Things You Shouldn't Write on a Card

Ah, Valentines Day, the official day of material affection.  Numerous cards, flowers, and chocolates are exchanged between sweethearts on this day and many people find it a swell time to get engaged or married.  Commercials and ads are in full swing suggesting that their product will be the best gift for your valentine.

What I find unappealing about this whole charade is how unoriginal it all is.  It's like one giant cliché in a 24-hour period.  There are 324 other days that are probably way more meaningful to you and that special someone than February the 14th.  Aside from everyone deciding to be especially affectionate on the same day, they are all doing it the same way: Roses, chocolate, balloons, teddy bears, hearts, cupids, red and pink everywhere, ect.  Bleh

However, if you must do something on Valentines Day, please try to put your own twist on it.  Cards are the easiest things that can be very personal.  You can hand make them and write what ever you desire.  There is an art to card writing.  A good card is brief, poetic, personal, and heartwarming.  I've written up a few examples of what you shouldn't write in a card.: 

·    Sweet heart, you are so lucky to be my Valentine.

·    Roses are red . . . you know the rest

·    We are meant for each other, like a criminal in prison.

·    There are a lot of fish in the ocean but you aren't a fish. You're more like a really awesome dog.

·    I almost forgot to send this card, but my e-calendar reminds me of these little things.

·    You are the most beautiful person, on the outside.

·    I believe that love is the romanticization of the chemical reaction responsible for the procreation of our species.  I would be delusional if I said I love you, but I truly want to procreate with you.

·    You are worth a lot to me, especially your wallet

·    I owe all my joy to you and $5 for this card and the chocolates

·    I'm not inspired enough to write this card myself, that is why I bought a pre written Hallmark card to express how much I care for you.

·    Love is definitely blind

Any ways, on a serious note, your card, for whatever holiday would mean a lot more to someone the more personal it is.  If you're reading my blog you more or less likely to be a writer/ poet so this shouldn't be so hard.  Write up a memory of when you first met or a poem or if you're more artistically inclined draw something.  Make it something that only you can do and means something to the other person.  Sometimes the best gift is you.  Spending time together could be worth more than any object.

Happy Early Valentines Day,

Mandy Calvin

Do you have any (appropriate) funny things that shouldn't be in a card?  If you do please share them in the comments.

Lost In the Message

   When writing fiction, tell a story, do not try to convince a moral, political, or philosophical view to the reader. I've always felt conflicted with this piece of advice. There is hardly a piece of quality writing without an idea being pushed. When we get down to it isn't that all what books are, thoughts? Like other aspiring writers, I imagine how my imaginary best-selling novel will affect the hearts and minds of my readers in my dreamy little head. On a not too distant cloud is getting published and other generic writer fantasies, that others would find utterly drab. So idealistic Mandy sets her goals high and aims to change the world with her fantastic writing. Then she looks down for a moment and sees that piece of advice mentioned in the first sentence and begins to get concerned.

   Just recently it dawned upon me what this chunk of advice was saying.  I was convinced that it was suggesting that a story shouldn't express a point of view or share some sort of moral.  However, this is not what it meant.  It meant that during the writing process don't try to bog down the plot with lecturing prose or skewing the dynamics of your story just to make it fit for some nice philosophy.  Write the story and the rest will follow.  I was listening to speaker once who brushed over this subject.  She suggested that if you are so intent to get your idea across, write and essay instead.  By trying to argue a point through a story you can be weighing it down instead of developing it into something spectacular like the way you see it.

   A story needs to speak to the heart of the reader, and the way of doing that is through its characters and a plot.  The characters in your story may well experience conflicts and their solution to the conflict may express a wonderful message: don't do drugs, persevere, love overcomes all, politicians have no soul, the key to happiness is within you, ect..  That's great because that message is being shown and not simply told.  I believe a powerful message can be artfully implemented into a story.  Just don't get so caught up in a message that you forget about the story.

Have you ever heard similar advice? What do you think of it?

Shoes with Toes and Writing Prose

   So the other day I was at a friend's house and we were eating lunch.  I happen to glance under the kitchen table to see her wearing the oddest pair of tennis shoes I ever saw.  The shoes looked like a pair of water shoes but molded to the shape of her foot, toes and all.  I immediately questioned her about them.  She smiled and casually explained they were the latest in running shoe apparel.  My friend is a dedicated morning jogger and fitness fanatic, so she's into that type of stuff.  Yet, I still don't know why she was wearing them in the kitchen.  She continued to give me a sales pitch about her foot's fashion statement.  The regular tennis shoe, though is soft on the feet, isn't very soft on joints in your hips and knees.  See, the human foot in biologically designed to run and support our body and absorb shock instead of our hips and joints.  The regular tennis shoe inhibits the foot from doing what it does naturally and it causes unnecessary wear and tear on joints and hips.  With this new design it's like running bare foot, but better.  That's what she said anyways.
   So how did I apply the mechanics of the shoe to writing?  Ever writer has a voice in which they share their ideas, whether that be through poetry or prose.  Some would call it a person's writing style but I prefer to call it a writing voice.  No one can tell you what you voice is like and it doesn't appear on demand once you begin the road to being a writer.  You alone must spend the large amount of time strengthening your voice.  It's frustrating.
   The worst mistake a new writer can make is copy another writer's unique style.  It doesn't work because that's not their voice.  In the end they just mix up their writing into gibberish and their writing was worse than it was before.  Studying another author's voice and mimicking it are two separate things.  So like the way the shoe conforms to the natural shape of the foot so must a person's writing conform to their natural style and not someone else's.


   Have you ever mimicked another author's voice? How did that go? Have you ever worn these strange shoes with toes? My next post is going to be my 50th post. Are there any ideas of something special I can do?

Ideas are a Renewable Resource

   You want to know what my greatest worry was when I started blogging? It wasn't that I wouldn't have any followers or that no one would like my writing.  My initial worry was that once I start blogging that I would run out of ideas and start repeating myself.  My first post on Mandy Calvin's Quill was in April of 2009.  I continued writing to an audience of zero until September when I stopped.  I dropped the blog like a wormy apple and left it on the ground to rot.  Then in March 2010 I came back with fresh ideas and a thin layer of determination, I had looked at the abandoned  blog remembering my vision of it and I was lured back.  I was still a little shaky, only posting once or twice a month.  Somewhere late 2010 I had finished writing a post and was about to click the publish button.  I lingered in thought as the problem began to crystallize in my mind.  When you send a post out to be publicly viewed by the world wide web, anyone could see it and steal your idea.  When that post is published, that's one idea used and ideas were sacred stones to me that were to be spent with excessive frugalness.  But I was over looking something, which I realized at that moment.
   Ideas are a renewable resource.  I pride myself to be creative yet I was frightened to set my thoughts free.  My lack of confidence only hindered all that I could be.  Because not only are ideas renewable, they keep getting better.  By letting an idea set sail, you challenge yourself to do better.  For some that's a daunting task because they believe they will never exceed their own standards if they try their best.  It's similar to what I suffered, not wanting to put my best effort of posting original content because I thought I couldn't keep it up.  Just because I can't think of a thousand brilliant ideas instantly doesn't mean I can't think of something later.  As long as I keep experiencing life, there will always be a flow of ideas.
   In case you were wondering I did finally click the publish button on that post after all that thinking.  Months later, on New Years of 2011, I made a resolution to write a minimum of three posts a month and to put my best effort into them.  We make it to present day and I've kept that resolution up to now and I intend to keep doing it.
   I hope you enjoyed reading this because there are a lot more ideas from where this came from. 

Life is a Beach

   Hello from the beach. I've recently taken a trip to the west coast as a start for my summer. It's cloudy and the breeze from the Pacific is chilly, but it's been a great trip. Today's picture is of a little art project I created in the sand. I prowled the surf for little stones and broken shells to form a picture of a sun umbrella by the ocean.
    I think travel is a great opportunity for writers and people in general. Going out and seeing the world adds to your treasure trove of memories and experience to use in your writing or life. Of course you don't need to hop on a plane and travel into the jungles of Africa. Taking a closer look at the environment around you, obverse the people in the local deli, sit in your back yard and watch the squirrels, or just pondering on the mysteries of life can broaden your view. Life is the greatest inspiration and it can give you the greatest tools for any creative person. Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird based off of her home town, friends, family, and seemingly the Scottsboro trials. Another example: my little arrangement in the sand. I used what the beach had to offer to create a lovely design. Savour everything life has to offer, because the world is constantly changing and is never precisely the same.

The Writing Wagon

   No one ever said writing was easy.  If writing was easy, every mother's child would be churning out best sellers (we could also make every person in this hypothetical world a bookworm).  The most challenging thing is staying on task and finishing what has been started.  I don't know much about ADHD, but I know that humans in general have short attention spans, especially when it's most needed.  The modern age of technology isn't helpful.  You know what I'm talking about: those shiny mobile devices, iWhatevers, television, and websites.  These aren't a hindrance when the story is pouring through your hands as your transform it into words.  During those times you're the invincible, victorious writer.  Nothing can stop you.  Well, except for yourself. 
   Enter writers' block and play spooky music.  Now is the time when you can easily fall off the wagon.  The flowers and glitter are gone and the hard times have arrived.  But, instead of facing the dilemma, you face the television or browse YouTube for videos of a cat playing the piano.  May be you stay slightly more focused and twitter about it or post about it on facebook.  Then of course you start doing other things, like talking to friends or twittering about what you ate for lunch.  The story doesn't get picked back up until a month latter.  What needs to happen is the toys and gizmos to be put away so the work can be done.  A few pointers to do so:
    - Designate a certain time quota per day to social net working and web browsing so you don't get carried away with it in the first place.  (This could be a good thing all around)
    -Turn cell phone off while you write
    -Take up writing by hand on paper in quite room, later type it.  Sometimes the Internet button a click away is too tempting. 
    -Plan out what you're going to write in your head the day before you write, while you have some free time or as you're about to go to bed.
    -Whatever you do just keep writing.  You can possibly take on an extra writing project

Well I'm not one to talk, I just added onto my distractions by getting a twitter account.  Oh well, I'll manage.  Do you get sidetracked? How do you deal with it?

Shaking It Up With Shakespeare

  When someone says Shakespeare, I automatically think: Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, a lot of other plays, and hundreds of sonnets. He is the never dying presence in English studies in school. His old fashion way with English opened me to new old vocabulary (you saucy fellow). This very dead playwright has a strong influence in our world. This is because he is a classic and he is rightly so. When I had to first read some of his work, I was under the misconception that anything written by some guy in the late 1500s would be stiff and dull. After getting past the funky words, I was surprised. His work was comical, entertaining, and moving. Also his sonnets are very witty and amusing. It's amazing that writing hundreds of years old can still be appreciated. Over such a time gap, people understand humor and emotion the same way.

  What makes a piece of writing a classic? What keeps it from disappearing in the chasm of time? I think it's when something appeals to the deepest parts of the human spirit, the part that seems to remain constant despite social trends and changing environment. When it reveals a certain truth that lures readers of all ages. I believe that's how a piece of work becomes immortal, a classic. Shakespeare’s work isn’t alone, as there are hundreds of beautiful classic pieces of literature out there: Moby Dick, 1984, Atlas Shrugged, Wuthering Heights, Grapes of Wrath, The Odyssey, Tom Sawyer, and much more. Then there is what is yet to come.  What writers create today may become the classics of tomorrow.

What do you think makes something a classic? And what are your favorite classics?

April Trivia

We are in the month of April as we all know.  If you don’t know, then I suggest consulting with your calendar more often.  Easter, Tax day, and April Fools' Day are well known holidays in April.  What you probably didn't know was that April is both National Poetry Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (try saying that ten times fast). Fancy that. National Poetry Month was first. The Academy of American Poets started it in 1996. Sexual Assault Awareness Month came along later on April 1,2010 in a presidential proclamation. April is claimed by many other obscure month long observations, but I only have so much time. 

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar the western world currently uses. It was named after Pope Gregory XIII, the man who introduced it. In this calendar April is the fourth month. The Latin word used for April in prior calendars was Aprilis. In Greek it is Aphro, short for the mythological goddess Aphrodite. In the Roman culture, this month was dedicated to Venus and Venus is the roman equivalent to Aphrodite. In short, April was the month of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

The birthstone for April is a diamond and the flower is a daisy or sweetpea.

April is a beautiful month.  So to all those in the northern hemisphere, may you have a nice spring. To those in the southern hemisphere, I hope you have a pleasant fall.

Behind the Name

  To me, starting a new writing project is always exciting.  You have a fresh idea and a mind full of hope.  It's like an uncharted wilderness just waiting to be explored.  The characters are like the natives, curious strangers who you encounter and bond with along the adventure. 

At the beginning of any fiction project, one of the first orders of business would be to name your main characters.  Next to titling the project, naming characters is the most enjoyable part of writing to me.    After you figure out what their personality is vaguely like and what their role is in the story, you have to call them something.  Character #1 ain't going to cut it. This name is going to be the face of the character to the reader.  So this name should reflect who they are.  Finding this name is fun.  My greatest sources are baby name websites and books.  After plowing through dozens of names (some of which I never knew existed like Achava), I find the name that fits the character like the glass slipper on Cinderella.  Mentioning Cinderella, I'll use her as an example of a well named character:

Cinderella means "little ashes"- In Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm, Cinderella is abused by her evil step mother and step sisters.  Her nice clothes were taken away and she was treated like a slave.  She always looked dusty and dirty from sleeping in the ashes, for she had no bed. 

Lennie means "lion strength"- In John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men Lennie is a migrant worker who has a sort of mental disability, so he relies on his traveling companion to do the thinking.  While his companion is the brain, Lennie is the brawn.  Due to his mental disability he doesn't really understand his own strength though.

Clarisse means "clear, bright" - In Ray Bradbury's  Fahrenheit 451 Clarisse McClellan is a young girl who is different from the society around her and thinks for herself which starts the main character of the story to think for himself.   

What is the naming process like for you and is there a famous character's name whose meaning you find witty? I'd love to hear about it.

Only One

There are thousands of aspiring writers, just like me, waiting to make it big.  Even to the talented, it's intimidating. This is because there are many other talented writers out there too.  While working on my story, my dreams are soaring.  I'm completely oblivious to what's going on around me.  Someday, somehow, I can share my writing with everyone.  Then I lift my head from my work and look around.  I see many others working just as hard.  Enter Doubt, a dreamer's greatest foe.  His dark powers cause me to ask myself, " What have I got to offer? What makes my stories unique? How can I possibly succeed?" 

The answer:  me.

There is only one Mandy Calvin on the face of this Earth.  There is only one of you on this earth.  We all have experienced and seen things in ways that no one else has.  The memories that we draw inspiration from are unique to each and every one of us.  Then there is our style and our way of thought.  No one is the same.  Writing is the manifestation of ideas from its author.  So we all have something to share in our writing.  Good conquers evil yet again. 

Isn't Paper Awesome?

Once upon a day, not so long ago, I had in front of me a fresh piece paper. Next to the paper was a stapled five-page packet of origami instructions. After twenty minutes of following the instructions and folding the paper I had myself a piece of origami resembling a bird. I sat it on my desk and admired it.

I really like paper, which sounds odd. But the reason why is because paper embodies potential. A blank sheet of paper has so much potential. You can write on, draw on, fold, paint on, and technically eat (not something I'm suggesting) paper. It's the ultimate toy for creative people. The coolest place in a bookstore is the blank journal section. I often scan over the shelves and touch the journal covers. Sometimes I pick up a particularly eye catching one and flip through the empty pages, imagining what I'd write on them.

I also really like life. And paper and life have a lot in common. Life starts like a blank white sheet of paper. You're an innocent baby with no tarnished past and whole life ahead of you. As you grow older you begin to dream of what you want to do with your life. Your paper is being marked on with pen as you begin making memories. Life is fragile and so is paper. Paper is easily damaged and if it is caught on fire, it's gone in a flash. In old age, the paper is a little wrinkled, full of knowledge, and full of messed up scribbles.

Remember Why

  Sometime there are just those days were you don't feel like getting out of bed. You can't think of why you should. Why go and face the cruel world when you have the comfort of your bed right there. No action is needed. You snuggle up to your pillow about to go right back to sleep, but you're stopped. Something in the back of your mind is nagging at you to get up. Why? Your eyes open and stare aimlessly with frustration. Soft steps could be heard padding across the carpeted floor. Suddenly a little black nose appears at the edge of the bed followed by a pair of round eyes and then a whole furry head is starring at you. With Rover breathing in your face you remember you got to feed and take care of him. You reach out from under the bed sheets and pet the top of his head. He then affectionately licks you hand, smothering it with love slobber. Now you have to wash your hands, but you remember that this slobbery mess of a dog puts a smile on you face everyday. So you get up, wash you hands, and go on with your day.
  When you're a writer, sometimes you get a little discouraged. You might have writer's blocks or other tough life life situations staring you in the face and you start asking yourself why bother? In these tough times you have to remember the dream you have. The reason you have behind wanting to be a writer or whatever it is you want to be. So I have a suggestion. Sit down and remember the moment you realized what you wanted to do. Remember the feelings that fuel your passion. Remember your goal. Take all of this and write it down. Make it how ever long it needs to be to fully express yourself. After you got it all written down and spell checked, give it a thesis statement. The thesis statement is a sentence that summarizes the whole thing. The point of it is so you have simple sentence you can recite to yourself in times of doubt. In a sense it will be your rally call or writing motto. Lastly, take the sheet with the motto on top in bold and the rest underneath and place it were you can see it everyday. So everyday you know what needs to be done.
  You can do this with other things like weight loss, breaking bad habits, or starting good one. Anything you want to do you need to persist after it with the passion you begin with all the way to the end.

An Education





You can't learn to be an artist, that's true. That's because your artistic vision comes from the depths of your innermost self, and it's been there since you were born. So why bother getting an education in something you're born with? What an education does is help you utilize your inner artist. Education is like keys that unlock little pieces of yourself as you learn. Now, the word education, it makes you think of desks aligned in neat little rows in a boring square room. Those desks are then facing some boring teacher with a monotoned voice who is trying to cram the meaning of an onomatopoeia down your throat. That's school. School gives an education, sometimes, but an education doesn't necessarily come from a school.  I'd like to relate education with experience as opposed to schooling.  Experiencing life is the greatest education.  Ever heard the saying "art imitates life"?  So, as a writer, you got to go an experience all you can out of life.  With every experience you have, it will help give your writing an edge that only you can give. 

Fight and Write!

Raquel is a person who has so much to share with the world.  She has talents, dreams, and ideas that could form something beautiful.   Yet she lacks the selfconfidence to form it.  Somehow she lost her faith in herself, or maby never had it to begin with.  Friends all around  her tell her how great her work is and that she should try this and that to get it out into the world.  Raquel just smiles and shakes her head no, she's  not good enough she says.   She just contnues to scribble on her paper not wanting to risk failure. In the end her art will be nothing more than scribbles. 

People like Raquel are not only afraid of failure, but the mere idea or anticipation of it.  So they don't even try.  Life slaps them once and they flee to the shadows from whence they came.   They got it in their minds that every time you get slapped you've lost.  That's simply not the case, when you run you lost by forfeit.  The only way you lose is by forfeit.  Life will keep slapping you until you learn to duck and fight.

In a story, I would write it so Raquel would over come her fears.  She would take life by the throat and achieve her dreams.  May be to have more of a climax she would muster up the courage to try and get knocked down.  Then she would get back up.  It would be a happy ending.  In the real world, though,  Raquel  would have to make that decision on their own, Raquel is the author of her own story.

Define Fine

The fine print was very small and difficult to read

Don't worry about me, I'm fine

The other day I got caught speeding and I got a fine for fifty bucks

The ceremony went in a fine manner

I am so happy that I was raised learning English. I imagine it would be a nightmare to try learning it as a second language. I wouldn't be venturing too far to say that half of our grammar handles the irregular rules. Then there is our vocabulary, strewn with words with unconnected meanings. English is such haphazard language, but this mess of a language somehow forms some of the finest works of literary art.

"Fine" is a four letter word. A simple, easy to say word yet its definition could range from penalty to good health. Are the definitions really so strange from one another? You would think that a penalty has nothing to do with good health. Think a little outside the box and it isn't quite so. A fine, a penalty, means you must pay something to makeup for a mistake or misdoing. You pay for the wrongs to make them right. In other words, you pay a fine to make things fine. How about "fine" in the sense of elegance or thinness; How do they connect to the rest of its definitions? Elegance is having dignified grace or clever simplicity. One has to be in good health to let their elegance be on best display. Thread and letters can be fine, as in sheer and thin. These flimsy appearing things, that "fine" commonly describes, are elegant as they usually are involved in a liberal art.

Just a little thought filler for you.

Wordy Magnets

A friend of mine recently gave me a very cute gift. It was a small glass jar, small enough to sit comfortably in my palm. A label reading "Cure for Writer's Block" was plastered on the front. I thought the jar was so cute, yet my attention was misdirected. The magnets inside were suppose to be the interesting part and the "cure". I thanked my friend for their very nice gift and took these little magnets home. I sat the jar on my desk, treating it like an ornamental good luck charm. It wasn't until days later I opened the jar to stick the magnets on my fridge and put them to their intended use.
I really surprised at how many little magnets could fit in such a small jar. Half of my refrigerator door was covered. As I was placing the words on my fridge, I got a cute idea to try to organize the words in groups that rhyme. Estimating, I was consumed with this for twenty minutes. Then I got tired of scanning over fifty itty bitty words cluttered on the metallic door. I settled for just making silly sentences. "Angels drink holy soup" and "chickens have fear" are some examples. Imagine, a person crouched on the floor of their kitchen in an ape like manner. Their eyes are transfixed on the little magnetic words they are arranging into pointless sentences. Their jaw is slack, leaving a small aperture in their mouth where a little drool escapes. Can you think of a bigger wast of time?
Unless angels drinking holy soup turns out to be a huge plot piece in your story, I would not recommend this for a cure.

Is it it bird or a plane? No! it's Super Orange!

For the past few days I've been under attack by a nasty cold virus of some sort. My nose can't decide to be stuffy or runny, so it decided to do both. Also I had a sore throat, but due to the miracles of salt water gargle it's gone. To top it all off I'm insanely tired, and I have no time to be sick between work and more work! The week end will give me a little more time to sleep and rest, thank God. Another miracle remedy for colds, that is a lot more pleasant than salt gargle, is orange juice. Chalked full of vitamin C, it seems to bring the intensity level of the sickness to a more mellow state. I learned of the golden juice's properties when one winter's day I was sick with a cold. I had a dire thirst and got out a tall glass from the cabinet. Filling it to the brim, I chugged it down within one breath (I was really thirsty), and not satisfied I did that a second time. With my thirst quenched I mosied about with my business and in minutes I felt fully revived. This enlightened state lasted for a whole hour before I felt sick again. Now days I stay within the one cup range but It still relieves me.

As I was drinking my orange juice this morning I was thinking, and I thought of the orange. Nothing rhymes with orange, or so I heard. I began to really think about it, and could not believe out of the whole English language there are no words that could rhyme with with orange. So I googled it, who best than to ask the entity of information? I found a few sites and it appeared that there are words that rhyme if you say it right: door-hinge,syringe, porridge. This could make a very wierd poem.

I once had an orange
It was bright, fat, and round
I tried to give it some porridge
But it wailed like a hound
It had got stuck in a door-hing
And there it was bound
I inserted a syringe
Numb,it slumped to the ground.

Weird. . . .