Tag: thecoffeewriter

So I’m off on my new adventures

It occurs to me that I have been ridiculously quiet on this little corner of the interwebs as of late. And by that I mean, “for nearly the past year or so.”

I think it’s well past time I started wordsing over here. I’m working with words for a living now, quite joyfully, and I haven’t given up on my other writing dreams. There’s a novella in the works, and a few scripts that haven’t moved in an approximate age. I’m working on the novella first, dangit! You Don’t rush these things…

And I’m going to try to make myself get out to movies more often, so the wordsing is expanding every day!

What wordsing is everyone else up to lately?

In Case You Noticed…

The site is going through a bit of a revamp. I just moved over 300 posts from tumblr and none of it transferred as expected. So! It’s going to be a slow process. I’m still trying to figure out how best to show multiple sources of content on wordpress and make it clear when things are finds from other places versus original content.
I am working on it!!
Thanks for your patience as I sort this out.

~management 😉

Here’s one for the Character Files

Life happens.  It’s why characters in stories are important.  Because that’s a representation of a life, and no life is one-dimensional or single-minded.  There’s always other stuff going on.  So here’s one for the character files.  This is the stuff that goes on in a life that makes a person or a character behave and think and speak how they do by the time they hit your head.

Life.

I’ve been kicking myself lately for all the “trauma” I unknowingly caused my little sister growing up.  All the fights and the teasing and everything copied from the Older Sibling’s Dirty Tricks playbook.  People leave a lasting impact on each other through memories and sometimes all you remember is the bad stuff.  It’s not fair and I don’t think that’s anything anyone sets out to do, it just happens.

But then I remembered that I was 10 years old when she came around.  Suddenly I  shared a bedroom with a crib and a changing table. I was pulling night time screaming duty. I knew how to make a bottle.  I was changing diapers.  I was getting peed on and puked on.  I was the one getting sneered at by holier-than-thous who assumed the 12-year-old with the toddler was a child-mom.  I was the taxi service by sixteen. I was the bad-luck soccer jinx who couldn’t watch the games or the team would lose.  I was the boring babysitter.  I was the swim coach.  That was how I spent the formative years of my adult life.  Trust me, I can tell you as a 31 year old looking back, that did damage. Social skills were never learned because I didn’t need them in order to help my family. I wish I had them now.

So that’s kind of what family is.  Especially siblings.  They are trauma-inflicting and you love them for it. It is not possible to escape a family of any kind without another person changing your life.  We don’t live in a vacuum.  But there is a balance there; you give it and you take it.

It’s still kind of sad.  The four-year-old version of my sister made a banner in school that said she wanted to grow up and be me.  (I hope like hell she grows up to be better than that.)  It hung taped to the wall in her room until it got torn.  But that’s one of those little things you don’t feel the weight of until it’s gone.

Five Reasons to Write with Coffee In Hand

 

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Coffee is a necessary evil.  (And, horrifyingly enough, it is subject to the whims of the climate just like every other food supply.)  Sure, there’s always tea, but it’s just not the same. Coffee and writing go hand in hand for me, no matter the time of day.  Coffee is the most important thing in a writer’s arsenal.

First, coffee is a multi-sensory experience.  You walk into a coffee shop – or within a block of a good one – and you can already smell it.  Just walk by the coffee aisle of a grocery store.  It draws you in, it makes you take a deep breath and just exist there for a moment. Tea is nowhere near that strong an aroma. Only coffee can follow you around. Then you get a nice warm mug in your hand, you can feel the heat on the pads of your fingers, soaking into your palm, and it just radiates pleasantly up your wrist.  The first taste of the brew is sometimes lost to the heat if you’re not careful.  But then, there it is. Light or dark, caff or decaff, a hint of chocolate, maybe some creamer, whatever your flavor, it has a taste just as strong as the aroma.  The senses are engaged. The senses play with the mind, they play with your memories. You’re going to remember that later.  As a writer, that’s obviously important.

Second, coffee has caffeine.  It is a stimulant.  It’s good go-juice.  So far, it’s even still legal.  A good pot of coffee will get you through those long hours at the computer keyboard or hunched over the notebook.  It will not read over your shoulder, it will not ask you to critique a new idea, and it will not derail your train of thought with small-talk.  It will just sit there, patiently waiting to push you through.

The third reason coffee is a writer’s best friend is that it can be enjoyed hot or cold. If you let it sit there patiently long enough, it will fade to room temperature and then nose dive into a cold drink.  Add some ice, shake it up a little, and you have an afternoon boost.  A soda gets flat.  Tea snobbishly demands to be microwaved or watered down with a new round of hot water.  Coffee can be tossed in a blender and enjoyed as a chilled alternative.

Fourth, when you spill coffee, you can see exactly where every sticky drop ran off to.  And you know you’re going to spill it. At the most inopportune time, in the worst possible place, there will be a coffee ring on important papers.  There will be a flood licking the edge of the notebook and a cascading coffee-fall onto the keyboard.  Swear at it, calm down, grab a paper towel and soak it up.  It adds character to those papers, leaves a scent-stamp when it dries.  Tea or soda just gets things wet, and half the time it’s clear liquid and you’ll be finding the trail until it evaporates.  Coffee stays classy and always leaves it mark.

And, last but not least, coffee is habit-forming. It encourages routine, which all good writers recommend. Currently, coffee is a cheaper and healthier writing-habit to form than something like alcohol.  Yes, the bottle will always be there to listen, I say sarcastically, but in all seriousness, the long term damage just isn’t worth it.  Ask Hemingway, among others.  And as a bonus plot twist, coffee may actually be good for you!

So next time you head for Starbucks or the corner cafe, smile and know you’re on the right track.

RE: Mission Statement

RE: Mission Statement

I have a confession to make. I’m a coffee addict. I can’t make it through my 9 to 5 without the stuff. I prefer a Starbucks peppermint mocha frap, or the other favorite is from a local place – Peanut butter, chocolate mocha, and coffee, all blended with a beautiful mixture of milk and ice and sometimes caramel… ahhh! Coffee! The only thing better is Coffee and a morning off to write.