Close Enough – Warm Up Exercise

February 13, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter

Photo credit: MTSOfan via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA

She dipped her hands into water before cupping them around a blob of clay she had thrown on to the wheel. The clay was cold. The wheel began to spin. She kneaded it, using the rhythmic motion that started every dance. Drawing it up and pushing it down, centering it on the wheel. The clay warmed to her touch. It yielded to the guidance of her fingers as she began drawing it up into the shape her hands knew so well. The shape her hands had touched every morning. It had shattered with news of the accident.

She pushed the feelings of frustrations, anger and loss from her mind. She didn’t want to infuse the clay with those emotions. Instead she closed her eyes and focused on the memory of that long-ago day, a day she recalled as if it were yesterday. She could smell the scent of him, feel the heat of his body as he placed his hands on hers. She felt the clay being molded by her hands, changing with the pressure she applied.

She stopped the wheel and opened her eyes, smiling at the form which stood before her. It wasn’t exactly the same, it could never be that. But it would bring her at least some comfort. She carefully removed it from the wheel and attached the handle. She knew the next steps, they wouldn’t be easy to endure. Time to cure, time to endure the fire of the kiln, and the multiple steps of glazing to forge the impenetrable outer layer that would protect the contents.

__________________________________________________

The day had finally arrived to open the kiln. Inside her best friend waited for her, the one who knew all her secrets, her sorrows and her happiness.

“Yes Friend, the coffee is ready. Should we try it out?”

The steaming brew cascaded into the cobalt blue interior. She stared at the black pupil encased in blue. His eyes. No, it wasn’t exactly the same. But it would have to be close enough. Close enough to allow her to return to the daily rhythm of life, close enough to pretend that she was moving on.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

A Few Miles – FFfAW

February 9, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter / 6 Comments

Title: A Few Miles
Source: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers – Week of February 7, 2017
Word count: 170 words

Credit: Mike Vore

He watched as Billy and his men pried his first love from her resting place. While the crew loaded her on the flatbed, Billy came over to shake his hand again.

“Got a lot of miles left in ‘er. I’ll git ‘er back on the road.”

“You do that.”
______________________________

He heard a car on the gravel drive and went to investigate.

Billy jumped out of the red truck.

“Whacha think?”

“Can’t be.”

“Tis.”

“Didn’t look this good when I bought her.”

Billy tossed the keys at him. He caught them with clumsy gnarled hands.

“Take “er.”

“You ain’t gittin’ your five large back.”

“Drive ‘er. When your tired of ‘er, call me.”

__________________________

Billy answered, even though he didn’t know the number.

“My Pa left me a note. Says to call you bout the truck.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What? He ain’t dead. Done run off with that red head over in Jasper. Says to tell you the truck ain’t the only one whats got a few miles left.”

Billy laughed.

Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer

Orb – Today’s Warm Up Exercise

February 7, 2017February 6, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter / 2 Comments

Photo credit: freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty via Visual hunt / CC BY

Here is today’s Warm Up Exercise. Hope you enjoy it.

A whip struck hard across her face. Dagma didn’t stop. She could feel the thin line of her flesh begin to burn and knew the unseen branch had drawn blood. A howl rose from the rabid dogs behind her as the scent carried through the woods. They wanted a taste of blood. Her blood.

Her lungs burned, her legs trembled from fatigue and she could feel a muscle spasm in her side. Her mind told her she could not falter now. Dagma ran. She envisioned herself as strong and fresh as she had been days ago, when she had first begun her escape. The woods were misty gray. Great black sentinel trees rose in front of her to cut her off from her destination. The ground beneath her was covered in slick leaves and slimy mud.

The thinning of the trees didn’t seem real at first. The mist began to part, clearing the way for her. The baying of the tireless dogs grew louder, closer now. Dagma ran. The woods gave way to the setting sun steaking amber hews across a silver meadow. In the center, she saw the white orb and raced to where it stood, sinking to the ground next to it. She had to be careful, disturbing the delicate orb in any way would ruin everything. She cupped one hand around the orb and gently plucked it from where it grew.

She stilled her ragged breath and tilted the fluffy orb into the sunlight. “Come on. Please,” she silently begged. A golden flash shot across the face of the orb tracing a path along the fine filaments that the connected to each seed. No, not that one. Dagma waited. The golden path changed, again and again, and still she waited. She could hear the unrelenting dogs, they would be on her shortly.

The meadow trembled from the pounding of the giant dogs racing towards her. They crashed through the edge of the woods snarling in delight at the sight of their prey in front of them. She didn’t look up, seeing only the golden path as it chased across the orb. There, that was the one. She raised the orb to her lips, closed her eyes and blew gently. Dagma was gone. The monstrous dogs came barking and yelping into the center of the meadow, vainly searching for what was no longer there. Above them, dandelion seeds floated in the last light of the setting sun.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Mystery Blogger Award! Yea Haw!

February 6, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter / 11 Comments

mystery-blogger-award I’ve been nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award by thewordsmith27!

This is so cool. I am beyond words. It has always been a dream of mine. But I never imagined that it would actually happen. Humbled. Yes, that is the word. Humbled and deeply honored.

So, when do I get that little statue of the gold man? Oh sorry, wrong award.

Seriously, I wish to thank thewordsmith27 for the nomination!

“The Mystery Blogger Award was created by Okoto Enigma. It is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.” The Rules:

Display the award logo on your blog.
List the rules.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and also provide a link to their blog.
Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.
Tell your readers three things about yourself.
Answer five questions from the nominator.
Nominate anywhere near ten to twenty bloggers. Notify them by leaving a comment on their blogs.
Ask your nominees any five questions of your choice, including one weird or funny question.
Share the link to your best post.

Here are Three Things About Me:

I have always loved books and learned how to read well before kindergarten. I remember going to the library in our small town to check out books. There was a limit on the number of books, I think the most you could check out at any one time was five. Of course, I was always over the limit, but sometimes the librarian would let me slide, or I managed to slip a couple of my books onto baby brother’s stack of one. I went twice a week.
In school, they published summer reading lists. I would grab one for several grades above me, check off the ones that I had already read and add the others to help round out “my” summer reading list. I was in every honor class my school offered and was granted early admissions to college so I could take college course while I was still technically in high school.
Writing for me, was a natural progression from all that reading. Countless, instructors told me writing was the field I should pursue. But, I needed a job that would pay the bills. So, I majored in accounting, got my CPA and put writing on hold. Until now.

My five questions from thewordsmith27

dune frank_herbert first_edition

1. What’s your favourite quote and why?

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Dune

The first time I read Dune these words entered every fiber of my being. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I have stood in my “Face my fear” Dune stance and let the fear pass so I could get on with whatever difficult task lay ahead of me.

Photo credit: hyku via VisualHunt.com / CC BY

2. If you could bring one famous person back to life, who would it be, and why?
I tend to agree with the Genie from Aladdin when he says:

“I can’t bring people back from the dead. It’s not a pretty picture…”

But if I had to bring one person back I would choose my grandmother so that l could bombard her with questions that pertain to the book I am writing. I know, not “famous” but the things she saw could really help me out right now.

3. What is your favourite book/poem?

Photo credit: kennymatic via Visualhunt.com / CC BY

I truly hope I have not yet read my favorite book or poem. I do have a slew of “go to” authors.

For poems:
Emily Dickinson, E. E. Cummings, Robert Frost,
Derek Walcott – Omeros,
Yeats, Poe, Angelou,
Blake, Shakespeare, Langston Hughes
Best to end with just these few.

For Books:
TH White, Isaac Asimov, Robert Jordan, John Muir, Shakespeare, James A Michener, Julia Child, Beowulf, Chaucer (in old English), Lao Tzu, Margaret Mitchell, Tracy Chevalier, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Carl Sandburg, Dante. These are a sampling of those that crowd my numerous bookshelves.

4. What gives you the inspiration to write?
It seems that inspiration is not the motivation for writing, rather it is the weight of the untold stories that populate my head, demanding to see the light of day. At this point it is almost self-preservation. I counted. There are ten books in various stages of development and numerous short stories vying for their turn at the keyboard.

5. What is happiness to you? Happiness is finally being able to do the thing I love.

My nominees are:

Its PH mystery-blogger-award
Bikurgurl
Millie Thom
4amwriter.com
Miss Sissinghurst
The Nostalgia Diaries
Something Over Tea
Pat Bean’s blog
Single Dads are Cool!
Brilliant Viewpoint

Anyone else who’s reading this and would like to participate, please consider yourselves nominated.

My questions to the above nominees:

Who would play you in the movie of your life?
What is your inspiration for writing?
Where would you live, if money didn’t matter?
When did (or will) you consider yourself successful?
Why did you start blogging?

The post I like best is Fathom.

A Little Experiment

February 3, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter / 11 Comments

Call me Guinea Pig.

Photo credit: wcn247 via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC

Over the last few months I have been on a quest to discover the right process, the right combination of factors to produce a known and quantifiable result. To be precise I have been searching for the method I need to employ to get my first draft completed.

I have been doing the normal things you do when you start out, tracking number of words written, duration of writing and any comments on the writing period. The results at first were great. But you must account for the initial euphoria that ensues with anything new and exciting.

At the same time, I was studying other processes people employ in various disciplines. From those observations one thing emerged which ran across all types of disciplines. Except writing. That one thing was a warm up. Professionals tended to utilized some type of warm up prior to beginning the real work. Athletes, musicians, singers, painters, photographers, they all did a warm up before they started the real task in front of them. The warm up looked different for each of them, but it was there.

untitled-10

I also happened across a program that delved into how habits are formed. One telling comment stated that the most productive people have developed cues which trigger a habit allowing them to go thru the day without having to make real decisions.

How can I apply these seemingly different ideas to my writing? How do writers warm up? How can I set up a writing cue? Will doing any of this matter? Since I had been tracking my daily word count I could do something interesting. I overlaid the days I had posted to the blog with the daily word count and an interesting pattern began to emerge.

On days with an initial blog post prior to writing, the word count was generally higher than on days without a blog post. On days where the word count was not appreciably higher, the trend was that it took less time to write the same quantity of words.

Photo via Visualhunt

As with any light bulb moment, it raised more questions. Is a small writing piece really a “warm up” for writers? Can it be used as a cue to trigger the mental coding of a habit? Does the duration of the “warm up” significantly impact the number of words or the length of time to write those words? Does publishing to the blog have an impact? Is it a matter of how many words are written in the “warm up” or is it simply the “warm up” itself that triggers the habit? How do I tailor this for me?

These are my initial thoughts i.e. the experiment. I like writing to a photo prompt, so I will use a photo as my jumping off point. I will not specify any format or word count. Applying the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) algorithm it will be photo prompt, write, track, write on draft, track.

Let the experiment begin.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Sheer Terror

January 30, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter / 8 Comments

Photo credit: _parrish_ via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC

Some nights I wake up screaming.

The nightmare has come again to taunt me. Who in the world do I think I am? Declaring myself to be a writer. Declaring that I am going to be a published author. Presuming that I am good. What if I fail? Sheer terror consumes me.

What if I fail?

The thought is inconceivable. I have too much riding on this endeavor. Too many people to prove wrong. Too much to prove to myself. “I can’t fail” whispers the clam and measured voice. There is a plan and I am working the plan. Every day. The story has become a part of every atom within me. I feel anxious if a day passes and I am not able to press fingers to the keyboard to move the story to the page.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror. — Oscar Wilde

Now I am an optimist it seems. There is no way I can fail in my goal. The story is being written. I will revise and edit and rewrite to ensure that it is good. It will be published and I will write another and another.

Last week I only managed to add 2,500 words to my slowly increasing total. It doesn’t feel like nearly enough, but it is more than I had last week. Review the plan. Work the plan.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The Way

January 27, 2017January 27, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter / 4 Comments

photo by Ales Krivec via Unsplash

In the dark, the burden was heavier and filled with fear.
He made his way to the chapel where he got down on his knees.
As the light of dawn streamed in the windows, he knew he had been shown the way.

From Sonya’s 3LineTales at Only100Words. You can find the original prompt here . Thanks Sonya.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Riding High

January 23, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter

Photo credit: lars hammar via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-SA

You know climbing back into the saddle is not always the easiest thing to do. But, at long last I have managed to do just that.

Friday was a stellar day. The payoff for all those days where I felt like I was just grinding it out and not making any progress. Friday I added just over 2,000 words.

In one day, I was able to write more than the combined total for the entire week!

Sadly, life intruded this weekend, so no time logged at the keyboard. The good news is that the story is demanding to be written. I am off to obey.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Knocked Out

January 20, 2017 / JoHawkTheWriter

Photo credit: melderomero.com via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Getting stuck sucks. Some would say that I have failed in achieving my writing goals.

Here’s the question:

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.” – Abraham Lincoln

The answer: I might be down but I am not out. I won’t be content until I finish what I have set out to do. This is what I have managed:

Monday research and a little writing, a whopping total of 200 words.
Tuesday more research and few more words. 330 words to be exact.
Wednesday got me another 400 words.

Then there was yesterday. A little bit of fact checking and word count of just over 1,100. In the last four days I have added just over 2,000 words to the total. It’s not much. But the story is now demanding that I get fingers on the keyboard.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer