The Power of "Once Upon a Time"

Guess what this month is? It's February and that means . . . Fantasy Month! Jenelle Schmidt started this lovely link-up where bloggers come together to talk and rave about fantasy for all of February! Because fantasy is an amazing, magical genre and deserves an entire month to itself. ;)

So you know what month it is now. But let's go a bit deeper - can you tell what day it is? Today, according to my calendar, is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day. And so, in honor of this month and this most esteemed holiday, I want to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was an ordinary little girl who lived in an ordinary house with an (extra)ordinary family. This girl loved to read and always had a book in her hand. She read many books, and some of the stories that she read the most were fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Anderson, and Andrew Lang. She had read them all, and reread them again and again.

Her reading was useful - she knew how to battle dragons and trick bridge trolls and had followed so many princes to save the princess that she knew how to save herself. And one day, this little girl decided that she was going create her own story.

"Once upon a time," she wrote (because she knew the best stories start that way) "there was an ordinary girl who went on an adventure."

And so she became a writer. And (big surprise) this girl was me. It was fairy tales that brought me into writing, that ensnared me in reading. Simple fairy tales have played a large role in my life, and I know many of these stories like the back of my hand. Or - at least one version of the story. 

When they hear "fairy tale," some people first think of dancing candlesticks singing about French cuisine. But let's be clear - as enchanting and sweet as they may be, we're not talking about Disney stories. In fact, did you know that the original fairy tales weren't made for children? They were originally written for adults, and when they were watered down to be told to children, they were still the "be-good-or-else-you'll-die-a-horrible-death" kind.

Why did these silly, plot-holed filled stories survive the test of time? What was it about them that captured the hearts of so many people?

We hear fairy tales and associate them with possibility. No one says "Little Red Riding Hood should have been dead you idiots, not pulled out of the wolf's stomach and ready to conquer the world." Or, if they do, they're quickly silenced.

These stories give us hope. It's comforting when the wicked stepmother is foiled because it shows that when it comes to good vs. evil, good will triumph in the end. We see the hero (or heroine) fight for their destiny, no matter what opposes them.

As readers, "Once upon a time" teaches us that anything is possible. And when we come out of fairy tales and back to real life, we can look at our own future knowing that we can fight our own evils. We can can conquer our destiny. (*Cough*Or we'll be like the little mermaid and turn into sea foam.*Cough*)

And as writers, "Once upon a time" teaches us that words are powerful. Fairy tales taught me that I could make magic - and "Once upon a time" was my magic spell. I saw that after those words, anything could happen, and realized that also meant I could make anything happen.

And so, today I leave you with a reminder about the power of words. Fairy tales are beloved stories that have weathered ages of telling and retelling, but they do more than just entertain us. They teach us to dream - and remind us that anything is possible when we do cross this gate of "Once upon a time." 

Happy Tell a Fairy Tale Day! What are your favorite fairy tales? Or tell me a story - I would love to hear your stories and your thoughts. 

Typing vs. Writing by Hand

What is the sound of writing and creativity to you? Is it the clicking of keys on a keyboard? Or the scratch of a pen or pencil on paper? Do any of you ever handwrite any of your stories anymore?

Writing by hand and typing are two different processes you can take when you write a story. Both are writing, yes, but both are so different from each other. I've done a fair share of creative writing using both methods, and today, I'm going to talk about the pros and cons of each of them.

It's faster. I know people who can type faster than they can think, especially faster than they can think of words to write down. So when you type, your hands don't have any problem keeping up with your thoughts. (Especially if you compare it to writing everything out by hand!)

It's easier to change things. If I just misspelled a word at the beginning of this sentence (like I actually did, haha), I can fix it and no one would know. If I was handwriting? Well, I could erase the mistake - if I was using a pencil. Or I could cross it out, leaving an ugly disfigurement to the paper. Or I could let it be and pray no one minds too much. Typing gives me the freedom to make mistakes and fix them, and lets me stay focused on what's right for the story.

It's so much easier to share. Beta-reading, critiquing, or just showing others your work is hard when the only copy out there is in a notebook. But a typed document can be copied and shared in a few seconds. This can also work to the author's advantage in other times. Recently, I was at the library without my laptop, and had time to kill. I was able to log online and go to Google Docs, and work on my novel from there.

But typing does have its downsides. I think the biggest one is that it's so easy to get disconnected to your story. I find it similar to digital books and print books; for me, it's harder to feel emotion and connection to the story when it's separated from me by a screen. Typing can feel so clinical, so mind-numbing and receptive, that it's harder to focus on the content that you're writing.

You feel productive, like a millionaire tech boss. Alright, not as serious, but surely I'm not the only one that feels like an important, productive company owner or tech guru when my fingers are flying over the keys like crazy? The sound of clickety-clackity busy-ness? Come on guys, you know you feel it.

As our technology advanced, typing becomes more and more viable. However, there are some things that I think technology can never perfect, and writing by hand also has its merits.

It helps focus. Writing by hand takes time - your hand literally cannot keep up with your brain. And that means that for every word that you write, you have time to think about it. You have a few extra seconds to decide if you really want to chose that word or follow that little plot bunny.

It improves creativity. According to multiple studies, writing improves creativity, and allows you to think of more options. From personal experience, I can vouch for this. There's so much freedom when you have a pen in hand that can glide down a page. That sense of freedom kind lets me relax and breathe - sets my mind free, you could say.

It's portable. When I didn't have a laptop, this meant I could write from any room in the house instead of the family's desktop. Once I got my first (clunky, heavy) laptop, writing in a notebook meant I could write on the go. With my second (oh-so-much-lighter) laptop, writing by hand means that I don't need to carry my laptop around in a large backpack or purse, and I can pull out a small notebook in just a few seconds.

It's slow. Like typing, writing by hand does have its fair share of cons. I know that I discussed how great writing slowly is, but there's also a negative side to it. You can start to over-think things, and start to entertain doubts about your project and your writing in general. when you go slow, you can plan and that's great, but there comes a time when you may be constantly questioning whether this word or that word really works there.

You feel like an author. A steaming mug of tea or coffee (or your drink of choice), a cozy sweater, holed up at your desk as rain drums on the roof. You know - the picture-perfect author? (That is actually barely ever accurate) The pen glides across the page and you think "This is how Shakespeare wrote his plays." (Except Shakespeare probably didn't use a gel pen. Hmm.)

Until the past year, most of my writing was by hand. I didn't have a laptop and handwriting was the easiest option there was. Even my Nanos were done by hand - and you could tell what season it was based on the size of my writing. My letters would get tiny in November and December, around March it would start to get a little bigger, and by August it would be maybe normal size. And then it would start over.

When I got a laptop for school use, it took some time to actually move my writing to it. I didn't - don't - like the idea of spending all my time staring at a screen. But soon, the speed and flexibility won out, and I was doing most of my writing on the computer. That was definitely cemented this past Nano, when I typed my novel through the entire month.

And when I changed it up, I noticed a shift in my writing. Typing helped me when it came to speed and getting words down on a page or editing and making frequent changes. But when it came to planning, plotting, brainstorming and writing short pieces to help me solidify character and world building, writing by hand helped me think in new ways.

In the end, both typing and writing by hand has their strengths. Both of them work, and it's up to personal preference. Each of them has something to offer. But the difference between them might surprise you.

So try changing up your writing sometimes. Use a laptop or a pen and notebook or a typewriter. Does it change how you write or think?

Do you like to type your stories, write by hand, or some combination of the two? What do you think about writing by hand vs. typing? 

A Procrastinator's Battle: What if You Fly?

Last week, we talked about one thing that drives procrastination: fear. Today, we're going to expand upon that a little more, and talk about how we can use that knowledge to procrastinate less. Because it's all well and good to know what causes us to procrastinate, but that doesn't necessarily stop it.

Also - I'm sharing some of my writing! Savannah, over at Scattered Scribblings, is featuring a short story I wrote last fall for a writing contest she hosted. She is such a sweet, amazing person and has a gorgeous blog, so you should totally go check it out!

We've talked about fear that keeps you from acting, and there's a poem I found a while ago that I think describes this quite well. The poet "e.h.," or Erin Hansen, has a way with words - her works are breathtaking, and they can really make you think. And this one goes:

There is freedom waiting for you

On the breezes of the sky

And you ask "What if I fall?" 

Oh but my darling, 

What if you fly? 

What if I fall? That is a question I ask myself so many times, in so many ways. It's one of the many disguises that the monster Self-Doubt wears. "What if I can't?" "It looks too hard." "I'm not ready." "What will they think of me?" "What if I fail?" 

This fear is so powerful that it leaves me paralyzed. I’m on the edge of a cliff, and I can’t decide if I want to commit to jumping into the wind. Instead, I just let the minutes tick away, let time pass until it won’t matter anymore. I'm putting off a decision. I'm procrastinating.

Because in the end, even not closing to act has its consequences, and I have to make a decision one way or another. Action or inaction. Now or later.

I can stay still. I can watch the wind, and wonder, and put off jumping for another few days. And do exactly nothing. Because staying paralyzed means taking no chances. It’s playing it safe, but safe means never changing, not doing anything.

Or I can jump. 

And I know that there’s always the chance I might fall, mybody plummeting towards the bottom of the chasm and hitting the ground with a sick crash. Maybe I’ll float, slowly sinking lower and lower until I stumble onto the ground and collapse. But if I do fall, I’ll pick myself off and I'll climb up the cliff and start over, having learned a few things. Because the fall won't kill me.

But maybe I'll fly, spreading wings I didn't know I had. Soaring in the air and looking down at the land below like a bird. But if I don’t jump, I’ll never know that I even had wings to fly with. I’d never give myself the chance to try. And I’d never be able to know how wonderful it to soar in the sky.

With that being said, how do you battle procrastination? Knowing your adversary is all well and good, but how do you overcome it? 

Confront your fear. Why are you procrastinating - what specifically are you afraid of? And once you answer that question, ask yourself what is the absolute worst that can happen? Often, it's something that you can deal with, or something that you deep down know will not be so bad. Defining your fear can have 

Get others to hold you accountable. It's not uncommon for my sister and I ask each other "Hey, are you working?" during the day. Sometimes, we'll hold things captive - such as books or tablets - so that certain distractions are out of the way. Other times, I'll ask her to check up on me every so often, just to ask "What are you doing?" Knowing that someone is watching me helps to stay on track. 

On a similar note - work with someone else. Recently, I went to the library to work and unexpectedly saw a friend. We talked, and I sat down across from them. And even though they couldn't seen what was on my screen, I noticed a huge change in my work. I was able to get the rest of my schoolwork for the day done in an hour because I was motivated to be serious, because someone else was there. 

Change your environment. Move from the couch in the living room to table in the kitchen. Go to a cafe or the library and set up shop there. The same distractions are available when you stick to the same areas - and changing it up can send a signal to your brain that "Oh - it's time to get serious." 

Get the hard things out of the way first. That way, you can't drag your feet at the end of the day because It's late I need to sleep I can do it tomorrow right? Wrong. Plan that hard phone call in the morning, before anything else. Work on that tough outline first, and then you can move on to your other, easier work. Which brings me to - 

Reward yourself. Finish one more difficult government questions, and you get a chapter of Harry Potter. Write five hundred new words, and you can goof off for five minutes. Sometimes, I'll have a cycle - fifteen minutes of writing, fifteen minutes of school, one chapter of a book - that keeps me refreshed enough to keep going through a few different tasks. Feel free to reward yourself for getting hard work done! 

And lastly, most importantly, forgive yourself. Don't beat yourself up for failing to do a few tasks. Take a few deep breaths, smile, and say to yourself "Hey, it's all right." Being angry because you couldn't get it done will only stress you out even more. Sometimes we don't get everything done - and that's fine. Your worth is not defined by what you did or what you can do.

I hope that this post helped you to fight procrastination. I would love to hear your opinion on all of this. How do you battle procrastination? Let me know in the comments!

A Procrastinator's Battle - The Fear that Keeps us from Writing

What keeps you from writing? Nothing, you may tell me. I'm always writing. All right, fine. Let me rephrase that. What makes it hard for you to write? 

Unless you're some super amazing writer god and writing is never hard for you (in which case, I want all your secrets), you should have an answer to that question. Time. Writer's block. Procrastination. Insecurity. Sometimes, although some writers don't like to admit it, it's like you're battling for the pen. Writer vs. Big Scary Forces. 

And that's what this series is going to look at. Those big scary forces that try to discourage you from writing. (Because no, this completely wasn't going to be only one post until I actually wrote it out and realized I was both rambling and wanted to add some more points. No, not at all.)

One of my biggest struggles against work in general is procrastination. There are times when I can procrastinate an entire day of school away (I'm ashamed to say that's happened more than once).

A few months ago, I heard someone say that procrastination is a product of fear, and that the reason we repeatedly put off actions is because we are afraid of something that might happen as a cause of those actions. When I first heard that, I scoffed, unconvinced. I’m not afraid. Reading a book is just more fun than finishing that essay.

But when I started to examine those times that I put off answering emails or turn away from whatever I was working on, I began to realize that the person was right. What are you afraid of? I asked myself when I took the tenth break in half an hour. What’s holding you back? And once I searched for it, there was always an answer buried somewhere. Each fear might not have been obvious – but it was there.

A fear of failure. A fear of what someone else would think. A fear of the unknown. Each one would appear in simple costumes. I’ll be better rested tomorrow. Just one more chapter. I can work on math now. All together, they work to push away whatever action I need to complete that I don’t want to. That I’m afraid to.

Once I began to notice procrastination in my general life, it only took a few weeks to notice when I was procrastinating in my writing. I didn’t notice it at first; procrastination is sneaky like that, giving you so many good reasons why you can’t focus just yet. But it was there, and it was only a matter of time before I noticed that my writing sessions were becoming less and less productive. Opening a new tab every few minutes. Spending half an hour deciding on fun but unnecessary world-building details.

A little fear and a little doubt is common in writing. Little fishhook questions poke at authors all the time, waiting to sink their barbs into them and reel them in. In all the projects I procrastinated on, I let myself listen to the little doubts that came wriggling into my mind. But what if this plot is too weak? This was stupid. Who would want to read this? What if no one likes it? What if the plot is cliché and overused and way too complex? What if, what if, what if.

I recognized the symptoms, but when I tried to diagnose the fear, it wasn’t staring me in the face. I had to dig for it.As a writer, I’ve learned that what if questions are some of the most powerful and amazing questions there are. Also as a writer, I’ve learned that they can be some of the most terrifying. And when I started to look under all of those doubts, I saw one question that underlied them all: What if I’m just wasting my time here?

I was afraid that I was wasting time on any one project.

Right now, I see people my age working internships and at jobs. I hear them talking about their majors in college or their plans to go into the military or their plans at life. I see teens I knew when I was a kid getting married and having children. And I see me, trying to decide if my race of shapeshifters should be able to naturally fly or not.

And a little demon sits on my shoulder and asks me, if this isn’t the story, if this is some two hundred thousands words that will never see the light of day again, then why should I waste my time writing it right now? Couldn't I be doing something more productive? he hisses at me.

That's my fear that holds me back. But there are others, too. The fear that you'll never be good enough. The fear that no one will like what you've written. The fear that nothing matters. You have to find your own fears; I can't do that for you. But there might be a deeper cause of your procrastination than you think. 

So we've learned what's hiding under procrastination. Next time, we'll take a look at your options in the face of of this fear and in the face or procrastination in general. Until then, I wish you all the best, dear reader. 

What do you think? Do you have things that keep you from writing? Do you see procrastination as a form of fear?