Repairs

Weekly Card with the Fae

This week I busted out my Faeries Oracle, illustrated by Brian Froud with book by Jessica Macbeth. This is a 66-card oracle deck, not Tarot. I haven’t really worked much with it, but it called to me tonight.

More fire. I keep pulling fire cards. Luathas is highly charged fae spirit associated with fire, bursting with energy and creative passion. He’s here to give us a boost, keep us fired up and working. The problem is, he doesn’t know the meaning of the word “STOP.” As I’ve mentioned before, fire unchecked will consume everything in its path. Be aware to take care of yourself and don’t push yourself too hard, but take advantage of the energy Luathas offers. Just remember to also take a break.

Now, as if that wasn’t enough, when I flipped the deck over and went to put it back in the box, this card was staring up at me. Somehow I couldn’t ignore it so I thought I’d go for a second card this week:

Oh yeah. Even MOAR fire. This card is in the group of Faeries that Jessica Macbeth has dubbed “The Singers of the Realms.”  You could think of them as angels, Great Ones. Early on in the book Macbeth tells us there is no hierarchy among the Good People, but then describes this group as the ones who guide all the others, are constantly with us, and we can call on them for help whenever we need them. Just be sure to say “Thank you.” Etiquette is big with the Fae. This particular one is the primary active principle, the yang element, indicating action, movement, force and OF COURSE FIRE. The energy from this Singer will spur us on to greater things, give us the courage and force of will needed to move out of a bad pattern and on to more productive things. There’s something about this card I just like, feel drawn to.

I’ve finally been submitting my writing, hoping to get published. No acceptances yet, but just taking that step of sending it out was HORRIFYING. I practically had a panic attack. It’s not that I doubt my writing as much as I fear I’ll screw up the formatting or miss some crucial step in the submission guidelines that will make them hit the ‘delete’ button before reading it. Because editors do that. I can’t say I blame them, they’re trying to weed out the really unprofessional types who can’t be bothered reading their guidelines, and cut through the slush pile somehow. It’s just my fear that I will have forgotten or missed some crucial element and sabotaged myself that causes my heart to race as my finger hovers over the ‘send’ button. Well, I do the best I can, and will continue to do so.

So have a fiery creative week, and call on help if you need it.

Feeling Creative?

Here’s our lovely card for the week, the Ace of Wands from the Victorian Romantic Tarot by Baba Studio in Prague.

The Ace of Wands is the root of the creative powers, a beginning, fire energy. This could be good. A new creative undertaking about to take off? Maybe Prometheus has some fire from the gods for us all. The LWB suggests “Bravery and courage in the face of something new.”  How apropos. I’m about to get saddled with a new duty at work, one I truly dread (I’ve already seen my ‘revised job description’ so I know it’s coming). Six more months and I can bail. I can’t believe I’ve been at this job nearly six months already. By Zeus, there has to be a better way to make a living. I really need to get moving on the escape plan.

Out of Ideas?

I think it’s safe to say most of us have more ideas than we will ever get around to developing. They fly at us out of nowhere, and usually at the least convenient time (like when we’re driving, or in a meeting at work, out of a sound sleep at three o’clock in the morning when you can’t locate pen and paper, etc.).

Inspiration comes to me in many ways: Something I read, something I see on tv, something I overhear in a conversation, music I listen to, random thinking. So you can understand my puzzlement when I see messages on writing discussion boards, e-mail lists and the like, where writers send messages asking people to give them ideas for what to do with their stories.

I received at least three of these just today from different discussion boards. One person needed a title for an entertainment program that takes place in the story. A second person wanted unusual ideas about how to keep a future dystopian government from becoming cliché. Yet a third wanted exotic characters and creatures to populate the story with.

As an aspiring sci-fi/fantasy author, I’m not sure why I’d want to give away ideas for plots and characters, and alien life forms. Does this strike anyone else as odd? Are these people, in effect, asking others to give them a story?  Should they then credit anyone who supplies ideas as co-authors?

Ideas

“If I’m trying to sleep, the ideas won’t stop. If I’m trying to write, there appears a barren nothingness.” ~Carrie Latet

How often has this happened to me? It’s the reason I keep my journal and notebooks right next to the bed, along with an assortment of pens. Always, as I’m about to drift off to sleep, some marvelous little nugget rattles its way out of my half-unconscious brain. And yet, when I sit and confront the blank page, whether the paper variety or the electronic one, I can struggle for hours with nothing worthwhile to show for it.

I read an article awhile back on why this happens. Apparently creativity often comes calling in this half-sleeping, half-waking state. Mathematicians, composers, writers all have achieved insights and solved problems while dreaming, or in that half-waking state just before we really wake up. There were times when Einstein got stuck on a problem, he took a nap.

I guess that’s why I hit the “zone” (you know, when the words start coming without effort and new ideas surface that you couldn’t have forced out with pliers an hour ago) when I sit staring out the window, seemingly idly daydreaming. Maybe that’s what some writers mean when they talk about their characters taking on a life of their own.

The key to creativity for me seems to be when I can switch off the conscious and let the subconscious take over. The only drawback is, it seems to happen when I’m nowhere near a pen and paper, or a computer. I finally learned to carry a small notebook with me at all times in my purse, and even a new blank journal. I can’t count how many ideas I’ve lost for lack of pen and paper.