes down to it, only 20% of what you know of your character actually gets on the page; so you better know that character 100%! And who is a grand example of this? Only J.K. Rowling of course!