My Muse Scares Me Sometimes...

So I got the chance to sit down with my sketchboard and pencils on Saturday night.

Instead of music, I had some reruns of Babylon 5 going in the background (I'm a geek and proud of it) and it actually worked quite well.

The only problem is that I couldn't draw what I sat down to draw.

I was going to work on some character design I've been working on for my friend Kaycee (read her blog here; go on, I'll wait...), but instead, my muse was whispering in my ear, make me a monster...

I shook it off, and tried to continue with what I wanted to work on.

Make me a monster...

Finally, I gave up, and this is what came out:

Sometimes, I'm a little disturbed by my imagination...

It's kinda cool, but I admit to being just a bit creeped out by this thing. In a good way (I love horror movies and comics), so it's not that bad. Plus, it's never too early to get into the Halloween spirit, so I'm not really too upset.

I just wish I could've worked on what I sat down to work on...
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From the desk of the Monster Maker,

Brad

Re-imaginings...

Howdy again, all.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been doing less writing (though I haven't stopped completely) and more drawing and even a bit of painting.

I've decided to re-imagine this blog; a re-purposing, if you will.

This was intended to be a blog about writing, but since I've done so much less of that lately, I haven't been maintaining this place like I should.

I was going to start a separate blog about my artistic endeavors (and that will probably be the case soon enough), but for the time being decided to unite those worlds, which are both so very precious to me, into this one blog.

This is still my creative space, but it is no longer writing-specific.

I will post updates on things I am working on, both written and visual, in the hopes of showing how interconnected they are for me.

That being said, here's an update on my lunch-break dragon, which has surprised me (in the good way that art should), by evolving from a quick, keep-me-from-going-insane sketch, to something that I am becoming very pleased with. It's still a long way from finished, but I am really enjoying where it's going.

Fifteen minutes at a time...

I hope you'll join me on this journey into imagination, even if it's not entirely as it was first imagined.

The road can be lonely, and I would welcome the company.
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The road goes ever onward,

Brad

Update

Greetings, all.

You may have noticed that it's been a while since I posted here. I've made a few posts over at Bradley's Brain, but things have been pretty silent around here.

The truth is, I haven't felt like much of a writer recently.

I've still been writing a bit, and my creativity is still flowing, but my muse seems to be directing all of my energy to my other creative passion, art.

Drawing (and to a lesser degree, painting) is something I've been in love with almost as long as writing. They're both connected for me, and til now, I've never really had any trouble doing both.

It seems as though lately, when I sit down to write, the cursor blinks and blinks, threatening to put me to sleep with its steady cadence. Even those "Wow, I just had a great idea" moments have been fewer and fewer.

But when I pick up my pencils, my muse begins to sing again.

Here's something I've been working on during my lunch breaks for the past couple of days:

Yes, I'm still obsessed with dragons...

It's not anything truly special yet, but I'm happy with how it's turned out so far.

I'm sad because the words haven't been flowing very well, but I'm also happy that I'm drawing more (and more effectively, I believe) than I have in a long while.

Writing and art have always been two sides of the same creative coin to me, and I do think that eventually, the written side will turn up again.

But for right now, even though I have been writing, the spinning coin has landed image side up.

I might as well enjoy the ride.

As usual, thanks for stepping into my imagination,

Brad

Nothing to Fear...Part One: Fear of Failure

"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
Nelson Mandela

"Cowards die many times before their deaths
The valiant never taste of death but once."
William Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar
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Fear can be a healthy emotion.

For example, fear of being mauled and eaten is what keeps most people from walking up to a hungry bear and smacking it on the rump (by the way, those who may wish to conquer this fear are not what I consider brave--they are something that I like to call "morons").

Without fear of predators, the human race would probably not have survived; our ancestors would have been eaten long ago, and Chihuahuas, who fear everything, would probably have evolved into the dominant species on this planet.

Perhaps I'm being a bit extreme, but the point is that fear has its place as a positive, healthy feeling.

But it can also be poison.

For the writer in particular, fear burns and destroys.

Fear kills.

There are two kinds of fear that can keep the writer from accomplishing his or her goals. One of these is easy to understand, so we'll look at it first.

Fear of failure.

Like I said, easy to understand, isn't it?

Think about it; you've spent countless hours constructing your tale. You've sacrificed time and relationships for the solitude necessary for craft. You've built up your world and your characters. You've laughed with them, bled with them, and wept with--and for--them. A great deal of your energy, your soul, has gone into this.

And now it's time to let it out.

It's time to share it, and you can't help being afraid.

What if no one likes it, you ask yourself. What if all of this sacrifice, all of this emotion, is for nothing?

The rejection will hurt too much, and only prove that I'm wasting my time. It's better to not send it out; if no one reads it, no one can reject it.

No one can reject me.

As Drew Carey's character in Robots says, "Never try, never fail."

Rejection is inevitable. It's part of the business.

It's part of life.

But the fear of rejection, of failure, is also a ridiculous waste of time.

How many great works, how many world-changing ideas, have died with their creators because those creators were too afraid to take a risk and put their work out into the world?

How many people spend life as the walking dead because they are too afraid to truly live?

Fortunately, this fear can be fought.

This fear is built on the "What If's", and you can use the "What If's" to fight it. What if no one likes it? What if everyone hates it? What if I just can't do this?

Yeah, well, what if you can?

What if you can do this?  What if people do like your work?

How different would things be then?

C'mon, folks. We're writers. We live and breathe by our imaginations. Use 'em.

Picture your book on display at a store. Picture your name in the "based upon the novel by..." credit in a Spielberg film. Picture an interview with you, where you tell how you overcame fear of failure, inspiring someone else who has those fears to step up to them and say "What if I can do this, too?"

Doesn't that feel better than, "What if I fail"?

I'm not saying there won't be rejection. I'm not saying there won't be more pain, frustration, and heartache.

What I am saying is that if you don't try, there will be nothing.

That's how fear kills. Yes, it can keep you alive.

But it can also keep you from living.

Just so you know, this is something I struggle with myself. Writing this helps.

I hope reading it does, too.
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Brad

Special Guest Blogger--Janice Hardy: Storming the Brain

Welcome back to Second Star!

It's been a bit since I've posted, and I'm working on a few things to get a more regular schedule going.

What better way to kick off a new beginning than with a special guest post by fellow blogger and writer Janice Hardy?

Janice is stopping by today as part of her Blue Fire Blog Tour, to promote the release of Blue Fire, the second book in her trilogy, The Healing Wars.

Take it away, Janice!
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Storming the Brain

My husband and I play “what if?” a lot. One of us will toss out a question (usually him), and we’ll run with it. It started out as silly things to entertain us on long car trips, but it’s evolved into an endless stream of story ideas for me.

You’d think this would be a fabulous resource for a writer, but we often end up with too many ideas. I can’t possibly write them all and not every idea – no matter how cool it sounds at the time – would make a good book.

So how do I pick out the good ones?

I can’t.

Yeah, I know, not very helpful. But the truth is, every idea has the potential to become a really great book. It’s more a matter of figuring out the story that goes behind that idea, and that can be the hard part. I’ve had many a premise that got me excited, only to discover later that I didn’t have a story, much less a plot, that would go with it. I think this is one of the reasons there are a lot of novels that stall after fifty or a hundred pages.

When I start brainstorming an idea, the first thing I look for is the core conflict, because without that, I can’t write the story. Something about the situation or premise has to be able to cause trouble, and hopefully to a lot of people. If it can’t, there won’t be anything for the protag to strive for. No matter how cool an idea sounds, if there’s no conflict, there’s no story yet. No idea is too crazy at this point, because it’s all about exploring the potential, and you never know where one idea might lead.

Once I have that core conflict, I start thinking about the people I can put into it. Who would be affected, who would benefit, who would be hurt? What kinds of people would be needed for this situation? Sometimes I already have an inkling of who might be part of this (character and plot often develop simultaneously), so I’ll look for connections that person might have to the other people in the story. Conflict often comes from those connections, and they can help you develop the plot later.

Then I dive into the characters. Lots of writers do characters first, but situations have always come to me first. Once I have a general idea of the world and the conflicts, I’m better prepared to see what people I can put into it and how their back stories and goals can grind those conflicts together. Sometimes the characters aren’t even named. They’re just concepts, like the best friend, or the bad guy, or the possible ally who might be a villain. Ideas of the types of people I might throw together.

Finally, I look at goals and stakes. Without knowing what my characters want and what they’re risking to get it, the story will be pretty boring. I might also look at my themes for this if any have started to develop. They often do, even this early, because I see recurring concepts between possible character types and the conflicts I’ve discovered. I explore who wants what and why. Who is the most likely to be involved on a personal level? Who’d be against it and why? Where can the huge failures occur? (Because that might just turn out to be what your protag is after) What situations would lend themselves well to the growth of a character? I’ve learned that situations with lots of gray areas work great for putting characters into situations where there is no real right or wrong, and the choice is tough as can be. The potential for inner and outer conflict is high, and there’s lots of plot to mine there.

Brainstorming is a great way to dig deeper into an idea to see if it really does have the legs to carry an entire novel. The more layers you uncover in the early stages, the higher the chance that they story can work as you hope. Any idea that falls flat after a few minutes is one that would probably have you banging your head against the keyboard by chapter three.
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A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins.  She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel.

 

Part fugitive, part hero, fifteen-year-old Nya is barely staying ahead of the Duke of Baseer’s trackers. Wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit, she risks capture to protect every Taker she can find, determined to prevent the Duke from using them in his fiendish experiments. But resolve isn’t enough to protect any of them, and Nya soon realizes that the only way to keep them all out of the Duke’s clutches is to flee Geveg. Unfortunately, the Duke’s best tracker has other ideas.

Nya finds herself trapped in the last place she ever wanted to be, forced to trust the last people she ever thought she could. More is at stake than just the people of Geveg, and the closer she gets to uncovering the Duke’s plan, the more she discovers how critical she is to his victory. To save Geveg, she just might have to save Baseer—if she doesn’t destroy it first.

Click here to order.
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Thank you very much, Janice, for visiting here at Second Star to the Right! Developing an idea into a story can be very difficult, and I appreciate your look into the brainstorming process.

Please check out Janice's site and blog for more information about The Healing Wars and see some of the other great articles she's written for the Blue Fire Blog Tour.

Now I'm off for some brainstorming of my own!

Brad

Reminder

Hello, folks.

I just wanted to offer a quick reminder that Janice Hardy will be stopping by tomorrow on her Blue Fire Blog Tour.

I certainly hope you'll join me in welcoming her tomorrow, and together we'll all learn something good.

Mark well and remember,

Brad

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack...

Wow.

Time flies when you wish you were having fun.

I just looked and discovered that it's been over two months since I posted anything here.

I've been writing; I just haven't been writing about writing.

Hopefully you'll join me in brushing away some of the stardust that's settled around here while I've been gone, and we can get back into the swing of things.

I also hope you'll mark your calendars for a very special guest blogger this month:

Janice Hardy will be visiting on October 19, as part of her Blue Fire Blog Tour to celebrate the release of Blue Fire, the second book in her Healing Wars series.

With all of this excitement, and Halloween (my favorite holiday) coming up, I hope you'll stick around.

This time, I promise I will.
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Reach for the stars,
Brad