Last Friday, B’s parents took JSL and NHL to dinner.  When they got back, JSL showed us a story he had written.  Yes, in addition to learning how to read, JSL’s been learning how to spell and write.  He put it together, along with some inspiration from Lulu And The Brontosaurus (which B had read to him recently), and wrote his own story.

Here is what he wrote (with creative spelling intact and only his name changed to "JSL"):

JSL and the Brontsarus

One day JSL went to a frorist for a brontsarus but the nit came and JSL go to slef and wen JSL wok up he fawd a brontsarus but the brontsarus riley fawd he and they trd into fres.

And here’s the grammar and spelling-corrected version for those who find Kindergarten creative spelling hard to read.  (I did leave the giant run-on sentence intact, however.)

JSL and the Brontosaurus

One day JSL went to a forest for a brontosaurus but the night came and JSL went to sleep and when JSL woke up he found a brontosaurus but the brontosaurus really found him and they turned into friends.

I’m so proud of JSL for writing his first story.  This is definitely one project of JSL’s that will be kept for years.  I can’t wait to see what other creative works he comes up with.

The daily grind can be draining when you need to be creative.  When it feels like you’ve done the same thing over and over, day after day, it can be hard to come up with new ideas.  The same-old-same-old can make it hard for new ideas to bubble to the surface.  When this happens, it’s time to break the routine.

On Sunday, we went for a hike on the Indian Ladder Trail in Thatcher State Park.  For those who don’t live near here, the trail winds around a mountain’s side.  You climb up and down the trail.  You pass under two waterfalls.  You carefully tred over rocks, mud, running water, and branches.  You are, at times, mere feet from a big drop-off.

In other words, *NOT* a normal day for me.  Hiking this trail was very freeing.  Walking along the ledge, your brain focuses on finding where your next step should be.  Should you place your foot on rock on your right or left.  Which is slicker or shaped right to give you the proper traction to move on?  When I did stop worrying about footing, I was too busy appreciating the wonders around me.

After the hike was over, I felt tired, but energized.  My feet ached and my knees kept threatening to give way, but my brain was going a mile a minute.  Getting out of the same old routine had lit my mind on fire.

What do you do to leave your comfort zone and spark your creativity?

When I was young, I kept a journal.  In it, I wrote about all of the private thoughts, fears, and feelings that I felt I couldn’t tell anyone.  Well, that was the general idea.  By "kept a journal", I really mean I wrote in it for about a week, rediscovered it a month later, wrote in it once more and then forgot about it for another three months.  I was never very good with writing things with paper and pen.  My love of writing only flourished when I was first introduced to computers.

Fast forward to the present.  Sometimes there things we feel the need to write about that we just can’t blog about.  Perhaps family members read your blog or perhaps the issue crosses a TMI boundary.  However, despite these misgivings, there might still be an urge to write about it, just not in a public manner.  After all, writing is a very good way of organizing your thoughts on matters.

At one time, I considered setting up a private WordPress blog for my son for this very purpose.  He could use it to express his thoughts on anything and everything.  The posts would not be publicly visible.  After all, he’s only 8 and doesn’t need a public blog.  However, B and I would be able to read it.  I actually got it all set up, but never showed him it.  Perhaps when he’s older he’ll use it.

As for me, I’m thinking of setting up a private blog for some of my thoughts.  They might be matters that I don’t feel comfortable shouting out to a random mix of strangers, friends and family.  They might be matters that I feel don’t interest my TechyDad.com audience (or my Twitter or Google+ followers).  Or perhaps it is something that has been on my mind that might be a blog post at some point, but hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet.  In any event, it would be nice to have a place to record my thoughts privately and a non-public blog seems ideal.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever had a journal or a private blog to record your thoughts?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #122

Disclaimer: The “Paper,Write,Pen” clipart above is from OpenClipArt.org.

The month of November is used by many to engage in NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month.  During this time, participants commit to writing a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month.  While I’m not participating, I do have a science fiction novel in mind to write.

I’ve actually had this idea for over 15 years now.  During that time, I’ve fleshed out the story’s world in my head.  The groups involved have gone from flat stereotypes to having actual motivations.  Until recently, though, I didn’t have a satisfying story to take place in that world.  I knew that one was there, but I just didn’t know what it was.

I did write the story out for a college project but, I was never fully satisfied with that version of the story.  I pledged to rewrite it, but never could come up with a satisfying story.

Meanwhile, the science fiction portions of my story began seeming like science fact.  Concepts that I figured would be fifty years away when I first came up with the story idea, now seem a mere ten years away.  More and more I worry that, if I don’t write the story soon, it will go from a science fiction tale to a historical fiction story.

Slowly but surely, I’ve been taking notes.  I’ve mapped out a few characters, groups, and even devised a “future history” to detail how the tale’s world morphed from one like our own to the world of my story.  I’m not going to commit to getting it all on paper (or digital file) in the next 27 days, but I will try to make significant progress on it over the next year.  Who knows, by next year’s NaNoWriMo, maybe I’ll have a finished novel to present!

Have you ever written a novel?

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