Laughing Like There's No Tomorrow

Laughter is truly the best medicine. It lightens the soul.

Uncontrolled, spontaneous, beautiful laughter gives you the greatest feeling in the world. There are various things that can cause laughter and it's different for each person. I feel carefree when I can laugh and not feel self-conscious around others. Laughter is the feeling of having bubbles in your stomach, or sparkling cider coming up through your nose. It can't be stopped when it's genuine and it makes other people laugh too.

As a writer I know that I need to go out and have experiences so that I have memories to draw upon for writing or just a reprieve so that I can feel recharged. It's important to get out into the world and live. One of the interesting things I've noticed is that laughter is skated over in writing. We tend to give it a brief sentence and move past the moment. I wonder if it's because of the strangeness of laughter. When I have laughed so hard that tears come out of my eyes, it is because I was folded over or weak-kneed, taking air in and out so fast that the world spins a little because I'm not getting enough oxygen. It's totally uncontrollable and it's even more amusing when I try to control it. A straight face for maybe a second and then I end up bursting out with another laugh.

How do you capture that in writing? Maybe, the trick is finding a moment that deserves such uncontrollable and joyous laughter. Most events in stories have strong challenging emotions like fear or anger. Characters have to overcome those moments and we feel the relief, the triumph alongside them. I'm not a comedian, sometimes I'm unintentionally funny but those moments are as fleeting as a hummingbird, so achieving scenes that capture such bountiful sounds as laughter - that's a challenge, but I think I'll make it a goal as well. I'm going to write and experience and laugh until I can write a scene that deserves it.

Have you ever laughed uncontrollably? Do you remember why? Comment below, I'd love to hear from you!

Geared up for CampNano

Got your tea, your trail mix, plenty of pens and paper?

It's probably a little late to be saying that Camp Nanowrimo is currently in session. This is April after all and we're already into the third week, but I just want to encourage writers to write. You don't necessarily need to join and make an account, but know that during this month, there are writers across the world working on projects.

I think it's fun, but I like the tools for tracking stats of a story or the fact that we're sorted into "cabins" in the beginning. You get a chatroom of strangers together and some interesting conversations will occur, as long as you've got some chatty people of course.

Camp Nano is sometimes more fun, because there is less stress to write 50,000 words. You don't even have to make that your goal. You can design your project goal as anything that you want and control the numerical goal of words, pages, hours, etc....

You can also do word sprints, where you set a timer and then write non-stop for however long and if you need some help, there are prompt generators that will spew random ideas at you. All in a days work, speaking of which - I need to start writing today, if I want to reach my goal!

Nerdy/Academia Confession

Society has the mindset that more education is better - I'm not arguing for or against, but I've been an observer and a participant in the complaints of higher education. The education system in itself is a whole other topic, but what I want to focus on are the attitudes of students. You'll often here comments like the following:

"I have six hours of homework tonight and an essay due at 11:59"
"Don't they realize we have other classes too?"
"I really don't care about this class so I'm taking an L for this assignment"

I suppose more than complaints it is apathy that annoys me, especially when the class is interesting. Not that every class is everyone's cup of tea, but lets be reasonable, if you at least have a professor that cares about the class and the workload isn't asking too much, why should you complain?

My favorite part about specific classes are the different assignments, especially when they go outside the norm of what you are used to.

Take a Biology class - have a lab, you may of course be studying bean beetles and how many microscopic golfball eggs they lay on mung beans (which I had to do for four weeks of a semester), but you are actively doing something that in some ways relates to the course.

Sociology - deviance project write up where you have to perform some activity outside the norm and record the reactions of people around you. Some common deviant acts include facing everyone in the elevator or sitting really close to someone you don't know.

Health psychology (now here's a fun one) - we had to do health behavior change reports, basically design our own fitness program and stick to it for three weeks, measuring something; for example, I wanted to study the effect of a fitness routine that included running and yoga on my levels of stress and mood.

Which brings me to the class that I am currently a part of, Medieval History. One of our assignments was a social history paper and if you are a writer then you'll especially enjoy this. We had to research a historical figure and learn about their lives then write a journal, letters, something that "they wrote" and use historically accurate events. If you don't think that is fun, then I'm wondering how you can think anything is fun. Literally diving into someone else's life and learning about the details, the food, the dress, the social environment, major events like castration or forbidden love, interesting combination.

I chose Heloise, she is famous for her love affair with her tutor, Abelard, and how her Uncle found out, castrated Abelard, then Heloise and Abelard went to separate convents to live out the rest of their days. They wrote to each other (handwritten letters, a dying species in today's technological time). I have seriously summarized a lot of what happened, but I wrote diary entries, using historical letters that Heloise and Abelard sent to each other as well as library resources that sent up clouds of dust when I opened them.

My point of all this is, enjoy school, enjoy it for all it's worth and take advantage of it. I spoke to my history professor and she was telling me to pick a topic that I was interested in for my thesis paper. That's the fun, she told me, every student has something that they want to know more about so what do you want to know? So, ask yourself: What are you passionate about? And are you pursuing it?

Reader, Reading, Rolling the Cards

Tarot Cards

I got my deck a few years ago. Maybe four by now, it's hard to remember. They're called: Circle of Life Tarot and as you can see below, they are circles. It's kind of a curious card because of their shape. It makes it difficult to shuffle unlike a rectangular deck, instead I love to spread them out on the floor, like I'm stirring a great pot. Round and round until I feel it is right to stop or cards shoot out of the deck.

You have to ask a question with cards. You have to keep it in your mind like Harry Potter and the patronus charm. Focus your intent, ask and then look at the cards. First impressions are gold. Whatever comes first when looking at a card gives you a baseline reading. More experienced card readers will usually just look at the cards, but as I am an amateur, I'll look at the little booklet as well.

My favorite cards are the Major Arcana. They're the special, one of a kind theme, like "The Lovers", "Justice", "Death", or "The Stars". The Minor Arcana are alright, but thats where you have suits: Chalices, Pentacles, Wands, and Swords. The tarot decks are actually pretty variable depending on the artist that made them, because some of the names are in the other cards and some of them are not.

Circle of Life Tarot Deck, Lo Scarabeo (Torino, Italy)

I wanted to make a post about tarot because I recently read a young writer's story that briefly mentioned it. Unfortunately I didn't get to speak to them about it, but it felt as if they were giving stereotypical views on the cards. However, the cards are meant to be understood through practice. The best way to teach someone is to shove them into the water and see if they drown, or in this less violent method, hand them a deck and make them do a reading.

Recent troubles and stressful events can make me question myself. Tarot helps me realign my thoughts and plan out future goals. Some things are not for everyone, but I'd recommend for you to step into the world of magic for a spell, even if it's just a shuffling of the cards.