Storytelling...Superpower?

So today's "assignment" was to take this quiz and find out what your storytelling superpower is. Appropriately enough my superpower is The Protector (i.e. superheroes). I am unsure of this but looking back at previous posts I can see that I like to talk about the little guy/girl a lot. I prefer to look at the world and see the problems so they can be fixed, or at least talked about. I am not the protector though. I think the only thing I ever regularly protect is my child from running into traffic.

So I am not a superhero but I do find myself drawn to the attributes of heroes. I love a good Superman or Flash comic. I will go to first showings of DC & Marvel movies. I want to see heroes saving the day. So I guess why wouldn't I be drawn to writing that type of character?

I don't have any big revelations for you today so go and enjoy your weekend.

Honor My Reality

This will be short. Mostly because I have not found a way to honor my reality yet. Until recently I was working a job that required me to work odd hours so the little time I did have I spent with family and friends. Now that I am unemployed I spend a lot of my time on the computer looking for jobs. Perhaps finding a stable job with a steady schedule I can create a reality that involves me writing more.

Now don't get me wrong I find myself jotting down ideas all the time. I am on my phone reading an article and I must go to notepad and write something down. I recently downloaded an app that allows me to brainstorm ideas in a sort of mind map with bubbles and different colors. I was using it to plan something, but I found myself more worried about the color of the bubbles and making the map look symmetrical. A fun activity but it does not honor my reality so much as create a new one.

Planning time to sit down and write without confidence is hard to do. Clearly, I am doing it right now so maybe it isn't so hard. Although this is based off a prompt and allows me to be sort of free-form with my thoughts. To sit down and write a short story or a novel requires some leg work. Any good writer will tell you that it takes time and patience to create a good story. Look at all the authors we are waiting to finish pieces of work (George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss to name a few). While some authors find it easy to sit down and pound out a few pages these two struggle to get those pages out and I think they are the real heroes. While I am with everyone else in wanting the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire as well as Day 3 I am certain that Rothfuss and Martin are closer to the reality of being a paid author then say Patterson or even my favorite author Stephen King.

So, my reality is I am waiting for the spark. Maybe that is the wrong attitude and I should be attempting something every day, but I think that is the point of this book club I joined. A spark to get me writing. Am I doing more than complaining to the void about why I never write? no but who cares. The only people reading these are my family and friends and they all tell me I am the best. Not really but if this makes me write more and then I find the story I have been looking for in the process, yay!

To all the struggling writers and procrastinating authors out there I salute you. May your bookshelves need organizing and your cursor never move.

How Did I Become A Writer?

I have answered the question before as to why I became a writer but not how I became a writer. Although I do not consider myself a writer I did join a program that sends you a prompt once a week that is supposed to spark my creative brain and give me something to write about. This week’s prompt was, "How did you become a writer?"

I don't know how to answer that question. I know that I have always been a reader and I have always admired writers. So, I think it was just a natural progression for me to move from reader to writer. When I was a kid I would read a book a week. I remember in sophomore year of high school we got a yearlong assignment to read 2000 pages by the end of the year. I was done with my 2000 pages by the end of the first month because I was such a ferocious reader.

As I have gotten older and gained more responsibility in my life I have found myself with less time to read but I still find time to look at new books and wish I could read more. In 2013 when I was deciding on where to go to finish my bachelor's degree I found myself in a sort of quandary. I wanted to be a political science major, but I have one problem, I can't right technical papers worth anything. I have a specific writing style that does not translate well to scientific/academic papers. Yet, I wanted to write. So, I found myself looking at creative writing programs. I found one, I was accepted, and in the end, I graduated with the highest GPA of my life. I wasn't honored or anything but a 3.78 GPA for me is like asking a penguin to fly.

Did that make me a writer? No. Am I a writer because of this blog? technically, yes, but truthfully, I am finding it hard to see myself as a writer. at the end of the day I want to write, and I have an urge to write but I get bogged down by the other things in my life. The day-to-day stops me from accomplishing some of the simplest writing tasks.

So, how did I become a writer? To answer the question, I haven't yet. I am still working on it. While writing sounds as simple as putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard it must come from somewhere. I have looked at writing advice from every spectrum. Write what you know. Don't write what you know. Show don't tell. All the advice just swims in my brain as I type and eventually causes me to seize up in panic. I abandon whatever idea I have been working on and forget about writing for a while. I become an ornithologist for a few days. Then I am off to the races to try my luck at gambling. Soon I am back in front of the computer trading stocks. The I find myself with no stocks to trade, horses to bet on, or birds to watch, and back in front of the computer with a blank word document open and the cursor blinking.

No, I am not a writer I am an attempted writer. I would never be charged with writing just accessory to writing. I am the fall guy for writing. Perhaps I need more confidence or perhaps I should just quit but sometimes it is fun to see where my fingers take me. Writing is something we all do, and I guess it means we are all writers in the end, but I think the question is not about why I write birthday cards, which I do not, but why I write what I write. Which at this point is nothing? So, if you want you can stick with me through this new "book" club I have joined and perhaps some of the other prompts will lead to an actual book.