FA+
Shop
What you write is inside of you
4 months ago
Happy Thursday morning, everyone.
This journal is brought to you by a fleeting thought. When it happens we seldom take notice except to, perhaps, smile - but it does happen; and then they are gone.
This is where your writing comes from. Your mind is like a sponge, soaking up your life's experiences, and then (sometimes) recalling them on demand - or - when it simply wants to hit you with a wet wash cloth.
Example: One of my other loves in life (aside from my lifelong partner) is fencing. In my time (yes, I'm old) I fenced just about everywhere you could imagine. I was at a competition held in a shopping mall once, where the strips were laid down in a walk through area with a domed ceiling. This made it a natural echo chamber.
Well, there is a move in fencing called an 'appel'. Originally, it was a stamping of the front foot to the ground, to produce a sound meant to distract or startle your opponent. It may precede a lunge, or be used merely as a distraction. Everything in life, however, evolves. The stamped foot soon became a verbal distraction. I remember fencers shouting, 'Eh La!' which was an understandably polite distraction. From there, came the acceptance of the guttural 'SHOUT'.
I decided I should try this out, so on my attack, I bellowed like the ugly old troll hiding beneath the bridge. It was one of those things that comes from deep within the chest.
I believe my attack did land, but there was an unforeseen result; the entire shopping mall went totally silent. All eyes were suddenly on me, and then; a baby began to cry.
I suddenly felt the urge to apologize to everyone at large.
Well... that was my fleeting thought snatched by the tail like a cheap helium balloon, and it still makes me smile.
My point - I'm sure I had one, and not just because it was a fencing story - oh yes - everyone's life has moments just like this one. They are what makes you the person/writer you are.
Now get out there and put some words on paper.
Vixyy
This journal is brought to you by a fleeting thought. When it happens we seldom take notice except to, perhaps, smile - but it does happen; and then they are gone.
This is where your writing comes from. Your mind is like a sponge, soaking up your life's experiences, and then (sometimes) recalling them on demand - or - when it simply wants to hit you with a wet wash cloth.
Example: One of my other loves in life (aside from my lifelong partner) is fencing. In my time (yes, I'm old) I fenced just about everywhere you could imagine. I was at a competition held in a shopping mall once, where the strips were laid down in a walk through area with a domed ceiling. This made it a natural echo chamber.
Well, there is a move in fencing called an 'appel'. Originally, it was a stamping of the front foot to the ground, to produce a sound meant to distract or startle your opponent. It may precede a lunge, or be used merely as a distraction. Everything in life, however, evolves. The stamped foot soon became a verbal distraction. I remember fencers shouting, 'Eh La!' which was an understandably polite distraction. From there, came the acceptance of the guttural 'SHOUT'.
I decided I should try this out, so on my attack, I bellowed like the ugly old troll hiding beneath the bridge. It was one of those things that comes from deep within the chest.
I believe my attack did land, but there was an unforeseen result; the entire shopping mall went totally silent. All eyes were suddenly on me, and then; a baby began to cry.
I suddenly felt the urge to apologize to everyone at large.
Well... that was my fleeting thought snatched by the tail like a cheap helium balloon, and it still makes me smile.
My point - I'm sure I had one, and not just because it was a fencing story - oh yes - everyone's life has moments just like this one. They are what makes you the person/writer you are.
Now get out there and put some words on paper.
Vixyy
Vix
Take your events. Your dreams. Your wrongs. When you failed and succeeded. Put a filter over them. Then another. Paint them with a color. Add a dash of character, mix in a splash of sound.
That is where your original idea can come from.
Vix
That's why I've even put it on my front page of both my accounts (here and IB); I have very, very many characters, lots and lots of them, and while none of them are ever considered to be alternate sona's, I still put a little bitty bit of myself in each and every one of them. Because the best writing is writing about what you know, and I know myself the best after all >~_^<
Vix
Learning it, and understanding it, are different things. What you know does not have to be book learned facts. You know emotions, the emotions you have felt in a moment. You can draw upon things like this, a fleeting moment of joy and embarrassment, to channel into a different situation. In my youth, I practiced martial arts. Tae Kwon Do. Got all the way to my 1st degree blackbelt. Yet, I have never once been in a real fight. But I can still channel that knowledge, that feeling of movement, that alternating fluidity and rigidity into a fight scene. The exhilaration of the moment.
We all have experiences, good, bad, mundane, profound, awkward, and amazing. That is what we know. Writing is channeling not just knowledge, but emotion through words. I don't know what the vastness of space looks like from 18 million lightyears away, but I know the sense of wonder looking at a night sky and wondering what's beyond those dots of light up there. Take these moments of your life, apply them to the story, and you can make other people feel that same wonder.
Sharing my own story from martial arts. My dojang gave awards for things during belt tests. Best shout, best form, best board break, that sort of thing. I was doing my last belt test before I would get ready for my black belt. I was sure I would not get such awards. They were for the lower belts to help encourage them. I understood this.
So when my name was called for best board break, where I had splintered the board into three pieces and sent one flying nearly into the audience, I was shocked and elated. I vividly remember that moment, even now. Over 20 years later, I still have not only that award, but the board that won it. I still smile and feel a sense of pride every time I look at it or remember it. I feel a great sense of accomplishment having gotten the blackbelt a few months later. Something I still hold as one of my greatest achievements, the first thing I did that had true value and meaning to me. And a sense of melancholy that it's so far behind me now, even if all I learned is a part of who I am today and aided in many more accomplishments afterwards.
Sorry, your post got me feeling a little nostalgic and wistful. Such is the power of words.
Vix
Vix
My biggest 'wet wash cloth' moment in writing was probably 'My god, I'm writing a heist movie.' where I stopped moving in the middle of the sidewalk when it hit me. It's hard to be a good writer if you aren't also a reader, with a lot of familiarity with the shapes of existing stories.
Vix
Vix
Good times, good times.
I was amazed one day. When giving a lesson to someone I showed them a 'bind', and was asked by the club manager and the two coaches, what that was. It would appear that many many many fencers have no working knowledge of the game they play.
Vix
Perhaps electronics has changed the sport from finesse to "who gets there first?"
I walked around the nose of the car and slapped the nearest one in the center of the chest, forcing him backwards, lying face-up on the hood. The sound of the slap echoed around the lot. On the spur of the moment, i got face to face with him and said in a guttural demon voice,
"Man said, get off his car."
He got. I glanced up, and the other punk was still standing there with his mouth open. A large, dark stain began at the crotch of his jeans and headed down one leg. After a second or two both ran off.
One day, I was discussing things with a young fellow just out of the Air Force, and boot camp came up. He told me that not only were the DI's not allowed to swear at the boots, each boot was given a yellow card and should they feel any pressure, they could wave the card and then given 15 minutes alone time.
I asked him what he would have done in the event an enemy was shooting at him - wave the card and ask them to please stop?
Vix
When Vrghr went through Basic Training at Lackland AFB for the USAF, we were the first unit not to be issued khaki uniforms as part of our initial load out. Everything was olive drab, no camo patterns. Now days, most troops don't even know that Khakis were one of the AF options at one time.
There were no "time outs" then, no "yellow cards", no prohibition against swearing or shouting at the troops. TI's were expected/encouraged to go "Full Metal Jacket" on the recruits to ensure those who came through it were fit to endure the stress of military life, not just physically but mentally.
One rule that I do recall; a TI (we had Tech Instructors, not Drill versions) was not permitted to touch a troop unless in self defense. But I distinctly remember them getting "THIS CLOSE" (fingers at 1 inch apart) with their "smoky bear" hat to bouncing off my forehead, and informing this neophyte of his shortfalls, shortcomings, his illegitimacy, and the likely disappointment of his parents at the results of their coupling (among other things). All at a volume to ensure that, not only did this troop get the message, but everyone else across the entire parade ground were aware as well. *hehe*
Then we got a raft of liberal "reforms" to make the military a "kinder, gentler, more inclusive" social experiment instead of a fighting force, and the yellow cards among other insanity showed up.
Vix
Wuffy has some hope that our current SecDef will put the military back on the track of being fighting force, first and foremost. But he's going to have to battle years of entrenched career officers and senior enlisted who were trained and groomed under the prior regimes. And a raft of junior enlisted/officers that came aboard with promises and expectations that this was just a big 'supper club' where they could get free schooling, housing and meals, special surgery support for their body modifications, lifetime medical care to follow, and an early retirement. All in a non-threatening, secure space.
As a SETA contractor, Vrghr is seeing a lot of direction coming down to reverse the worst of those policies. But they're running into resistance in the ranks from folks who signed up under the 'kinder/gentler' expectations, and don't want to give up their cushy careers for gritty, real-world effort. Things like "obeying" an order to get rid of DEI programs by changing the name but retaining the curriculum, or changing the title of an agency, but keeping the same purpose.
Still, wuff is seeing hope, and clinging to it.
Vix
Vix
Perhaps electronics has changed the sport from finesse to "who gets there first?"
We could fix this easily enough. Have the fencers fence in only a T-shirt and mask, and put what they used to call 'sharps' back on the tips. This was a small sharpened point with a washer in place so it could really only go skin deep. The object - it hurt, so you learned quickly what not to do in order to stay alive.
Vix