20 Jul 2010, Comments (2)

Favorite

Author: Stace

purple "creative journaling" "art journal" "visual journal" god

What’s your favorite color?

14 Jul 2010, Comments (1)

Under the Dreaming Tree

Author: Stace

Dreaming Tree cover

While I’d like to say I have been super-creatively-productive while away from my blog, I must confess that my journeys into both journaling and photography have been much curtailed over the past few months. I have been focusing very hard on finishing the first draft of a novel, which is monumental, yes, but the creative energy I was tapping for that project was very different from the creative energy that allows the type of expressive art I usually show here. It was a very intellectual type of creativity, intent on plot and structure and character development, necessary but not very enjoyable. Now that I am moving on to the rewriting phase, when I will start turning what I think is a good story into something artful, I can feel the need to play more with visual forms of self-expression start to kick in.

Echoes of Her

These are a couple pages from a new journal, just the start of a new journey!

12 Jul 2010, Comments (0)

True Moments

Author: Stace

A Path in the Woods

While working on some passages in my current WIP, I remembered this old post describing a moment where the world seemed altered by an unusual fall of light. I thought it worth sharing again, while I work on a much overdue post about creative journaling for writers.

February 6, 2009

It was sunset, nearly, and a break in the rain made it a good time to run a quick errand. The clouds were still thick overhead, and in the east gray mountains were only darker shapes against an ominous sky.

To the west the clouds had cleared. Not completely, but a swath of blue appeared along the horizon, somewhere in the general direction of the ocean. And in the moment before the storm front could reassert its dominance over the day, the sun cast a brief, ferocious light across the valley.

Everything was caught in its golden glow – trees, hills, houses – and transformed by the stark angle of the light into something … Unreal, I thought. But at the same time more real, as if the shadows of everyday life had been burned away, leaving Plato’s ideal forms to shine through. No longer did I see a tree, a hill, a house; I saw The Tree, The Hill, The House. I saw perfection.

I briefly wished I had a camera, to capture that moment, to keep it and to share it. Instead, I have to make do with a few inadequate words (and we know language is never perfect). But even if did have a camera, and I was an expert photographer, I doubt film or pixels could have done it justice. True moments aren’t something you can replicate at will. All you can share are shadows.

11 Jul 2010, Comments (2)

A Bend in the Road

Author: Stace

A Bend in the Road

I seem to have wandered away from my blog for a while…

7 Jun 2010, Comments (0)

Music Lessons

Author: Stace

my dusty violin by aileron@flickr

A while back, we attended an open rehearsal of my daughter’s middle school string orchestra. They were preparing for a festival at the time, and a guest conductor—he led California’s high school honor orchestra last year—came in to workshop with them, offering advice on how they could improve their overall performance.

As he worked with the kids, leading to a notable difference just in the space of an hour, I thought that much of what he said were suggestions I could apply to my creative growth as a writer. Here are a few of the lessons he offered, and how I have interpreted them for my own use.

  1. Play. Have fun. Feel the music. It’s better to have the right feeling than the right notes. Inexperienced musicians, like inexperienced writers, often worry too much about making sure they are doing everything correctly. When they make a mistake, they pause, try to go back and fix it. This is a disaster in the middle of a performance, and can untold difficulties for a writer as well. How often do you get hung up on a single word or sentence? Or maybe you spend so much time trying to make that first chapter just perfect that you never move on with the rest of the story? I know I’m guilty of both these faults, and when I get caught up in technical perfection (grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure) I lose the feeling behind the story I am trying to tell. And just as the most technically perfect violinist will sound dull if they convey no emotion in their performance, if a writer cannot feel the emotion at the heart of their story, neither will the audience.
  2. Listen to others, understand your part in the symphony. It always is a little strange listening to my daughter practice the violin at home. The music seems odd, disjointed and incomplete. Only when we attend a performance of the whole orchestra does her small part begin to make sense as part of an entire composition. Every note she plays affects and is affected by the notes the other musicians are playing. As a writer, I want to remember that this character, this scene, this chapter, are all part of a larger composition too. What I write on this page will affect how the reader understands what happens elsewhere in the story. It’s those blended notes that help shape the themes and sensibility of a novel, and elevate it beyond a series of plot events.
  3. Curve your wrist, and don’t hold to tight to your instrument or you’ll be out of pitch. What does being out of pitch mean for a writer? I have read any number of books that were technically well-written, including interesting plot, characters and settings, but left me feeling underwhelmed. I’d liken this to a book being out of pitch (and some readers will be more sensitive to it than others, just like I couldn’t tell you if a violin was in proper pitch or not). One possible reason for this failure, I think, is that the writer is holding too tightly to their instrument, or in other words, they are following all the rules of writing so closely that they have not left any room for magic and surprises, those unexpected discoveries that occur when you leave space for creative exploration. So loosen up. Let the music flow.
  4. Extend. Use the whole bow for the long notes. Contemporary writing, for the most part, doesn’t demand much from the English language. Our media-trained audiences want things quick and easy, and so long as plot and character are delivered, they won’t complain about the lack of artistry in the presentation. But I don’t want to be the writer who gives in to the standard of “good enough.” A whole note played with half the length of the bow will be good enough for most audiences—it’s the same note, filling the same amount of time—but there is a distinct difference in quality, an elegance that transforms the performer into an artist. Like that violinist, I want to use the full length of this marvelous instrument of mine, language, even if it’s not quick and easy. I want to extend myself to the utmost, and bring true artistry to what I write.


Photo credit: aileron@flickr

Coffee and Journal Pages

Whew! It’s been a while, but we’ve finally got a fresh new schedule for our FREE creative art journaling workshopping at It’s a Grind in Laguna Hills. We’ll be gathering on Sunday afternoons, now, the second Sunday of the month for the foreseeable future. Here is precise information on the next event:

June 13
It’s A Grind Coffeehouse
24801 Alicia Pkwy
Laguna Hills CA
TIME: 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Join me for an afternoon of exploration, creativity and fun as we use pictures, symbols and design to express our thoughts and dreams. Combine images and words to create a visual map to your own inner landscape, and find new tricks to invigorate your journal writing. No experience required!

Bring Your Own Journal, Sketchbook, Notebook or other Blank Book
Some supplies will be provided, but feel free to bring your own. Recommended: colored pencils, markers, pens, rubber stamps, stickers, decorative paper, glue, scissors, pictures, magazines, watercolors, paintbrushes, hole punches, etc.

I will have a small number of blank journals available for purchase, priced $5-$20 depending on the journal.

I hope we’ll see you there!

15 May 2010, Comments (2)

Zoo Pics

Author: Stace

Nin has recently posted some zoo pictures, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon by posting some pics of our trip to the San Diego Zoo last month. We’ll start off with the meerkats, who are not nearly as cute as you think they should be:

Meerkat

The hippos, though, were amazing. They ran laps around the pool as we watched, as graceful underwater as the butterflies in the atrium next door.

Hippo

The serval was probably the favorite of the big cats we saw that day, maybe because it was the only one that was actually awake:

Serval

The pandas were a little disappointing, because they sat with their backs to us most of the time. But still: pandas!

Panda

Panda Ears

This is probably a baby panda, about 8 months old. But given we saw no sign of a head or paws, it might just be a very clever ruse:

Baby Panda

Next time, we’ll have to try to get there at a different time of day, so we can see the little guy awake.

Speaking of little guys, we laughed at laughed at these baby warthogs climbing all over dad while he’s trying to have a nap. Mom’s probably off getting her hair permed.

Dad Boar Takes Care of the Kids

And the opposite of little is big, like this huge polar bear, passed out by the pool. This photo was taken through glass, and I probably wasn’t more than 10 feet from him.

Sleeping Polar Bear

Look at the size of his paws! I couldn’t even get a decent shot of the whole of him in the frame, that’s how close we were. Thank goodness for the glass, though. I wouldn’t want to encounter something this big face to face, I don’t think…

Polar Bear Paw

And finally, proof that whatever crazy things spec fiction writers invent, nature has already made something weirder: the harpy eagle. Really, this photo doesn’t do justice how truly strange looking this bird is.

Harpy Eagle

I’ll have some more pictures from our trip to the San Diego Wild Animal park in a few days.

14 May 2010, Comments (1)

Lunch Hour

Author: Stace

Lunch Hour

Flowers and butterflies drift in color, illuminating spring. ~Author Unknown

29 Mar 2010, Comments (4)

I Must be Dreaming

Author: Stace

I Must Be Dreaming

There’s a long, long trail a-winding into the land of my dreams. ~Stoddard King, Jr.

28 Mar 2010, Comments (4)

The Gold Fields of California

Author: Stace

A View

Did you think California was called the Golden State because of the 1849 gold rush?

Nope.

Poppy Fields

For a few brief weeks in the spring—and then only if there’s been enough rain in the winter—all the wildflowers come out to play upon the desert hillsides.

Wildflower Party

Poppies, forget-me-nots, goldfields, purple lupine, tidy tips and brittlebush…

True Gold

Sunwise

The hillsides, already blushing green with spring, take on a magical hue…

Goldfields

…and then you know where the real gold fields of California can be found.

Diamond Valley Lake

Diamond Valley Lake, Hemet, California. March 27, 2010.

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