Providing the ambience

I've been raised on and with music. Ever since I was four, my grandparents have taken me to their ragtime society's annual festival. I grew up dancing with my grandfather to Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. When I was twelve, my mom got me an MP3 player. I filled it to bursting with an eclectic mix of music (some of which you may hear featured on this very blog.) My mom and I share music; I give her Shania Twain and Hilary Duff, and she gives me Dan Fogelberg and Janis Ian. We share a love of musical theatre, so we swap musical soundtracks. Music has been involved with almost every part of my life for as long as I can remember.
As I think I've mentioned, I'm a character writer. When I weave a story, my focus isn't on the plot--although, obviously, that's an important part of writing, and I treat it as such--but the characters. My greatest joy comes from creating a believable, well-rounded, motivated character who my readers will fall in love with and root for. I want them to cringe when my character makes a mistake--not because they dislike the mistake, but because they understand why the character behaved this way, and because they empathize with him/her. And when the "good" characters triumph and the "bad" characters fail, I want my readers to cheer, cry, hug the book to their chests, and breathe a sigh of relief.
Where am I going with these two (seemingly unrelated) thoughts, you ask?
Maybe it's random (they don't call me Random Ruthie for nothing!) but I like picking theme songs for people. I have several for myself--a few of them are even on this blog. Heh. (Positivity by Ashley Tisdale, Unpredictable by Skye Sweetnam, and How Lucky You Are from Suessical the Musical, to name a few.) I've chosen songs that remind me of my closest friends, my relatives--even cartoon characters who I happen to like. (What?? I did say I was a Phineas and Ferb fan, didn't I?!)
Since this is true, it should come as no surprise that I like to choose theme songs for the characters I create. Not so much with characters from my short stories--I don't need to know them as well as I do my novel characters, so they usually don't garner theme songs. But for the (several) novels I'm working on...(yes, it is physically impossible for me to work on just one project at a time. Why do you ask?) I have soundtracks.
Well...okay, I take that back. For the novels that are currently in-progress writing, (my two "classic" fantasy novels, for lack of a better description) I have soundtracks. For my sci-fi novel and my urban fantasy novel, which are still in the planning-and-musing phase, there's no music yet. Once I'm closer to actually scribbling out a plot and defining the characters more richly, I will pick soundtracks for them as well.
Aaaanyway. The point is, the "theme songs" help me concentrate. They give me a center from which I can build out on my character. Sometimes the perfect song only speaks to one facet of my character. Then I pick more songs, create each character a personal soundtrack. Sometimes I don't find the perfect song at all, or until I'm halfway done writing already. But when I want to get myself reacquainted with a character I haven't worked on for awhile, I pull their song up on my iphone and turn up the volume.
Point being, I thought I'd share the theme songs for my current project with you. Since I don't feel comfortable giving character bios and a synopsis (sorry, guys...not that I don't trust you, I just don't want to chance finding a distorted version of my story floating around a year from now), I figured this would be a good alternative. Listening to the music may not tell you what my story is about or what happens, but it should give you a basic understanding of some of my main characters.
...oh. And yes, the novel does have its own theme song. In this case, it has two. Go figure...it works.
The novel itself: Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood, All You Wanted by Michelle Branch
The main character: Play on by Carrie Underwood
The romantic interest: Mother Earth by the Subdigitals
The best friend: Crazy Dreams by Carrie Underwood
The ingénue: Beautiful World by Dev2.0, Walkaway Joe by Trishia Yearwood
The innocent child: You'll Be In My Heart by Phil Collins

Huh. Just realized that I have three Carrie Underwood songs. I didn't plan it that way.
...what?
Quit looking at me like that! I listen to more artists than just Carrie Underwood, I swear! Check my playlist down there at the bottom of the page if you don't believe me! Go ahead, I dare you!
Hmmph.

Sharing

My younger brother Ben is one creative little dude. While I'm off at the theatre stepping into a character's skin, he's at home spinning stories and worlds out of the most mundane of circumstances. Ben watches a nature documentary and gets an idea for a new species of animals he can use in a story; he reads a book on art history and imagines a world where art is illegal. There is, almost literally, nothing that won't set his imagination to work. I don't doubt that he'll be a great author and a great storyteller.
Seeing as how he and I are together every day for school, and seeing as how we're about as close as two siblings can be, we tend to use each other as sounding boards for creativity. Hardly a day goes by without Ben tapping me on the shoulder and announcing, "I thought of an idea for a..." And off he goes. I don't approach him with ideas quite as often, since writing and storytelling aren't my only creative outlets, but when I do have a new story concept, he's one of the first to know. When I'm in that stage of writing where I have the idea, but none of the details, Ben is fantastic at listening and giving input. Sometimes all it takes is one little sentence: "That's a cool thought, but what if you added this?" and my story resolves itself into plot twists and characters.
We also work well together when coming up with joint ideas. Ben is all about plot; he loves action/adventure and is fantastic at adding nuance and suspense to a story. I'm more into the characters; I concentrate on populating my worlds with realistic, well-rounded people. Together, we create outstanding characters who take amazing journeys.
But we're not always creating other planets or envisioning magical beasts. Sometimes, our combined creativity is focused on something as simple as making up an episode on one of our favorite tv shows. Ben and I share a lot of similar tastes in television (heheh...cartoon network and disney, anyone?), and we recently discovered Phineas and Ferb on the disney channel. (If you haven't seen this show, I HIGHLY reccomend it. Cartoon or not, it's super-creative and has humor for all ages.) Now we bounce episode ideas off each other all the time, and in fact, I'm actually writing some of them into full-fledged stories. Granted, they're not stories I can dream of publishing, but there's a place for such stories in the world (fanfiction.net, people...but I suppose that's another blog post.) And besides...it's just fun. It's fun writing in a world I didn't make up. It's fun trying to match the style of the show.
And most of all, it's fun creating with my little brother. Love you, Ben.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

...and also the busiest, which is why this blog has been neglected for a month.
In the past four (or is it five? Hmm...can't recall.) weeks, a ton of stuff has been going on with me. Creative stuff? But of course. Time-consuming stuff? You bet.
Here's a few of the many things which have kept me on the move and off the computer for the last month:
1) Running lights for Peewinkle's Puppet Studio's Christmas shows. Talk about your adorable holiday activities for preschoolers. I look forward to working this show every year. The puppeteers who perform here are awesome, and the show is so sweet, funny and cute that I never get tired of watching it.
2) Going back to square one on my current attempt at a novel. When I say current, I mean the project that's been hammering around in my head for the last two years. THAT project. *Facepalm* This time, though, I think I've actually made progress. My characters aren't wandering around in a desperate search of a map, a plot and a good stiff drink any more. I've finally figured out where they're going and--with some luck--how they're going to get there. More will come on the blog about that, but for the time being, know that Faery Tail (working title, folks--please excuse) is back on track.
3) Finishing up asst. directing Home For Christmas, Buck Creek Players' Christmas show of the year. This was an amazing experience. The director for this show is one of the nicest, sweetest, most considerate people I've worked with. She gave me a ton of awesome opportunities to try my hand at directing, casting, blocking, you name it. The cast was absolutely incredible--we had a great mixture of veterans of the stage and newcomers, but they were all wonderful to work with across the board. I had a blast--and learned a lot about directing and all that it entails. The show closed last Sunday, and while I was sorry to say good-bye to my Home For Christmas family, I was--and am--looking forward to my next theatre project...which is...
4) MY FIRST EVER SPEAKING ROLE ONSTAGE!!!!!!!! This is by far my most exciting news. I, Ruthie, have at long last gotten a speaking role! The show is "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." It's based on the work of Robert Fulghum, and I've gotta say, it's awesome. It's just the right mixture of profound and silly, heartbreaking and knee-slapping, simple and deep. There's not a scene in this show I don't love. If you haven't heard of Robert Fulghum, take fifteen minutes and google him. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Anywho, I auditioned and was cast in the show three weeks ago. I've attended two rehearsals so far, and the cast and crew are all awesome. I can't wait to get to know them better. We're breaking for Christmas at the moment, but we'll be starting up rehearsals again in January full-force...which means four nights a week. Teh woot! Again, there will be more about this to come. :)
So that's my story, and I'm sticking with it! My current project is pretty much relaxing, rejuvinating, and looking forward to my favorite day of the year...CHRISTMAS! Mwahahaha! The next two weeks are completely school-free and project-free. The only things I've got left to do are wrap a couple of presents and clean my room a bit. Heheh. This week is all about the Christmas countdown, but next week I'm planning on knuckling under and getting some chapters written on my novel. 'Cuz, let's face it...as of January 5th, my creativity is going to be pretty much focused on getting ready for opening night of Kindergarten!
Thanks for the patience with me, guys. This blog'll get a little more consideration now that the holiday rush has slowed a bit. :) Love you all, and more to come!

Christmas Makeover!

Christmas is hands-down my favorite time of the year. The colors, the lights, the decorations, the sense of goodwill, the carols--I love absolutely all of it. I come from a long and proud line of Christmas Elves, and I'm no exception. My family and I decorate our house for Christmas promptly the day after Thanksgiving, and start listening to our vast collection of Christmas music long before that.
It's also my busiest time of year--especially this year! I just recently started rehearsals for a Christmas show I'm asst. directing, which means four or five nights a week of driving a half hour to and from the theater and at least two hours of rehearsal a night. I've also got some paying work coming up: I'll be working at a downtown puppet studio running lights for both of their Christmas shows. Besides all that, I have lots of Christmas presents and writing projects to get done.
As such, I decided to give my blog a Christmas makeover a little early. (What? November can be the Christmas season, too, right?) Since I usually only get on this blog once a week or so, I figure it evens out. ;-) I also have some blog posts coming up on the creativity of the Christmas season, so stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, enjoy the Christmas colors and carols that have been added to the Sky's the Limit universe, and breathe in the scent of peppermint and pine needles! (Or just pretend you can smell peppermint or pine needles.) Better yet, go out there and start getting ready for the best holiday of the year...I know I am!

Building Bridges

Today my little brother Ben (he's four years younger than me) interrupted me while I was reading a book on Yiddish theatre. He told me he'd just finished reading a short story which had creeped him out and confused him, and he wanted me to read it and tell him what I thought it was about. When I asked him how long it was, he informed me that it was only about five pages.
Five pages? I thought. Not very long. But I gave the story the benefit of the doubt--my thus-far only published story is only four pages, so there you go. Agreeably, I picked up the anthology, flipped to the page he indicated, and started in.
About fifteen minutes later, I closed the book and turned to Ben, who was giving me an expectant look. "I have to tell you, kid...I have no idea what it's about, either."
We spent the next half hour trying desperately to put some meaning to the mystery story. We both agreed that there SEEMED to be some profound message SOMEWHERE in the five-page puzzler, but neither of us could put our finger on it. Ben was more outraged than I was; he's an avid reader, and it bothered him, I think, that this simple story had thwarted his inquiries. I was somewhat amused by the whole thing; I wondered what the author might say in explanation of himself, if questioned about the story.
Now, I never want to condemn another artists' work. As I've said before, I think art is anything that comes from man's creative labor. That said, the story both puzzled and intrigued me. The ending of the piece was extremely ambigous--there was no resolution, as far as I could tell. It just sort of...stopped. It almost felt to me as if the author forgot to write an ending. I know this isn't the case, but it still bothered me that there was absolutely no finish.
But above all, what bothered me most was that I had to work to understand the story. I still don't understand it. I believe that in the storytelling arts (such as theater and writing, which are of course my focuses) the audience shouldn't have to work too hard to understand the message.
Take Shakespeare, for example. Although I'm sure Billy Shakes didn't realize that his work would be nigh-incomprehensible for the masses hundreds of years later--or even that it would still be around--the fact remains that Shakespeare is tricky stuff for a lot of us. I've read several of his plays and taken classes to understand them, and I still have trouble sometimes. But the thing is, Shakespeare isn't meant to be read--at least, his plays aren't. They're meant to be performed.
When I saw Much Ado About Nothing in August (yes, I'm FINALLY getting around to talking about that, lol) I'd never read the play. I had a basic idea of the plot, but I didn't know much. My brother knew even less. Yet we both agreed by the end of the show that we understood most of what had happened.
Why? The acting. Perhaps we couldn't translate every single word that came out of the actor's mouth, but we instantly understood the intent behind it. If an actor states blandly, "Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love: Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent," we are, perhaps, confused. But if this same actor laments this while clutching his chest, we understand instantly,
a-ha, he's been betrayed! In other words, we as an audience don't have to struggle to keep up with the story.
In the story that I read today, however, I was left staring at the last sentence, wondering, did I miss something? Did a page get ripped out of this book? What's the meaning here? What did the author want to tell me when he wrote this? I still have no idea what the answers to these questions are. My brother read the story twice and he has no idea what the answers are. Again, I'm not saying the story was bad, or that it was badly written. But I was dissatisfied after reading it, and dissapointed. I wished that I had been able to grasp what the author wanted me to know.
When we create, we build a bridge to invite other people into our world. We say, "Look--this is the way I see things. Would you like to look through my eyes at my universe?" We must remember that the bridge will always seem safe to those of us who built it, and the path to our world will always seem easy to understand for those of us who constantly traverse it. It's all to easy to get caught up in our own creativity and forget the outside world. If you create art only for yourself, there is nothing wrong with this--it gives you an outlet, and a good one at that. But if you create with the intention of sharing your creations with outside viewers, it's always good to leave a few signposts along the way to the bridge.
We wouldn't want our audience to lose their way. ;-)

Social or personal?

Depending on how you pursue it, creativity can be a social or a private experience. It can be an activity you engage in with a huge group of friends, or one which you would only attempt in the privacy of your own home. It all depends on what your interests are, and what your personality is like.
My two biggest passions encompass both ends of the spectrum. Acting for the theater is, obviously, an extremely social activity. Even if you're in a one-man show, you are working closely with the crew and staff of the theater. And one-man shows aren't common--more often you're in a cast with at least a few other actors. Writing, on the other hand, tends to be a very personal engagement. You sit at your computer or notebook and put your thoughts on paper (or word document), usually in solitude.
However, being the social creature that I am, my writing is much less solitary than it could be. When I'm cultivating a new story idea, one of my favorite steps is sharing the idea with my family members and seeing how they respond to it. Sometimes I'll hand out copies of the first chapter of my latest work-in-progress and let my parents and brother "beta test" the story for me. And when I finish a story, I often read it aloud to my little brother, to see for myself which parts make him laugh or catch his interest.
There's other ways to make social a very personal activity like writing--for instance, I know of writing groups or clubs where authors will get together and share their latest masterpieces with each other, looking for feedback and constructive criticism. I knew a writer who wanted everyone who read her novels to fill out long, involved questionnaires about what they thought of them. There's online communities where you can post poetry and stories and get feedback from around the world.
In this last half a year or so, I've had the opportunity to experience social writing in another form. A fellow writer who is a very dear friend of mine and I decided to do a collaboration and write a novel together. It's been an amazing journey--my co-author is much more experienced than me, both in writing and in marketing finished stories, but the method with which she tackles her writing is similar to my own. We work well together.
When we started out, neither of us had any preconceptions about what the story would be about. My co-author proposed that we write a sci-fi novel, and I agreed--I tend towards the fantasy genre, but I'd been wanting to try out sci-fi for awhile anyway. She suggested that we both agree on a setting and a few major plot points, then go off and separately create a few characters. Then, without much set-up, we'd jump right into the writing section.
This is by no means the only way to do a collaboration. I'm sure there are as many methods for working with another author as their are authors. But this method worked for us, as we both tend to focus on our characters when we write (as opposed to focusing on either the plot or the setting) and we wanted our story to be mostly a character study.
We sat down and discussed the basic fabric of the story, and within a few hours we'd come up with our conflict and setting. We decided how many characters were needed, and what kind. Then we disbanded and spent some time working on our separate characters--she created one, and I created two. We exchanged the basic information about our characters (name, job, appearance, etc.)--the kind of stuff the characters would already need to know about each other--and without further ado, began to write.
We took turns writing sections for the story. She would do a few scenes, then email me her piece; I would write a few scenes, and send it back; and so on. Sometimes we would write 20,000 words within a week; sometimes the story would remain untouched for a month. We both wanted to remain unpressured, so we made sure not to rush each other--this was a fun side project, not our jobs, and we both had lots of stuff going on outside the story. We took our time and let the characters develop at their own pace.
The key element I want to stress here is communication. That was what made this work so well, in my opinion. It sounds obvious, but there you go. :P We constantly were sitting down together and having conversations like: Me: "I know we need to have such-and-such happen soon...do you want to write that scene, or should I?" Co-author: "I've got to finish up my scene with so-and-so, then you can write it, if it'll fit into your section." Me: "Sure--I just have to make sure I work in this other such-and-such, so my section might run a little long." And so on. We weren't territorial about our characters--even though I created and oversaw the main parts involving Characters A and B, my co-author wrote them into her scenes frequently, and vice versa. And we were careful to check with each other to make sure we were writing each others' characters the way they wanted.
Anyway, the point is, we're coming up to the final stretch of writing here. The climax has been and gone, and we're working on the big finish now. Once the actual writing is completed, my co-author will edit it thoroughly (she loves editing), we'll make our re-writes, and then beta-test it on our family members and friends. After that, it'll fall to me to do most of the marketing. It's been a ton of fun writing with someone else, and we're planning to do more collaborations in the future.
Oh...and I forgot to mention that my co-author doubles as my mom. :P Hey, my passion for writing had to come from somewhere, right?

Definitions

www.dictionary.com defines “creativity” as such:
“The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts.”
I’ve taken classes from an actress who has a unique way of tackling a script. When she’s given her lines, she goes through them one by one and marks every word that interests her, that she’s unfamiliar with, or that seems important. Then she takes the first word she marked and looks it up in four or five dictionaries—starting with a modern dictionary, and working her way back until she’s using an old English dictionary. She methodically finds every possible definition for the word in question, and looks at how each different definition might affect her reading. She does this for every word she’s marked—it’s her way of finding complex, intricate layers in the language of the script.
I can’t claim that I looked up the word “creativity” in five different dictionaries, but I did search around a little bit, and this was by far my favorite definition. There’s a lot going on in just those few little sentences.
“The ability to transcend traditional ideas” is a good beginning. Looking past the “norm” of the world around us isn’t creativity in it of itself, but it’s certainly the first step. Living by the guidelines that society (and tradition) have set up for us can be difficult enough without the added challenge of seeing around those guidelines. I also love the word “transcend.” I mean, come on, that’s just a rockin’ awesome word.
But the second part of that sentence is the meat of this definition: “to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.” This is what creativity is all about—creating a story out of nothing but your own thoughts; weaving an image on a canvas that, before, was nothing but a white blank; strumming a chord on a guitar and choosing words to accompany it. Creating something out of nothing, something that needs to be shared with the world.
And the word “meaningful” jumps out at us, too. Creativity doesn’t have to mean taking on the Big Questions, or the current issue of the moment. Creativity doesn’t have to leave the audience with tears in their eyes, or walking away murmuring, “That was so powerful.” What creativity does have to be is personal. Maybe you’re writing a story about bananas that go to the moon, but if that’s what means something to you, it’s creative. And maybe you do tackle Big Questions, but that’s because they mean something to you. Creativity has to be meaningful—not necessarily to the intended audience (if there is one), but to the creator.
Which brings me to this blog.
I’m a seventeen-year-old who is growing up in the Midwest of America. I’m an aspiring actress/teacher/author who spends a lot of time in community theaters, in my room writing fantasy stories, and making up silly games based on tv shows with my little brother. All three are equally important to me—all three are ways that I am creative. I also spend some time making animated music videos and playing the cello—these are also ways that I express myself.
How are you creative? I can’t begin to imagine. There are a multitude of ways to be creative. Maybe you write music, or dance, or make programs to teach people how to do their job. Maybe you’re creative in ways I’m not even aware exist. However you express yourself, I’d love to hear about it.
So I’m bringing my story to the web. I’m going to express myself in a new way: by writing daily (or as often as I can) updates about what I’m doing to express my imagination. When I audition for a show or get a part in a play, I’ll write about that. When I’m working on a new story or a new music video, I’ll share that with you, too. I might interview people I know who express themselves in unique ways, or review shows, books, songs, etc. that I’ve seen/read/heard. Maybe sometime I’ll write about going vintage clothes shopping with my aunt, because that’s a way that I express myself, too, believe it or not. :P
But the point is, I want this to work both ways. The fun of a blog, I think, is that it’s an open communication. You can read my story, but I can also read yours. Share your blog links here, share your stories, share yourselves. This is all about creativity, and I want to know how other people pursue it.
So to conclude this inaugural post, welcome one and all, and I hope to hear from you soon. :)