Working at a hotel I've learned, really messes up your schedule.
The times when everyone else is off work, I have to work. When I'm off, everyone else is at work. Getting off early for me means I get out on time at 11pm. Weekends no longer exist because hotels are open (and very busy) on the weekends. Especially in the summer. Hello, wedding and family reunion season! Saturdays become Mondays and Mondays are a welcome breather.
Basically, this is a really long way of saying I had totally forgotten today was Wednesday. Between work and getting reading for VEDA (SIGN UP HERE!), what day of the week I was on completely left my brain making me feel like Sam Winchester.
Only... it isn't Tuesday anymore. It's Wednesday.
I'm just confused.
Next week guys. NEXT WEEK I will have a for real actual blog post up.
In the meantime... how are you? Tell me about life! Do you get as confused about what day it is as I do? Maybe I need to get back to my old job at the preschool so I can have calendar time every day so I can learn the days of the week again.
So much of writing is sitting around trying to find the perfect word or the perfect phrase. I feel as though people think writers just sit down at the keyboard and the words and phrases fly out of their fingers with ease as they say beautiful and important things. That it's natural for them.
I don't know about you, but most of my writing is me staring at the blank screen thinking of the right words. Imagining scenes in my head, then typing it out and realizing it reads nothing like I thought it would, deleting everything, and starting over. I pull up thesaurus.com to try and find new words to use that might describe what I want to say in a better way. I pace circles around the house to try and figure it out. Then, sometimes after only getting a couple paragraphs on the page, I put it away and decide to think about it another day because I'm just writing myself into a rut.
When you write, you feel this pressure to have each word and sentence perfect. Each one needs to be meaningful and important.
"So many people set out to write a Novel of Great Importance. I just want to write stories that make people forget where they are. I want to make readers miss their stop. I want to make them smile and gasp and cheer. I want them to have fun."
When I read that, a wave of relief swept over me.
Lately, I've read a couple of those Novels of Great Importance. They have beautiful words and sentences and metaphors and say very important things about life and society. I read them and I agree saying "Yes, you are a great writer. Yes, this is very important. Good job. Gold star." Yet, I'm bored.
I don't lose myself in the story and forget where I am. I don't miss my train stop. I don't laugh or cheer or cry out loud. When the book is over I close it and say "Yup. That was very important and had a lot of important things to say. What's for lunch?"
Yet, we writers think this is what we need to create. The Novel of Great Importance. Or, perhaps, the Blog of Great Importance. We sit down and think "Yes! This will be the blog post where I have some great quote everyone will be talking about and will be pinned for everyone to be inspired by! This is the blog post that'll go viral and everyone will see what a great writer I am!"
That's not how it's supposed to be. The best writing, is the writing that comes from you. If the Novel/Blog of Great Importance isn't your style- don't write it. Pieces that are funny, or silly, or filled with fantasy and adventure, or about fashion, or art, or whatever it is you enjoy are the best ones. Because they are what you want to write about.
The bloggers who stay true to themselves and don't try to be something else are the ones I still follow. The novels that make me laugh and cry and get lost in their world, even if they are the "best" of literature, are the ones I will continually pick up and read.
This doesn't mean they aren't important or don't have fantastic messages. I keep going back to Harry Potter and how many important messages there were in that series. Yet, I wasn't bored to tears.
Last night I watched Legally Blonde and was reminded about how on the surface it's a silly girly comedy - but I find it to be one of the best feminist movies. The musical is the same way.
This is my writing advice. Write what you want to write and don't feel like you have to live up to some standard of what is considered "great" or "important." It doesn't mean you won't have writers block or days when you struggle to find the words. That will always happen. But write what you want to write. Whether it's a fun blog post, fanfiction, a silly story, about fashion and makeup, your family, or whatever. If it happens to be deep and meaningful, that's awesome. If it doesn't seem that way, who cares? Your best writing will come from you, not from being pretentious.
Linking up with Erica Jaquline for Writing Wednesday!
August is two weeks away. Can you believe July is half over? It's crazy pants!
But you know what it means, right?
VEDA IS COMING!
What is VEDA you ask?
It is Vlog Every Day August. A bunch of people on the Internet get together, brainstorm topic ideas, and then in August we film videos based on those topics every day and comment on each others videos. For the second year, Kirsti and I are teaming up to coordinate the WeBlogWeVlog VEDA and this year we are joined by Nico and Katherine. We've been emailing back and forth planning and plotting and sharing ideas. We have A LOT of thoughts for this year.
I first started doing VEDA a few years ago and it's how I got into vlogging and YouTube and it's so much fun. I've made a ton of friends during it I can't wait to see who joins us this year.
If you've thought about vlogging, VEDA is a great place to start because you have topics given out and a bunch of people who are right there to watch your videos.
Next week, we'll be getting a Google Doc ready so participants can all brainstorm what topics we want to discuss in August, then we'll also be posting a participant list so we all can find each others YouTube channels and Twitter accounts to subscribe and follow. Also be sure to follow WeBlogWeVlog on Twitter for more updates.
It's going to be totally awesome!
Aw, it's been awhile since I've made A Very Potter MUsical reference and used a GIF for them. My heart is happy.
So... go sign up!
And yes, I realize this whole blog post was a shameless plug/ad for VEDA. But I didn't have any other ideas for this week. SUE ME.
I've always loved journaling and having blank notebooks and journals. I love filling the pages with my thoughts and ideas and even when I have a journal I'm already using it's fun to wander around the journal section of the store to see what they have.
The idea of sitting down and writing in a journal every day is the dream. Writing out my hearts desires, my dreams, my failures, my fears, and having my memories there on the pages for me to go back and read upon later is what I've always imagined what journaling should be. I have old journals and diaries stored away in a box somewhere and from time to time I go back and dust them off and relive my childhood and high school days.
As I've gotten older, I haven't had the time or dedication to writing in my journal every single day. It's been said to help boost your creativity a habit to get into is to free write three pages each morning when you get up. I tried to do this for a little while, but I skipped one day and then one day became three days then three days became three weeks... you get the idea.
My method of journaling isn't quite bullet journaling, but more inspired by it. Honestly, it works and it's been awesome! When I have the chance, I still write out "real" journal entries, but I've really enjoyed using my journal more as a "catch all" for all of the random things through my day.
The Type of Journal I Use
There's nothing like a good leather journal. The one I've been using for awhile now is pictured above and I got it at Barnes and Noble. It's a soft leather, the pages open flat well, and there's a ribbon to use as a bookmark. But I don't use leather exclusively. In fact, the next journal I have lined up for when this one is all used (which is soon) is a Snow White one a friend got me for my birthday last year. So, whatever works for you!
Calendar
I've found when I'm planning out my blog and vlog, I need a calendar! I used to just schedule out what I was going to be doing for the blog and my YouTube channel on my main calendar, but something about it didn't feel right. So, I started to hand write a calendar in my journal and it works so much better. I highlight, make notes, etc. and it's lovely.
To Do List
I also have found I love having a to-do list. It helps to keep me organized and be sure I am on top of things and don't forget what I need to get done. Since what I need to do at work doesn't seep into my personal and home life, I leave that out, and I only make a list of personal things I need to do. Social media stuff, people I need to call, what songs I want to practice on the ukulele, etc. I have a to-do list for each week and I label each item at the end by which date it needs to be done by. Then, there is a little box next to each item so I can check it off when I'm done.
Brainstorming
When I'm brainstorming, especially for a writing project, I do much better handwriting it than anything else. Making lists, drawing maps and diagrams, etc. I've dedicated a couple pages in my journal for novel brainstorming. There are also pages with all of my ideas for blogging and vlogging. Most of my pages in my journal are of this nature. Lists, pages of quotes I find that I want to remember, brainstorming ideas, writing projects, my To-Be-Read lists, books I've completed, etc.
Organization
Because I use so many pages throughout the month, I had to think of a way to keep it all organized and know where everything was. In bullet-journaling they suggest having a table of contents. I've tried this in the past for journals, and it's never worked. This time, I made my own system.
First, I keep the ribbon bookmark with my calendar so it's there and ready the whole month.
Then, I got another bookmark which I keep at the next available page so when I need to start something new, it's at my fingertips and I don't need to go searching for a blank page.
For everything else, I use little sticky-note tabs.
I label them with a word or two of what their page contains, and I stick them on the side.
Someday, I hope I can do more of writing daily journal entries, and I do try to when I can. But, I've found having this system for journaling is wonderful too! It gives a little snap shot of my day-to-day life and what I'm thinking about and doing, and it keeps me organized. It's been awesome!
Do you journal? Do you have any sort of system that you use? How do you keep yourself organized?
I truly admire brave people. Those who are willing to step up and take a stand and risk it all. The people who can lay it all out there and be honest with everyone about their struggles The people who face discrimination every day and still walk out the door with their head held high. I admire those people. I wish I could be one of those people.
More often than not, when I do try to be one of those people, I end up blurting out something inappropriate or out of ignorance and it blows up in my face because I didn't think before I spoke. Therefore, causing more damage than doing good.
We're privileged to live in a time where we can witness some truly brave people. Among all of the battling, arguing, rioting, and fear, we can still see people standing out and reminding us there is hope. Taking down flags, getting married, embracing their true selves, or becoming the first African American woman to be a principal in a ballet company.
It's an exciting time to see the progress being made.
Friday morning I turned on my iPad to find rainbows flying across my screen with the news of the marriage equality ruling in the USA. People celebrating and turning their Facebook pictures into rainbows. For the first several hours, at least on my end of the Internet world, everyone was happy. Then of course, later, some of the backlash came.
I quietly retweeted one thing, and made a small statement on Facebook. Trying not to get noticed too much but also toeing the line of where I stood. Which, that in it of itself is annoying that we have to pick a side. No matter which side you pick, someone is going to think you're the bad guy. But that's another rant for another time. I liked a few comments and posts, but tried to stay relatively silent. The last time I had publicly stated something, there had been consequences and from then on I tried to be much more subtle about my opinions.
Later, a friend messaged me. We were in the same program in college and she figured out long before I did, that working in a church wasn't for her. We've talked in the past about how our views differ from most of those in the church and on Friday she thanked me for being so supportive of her opinions when she put them online. In turn, I told her I thought she was the brave one because she outright said her thoughts, while I just "liked" the comments.
The next day, one of my former college roommates changed her Facebook photo to be a rainbow. I'm not going to lie - I was surprised. She had always been more on the conservative and traditional side of things when we were in school. (I always respected her thoughts because I knew she had thought and prayed about them for a long time instead of just saying "That's how it's always been and I don't like change!") Then, as I thought about it and some of our conversations since graduating, it didn't surprise me all that much.
It got me to thinking. "If she can say something... maybe I can too." With that, I changed my Facebook picture too and braced myself for the backlash.
She and I talked after and we talked about our trains of thought on the matter and since we both are former workers for our Synod, some of the fears we had. Or, in reality, the fears I had. While I don't formally work in a church anymore, being vocal about opinions different than those in the church can be a scary thing.
She reminded me how the fears we have must only be a fraction of those who actually have been fighting for marriage equality, or haven't come out yet, or deal with the discrimination every day. She also encouraged me to be brave because "I bet there's more of us waiting in the wings!"
To be honest, I'm sure hardly anyone batted an eye at my Facebook profile. In fact, those who know me probably already knew my thoughts, or could at least guess.
All through high school and college I worked so hard at having the perfect Christian girl image where I read my Bible every day and upheld good values and sang my heart out in worship and had the perfect prayer for everything. Since then I've been letting go of that image and letting myself be me. Part of me wonders if I was the only one I was fooling.
But I figure, the least I can do is show my support for those who need it. Because, it's not about me. It's about showing them "Yes, I support you. I'm here for you while you fight the battle." Maybe, in a small way, I'm fighting it with them.
I'm still not the bravest person out there, and I probably never will be. In fact, in recent days I've admired a friend of mine who has been posting blogs putting it all out there about her emotions and past and I haven't even had the guts to tell her how much I admire it, and how I wish I was a better friend to her.
Through all of this, I've been thinking about a song from Hairspray. It was for the movie version and they sing it in the credits. "We've come so far but we've got so far to go..." While the musical mainly focuses on racism, the themes still apply to other rights as well.
We've all made so much progress in our country and in our world. (Did you know in Mozambique this week it is now legal to be gay? The USA isn't the only one making progress!) We should celebrate it and embrace it! If we don't, we'll get lost in hopelessness. But there's still a lot more to do. Let's all be brave, even if it is in our own quiet way. Then little by little, we'll keep making progress.
