My crazy idea

Everyone else is doing it. Well, not everyone – just the successful and well paid writers. I spend hours hanging on the words they tell other writers and reporters; they write everyday. Now, if writing everyday was something that only a few of these writers did, I could brush off my habit of writing something creative twice a month, tops, as something that works for me. But it wasn't a few writers who said this. In both written and taped interviews I have read or seen, every successful writer has said that they write everyday.

I don't write everyday. I spend my days chasing news stories and my nights planning how my freelance career is going to take off. When I do have time to put my creativity down on paper, I do one of several things instead: sleep, catch up with old friends, read books, watch movies, clean, or move my laptop under my bed while telling myself I can write later. Sometimes I do manage to get the laptop on. If this happens, I search the internet for information on whatever I am thinking about, check e-mails, clean out my e-mail inbox, and search for nonfiction writing jobs. If I actually open up Word, I stare at the one sentence I wrote and watch the cursor blink. If I write more than one sentence, eventually I stop, tell myself that the story I am trying to tell is undeveloped and lacks whatever good novelists and short story writers have, and then hit Select All and Delete.

Today I had a crazy idea: I am going to make myself write something down in my blog everyday for at least a month. When I created my blog, I had no intention of doing this. I had planned on writing when the mood struck me or inspiration hit me. But truth be told, I do not want to be the writer I am now. I want to be better. Challenging myself this way should bring forth some good creative work I can submit. Then I can be the successful and well paid writer giving interviews instead of interviewing writers.

Of course, I have never been interested writing to gain success or money. It would be ideal, and I would certainly take both if they came my way, but I write for a different cause. I write to change people and the world we live in.

Cheesy and cliched, I know. But it is the truth. For now, just call me green.

the lucky Lounge

The smell of old sweat and spilled rum greeted my friend and I as we entered the lounge. Alcoholics and music lovers of every race and age crowded the popular bar and small dance floor. Some stumbled around, jerking their bodies and slurring loud comments. Others concentrated on the soothing notes the saxophone belted out above the noise. I scrunched my nose up at my friend when one lady pushed against me as she spun and rocked in circles with her hands raised and eyes closed.

The energy of the place strangled me.

In front of me was creativity at its best: a short guy from France, with stringy hair and a tight shirt that read “Paris,” who tickled a keyboard, a 6 foot 9 lightening bolt who shouted knowledge at the microphone as he rocked back and forth in his flip flops, a reserved poet who mumbled his opinions during instrument breakdowns and hid behind his kango hat the rest of the time, a guy who kept the rhythm by beating morris codes on the snares and symbols, two crazy cats who used their trumpets to blare out random scats as fast as their fingers would allow, an older guy who carried on a deep conversation with his bass guitar, a cocky guy who was thrilled by the reaction women had after hearing his soothing saxaphone notes, and a perfectionist who ran his fingers across every key on his keyboard while bobbing his head to the sound around him and checking his cell phone. My friend and I were there to see the perfectionist....
© Miss Brandy


The Interrupted Artist Speaks displays EXCERPTS of the poetry, works of art or stories I have written. All of these works are original and inspired by God and the creativity within me. If you see phrases that fade off like this….. this means a part of the poem was deleted. Some people take pride in stealing other peoples works and claiming it as their own. For this reason, I won’t publish the entire work. I have a copyright for all excerpts and poems – so if you are one of those people that steals others words– just know that if you use my work, you will not get away. God has given us all enough creativity so that we don’t have to steal others.

Too much talking

I fought work for some free time, and I won. The past week I have had my feet up and eyes closed – looking at my laptop as less as possible and opening myself to enjoy family and friends. I needed a break – and time to think of how to jumpstart my writing career without losing sleep, pulling my hair out and banging my head up against the wall at the same time. Though it is a slow process, my plan is coming together. Literally. My plan has been researched and mapped out in an Excel spreadsheet. Of course, I am keeping my plan a secret – even from this blog. This is because of the very important lesson I learned this past year: DON’T TALK, DO.

The problem with explaining future plans in great detail to anyone – family and friends included – is the negativity you will hear. Family and friends love you. They have your best interests at heart and don’t want to see you fail, which I found to be the underlying reason why you will hear every “what if this doesn’t work” and “you need to be more stable” scenario. Some of their concerns are worth thinking about – but my point is, what is wrong with dreaming? And pursuing a dream? And for that matter, why don’t people dream anymore? And if you did pursue a dream, and failed, why tell other people they will fail at pursuing their dreams?

Quietly pursue your dream. As the success comes you can start talking. The fact that you are successful will lead people to congratulate you instead of telling you why it won’t work. And if some people still insist on pointing out how your plans could backfire on you – just tell them that THE SKY IS NO LONGER THE LIMIT.