Greetings, Everyone! It’s time, once again, for more randomly asked questions!
Here…
We…
Go!
From Will Coker (@WillBlitzrieg on Twitter): When writing fiction, are you more of a plotter (lots of planning) or pantser (make it up as you go) Have you ever tried doing it the other way?
I do both, actually. I’ve found that “pantsing in a plot” is the best way to go. Have a plan, but when an idea hits, run with it until it hits a wall. My blogs are almost always pantsed and so are most of my short stories. In my novel, I’m pantsing my outline to avoid plot holes.
From Kelly: If you could go back to any time period to live or experience, which would it be and why?
A good one! There are so many and for many different reasons. A disclaimer - this is under the time travel stipulation that I can see and interact but merely as an observer. Here are a few:
I’d like to see the country just after Independence, post-war. I’d love to just see the people and how they transitioned from Imperial rule to Constitutional governance. Just to see the change in society.
I’d like to walk with Christ. Secularly, there is little debate that Jesus existed and I would have loved to walk with Him and see the excitement that surrounded Him.
Ancient Egypt: How the hell did they build those things?!!?
American Slavery: There is something about the idea of witnessing such a terrible time in the history of a nation and of a culture I identify with. Something about seeing it that would cement the pain that we are still working to alleviate.
The Salem Witch Hunts/Trials: Because public hysteria over lies and bullshit is such a difficult thing to imagine…
Finally, 200 years into the future. I’d want to see a time frame I won’t live long enough to see. To see people who no one alive today will ever meet. I think that would be pretty cool.
From Rhonda Parker (@wordsbyparker on Twitter): What is it about writing that draws you to it as opposed to another creative outlet?
Such a dope question! Well, I can’t sing and I can’t draw. Haha. But the thing about writing is that, when you’re writing fiction, you are literally creating a world that didn’t exist before and doesn’t exist without you. If I wrote an idea, sure, you could write something. You might even write it “like me”, but you’d never write exactly what I would. We’d create parallel universes, but never the same one. It’s that creation factor. It’s the idea that, for example, Zachary, Venus, and Michelle (characters from “Such Is Life”, my short story series, and maybe if I get off my ass, physically published work) wouldn’t exist without me. Their lives wouldn’t exist. Their Universe wouldn’t exist without me. It’s as close to God as one can get. Anything can happen. You can create the cutest puppy and suffer through the darkest life. You can take the worst thing that ever happened to you and re-write the ending the way you wish it happened. The power of the pen is limitless.
From Aaron (again with the hot questions): Amidst global tensions, how would you find peace?
So I want to look at this question in two ways: How would I find peace for the conflicts, thus ending them, and how I would find personal or inner peace despite the global drama?
Global Peace: I really don’t think there IS a way that would satisfy everyone. See, that’s what peace is - a situation in which all parties are at peace with the end result. Picture a house. Years and years ago someone owned the house and someone else moved in. They lived side by side in this house. Something happens and time passes and now, one party is claiming ownership despite no concrete record of the true beneficiary. Who gets the house? Both want a place to live and something to pass down, so neither party is willing to just sell and split, especially since both parties believe that the house is theirs and would otherwise be owed the entire sum, not just half. Who would be satisfied? Do you just pick one? Side with whoever makes a better case? This is my VERY rudimentary understanding of the conflict in Israel. Neither side would be satisfied if given to the other. There is seemingly no middle ground.
Could there be peace eventually? Sure. But as long as people want what they want and are unwilling to compromise, peace is impossible, or at the very least, unlikely. So yeah, that’s the one thing that is really keeping the world from peace. Selfishness. Selfishness and people’s unwillingness to understand the plight of another person.
As far as my personal peace in the shadow of global doom and gloom, I have to be, as implied above, selfless. I have to understand that there are things around me that have nothing to do with me. To paraphrase a part of the Carly Simon song, “You’re So Vain”, as I typically do, I have to understand when the song isn’t about me. If someone I know is dating someone I don’t like, who cares?! If someone is getting a benefit that I’m not, who cares?! If someone is working and making more money than me, who cares?! If someone has found that special someone and I haven’t (I have, and shout out to my wife who is a saint for putting up with me), who cares?! Life isn’t about us all the time. Not everyone is me. I shouldn’t expect that everyone is going to be just like me. They’re not going to think like me, talk like me, live like me, love like me, work like me, pray like me, or be interested in the things I am. So, you do you and I’ll do me. We have to learn to share “our things” whether it’s our toys, our land, our cultures, our resources, or our time. WE are all in this together. We are an interdependent society, meaning we need each other. Be truthful. Be honest. It’ll all work out.
From Hannah Potter: If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
A classic question. Flight or invisibility would always be the top of someone’s list, but I think I’d have to go with mind reading. Like most people, I have trust issues. With the ability to read minds, I would know what a person was really thinking. Beyond the trust thing, I would be able to better understand people as they came to me with their issues seeking advice. I’d be able to understand their pain a bit better and offer better advice.
This is always fun for me because this allows me to really think about things. It gives me a chance to consider viewpoints I may or may not have previously considered. To everyone that helped with questions, I thank you greatly! If anyone else has random questions for me, feel free to email them to me at DLHearnWrites@gmail.com with the subject "Random Question"
Thank you. I love you all.
- The Moon
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