Fictionary

Humans are often our own worst enemies due to the barriers we can unintentionally create for ourselves.  Writers, however, have adapted this innate aspect of mankind and warped it into a self mandated challenge to see how far low into the dark screaming abyss of self-mental torture we can plummet downward. We can be our own "cruel mistress", whether we mean to or not, because it's ingrained in our history.  For some, this came in the form of ""self medication" with enough liquor to kill the entire lineups of 90's Ozfests i.e. pretty much 1 out of every 3 authors you were forced to read in high school.  Others experimented with different drugs in a perpetual mental adventure towards new forms of euphoria (Jack Kersouac was fond of abusing newly discovered medicines and seeing how high they could make him).  Then there's Hunter S. Thompson, who's life goal was to replace his DNA with cocaine while saturating it in several hours of whiskey, because...

(New title for the blog is Fictionary now.  K?) One of the purposes for writing this blog is to reach out to others who find it difficult to pursue their creative interests.  I think the struggle to create for us is an illusion, however.  In our minds, artful expression is seen, to some degree, as an overflowing fountain of blissful magic that you tap into willy nilly whenever you want to work on your watershed masterpiece. So it comes as quite the shock to the system when your fanciful craft seems to be...hard.  All of a sudden, you remember those dishes in the cabinet that you just cleaned yesterday but you didn't CLEAN clean, so off to the kitchen you go.  Next, as you stare at the computer, you realize that, gee golly gosh, your spoons haven't been alphabetized in forever.  And then, as you get a fleeting notion to sit and write, you look up at your spinning fan and suddenly remember you need to relocate to Alaska.  Now!  So you load up yo...

From this point forward, I plan to tag the end of all my posts with a brief writing exercise.  Do with them as you please, but I would prefer that you actually DO them.  Some decent chunks of thought have gone into these.  And they're short, my god are they short.  They're so short that.....they're not too terribly tall.  If you do them, perhaps some monetary compensation will come your way.  Just give me your bank name and account number.  Oooroooooorrrrrrrr instead, you can give me sweet, nourishing attention. By the way, all of these will be timed exercises.  If you're used to ruminating over every single detail before you write any word, you're gonna have to let that part of you go temporarily.   Just keep pecking away at the keyboard (or keep scribbling away on your paper you dinosaur you) until the timer stops.  You have every permission in the world to be messy with the English language here. When your're channeled into a more s...

I'm sure the title of my blog makes very little sense outside of any context, so I'll give this my best shot.  The title is a reference to a sensation a lot of writers feel, especially those who struggle to turn writing into a routine practice without becoming discouraged.   Finding the words to come even remotely close to capturing the concepts floundering around in our heads is stressful.  Sometimes, it's easiest to convince yourself that the actual act of writing will ruin any ideas, no matter how great or profound they might be.  Conjuring the gall to convince yourself that your time at the keyboard/notepad/napkin/passed-out-friend's-forehead and sling out words is the uphill struggle.   As for the descent part?  Well, have you ever sweated bullets over text you rewrote five billion times and still didn't send it?  Have you ever scribbled some words of wisdom on the bathroom stall walls and suddenly become embarrassed because you just realized al...

Hi.  Morgan here.  I'm starting a writing blog.  Nothing original, just an excuse to get back into writing and turn it into a daily hobbit.  I'm uncertain where I'll end up with this, but I know this is the best starting point for me. You're more than welcome to follow along.  The ultimate plan is to make this microscopic bit of the interwebs just as much about the general practice of developing one's creative writing as it will be about my own writing. So, you know...I hope I don't suck at this.