Under Lavender Skies

Today I wanted to talk about writing, each component of writing, and how I have been working and improving on my own.   When writing, three different components come to mind.  Researching, also called outlining or preparing, writing, and editing or revising.   R e s e a r c h Non-writers don't realize how much of writing is not really writing but instead researching.  Even for fiction writers,  research is important.  A few weeks ago I researched types of doors and the layout of a mansion in the span of two minutes.  This part of writing is especially true, though, when writing historical fiction.  I haven't shared any of my historical fiction short stories because I am quite nervous about just missing the mark and getting the history wrong.       W r i t e Just write!  Sometimes I find that I have more motivation to research and edit then to actually write.  I love learning about certain historical events a...

Here is my most recent short story, please read and enjoy! Koy I stared out the small rectangular window at the parade of children that clambered by the mansion after school one Friday afternoon.  Day after day I watch them routinely travel the same path back to parks and houses, to continue their eventful, purposeful lives.  On this particular day, I sensed something different.  It was the week before school ended for the summer and they wouldn’t be walking the path every day anymore.  I spotted whispering and pointing among the group and it gave me hope, for a second, that a few children would visit the lonely mansion in the middle of the busy street.   ____________________________________________________________________________ Ezra Jackson and I stumbled over the uneven gravel, ahead of the group, moving back home.  We only have one week of school and I just can’t wait until we don’t need to visit this messed up street, one that comes with annoya...

Have you ever heard of the 10,000-hour rule?  It is a simple idea and practically explained in the name.  The 10,000-hour rule states that to master one's craft you must spend 10,000 hours working on it.  It says that 10,000 is almost like a perfect number to work on a painting, or music or writing, or anything else.  A man name Malcolm Gladwell popularized this idea in this book Outliers and this idea has been debunked multiple times.     In theory, this rule makes sense but when you really think about it, it is an almost self-deprecating rule.  It is saying that if you are not good at something it's your own fault.  You should have just practiced more and worked more.  Now I am not saying that practice is unimportant, you must practice to get better but practice isn't everything and practice does not always make perfect.  Malcolm Gladwell's idea came from a 1993 study of violinists and pianists which found that on average mus...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about different journals that I have used and enjoyed.  Today I want to talk about bullet journaling.  Bullet journaling has gotten quite big over the years and almost everyone knows something about bullet journaling these days.  One of my favorite parts about bullet journaling is how personable it can be.  You can make it as complicated or as simple as you like.  If you look up bullet journaling you will get lots of videos of extremely artistic journals.  I think that is wonderful because that is what those people like, however, if art is not your thing or even mixing art with your planning is not your thing then there are so many other ways to do it.  I have gone through lots of trial and error with my bullet journaling to find what I enjoy seeing when I open my journal.  Three words I would use to describe my journal are: simple, pretty, and usable.   If you were to look at how bullet journaling began you...