Science Fiction & Fantasy author
Go find a hat, either one you have not worn for a very long time or one that belongs to someone else. This is a magic hat. Put it on and sit until you feel the magic vibrate around and through you. Give it color, sensation, dimension; imagine that magic flowing into you, inspiring you. Sit until you can feel the flow. Then hold on to your bootstraps (figuratively, of course) and write.
I am fully aware that the most popular word processing program out there is Microsoft Word, but my loyalty goes to Corel WordPerfect. I like the way the program is laid out and some features just simply don’t exist in the same way in Word. Reveal codes, for example: I love being able to look at each code spelled out and easy to read and delete as I please or not (a simple toggle switch). I can change formats without finding myself suddenly back in a particular format when I was certain I had changed from outline to word processing or from columns to no column.
The two programs did become very similar over the years (though my favorite features never left WP); however, the version I have now in WP is far different from the new Word which I am still figuring out. I have used both for nearly the same length of time: close to thirty years. But when I work in WP (which I do for everything personal and most especially for my fiction writing), I just sit easy. If I am not familiar with some feature, I can figure it out because I understand WP’s logic. This is not the same with Word, which, though I said I have been using it for years at work, still makes me stumble about.
Recently, my WP began freezing every time I saved my work. I would write a thousand words, go to save and find myself in permanent freeze and no access to all I had written. Heartbreaking, as it happened repeatedly, though I did get smart and save after each page, so I could at least see what I had written and could hand copy it. After a few days I switched my files over to Word so I could work on my book, but I wasn’t happy about it. I assumed it was an update to my computer operating software (Vista) that brought about the problem and since my version of WP was at least ten years old, I thought it was time to up grade. I ordered WordPerfect X5 and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. Now I am not so sure I had the source of the problem correct as the new version suffered from the same problem.
So there were a few days that I was quite frustrated. I tried looking for updates, I researched on the web finding the problem actually began back in 2006, though it did not hit me until this past September. I found suggested solutions, but none worked. Then, a few days ago, I decided to try again. I experimented and used “save as” instead of the icon for “save.” It worked just fine. And two days ago an update came through for WP X5. Now I am back to saving using the icon without freezing. Now that is a quick fix. I love WordPerfect.
Today you will write about discomfort. What does it feel like? Get real descriptive. Most importantly, get uncomfortable. Sit on your seat awkwardly, twist your body around and hold it in place until you are uncomfortable. Don’t eat if your hungry. Hold your arm straight up from your shoulder until it cramps, and then write about how it feels. Don’t imagine; use your own experience to get into the details. If you already have a cold, flu, arthritis, backache, then you are ahead of the game (for once it brings you benefits). Go for the sensation, the imagery of pain, stuffy headedness, tight muscles, stiffness, a sinus headache.
I know this little bit of advice is going to have a very small audience, but when I consider that just a couple of days ago I spent considerable time searching for the answer which this advice would have provided, I think it is worth my effort and your time. It would have saved me considerable frustration.
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| CD/DVD slot |
Let me begin with a little back story: My computer has a built in CD/DVD drive like most computers. However, mine is one of those slot drives which has no cover or eject button and only the slot is visible. Now imagine my consternation when I put a brand new program DVD into this drive and my computer did not recognize either the drive or the disc. As a result, I could not eject it and try another drive.
My device manager stated that the drive was not functioning properly, but that was the only part of my computer that admitted that I did have a CD/DVD drive. I spent about one hour searching for an updated driver for the unit and confirming that no such update existed. There were plenty of trails to lead me to believe there was a newer driver than the 2006 version I was currently using (or not using depending on how you view a situation when the computer does not know the drive exists in the first place), but it turned out not to be the case.
I spent another hour trying to find out if there was a manual eject. I am very familiar with computer components as my father was a fiddler of electronic things (engineer) and I inherited this vice (but am not an engineer). I expected there to be a manual means of removing this disc. But all my searching only provided me with three options.
I know that most (all?) such drives have a tiny hole in which one can insert a wire (modified paper clip) and like magic (with a little pressure applied) activate the mechanism that will eject the CD. This drive did not appear to have one. Some will hide it inside the slot up high or way low. So I tried inserting the wire and working by feel to find this mechanism without result. I spent the better part of an hour muttering about the engineer who designed this particular drive. We were never going to be friends.
I gave up my fruitless search for answers on the Web and carried my computer to the kitchen table. The back came off easily. I complimented the engineer. The shroud also came off with amazing ease. I complimented this engineer also. The drive slid out of its bay like it was greased. I really liked this engineer. My husband stood by encouraging my efforts. (He will take apart anything from remote control boats to shotguns, but not a computer.) I was explaining how any intelligent engineer will supply a manual means to remove a disc from a drive. At this point I leaned over and looked at the drive’s slot edge-on now that the shroud no longer hid everything but the slot. A tiny hole about an inch and half from the top of the drive caught my eye. I ran for my modified paper clip. Feeling much like a safe cracker, I eased the wire in, applied gentle pressure and out popped my DVD. I could have done it without removing the drive from its bay, but could not have done it with the shroud and cover in place.
Moral of this story: I am going to assume every drive has that manual means of ejecting discs. I am very glad I did not take the drive apart. The computer was well-designed for easy access. Accept for the manual release being hidden when the computer is all together, the engineer was not so bad after all. So always check for the manual eject hole and keep a paper clip close by. Chances are 100% likely (or nearly so) that the drive does somewhere have a manual means of ejection.
Write about a dream, but not just any dream. Pick one of those that kept sliding into odd, even unrelated scenes that as the dreamer you just accepted. Explore the strangeness of this dream following all its remembered impressions, actions and reactions.
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| Write the twisty dream. |
If you don’t recall all the details, let your mind slide around what you do remember and pull at it until you have seized everything you can from the dream.
If you are one of those who don’t remember your dreams, imagine an image and carry into some foggy focus, let it slip into another image and then another as you track each flight of fancy.
The one thing I ask that you do different with your dream is create a string of connections that holds each event to the next, smooth out the quirky, extra-stair-steps startle effect of the twisting dream. Let take on a sort of logic of its own that may not have been there when you actually dreamed it.
On Tuesdays I post a writing prompt because I have had students that have trouble coming up with things to write. They need a direction, an arrow pointing off into the distance, a gentle push into forward motion, a leaning, and they just start walking that way. They haven’t learned to trust their own inspiration. “Give me direction!” is their cry. (Though I don’t do this anymore, the prompts still reside on my blog and can be used repeatedly.)
I think inspiration to write is much easier than they realize and is about being willing to lean toward any little thing that sways your attention.
“Tree.” What does a person see with just this one word? Something will come to mind even if it is a sapling, twisted and nearly barren of leaves, a Whovian cluster of green hopeful growth at the tippy top of its highest reaching twig; two asymmetrical arm-like branches crook downwards at odds with the upward desire. Mature oaks garbed in rough bark stand imposingly by, gruff opposers of any young upstarts grasping at the stabbing sunlight, great spears of dancing photosynthesis, splashes on last fall’s dry castaways. In the breezy rustle that sallies down the stiff elder oaks, there marches the firm argument that supplying a cart load of seed is not a promise to provide a place to root. The sapling quivers its reply, a sithering shuffle of curled, mint-green locks straining to rub together a complaint for air, water and light.
Just lean, all it takes is a little bit of lean.