I dislike perfect characters. I’m sure you’ve encountered them in stories you’ve read over the years. Those characters who are two-dimensional, always make the right decisions and the right times, who never make mistakes even when doing something they’ve never done before. I find them to be frustrating. Encountering them breaks my immersion in a…
Month: January 2020
A Poetry Moment
I wrote a lot of poetry when I was younger. I was inspired by both actual poets and song lyrics. On the poetry side there was Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Lewis Carroll. On the song lyric side there was Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles. There were others in both camps, but far…
The Television Influence
I think it’s safe to assume we all grew up with television in our lives. There are programs that shaped us, taught us things, or simply entertained and made us laugh or cry. But can we say that television is a creative influence for artists? When I was studying creative writing in college, one of…
Meditation and Writing
I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a monkey mind. If you aren’t familiar with the term, it comes from Buddhism and basically means an unsettled and restless mind. In the west we often call it Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The difference is that with ADD it’s a medical diagnosis and is treated with pharmaceuticals,…
Processing Shock
One of my best friends was hit by a car a little over a week ago. She and her partner were walking to an event at the local amphitheater and were in the crosswalk when an SUV hit them going fifteen mph. While that doesn’t sound like much, it knocked both of them to the…
The Prometheus Project Podcast, Ep 22, is now available!
In this episode I talk about what it means to be successful. How do you define it? Money? Recognition? Requests for selfies? The truth is, we can’t all be rich and famous, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be successful. Join me as I talk about success, what it means to me, and how a…
Creative Immersion
Here’s a question for you. Have you ever immersed yourself in an environment when working on a creative project? What I mean is, have you ever done something like write a short story while sitting in a library or drawn in a sketch book while sitting in an art gallery? I have, and I have…
Apollo and Dionysus
If you aren’t up-to-date on your Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus were two of their gods, the sons of Zeus. And unsurprisingly, they had different mothers. Apollo is the god of rational thinking, order, logic. You can say he’s the god of the mind. Dionysus, on the other hand, is the god of wine, chaos,…
Setting Goals
I think it’s safe to assume that most creative people set goals for themselves. Writers may have a specific word count they want to hit each day. Painters may have a certain amount of canvas they want to cover. Most of our goals are fairly simple and easy to meet. There’s nothing wrong with that….
Life Becoming Art
Write what you know. That’s the mantra for writers. In my definition, it means to write about experience. You don’t have to be well-traveled, speak seven languages, or the master of the martial arts. To me, it’s more about emotion and feeling stemming from things that have happened to you. You may not think you’re…