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  1. The Death of My Father

    My father killed himself when I was around ten years old. I can not remember the date nor even how old I actually was. Family members are the ones who need to remind me of the date and my age when I ask about his death. It struck me hard, I was nearly apathetic and very silent for many months afterwards, much contrary to my usual personality. When he died, it was like an awakening to a harsh truth. That everyone you will ever meet and love, can and will eventually perish. This set me back...
    By Madman · Nov 16, 2023 · 390
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  2. Figuring Out My Relationship with God

    Figuring Out My Relationship with God Don’t know what’s got into me but I want to go back to church. I used to go to mass every Sunday with my mother and it felt like going home sitting beside her in the pew in the same church in which I was baptized, confirmed and got married. But then Covid hit and we stopped going. And then we entered the worst part of my husband’s battle with MS which ended with his death in September of 2021, and my faith was shook up bad. There was no God in what...
    By Louanne Learning · Apr 16, 2023 · 521 · 2
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  3. Missing the Cat

    So the Mrs. is out visiting family this weekend and I'm at home, free to run wild. Took a bunch of naps this afternoon. Almost went to Kyoto but didn't have the energy. And it's after midnight and I've got a tumbler of brandy, watching something or other on cable and missing the cat. Back 25 or more years ago I was living with my dad, working the midnight shift so I found myself awake in the middle of the night with a glass of something sitting in front of the cable in the basement and...
    By Iain Aschendale · Nov 19, 2022 · 445 · 1
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  4. Don't Let the Shield Slip

    Late August 2008, wife's phone rings around 8am. She's asleep. It rings again. Then mine rings. Mother-in-law asks to be put through to Mrs. A. I tell her she's asleep. “Nobunaga (the little dog's nom-de-morte for this post) is died.” I wake up Mrs. A and put her through. We have a proper Buddhist funeral for the dog at a veterinary (?) funeral home and I learn the forms I will need later. Mid 2014 Mrs. A's mother goes to hospital. Mid-2015 I get the message from Mrs. A. “Mama died.” It's in...
    By Iain Aschendale · Sep 10, 2022 · 602 · 1
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  5. Draft One Completed

    I have now written to completion draft one of my first ever book. At sixty four thousand words (around 106 A4 pages) it sits ready for extensive edits, which is the next part of the process. It has taken me more than ten years to refine the world and around three years of writing the current draft. Though the end result lacks my contentment, I am confident that I will improve the work to the best of my ability. The story is about a grey skinned human who grows up in the slums of a city...
    By Madman · May 11, 2022 · 662 · 1
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  6. Character, Plot, & Theme

    Recently in a thread on this forum, a member put forward two potential “driving forces” of a story (plot & character) to suggest where the greatest share of a writer’s focus should be. I then chimed in to say that I subscribe to a theory of three potential driving forces, those being: character, plot, and theme. And in this post I’ll go into more detail about those three, as well as what I view as their hybrids. (1) Plot-driven: I opted to start with plot because I suspect it’s the most...
    By Bone2pick · Oct 4, 2022 · 499
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  7. Man is like the grass that flourishes and is gone.

    I'm not much of a Biblical person, not because of animosity toward the Bible or the faith, but because of unfamiliarity. As a kid I only rarely attended Sunday school, and when I did I invariably got lost in any reference to a particular book of the Bible. Later I learned to understand and appreciate Christianity, but never really the Bible per se, especially the Old Testament. Anyway, the above words popped into my mind the other day, as I was rooting through long-sealed cardboard boxes...
    By GrahamLewis · May 15, 2022 · 1.1K · 4
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  8. A Phantom for My Opera?

    Some days when I doubt myself and my abilities to write I think of employing a ghost writer. But in a bit of a different setup. I will write the first draft and then the potential ghost writer can refine it to a readable/enjoyable state. I love storytelling, and I love the creative process. But my produce just isn't up to par most of the time. Training is like trying to teach an old dog new tricks. I read, I watch, I practice... I learn? Yeah, sometimes I do learn. But I will continue to...
    By Madman · Apr 1, 2024 · 255 · 1
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  9. Word Of The Day

    Today's word of the day is ZEN. I refound my Zen today. I didn't even know I lost it. I was mowing the lawn, giving it a scalp cut, 1st cut of the spring. This is where you cut it at the mower's lowest setting, trim off all the dead so it can grow back green for the spring. I was transfixed atop the riding mower doing a repetitive task, the drone of the engine, gentle breeze in my hair. I'm back in the groove again. A calm & peace came over me, & I was reminded of when I worked as...
    By BenevolentDemons · Mar 18, 2024 · 226
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  10. Concepts

    Concepts A concept is whatever my mind can conjure. A mental picture. I have a concept of a cat. It is a four-legged, furry creature, purrs, smaller than a dog. I base that concept on observation. I have a concept of freedom. This requires a lot more input. Freedom is the absence of outside restraints. Freedom is the realization of who my most authentic self is. Freedom releases me. Freedom is valued. Concepts are formed in different ways. The more abstract the concept, the more thinking...
    By Louanne Learning · Nov 1, 2023 · 381 · 2
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  11. It's All Good

    My kid sister died about a month ago. I'm still processing it. I tried to capture it below, but I'm so close to it that I can't tell if it's worth reading, or it's TMI. I didn't want to post it in the workshop, because it's not meant as a project but as an effort to understand. I recently touched death, touched it when I held the icy-cold, blackened, hand of my dying kid sister and learned from her the art of dying right. Susan (not her real name) was diagnosed with cancer about four...
    By GrahamLewis · Oct 18, 2022 · 700 · 1
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  12. Random Thoughts on Want and Need

    Human motivation is created by wants and needs. Want and need both signal a deficit, but want is beyond need. Need is core, bones and meat. Want is extra, frills and lace. Frustrated wants bring on disappointment. Frustrated needs can harm body, mind and soul. You can live without what you want, but not without what you need. Wants and needs can feel the same in your body, a yearning that stretches to the limbs. What we want does not always equal what we need, although either can be...
    By Louanne Learning · Oct 12, 2022 · 669 · 3
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  13. River Rocks

    I have a secret addiction. I cannot pass by a jumble of river rocks -- those small stones gathered together and sold for landscaping purposes -- without glancing down at them and, at the risk of seeming odd to any passerby, picking up one or two that momentarily pique my interest. And I've found some intriguing ones: a small agate (not of commercial value), some fossiliferous limestone (seashells and the like that have accumulated and become incorporated into stone), a piece of...
    By GrahamLewis · May 11, 2022 · 746 · 3
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  14. RL sucks

    Today was the first time in a while I have had the time to actually sit down and put words on the page. Between incompetence at shippers, and over blown expectations, I haven't had time for anything but thinking about scenes and plots. And even then I often can't slip my focus enough to do that properly. There are too many out there that do not understand these new fangled inventions like mirrors or turn signals. All to often I find my work a day thoughts focused on how to avoid someone...
    By w. bogart · Oct 19, 2023 · 261
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  15. Yesterday

    openly saying what is on my mind has never been easy. I used to keep journals when I was younger. But haven't had one since I was 13/14. So, this experience could get awkward lol. Yesterday I was working on rewriting Dark, since I received so much good, helpful feedback from people on here. Well, my best friend was at work, and started texting me because it was extremely slow and boring. (she is a bartender) So, I suggested I come just sit up there with her, I could bring my laptop,...
    By Autumnashes22 · Oct 9, 2023 · 307
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