Quote of the Day: July 2nd 2013

A Slight Change of Scenery and a New Writing Idea

I finally chose a new theme for the blog, as you can clearly see. (If you are a visitor… well, just enjoy the view.) I’ve been looking for something for a while that was easy on the eyes but not too busy and colorful since I get so easily distrac…

I watch a lot of crime shows… a lot. It’s not weird. True crime, fiction, I love it all. My dream job growing up was to be an investigator. (We see how well that turned out.) I suppose that’s why I tend to write about fictional crimes and such- it’s just such an interesting topic for me. Watching all of the different crime dramas, and some comedies, I’ve just about seen it all. Of course the true stories, the completely made-up ones, ones loosely based on true crimes or criminals such as the show Criminal Minds seems to do some of the time. But I’ve never really seen one that switches between two time periods besides the occasional flashback. Now, if there is a show out there like that that I have not heard of, please comment and let me know so I don’t feel like an idiot, k? Anyway, I’ve basically created this idea of an ongoing story, a progression perhaps, where a crime occurs somewhere between the 1960’s and the 1970’s but ultimately goes unsolved due to a lack of DNA analysis and other crime-solving technology. The case eventually goes unsolved and is re-opened in modern day with an entirely different team of detectives. The case gets solved by these new detectives using modern technology. The idea I feel is different because there are two completely different sets of detectives to get to know and love, and there is also this parallel of a different era. I love things from the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and I think it would be quite an interesting dynamic to have half of each story set in one of those times, with the other half set in modern times rather than like most stories where it’s either one or the other. I’ve written these stories in “episodes” because it seemed easier than writing one long story- which tends to overwhelm me. Once I get several of these “episodes” written, I can put them all together into one longer progressive story. I also thought writing these one episode at a time would be easier for me to post them and get the opinion of my followers. I’ve already written several episodes, and I’m currently trying to go back through them and clean them up so that everything flows a little better. I hope to have them posted soon and I hope everyone will look forward to read them and giving me the feedback that I need to improve my writing. Thanks for reading!

– Newbie.

Busy Schedules and Empty Pages

Wow, I haven’t blogged in a while. I have had a lot going on over the past few days, and honestly I feel as if I have lost track of what day it is. All day on Saturday I had been writing the wrong date on things– oops.

Another thing I haven’t done in a very long time is journal. I’ve mentioned before how I’ve been keeping a journal for many, many years, and that is true, but I haven’t always kept it consistently. From the time I was about 13 to the time I was around 15, I kept and wrote in my journal literally every night. But as I got older and became preoccupied with life and I began abandoning my journal. I picked back up right before I began dating my now husband. My youth leader at my church encouraged me to begin writing all of the things that I wished to find in a future husband, and pray about those things nightly. I did. Little did I know that I would meet that future husband just months later. Sadly, I don’t know what happened to those journals. I’m sure they got lost when my husband and I moved in together.

Oddly enough, I didn’t really keep any of my journals to read later as a lot of others do. I have always been brutally honest within my journals, and frankly, I didn’t care to go back and read many of those feelings that I wrote about.

Nevertheless I felt that getting back to my journal would be a good source of relaxation for me, so this weekend I purchased a new journal (with an adorable cover… hey, a girls gotta have a cute journal!) and I began writing in it tonight. My goal is to actually fill this one up, which I have not done in a very long time.

Here’s something new for ya…

Writing Prompt for Today: “To sleep: perchance to dream…”

I found myself having some mighty strange dreams last night- one of them, perhaps the weirdest and most exciting one involved me in a speed boat with Sunny Crocket, having a shoot-out with a drug lord that I was hired to capture by the FBI.

(I’m usually the Hero in my dreams… I have issues… we’ve already determined that, k?)

Once I had become fully awake, I thought about the dreams I had, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I also wondered what other strange events would have taken place if I hadn’t woken up. This leads me to the whole reason for this post- the Prompt!

Have you ever had a dream that you couldn’t shake out of your head? Whether it was a nightmare, a happy dream, or even one similar to Sonny & I in that shoot-out? Take a dream that you remember vividly, and write a story around it. (The stranger, the better!) This will probably end up being a short story, but see how far it takes you. If you have a certain genre that you typically write, try stepping out of the box (or Stick out of the Box as my lovely friend says.) and use a dream that will take you to a genre that is out of the norm for you.

If you’d like, feel free to submit your short story to newbiefictionwriter@gmail.com and it’ll be published right here!