I read a tweet awhile back (as all good stories start I’m sure) and I just really wanted to discuss it. It’s a tweet that is by a woman named Elicia Donze (an artist) that reads as follows:
I immediately knew I wanted to talk about this, especially since I, myself, am a creator of art. All different kinds in fact, the biggest one being writing. And, subsequently, I know a few writers (and artists) follow me as well. So I think this is good for both me and my readers to hear.
Sometimes you spend a lot of time working on a piece of art, usually for me it’s a writing piece. I work and work on it until I’m done. I step back and reread over the piece and instant dissatisfaction. Not because it’s BAD but because it just doesn’t sound like I want it to. I want it to sound like that narrator in that book I just read a few days ago. The one that was particularly clever. I want it to sound like my favorite authors. In short, I want it to sound like someone else. Because, apparently, the sign of creative genius is your work sounding nothing like you. Something like a stranger wrote. This is, of course, a lie. One that I am often guilty of without even realizing it.
It’s hard when I get so inspired by the world around me that I want what I create to look EXACTLY like that. But, in doing so, I’m defeating the whole purpose of me creating. The joy comes from MY specific take on something. The point is it becomes unique by the fact that I’m merely creating it. If I am creating something correctly, it should look different from everyone else’s work. But it should also sound like ME. And, as the tweet above states, that’s the valuable part of your art.
I know this is a short post but I really wanted to talk about this because I think it’s something that many creators struggle with. Let me know in the comments below what you think! Have a lovely day!
Sorry I haven’t been posting as regularly. It’s unfortunately the same culprit as it usually is: college. But I still wanted to share some fun things that have been going on. In this post specifically, I just wanted to show off a few cute jewelry charms I just got in for my etsy shop. Let me know which is your favorite in the comments down below. I’m really loving the dragon charms right now.
You walk around a library and find a magic mirror which you walk through. In this new world, you find the library you were in but mirrored. That and the patrons look suspiciously like book characters from the books you’ve read in the library from your world. Opening a book in the mirror world you find the book characters are the regular people from your world.
★ Safehouse
The world is ending. The last safe house in town is a public library. Locked and safe, here people build a book centered community that continues to grow and survive.
★ Book Hunter
You accidentally tick off a knowledge deity. They’re Annoyed and you’re indebted to them now. Your punishment? You will not be free of your servitude to them until you return every book to its place on its shelf in the deity’s enormous library. Your hunt begins.
★ No Return
There is book you want to read at the library that is LONG overdue. You finally run into the person who has it. You go on to make it your quest to befriend them and get the book back so you FINALLY figure out what happens next. Little do you know that the person with the book has a crush on you and is now not returning the book simply out of fear you’ll stop talking to them.
★The Banned Book Club
You fall through a secret door to find a whole different, hidden level to your library. You are introduced to the “banned” book section of the library along with the readers- “The secret banned book club.”
★Monster Among the Shelves
A monster roams the shelves of the library at night after closing. You don’t realize this until you accidentally fall asleep in a chair during working hours and are forgotten about. You wake up in near complete darkness. And you are not alone in the library.
King Arthur is dead. This means disaster for the kingdom and such a deed will not go unpunished. But there is one problem- no one seems to know who did it. Queen Guinevere, the widow, launches an investigation and narrows down the suspects to the Knights of the round table. Uncertain she can go about the task of interviewing some of Arthur’s closest confidant without some mixed feelings, she turns to you to head the investigation. As her head lady in waiting, you are curios as to how this is going to turn out.
★Blind Detective
You’re used to being underestimated. People think you can’t do your job properly. But little do they know, you’re the best detective in the city and criminals fear you, especially when you’re on their case.
★Lavender Detective
Dawning a purple coat, one could easily pick you out in a crowd. But your sense of fashion isn’t the only thing on point. Your detective skills are even better. Well known in the area as the best of the best, when those in need see your purple coat, they know help can be given.
★Witch Detective
How much easier do you think the job of detective would be if you had familiars to do work for you? Or spells to cast and those who opposed your mission? It would be quite a bit easier (and interesting) I’d imagine.
★Ghost Detective
You are a detective who can commune with the undead. You take on the cases of the ghosts of people who have died, hunting down the perpetrators to enact justice.
★Love Detective
A serial killer has a crush on a detective. So, to see the detective and continue interacting with them, they commit crimes. This, however, makes thing quite difficult for everyone else involved especially for the detective themselves.
I know it’s been a minute. I haven’t been as consistent lately with posting since midterms smacked me like a bird flying into a window. But now it’s officially spring break and I definitely have a few fun and different posts planned to share with you all. But, taking a step back, I have something I wanted to share with everyone reading this.
This wasn’t a planned post. In fact, I just made up my mind to talk about this about 20 seconds ago. What happened 20 seconds ago to spur this post you might ask? Well, I was reading and I came across a quote that I wished I could shout to the world, specifically every 20-something year old or graduating teen. I wished I could speak back in time to tell my 18 year old self this:
“The opportunity sometimes simply isn’t yours but that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.”
This is the quote that I ran across today that made me stop and tear up a little.
I am an ambitious person. I had a very specific view of how my life would turn out from an early age. But, as it always does, reality struck me. Multiple times. And it continues to do so even now. Life is, truthfully, full of disappointments. And, sometimes, I take that very personally.
I used to think that if you worked hard enough for something, you could obtain it. And while I believe that is a good PRINCIPLE to live by, I now believe that it is NOT a set in stone rule. Sometimes you work hard and circumstances out of your control slap you in the face and say “Hahaha, sorry, that ain’t happening.”
Your 20’s are when your dreams are crushed.
At least that’s how it feels at times. But the truth is something a little less depressing. And it’s that not every opportunity is ours even if we want it to be. And that’s okay. It’s not wrong to want it. It’s not wrong to have worked towards it. In fact, I believe there is something honorable in having a dream and trying to obtain it.
But it doesn’t always work out.
And we didn’t do anything wrong.
The opportunity just simply wasn’t ours.
Thanks for reading this quick post. And if anyone is wondering where the quote is from, it’s from a book by Nicki Koziarz called “Why Her?”. Definitely recommend it if you want an insightful, Biblically oriented read.
Hope everyone is doing well & is safe during these uncertain times.
You buy a castle and go about renovating it. It’s beginning to look rather homey when you begin to see shapes moving in the halls at night. Soon, scenes of people who no longer exist play before your very eyes in broad daylight. Turns out, this castle has stood the test of time and outlived many families. But it struggles to let the memories of its old inhabitants go, so you are witnessing it memories playing out.
★What The Stainglass Tells
You own a castle. One day, walking its halls, you notice some of the stainglass pictures the windows depict look rather familiar. It is showing scenes from your life though some seem to have not occurred yet…
★Lady of The Lake
You are the lady of the lake. You live in your lovely, fairy castle, biding your time as you consider who the new hero of the land will be. A young child stumbles upon your domain and suddenly you find yourself considering them as a potential candidiate.
★Mossfell
Romping through the woods in your backyard, you stumble upon a moss covered structure. Upon closer inspection, you conclude that it is, in fact, a castle. But, little do you know, something deep inside sleeps. And you may have just woke it up and your little sub division neighborhood is not ready for it.
★Moon Castle
You live in a castle as a princess. Peacefully you live out your days on your magical little planet until one day, a very odd piece of machinery interrupts your tranquil afternoon. From out of it, steps an odd individual in a strange, white suit. Unbeknownst to you, this is an astronaut and your castle is perched upon the moon.
Truth is a battered woman, Trampled beneath people’s feet. After all, you can pick her flavor? Savory, salty, or sweet?
Nothing is ever absolute Except for that statement. Fear of responsibility is the root, Of this disease that has spread
That will murder your morality And choke truth dead. Because if there is a right, It would cause a conundrum, That we avoid with all our might. But I’m afraid the world sings this song That if there is a right, There must be a wrong.
So if you are on the way And you happen upon truth Wrap her up and hold close Feed her at your table And she’ll show you what you treasure most
I’m just full of good news these days (fingers crossed I’m not jinxing myself by stating that).
Anyways! Fun Announcement time!
My work has been featured on a lovely podcast “Expressions & Definitions” featuring Nicole Renee. This podcast covers poetry, specifically poetry themed around love. A few weeks back, Nicole contacted me and asked if I would be willing to have my work featured and to do an interview with her. It seemed like a wonderful opportunity so I ended up saying, “yes”.
A huge thanks to Miss Nicole. Her feedback was so thoughtful and the interview felt so comfortable while simultaneously thoughtful. My work is featured and read on the February 16, 2022 podcast and my interview will be coming out on the 21st.
I highly encourage you to check out Expressions & Definitions in general as it is a thoughtful podcast that could possibly introduce you to a variety of new poets and works that you would have otherwise not found. A link to her blog can also be found here. I definitely encourage you to stop by her blog and show her some support and love!
Alrighty! I think that’s a wrap! Thanks for stopping by to listen to my good news! Have a lovely day!
Good Friday Afternoon! I hope this blog post finds you well and in good health! This post is going to be a little different from the usual writing posts but is an important thing that I just sort of wanted to write about.
Calling yourself out.
So what do I mean by this exactly? Well, to put it simply, we, as people, make mistakes. Lots of them. And sometimes, in situations we can be the “bad guy”. Other times (and most of the time) though, it’s not so black and white. People will wrong us and while this is a crappy move on the other person’s part, we can be guilty of responding badly to things and being in the wrong ourselves. We can be put in bad situations by other people and, despite the fact that this isn’t necessarily what we signed up for, can still be at fault for behaving badly or, more commonly, cultivating some unhealthy thinking patterns.
For example, have you ever been wronged by someone and just written them off as a “bad person” and tried to never think of them again or perhaps even stewed over what they had done. I know I have. And while I think in some cases it can be black and white, this person did you wrong and you did nothing wrong, more often then not we at least had some part we played. But our response is so overshadowed by the bad thing the other party did that we deprive ourselves of a little something called SELF REFLECTION.
To be clear, this isn’t me calling you out. This is me calling myself out.
It is really easy to label people as difficult or cruddy people and move on with your life. And sometimes that’s what you gotta do in specific scenarios. But we can’t do that with everyone. Because nobody is perfect and it’s up to us to check ourselves.
So, here are a few questions to help you call yourself out:
1. “Is that really how it happened or just how you remember it? Or even, is that how you WANT to remember it?”
Have you ever played the game “telephone”? Where people pass on a message from person to person with message becoming more and more ridiculous or unclear with each passing? Sometimes our memory and thoughts can be like that. The more we relive an experience in our brain where we believe we are wronged, we warp the memory more, the more the angrier we feel. And the frustrating thing is often, there is a seed of truth in where this memory starts. This person most likely really DID hurt us. But we must evaluate that we are recalling events properly and are not dramatizing it in our brains to make ourselves feel more and more like the victim in the situation.
2. “How are your insecurities effecting the way you’re viewing the situation?”
Another thing to take a look at is your “weak spots” so to speak when you’re analyzing a situation. Are you taking everything in the worst way possible because you doubt yourself in specific areas?
Nothing is wrong with having insecurities. But it is our responsibility to be aware of them. And these insecurities can make us perceive things in an inaccurate light in specific scenarios so just watch out for them.
3. “What parts of yourself do you see in the person you’re criticizing?”
This is a good way to take a negative (someone treating you badly) and turning it into a sort of positive. This is a chance for you to look at someone and their bad behavior and check yourself. They just showed you how NOT to behave so now you can more properly recognize such a negative trait in yourself if it exists.
4. “Are you more concerned with being right or evolving as a person?”
Ouch. This one I’m going to leave here because I’m still recovering from it.
5. “What blame are you placing on someone else that you can take accountability for?”
Yeah, this one can hurt a little too because, let me tell you, it feels good to cast every bit of responsibility to other parties involved. Taking responsibility implies that you, at least in some capacity, were wrong. Sure, someone else could be wrong-er but admitting that you had some part to play is difficult but still necessary in certain cases, especially if you expect to grow from it.
6. “What hard conversations are you avoiding having with yourself?”
When we throw blame everywhere else, this can often be a sign that we are avoiding some sort of “truth” about ourselves that we don’t want to face. We don’t want to face it becomes its uncomfortable or perhaps because it doesn’t fit our current view of ourselves. But again, we gotta ask ourselves, “how else am I going to grow?”
7. “What is your most toxic trait that you admit to?”
Similar to knowing your insecurities, this question can help you identify further bad habits you tend to fall into and that effect your behavior and how you view people.
8. “Is your ego getting in the way of your healing?”
Another ouch from me.
In situations where I feel like I’ve really been kicked when I’m down, I have a tendency to hold a grudge. I want these people to be sorry because I want to show them that they CANNOT treat me this way. But often this comes from an unhealthy place. A place of ego that demands that people ask for forgiveness at every turn when they say something that slightly offends or hurts me.
But this is not beneficial to healing.
We’re going to have to get comfy that there are people who will not ask for forgiveness. It might benefit ourselves to ask why. Sometimes its because they’re just not very self-reflective. Sometimes it’s because they don’t know they did anything wrong and I just EXPECT them to know.
But regardless, we need to examine our motivations for wanting them to come crawling to us. We must look for where ego might be getting in the way. We desire validation in this situation. And that’s only human. But if we keep anger and ego locked inside because we think that will somehow heal us because we refuse to let this person “get away with it”, we’re never going to truly move on from the situation.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE:
I want to be clear, in certain situations, you may go through these questions and reach the conclusion that you are indeed handling this as best you can, and the other party really and truly is wholly in the wrong. Bad people, insecure people, and rude people DO exist and definitely create situations where the victim of the entire thing did nothing wrong. It doesn’t happen maybe as much as we’d like to think, but it does occur. In those cases, I fully believe it is okay to just say “wow, they’re sort of a bad/insecure/rude person and I don’t need that in my life.” and move on. You are a growing and evolving person, not a doormat.
Love others but also take care of and respect yourself.
By the Brooke 