Add an "H"

Just a little update to those following along....

It seems I need to add an H to my A.D.D....The Docs have officially diagnosed me as A.D.H.D.
They now have me on Aderol. They say that this will help me focus and hopefully help with my writing....jesh....that would be grand! :D

It's going to take a while to see how it effects me and If I am on the right medicine at the right dose...basically I'm a lab rat, a cute lab rat if i say so myself :P,  until we figure it out.

A picture's worth a thousand words

*my friend Erin

A picture is worth a thousand words.



This picture obviously says fun to anyone looking. Girl singing into spoon in vehicle. What's not fun about that?

Anyone one who was there and experienced this moment would see even more here. I can almost hear our laughs as we goof off taking stupid pictures of doing silly things. Yes, we sing into Wendy's spoons loudly while driving down the road to a friends house. Pictures jog the memory so I will always have this moment to make me smile and think of my friend.

For a writer the rule is more like a paragraph is worth a really good picture. Instead of using a picture to tell a story writers use words to paint a picture...then a scene...then a story. If we can manage to do so successfully the reader will be pulled into and absorbed into the story. The characters and scenes will be real enough so the reader feels they could look up and be there with those characters.

I sometimes get a little wordy in my descriptions. It's about a balance. Creating your character with words that are gestures and personality so then in turn tell the story for you. Instead of "He made her feel tense as he walked over." we might substitute " She felt her muscles tense as she watched him strut toward her."

"I had a hard time getting onto the floor to dance because it was late and so crowded."

                                                      vs.

"I squeezed, shoved, and struggled my way to the dance floor to gyrate with all the other die hard party goers."



It's Gonna be a Long Day: True Story

     I thought it was Max. My mind woke sluggishly to the moaning cries. Before I was completely awake I was groping for the bottle and formula, ready for the feeding that comes between 2 am and 5 am every morning. As I rolled myself out of bed to make the bottle and grab wipes and a diaper, I noticed something was off.

Max, in his bassinet next to the bed, was sleeping peacefully with the side of his face all squished onto the little mattress. The pitiful whining was muted. I stumbled my way to the door and opened it. From my door I could see my other kids' room down the hall. Vincent lay curled into the corner of the walls- where his bed snugs up against the wall, oblivious to the apparent agony of his younger brother.

As I entered the room my thoughts were turned towards bad dreams. Thinking to hug and sooth, I leaned down and immediately came back up for cooler air. I couldn't be near the heat radiating from his little body. The fact that he had a fever didn't surprise me because it  had reached 101.3 when I had taken it at 8 pm the night before, but the fact that it felt as though he could fry an egg at 50 paces had me worried.

It took longer than it should to take his temperature. I couldn't calm his and he sat in my arms, moaning and crying and miserable. When the under arm reading was only 99 degrees I knew it was wrong; so, I tried the  under the tongue method and received an only slightly higher 100.7. I am no expert, but I knew when you are too busy moaning to keep your mouth closed while a thermometer is stuck under your tongue.

Sadly, that lead to a rectal temperature being taken.

103.9!!!!!!  Poor guy!

Emergency Room here we come. Again.
Only two hours, but it seemed like we were there forever. Perhaps it was going in when night surrounded us and emerging when the sun shined with that special early morning brightness. The doctors in the ER at 4:30 am are a bit nicer and more personable than when the ER is busy.


So here we are at 8 am, Dimitri simmered down on Tylenol and Motrin and me jittery on lack of sleep (due to staying up until 1 am with crazy organizing) and my Aderol prescription.  It's breakfast time and my kids show no signs of sleepiness. Oh, Joy. it's gonna be a long day!

Time flies...and zooms and creeps

"Time flies when you're having fun."

Today I took time to ponder time. I believe time is a wicked, stubborn thing, always opposing our moods and wishes. When we are enjoying ourselves- be it the quiet time parents seize, the date night an eager teen awaited, or even the blissful sleep of the dreary- time simply speeds by. Before we know it routine, mundane, unpleasant, or simply regular everyday life gets in the way.

Which, of course, brings about the point of time dragging it's hands. When it's monotonous homework, all too often occurring house work or awaiting the answer to a question- Am I pregnant? Will she say yes? Did I get that job?Will my loved one make it out of the hospital okay?- the clock's hands sluggishly creep by. And once these often stressful moments of way-to-long agony pass we find ourselves completing the circle as out mood lifts and the clock once again sprouts wings.

The same holds true when putting pen to paper or, more commonly, fingers to keys. ;)

When a writer is immersed in the story, frantically transferring words to paper in order to take the story where the characters demand it goes time slips behind all else and when the real world comes careening back and the elapsed times comes to focus, often astounding the writer.

Too often I will begin working on a story after breakfast and seemingly the next thing I am aware of is a setting sun and the kids asking what I am making for dinner.

On the other hand, to balance the scales, sits the dreaded writer's block. A complete loss. A loss of wording, ideas, direction. Though it's dealt with many different ways- jittery nothings, such as Internet surfing, to bring about strokes of inspiration or deep meditation for instance- writer's block is highly effective in dragging the hands around a clock. Like trying to watch a plant grow. Changes are happening, but the process of watching these changes every second would surely lead to madness.

When I find myself at such a loss I turn to the Internet or my kids, who provide plenty of stimulation and opportunity for inspiration.

And so, it seems that sayings such as "time flies" and "a watched pot never boils" hold truth. Truth enough to be documented throughout history. Truth enough to annoy me at times! ;)

Do you ever experience time jetting past without your notice? What do you do to fight off writer's block?

Comments, funny stories, suggestions all welcome  ;)

Suspending Reality

      The ability to suspend reality is many fiction writer's Holy Grail- most definitely for fantasy writers.

This technique places people so deep in a story that they aren't worried about the fact that men can't really turn into giant snakes.

With the right information, even if it's completely bogus information, plot, characters and wording anything is possible. Any story idea is plausible.

Think about it.Witches, flying brooms, personality altering rings, vampires, vampires that sparkle, wardrobes to alternate worlds, talking animals.....
How real is any of this? Do you think someone told J.K. Rowling that a story about kids going to school for magic, driving flying cars, waving wands and flying on brooms was silly? Unbelievable?

The subject matter makes no difference. It's the presentation and delivery of the subject that matters. You can make up entire worlds if you choose your rules and stick to them while making you world.

Getting Started

??? How does a writer get started ???
They decide.

Many decisions have to be made when writing. Saying a writer must decide on plot and characters is placing many decisions, almost always overlapping, into only two words.

Some writers begin with a plot idea and shape their characters to work in that plot.

Other writers flip it. Creating the main character(s) first and twisting a plot around their personality.

Some times, writers will start with a scene. From there they deepen their characters and wind a plot from, around, or to that scene,

Plot ideas can come from anywhere, anything. Influence is all around us. We just have to look. For example, My drive to write romance comes from Cinderella.
Maybe you saw a movie and thought you would like it better this way. Or you read a book and thought "Good Lord, I'd kill to read something not about vampires...or at least with something new in it." There ya' go. A starting point. You have to write something you would want to read.

"Man, I can't find any books about pixies trying to take over the world!" Well, I guess you'd better start writing about it then.

And now, someone out there is thinking, "Pixies taking over the world? That's ridiculous. Who'd read that?"

That is where the trick of suspended reality comes into play.

It's good to write what you know. That is a whole other realm to find plots and characters in. If you really want to write about something that you don't know too much about research it. Research is a writer's friend.

I find it most amazing when writers write about characters that are not like them. Though reading about a character that the writer poured their heart and soul in, literally taking pieces and parts of their personality and experiences and placing them in that character, is great and often makes for a wonderful read, I love it when I can read about, get to know, and care about a character that seems almost real enough to touch, knowing it is 100% fictional from that writer.

You can research jobs, places, events, but to create a character with a personality, a past so very different from your own and make the reader believe in that character and get to know that character is a wonderful achievement because you are placing yourself in situations, in the mind and emotions of a personality not natural to you. The same holds true for actors slipping into a role and becoming that role.

I can write about anything. You can write about anything. Just pick a starting point and write. Don't worry about your grammar, spelling, tense, POV, rhythm. Just write. Immerse yourself in your characters, plot, setting and let it flow from your mind. You will have to go back for editing and rewrites. Fix your mistakes then. Just get your story out.

I don't have A.D.D. I just.... OMG!!! A Bunny!

I had a doctor's visit today, the earliest they had (oh, yay ). Amongst other things was the predicament of my attention span. As the lovely doctor lady and I spoke of options a question popped into my head (that I would later wonder why it took me so long to think of)...

                           How do you diagnose someone with A.D.D.?

True to doctor form, I got a lot of words a no real answer. My thoughts: They don't know because these particular docs don't diagnose it at all. My doctor referred me to Affiliated Psychological Services who do know how to diagnose things such as A.D.D.

That being said, my doc decided to put me on aderol- 30mg being the highest dose they give, she gave me 20mg...apparently I am really spacey =) she said, " We will start you on this dose, if it helps we'll get you an extended prescription. If, however, you start to feel....crazy" (at this point she mimed shaking...sorta like Jeff Dunham's version of a little dog that needs to poop ....if you haven't seen that- and you should, it's hilarious!(near the end of the above clip link) it looked like a kid so hyped up on sugar they couldn't be still and they were, well, shaking!!!...where was I????

Oh-Yeah! (*slaps self in forehead)

She was saying," ...Crazy, come back and we will lower you dose."

Now, for those who don't know, A.D.D. meds are stimulants. Which seems stupid since the problem is I have so much going on in my brain I can't focus. I am told that these stimulants help focus the energy into one point....hmmmm.
So, I will either have an easier time focusing- hence more writing - or....I will be bouncing off walls, unable to finish a sentence and completely hopeless!!!! Tehehe!
Meds start tomorrow. We'll see how it goes! It may make for some interesting posts! Bahahaha!