Steph's Creative Chaos
My youngest daughter is a lizard. That’s what her sister calls her because, like her father, she loves the heat. She thrives in it. She basks in. She goes jogging in it for Pete’s sake. Like her sister, however, I am not a lizard. If you put me in heat over 85F I tend to... Continue Reading →
This is not a 9/11 post. There will be dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of posts and articles uploaded today that go over all of the details of what started out as a glorious September morning, and ended in tears and blood. Memories of where people were, what they were doing when they heard the... Continue Reading →
Have you ever noticed? Every time there is an “event” we sit on our phones or computers hitting “refresh” anxious to see the latest pictures, read the latest updates, hear the most recent “takes” on the situation by whatever talking head, pundit or agitator is out there spouting off about it. It is as if... Continue Reading →
I wish that I could say that my Aloe plant achieved consciousness on a Thursday, then I could follow up with “I never could get the hang of Thursdays” and my inner geek. who is a die-hard Douglas Adams fan, would be satisfied. But it wasn’t a Thursday. It was a Tuesday. A Tuesday in... Continue Reading →
I have a confession. I absolutely adore home improvement stores. Home Depot, Lowes, Hammond Lumber, Hancock Lumber, it doesn’t matter which, and it’s not just the garden section that draws me. I love wandering around the store, going up and down the rows, looking at all the paints and hardware, the organizational supplies, and tools;... Continue Reading →
When I die, bury me surrounded by all of my unfinished craft projects. Please oh please don't curse the world with all of the things that I was not talented enough to bring to life. The thought of all of my unfinished craft projects ending up in a Goodwill bin for people to paw through and wonder about gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. They'll be judging me and my inability to finish what I start, I just know it. Maybe in the great beyond I will find a way to work on six craft projects at the same time and complete them all successfully,
Dearest Tuesday, I have seen so many of your brothers and sisters come and go. Some I’ve loved, and some I’ve hated. Some have sped by so fast I got whiplash. Others dragged their feet so slowly I wanted to kick them for being so boring. All of them have the reputation of actually being... Continue Reading →
I do not read because I enjoy a particular genre. I read to be awed by an awesomely told story, or to learn new information on a topic that intrigues me. I read for the pure joy of it.
Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that when you woke up you couldn’t figure out which reality was real and which was the dream?
The only thing I can do, the only thing any of us can do, is to address the fear and pain, the suffering and injustice that is presented to us on a daily basis. Face it without flinching. Accept our role and do whatever we can, no matter if it is nothing more than putting a band aid on the skinned knee of a child, holding the hand of a loved one lost in the depths of dementia, offering a meal to a homeless person, listening to a friend who is attempting to work through a bad break up, or making a dying crow’s last minutes on earth as comfortable as possible.
I don’t know how this is going to end, whether with the bang of a civil war or the whimper of a society slowly dying from the inside out, but unless we can retie the broken threads, the one thing that is certain, is that the center will crumble and that the rough beast of anarchy and apathy will have its hour come 'round at last.
The chest of a thousand drawers lived for years in a shadowy alcove between my grandparents’ kitchen and their downstairs hall. Actually, it didn't have a thousand drawers, but since I never actually counted the number of drawers, and since the contents always seemed so mysterious to me, it may as well have been a... Continue Reading →
There are days when you conquer the bagel. Therenare also days when the bagel wins.
A synopsis is a short summary of the story that you are writing. In order to create a working synopsis, it is necessary to ask yourself some questions to help you get all of your proverbial ducks in a row. Once you have a working summary you have all the details you need at your fingertips to keep the details of your story consistent.
Why do we insist on keeping ourselves so busy that we never seem to have time for anything that truly rests or refreshes us? When did we forget what it is like to simply take time for ourselves to rest and recharge our batteries? Why is self-care so rarely on our list of priorities?
Words are powerful things. Being honest or authentic in our responses does not require us to be cruel. It is quite possible that the words you choose, especially as you become skilled in how to provoke certain emotional responses from your readers, can have as much power as the ancients believed their own special, magical words to have on others and the world around them.
Creative writing is all about turning ideas into words. If done correctly, these words take an idea, a world, characters that only ever existed in your imagination and make them come to life. If you spin your words well, that story, those characters, that world, your idea will live forever. And if that isn’t real alchemy, I don’t know what is.
What does it mean to be a "real writer?" Is being a real writer something you were born with, or is it something that you become?
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