Sketching. And Writing. Really. Well, sort of.

Note to self: when planning to watercolour a sketch, don't sketch it with a water-soluble sketching pencil. Also, don't try to erase lines made with a water-soluble sketching pencil with a gum eraser. Success rate is low.

Other than that the sketching is going alright. I'm experimenting with using colour or just going black and white. I couldn't sketch the kids at the bus stop yesterday because they weren't there. So I settled for sketching a few pictures from my newspaper, and they turned out okay. I'm hoping to get out to the park this weekend and try sketching some other people and/or things.

I know this is meant to be primarily a writing blog, but the writing has been pretty ... not there recently. I've felt drawn to the art side, so I've meandered a bit. Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way, in an interview I heard on tape, mentioned jumping from one creative frying pan into another. When this creative endeavour stops working, she jumps to another one. I feel the same way lately.

I still have plans to complete my manuscript, at least in a usable first draft edition, before CreateSpace's offer ends at the end of July. I also have Associated Content articles to work on and two short stories to write, not to mention I keep bumping into ideas all over. Frustratingly they're mostly bits of things: pieces of setting or background or the like. But I'm writing them down. Hopefully they'll prove useful in conjunction with plots or characters at a later date.

I'm coming back round to the concept of 'Ass In Chair' - in order to get all these projects done I must sit my butt down in the chair and write. My manuscript's not going to edit itself, nor are my stories going to write themselves. A periodic diversion for art is all well and good, but my nose has to go back to the grindstone soon.

Here's hoping you all have a great weekend. See you Monday.

Pursuing Your Secret Dreams

Greetings, my little ones! I'm glad to see you all here today. Let me hand out your graham cracker snacks to keep your busy little hands occupied whilst I get things going.

I spent a couple hours last night learning a new Jonathan Coulton song on the guitar, so I'm a bit more random and abstract than perhaps is normal for me in this blog. But then ... yesterday was pretty out there, too, wasn't it?

It seems when I let my inner artist/inner goofball out to play, what follows is a period of lightheartedness and sometimes weirdness. Spending two hours listening to and playing a song about an evil genius who makes half-pony half-monkey monsters for his love, whom he keeps captive in his secret lair, may be partly to blame for that.

Songwriting is something I've never considered myself good at. I love to play guitar and sing, and I frequently find myself making up snippets of songs for no good reason. The Artist's Way invites the reader to list some alternate lives, lives you think might be fun to try out. Whether your secret dream is or was to become a cowboy, an opera singer, or a comic book artist, Julia Cameron asks you to pursue a tiny piece of those dreams, just to get a taste. Maybe you can't move to Texas and become an actual cowboy, but can you take a horseback riding lesson? Perhaps it's not possible for you to be a drummer in a famous rock band, but can you get your hands on some secondhand drums and play them in your basement when no one's around to hear? Indulging your secret dreams can please your inner artist and be a fun diversion from your workaday life. You might even find an opportunity to live them on a higher level, if you get the opportunity to vacation on a ranch, or bump into a couple of musicians who'd be willing to jam with you one Sunday a month.

When I indulge a passion I don't focus on, like my guitar playing, it can open up windows through which other creative juices flow. I get something different out of each of my moods. My writing style varies, as does my subject matter, depending on whether I'm feeling down or happy, pedantic or just plain weird.

Think about your secret dreams today. Can you tap into them, even just for an afternoon? You might discover a whole new side of yourself.