Monday, 23 September 2013

Hidden gem - AKA surprises to the unorganized

I am not an organized writer.  I'm not necessarily an organized person overall - except when it comes to work - then I'm ridiculously organized.  Go figure.

I am sitting here at my favourite coffee shop intending fully to delve back into the world of my next book 'The Seven Day Bad Date'. I haven't looked at it in months.  As I was scrolling through 'Pages', past work documents (all filed neatly according to show), I found a poem.  It was titled.  There was a date listed below the title, but I was too curious of the contents to make note of it.  I mean, I delve into writing poetry occasionally, but it's not something I concentrate on.  Much like my other writing endeavours, it's either there, or it isn't.  I get things out onto paper and they dissipate in my brain.  Writing is my therapy...


She was turning to stone
Evidenced on her skin
the cool, rough gray hue
long since forgotten the warmth
of a lover's touch

She was turning to stone
Tears dried and absorbed and forgotten
the resigned peace replaced with a resounding
Crack -
Fissure for breath

for now

She was turning to stone
the fluid dance of life slowing
into barely a turn
of wrist and ankle

She was turning to stone
protective cocooning of body
and mind
and heart
and


So when reading this ditty, I had to wonder... did *I* actually write this?  I have no recollection of it, although the feelings are familiar but not one's I dwell on.

I called upon my two trusted creatives-at-arms... we frequently share amongst ourselves...  projects we're working on, ideas, inspirations...  I love these two women - did one of them write it??

Nope.

It was me.

Who knew??

So a couple of points to be made here...

1)  When the feeling strikes, write it down.  Get it out of your head and down onto paper.  It might not be the best writing out there, but, as is shown clearly above, it can get rid of a demon in your head.  Obviously writing that made me feel better - or at least... lighter...

2)  Organize your stuff!  You may find little gems months after you've originally written them!  You may find an incomplete story that sparks your creativity again!  But why go through all of that?  All it takes is a folder labelled.  All it takes is a printer and a folder.  That's all...




Thursday, 19 September 2013

Me Time

I'm exhausted.  And fulfilled.

I'm typing this on my balcony.  It's 8am.  I've been out here, coffee in hand, since 6 and I have been writing.  This doesn't happen every day when I'm in the middle of a show - most days sleep wins over everything, but today I'm really glad I got my tired ass out of bed and showered and dressed early.

My favourite time of the day is early early morning.  There's a hum that occurs over the city in the early hours that I find incredibly soothing, and whether it's that city white noise or my half-sleep state, I find my brain can go to a creative place.

I wasn't writing anything in particular - I had an indulgent, 'write whatever comes' experience, and it was lovely.  And yes, it was indulgent... and decadent, satisfying, and oh so needed!

As the city came alive, transit busses started motoring by, and construction crews started working across the road, and the sun started peeking up over the Second Narrows Bridge, my inner creative got sparked out of sleep, stretched, got to moving.  It was lovely.

My call time today isn't until 10, so I still have another hour before I have to leave for work, and I plan on making the most of it.  I can truly start the day now, having stretched my own imagination, and take on the challenges that will inevitably present themselves knowing that what really matters has been lovingly tended to and the rest is just gravy.

What's your favourite time to write?

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

My writing life

Have you ever had one of those days where all you want to do is write but the universe is conspiring against you?  I seem to have those days more often than not - especially when I'm working.

When I'm on a project, I work 10-15 hours a day intensively.  When I get home, the last thing I want to do is look at more words on a page or create more.  I want to sleep.

Today I woke up with story ideas roaring through my brain.  I had snippets of dialogue yelling at me as I was showering, the image of a living room came to me as I was heading down the elevator to my car.  I drove to work with lines of dialogue on the tip of my tongue - and stepped into the world of someone else's imagination - a set from someone else's imagination and am looking at script pages with someone else's words on it.

I'm feeling awfully discombobulated.

I can only hope that the words stay with me - the emotion of this new story is easily retrievable when I sit down to write again on the weekend...  5 whole days away...  :: sigh ::