The Uses of Journaling

      When an athlete goes for a length of time without exercise and practice, his overall performance falls a certain amount. Muscles grow weak, determination wanes, and the skills sharpened over years of experience begin to lose their edge. No matter how hard he tries, if he doesn't spend time to coax these strengths and skills back to their former height, the level he performs at will be much lower than before.
      Writing is no different. A writer must stay disciplined, making sure to write daily and maintain focus. When it comes to practices that keep a writer on the top of his or her game, a journal is one of the best tools that writer can have.
      I myself have found journaling to be the only way to keep myself sharp. Everyone is different, but if you are like me, you need your writing journal to keep you motivated and well practiced.
      Keeping a journal does two things, mainly. The first of these is it gives you a reason to write daily, which helps you exercise your skills and continually improve. Even if you aren't working on a project at a certain time, you can still pull out your journal and give yourself a writing prompt to work on.
      The second thing a journal does is it relieves the stresses of everyday life. My life has been plagued with pain for a few years, and my journal has allowed me to lock my pain within its pages. There lies some of the rawest, most true writing I have ever done. My mind is clear, because I am able to write about my pain objectively, rather than live in it.
      A journal is a useful tool, and one that is very easy to use. It doesn't require eloquent writing, nor does it require truth, even. All it needs is words. By keeping a journal, a writer can exercise his or her skills without needing a purpose to do so. The writer's mind is brought into focus, page by page, until the stresses of each day retreat into each word. To each and every writer out there like myself: use this tool. You will be better because of it.

~Denton

Creativity

         Creativity is the natural process in which we play the role of God and create universes. We don't know exactly where it comes from. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat. Pray. Love., says that Ancient Civilizations believe it was drawn from a powerful secondary source. The more modern belief is that it comes from within one's self. I don't think we as humans are supposed to know where creativity comes from. It's just something you have, it's your imagination at work. When God created the universe, it required a great deal of creativity. Maybe that's why we have it. Its all about the journey. We could write a particularly boring tale, where it addresses all the points and ideas but it isn't a fun read. The cliff notes version. That's why we write everything that lies between these points.
          Free writing is letting whatever pops in your head to be jotted down on paper, this allows us to open the dams we have created within our own minds. These dams stop creativity like one stops a river. We are constantly coming up with great ideas. But always when it comes to placing it on paper, there is a block. Good writers know how to destroy these blocks using free writing. Writing towards a specific goal, but how you reach the goal is whatever your mind or the creativity inside your walls puts there for you. There would be thousands more best sellers if people knew the quality of free writing. It is beautiful. Writing comes from within, and there is no perfect formula for writing. Just like you can't change someone else. No one can tell you how to write, they give suggestions, but what works is completely determined by you.
          The connections won't be there immediately, lets say you were writing a book and two characters started out unrelated, but upon rewrite you discover that it would make more sense if you connected those and dots and made them brother and sister. You connect those dots and then a world forms. It may be the thoughts on the World that already exists or your fictional universe created in your head as part of fantasy. You take that being that resides within your walls. Creativity. Then you channel it through your hands into words contained on a page. It is like a leaking faucet, creativity, it drips constantly, but it doesn't come at a pace you can set your watch to. You wish it would come at a steady pace, but it just drops and drops until it forms a puddle or in the sense of creativity "an idea" and then we link those ideas together into a chain like connecting the dots.
           What I am trying to get across here is that everyone has creativity. It's about sitting down, not putting it off till tomorrow, not waiting for inspiration to come. Writing isn't like that. It's about opening the floodgates and just writing.
            Thanks for reading.

            ~Drew Helmes


         

Rumors of a Book

     Every day I see literature, read literature, write literature. I study literature, I imitate literature, and I love literature. All throughout my experience with literature, and more specifically with science fiction/fantasy novels, I have always found that the important thing that a story portrays is not the beginning, nor the ending, but rather the way in which the story brings itself from the beginning to the end and the way in which the characters evolve and change along the way. The beauty of this genre is that the characters are quite often very human, with flaws and vices, virtues and characteristics, but with a twist of the fantastic. In essence, what a science fiction/fantasy book can do is take the reader and place him or her in the shoes of a character or characters in any given plot line, and let them live an extraordinary life, where anything is possible. 

I, as a fantasy writer, am drawn to the genre because I personally love putting a reader in a spot where he can understand the character, and get to know them throughout a story that tumbles through a world the reader has never yet experienced. The journey the reader takes is much like a roller coaster: you don't get on one because you love the beginning, and you don't get on one just so you can get off again. It is the ride that you love. It is the ups, and indeed even the downs that get your heart pumping. It is the mountains and valleys, and the people you meet along the way. It is the way you see the character change dramatically over the course of the story. And it is the way the story changes you, either ever so slightly, or so powerfully that you can never be the same.

That, my friends, is the beauty of writing. This blog is our gift to you, before we present you all with our finished product. We want to share our journey, our ups and downs, and our trials and successes. We will post updates on how the book is coming, release sneak peaks, and hopefully show you how the process has been for both of us! 

Thank you, and God bless,

~Denton Holmgren