I did not learn to paint by watching Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles.

My memory goes a long way back. I can remember my 4th birthday. I can remember the house I lived in when I was 4, in Trout Creek, Montana. I remember the kitchen table, at which I spilled my Kix cereal. This was the table where I was often found, stationed with a stack of paper and a bucket of crayons, or one of those shnazzy "paint with water" coloring books, where the pages changed color as you dripped a wet brush over them. I remember the brownish shag carpet, where I would sit with my brothers and watch Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles. I remember the crab apple tree outside and the acres of grass and forest and trees. I remember the mountains. 

I don't remember how I learned to love art. I don't remember if it was a sunset over the Rockies, or a duck in the pond across the road, or if I flipped through a National Geographic and became inspired. But I know I did not find my muse in cartoons or in my breakfast. I know that art--real art--was the catalyst for the art in me.

I did not learn to paint by watching Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles. I did not learn to write by reading the encyclopedia. Art begets art.

Every writer... every good writer... carries a densely packaged burden. The burden is layered--it is a desire to read, to fall into a book and be immersed in its pages and drown within the words. This is the first layer, the most foundational, the most fundamental, because we cannot create great written works if we do not fully experience the creation of what we love. The second layer is a love to write. This is the layer that you want to see in a writer. It is most visible and shows the most progress. 

It is with this thought that I confess, I haven't written in several months. Not just on this blog. I haven't written in Nondescript since at least November. It's not because I don't want to. I do. 

In my quiet moments, when I have already calmed myself with praying, when I am trying to fall asleep and I can't, I reach into the file cabinet in my brain and pull out Nondescript and I think. I watch faces float around my head, I envision conversations yet to come, I become enthralled with the strength Gwen has gained because I did not give up on making her a good character. I could have stopped, years ago, and I didn't, because she is worth more than being some passive heroine that no one cares about.

But I don't write. And it's because I know I haven't earned it.

The best writing comes from good reading. It doesn't have to be the greatest novel in history, in fact it could be a horrible book to at least remind you not to write horrible things. But! if you are writing fiction you should be reading fiction. (Unless you're doing research. But your fiction writing should be inspired by more than just research.)

When I haven't been reading a lot lately, I don't allow myself to write unless I am intensely inspired. In order to be connected with the whole thing--my authorship, potential readers, the characters, society, the whole world--I need small reminders that this is a real thing that real people will read and they will KNOW if I'm sounding technical or if my writing is more than just research or more than just "from the heart" crap on a page. It has to be both. It can't be one or the other.

With that said, I have been reading lately. And so I will be writing. 

Soon.

This is how it works

Welcome to September, the land of newness (changing colors) and oldness (everything dies) and all things Fall. My story, the novel, Nondescript, begins in September, with crunching leaves and crisp mornings. We open the story to the narration of a young woman named Gwen, traveling alone on a path in the woods. She finds herself in a familiar place after a long journey that no one knows she's taken.

And as much as I would love to begin telling you all about the world of Nondescript and why it's called that and why it's so important, I'm not going to give anyone that satisfaction just yet.

In my first post I explained what exactly this blog will be about, and you got to see a little bit of my writing style, and experience my vast knowledge of books. Vast. So vastly vast, you don't even know. Okay, maybe it's not that vast, but it was a part of me, and now I want to tell you a bit more about myself.

Here are some things you might want to know about me:
1. I am professionally inexperienced. That is, I write for pleasure, but not for money. (yet!) I would love to get paid to do what I love, but I'll do it without the pay because... well, this is what I love.
2. I am 25 years old, as of 5 days ago. You can read about it here. I will sincerely try not to have a quarter-life crisis while writing this blog.
3. The link above goes to my other (personal) blog, The Other Sock. It's sort of cool.
4. I might mention my husband now and then. I'm not making him up, I swear he's a real person. His name is Joey, and we've been married since June 2011.

We're awesome.

5. I graduated from TIU in May, with a degree in English & Secondary Education. I might discuss parts of college life, but it's unlikely I'll ever mention my Ed. classes. I probably won't talk about any of this until much later, when I explain how I wrote the novella for my creative writing course.

6. I like love  eatbreathesleep words and writing much more than so many things in the world, although they are closely paired with hot cups of coffee and the sound of the ocean. I am one of those people who doodle words because they are aesthetically pleasing; I own a Scrabble mug and a New York Times Crossword mug AND a mug with an ampersand on it. I might occasionally explain the difference between using words like "shouted" and "cursed." WORDS. They are important. Therefore, I will explain why the novel is called Nondescript.

Now, here are some things you might want to know about how this blog will function (eventually):

1. I really am going to explain every part of my novel-writing process. I will go in chronological order, from its birth to the present, telling you exactly how and why I decided to write things. I'm going to explain the development of characters, the main points of the plot, and any difficult or confusing concepts you might encounter.
2. I will attempt to describe the process of inspiration, and different elements that inspired the story, or key images/themes that are significant to the plot.

3. Any time I explain a character, there will be a link above ^ next to those other links--Home, A Description (which you should go read now!), The Other Sock, etc. 

4. Any time I explain a main plot point, a theme/image, an element that inspired the story, or a "landmark" of how I wrote Nondescript, there will be a link above. ^

That's all I have to say for now. If you want to, you can subscribe to the blog via e-mail and get updated when I write again in a week. Stay tuned, tell your friends! You can say you knew me when, haha.