The Story (WFMAD Day 6)

This month, I'm participating in a writing challenge called "Write Fifteen Minutes a Day", or WFMAD. To complete this challenge, I will be taking fifteen minutes or more (probably more) to post a new blog post every day in September. If you're tuning in late and would like to catch up, you can find the first blog post here, or skim through the links in the archive to the right.



If I've made anything clear in the six months (yes, six months) since I started this blog, it's that I love, love, love writing. But it occurred to me, earlier today, that I have yet to really explain why I love it so much.

Well, you're about to find out.

Have you ever found a book, or a tv show, or a movie, or virtually any kind of story that had you so sucked in that you weren't even aware of the real world moving around you? Have you ever finished some epic tale, and moved through your life for the following few days as though you were in a dream?

I'll admit, I probably allow myself to get too emotionally invested in these stories. After the Castle season 5 finale back in May, I was literally rolling on the floor because I could not handle the stuff that went down in that episode.

Put simply, I am a fangirl. (Hence why I have a Tumblr account. Tumblr is a hub for fangirls.)

But the most interesting part of all of this is that, despite the fact that these characters, these stories, these events are completely fictional, we can still allow ourselves to care. We allow ourselves to be absorbed into these imagined worlds and universes, to root for the people, to become so overwhelmed with happiness and sadness and anger and love that isn't actually ours to experience.

But that's the thing. It is ours.

I'll be blunt, sometimes reality really sucks. There are bills to pay, classes to attend, a job to excel in...we're expected to balance so many different aspects of our lives that sometimes all we want to do is just crawl in bed and stay there. Life is hard. I won't deny that.

But these stories...they're our escape. Our escape into another reality; sometimes even a more preferred one. They help influence us, and change our lives.

If you're like me, you're sure to have that one book that you've read a million times. That book that you recommend to every single person you encounter; the book that you've memorized just about every word of, and never get tired of cracking it open, just one more time. Sharing that book with others--seeing their faces as they, too, fall in love with the characters--is one of the best feelings in the world.

And for me, writing is like that feeling--only ten times better.

For a period of time, no matter how short, I get to immerse myself into a whole other world of my imagination. I get to BECOME my character; their friends become my friends, their worries are my worries. I get to experience things that I could never once hope to experience before, ever. I get to travel between worlds, fight in a rebellion, fall in love over and over and over again. I get to experience heartbreak, and joy, and overwhelming sadness that eats me up inside. And for a moment--just a single, fleeting moment--I get to forget about everything that happens in my less-than-average life. I get to forget about my homework, and my chores, and my job. I get to accomplish the impossible, to see this world and so many others through another pair of eyes.

I get to escape, and live, without consequence.

Sure, I always come back. I have to. I still have to manage my relationships, answer emails, make money, do laundry. I still have to stay connected to this world, to keep studying and fighting on, even when I would sometimes rather just curl up and ignore everything.

But my world is always waiting for me. Always waiting to comfort me, to allow me to fly, to dream, to experience the happy endings that reality says are impossible.

And that, my dear readers, is why I write.

Until later,

- Justyne

Computer vs. Paper (WFMAD Day 5)

I love writing. You know this; I know this. But the problem with writing is that there are about a zillion different ways to do it; paper and pen, laptops, desktops, iPads, cellular phones, etc etc. Everyone has their preferences.

Except for me, that is.

I don't really have a preferred way to write, persay. I just write in whatever way I can. There's definitely nothing wrong with this, because it gives me the opportunity to write wherever I am (and makes it harder for me to come up with excuses to not). The problem with this, though, is that because I use so many different things to record my thoughts / writing--my phone, my journal, my computer--I tend to, uh....misplace some of my writing. So sometimes, I do wish I could stick to just one platform.

Despite my lack of loyalty to writing mediums, different tools definitely have different things going for them. I'll stick with the two basic ones for now: good, old-fashioned paper and pen, and my trust passion purple Dell laptop.

Paper:

• You can take it anywhere. No need for batteries or electrical outlets, and you don't have anything to turn off when you're sitting in an airplane about to depart! It's total freedom in the bottom of your bag!
• Fresh paper is pretty. Am I the only one who loves the sight / feeling of a fresh, unmarked piece of paper? No? Yes?
• No boot-up time.You don't have to wait five minutes for it to turn on, potentially losing track of the thought you wanted to write down. It also gives you more time to write!
• You can write during class and nobody notices. I mean, uh, you can write before and after class with ease! Yeah, that's what I meant...

Computer:

• Typing is faster than writing by hand. At least for me, it is. I type probably twice as fast than I write.
• You can create multiple copies. As long as you properly back up your files (I use Dropbox, myself), you don't have to worry about spilling coffee or juice or chocolate milk or anything on your WIP and losing everything. It's perfectly safe! (Your computer, however, probably is not. So please be careful.)
• No hand cramps. The unfortunate setback of writing cursively. Your hand starts to hurt like heck after a while.
• No misplaced projects. Face it. It's a lot harder to lose computer files than stray pieces of paper. (If you have them properly backed up, anyway.)

Maybe someday I'll actually make up my mind and pick one to stick with.

Probably not.

Until later,

- Justyne

That Time of Year (WFMAD Day 4)

That's right, folks. My birthday has passed, which means....

...it's time to start counting down the days until Christmas! :D

(For those of you who don't already know, I love Christmas. Like a lot.)

It's also, however, the beginning of the school year.

For many of my friends, school has already started, and for my sisters, it begins tomorrow; which means that summer, as we know it, is over. I've always loved summer, but I've never been quite so sad to see it end before.

Okay, I'll be honest for a minute: after hearing about everybody heading back to school, and starting a fresh new academic year, I do feel a little bit left out of the excitement. I enjoyed the year I spent at UPEI--I loved the school, the city, the people I met. Even though English class was the bane of my existence, I did thoroughly enjoy most of my other classes. And if there were enough of those classes for me to take, I'd go back in a heartbeat.

But that's the whole reason I took a year off, now, isn't it? There wasn't any program offered by that school that I felt interested in enough to take full time for four years, or make a career out of. I was spending my time on something that I didn't like and wanted almost nothing to do with.

It's one of those "absence makes the heart grow fonder" things, I think. I know that if I went back, I'd be happy and excited for a total of five minutes before reality sets in and I'm stuck with five hours worth of homework every night. I'd be slightly annoyed with myself for going back, and I know that, which is why I decided to stay home this year.

I don't regret this decision, nor do I regret the year I spent at UPEI (regardless of how much I may have hated English class). I'm happy with where I am now, how I got here, and what I'm working towards this year.

So good luck to my friends beginning the school year! Whatever school you're attending, whatever grade you're in, I hope that you manage to keep your locker clean, your notes neat, and your homework finished before 2 am.

Until later,

- Justyne

Clichés (WFMAD Day 3)

Whenever I pictured being a writer--like a professional writer, who doesn't need a second job to pay the bills--I pictured several different scenarios:

• Sitting in my pyjamas all day, every day, writing. (I have since realized that this is pretty much not going to happen and am only minorly disappointed about this.)
• Living in a car, driving all over the continent, while writing. (Judging from the fact that I don't know how to drive yet this is also fairly improbable.)
• Sitting in a coffee shop, typing away at my computer, while elegantly sipping...well, coffee. (This is probably the most, if not the only likely scenario of the three.)

Of the three of them, I think the last one is probably the most clichéd of all writer stereotypes. I always, always hear people on twitter and in interviews and on other blogs talking about how they go to their local Starbucks or Tim Hortons to get their writing done. It's always seemed like the writerly thing to do. 

And so the other day, finding myself with the day off and quite a bit of time to spare, I hopped on my bike and rode on down to the local Tim Hortons, buying myself an iced capp and writing there for about an hour.

That's right. I did the cliché writer thing.

It actually worked out a lot better than I originally expected. There wasn't a drastic increase in the writing I produced, but it provided a nice little atmosphere that I enjoyed. I have trouble sometimes with finding a balance between dead silence and too much noise, and I think that all of the background noise from the restaurant--the people chatting, the workers taking orders, etc etc--formed that balance, which was fantastic.

Of course, that didn't stop me from getting distracted by Twitter, but I digress.

I can definitely see myself going back to Timmies to write sometime, but how soon that actually happens depends on my work schedule and how lazy I am.

Because let's face it: I'm really, really lazy.

Until later,

- Justyne

Happy Birthday to Me! (WFMAD Day 2)

Dust sprinkled down onto the young child’s face, sparkling in the moonlight as it faded away into nothing. The child rolled over, as dreams invisible to the pixie’s eyes sparked through his slumbering mind. The tiny pixie, her job done, flew silently out the open window, moving onto the next house as she made her rounds through the darkened neigbourhood.

~~

That's right, it's my birthday today! That means cake. And ice cream.

Now for a small explanation for the excerpt above. My sister gave me a set of "Inspiration Dice" for my birthday, which are just about the coolest things I've ever used ever.

Each colour corresponds to a different aspect of your story, and when you roll them they give you ideas / prompts / challenges for your story. The little blurb at the top was inspired by my first ever roll of the dice.

I'm definitely gonna have a blast with these~

Until later,

- Justyne 

Spontaneous Blog Challenge! (WFMAD Day 1)

So I've been meaning to do a blog challenge for a while, but decided spontaneously to do it today, thanks to this blog post I discovered earlier.

There's a nice little writing challenge going around, entitled WFMAD (Write Fifteen Minutes A Day). Basically you just write for 15 minutes a day every day for a month.

I've never heard of this before, never done this before, but it sounds like a fairly easy, fun little challenge. I've tweaked it a little bit, though; instead of just writing in general, I'm going to make one blog post, every day in September. :) It takes me well over fifteen minutes to write a blog post sometimes, and if for whatever reason it doesn't, I can make up the difference elsewhere, with other projects. Either way, I get to write more, and you all get to be spammed with more blog posts! Yaaaay!

If you're having trouble keeping up to date with these blog posts, there are several ways you can do so more easily:

1. If you have a Google account, you can sign up for my posts to show up in your Blogger Reading List, by going to your Blogger dashboard and clicking "Add" on the left hand side, underneath your own list of blogs (if you have any, that is). Just type in my URL--"talesoftheunpublished.blogspot.ca"--and any future blog posts will appear right in your feed!
2. You can follow me on Twitter. While you'll also get spammed with my daily, fairly useless activities, you'll also get notified whenever I post a new blog update. 
3. If you don't have a Google OR a Twitter account, you can also get notified via email. If you would just direct your attention to the right-hand side of this page, right under the post archive and "About Me" blurb is a short little form entitled "Follow by Email". Just plug your email address into that little box and hit "Submit". Voilá! Now your email inbox will be spammed with updates, as well!

That about does it for today. I look forward to harassing you all with more blog posts!

Until later,

- Justyne

Surprise Visits and Juggling

Oh, how I love surprising people!

This past Tuesday I found myself in Saskatchewan, surprising the close friend pictured above (on the left; I'm on the right). This is something that I've been planning with her boyfriend for about a month or so now, and I was so, so, SO happy to finally get the chance to do it! Even though I only got to spend one full day with her, seeing her was fantastic and I had so much fun. :)

Now, moving on.

Am I the only one who sucks at juggling? Not the physical, three-balls-three-bowling-pins kind of juggling (although I suck at that, too). I'm talking about juggling in the figurative sense; juggling work, juggling school, juggling family and friends and sleep. Juggling time.

I've always sucked at this. It never mattered how many to-do lists, schedules, resolutions, plans, or promises I made; one thing would always end up taking precedence over the others. Sometimes it was writing. Sometimes it was time with friends. Sometimes it was Sims. (A lot of the time it was Sims.) I favour one thing over the others, and focus on that for days, weeks...sometimes even months, if I'm into it enough.

I'm the same way with my writing projects, too, now that I think about it. I start one project. I work on it for days, weeks, months. Then I get bored; I switch to another project, or start a new one entirely. It's because of this that I have so many unfinished short stories, and why I'm always jumping back and forth between writing projects. It's part of the reason why I have such a hard time finishing the things that I start.

It's frustrating. Reeeaaally frustrating. It's frustrating because I have such a short attention span, and because--despite all they taught me about time management in university--I still fail to be good at it.

I love wangin' it. I love the spontaneity, the excitement, the freedom that comes from not planning every second of your day, every day of your life. But sometimes, it does make it hard to get stuff done. It's hard to juggle when you don't know how many balls are about the get thrown your way.

(Ooooooh check me out, using all of my fancy-shmancy metaphors. I'm deep.)

It takes practice, I think. A lot of practice.

But hey, I have the next 12 months ahead of me to practice. I'm sure I'll get it right.

Eventually.

Until later,

- Justyne