The Invictus Writers » Archive
How creating and building will take you everywhere
Writing a short work of non fiction is nothing to scoff about as I’m sure all of the Invictus writers and contributors know. It takes a well disciplined mentality and a strong sense of determination to finish your story to completion. It is an endeavor that taxes your mind and morals to the limit, you don’t just write the story, you learn something new about yourself as well. However, if you were to tell anyone other than another writer that you have successfully embarked on this endeavor, the reaction you would received would most likely not equal the amount of work you put in. They can never understand the grueling process it takes to put your thoughts on paper. They can never understand the hours you’ll spend on one paragraph and … Read entire article »
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The satisfaction felt after destroying something that you’ve created
I’ve thrown out ten-thousand words of work on my essay for the Invictus project. The story was convoluted and had lost most of its meaning. I was trying to cram too much into it and the writing was beginning to be disorienting. I was pitting myself up against too many conflicts. I was frustrated with myself for spending so much time and investing so much in the draft that I threw out. My writing was stubborn. I was forcing the words and trying to tie things together without any real focus. Important scenes were blurry, and the context was clouded with insignificant details. In the morning I took one last look at the document and then trashed the entire thing. Once the draft was deleted I felt a surge of relief. I … Read entire article »
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The Author and the Character
For the past three weeks or so I’ve been using the excuse of waiting on a critique to not work on my Invictus writing. It’s a terrible excuse, but I kept lying to myself anyway. I’ve finally come to the sobering realization that I have come to the personal part of my story, the true beginning of the blending of fiction and nonfiction. Since everything leading up to this point in the story has been completely ‘remembered’ by my character and not lived by me I was able to avoid the hardest part of the writing, the truth. It’s caught up to me. I now see what each of the other Invictus writers had to face in reflecting upon their own lives. My memories of the situation aren’t pretty, and I hate myself … Read entire article »
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Getting Through
I wish I could say I’ve made monumental progress on my Invictus piece. I won’t lie though; I’m only a few thousand words in and far from satisfied with any of it. The language is sloppy, the order is wrong, and I don’t think I’m doing justice to anyone in my story right now. It’s ok though. I know it will get better. That’s the best part of writing for me. I can put complete garbage on the page, but I can go back and fix it. I can rewrite and rethink everything until it works. Writing is one of the few places we get that chance, and it keeps me from panicking when things get difficult. Just getting the details of my story down has been frustrating. I’ve cried, I’ve put it … Read entire article »
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Am Blogging, Am Writing
So I’ve been aware of the Invictus project since it’s beginning stages, last year while abroad I attempted to get involved but got caught up in what I was doing. Coming into this year I knew I wanted to be involved and here I am. Probably a few months too late (classic me) and I am finally in the writing stage of the game. Stories have been mapped out, ideas have been discussed, but as well all know talking about writing is one thing, but to sit down and do it is a completely different story. I’m going to try and blog every time I get a good writing session in so that I can talk about my process out loud, about what’s happening in my mind as I work … Read entire article »
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A craft without masters
I remember one of my earliest experiences with storytelling in elementary school, when my second grade class was instructed to write, illustrate and physically construct a book. My story, about a kid that gets sucked into a video game, drew praise from the teacher. Her notes in red at the end of the book applauded me, the author, for my imagination and unique story. That praise was enough to push me to pour my effort into the next story I wrote. Praise, for many of those seeking to be a writer, is simply enough. It can pull a writer from one shoddy piece to the next, without ever getting to the root of why the writer’s work is subpar. Ever wonder how those terrible” singers” get all the way to American Idol without … Read entire article »
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Getting Somewhere
Since this blog is about the writing process I strongly encourage you to read my last blog post before reading this one. Now that we’ve gotten past that let’s talk about what’s happened since the last post. Wow, this is awkward. My last post was about figuring out what you need to write. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how far I was from finding this out. Way to give advice before figuring it out yourself right? Luckily Brad gave me a helpful reminder in the comment section. While it took a lot of time for me to figure out what I needed to write on my own, here are a few sentences of Brad’s comment that really got me thinking, “You are still under the impression that story is about you and … Read entire article »
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“No Comfort” Zone
Anytime I’ve written, it’s been in solitude. It was in the same category as “using the restroom”: things that are only proper to do alone. Ambria Martin is another student taking part in the Invictus project this time around. I’ve heard her make multiple open offers to everyone else to meet up and “write together”. Those two words being put together make me physically uncomfortable. I’ve been told that writing (even about other people) requires looking into oneself in an open and plain manner. Since that would entail both potentially embarrassing myself and putting the burden of knowledge onto others, I did my best to lock myself away before sitting down at a keyboard. Brad says we need to get out of our comfort zones. It’s easy for someone to know they should … Read entire article »
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Writing away the crazy
This project means more to me than my college courses. I ignored presentations, quizzes, homework and other projects to work on my Invictus piece. I have detailed, borderline-insane, handwritten notes on how each scene serves the the story as a whole. Most of them were written when I should have been taking lecture notes in class. I’m throwing all that I have into this project because I believe in the cathartic and therapeutic process of storytelling. I’m writing about how this past summer almost broke me as a person. Parts of it are blurry, and others are too clear. I’m learning things about myself. I’m learning about how I cope with fear and loneliness. I’m starting to hate who I was and I think that’s a large part of the overall … Read entire article »
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Immersion
In 1992, just before my second birthday, my grandfather suffered a severe heart attack that left him with a damaged memory. He had equal difficulty remembering old memories and forming new ones. My mother would always tell me I was the only consistent thing that he remembered, because he never thought he’d live long enough to meet his first grandchild—and indeed I would be the only one he would ever meet. Despite my grandfather’s lack of memory (which my grandmother used to her advantage to stop him from smoking cigarettes) he was one of the few natural storytellers I have known. He was the kind of person that would command your attention with a story about going to get a haircut. On account of his memory loss each time he told … Read entire article »
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