Writing is Hard Work. Mostly.

Writing is hard work, except for when it’s not.

I’ve been really pushing working on my book, hoping to get the first draft finalized before the Guild Wars 2 head start date (August 25). I want a free mind for diving into playing – plus it was a handy solid goal to set for myself.

As far as accomplishing that goal….there’s still time, but I’m having my doubts.

The problem I’ve always had with writing is that it seems to either be effortless or impossible. Either the words just flow from my mind to my fingers to the screen, or I stare there sitting at the cursor blinking at me mockingly.  Lately it’s been more of the latter.

When I was in grade school I had a terrible time writing. Finally I asked a teacher for help – I explained that I could think up wild stories in my head and could even tell an okay tale but had an impossible time actually writing anything down. I asked what the problem might be and how I could go about becoming a better writer. Her answer: I was just lazy and obviously not trying hard enough. Not exactly helpful advice.

Luckily I had other people in my life to ask. My mother and my best friend both had excellent advice that has helped me to this day.  The two bits of advice were amazingly simple but made all the difference.

1. There is no Right and Wrong way to write.
2. If you can tell a story you can write a story.

The first seems simple but was pretty big. I was caught in the idea that there was One True Way to tell a story and was convinced I was always doing it wrong. The pressure of doing it Right was often enough to just blank my mind to nothing.

The second was really the eye opener though.  To this day I keep this rule in mind. If I’m blocked or stuck on a particular piece I just start talking out loud. Or I imagine a conversation between myself and a friend – how would I tell the story to them? Then I just write all that down, minus the hand gestures and non-words of course. ;)

It’s worked out really well. I may not sound perfect or scholarly, but I sound like me. I like sounding like me.

I’ve had to remind myself of these tips when writing my book. I have this idea that A Book is a certain type of writing and needs to be Proper.  I had an epiphany a few months back; this was my book and I could make it any way I wanted. If I wanted it to be a picture book with short stories I could do that. If I wanted it to be all in limericks, that was my call. If I wanted to skip whole parts of my adventure that was up to me to decide. There is no right way when I’m the creator. It was a pretty liberating realization.

As for if I’ll reach my self appointed deadline….we shall see. Lately the writing has been more on the impossible side rather than the effortless, but I just keep chugging along and reminding myself it doesn’t have to be perfect etc.  Eventually it’ll get done.  Eventually….

Sometimes I wonder how I survived.

There are times when I look back at some of my experiences and decisions on my Walk and think to myself, how the heck did I actually survive that?  Like this one from day 2 in Hancock, Maryland where I was hiding from a massive storm:

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The funny thing about this video is it wasn’t until I was watching it last night that I realized that what I called a fire station alarm was most likely a TORNADO SIREN OMG.  And it had gone off three times already.  And there I was sitting in a wire and aluminum shelter.  Seriously, how did I survive this trip?

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To be fair, I had been listening to my little weather radio and was aware of tornado spottings in the area. It’s just…I’m from Maine, people. We don’t have tornado sirens here. If you hear a siren it’s a pretty sure bet that it’s just the fire station downtown. Logically I knew about tornado and storm sirens, I just didn’t think about it at the time. Thankfully I was lucky and no tornadoes actually touched down where I was. I remember hearing about one or two little ones in the nearby areas, but only golf ball sized hail, strong winds, thunder and rain where I was.

Honestly, I had the best luck along this trip. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but looking back I’m just constantly amazed at the dangers I narrowly avoided.

Sad Horse News

Sad news everybody, Operation Horse Sense is on hold indefinitely. :(

Last week I woke up and got ready to head out for my daily dose of horse only to be confronted with an empty pasture.  I didn’t say anything, hoping that the horses would return. The owners will sometimes bring their daughters over and take the horses out for a ride, so I was hoping this was the case. However, after a long weekend in Rhode Island visiting family we came back to a still-empty pasture. *sad trombone*

There is good to this. The horses were really tearing up the pasture and it could definitely use some recovery time. Also I don’t have to worry about horse-dog interactions when I take the dogs down for a swim in the ponds. Also also, I have been using the well trod paths left by the horses as a bike path, which the dogs find highly amusing.

Overall I think I made some excellent progress in my week of Operation Horse Sense. I got to the point where I actually voluntarily touched horses without flinching or being terrified all of the time. I learned a bit about horses and horse behavior, and overall it was a positive experience.

I’m not 100% comfortable around the big animals, but I’m a lot more at ease than when I started. So that’s something. And who knows, maybe the horses will make a return before the end of summer.

For now, though, I’ll entertain myself riding the trails on my bike while the dogs chase along.

Horse trails make for excellent bike trails.

Operation Horse Sense, Step 2, video boogaloo

Today’s lesson about horses: Horses are super pushy, but it’s not aggressive they’re just like that.

Here’s a slightly embarrassing video of me confronting my horse fears:

I lost a bit of the quality when uploading, but I think the sheer terror still comes through nice and strong.

Operation Horse Sense

So, little known fact: I am a tiny bit terrified of horses.  True story. Please don’t mock.

I denied this fact for a long time, because how could I have an awesome Pony Express/Arrows of the Queen/Tortall/etc type of adventure without a trusty horse sidekick?  Anna’s great and all, but she’s no horse.

So, upon suggestion from one of my Twitter friends (thank you Jeshe!) I have made it my summer Quest to befriend the horses that reside in our field.

(Backstory:   These are not our horses.

My parents have 6-ish acres of pasture. Several years ago some neighbors stopped by to ask if their horses could summer in the pasture. They fenced off a section for the horses and left a bit just for hay. It’s a handy arrangement – they get hay and a lovely summer pasture for their horses; my parents get the field kept mowed and a few bales of hay for their chickens. Everybody wins!

Each summer it’s different horses. Some have not been very nice or friendly and have not exactly helped my fear.)

So far it’s slow going. Horses are just so big. They are big and powerful and mysterious (to me). And they have dead eyes that give away nothing of what they’re thinking. And I am completely clueless about horse body language. Every jerky sudden movement seems like angry threatening gestures to me.

Here is what I know about horses: don’t walk behind them, don’t let them know you’re afraid, watch their ears for….something.

That’s it. Oh, and that if they wanted they could crush my skull with their giant hooves.

But I aim to get over all that and conquer my fear. For the sake of Future!Me and my Future!Adventures.

Step one was successful. This involved being in the field with the horses. Baby steps, people. The fear is strong.

Sharing the same field, not a single fence between me and the horses. Progress!

Bam. Look at that! No fence between us, just the grass and horse poop. Those beasts could have charged at me at any time and crushed me to death, but I remained strong and walked all over that field! (In truth the horses totally ignored me and couldn’t care less. They didn’t even really mind when Boomer charged up and barked all up in their face. They really are very nice horses.)

Step one will probably have to be repeated a couple of times. Before the horses arrived I’d walk down the field with the dogs every morning. It’s a good walk, with lots of room for the dogs to run and two different ponds for them to swim in. I stopped going when the horses arrived both because of the mentioned terror and because I wasn’t sure how horses and dogs would interact. Turns out they’re both fine and basically ignore each other…most of the time.

So now our daily morning walks are back on. I figure I’ll keep walking with the dogs and eventually it’ll be no big thing.

So Step 1: being in the field with the horses – no fence or anything between us.

Step 2: Touching the horses.

I’m starting Step 2 with a fence between us. Still scary. Today I briefly pet one of the horses. It was a day full of bravery.

Close enough to touch. Which I did, because I’m brave.

Look at that horse right up there in my face and all. I pet her once and then called it a day. Always end on a positive note!

People who are easy or experienced around horses are probably laughing right now, but whatever. My quest is my own and it is a worthy one! Some day in the future this will all pay off and I will ride my trusty steed off into a grand adventure.

Experiminting

My hands smell deliciously minty!  And here is why:

A couple of weeks ago I noticed the massive amount of mint growing wild in my parents’ yard. As you can see here:

So much minty goodness!

All that you can see there (obviously minus the trees in the back) is mint. And that’s not even all of it! That is but one section!

It smells wonderful and is a nice ground cover, but I got to thinking that there must be something we can do with it. Mint shampoo or soap or some kind of delicious treat, something. So I went to the internet and looked around and…was kind of disappointed. Soap and shampoo were out (too many other ingredients I don’t have on hand and would have to buy), I’m not that fond of tea, and that seemed to be it. Unless you wanted to add it to salad or use it as a garnish.

Then I found this: Homemade Apple Mint Skin Toner  Seemed perfect!

(I had to first look up what exactly one did with skin toner, but a quick Google search cleared that up.)

All you need for the recipe is apple mint, apple cider vinegar, and water. It’s super easy. You take some vinegar (2 Tbs) and put it in a jar, then chop up some mint (3 tsp) and add that to the jar. Then you let it sit for about a week.

Mint and vinegar, sittin’ in a jar.

Mine doesn’t exactly look like the picture with the recipe, but I have faith it’ll turn out spectacular.

After about a week you strain the mint from the liquid, add some water (1 1/4 cups) to the minty vinegar and bam, you’re done.

I’ve made two little jars. If it turns out not to burn my face off I’ll be giving one to my sister. Either way I’ll let you know how it turns out.

If you have any other ideas for what to do with fresh apple mint, let me know! As you can see, we have a lot of it to work with.

This Time Last Year

I’m working on re-vamping and updating the website (so if you notice things disappearing or moving around, no worries, you’re not going crazy, that’s just me fiddling) and found this entry from about this time last year:

One Part Hippie, One Part Nerd, All Parts Awesome

Walking across the country, or any long term walk, is not always glamorous. Or even comfortable. I rarely know where I’m going to sleep each night, and more often than not sleep is on the ground in a tent. Showers are few and far between, and it’s hard to tell when I’ll even see a proper bathroom. It’s long and occasionally boring and hard work. It’s lacking most of the comforts of home.

So what do I miss most out of all of those comforts? Is it the easy access to a bathroom? The proper meals? The comfy bed and pillow?

No, what I miss most, and I what I end up thinking about a lot during the day, is pretty nerdy. Out of all of those comforts of home, I’d say the one I miss the most is video games.

A week ago or so I was climbing a mountain when at the top I suddenly heard an eagle scream. It was a pretty cool moment, hiking this old dirt camp road straight up a mountain, and then at the top a large field with an eagle soaring above. But what did I immediately think of? Assassin’s Creed and Guild Wars, both games that have eagle screams worked in to certain areas. And as much as I was enjoying the majesty of the moment, I suddenly had a strong longing to go scale tall buildings and jump in to hay carts. Or to run around in the cold of the Shiverpeaks and help out some dwarves.

I am totally enjoying myself, don’t get me wrong. I like the challenge of walking, talking to strangers, seeing the small little towns and farms. I like sleeping in a tent, and I have a super comfy sleeping bag. I don’t even really mind not having a proper bathroom to pee in. I just wish there was some way to hook up a solar powered Xbox 360 or a super laptop that I could play Guild Wars on now and then.

Because I am a nerd. True story.

That’s from June 25, just about a year ago now. I still remember in vivid detail that exact moment in West Virginia and hearing that eagle scream.  It was just one of a long list of really awesome moments on the road.

What amuses me is I’m pretty much in the opposite situation today.  I play a lot of video games these days (mostly down to Skyrim, LoL, and Guild Wars) and always have the comforts of home at my fingertips.  Instead of missing gaming, these days I’m missing being out there on the road. I miss sleeping in a tent, the feeling of accomplishment after struggling through the heat and hills all day, meeting strangers along the road…I miss it all.

I miss it all, but for now I’m enjoying the here and now and soaking up the pixelated adventures.  I have no doubt someday in the future I’ll be out having an offline adventure somewhere and be thinking about gaming. Because that’s just how I roll.