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| Screenshot from my STOP Not Writing... Now website |
There's been a lot on the go on my project plate... a new website had to be formed for my "STOP Not Writing... Now" writers coaching line. And if you know me personally, you know a mere self-made template won't do.
I think if you're an artist in one métier, I think your creative eye wanders everywhere, wanting to artistically shape everything... from hanging pictures, to interior and/or garden design, to tweaking a website's HTML. The creative mind's eye never sleeps.
After customizing four websites, I can't decide if I like doing it, or suffer through the stress to enjoy the outcome. Coding can be a devil, if you're merely self-taught, and apt to royally screw things up. Happily, luckily, I've always managed to correct my coding boo-boos, but I won't herald that from any mountain top in case Fate hears me and comes charging, ready for the kill.
A storyteller can craft a tale in any medium, and a website is no exception. From the start to the end, from page to page, and from post to post, the visual melds with the written to form a home, of sorts, and the owner invites people all over the world to drop by, sit a spell, and be immersed in the artist's particular universe.
For me, I've always needed to mix the serious with satire... a wink and a nod, saying, hey, yes, come on in, and let's get some work done, but don't forget to smile while you're here... possibly a take-off from the Seven Dwarves whistling. I'm from the cartoon generation, after all. Everything toil and trouble can be made palatable with a good dose of funny. I know it was my parents who raised me, but I think Hanna-Barbera had a severe influence. I remember one childhood trip to L.A. in the late 60s, and my uncle drove by the Hanna-Barbera studios. Despite the low-key, unappealing nature of the buildings, I knew the Meaning of Life was housed in those drab sandstone stucco walls. My imagination had Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird sitting at architectural desks, drawing themselves in their next cartoon adventures. Some life experiences forever change a person...
So, of course, like all my websites, from the 2nd Official Tate-LaBianca Murders Blog, to the Buck & Buntline Inn, and to this, my author site, Words to Write By... and Books by B J Thompson, the STOP Not Writing... Now site is a mélange of the hard-charging me and the happy kid at heart. Some serious, let's get stuff done interspersed with a funny, now and then.
My main goal, after finishing my own books, was to get other wordsmiths to finish theirs. I've always wanted that.
From the Fall of 2009 when I formed my first writers coaching process group to more than a decade later, I got to know what worked and what didn't for the new writer, and I formulated ways to overcome those manuscript abandoning pitfalls. I've never asked a new writer to do anything I've not already done myself, and I have three published literary novels and two non-fiction works to prove my system works. A fourth epic-length historical literary, entitled AIR, is soon to head to professional editors in the hopes this work can garner an agent, so my works can be traditionally published.
It's been a wild adventure, these last dozen years since I took up writing full time, and despite the momentary downs, the ups have more than made up for any setbacks. Life truly is the journey, and I've managed to smell the posies along the scenic route as I've travelled into the future. And this week, it has me here, announcing another aspect of my artist creativity... as a coach who can guide new writers to their finished manuscripts.
My driving force to get other writers finishing their books, you ask? I always wondered what precious story gems are out there that have never been finished. It's like knowing there are islands of paradise on the horizon you see but are unable to visit. Can there be any better driving force to get writers to reach those iconic words, The End? Hardly.
So, with the STOP website finally up and running, I return to my AIR self-edits, and add more draft words to two brand-new genre series I'm beginning, as well as another How To book. My literary cup runneth over. The question is never the lack of ideas or words; it's finding enough hours in the day to craft and weave those ideas and words...and still manage to squeeze in a shower and untangle my hair. ;-)
My journey continues...