Tag Archives: Real life

Even More Thoughts on Nearing the End

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No, I’m still not finished my WIP.

But honest to goodness, this last novel in my historical fiction trilogy is truly almost done.  I know I’ve written about being close before, but now I’m really close. Like, a two-digit number of pages remaining that starts with 2 (or maybe even one!) close.

When last I wrote about my WIP’s impending end, I discussed various insights that had occurred to me as I continued along this process.

Well, a new level of nearness to the end has engendered an all new set of realizations:

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What My Phone’s Autocorrect Entries Say About Me as a Person

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Texting

Have you ever looked up the words your phone has added to the autocorrect list it draws from when you’re texting?

I’ve now owned a smartphone for a little over a year.  Many people, I realize, have been smartphone users since the first Blackberrys and iPhones hit the market in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

But for me, getting a smartphone last year was a huge step.  I was already worried I spent too much time on the computer without carrying one around in my pocket as well.

However, when the opportunity to acquire a smartphone cheaply presented itself, I decided to finally join the twenty-first century and embrace all the convenience the technology has to offer.

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On Moving, Adapting, and the Impermanent Nature of Everything

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The last little bit to move at my old place.

The last little bit to move at my old place.

In life, there are moves and there are good moves.

A “move” is often the term used for a given course of action, particularly one involving bravery or bravado and occurring after a prolonged period of inaction.

Similarly, one’s approach with a romantic interest may be referred to as his/her “move”.

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My Ode to Ontario’s Highway 401

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Sunset at a Highway 401 rest stop

Sunset at a Highway 401 rest stop

Unlike a lot Canadians, particularly those living in Ontario, I love that highway.  The thought of going for a drive upon it fills me with excitement.

Highway “four-oh-one”, as its most commonly referred to – or to use its official name, the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway – spans about 828 km across southern Ontario from the Quebec border in the east to Windsor in the west, and in parts is one of busiest highways in the world.

At its widest where it crosses the populous city of Toronto and its suburban hinterlands, the highway’s girth stretches to an imposing 16 lanes, which, according to Wikipedia, makes it one of the widest highways in the world.

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On the Responsibility of Writers

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What responsibility, if any, does a writer have to society?

This was the question I posted to the message board of the writer’s group I run to be the discussion topic for our next meeting.

I knew at the time of writing it that it was a provocative question – one that different people might interpret in different ways.  Regardless, I was sure it would result in a lively, interesting discussion as my writer’s group meetings always are.

What I didn’t expect, however, was the overwrought response on the message board from an out-of-nowhere, aggrieved and impassioned troll.

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Moving Sucks; We All Know It

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The Jeffersons

Most people, I think, agree that moving is the pits.

This even includes moves that one has planned well in advance and will ultimately result, like the Jeffersons pictured above, in a move on up.

Imagine then, the perspective of one forced to move against his/her will.  This is the very situation I now find myself in.  Not because I threw too many parties or trashed my apartment or was otherwise a horrible tenant.

Rather, they call it “renoviction” – a practice that occurs often enough in Vancouver, British Columbia to warrant its own regionally-specific Wiktionary entry:

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5 Habits I Didn’t Know Were Strange Until People Told Me

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Well, I found a stock photo of it so it can't be that unusual.

Well, I found a stock photo of it so it can’t be that unusual.

As a writer, I trade upon odd and unusual characteristics.

Conventional writing wisdom says that a story’s protagonist, no matter how much of an everyday, person-in-your-neighbourhood s/he’s meant to represent, should possess some special quality –  something that not only makes him/her memorable but also plays a role in motivating and ultimately resolving the story’s plot.

I mine a lot of my own life in my creation of characters – both my own characteristics and those of people I observe.  I then proceed to spend months and years with these fictional people, to the point that they become like real people to me: fully-realized, self-determining, and with certain traits in common with me.

This, I suppose, has the effect of inuring me to my own oddities.

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Cities (and Stories) Are All the Same … Except When They’re Not

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Flinders Street Station transit hub, Melbourne, Australia

Flinders Street Station – a major transit hub, Melbourne, Australia

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, I’d travelled more than half a day into the future; perhaps journeying more than half a day closer to my final day.

~

“I don’t feel like I’ve just come halfway around the world.”

These were among the first words I spoke on Australian soil to my Aussie-born friend and former Vancouver roommate who was the impetus behind my recent trip Down Under.  This after she’d retrieved me from a very crowded Melbourne airport and pointed out all her favourite cafés, restaurants, shopping areas and, walking paths during the drive to her apartment.

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Everybody Has a Favourite (Quote)

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Just like chocolate, everyone has a favourite quote as well. (Image from the 2000 movie Chocolat.)

Just like chocolate, everyone has a favourite quotation as well. (Image from the movie Chocolat, 2000.)

Quotations, it can be argued, second only to cats, are the foundation of the internet.

For they are found everywhere online: in status updates; in tweets; as part of social media bios; within blog posts.  Sometimes an individual blog post will be nothing but a quotation.

I too enjoy a good quote.  Back in 2010, I did the 12-week self-help, self-directed artistic rediscovery course known as The Artist’s Way, which is the subject of screenwriter Julia Cameron’s book by the same name.

It took me 11 months to complete the program.

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Planning the Perfect Vacation: A (Don’t-Ask-Me) How-To

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Vacation plane

Some people are awesome at planning vacations.

These are the people who research their destinations exhaustively to discover the hottest sites to visit.  The people who book things months in advance to ensure they don’t miss out on those activities that always fill up and sell out.

These are the people who know ahead of time exactly the type of vacation experience they want, and make a near part-time job of scouring tour guides and soliciting knowledgeable friends and colleagues to transform the trip of their dreams into reality.

I’m not one of those people.  Not even close.

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