Save the Drama. . .

And, of course, now that the fiction unit of Creative Writing is complete, we are moving onto drama, or composing short plays.  This unit has always intimidated me because I feel I am the most dreadful at dialogue.  However, I feel a lot more creativity flowing within me and I think I can accomplish some assignments that I'm happy with this time around.

The first assignment gave me what I thought was a great idea for a one-act play.  Unfortunately, when I started writing it, it seemed to remain stuck in a one-note merry-go-round that I can't get to let go.  It takes place in an elevator that is stuck, ironically enough.  Perhaps I need to just continue and make that part of the point.  I was trying to propose the idea of being unable to escape the inevitable conflict, but maybe it should be about being unable to escape the inevitable irreparable conflict. 

It could be interesting.

I think my biggest mistake lately though, is possibly pulling too much from life.  It becomes difficult when you take an actual conversation and put it onto physical paper that will eventually meet someone's eyes other than your own.  Of course, no one would realize it was a real conversation if I didn't make them aware of it, but the naked vulnerability I feel already in writing it may suggest that a new idea would probably be a better fit for the assignment.

This, though, illustrates how much my life affects my writing.  When stressful life events are accruing in the background, it seems to create all sorts of difficulties including writer's block or the repeating turntable playing everything over and over in your mind until it is all you can think about. 

In some ways this works because I know the emotions are easy to reach and so much can be accomplished.  But in some ways this takes away from the control of being able to write outside of those lines. 

Knowing this helps me to step back and then approach any project when I've made a clear decision as to where I'm headed, but it's something I believe every writer deals with. 

Indeed, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" after she had a mental breakdown shortly after giving birth to her son.  This breakdown resulted in her leaving her husband and child and moving to Los Angeles, CA where shortly after she penned the story.  Though the story is an allegory representing feminism and freeing women from the stereotyped inferiority of the time, I can tell much of her personal story is evident within those pages.  This is probably why the images are so powerful and terrifying. 

In effect, I think using my reality to direct my writing is not necessarily a bad thing.  However, I need to work on directing when and where to apply such usefulness.


If you dream it, you can do it. ~Walt Disney

The Hunger Games

Why yes, I am a fan of the books.  And yes, I am seeing the movie tomorrow.  We bought our tickets about three weeks ago.  So tomorrow at 1:00pm EST, I am going to see the movie adaptation of the first book of the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. 

Making a movie from an author's book is always a flattering gesture.  However, so many are not well funded or cast.  Even more never make it past preproduction, and so many that are made are twisted into unrecognizable atrocities.  I enjoy so many books and I know that it's always exciting to see a story you love become a film, and it's so much more exciting when it turns out to be wonderful.

I'm definitely looking forward to the movie, though I do have my hesitations about the omissions that are bound to exist and the extra "Hollywood" moments that will more than likely rear a head or two, but I'm hopeful that they did this movie justice to its book counterpart.

I wanted to share my excitement, as well as share how much I respect the written word of authors who work so hard to weave their stories into unforgettable works that we get a chance to cherish and enjoy.  It's so much fun to be a part of such stories and books, and I'm sure it's especially nice for an author to see so many enjoying their work. 

I recall the day I read a particular short story of mine in a creative writing class while I attended California State University- Northridge (CSUN).  The joy of sharing my work was enlightening and even fun.  I couldn't stop smiling because I felt I was finally sharing something great to the world.  So many didn't want to give their copies of my story back and that in and of itself was flattering.  No, I'm not the greatest writer in the world, but there's no shame in enjoying how much people enjoy your work. 

I read a story in one of those Chicken Soup books (I believe it was for writers) where an author talked about the joy a small boy felt when he owned his first book.  He carried it with him everywhere and read it over and over.  She said that she wrote because of that small boy and she wanted to write something that would mean that much to someone else someday. 

How wonderful is it to share our gifts, our talents with the world?  How wonderful is it to see characters brought to life from books?  Characters that you love and cherish and enjoy.  It's a wonderful thing to me, and I'm so excited that I get to share in that tomorrow.  Then, when I get home afterward, I will write, read, and (hopefully) enjoy the fact that I was able to see some wonderful characters brought to life.

 One doesn't  write stories about people who are comfortable in their skins. ~Tobias Wolff

Imagination's Inspiration

We had a wonderful discussion today in my Creative Writing class about innovative fiction, imagination, and how to expand our imagination. To be honest, I believe I could write volumes and volumes on this topic.  Especially because this is everything to a writer.  In fact, this is everything to anyone who works in any creative venue. 

Could an artist paint if they didn't have that inspiration to do so?  Could a musician write music without the imagination to create the notes on the page?  So to with writers, creativity and imagination is everything.  I know I mentioned muses in a previous post, but it is something I always enjoy coming back to.  And how can I not when it is so very important?

One of the topics we discussed was how we currently develop and expand our imagination.  This question has a bit of a text book answer for me because many of us find inspiration in the same ways: reading, music, watching children, and so forth.  However, I was surprised by my own answer because it wasn't until today that I thought of it as a creative inlet before.

When I met my husband, I discovered that he had a "box" that he lived in.  When he went to the movies, he went to the same movie theater every time.  When he shopped for groceries, he went to the same grocery store.  When he was thirsty or needed cigarettes, he went to the same 7-Eleven.  Even when he went out to eat, he would go to the same places and order the same item off the menu, every time.  Everything he did was always the same.  Even more, he took the same routes to get there, rarely deviating, if ever.

Then, he met me.

The moment I feel that I have driven the route enough, I want to change it up.  I want to know what the side streets are, I want to see the back roads, and I like to wander constantly.  There was a time that one of my friends and I would purposely go out and get ourselves lost just to see if we could find our way back.  We did it many times, and every time it was like playing pretend.  We would imagine what it was like to live wherever and sometimes we had a lot of fun doing so.  I knew every road in my old neighborhood, though not by name. 

I didn't just do this in driving.  I did this when I went on walks, on my bike (my mother still doesn't know I used to bike outside the neighborhood and well away from home at 10 years old), I did this when my brothers and sisters would play down in the creek behind our home, I did this anytime I felt the adventure of life was losing its luster.  Honestly, I can't really explain why, but it worked for me.  It still works for me.  I did it today, in fact.  I took a route home from class that took an hour to navigate.  Though, I recommend having eaten so you're not too light-headed in the midst of your exploration.

Living in your "box" is fine, really.  I don't see too much of a problem with it so long as you shake yourself up every now and again and go exploring for some new haunts to add to your box.  My husband and I now call it "expanding our box."  We like to think of it as creating a roomier, more complex box.

Now I know that exploration is getting expensive, at least by car.  But the idea is there.  Exploring, whether it be in music, in books, or physically traveling, is one of my favorite ways to find inspiration.  When you notice the world around you, you open that opportunity to notice something that drives that creative force in you.  How many people are inspired by art, by music?  How many are inspired by nature?  How many are inspired by it all?

When you open your mind, dead ends cease to exist and I find that a fun idea to toy with.  That is why I explore.  Sure, it may be my own backyard, but it makes it all the more meaningful to you when its your own.  And it makes it all the more powerful on the page.

What unique (or even normal thing) do you do to get inspired?  What causes the "what ifs" to stir within you?


I invent nothing.  I rediscover. ~Auguste Rodin

From the Library of B.C. Lewis

There were so many books that stand out for me in childhood, and so many authors who stood out for their never-fail nature.  Whenever I desired a great book of a certain style or genre, they were there, standing true and rarely ever letting me down.

The first chapter book I read was from the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel.  I enjoyed the first one I read so much, I read the entire series of Frog and Toad books he had published.  My sister and I often fought over who got to read which one first, so I'm sure I didn't read them in order.  When I went back and read them a few years ago, I was still happily enjoying each one and I cannot wait to share those books with my daughter.

In this vein, I decided to let you all into my somewhat organized library of my favorites, my loves, my likes, my dislikes, my guilty pleasures, my current reads, and my desire to read lists.  This includes authors, books, and book series.  I will try to make sure I don't overwhelm you with too much information, but I love my books and I'll admit that this list was extremely hard to narrow down and choose.

My Favorite Authors:
Lois Lowry
Ray Bradbury
Roald Dahl
J.K. Rowling
Italo Calvino
Joseph Campbell

My Favorite Books/ Book Series:
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Gossamer by Lois Lowry
Skellig by David Almond
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Beowulf
The Odyssey by Homer
Antigone by Sophocles
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn
the perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

My Guilty Pleasures:

Caroline B. Cooney Novels

The Goosebumps Series by R.L. Stine

Fear Street Novels by R.L. Stine

Betty Ren Wright Novels

The Berenstein Bears by Stan & Jan Berenstein

Curious George by (Margaret &) H.A. Rey

Threshold by Ben Mezrich

Newberry Award Winners

Any Series by Beverly Cleary

My Dislikes:

Emma by Bronte

Great Expectations by Dickens

The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

Charlaine Harris

Inheritance Cycle by Paolini

Books I've Read So Far This Year:

Life of Pi by Martel

Plague by Michael Grant

Lies by Michael Grant

Ranger’s Apprentice: The Lost Stories

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston

My Favorite Genres:

YA Fiction

YA sci-fi/fantasy Fiction

Greek Mythology and Folklore

Short Stories

My Current Books/ Series:

*Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (reading book 1 now)

*To The Lighthouse by Virginia Wolf (just about to start for Lit class)

Gone Series by Michael Grant (finished with all published materials)

The Enemy Series by Charlie Higson (finished with all published materials)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth Series by Carrie Ryan (finished with all published materials)

Ranger’s Apprentice Series by John Flanagan (finished with all published materials)

Tomorrow When the War Began Series (1 book left)

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (1 book left)

Stoneheart Trilogy (2 books left)

I Want to Read:

Searching for Alaska by John Greene

Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

The Candy Shop War by Mull

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

World War Z by Max Brooks

So there you have it.  There are all my lists!  Please feel free to comment or ask questions about anything on my lists.  Yes, I'm admitting things that I normally don't.  I wouldn't normally admit to my family (and my sister, especially) that I do not like The Twilight Series all that much.  There are elements that I enjoy, and the fourth book was the best of the four.  However, I wasn't a fan of the climax of the entire series, nor was I a fan of her writing style.  This is why she is on that list.  And please, don't get me started on The Inheritance Cycle.  The first book was wonderful.  I stopped reading after the second book.  I just couldn't stand his blatant fan boy plot points and storylines.  It's Star Wars with dragons, and I drew the line at that discovery.

And while I know many people enjoy Charlaine Harris, particularly because they enjoy the HBO Series True Blood that is based on her book series.  I read three books and stopped when I pretty much discovered that it was Vampire Erotica.  Soft-core as it may be, I just couldn't get past that.  For me, there is so much more to literature, and I found that her use of that just got in the way of the real story of the series for me.  So I stopped reading them.

There are so many more books and authors that I could have put on all of these lists, but I wanted to make them somewhat manageable and I wanted to share where my brain finds joy in which words in which books.  

So, the great question is:  What is your favorite book and/or author?  Or even, what is your least favorite?  It's always great to share and discuss (and yes, even disagree if that's what comes of it).

When I was young...

Me, high school age

...I wrote instead of listened when I was in class.  This was a common occurrence, particularly in high school.  Perhaps that is why I didn't get the grades I could have achieved in some of my classes.  I was frequent to daydreams and I encouraged it. 

...I read as many books on the Summer Reading list as I could.  I'm not sure if other countries have these, but in the United States, public schools release lists of recommended reading for each grade level during the summer months.  I'm not aware of ever finishing lists, but I was always insistent that I read as many as I could get my hands on.  I felt left out if I knew anyone who had read these and I had yet to.

Me in kindergarten

...I owned very few books.  In fact, I don't any books that I owned personally.  My family was rather large and for that reason, had little money to spend on frivolous things.  Books were considered as such, especially when we had such a wonderful library system in our community.  This is where I read as many books as I could.  My mother always got so upset with the amount of books my sister and I would try to check out and eventually gave us the limitation as only what we could carry (I recall one instance where my sister and I had filled an entire children's section table with stacks of books as tall as us).  It is still amazing how much strength we seemed to have when it came to the books we picked.  My sister and I would be laden with so many.  And yes, we did read most if not all of them in the two weeks time we had.  In fact, most of those books were read in the first two days we had them.

...the first book I remember buying was a Scholastic book, bought out of the newsprint ads they handed out in elementary school each quarter.  I was always so jealous of all the children whose parents had ordered mounds and mounds of books for them.  I was especially envious of the kids who hated books but their parents had ordered something for them anyhow.  When I begged my mother and she finally relented that one time, I picked out one of the cheapest books I could find: Flight 116 is Down by Caroline B. Cooney.  I still have that book, and I still read it from time to time.

Sleeping Me

...I used to pretend I could read before I actually could.  I would run my finger along the words at the speed I thought it would take to read them and I would make up stories to go along with the pictures.  There were a few times, when I actually learned their stories, that I preferred my stories to the actual ones. 

...I learned to love books because of my sister, Heidi.  I have a very early memory of my mother going out and telling Heidi to watch me.  She was reading, and I was playing on the floor.  She was so engrossed in the book that I wanted to know what was in this thing that made her have such an expression on her face.  She explained to me what a book was and what was inside it, and from there, I wanted to read.  I'm not sure how old I was, but I do know that I was too young to know how to read.  And I learned fairly early.  I was reading on my own at four years old.   

When I was younger than I am now, my boyfriend (now my husband) bought me all the Harry Potter books (well, all the ones that were published at the time) in hardback editions.  That is still one of the best gifts I have ever received in my lifetime.  It was my first birthday with him in my life, and the most memorable.  He was so excited, he made me open it in the parking lot in the dark right after he bought them for me.  It was still a week before my birthday, but he couldn't hold it in.

Adult Me

Since that day, he has been insistent that I own books and that I work on my library that I hope to one day have.  We are also building up my daughter's inventory of books. 

I honestly don't know where I came to the idea that I love to write and create my own stories.  Perhaps it's because I've been doing it for so long.  I do know where my love of books came from and for me, that is where it all began.  Learning to write and read was one and the same for me.

Where did you find your love for books?  Where did you discover your love and passion for writing?  Was it a particular book or instance?  Share your experience because that is what writing is all about.

Post Disaster-A-Thon

I survived the illness of Write-A-Thon 2012!  I need a T-shirt to that effect at any rate.  Unfortunately, because I was unable to finish, I didn't get a chance to really update you all to let you know what happened during the write-a-thon.  I'll have to collect my images and notes and give you a post to that effect. 

In the meantime, however, I still have not decided when to re-convene my goals.  By the time I got over my fever (Thursday afternoon or thereabouts), it was time to start in on my homework for school.  Most of the remainder of my week was dedicated to studying and spending time with my family before school started back up today.  So the initial outlook on my re-issuance of my write-a-thon will not be until after the end of the semester.  As to that, I'm not sure yet.  I will keep you posted though. 

One of the other things I did this last week was that I compiled a list of things to blog about, so that you don't have to listen to my random ramblings about writing or not-writing.  Here's a taste of things I'm going to try to touch on: my favorite authors and books, my favorite genres to write and read, current reading, writing prompts, inspirations, schooling, guilty pleasures, favorite and least favorite English teachers, grammar, symbols, setting, character, topic, theme, plot, Aristotle, Joseph Campbell, mythology/folklore/legend/lore, and more. 

If you have any requests for topics of discussion on this blog, feel free to comment.  I welcome any and all suggestions.  Though this may benefit me greatly in writing this blog, I would like to be able to benefit others in what they may be searching for or wondering about.  That includes you.