Tag: c280k

I am absurdly happy I haven’t made a habit of posting the exercises I’ve been writing for this C280k workshop. Today and the rest of week 5 are focusing on trauma. We can elect to skip these exercises, create a fictional trauma to write about, or dive in and write about our own.

While I’m not opposed to sharing what I’m writing – because this is the ultimate of anonymity – I’m not in the right mindset to handle anything that might come after. Multiple studies done (that Tim referenced) have proven that this practice worsens the effects of trauma immediately afterward, only to showcase improvement over time. 

So in time, I will be okay to post them should I ever feel like it. Right now, though? I should probably complete the exercise and then disappear off social media entirely for the rest of the day. Social media exacerbates depressive thoughts, it’s not healthy for me to feed into that cycle when I’m already knowingly experiencing a low.

He just made me write a scene using only one syllable words! One syllable words!! Do you realize how hard that was??

Let me paint this for you: This week is about the elements of style. He’s pushing us to work outside whatever style we’ve naturally adapted and try out different ones by rewriting the same scene over and over again. I haven’t minded, it’s been a fun exercise. Until today. My scene is a memory I have from college and it happens after the semester is over. USING ONE. SYLLABLE. WORDS.

I’m honestly surprised I was able to get some of those sentences out. I have never considered my style elaborate or anything beyond quietly simple, but holy crap was that a simplicity I’ve never attempted in my life. 

Fuck.

Photo by Jonny Caspari on Unsplash.

This week is all about ‘Elements of style’ and all I want to do is write a fanfic. Which would be okay, only no – I don’t want to write more of mine or more related to what I’ve written: I want to rewrite a short story I just read. Completely. Take the characters and the events and mess up the timeline and make it into something I almost wish it was.

That’s not!! helping me stay motivated to with this boot camp. Though I’m excited I have three weeks done and only five more to go and I’m happy that it’s starting to settle in my routine. Even though I haven’t had the same day off each week, the act of sitting down and writing is there. Today felt odd until I realized I didn’t write yesterday. 

So I guess it’s working? Which is weird, but okay, let’s see how this goes.

Photo by Pascal Brändle on Unsplash.

Memorable quote:

“You’re training yourself to accept that failure is part of the process.”

I’m grateful for today’s episode. It reminded me that I haven’t been happy the last few days because my writing has “failed” the last few days. I realized that I haven’t liked what I’ve written in a couple days and rather than acknowledging the hard truth, I distracted myself with other things like motivation.

It’s not a good feeling when you have to call yourself out, but man does it make moving on afterward so much easier. I need to remember this.

I’m starting to miss writing. I think it’s because I have all these ideas and no way to push them out, but I feel like that’s part of the purpose to this boot camp. I burned out writing so much during July and August. If I continue trying to push out more writing while doing this, I’ll end up the same. It’s really hard to break the sprinting habit I’ve had and tailor it toward a marathon, but I’m determined to do it.

Even when all my doubts surface and I’m practically convinced this blog is a waste. 

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.

No memorable quote for today, again.

I’m not sure if I’m losing interest or if this is just a busy week. Considering the holiday Thursday and trying to fit an entire week of work into two and a half days, I’m hoping it’s the latter. I’m also hoping that I’m just not feeling this week.

Today I was supposed to create a character completely different from myself and I did, but I don’t think I did the best I could. I’m just not satisfied with my work today, but I’m letting it be. I have to accept the bad with the good and let it all stand.

Aiming for tomorrow to be a better day.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash.

Memorable quote:

None.

I’m not here today. I got home from dinner with my parents to find our internet is out, the earliest we can get it fixed is Wednesday morning, and then after going through the process of tech support and scheduling a tech to come out to the house, my husband asked me, “Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?” If it were possible to reach through the phone and strangle someone, I would have.

We were summoning demons today! Crazy, right? Only not when he actually got into it. He read two excerpts from The Screwtape Letters and wanted us to write based on that premise. I actually enjoyed it, even though it was a weird exercise and I’m mentally twelve miles away standing on sand and doing nothing but watching the water. It was an interesting exercise that I wish I had done yesterday. I would have been in a much better mindset to do so.

Photo by Matt Heaton on Unsplash.

Memorable quote:

“Just because something isn’t real, per se, doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

He’s speaking to other writers. I’ve known this, I’ve accepted this, I’ve let it glide over me, but man, it was harder to get past it today. I throw out something I wrote quickly and to me, it’s rough and unedited and just the start. But that doesn’t mean it or the potential it has isn’t good.

Tim is speaking to writers who won’t let them even throw the words on the page, who expect perfection on the first draft, who are so cooped up in their own fears and expectations, they don’t even give themselves a chance. Writer Friend is like this. I’ve known that for a while. The further I get into this boot camp, the more I know Writer Friend will benefit from it.

And it’s not a bad thing! These exercises are good for me even if I’ve already leapt over that particular mental block. Thing is, while he’s trying to break through that block for other people, I’m stuck with a ridiculous amount of ideas swirling in my notebook and the knowledge that I don’t have the time or energy to flesh them out into stories.

Considering this is my only complaint, I’m not bothered at all. It’s not even a real complaint, more a mild irritation that my brain doesn’t want to deal with. I just know I’ll have three dozen more ideas by the time this eight weeks is over.

Photo by Tom Rumble on Unsplash.

Memorable quote:

“It can be fun and useful to appropriate some of the paradigms surrounding the beliefs and put them to work in your writing.”

Tim confirmed all of my suspicions from yesterday’s podcast. He wasn’t actively advocating for the summoning of spirits, he was helping people create a character. I don’t necessary agree with the way he did it yesterday (because he referenced an author who truly believed she contacted the dead and wrote her novel through use of a ouija board translation), but I can see where he was coming from.

Probably not a good thing to put on here, but I’m going to write it anyway: I have to remember that Tim is operating in the real world, not the tumblr world, and his intentions aren’t malicious. I can see the purpose behind what he did now, whether I agree with it or not. I’m grateful my instincts were right and I was able to modify the exercise correctly and accomplished what he intended.

From what I can tell today, this week isn’t necessarily about ghosts, it’s about character development. Should be an interesting week.

Photo by Janko Ferlič on Unsplash.

Memorable quote:

“These aren’t our words, we just wrote them down.”

I have utterly mixed feelings on today’s podcast. He (from what I took of it) focused on the fact that we as authors often feel that the characters control the story and we are simply the translators of what happens. While I get this – Lord knows how many times I’ve bitched about Rosina because she refuses to freaking cooperate – I am automatically put off because of how he brought it about.

This week is aimed at channeling the dead and letting their voices take over. I am not a spiritual person, I’m a religious one. I was so thrown off by what he was asking us to do that I still don’t know if I understand the point of this exercise and I’m left scrambling to find a way to relate it to something I can use.

I don’t know. My characters have minds of their own and make their own decisions, but relating that to dead people who have left this earth leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Not believing something or putting faith in a different thing doesn’t give me the right to ‘play around’ in someone else’s belief. Speaking to the dead? Yeah, that’s both dangerous in my belief and disrespectful to others.

Maybe I’m being far too sensitive to this or overthinking what could be a simple exercise, but I’ve been taught from a very young age that you don’t make a joke of what people believe. Not if you want them to offer you the same respect for yours. 

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash.