What's Your Creativity Trigger? #MFRWauthor

Creativity - how it strikes us in different ways is this week's topic in the challenge. First a definition. Creativity is defined as the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. Just from the definition it is easy to see how creativity can manifest itself in different ways. Our imagination and thoughts can take us on journeys to the stars and to the old West.

Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay

Then there is the variety of production. There are as many forms of artistic expression as there are people doing the creating. Stone and wood, fabric and paper, are used by artists. Creativity doesn't necessarily involve material things. Authors and musicians create more ethereal works, which may be one of the contributors to the rise of piracy. An ebook or a song isn't held in your hand.

Image by Karen Smits from Pixabay

However my first thought upon reading the topic involved when and where. Some of my most productive writing has been at two in the morning while in a bedside vigil. Some people need absolute silence or isolation to create. Music can release the muses from control of the conscious mind or the reality of daily life to allow creativity free rein. Other things that can distract conscious control and allow creativity to flourish can be television or crowds.

I hope you enjoyed the discussion into creativity.

~till next time, Helen

Hooked on Windmaster, Dream, #mfrwauthor

From the sword and sorcery fantasy, Windmaster, an excerpt using the word, "DREAM"



Excerpt:


A strangling sense of horror woke Ellspeth from a deep sleep. The sea air carried the faint reek of freshly-spilled blood. Pale moonlight filtering through the shuttered window cast shadows around the small cabin. Nothing moved in the darkness beneath the narrow-legged desk or behind the wooden trunk that held the ship’s records. No visible danger lurked, yet the feeling of intense fear remained strong. As she fought to slow her rapid pulse, she listened for unusual sounds on the deck outside. The Sea Falcon had been her home, and she its captain, for the last three turns. She knew every inch of the bark from the tip of the ship’s five masts to the carved insignia on the bow. Despite the unease that ruined her rest, only the familiar creaks of the gently rocking wooden hull touched Ellspeth’s questing senses.

It was only a dream! At the remembered panic, she breathed deeply to rid herself of the effects of the nightmare. They keep getting more vivid, more real. Tomorrow we’ll be taking mage healers aboard. I wonder if the dreams and the healers are connected? Just as quickly as the question arose, she ruthlessly quashed it. “The dreams started even before the transport was arranged,” she muttered.

~ ~ ~

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Maybe a Cameo #MFRWAuthor

This week's topic, "Putting Yourself In The Story," asks a question every writer will have to field sooner or later. It is also very close to the 2018 topic "How much of you are in your writing?"

When I first saw "Putting Yourself In The Story" I immediately thought of author, actor, television writer, and producer, Stephen J. Canell. And the reasons were not just the closing scene of his programs where he's typing and rips the paper out of the typewriter, but from his on-screen acting including his recurring role as the crooked police officer Donald 'Dutch' Dixon in the television series, Renegade.

Then I thought of Louis L'Amour who was known for having walked the ground or worked the jobs presented in his books.

But do I put myself into the story? I think in some ways, every author leaves a little of themselves on the page. It might be an unconscious leakage of a childhood memory appearing in the hero's past or places we've been that became settings in our books.

Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

Despite the fact that Lady Ellspeth, captain of Sea Falcon loves the crustaceans found in her native seas of Nerelan, and I love Gulf shrimp, and we both have silver hair, I firmly state -- I'm not my characters. The closest I've come is the retired gunslinger, Hell Lost. Hell was the first character who really appeared to me as a fully-defined person. Other reasons I relate to her, our ages about the same as is our sense of duty and honor. And, oh yeah, Hell's real name is Helen Lawson, which is another reason why I relate to her

But the answer to the question of putting myself into the story is a definite no. Except maybe for a quick cameo where no one knows it's me.

This is a hop so be sure to visit the other authors in the challenge at https://mfrw52week.blogspot.com. ~till next time, Helen