The Sunshine Factor

where sunshine is a way of life

Tag Archives: Writer


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The Adventure of Debb’s Blog and Her New Trail: Part Four

Line art representation of a Quill

Line art representation of a Quill (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As writers, we all have ups and downs, flow and no flow, and metaphoric high tides and low tides.  At the beginning of my blogging days, I couldn’t imagine ever having writer’s block.  After all, I thought, I have been instructed how NOT to have writer’s block.  And, I go for a walk and usually get three to four ideas for more posts.  How hard can it be to keep the writing going?   But, as it turned out, I was not immune to writer’s block — the time when creativity seems to have gone on vacation, the muse up and leaves, and you’re the opposite of a prolific genius.

Granted, I haven’t had a lot of writer’s block.  I did quick cover-ups — anything to keep to my internal deadline of posting once each day.  You probably have read the cover-ups:  the story that was filled with references to popular songs; alphabet games; anything unusual.  At least I came up with something, I thought to myself.

You might have noticed that I don’t post on a daily schedule anymore.  It was like pulling teeth when I first left the daily goal unmet.  Then I began to admire the many writers who stated they had writer’s block; by golly, they admitted it!  When things started to change in my personal life (lots of overtime at work, combining two households into one, creating a new vehicle for my writing), I finally waved the surrender flag.  I knew God would understand.  Perhaps the idea of writing every single day had been the way to get me back into writing, period. Now the new vehicle for my writing was giving me impetus to continue being a writer, albeit one for a different kind of blog.

Next up:  What was the reason behind the new website?

 

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Poetry Saturday: The Dream Trail

The Dream

The Dream (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~ This is a metaphorical look at chasing our dreams and goals ~

When we are young

everything looks possible

and only a few

know what their special vocation is

 

In our teens and twenties

we start to zero in

on what we really like and enjoy

and yes – what we are talented for

 

Maybe people as young as that

find their niche right away

but most of us

are busy soaking up all of life

and putting off until later

focusing on our true dream

 

My dream was like that

but then I started chasing the rainbow

of my hopes and dreams:

writer

 

The thunderclouds rolled in

(very difficult writing assignments

in my writing course)

but the storm itself did not arrive

 

Then my dream

looked very much like a summer’s day

by the lake:

water bringing inspiration

nice warm sand of ideas

trickling through my fingers

seagulls crying out

with more and more ideas

bright beach ball colors

giving me hope

children nearby playing

with giggles that lighten my heart

 

Now my writer’s mind and soul

are like the Fourth of July

colorful explosions of ideas

and a throbbing like a sore toe

 

Come follow me on my trail

as I continue realizing my dream

I can promise we won’t get bored

 

 

 

 

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English: Imagination (1896). Olin Warner (comp...

English: Imagination (1896). Olin Warner (completed by Herbert Adams). Bronze door at main entrance of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Imagination is everything.  It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

— Albert Einstein

I agree with this one.  Without my imagination, I would not be a writer today.  My imagination fuels my dreams and aspirations, gives substance to my goals and all around is a very pleasant thing to have.

The photo I have chosen for this post is very fitting, as this person is holding a musical instrument – maybe a lyre?  It seems the Muses in Greek mythology always had music going on, too, along with their creative ideas.  🙂

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The Heart Walk

It turns out, Pat and I didn’t go to the Heart Walk this morning because of miserable weather.  So, we walked around a mall two laps and stopped for lunch.

My lunch was delicious:  strawberries and walnuts on top of dark lettuce with its own dressing, 2 breadsticks, milk, and soup.    Fortunately, since I originally ordered a different salad but noticed that the garganzola cheese was bleu cheese, that I am really allergic to, I noticed the mistake and got a better salad instead.  But hey, this upping of my vegetables and fruits is really fun!

Pat gave a me a fortune that she had found a couple of days ago and thought of me.  It says:

You are a lover of words.

Someday you will write a book.    That is one of my dreams, so you can imagine how excited I was to read my fortune!   🙂

Well, I just wanted to say “hey” – how is your day going?

 

Over and out,

Debb


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Poem: The Writer I Am

Hi folks, my friend Nesher at http://nesherehrman.wordpress.com kindly put this poem in his blog.   I am including it here so that maybe you can get to know me a little better.
Debb
300px-Natural_blonde
THE WRITER I AM
by Debbie Loesel Stanton
Ever since being a little girl
the one with the Saturday curls
To be a writer, I said, I just might.
I have written on everything in sight.
I wrote words on the inside cover of books;
I didn’t care if I got looks.
It was me the other kids ran to
if they needed to know how to spell something.
Don’t they know, those silly grumpthings?
Later on, with great imagination
it was fun to write stories
even writing about being stuck in rock quarries.
My time spent in writing
dwindled after I wrote the start of a book at age 12.
Reading I loved, so into that I delved.
Then came the time that EVERYONE was saying,
“Journaling is good for a person,” and I was supposed to be obeying.
I have journaled on and off for years
but never made a daily habit of it during the tears.
After that, I went to writing school
where a vivid imagination becomes a great tool.
My professor told me, “You’re a writer
even if you haven’t published anything;
if you’re a writer, your writing will sing.” *
I took his words to heart;
it was hard to keep me and writing apart.
I ate it, breathed it, slept it
and instead of journaling,
my poems and stories became my daily habit.
Today I carry on that same habit
I’m so glad I can do this
I have reached the gold at the end of my rainbow
For even more happiness, to my writing I can always go.
*  This is what I believe; my professor did not tell me this.
___


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Guest Poet Spot

Hello, Readers!

Today Nesher from http://nesherehrman.wordpress.com

db0e04f57d34ef7d818369644a4413bcNesherpicture

joins Sunshine Factor as a guest poet.   He’s a relatively new WordPress blogger, but I think his work is simply divine.   My dashboard, though, did not allow spaces between the paragraphs – sorry Nesher!  He wrote this in stanzas of four lines each.

Look at this:

 I asked myself the other day,
Why am I a writer, what made me that way?
That question’s ad hominem, it asks about me,
But it’s true of all writers, counting you thine and thee
Because when you sit, and examine that question
Writing’s more than a job, not just a profession
A person who writes, whether tiny or small
Is always unique, from the first word they scrawl
So now, let me see, we’ve defined some new terms,
A writer’s a creature, not a snail or some germs
But how do they form? Do they pass some hard test?
Or perhaps are they hatched, from an egg, in a nest?
Now I still don’t have an answer to the question I asked,
But now I have new ones, they are rising quite fast
Is there more than one kind, is it decided by age
Can a man be a writer if he’s not old and sage?
To answer all this we might have to digress
Because it is I who must also confess
I don’t have the answers, I don’t know who’s a writer
I just know that I am one, more than lover or fighter
And I don’t know you, I can’t tell if you are
I don’t know if you rhyme or your thinking’s bizarre
Yet one thing I’ll say, and this fact I ensure
If you think you’re a writer, then you are, to be sure
—-
Thanks, Nesher, for the good material in this post!  Debb


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The Writer In Me

I guess I’ve always had a writer gene in me, even as a young child, but I wasn’t aware of it at the time.

I wrote what I was thankful for as a second grader – with printed crayon script into the inside covers of my Bobbsey Twins books.  (Certainly not the way I treated books later on!)

I never could understand why my best friend Cindy wasn’t able to imagine her cat with ski boots on like I was inclined to do.

When I was 12 years old I started my first “book”.  I wrote on both sides of 5.5 sheets of typewriter paper, then I gave up.  But the seed was there…

Fast forward to January 2009, to the beginning of my two year on-line writing course.  The prof said that when you’re a true writer, you eat-breathe-sleep-live your craft.  Although I was impressed with that statement, I didn’t see myself as fitting into that situation.

Then August of 2009 came along, and I was dumbstruck upon receiving my breast cancer diagnosis.  [Previous history:  when my father died in 1991, I remember not being able to pick up a book and read, which was totally a part of my former loves and capabilities.]  Likewise, when I had cancer, there was a long, dry stretch during my cancer that I couldn’t even look at my computer – unless I was at work, in which case I did have to use a computer.    I let my prof know that I needed an extension for all my assignment deadlines, and he had me write to the registrar.  She informed me that they would allow me to take 6 months off where I wouldn’t be penalized with late fees.  My friends were livid that I had such a short respite.  But, by the end of that time I was able to write again.  I started a blog similar to having a Caring Bridge site, so I could inform people of how it was going.  Blah.  No pleasure on this not-WordPress-site, and I knew nothing of tagging my posts and no real support forums to use like here at my beloved WordPress.  My cancer recovery blog went the way of the autumn leaves turning colors and then dying.  I didn’t want to blog anymore.

NOW the writer in me has come to the fore.  Now I can understand how a person can eat-breathe-sleep-live their writing.  It is the only thing in my whole life that has let me skip a meal or meals in favor of doing something else.  I get blessedly lost in the word action and planning and executing and everything else.  In my head, I travel all over the world and in real life think about my writing projects constantly.

What has your writing journey

English: penulis = writer

English: penulis = writer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

been like?  Whatever your journey has been or where it takes you, I’m behind you all the way.

 

 


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Writer’s Burn

Line art representation of a Quill

Line art representation of a Quill (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve talked about writer’s block on my blog, and it is a common discussion among writers…but what about writer’s burn?

I don’t know there if there is such a term for writers, but I define writer’s burn as a time when you are flowing (another writer’s term I was taught) and having all kinds of creativity, but your mind is starting to feel burned out.  Usually when I am creating I have a lot of mental energy, but when my physical energy doesn’t match the mental, then there is a short, a hiccup in my process.

People often say they are burned out, and I tend to think they’re referring to their physical energy.  Well, when I say writer’s burn, I’m referring to their mental creative capacity or its decrease of it.

I wonder what a person could do if afflicted by writer’s burn?  Slow down and stop writing so much?  That is hard for me to do, because I write compulsively.  There are too many ideas in my head not to do something with them all.

Let’s get a discussion going – did you ever have writer’s burn, and/or how do you define it?  Any suggestions on what I can do?

Thanks,

Debb