Sometimes... my brain is like a popcorn popper....
I realize my major problem with doing a podcast. I "thought jump" a lot.
It's not a new problem. My dad and I have done it ever since I could remember. Drives my mother crazy, but we can follow each other right as rain. Most of my friends know me really well so they can do the leaps with me, but people who don't know me (or understand my frames of references) can't follow along.
The same thing happens when I pull together a podcast. I go "oh yeah, and this!" "and this!" and "This!". I communicate like I think people can read my mind sometimes.... ha. It's a weird thing to try and figure out. It's different when I'm looking at someone, then I can see the "wtf?" on their face, and backtrack, but the podcast I have no one going... huh?
I don't think it's a horrible problem - it's just something I've noticed about myself. It goes along with my absent mindedness. I literally have to go through a litany in my head when I leave for work. Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Debit Card? Check. Keys? Check.... (repeat until insane). I've been known to half-pack suitcases (hence why I start a couple months before a trip). I've lost numerous items of importance and mislay more things than I can count. I just need a guy who thinks that's adorable.
My brain is constantly going. It's hard to shut it up. I've been aware of it for a long time. Even back when I was like 9. When I was in jr. high I read an article about the brain and the guy likened a thought process as "a bunch of rabbits running over a hill and we pick one out and focus on it."
Problem is I can focus on about five of them. And then jump to the next five without a logical connection.
I think so fast that things come out wrong. I just realized that I said "My boss.... she...." in the last episode of the podcast (later I refer to the right pronoun.. "he"). Why did I do this? I was explaining how he was commenting on SMG's likeness on the cover #1. So "she" was me jumping to Sarah.
I think that's why I'm not a grammar queen. Practical logic is not something I'm good at (one of my best friends knows this all too well - most of our arguments are about her literal, logical-ness vs. my empathic intellect). I latch on to big picture concepts - I hate the individual, linear approach to things.
Which takes me to arguments. I enjoy debates. I excelled at them in college - but now, I almost dread them. About 90% of my reasoning for that is I've seen too many good people break off good relationships because of disagreements. I firmly believe the best way to convince someone of your thoughts, feelings or passions is to write or speak passionately about them. Debates deadlock the emotions. In 99% of all debates if you disagree people dig in their heels and refuse to see the other side. That said, I do know quite a few people I can have an intellectual debate with and we're friendly afterwards. But those people are few and far between.
*jump*
My current mantra with fanfic is "SHOW me, don't TELL me."
Lemme explain. The writing that I've done that resonates the best with people is the writing where I deleted, rewrote and followed this mantra. It's tempting for me to say "Mal felt extraordinarily hurt at this statement," and it's fine... it's a good sentence that'll get you to your point, but it robs the reader of the opportunity to SEE what you're saying for themselves.
Something better (this is off the top of my head) would be Mal's eyes flicked downward for half a second. Just a second. Then he swallowed slowly.
Or, put your thoughts in the other character's thoughts.... rather than you the all powerful, omniscient narrator just handing them the piece of info.
My other mantra (and I can thank my fiction prof for this one) is "The rat went down the street." is not a good sentence.
My fiction writing classes were taught my one of my favorite professors - Angela Brown. I took her EVERY semester during my four years of college - except one (and that semester I was her TA).
Now, to put her in perspective - Ms. Brown was the teacher of the second class I attended on my first day of college. Ms. Brown is... well she's hard to explain her properly, but if you wrapped up the stereotypical Jewish mother, a New York cab driver, snark and "don't mess with me" with Queen Latifah and Oprah, you might get Ms. Brown. She's AfricanAmerican and one of those "real women" you always want to meet.
She swaggers into class ten minutes late (I'm not kidding... she swaggers) and says, "Writing is like." And there's this pause. Pens and pencils stand poised in each student hand to capture her wisdom..... "Getting hit by a MAC truck and the ambulance passing you by."
We were all shell shocked. I've loved her ever since.
One of her favorite "sayings" was to tell some unwitting newbie to her class (who had just asked for the handout from the previous class), "you have classmates. BEAT one of them up and take theirs." Gosh I miss her!
Anyways... back to the point.
Ms. Brown's big thing in all of her classes was describing. One of my favorite exercises of hers was "describe a color to a child born blind." She ripped apart our explanations again and again until they were breathtaking. Seriously, we read them in class and the entire room was silent during the readings. Considering half the class were pre-Aviation (read: major goof-offs), that was ground breaking.
Descriptions should make you SEE what you're reading. FEEL it. LIVE it.
Sighs. It's easy to say, hard to do.
Thanks Ms. Brown for being one of my inner editors.
It's not a new problem. My dad and I have done it ever since I could remember. Drives my mother crazy, but we can follow each other right as rain. Most of my friends know me really well so they can do the leaps with me, but people who don't know me (or understand my frames of references) can't follow along.
The same thing happens when I pull together a podcast. I go "oh yeah, and this!" "and this!" and "This!". I communicate like I think people can read my mind sometimes.... ha. It's a weird thing to try and figure out. It's different when I'm looking at someone, then I can see the "wtf?" on their face, and backtrack, but the podcast I have no one going... huh?
I don't think it's a horrible problem - it's just something I've noticed about myself. It goes along with my absent mindedness. I literally have to go through a litany in my head when I leave for work. Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Debit Card? Check. Keys? Check.... (repeat until insane). I've been known to half-pack suitcases (hence why I start a couple months before a trip). I've lost numerous items of importance and mislay more things than I can count. I just need a guy who thinks that's adorable.
My brain is constantly going. It's hard to shut it up. I've been aware of it for a long time. Even back when I was like 9. When I was in jr. high I read an article about the brain and the guy likened a thought process as "a bunch of rabbits running over a hill and we pick one out and focus on it."
Problem is I can focus on about five of them. And then jump to the next five without a logical connection.
I think so fast that things come out wrong. I just realized that I said "My boss.... she...." in the last episode of the podcast (later I refer to the right pronoun.. "he"). Why did I do this? I was explaining how he was commenting on SMG's likeness on the cover #1. So "she" was me jumping to Sarah.
I think that's why I'm not a grammar queen. Practical logic is not something I'm good at (one of my best friends knows this all too well - most of our arguments are about her literal, logical-ness vs. my empathic intellect). I latch on to big picture concepts - I hate the individual, linear approach to things.
Which takes me to arguments. I enjoy debates. I excelled at them in college - but now, I almost dread them. About 90% of my reasoning for that is I've seen too many good people break off good relationships because of disagreements. I firmly believe the best way to convince someone of your thoughts, feelings or passions is to write or speak passionately about them. Debates deadlock the emotions. In 99% of all debates if you disagree people dig in their heels and refuse to see the other side. That said, I do know quite a few people I can have an intellectual debate with and we're friendly afterwards. But those people are few and far between.
*jump*
My current mantra with fanfic is "SHOW me, don't TELL me."
Lemme explain. The writing that I've done that resonates the best with people is the writing where I deleted, rewrote and followed this mantra. It's tempting for me to say "Mal felt extraordinarily hurt at this statement," and it's fine... it's a good sentence that'll get you to your point, but it robs the reader of the opportunity to SEE what you're saying for themselves.
Something better (this is off the top of my head) would be Mal's eyes flicked downward for half a second. Just a second. Then he swallowed slowly.
Or, put your thoughts in the other character's thoughts.... rather than you the all powerful, omniscient narrator just handing them the piece of info.
My other mantra (and I can thank my fiction prof for this one) is "The rat went down the street." is not a good sentence.
My fiction writing classes were taught my one of my favorite professors - Angela Brown. I took her EVERY semester during my four years of college - except one (and that semester I was her TA).
Now, to put her in perspective - Ms. Brown was the teacher of the second class I attended on my first day of college. Ms. Brown is... well she's hard to explain her properly, but if you wrapped up the stereotypical Jewish mother, a New York cab driver, snark and "don't mess with me" with Queen Latifah and Oprah, you might get Ms. Brown. She's AfricanAmerican and one of those "real women" you always want to meet.
She swaggers into class ten minutes late (I'm not kidding... she swaggers) and says, "Writing is like." And there's this pause. Pens and pencils stand poised in each student hand to capture her wisdom..... "Getting hit by a MAC truck and the ambulance passing you by."
We were all shell shocked. I've loved her ever since.
One of her favorite "sayings" was to tell some unwitting newbie to her class (who had just asked for the handout from the previous class), "you have classmates. BEAT one of them up and take theirs." Gosh I miss her!
Anyways... back to the point.
Ms. Brown's big thing in all of her classes was describing. One of my favorite exercises of hers was "describe a color to a child born blind." She ripped apart our explanations again and again until they were breathtaking. Seriously, we read them in class and the entire room was silent during the readings. Considering half the class were pre-Aviation (read: major goof-offs), that was ground breaking.
Descriptions should make you SEE what you're reading. FEEL it. LIVE it.
Sighs. It's easy to say, hard to do.
Thanks Ms. Brown for being one of my inner editors.