1. What makes it possible for spiders to crawl on ceilings?
2. What if vegetables were the best tasting thing on earth and chocolate tasted horrible?
3. What time is it when the rooster crows?
4. What do you get when you cross an elephant with a duck?
5. What if our noses were upside down? Would we drown when it rains?
6. What is the most magical thing ever?
7. What colour is the sky in your world?
8. What is shiny, has four wheels and flies in the summer?
9. What was the first word you ever read?
10. What makes the world go ’round?
As always, answer all the questions for all the points. Bonus points if you come up with your own “What” question – double the points if I can’t come up with a witty response.
I’m doing a lot of squinting this morning. No, wait, it’s afternoon already. I’m actually typing this with my eyes closed – thank goodness I learned to touch type. You see, (because I can’t) I haven’t been eating enough carrots in the past few days, and so I’m having a hard time, well, seeing. That’s why I haven’t been around today. Normally I’m all over everyone’s SoCS posts, and so I apologize.
The strangest thing today though seems to be that no matter how hard I squint, WordPress is telling me that there is one person flying around the globe looking at my posts. While I find this amazing, I do find it a little hard to believe. Have you noticed this too?
But really, I digress. My sight is the one thing I figure I’m losing more than anything else and it’s one of those things that I haven’t really thought about – at least not until it really started going downhill. I rely on my eyes to read, to write (except right now, my eyes are still closed. I hate to think how many typos I’m going to have to fix.) to get around my house… hell – to drive! I’m the only one who can take my kids to all their appointments. And the appointments are why I don’t work. EVERYTHING depends on my being able to see.
Lutein. It’s the thing carrots contain that is good for eye health. I think that’s how you spell it – I can’t see to google it. Even the word “google” reminds me of eyesight.
Protect your eyes, people. Sight is one of your greatest assets. Don’t take it for granted.
You turn on your computer on a weekend morning and sit down with your coffee to check your WordPress stats. You see not much has happened since you dragged yourself off to bed the night before so you open your reader. And there it begins. One great post by that blogger whose posts you never miss, followed by reading all the comments and then on to the next post, or the next blog…
What seems like an hour later you’re turning on the light because it’s gotten dark outside and … where did that empty chocolate wrapper come from? You get up to waddle to the kitchen for a glass of water and realize it was actually a pound of chocolate you consumed after you fell down the rabbit hole that is WordPress Wonderland and got lost in the maze of fascinating posts, pictures, recipes and laughter.
It never ceases to amaze me how much unique content can be found here on WordPress. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something even better, more interesting, more inspiring and always time-consuming comes along to pull me in and keep me seated. And it’s hard! – really hard to stop sometimes. Finding the willpower to walk away from the computer and tidy up my house… It’s almost a no-brainer, for me anyway, which I’d rather be doing. Even editing my novel gets put aside for that post that just popped up…
It’s Friday, and time for the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! It’s been a while since I really left the prompt up to you so I’m going to make this one of those weeks. I hope you enjoy the challenge!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: the letter “s.” Write the first thing that comes to mind when you sit down to compose your SoCS post!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
Aside from the fact that I can’t usually find a thing I’m looking for in my house if I haven’t seen it in the previous two days (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but the frustration makes it feel that way) most of my lost things lately have been inside my own head.
Concentration. It’s what it all comes down to. Having a thousand things go through my head at once (disclaimer: this post will include many exaggerations. And by many I mean about a million or so.) is conductive to forgetting everything. For instance, twice this morning on my paper route I walked past a house I was supposed to deliver to because I have my novel in my head. A particular scene that I’ve been pondering… can’t remember now which one…
Too many people to take care of, (the last of which is ALWAYS me (exaggeration)) too little money to do all the crazy things my kids demand of me (i.e. taking the bus to the mall which costs $500 each way compared to driving the car which costs only pennies) (guess which one of those is an exaggeration. Right. The pennies one.), and where was I… Oh yeah. Not having enough time to write and edit, and read and CREATE! That’s gotta be the worst because it’s what keeps me sane. So I create in my head while I’m supposed to be doing other things. Like delivering the paper. And running red lights. And floundering around like a beached fish, gasping for air and dying… dying … dyin… dyi… d.
I’m such a drama queen this morning. Time to find some sense in it all.
It’s time once again for the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Hopefully you didn’t have any trouble finding your way here this week. Please note: whichever blog of mine is on your screen (whether this one or the fiction one) you can find a link to the other one directly below the header photo on the right hand side. With that thought, and in the spirit of stream of consciousness writing, why don’t I just throw caution to the wind and catch the first idea that came to mind?
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “find.” Use the word somewhere in your post or make it your theme, but most of all, let the word into your mind and see what flies out!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
There are many writers out there who craft their stories based on a “what if” situation. They will come up with a scenario, such as “what if a meteor hit the earth?” or “what if a guy goes to the store and finds all the cars in the parking lot stacked on top of each other?”
These two scenarios may sound very similar, but they’re not. Yes, both start with the same three words, but the difference is this: the first revolves around a plot. The plot has yet to be populated by humans (assuming there are humans left alive after the meteor hit). The second scenario already has a human in it. Here may be the difference between a plot-driven story and a character-driven one.
For me, populating a story that contains a story first (aforementioned meteor crashing down) is near impossible. I can’t wrap my head around a crowd of people who have been plunked down in the middle of a situation. But give me a person to work with first, and I’m off and running. What any ONE person would do in a strange situation is fairly unique to that one person. That, to me, gives a story its excitement and its hook, if you will.
This whole topic came about when I started to think about how difficult it is for me to write a short story. Given a plot, I may be able to bang out a few words. But when I get my head wrapped around a character I find it hard to let go after just a few hundred words. I get attached to my characters very easily, and once I have them in my head I don’t just want to tell a bit of their story, I want to tell it all. Before I know it, I’m well on my way into a novel.
When I first began writing, I belonged to a Yahoo group in which a bunch of writers developed characters who not only interacted with one another, they told each other stories of their lives before they met one another. Quite like anyone would in real life. So I’m thinking about writing a character on my fiction blog rather than attempting and consistently failing to write short stories. Just a thought at the moment.
The character-driven story is a subject very dear to my heart. My characters become almost like family to me, much as the characters do in some of the novels I read. Especially the ones I’m sad to put down when they’re finished.
I’d like to hear from the writers out there – do you write character-driven or plot-driven stories? Have you ever ventured out of your comfort zone and tried the other one?
And from the readers – have you ever become attached to a character that was so well written, you never wanted their story to end?
My trip to Ottawa to go backstage at the National Arts Centre was amazing! I managed to talk to a few of the staff members, including stage managers, prop builders, and lighting staff, I ate lunch in the green room, and took loads of photos.
Photo from one of the box seats
There are four stages there; the seating for the largest is above.
View from the back of the stage
I found out some handy tidbits of info. It is indeed possible to get horses on stage (in my novel, my character uses horses in his magic act). I was told they’ve had an elephant on this stage.
The stage will also hold a thirty foot ladder
My novel also has a ladder as a prop. I discovered yesterday how tall it can be – and also how they would set it up so it won’t fall.
The backstage corridors are like a maze. I got lost.
The ladies chorus dressing room
Getting ready to go onstage
(No, that’s not me.)
I had to find out what this was!
Apparently, a vomitory in a theatre isn’t somewhere you go to upchuck your lunch. It’s a quick exit from the stage. I learned something new!
I actually learned a lot of things–details–I will use in my novel. Even if the whole ten hour trip results in the fact that I know how to get a large animal on stage, that I know how many rungs my magician’s assistant will have to climb and whether they enter and exit stage left or right–and all this results in a couple of sentences or a paragraph–I will have accurate details! An essential part of any novel worth its weight, in my estimation.
I’ve been trying to find ways to get more people to follow my fiction blog. I realize that fiction doesn’t tend to be as popular as real life sorts of sites, like this one; I think that’s partly because fiction is more subjective. If the first piece someone reads isn’t quite their cup of tea, they’re more likely to skip the whole thing. Which is, not so oddly enough, why it’s so important to have a great ‘hook’ at the beginning of a story.
But I digress.
In an attempt to get more bloggers to go to my fiction blog–to see that it exists–I’ve decided to make it my primary blog for a week. What this means is, if you click on my name, say, in the comment section of a post, the link will take you to “Inspiration in Progress” instead of here: “Life in Progress.”
I’m telling you this because if it annoys you, my regular followers, I’ll change it back. But I need you to let me know. The place to do it is in the comment section below.
I’ll make the change Monday morning, since I won’t be around for most of today.
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