The Creation of the seal for the Order of Twenty-four

The Creation of the seal for the Order of Twenty-four

Five simple steps to looking like an idiot

1)      Be 49

2)      Take up jogging

3)      Run as slowly as grandma

4)      Run like you’re going to stop any minute

5)      Look as pained as if you’re Prometheus*, having your liver torn out by a giant eagle.

Lately, life has thrown me a very humbling curve ball. I went to see a life coach, and he challenged me to take up jogging – he had the cheek to say I wasn’t doing enough aerobic exercise! I knew I'd walked strenuously every day for 20-30 years. I knew I was fit. Why did I need to do more?

The very next morning, I started jogging. When I say “jogging”, I ran down the last hill, five minutes before my house. And it just about killed me. My heart pounded like a baby alien trying to claw its way out of my chest. I felt I couldn’t breathe, and strange fat on the outside of my thighs—that I never knew existed—shook and juddered as if my legs had taken on a life of their own. Turns out I wasn’t as fit as I thought I was which actually came as a shock.  My ego was hurt. When I reached home, at last, I was honest-to-goodness sweating and my face was beetroot! The whole thing was an exercise in embarrassment.

 

(Keep smiling becomes my mantra) 

 

A few days later, I added another downhill slope, despite the fact that every added step made me feel how tired and old my body had become. All pride I'd ever felt about my years of exercise fell away. Who knew running was so hard?

Next, I added a stretch of flat road. To run any further was pushing me to my absolute limits, especially the first ten minutes of punishment, when I never knew from one minute to the next if I’d be able to keep going. From a bird’s eye view, I saw myself faltering along the sidewalk like an old woman, taking tottering little steps. I'd get home, drenched in sweat and my face like a plum.

Jogging, I decided, was pure torture. But I’d been challenged! There was no way I could back out.
 

 

                                                  (Keep smiling, dagnabit) 

A few weeks passed, and I added another flat stretch and downhill run. I still took mincing steps, still thought I was going to die the whole way, and still came home covered in sweat, my face too-red.

It takes a lot to become aerobically fit, apparently. Stupid jogging.

Chalk up two months of adding a yard of distance every day, and I’m at the point now where I only have to walk the very steepest part of the uphill sections. I run the rest of the way. So that's progress. I still come home covered in sweat and my face carrot. However, I can truthfully say to my life coach now that, I’m a jogger. I’ll keep to myself the fact that I’ve never felt so tragically old or pathetic.

However, I'm assured running is good for me. So I shall persevere!

 

                   (My gran always used to say, 'give away your smiles, they're free')
 

Have you ever tried jogging? Love or hate running? I'm definitely in the 'not sure' camp....

See ya in the funny papers!

Ttl,
Yvette :-)

 

*Prometheus was a Titan who Zeus punished by chaining him to the Caucasus Mountains. Prometheus had to suffer having a giant eagle tear chunks out of his liver every night only to have the liver magically re-grow every morning, so that Prometheus’s punishment was never-ending.

How do you consider your readers and stay true to your soul?

The first Wednesday of every month is officially InsecureWriter’s Support Group day! It's a wonderful way of supporting other starter bloggers, like myself, on this new, exciting journey into the world of blogging.

 

I had an interesting conversation this week with a friend. I’d regaled her with the story of how my original idea for my book, Aden Weaver & the Or'in of Tane Mahuta was for the setting to be an ‘alternate version of earth’ (a la Philip Pullman’s, His Dark Materials trilogy). However, not a single person in my critique group thought the setting in my story worked. They felt ‘pulled out of the story’ by references to earth, and they suggested I create a more fantastical setting. The good folks who receive my newsletter weighed in by casting their votes on a number of potential names I gave them for a fantasy world. End result: a new setting called Planet Chiron.

My friend was aghast. “What I’m getting is that you should stick to your vision for the story,” she said, “your critique group is not writing your story, you are. So stay true to you.”

Talk about instant conflict!

There’s a fine road to tread between considering the reader, and staying true to oneself.

In my fiction, I write a lot about non-humans. My early picture book manuscripts were about bugs. I sent these to a well-respected assessor, whose response started out with, ‘Great stories. But lose the insects.’ I asked one of my writing teachers, Kate de Goldi, about this advice. She said, ‘Don’t think about getting published, write whatever your compulsion in your soul is to write. If you’re writing about insects, you’re there for a reason.’

In the end, I decided on a compromise. I'm sticking with my beloved insects, and my own vision for these books. However, I have also heeded my critique group's advice that the setting wasn't working. It felt like a small 'wiggle' which didn't detract from the heart of the story. This is after all, what a critique group is for, to give you the sort of feedback which might come from a cross-section of the reading public. It's a way of testing how well you've delivered your ideas. It's a way of 'considering the reader'.

Yet the core has to be your personal truth.

Go with what feels natural to write, I say, if it's animals for you, or monsters from Wackakazoo go for it. My characters in the Aden Weaver series are an ancient insect species that can change their shape from insect to human, thanks to their alien ancestors. I'm expecting it not to be for everyone! However, I really do believe in writing what you're drawn to write. 

Anne Rice ~ Protect your voice and your vision . . . Do what gets you to write, and not what blocks you. And no matter where you are in your career, whether you're published, unpublished, or just starting out, walk through the world as a writer. That's who you are, and that's what you want to be, and don't take any guff off anybody.

 

Thanks for reading. See ya' in the funny papers!

Tell me, how do you 'protect your voice and your vision'?

Yvette K. Carol