Tag Archives: creativity

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Monday Afternoon Ramblings

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Here is an update on the farm.  Over the weekend, I finished the new section of wall along the far end.  It’s not perfect, but it should be a decent improvement to the old wall that had gotten damaged by water, weeds, and pests.  Overall, the building is coming along nicely.  The flooding issue is nearly completely under control, and the outer wall should go up fairly quickly.  Even though I’m far behind the original schedule I had set, I feel pretty good about the progress that’s been made so far.  Right now, I hope to have the building usable in the next five weeks.

Once the building is in a usable condition, I’ll focus on getting the prototype operational.  The biggest obstacle to that will be buying all of the equipment, but one way or the other, I’ll make it happen.  It’s important to me to get the first unit off the ground and find out if it works efficiently.  If so, things may begin to happen quickly.  If not, then I’ll figure out what direction to go.  The most important part is to have the prototype working so that I can know whether or not I’m on the right path.

General Posts

Thursday Afternoon Ramblings

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I’m at and have been facing a crossroads in my life.  I feel it every waking moment of each day.  On the one side, I am a capable teacher with 13 years experience and a solid foundation for how to run my courses, so the job is not difficult in the sense of day-to-day class preparation.  But with that experience comes a feeling of burnout, of having been overworked and exhausted by the system well before my prime.  While I’m good at the job, it no longer fulfills me in any substantial way.

Then, there is the writer in me who feels stifled by the day-in, day-out grind of the system.  My creative side yearns to run free and create novels full-time, but the reality of our current economic conditions makes that aspiration feel like a distant dream unlikely ever to come to fruition.  Breaking through in this age, just being noticed, requires constant promotion and exposure.  Even then, the monetary reward is rarely worth the effort.  It’s a sickening, maddening feeling to have a modicum of talent for something but to feel as if there is no way to make a living off of that skill.

And then still, there is my third path, the one I feel calling with the most urgency and highest sense of importance.  I want to farm.  I want to build a self-sufficient, operational farm that at the very least can provide my family with sustenance if the whole system implodes, which every day feels more and more likely.  Right now, this is what I want to do more than anything.  This is where my heart is pushing me, and when I have the time to work at the property, even toiling at hard physical labor, I find a peace and tranquility hard to describe.  I simply feel as if I am where I belong.

I do know that no matter what, I will finish The Brotherhood of Dwarves series.  I owe it to my readers, my friends, and myself to complete books four and five.  Beyond that, who knows?  I may choose to continue writing, or I may not.  At this stage of my life, I truly cannot say.  There is another story I want to tell, but I’m not sure if it will ever be more than an idea.  Only time will tell about that.  What I do know for a fact is that I must choose a path and follow it because standing at this crossroads and pondering my proper course cannot last much longer.  I have to move forward soon.

General Posts

Wednesday Morning Ramblings

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Here are some thoughts on writing fiction.  These aren’t directed at any individual; they’re just my personal musings about the craft and profession.

First, I believe good writing is a craft that must be learned and cultivated over a lifetime.  Sure, there are distinctive personality traits that draw a person to the profession, but more important is the time and energy that person puts into honing their voice, playing with syntax, polishing dialogue, developing descriptions, bringing characters to life, and building tension.  These are the framework of a good story, and without them, a writer is much like a carpenter who can’t hammer straight or read a tape measure.

Also, there seem to be two major categories of writers: the artist and the mercenary.  I don’t mean the latter as a pejorative, simply an observation of fact.  Last weekend, I heard from several of my peers that they write whatever sells.  Please, don’t misunderstand.  I’m all for making money and don’t begrudge them pursuing it, but as an artist, I’m more interested in developing the story that’s authentic to me.  If the money never follows, so be it.  I write because I have to, not because of the potential for making money, and since I have to write, I choose to create what matters to me, not what happens to be hot at the moment.  If the day arrives when I write about sparkly, wimpy vampires other than as a satire, that’s the day I’ve crossed over from artist to mercenary.  Of course, by that point, the new hot thing will be transgender zombies with a penchant for needlepoint, or something equally absurd.

Finally for this entry, I think the artistic writer needs to be subversive to a degree.  The current trend in society is a degradation of manners, etiquette, and general decency.  As an artist, I reject that trend, and my act of subversion is to carry myself as a professional, treating others with respect and dignity, unless they happen to piss me off.  Then, it’s both barrels.  But in general, I make a conscious decision to be polite and not give in to the decline of civilized behavior.  I refuse to play the “I’m cool” game that pervades the music industry and Hollywood because that’s not my nature and not my character.  I also refuse to follow the crowd.  I’m an independent, free-thinking person who conducts himself, most of the time, as respectful and courteous, and I tip my hat to my fellow writers, both mercenary and artist, who do likewise.

Those are my thoughts for now.  I hope to write more about the craft of writing soon.

http://www.brotherhoodofdwarves.com/