Prep scene, grunge scene, hipster scene, or just scene 1?

         I always imagined being a writer as having my laptop at Starbucks  or even better some hole in the wall coffee shop, cup of joe in hand, and my creative juices flowing. This so called life would be intertwined with my computer and my future friends of the local shop. I pictured my life to take on new meaning. I expected to one day, start a story at 3 in the morning when the inspiration hit and then end about 6 weeks later when I came up breathing for air with a unedited book from start to finish.  Well, things look a lot different than that when I write now. Usually instead of a vintage coffee shop, it is my room or even better, the dining room table. Instead of my nifty laptop that can't process without its charger, it is something pretty old school: my notebook. And interestingly enough, instead of start, it is more like the middle with pieces here and there.
      It started because every time I started my "book" I just couldn't. I had all of these ideas, aspirations, and characters but I didn't know how to start because that wasn't what was in my head. Unfortunately, what I do have is clips and scenes... I would see my character reacting to something and or conversations going on but I couldnt start the "book". Instead of writing these things down, and processing these scenes down on paper....I just stubbornly sat with my first page and crossed out sentences and irritatingly bitched about my lack of inspiration. 
       Yet at one point, one scene kept playing and replaying in my mind. It was like this stubborn nail that kept being rammed into my head. Finally, one night I got up... and played out my 3am scenario. Four hours later, at 7am when everyone else in my house was getting ready for school, I was regurgitating my scene from my notebook to my computer. Felt like college all over again. It was the most I had written ever. There were actually pages that were edited and finished. 
      So basically, what I am saying is work with what you have. You have an idea cultivate from there..Sometimes you have to start in the middle to understand your character, and the best way to do that is to start with how you see them. For example, I kept seeing my main character going through things that internally were making her grow up. Such as men, weddings, funerals, betrayals, etc... each of these scenes happen and cultivate my character. So I started there.
           Don't be afraid to start wherever your fingers or pens are taking you. Trust yourself. You can always go back and fill in between scenes to create flow. And best advice ever... JUST START!!!
           -Peace. L

Inspiration?

I'm sitting here, trying to come up with a great first line, a genius idea, a breathtaking story.  I'm waiting for inspiration.  And although things have been going relatively well for me in the writing department lately, I always seem to end up in this place. 

I make writing deadlines, and I miss them.  I miss them because I'm waiting on inspiration.  Because somewhere along the way, I started buying into the idea that in order to write, I needed to wait upon a great wave of inspiration that will shower me with brilliant and beautiful ideas that I will then be able to turn into wonderful, starry-eyed stories.  Because, as EVERY writer knows, to write without being inspired would be dreadfully phony.  (We must have picked up this idea on the same brilliant path that we picked up the idea that if we wait on it, inspiration will shower us with genius.)

Well inspiration has been a bit slow showing up today.  This week.  This year, really.  And I'm starting to realize that if I only write when I'm feeling inspired--although those times tend to yield great results--then my writing sessions are going to start being few and far between. 

So I've come to a conclusion.

Inspiration is a nasty, moody whore who just wants to do what she wants to do, when she wants to do it. 

Yeah, I said that.  It's the truth.  We put so much pressure on ourselves, our art, that everything we write has to be perfectly inspired--so much so that we would rather not write than to write something uninspired.  We stick up our noses, put away our pens, and go about life, telling ourselves that we will eventually write something incredible, that's it's worth waiting on, that it would be an injustice to ourselves to write something uninspired.

We are wrong.

We do ourselves and our art injustice when we put away our pens and notebooks.  Because it is not when we are uninspired that we are failures, it is when we stop writing.  When we stop writing, we stop believing we were meant to write.  We stop believing that we're good at writing.  We stop believing in ourselves.  Where's the inspiration in that?

Screw inspiration. 

Screw unrealistic expectations about starry eyed stories. 

Here's to writing the truth, inspired or not.

Here's to reality.

Here's to writing.

I choose to write.  I will write, and inspiration can meet up with me or not.  Maybe she will, and we'll become best friends and hang out all the time.  Maybe she will bump into me when I'm halfway through writing something.  Or, maybe not.  But how will I know if I do not start?

I won't.  And that's the uncomfortable and beautiful truth.  One must write to be inspired to write.

There is no better way to make yourself feel inspired than to picking up your freaking pen and writing. 

So get to it.  

xo, 

J

hello, friend.

I'm J.
I had planned on writing a post that listed a bunch of things about myself, but I couldn't think of that many interesting things worth listing.  So instead, I'll just tell you my favorite thing about myself: my writing.
I am in love with writing.  I always have been, even when I didn't know it.  I was the girl who got in trouble for staying up past her bedtime, sneaking a flashlight under the covers to read just one more chapter.  I would sneak into my mom's room and read her books--books that I didn't understand or even particularly enjoy--simply because I was in love with the words.  I was in love with the writing.  I wrote a few poems in elementary school, but it wasn't until middle school that I truly discovered how writing things for myself could made me feel.  When I was sad, I would write about being sad.  When I was confused, I would write about that.  When someone hurt me, I would write a song or a story about them.  It wasn't so much that doing those things made me feel any better, it was simply that they made me feel.  I had created something out of my situation, I had penned it onto paper, and it now existed solely because of me.  In a time as confusing and self-conscious as middle school, that was a wonderful feeling.
Through high school and college, my desire to create only grew.  I continued to read and write more than I did anything else.  I don't have an answer to the question of why I write, other than that I have to.  I know it is what I was created to do, and if I am not doing it, I am suppressing and running away from the dream that was awakened inside of me at such a young age.
So, here is where I am today:
I want am going to write a book.  I started it last Summer, but graduating college and planning a wedding (oh, that's something I could mention about myself--I got married four weeks ago!) made it difficult to keep myself on task.  For the first time in a long time, I have extra time on my hands, and I am using that time to write, write, and write some more.
I have 60 pages in my book so far, and my goal is to have it completed by my birthday in April.  I know it will take a ton of work and focus, but this is something L and I are serious about.  We're going to help each other accomplish our dreams, and post about it along the way.
I cannot wait to write all about my struggles and triumphs with writing here, and then one day, when my book gets picked up and published, be able to look back at this blog and see exactly how I got there.
I hope you come along for the ride.

xoxo,

J

L stands for ?

        I am not going to lie, I am super excited that I beat J at something since I am normally the biggest procrastinator in the world. We promised each other that we would both post tonight so our lovely followers (we have none, but hopefully one day) would be able to get to know us on a 1 on 1 level. Well here you go... one way to really know someone is by the music they listen to and whether they eat desserts in public. Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's and why yes, thank you for asking, I love cake!!! As you can tell (from the name of our blog) we are two writers, (and from our email) that we are absolutely broke. We both just graduated from college and are trying our hands at the things that truly make us feel whole. Sooo cliche, we know, but so many people have the talent and not the drive... well, J and I have the talent and J sure has enough drive for the both of us! JK, but for real... 
         So lets see.. I really believe that there needs to be an new heroine for women to look to. I believe that we are strong and confident, and though romance is beautiful, I don't need a overbearing Christian Gray to come in and sweep me off my feet and tie me to anything. No thank you, I like being free, and not beaten. Also, there needs to be more main characters who are secure in themselves, and confident. I think there needs to be a realistic sense of what love is and not this warped view of the damsel in distress... and yet I am addicted to the Bachelor and Vampire Diaries... Hey... it's a start, am I right? 
           I am extremely irresponsible when it comes to anything and everything and completely spontaneous. In college it was something that was fun and carefree... now it is life threatening. My misplacement of the 20 dollars I set aside for gas and the late night run to Wal Mart for colorful pens to be more responsible doesn't seem so when you wake up realizing that you only had 4 hrs of sleep. So this is the point of this blog. It is to make me responsible specifically with my writing. It is for me to keep myself accountable and to fumble through the narrow and differentiating paths of my fellow writers... So J and I will post things, we will post our frustrations, our excitements, what is working for us, what isnt, encouragements, and so on. We will be real, which is something not a lot of people get to be because we are anonymous. :D hopefully this gave you some type of insight to who I am... 
                L