On rose petals there I sat,
afloat in nature’s scented grasp,
The sweet sensation so assailing,
a newness of life for me unveiling,
tacitness at times is golden,
essential nature on me beholden,
inspiration stabs life’s tides,
and serves to me eyes opened wide.
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Give Your Mind a Break
What happens when you write everyday? Two things. You get further in your writing project than if you hadn’t. Two, you end up needing to give your mind a break. Yes, step aside from the written word for a day or two. Do something else entirely. Work out in your garden, do a craft, go to a movie, play a game, do some house work, or all of the above.
What happens is this, your mind can get stuck, and you lose your steam. Your brain gets tired like the rest of our body when we do too much of something. When you work out in the yard for a couple hours, aren’t you tired when you stop? Your body feels sapped. You have no energy left. You need to rejuvenate. You might even go and feed your body a Gatorade and/or a snack.
Today I felt mentally drained because I had been writing everyday, working on my manuscript that’s almost finished. I can see the finish line from here. I want to get it done. So I’m sitting at my desk with my laptop in front of me, and my brain is saying, ‘uhhh, no.’ I didn’t want to do anything. I had no ‘juice’ left. Getting up and doing something else didn’t appeal to me either. So what did I do? I got up and did something anyway, kicking and screaming. Well, that’s a little extreme. After I got going with my other activity, sweeping the patio and gardening, it rejuvenated me.
Sailing Breezes by L. M. Montes
Waves bob up down
toss turn as wind blows,
set sail swirl spin
a breeze blast of salt air.
Waving bobbing all around,
tossing turning dropping down,
sailing swirling spinning blowing,
from breezes blasting salt air about.
Elusive Scent by L. M. Montes
A scent so sweet swept o’er to me,
across the tides of breezes be,
I tried to grab and snatch it close,
but through my fingers it left and rose
up to the sky and blow away,
to come again another day.
Words Bitter Sweet Sound by L. M. Montes
Spattering words, a nothingness pushed forth,
rang in my ears and flew out the door,
all that’s left is the droning of sound,
from mouths speaking nothing
but words spewed aground.
You want me to listen,
so get your facts straight,
instead of pure nothing
filled with all hate.
God’s gentle nudging grew words from your lips,
and sang to my heart, then to my finger tips,
now life is filled with meaning profound,
from mouths sprinkling something
so rich with sweet sound.
You want me to listen,
you got your facts straight,
instead of pure nothing,
you weren’t filled with hate.
Multnomah Falls, Oregon, USA
The Shadow by L. M. Montes
In far reaches of the mind,
lies the fear that makes one blind,
stiffen from a shadow seen,
and grips the breath so staunch and mean,
blood invades, a stench so rank,
from deep inside, so hearts they sank,
but then a blip of light shown through,
revealing eyes so dead from you,
the shadow’s shroud now covered,
the whole of all who hovered,
they will never be the same,
as from your body a spirit came.
July is going to be hot in more ways than one — Mark Piggott | Fantasy and Steampunk Author
Sorry to be AWOL for a while, but its been a busy start to my summer, and its not over yet. I traveled from Virginia to Manchester, Connecticut, for the Book Fiends Readers Festival, June 25. It was a long weekend but I met so many wonderful steampunk writers, artists, crafters and performers. It was […]
July is going to be hot in more ways than one — Mark Piggott | Fantasy and Steampunk Author
Give Back
Do you know others who have been successful? Have they won awards or received a promotion? Do they deserve an applause? Give back to others by giving a shout out about their successes. What does this have to do with you? It has everything to do with you by doing three things. One, it gives you self satisfaction by making others happy. Seriously, try it. Two, it makes the person you are applauding feel great. When that happens it boosts their confidence and morale. That’s what you want. I love to see others succeed. They deserve it as much as I (you) do. Three, it comes back to you. Eventually, they will give you your props as well. It’s called social karma.
This isn’t just for writers, although we authors on Twitter give each other shout outs all the time. It’s pretty amazing. They’re such nice people. If feels like a family. Everybody, even those outside the realm of writing deserves props and feel goods. So, give your peep an attaboy every now and then. Spread the love.
The What If…
On March 8, 2022 I wrote an article for this blog on starting your story/book/novel. Well, that was a general overview of starting your writing journey. Here in this article I am going to be more specific. There are many ways in which one can start a story. One way I’m going to touch on today is the ‘what if’ statement.
Let’s say you want to write a story but you don’t know where to begin. Start with a ‘what if’ statement. It doesn’t have to be complex; it just needs to catch attention.
Examples:
- What if a girl is at the beach with her friends and finds a locket dated from the early 1900’s, and on the inside is a photo of her great grandmother and another man who is not the girl’s great grandfather.
- What if a young man (in his 20’s) is at work and receives a message that his wife has fallen ill, but the thing is he has no wife.
- What if three male friends are walking in the woods taking a short cut to another friend’s house. On the way only two of them are carrying on a conversation while the third friend stays silent and listening. One of the other two turn to the third to get his opinion on something only to find he’s not there.
- What if a man in his thirties who lives in an apartment steps out and is on his way down the hall to go out to his car but stops short at the open door to his neighbor’s apartment. There’s blood on the threshold and on the arm of the couch just to the left of the open door.
- What if an uninvited stranger walks into your party, singles you out, and tells you, “He’s here.” But you don’t know who ‘he’ is.
Feel free to steal the above ideas. Maybe one of these will help you come up with a ‘what if’ of your own. Have fun with them. The idea is to create a ‘what if’ statement that creates questions. Once you have a ‘what if’ statement you want to use, continue building on it. You’d be surprised how your mind will start spewing out idea after idea that will expand on that one ‘what if’ statement.
WRITE TIME AND AGAIN 