Things that burn, things that soothe

This post won't exactly be about writing, although I believe I said in the very first post that this blog would be about my journey as a writer. Or, something to that effect.

Just over 4 1/2 hours ago, I awakened in the wee hours of the morning, (if you're over fifty, you know what I mean by that) and was unable to return to sleep. Sinuses were stuffed up and running and then the room was too hot. After kicking off the covers, the a/c kicked on and then it was too cold. I lay in bed for an hour, clearing my mind to sleep and found that I was not in the least tired. Or sleepy. I finally arose and slipped into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and repaired to the living room. After desultorily gathering that the early morning news was no different than the late night news, I settled on watching Mallrats from beginning to end. Always before, I had watched it in disjointed fashion, not understanding some of the references because the context and continuity had been lost by only watching portions of it.

I decided that the appeal of the movie is that it seeks to shock by showing young adults doing and saying things that even the previous generation would hesitate to say and do. At least as cavalierly as was portrayed on the screen. Having grown up during the fifties and sixties, I was no stranger to shocking behavior and questionable decisions that horrified my parents. While young adults and teens in the mid-nineties believed that the movie was the next best thing to sliced bread, there really were few redeeming qualities to be found in the movie and I believe that was the point; that a movie didn't need to have any redeeming qualities. Yes. The movie depended on shock value to draw attention to nothing at all and the humor was sophomoric. So, to sum up; this movie, and pretty much every movie by this film-maker seems to be intended as a portrait of a generation and no more. It goes overboard to evoke a humorous response from the audience and judging by all of this film-maker's other movies, he seems to be a comedian with a one joke repertoire. This movie may have been fresh and funny near the beginning of his career, but he has not trotted out anything new to say in the later ones. And, that's a pity.

Now to address the title of this post. I wanted to write so badly early this morning and knew that if I did, I would get nothing else done today, and I have many time-consuming things that I need to do. The need to write burned my soul and spurred me on as though the monkey on my back was digging the spurs in to no avail. However, one might surmise that I didn't like the movie I watched and they would be wrong. The humor, marginal and simple-minded as it was, soothed me to the extent that I was able to forget my need to write, which was exactly what I needed at that time.

I don't often suffer from insomnia and I must admit that today was the first time I was able to deal with it sensibly and come out of it feeling refreshed and without frustration. On another note, before I began writing this post, I checked my horoscope. Yes, I am one of those, though I am not a slave to it. You can imagine my mild surprise to read that something momentous in the heavens was supposed to occur at exactly the time I awakened. Just another in the long line of coincidences that have filled my life. Someday I must write them down. I have used a few of them as inspiration for a few of my stories and have not been disappointed in the finished product.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Gulf of the Plains and others.
Available on Kindle

A common writing mechanism

Have you ever been reading a story and gotten really caught up in the action and etc. and suddenly run into a *** followed by the problems another character is concerned with? Yeah, me too. I kinda like it. So long as it advances the story, there's nothing wrong with it. Interesting things happen to other people in the story besides just the main character and this mechanism allows you to learn of them.

We may be completely comfortable with such things in a story, but not be able to apply the mechanism to "real life". Many members of my extended family were, or are, career military and have spent years living in faraway and exotic places. As a boy, I don't think that I was ever more than fifty miles away from home on any sort of trip, so if I had cousins, uncles and aunts that lived across the country; that was pretty exotic.

But many times, they would return home for their once or twice-yearly visit and seem to expect nothing to have changed. Some of them seemed to think that I should still be a young boy, only to find that I had a driver's license, a car, an after-school and weekend job, and was dealing with pretty much adult-type problems. They also failed to comprehend the fact that however much their own lives had changed, the lives of those of us still at home had changed as well.

That's what I like about the writing mechanism that I mentioned. It shows that the characters that are "off-stage", so to speak, have their own problems to deal with while the main character is being suitably heroic. It drives home the realization that life does not stand still for others just because you aren't there. Perhaps it helps us to not be self-centered and insensitive. I don't know. I just like the mechanism and use it frequently in my works.

Leaving that subject for a while, I would like to say that I am currently working on the sequel to my novel, Gulf of the Plains. I am calling it Gulf of the Plains II: Fog and Bog. I am also working on two currently untitled pieces; a tragedy and a thriller. The tragedy has bogged down while the thriller is moving along. Neither of them is moving nearly as well as the sequel. I find that I have trouble dividing my time among them and cannot devote as much of myself to any of them as I should. I am on the verge of telling myself to just pick one and get on with it.

Well, until next time, thank you.
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

Take inspiration where you find it

The day before yesterday, I awoke at 4:00 AM with a storyline and plot going through my head. I didn't need to get up until 6:30, so I lay there, drowsing, and let the storyline and plot percolate through my brain, making changes here and there, following different permutations to their logical conclusions. Truthfully, I was surprised that I could be half asleep and work so well.

Once I had gotten my obligations out of the way, I sat down to write and found that while there was no hesitation, some of the glowing phrases that had sounded so great in my half-dreaming state, went on paper like the leaden footsteps of a zombie. The work has required some re-composing, (is that something slightly different than decomposing?) and is still turning out pretty well. Upon reflection, I must dream in predictable, stock lines, for the storyline I dreamed up, (literally) is simply a classic, romantic tragedy. It's still worth writing though, so long as I give it a twist here and there.

Back to the state of my dream-life: Not all of them are so staid and staple. The dream that awakened me yesterday was somewhat outre' and weird. It involved one of my favorite people, doing strangely sexual things that I felt I was not free to involve myself in. Throw in the improbably grotesque setting that we found ourselves in and there might be, (I say, might be) a story there. Kind of along the lines of "Repent Harlequin, Said the Tick-Tock Man" by Harlan Ellison.

Having grown up during the 60's, some of the things I saw and read were probably drug-induced inspirations of the authors and displayed a willingness to relinquish control over their own minds. I find myself unable to completely let myself go like that and so, will probably never write anything like them. However, in keeping with the title of this post, I still say that a writer should take inspiration where and when he finds it.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

The importance of keeping a notebook handy

Yes, that's right! A notebook...I can't tell you how many times I've had an idea and failed to write it down to remind myself later and found later that I've forgotten the idea.

For instance, this morning I returned from work, fiddled around the house for a while before going to bed and just before sliding into the sheets, I had a great idea for this blog,, spent a couple of minutes composing and mentally filed it away. Upon awakening, I stumbled through my usual 'waking routine' and moved to the office to write. When I went to access this blog, my chagrin was very great when I realized that I could not remember one bit of what I had composed just before going to sleep.

I know that some people sneer and tilt their noses at the mere mention of a homely, old notebook, but the entire point of having one, or anything like it, is to be able to jot down reminders to yourself. Maybe you keep a journal in a PDA or some other device. I encourage you to continue to do so. If you, like me, are at the age where a notebook is more your speed and you haven't made the switch to completely electronic devices; then by all means, keep on keeping on! Just so you have a way to remind yourself of those pearls of wisdom that trickled through your brain just before going to sleep.

Sure, the effort of raising up in bed to jot down a few notes may not be conducive to getting your rest, but think of what you will have missed. You may have been putting words together in such a way as to put the most respected writers to shame, but it doesn't mean a thing if you don't ever publish them!

Now, I don't consider my writing to be anything special. I'm not persuasive, witty or erudite, and I freely admit those facts. However, I am a decent writer and sometimes find myself with a turn of phrase that simply begs for attention. Of those few instances, I am proud and that's part of why I write. Having managed in a small way to preserve my thoughts and creations for posterity, I am assured that when I am gone, someone, somewhere, will read my words and be moved. If just in a small way.

Fame would be nice, but it is not what drives me. I have never craved it. Not in the way that celebrities, movie stars and other performers seem to. If someone picks up one of my books, reads it and tells a friend that they just finished a good book, then I am relatively happy.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Congruencies, The Empty Heart: A Collection and others.
Available on Kindle

A little mood music, please!

When writing, I find that I am able to order my mind and compose with music playing in the background. I have different playlists on my computer for different moods, and choose between them according to whatever mood I wish to be in for that particular story.

I use my moods for inspiration and freely move from one to another. There are times, however, when I get stuck in a neutral mood and can't seem to find the words that I want to put on paper. (figuratively) It's then when I have to shake myself out of that non-mood and get back to the business of writing. This blog helps in that respect and I feel that it also gives you, the reader, some idea of what is involved in writing. At least from my perspective. Everyone is different and what spurs you, or anyone, to write, may be completely different from what motivates me.

In my mind, I have cherished stories that I have read that I wish my stories to emulate. Music helps me to access the feelings that those stories generate within me and then, to put words in a line that simulate the feelings that run through me when I think of those stories.

If this helps any of you; then I'm happy. If this gives any of you some idea what writing is like for me; then I have achieved my goal.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle

Perceptions of whether or not someone is interesting

So, you don't think you are interesting. I never thought that I was until one night over thirty years ago. My first wife and I went to a night club with one of her Jr. High and High School friends, with the intent of helping her to find someone to date. She didn't, but while we were talking about what kind of guy she was looking for, she told us that I "intrigued" her. At a nonplus, the only thing I could think of to say was to ask her exactly what it was about me that made her feel that way. Her answer was: "There's just...something about you." Many years later, I attended a group retirement party for our entire department just before our work was out-sourced, and there was an obnoxious guy from another section that walked over to me as I stood in line for a pitcher of beer, (he had obviously had too much to drink) and said, "I've always hated guys like you; with your perfect hair and perfect clothes!" I was wearing a pair of Levis, athletic shoes and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up at the time. And it occurred to me, yet again, that people's perceptions of you may not be those that you relate to yourself.

That was when it hit me that no matter how "plain vanilla" we think we are, there is always someone out there who thinks, "There's just...something about you."

Now, you may ask, "What does any of this have to do with writing?" I'll tell you. I, you, anybody, may think that, for example, our feet are too big, our ears stick out too much, our noses have too much of a blob of flesh at the end, or that we need to lose a little weight to make our clothes fit better. However, other people's perceptions of us may run counter to our own. And that is what makes for misunderstandings that can be used in a story to produce conflict or, even a pair of star-crossed lovers. Don't ever think that people aren't interesting! They may have lived through something that most people only dream about. Do you remember that Gregory Peck movie titled "Pork Chop Hill"? I have an uncle who was actually in the middle of the action there at that time. He's kind of a 'class clown' most of the time, always finding ways to entertain people, but he has a dark side in his life that drives him to behave that way. Besides the action he saw on that hill, he was also tagged by his commanding officer to go on night patrols because he was Indian and the officer thought he would be better at it than others. He was, but that's beside the point. He was also forced to kill enemy soldiers at close quarters, and had problems later in life because of those things. Think, PTSD. Though he behaves like a backwoods hillbilly, he has also led one of the most interesting lives you can imagine.

All a writer has to do is to become friends with people and get them to talk about themselves. Once he or she finds how interesting people really are once they get past their surface perceptions, there is a wealth of material there for a story.

Of course, don't write a biography unless you get permission to do so. Don't simply change the names and write one, either. Use the inspiration you gain from the person's story to write your own.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and others.
Available on Kindle