By now you’ve figured out that I am writing again, so I wanted to give a brief shoutout to new followers and thank you for your appreciation of my silly little poems. I hope you continue to enjoy the content of this blog.
There are lots of changes going on right now and classes are getting extremely busy, but I’m determined to keep this up if at all possible
How do I put into words, the scattered images flashing through my mind?
Where do I start, when do I stop?
I’m chasing shadows, revisiting a past committed to memory, and yet my hand passes through like a ghosts.
Something tangible is all I ask.
I grasp at straws, always finding the shortest one a midst a sea of wondrous creativity.
There is so much potential that I am astounded, dumbfounded, and then confounded by my inability.
How do I mold this hardened clay?
Where do I go from here, trapped inside the hunter’s snare?
When I was a little girl I had an experience that I will never forget for so long as I draw breath.
My grandmother came to take me home for the weekend while my mother battled a nasty virus. Upon buckling me in my car seat she realized she needed to return inside, so she ran back in the house for no more than a minute or two. When next she walked out her truck was no longer parked on the driveway’s incline, and to her horror she realized that her infant granddaughter had been carried across a four-lane highway- into the far ditch. Though I was so young, I remember a presence so powerful and so strange. It sat next to me in the truck while the world outside slowly moved. I had no idea the danger I was in as the truck carried me across four lanes of notoriously dangerous traffic. In later years my grandmother told me that when she reached the vehicle she found me alone and talking- in baby babble, of course- to an empty space in front of me. It was odd it seemed to her and even startling when I could relate my own memory of that spiritual presence. I’ve often been asked why I believe in a higher power, and though it may seem too fantastical to be true, this is one of the reasons I have to justify my faith. It was the day an angel of God saved my life.
This piece however is a relative story of then and now; enjoy
Written By: Hollie Barringer
In that moment I saw you with clarity, luminous in your shroud of sparkling gold with a thin banded ring and large billowing wings.
A Godsend, you are. An angel from on high. My guiding light in disguise.
You bespoke of His glory, His words and His story. The trinity spun as one. A tale I’d never forget as a song etched into my soul.
But that was then, and this is now…
My vision is spinning out of control in dizzying disfigurement. Contorted, distorted, and diminishing. Your aura faded and now you’re nothing more than he, she, or I- a simple human to my eyes. You walk with us, talk with us, but always keep insistence that my problem is resistance.
Why hath thou forsaken me? When did you lose sight? Are those your words or are they mine?
Here I scramble through the muck. Grime. Disgusting. Yuck.
I’m Digging, fighting, clawing, and reaching for escape. This shadowed realm has swallowed me whole, but I know you’re there- warring for what’s left of me.
Please, I beg you… Guiding light bring me home.
Woohoo! Back to writing! Over the years I have often wondered how others brainstorm for their stories because my ideas tend to come sporadically and in the form of a jumbled mess in serious need of untangling. I do not outline everything, but I do enjoy concise lists that I can revisit for important points at a later date. There is little method to my madness and I am awfully inconsistent, but that works for me. However, I find that exploring other peoples methods tend to help create new ideas and better organize the globs of inspiration thrown my way. Outlines, lists, character profiles, chapter-by-chapter construction, and various other approaches are a few of the many ways I’ve seen authors go about their writing. So let’s talk about my method.
As I said I can be inconsistent with ordering, but I still follow a basic rhythm for developing my stories. It begins with one small detail such as the color of the sky, a haze of fog in the early morning, a windblown tree, a mysterious character walking down the street, or even an imaginary (perhaps ridiculous) event taking place before my eyes.
I have compiled a list for your consideration when you begin developing characters in your story. I suggest you do the list in top-to-bottom order because the uppermost decisions can help you with a name at the end.
Sample Characters
Character 1 – Sci Fi, Otherworldly
Character 2 – Dark Fantasy
Other considerations for your story should include:
Written By: Hollie Barringer
You threaten apocalypse, the reform of norms and hand of change. Like a mold of clay we are shaped by the days when blood flows. You are more than a war of emotion, conflicts of notion. You are a devotion. This war is life and death. The fight between good and evil. A blurred division of right and wrong. These battles are unending, you are without cesation. Here I stand in rebellion of your crusade, victim to this tirade
No more
Written By: Hollie Barringer
In the quiet hours I wait for you
Wondering if you feel it too
Only dreams feel quite like this
Heart-thundering fury and short of breath
There’s more to this than I understand
More of you that I fail to comprehend
At the precipice I hold steadfast
In the quiet hours, I keep on
Writnitz 