|| Three Ways Museums Make You a Better Writer ||

The day dawned at an early 7:50. For me, at least. I pressed snooze several times on my alarm, turned over in bed once or twice, and finally rolled out. It wasn't a grey day, but the wind promised a chill. 

I rushed to be ready by 8:45, when I would leave for the train station. It was the day I would venture into the city. 

The original visit was meant for frolicking around at German Christmas Market. However, one does not simply go to the city for one event. We made a few other stops. Parks, a coffee shop, and museums. 

Ah, yes. Museums. Those buildings of history and art and culture and the present and the future all combined under one roof. Beautiful things, are they not? I love museums. There's so much to see and learn--no matter how many times you visit. 

My friend and I went to a museum based off of the current state of architectural designs. We were passing by on our way to the next destination, and it was free to the public. So we thought, why not?

As we walked through this place of beauty, there was so much that struck me as story inspiration (which can be anything, really). Nonetheless, there's numerous lessons to gather from visiting a museum:

1. People-watching

This one is pretty obvious. As writers, our job is to people watch. But because it was a cold day and the museum was free to the public, there were all sorts of persons sitting around in the lobby just being them. There was this one guy who had a huge colorful crocheted hat wrapped around his hair. Trust me, this thing was ginormous--it was as if he had an animal hiding under there or something. But he just sat on one of the couches crocheting away at another project. He seemed joyful and friendly. But, being the introverted writerly sort that I am, I just observed and walked away. But that picture is stored in my mind. You can also find large groups of schoolkids running around museums, prissy higher class folks who walk around in their high heels and stand at a piece of art for fifteen minutes, and the everyday joe who meanders along whilst sipping a cup of joe. Use these people to populate your books. 

2. Setting

Museums are often works of art themselves. The architecture is intricate and often not something you see on an everyday basis. Take lots of pictures in these unique places. You never know when you'll want to pull something from a real-life setting scene to use in your fiction. Even just a detail like the gemstone colors used in the tiling. Or maybe the antique lanterns that adorned the walls. Museums are chock full of treasures like these. 

3. Inspiration

Yes, the people and setting are inspiration themselves. But the actual art or history displayed grants extraordinary amounts of plot-bunnies. One usually walks out of a museum with more knowledge than before of something. And abstract pieces of artistic genius fill the walls with questions that you can very well answer in your next novel. Jus' sayin'. 

I might have to venture to the city more often to step into another of these capsules of life.

What about you? Are there any settings/plot/characters of yours that are inspired by trips to a museum?

5 Ways to Keep Writing in College

And lo, the morning dawned bright and early at six thirty-three. A cool breeze tickled upon the rosey curtains, hinting (or maybe teasing) at fall.

Though the hour was early, my mind could not fall back to rest.
And the reasons could quitepossibly have been three.


Of course, after a long night without drinking any water, I was "dying" of thirst.
Then again, I also really had to use the restroom.

But...there was one more reason my mind was active and no longer bent to sleep's whim.
It was the day...
that I would move...
into my first ever dorm room.

A knot settled in my stomach. It was a mixture of excitement, stress, and the urge to shed tears. Yes, you can feel tears in your stomach.

Though I haven't yet started college, or...even moved in to my room yet... I have some tips for maintaining a somewhat normal writing lifestyle.

1. Know your schedule
Know when your classes are. And don't miss them (unless you're sick or something. Nobody wants your germs). Get homework done when you can. Mingle with other students. Don't neglect them.


2. Keep a planner
Write down the times of all your classes, meetings, work, due dates. And then block off time for writing when you know you'll have an hour or so.


3. Make friends
How does this help with writing, Rachel? This only keeps me from writing! I'd rather be a hermit and hide away in my room when not attending classes! No. Just no. People are your best resources. If you want to create amazing, round characters...you need to actually get to know people. Characters are people too, right? Not only does mingling help with personality, but it helps with body language, dialogue, accent, facial expressions, physical descriptions, and, like, real-life stuff...?


4. Goals
Set writing goals for yourself. (ie: a chapter in a week, a first draft by the end of the year, 2000 words in a day, etc.) Set realistic goals you know you can achieve and work towards them like they're homework and you have to turn them in.


5. Join or form a writing group
Great for brainstorming sessions, encouragement, critical advice, and accountability. Make some writerly friends! Just do it! Maybe they can even beta read for you! Keep each other accountable to your goals.

That's what I have for y'all! These are all easy, practical ways to continue writing in college. If you'd like more on this, let me know!

God Bless!

Rachel

And, of course, by the time this is actually getting published, I've already moved in to my dorm, and been at college for two days.

The Moving Chronicles I {The Statistics of Leaving}

I've moved about ten times in the seventeen years I've been on this earth. And I'll be moving once more this fall, but (hopefully) I'll be there for four years.

And growing up I used to hate moving. I didn't understand how it was a blessing or anything, I was stubborn and I wanted to stay where my friends were. I didn't want to leave the house I'd been living in (I mean, I was pretty good at decorating! ;) Moving is hard.

It struck me that a lot of people don't know what it feels like to pack up their entire house and move across the country. A lot of people stay in one state their entire life. That's crazy to me! The longest I've stayed somewhere is four years. The shortest I've stayed somewhere is six months. I've been on the East coast, the West coast, and into the Pacific.

So this is going to be a series blog posting. This first one is about preparations for moving and all that jazz. There's a lot more than you might think. Of course it's different for everybody, but I'm going to give you a personal, up-close look at how my family does it. As personal and up-close we can get within these next paragraphs, anyway. Hopefully this is helpful for any characters of yours who go through the moving process/move a lot!

1. Housing 
Once we find out where we're moving, we generally look at housing in the area dad will be working in. It's nice to find a house before you get somewhere. Not all people do that, I'm sure, but it's nice to move in right when you get there. Sometimes we'll even take a trip out to look at houses before we move. We did that when we moved to Colorado because my parents decided to buy a house.
However, this last move was a bit different. We had to wait about a month to get the house we wanted, so we were in a hotel for weeks.

2. Packing
So this works differently for different families. What we do is secure a packing company to come and pack our stuff into boxes. They wrap Every. Single. Item. with multiple sheets of that packing paper stuff. But it's weird because sometimes they'll wrap a little doodad (ie: a random game piece that was laying around) like five times and then wrap the fragile vase only once.  They put the things into boxes, label the boxes according to which room they belong in, tape em up, then they're gone. This usually takes hours, but doesn't go into another day.
+ Randoms about packing day
a.) There's usually about three or four packers from a company. They'll separate into the house and each of them will take a room. This means there's going to be like four different kinds of music blaring through your house and you can't do anything about it. Last time I believe we had country, rock, and some sort of rap or something. And then my mom was in the kitchen playing Christian music. It was crazy.
b.) They won't pack liquids or valuables like jewelry. I can't remember why liquids are a no-go, but if you have paint, shampoo, soap, anything liquid, they won't take it. Jewelry and the like is a no-go because they don't want to be held accountable if something comes up missing. They won't pack up costume jewelry either. But it's really for their protection and yours.
c.) Besides the liquid and jewelry thing, anything in sight WILL be packed up. We usually stuff a closet or room full of the stuff we're taking on our move (luggage, instruments, anything we're going to need after our stuff is gone, during the trip, and before our stuff arrives at our new place). So if you don't have your stuff set apart, it's going to get packed. Even your dirty clothes will get packed. It's happened to me before. *facepalm*
d.) When they're done, you're going to have boxes. Boxes everywhere. They will be piled high to the ceiling so you think they're going to fall on you.

3. Movers
These are the people who come the day after or even up to a week after your stuff is all packed up. And usually (seriously almost always) movers are late. They should come earlier in the morning so they can finish by night, but sometimes they don't come until afternoon and it goes until eight or nine at night.
They roll out plastic to protect your carpets, and the doors are flung wide open for easy in and out access. So if you have pets, you better make sure they're secure someplace or at a friend's house. The movers process is involved. My dad usually has a checklist to make sure everything is going good and everything is accounted for. (Though I can't remember if this is just for receiving the stuff after the move, or both).
+ Randoms about the movers
a.) It's polite courtesy to feed them during whatever meals they're at your house for. We make sure water bottles are handy and Gatorade to replenish whatever they're losing as they work. It's heavy-duty work to move the boxes and furniture. Fruits like watermelon are refreshing for them.
b.) When they're done getting your stuff into their ginormous moving truck out front of your house, that's the last time you're going to see your stuff for a long time, depending on where you're moving.
c.) If you can't get your stuff right away (if you're staying in a hotel for a month or something), your stuff will be stored in a nearby storage unit. And when you're ready, the new movers (for unloading) will pick up your stuff and bring it to your house.

4. Cleaning
I'm sure you can hire people to deep clean your house before you leave, but after living in it for however long, it'll need to be cleaned. Everything is open now. So get ready to vacuum, clean bathrooms, clean windows, baseboards, fill in holes in the walls, paint, etc. A lot of times we'll get somebody to come in and do the carpets, I think. There's a lot of stuff to get ready for the next people. Even if nobody is moving in after you leave, it wouldn't be cool to leave behind a dirty house.

5. Road Trip!
After all business is taken care of and the house is ready to go, it's time to head to the next destination! Hopefully the hotels/camping areas (wherever you'll be staying during your move) have been taken care of already. If you have pets, you have to make sure the hotel you're looking at staying in lets pets stay too. If you're going to be staying at a few hotels along the way, it's nice to have a special hotel bag with clothes in it that's easily accessible so you don't have to unpack the entire vehicle looking for whatever you need overnight.
We usually have any valuables with us that we didn't want taken. This includes laptops, video gaming consoles, and instruments, as well as personal information like bank stuff, insurance stuff, and important papers. Don't forget medical papers!


So that's the end of the first installment of The Moving Chronicles! I hope it was helpful and you can add some realism to your oc's moving experience!

The next post will (hopefully) cover some behind the scenes stuff (emotional reactions to moving).

God Bless!
Rachel

How to Write Blacking Out {Or How it Feels}

So, there I was, minding my own business, taking a shower, right? I was in immense physical pain and trying to hurry up the process. And all of a sudden things started getting weird.

The pain increased about times ten--I'm sure it was the most pain I've ever been in. And then...I realized...I was about to black out. Okay. So after a little while of standing there, feeling the symptoms, I was like: I don't know what to do but I should probably sit down.

Let's talk about how this felt. I mean, shoot I've gone through so much these past few days. Almost getting a black eye to almost fainting. Man.

What goes into the sensations of blacking out:

1. Bright colors in vision.
So one of the first things that happened was my vision started to go. At the corners, these brightish flashes like when you stand up too fast started to creep in. It was freaky. And then it was in the middle and I was like, Uh NO. I'm not blacking out in the shower.

2. Ringing in the ears. 
Okay, so my ears always constantly ring anyways, but that's a story for another day. When all this other stuff started happening, the ringing in my ears got immensely louder. Like, almost to the point that the noise of the shower I was in was drowned out. And I knew that wasn't good. I remembered a time when I was little and it was New Year's Eve and my ears were ringing and somebody told me that was a sign you were about to faint. So they had my lay down until it stopped. It didn't stop, but I didn't faint. I guess so started my life living with ringing ears. But I remembered that and I was like: SHOOT. This is BAD.

3. It got hard to breathe real fast.
All of a sudden I was struggling to breathe. Like, I didn't know what to do. I was trying to take deep breaths, but it was so difficult. I don't even know how to explain it. I could hardly speak or anything. I was praying out loud because I was so scared I was going to black out in the shower. I thought maybe it was a mind thing triggered by the pain I was in, so distracting myself would help, but I couldn't even sing. Just so we're clear, it was not a mind thing. Okay, but back to the breathing. It felt like I was breathing in hot air but not able to breathe it in fully.

4. I knew I needed to sit down or something.
I could tell something was wrong--obviously, because it felt so weird--but I knew I needed to sit down or get out of the shower. The problem was I hadn't finished showering and there was still tons of shampoo in my hair and I didn't want to deal with that if I ended up fainting outside of the shower. So I pushed back the shower curtain and sat down at the edge of the tub, not caring if water got all over the floor. Dude, I didn't want to die. Like, it was so scary.

5. Tingling and Trembling.
So my hands and feet were all tingly and stuff and it was real weird. I also couldn't stop trembling. But that lasted for a little while during and after.

6. Exhaustion.
Afterwards, I was exhausted. I got a late start that morning--about eleven thirty--because after I'd gotten the gumption to actually partly get ready, I slept for about an hour. First I'd tried to read my Bible but my eyes kept fluttering closed. I managed to read one chapter of Ezekiel before I was like: Okay, I'm going to sleep. I can't keep my eyes open any longer. (Don't worry I was actually sleeping, I didn't black out). I didn't wake up until Mom came in and checked on me.

7. Fear.
Okay, fear during and after. I was first of all afraid of blacking out and what could happen. I could bump my head, breathe in water, etc. Afterwards, after I sat for a good long time and finally felt it would be okay to finish my shower (it really wasn't but I had to do it. I couldn't sit on the side of the tub forever), I was afraid of standing up again. I didn't want to have the blacking out vision or the ringing ears or the difficulty breathing. So I finished my shower, my mom helped me and gave me pain meds, and I sat on my bed for at least half an hour. I was afraid that if I stood up that the sensations would come back. It had freaked me out! But as I sat there on my bed, I prayed and God's peace washed over me.

God Bless! I hope this is useful! And, no, I don't go around wishing to black out just so I know how to write it. Man, weird stuff just keeps happening to me!

Rachel

Sock It To Me {How Getting Punched in the Eye Feels}

Dearest readers, few and far between...but still there...today we are going to talk about how it feels to play four-way capture the flag and get punched in the face. Ahem, punched in the eye.

As a writer it's natural to think: "If only I knew how this (insert some random thing here) feels so I can write about it realistically." In fact, we think it a lot. It would be so helpful to have a multitude of life experiences under your belt to utilize in your writing. But just because it'd be nice to know how something feels...does not mean we actually want it to happen to us. Like, you don't go around wishing to get punched in the eye unless you're super hardcore and just like epic and stuff. I, for one, do NOT go around wishing to get punched in the eye. Obviously I'm not super hardcore or epic enough. I'm still working on that...*sigh*.

So...here I am playing defender to my team's flags, right? Waiting to grab flag belts of the attackers (anybody who's ever been in gym class should know what I'm talking about. This did not take place in gym class, however, as I have not been in public school for years. Yay, homeschooling!)

We're in this huge Dystopian/post-apocalyptic looking bunker gym thing called "The Field House". It has a ginormous American flag hanging by some of the doors, basketball hoops suspended from the dome-y ceiling, and various bleachers on the side of the court--which, by the way, is also huge.

I'm trying to grab an eighth grader's flag belt and his hand slips and PHOOMPH, his fist is in my right eye. Can I just say: OUCH.

It didn't feel so great. Believe me, he was not a puny eighth grader. Here's how my experience with pain and the eye and how it felt went:

1. Stunned. Okay, for a very short moment it was kind of like...WHAT? Lift a hand to the eye and be like uhhh did that just happen?

2. It stung. Bad. Think of like a million bees repeatedly stinging the whole area around your eye. And because they stung you so much, it goes numb. You feel it going numb, it kind of spreads in a uhh ripple effect? I can't think of the correct term, but think of when you throw a rock in water and the ripple goes out circularly. That's how it felt numbness wise.

3. It was hot. Where I'd been punched, it felt like I was on fire. Okay maybe not so bad there, but yow.

4. It was wet. Like, I don't know if that's because there were tears building up from the impact or what, but I felt like blood was going to drip out of my eye. If felt so weird, guys.

5. Swelling or something. I was blinking a lot to try and make sure my eye would be okay and there was this weird thing at the bottom of my vision and I don't know what it was but I think the cheekbone thing under my eye swelled a little bit.

6. Bruises. I knew for certain that later my eye was going to be black and blue because it was sore for at least an hour and sometimes a stinging sensation at the corner of my eye would kind of flare up. As I kept on playing, I was absolutely sure I was walking around with a horrid black and blue and purple eye.

Surprisingly I did not have a horrid black and blue and purple bruised eye. I hardly had any bruising, maybe a bit discoloration on my eyelid area. There was a kind of reddish mark at the corner of my eye where I think the most impact occurred, I still have a red mark that reminds me of a little scrape. (I mean, it only happened yesterday.)

7. Tender. After it happened, it was very tender. It still feels a bit strange as I'm typing this. ;)