Creative or Scientific?

I believe there are two types of people — scientific and creative. The creative ones are the dreamers, the ones who, well, create. The scientific ones are the fact-regurgitators, the ones who can kick your butt in Trivial Pursuit. I also believe the scientific/creative thing is a continuum. No one is 100% creative or 100% scientific.

The more creative someone is, the more hobbies and the less routines they seem to have, as well.

Take my husband, for example. He's been known to read the encyclopedia for the fun of it. Lucky for me, his memory isn't what it used to be, so I still have a shot at Trivial Pursuit!

Me? I lean more to the creative side. I am always doing something. In addition to writing, I read a lot (and then I blog a book review at my own site). But I don't really think of that as creative.

My creative hobbies are as varied as possible. I take china painting classes. (This tile just got a second place ribbon in the fair. I'd show the piece that got first place, but it's a gift for my mom and she sometimes reads this blog!) I knit and crochet (yes, I'm on Ravelry!) I make soap and candles. I sew and embroider (currently, we aren't eating meals at the kitchen table because the embroidery machine is in use there!). I draw and paint. I cook.

To me those are all creative outlets and I enjoy them all. I have to keep my mind busy to keep my sanity and these hobbies help me do that. I'm able to put one aside for a bit when I get bored (which happens.... trust me!) and pick up something else.

What about you? What are your hobbies? What ones should I try next?

Blessings!

Nichole

Topic of the Week

"Hobbies -- what I do when I'm not writing."

Tag...you're it.

I watched as she climbed out of the yellow cab into the rain, the same way she did every morning at three a.m. after her shift ended at O'Malley's pub thirteen blocks away, all legs and stillettos. I'd been watching her for weeks. She was tall, unusually so for a woman, almost six feet, with auburn hair and doe eyes. Pity that, I prefer green, but an artist must make do from time to time.

I fell into step behind the cocktail waitress, several feet away, keeping time with the sway of her hips. She seemed to sense something wrong and walked faster, until her fear forced her to run. She tripped on her pointed heels and fell to the ground, screaming. She looked at me as if to say why, when I reached for her with the knife... "AND CUT" the director said, "Who wants to be it this time?"

Murder and mayhem are a special kind of horror. The tension and terror reads best when built early on and can be just as effective in my opinion from the killers pov as the victim. But how do you choose the victim? Is he or she a paper character whose only scene is death? Or do you give her a history so that you endear her to the reader? Why do you choose them? And what if you choose wrong?

That's happened to me before. In Blood Shield, the first draft, Special Agent Gabriel Spiller (FBI) was a throwaway character, a would have been lover of Jack's late wife Serena. In the big raid on Niccolo Gueraldi's fortress estate, the two killed each other. Spiller while trying to save Jack's new love, Liv, pushed her aside and the kingpin's bullet killed him. Later, I decided I really liked the guy, in a love/hate way and decided to bring him back from the dead and kill off his less wise, younger partner instead. Spiller gets his own story with To Take Up The Sword and a new love. So... choose your 'victims' wisely.

Beth

I'll kick your a$$!

I don't really like violence, although mayhem seems to (at times) characterize my life.

I doubt anyone really likes violence, but I prefer mine to take place off-screen. There's just something about the power of suggestion, isn't there? The same rule applies in novels or movies. Maybe it's just me and my twisted mind, but I can usually come up with something more frightening then what the writer or producer can. Even though I know it's just chocolate syrup, there's very little more frightening then the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

My aversion to violence, however healthy that may be, doesn't mean I can't dish it out. I can disassemble and reassemble an M-16 (though not in the dark, much to my father's disappointment). And, while I never qualified as a "marksman" I can hold my own. I prefer the handguns my husband and I use for target practice and can out-shoot the love of my life, though he doesn't like to be reminded of that. I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, giving me an understanding of hand-to-hand combat and the amount of damage that can be caused just with kicks and hits.

But when I read or watch TV or pay big-bucks for a movie ticket, I do so to relax. To escape from the stress of everyday life. To forget about the real evils people are capable of committing all over the world. So I don't want to have the violence in my face.

Mayhem, though, is another topic. As a mystery writer and reader, I enjoy the mayhem, the confusion, the misdirection, the puzzle. To me, this is a part of everyday life. Don't think so? Try explaining your favorite topic to someone who isn't interested -- it's like me trying to explain knitting or painting to someone who doesn't value creative expression. Or explaining colors to someone who is color blind. Talk about confusion!

In my opinion, it's mayhem that keeps life interesting. Violence, though, I can do without!

Blessings!

Nichole

Topic of the Week

"Damage control...violence and mayhem"

Supporting a writer's life

Being a writer is a lonely business. You create the ideas for the books. You spend endless hours toiling in front of a computer screen as you type endlessly away. You put in the effort doing edits before sending your book out to a publisher.

…and waiting for word of rejection or acceptance.

Alone.

With only the voices in our heads for company.

Sound familiar? I think writers by definition are solitary beings. We pretty much have to be in order to concentrate on building new worlds and carving out relationships between our characters. However, there is another integral part of a writer’s life. The support system.

First on my list is my hubby. I can’t tell you how many times my guy has to listen to how wonderful or annoying my hero is or sit with a straight face when I run a plot point or story idea past him (*grumble grumble. Sandra, romance has no place in sci-fi*) But he’s my biggest fan and would probably like anything I wrote no matter when it really stinks.


Next on my support chain is my critique partner. She’s there for me in the gap, keeps me and my writing honest, pulls no punches when she doesn’t think chapters are working and will praise my work when she likes it. She lets me rant about a bad review or when I’m feeling down about the writing and she’s proud of me when things are good.

After that come the women in my critique group and my beta readers. They get first crack at my work once it’s passed the CP. The crit group is for the most part honest and the beta readers (a mix of writer friends and non-writing friends) are a great core group who tell me what they like or hate.

Everyone has different levels of support, but for me, I couldn’t do any of what I do without each brick in the wall. There are many more friends and acquaintances that support me along the way, and I'm grateful for every one of them. Love you guys!

Maybe a writer’s life isn’t as solitary as I thought…

The System of Support

Everyone needs support. (I say this as the girl that's been told to stay on the couch for her weekend with a heating pad under her butt, forcing the Hubbs to do all the 'running') Be it emotional support, intellectual support, or sometimes, even physical support.

Support when you're writing is a little different. I know if I have a plot problem, which as we know, happens to me a lot, I can always call my sister and get a new perspective. I can ask the Hubbs for input any time. I can even call my Mother and ask her what she thinks of what I've written.

But the writing is still ultimately up to me.

And that's the hard part right now.

Heather