Challenges and New Things

I have been going through my pins on Pinterest trying to find things that inspire me, challenge me, and encourage me. I am taking a little "break" this summer to focus on me, my writing, getting things settled in the house, and getting some type of firm footing underneath me so I can take off running in the "new year" of September.


For the 100 Things challenge, I tried Art time with my son today. I pulled out the big art kit he got for Christmas from his great-Grandma, drawing paper, and gave him the mission of thinking about what makes him happy and then trying to draw it. He stated in order that what made him happy was:
The park, church, Chik Fil A and the playground there, playing in the water, and Legos. One side of the paper was dedicated to a yellow smiling sun, a blue sky, and a red slide with stairs and trampolines. The other side was solely dedicated to Legos, that were oblong shapes with circles in them to represent the pegs. He enjoyed the activity and it encouraged me that he enjoyed art. He wasn't as interested when he was younger, other than drawing on walls and smooshing modeling clay and Play-Doh. He has always loved to paint though. 


The central focus of mine was a big red heart that had Love written in the center, coming out of a book with squiggly lines that turned into birds in the sky and wavy water at the bottom of the "page." The book sat on a tan "beach" with dark brown specs for sand. On the sand was a teacup that held rainbow water and had three colorful flowers coming out of it. A multi-colored sunset was at the top, and on the right side of the paper was my mini-abstract portrait of my son's smiling face in a frame that had Goofy Gavin going down the side. I also added a sushi roll that looked like the letter C beside the teacup on the beach. Oh! And a bar of dark chocolate. My abstract Happy painting definitely enforces there is artist in my brain.


While he was watching an animal show I retreated to my bedroom, my solace, and started working on my other task for today that I got from Pinterest. I have a notebook dedicated to each of my stories and since Love is a Fickle Thing needs to get finished ASAP per my annoyance and ready to move on to other stories, I started working on that. I got the idea from an article I found through Pinterest about writing down 10 things your character will never know that goes on in the story. So, I went from 100 Things to 10 Things as a challenge. First, I wrote the full plot summary and outline for LIAFT since I have decided to combine Book One and Book Two into one complete novel rather than two separate books. Then, I started filling out the 10 Things Romaine Will Never Know list, counting down from 10 to 1 and was quite surprised by some of the things that came up. I am glad Romaine will not know some of them. I didn't know Violet could be so vicious, though the secret could have been comical if written, but I don't think it is necessary for the story to progress...just maybe a helpful bit of insight into Violet. I like knowing things Romaine doesn't know. I like knowing things the reader will not know. I did not think the 10 things task would be that inspiring and open up so much of that world for me that has been so difficult to get back into. I am almost getting excited to write again, and it even made me want to write a 10 Things for my character in Legacy of Lockwood Hills. I see her perfectly in my head, almost a blur of the image I initially had and a girl I know. Her silence in her hoody with lip pierced and blue/black hair with the purple streak is almost screaming to me to come give her attention.


Tasks accomplished today, and bonus of inspiration bubbling and beginning to ooze out. YAY!!!