Just call me the Risk Junkie, cause if it looked scary, I’d be trying to do it!
It’s like that song about the song that never ends, my list does in fact go on and on and on…
Life changes for us all on that big wheel of time, and while some things change or disappear as we get older, we still find plenty of activities and hobbies to bring us pleasure, they might just look a bit different.
I might not bike and hike like I used to, nor can I “CAMP” without a mattress inside of an RV, but I do walk along a lovely river in the woods nearly every day, leaving me filled with just as much pleasure being outdoors, as it did back in the day.
I could go back through my whole list of things I did when I was younger, explaining to you how each one of them has changed over the years… but I suspect that your own lives come with similar lists. We are all on the same wheel of time, just at differing places on it’s cycles of motion.
Where one activity stops, slows, or loses my interest… another surfaces to bring me just as much joy and pleasure… just different, and maybe even better than that of the past.
I just want to say that television has really fooled us into thinking that a writer just pulls up a chair to a typewriter and POOF!!! out comes a full size novel! Bunch of hooey!
Take for instance, Murder She Wrote, which made it look like the woman could write so freely that she had plenty of spare time to run around solving murders.
In the series Castle, the novelist was not only free to help solve crimes full time for the local PD, but when he did sit down to write, he could roll out half a novel in a weekend.
Movies and television always depict authors to have the capability to go into some fugue state, feverishly emptying a novel out onto the page in one fell swoop… or maybe it is just my own inexperience and lack of concentration that blocks me from magically pulling a 60,000 word dream out of my noggin overnight.
All I know is that I have days where I need to go back and re-imagine my own dream, so as to get it right on the page, for you the reader. I can see the framework of the entire dream, big important chunks of action, and all that… but it takes a great deal of time to think on the tiny details necessary, to bring my dream alive for You!
This has to be one of the most difficult, yet, beautiful journeys of my life! The dedication and patience required to do something right, verses fast, has begun teaching me more about the joy in the journey. I’ve always been on RUN cycle, in every aspect of my life! I completed 4 years of high school in only 2 years, with an accumulated GPA of 3.91. I had 8 pregnancies in under 6 years, only three of which survived! This fast lane living was running my rear end over!
The years are teaching me that it is better to do a thing well, than to just get it done as fast as possible. As for writing a full size novel, I am just a baby learning to walk. Everything from chapter length, context, as well as my Punctuation Fairy tendencies, has to be taken into consideration while I attempt to put my dream to the page for you to experience.
Add to my more attentive writing style, the daily Life Interruptus that nips at my heels, or sometimes my heart. There is a fine line between passionate writing and emotional writing, if you get my drift. Emotional writing distracts me from the true value and meaning of the dream I attempt to breath onto the page. My passion is where the story is, where my true heart rests. This is the part I seek to share with others as I write.
Writing also requires one to section off a part of the brain for this one dream, while the brain carries many many more dreams, ceaselessly screaming for my attention. Fortunately, being as isolated as I have been, as well as, living in life’s furnace of constant Interruptus’s, leaves me ample time to write on several things at once. And YES, I invented my own word spelling of “Interrupt”!
I have discovered that by slowing down in my efforts to tell this story, it gives it time to breath and deepen in richness of details that may have been lost, had I rushed through to the end. I think that you will be glad for the time I took to write, as it will bring you much pleasure in the time it takes you to read it!
This tortoise is going to win the race… by sheer steady determination!
Oh sure, there are days that feel like I’m falling behind, sometimes even rolling backwards.
Other days may even leave me confused as to whether I am the tortoise or the hare… maybe there’s a bit of both in me, at times.
Whoever came up with the saying, slow and steady wins the race, had to have been in a similar race as mine! They most certainly had to have experienced much, if not more, of some of my own obstacles and roadblocks!
The point is… if I keep going slow and steady, I won’t be needing a break!
This tortoise has an enormous dish of carrots and apples waiting at the finish line… and I am hungry!
My friend the hare ran too fast for too long, having to stop and take several breaks, so he will be along shortly! I’ll just set some of my goodies aside for him, once he gets here… I simply love to share my things with others, as a turtle can only eat so much lettuce and carrots, anyway!
I’ve decided that if I were to be any fictional cartoon character, it would be a fairy!
Not just any fairy, mind you, but a useful fairy that sprinkles good wherever she goes!
My official title would be Wiwohka the Word Writing Punctuation Fairy!
You know how you always see a fairy that uses her wand to sprinkle either happy dust, dreamy dust, or silly dust all over her subjects… well, it would be kind of like that, only with things like commas, periods and quotation marks!
Commas are my actual favorite and I love nothing more than to go over the words on my pages, generously sprinkling them here and there and everywhere!
Do you remember the movie, Rise of the Guardians? It’s an adorable animated movie involving Santa and a few others trying to save children’s imagination from the evil schemes of a dream stealer… this is a very loose description of the movie because I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t seen it.
Anyway, near the middle of the movie, there is a scene where they got a bit wild with the magic dust they were using, causing a bit of a kerfuffle! Ummm… sometimes I feel like that happens in my writing, with all the flying punctuations ricocheting off the ceiling in my literary loft.
If I were living in a fictional cartoon world, I suppose it would be perfectly normal to see my magic commas and quotations afloat in all the ponds, waterways, cereal bowls, and drinking glasses I can reach… but in the real world, well, not so much!
They made it look so easy back in school, when we were given a sentence to punctuate, a pencil to mark it up, and two hands to clap out the phrases to see how many places to put our commas. Perhaps this was the reason Captain Kirk always talked as if there were major gaps between every 3 or 4 words he spoke.
Whatever it is that makes me over sprinkle my magic punctuation dust, too much of a good thing can become unhealthy, infecting all the other good ingredients on the page!
Currently, I am having my wand looked at, just in case it needs repair or an update to its magic software.
If I am to be an imaginary cartoon fairy, then I shall strive to perform my punctuation Fairy duties to the best of my abilities!
In honesty, Google can have this prompt question as far as I’m concerned!
I still hold to my commitment to being forthright and non flippant in my answers to the daily prompt questions, therefore, I wholeheartedly suggest you search Google for the answer to what is considered the most important invention in my life.
Besides, I’m not dead yet so there is still time for something bigger or better to come… don’t blame me, blame the prompt for asking such an open ended question!
As I write to everyone on a daily basis, offering to share who I am to any who wish to take the time to get close with me, I highly doubt that my explanation about an important invention will be of any personal value to anyone.
When I arrived at the office this morning, a letter was waiting on my desk. Folded delicately and wrapped in a soft yellow ribbon, the note shouted to me from across the room, since everyone here at WTL News is familiar with these notes wrapped in yellow ribbon. Our Benefactor always wraps His messages this way, so I quickly crossed the room and excitedly picked up the note to read its contents.
This was the first correspondence I’d received since the office meeting last week, where I’d been promoted to being WTL’s first Time Traveling Journalist, so I was itching with curiosity and excitement for what might be inside the note. Could it be a traveling itinerary so soon? Or better yet, maybe it would instruct me to take an in depth training seminar, explaining exactly what my new position was? What exactly was I being expected to do, anyway?
Sure, I am able to pack light and travel fast, capable of surviving out in the field for long periods of time. Interviewing folks and writing about it has always come easy to me, flowing from mind to page smoothly, as if I’d been born with a pen in my tiny hand. Ever since the office meeting, I’d been pondering what might be in store for this quirky girl from country, turned investigative columnist… or Time Traveling Journalist, as the new name plate on my desk boldly reflects.
The note from my Benefactor instructed me to report to the Archives Department, where I was to be given full access to all of WTL Historical Records for study! Apparently, I am to spend this entire week perusing all of the documents, making myself more familiar with all of our history. At the end of the week, I am to submit my first three choices in time, for my first On The Job Training assignment.
My boss knows me so well, choosing to teach me hands on, as this is my natural way of really learning and remembering things. How better to figure out my new job, than to simply immerse myself in the task at hand. Reading a thing, talking about a thing, or even dreaming about a thing, doesn’t really make it work like it should until you DO the thing, if you get my way of understanding.
With this in mind, I am off to the Archives to DO that which has been instructed so far, trusting that the records might reveal more of the What When Where and Who part of my new position. Personally, I have a handful of history participants that I have long since had a desire to investigate. Is it wrong to say that I already have a favorite in mind? She is someone that I’ve always found to be intriguing, as well as, incredibly selfless! I wonder how much I will be able to find on her in the records, as I’ve not found much in all my other research.
Oh well, I shall report to the Archives for my assignment, trusting my Benefactor to make the right choice for me at the end of the week. I shall do my best to thoroughly study all that lay before me, selecting the top three destinations, even if my first choice isn’t the one He sends me toward. If nothing else, I can discover as much about her as I can, while searching through the records. Perhaps I can visit her at another time if things work out, as time it seems, has now become my career…
Right now, it’s not even a hypothetical answer, considering that we are still surviving with only one working water line that only gets cold water to one faucet… no toilet plumbing, nor a working shower!
Daily writing prompt
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
Now that you have a better understanding of why I am answering the prompt with a picture of an empty bathtub, I will tell you, in truth, what my ideal day would look like…
Every perfect day starts out with a cup of piping hot coffee, mixed to perfection with my favorite French Vanilla creamer…
As I sip my most favorite beverage in the quiet early morning hour, I study and rest on Gods promises, given to me within His word.
After several hours of reading, writing, and corresponding with those in the WordPress community, I am rewarded with a glorious walk along the river, continuing on into the park, where my favorite squirrels all live and play.
All that walking used up a great deal of energy.
Upon my return from the above mentioned walking adventure, I would then climb into a luxuriously hot and soap filled bathtub… you know those really lovely bathtubs with the clawed feet that sit on the surface of the floor… ya, that kind! I would just lay there soaking away all the aches and pains, worries and woes, and whatever else I’ve been carrying around.
All this pampering and relaxation, might lead you to think that it would be time for a nap… nope! There is still yet to be done in the hours left, so let the refueling begin…
Once refueled and re-energized, I would then spend several hours of uninterrupted quiet, continuing on in the writing of my upcoming novel. I may be close to halfway finished, so that’s an encouragement!
I would spend the remaining hours of the evening with my husband, sharing our day with one another and enjoying a quiet dinner together.
In truth, I already do most all of the above mentioned things… apart from having hot water, or a bathtub!
Don’t worry… I wash my hands before making your cookies…
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
Journey With Me! 