Blank: Evil in a Human Box

BLANK. MUST. DIE.

I don't want to be a part of him, but the more that I read, the more I can feel him honing in on me. I'm not sure if he can tell the light from the dark yet. And, I write... I write about the dark, which means that I have to step into it periodically. Well, often, actually.

When he finds me, which side of me will he see?

Will he want to suck the shadow I cast from the face of the planet; suck the mist of me into his nasal passage when he pushes blade past flesh, forces it through sternum and morbidly orgasms when steel meets heart? Or, will he see that I am a Warrior of the Light, one learning about the dark, just like Blank, training for battles against it tilting the scales toward the good... simply by means of my pen?

My pen. His knife. Love-Love. Let the game begin before the rain comes to chase the spectators from their seats.

This week's Blank Digest put me on his radar, for I am the anonymous quote below:

"So. One of Blank’s people made the following comment in a tweet this week: 'Man, that Blank dude is gonna be full-a all kindsa nastiness. I think I will rename him, Pandora.' First. Love the line. It is an interesting take on what has happened to Blank so far. Pandora opened a storage jar (modernized into a box) and let out the evils of mankind leaving only hope inside. I might refer to Blank less as Pandora and more as Pandora’s Box, for in one sense, Blank is a vessel for evils and in his world, hope may be outside of his jar."

Yessss, that's what I meant, because Blank is the box and I want to see what comes out when he opens himself up. Patience, grasshopper.

But for the rest of you, my fair readers, it's time to open up Blank the Graphic Novel so that you, too, can be there when hope and evil fill up the Tank of Blank.

[Besides, the writers are good friends of mine... check 'em out. Good stuff, Maynard.]

Strength of a Promise

Strength comes in many forms
Many of which can be seen, felt
Strong as an ox
But the most powerful comes from within
Be it known or found
Only the strong survive

A capacity for effective action
A degree of concentration
Intense
Strong in opinion
Strong in belief
You’re only as strong as your weakest link

No one can be strong all of the time
We share our strength
Strong, not silent, type
And in your strength
There is a light that shines
To support my patience
And helps me to stand tall
Our strength in numbers

Checking the Creative Pulse

Every year, I take the engine in for a check-up (though I've admittedly slacked the past few years since I've been moving around so much). This morning, I thought I'd give my creativ

Image by wenzday01 via Flickr

e drive a diagnostic based on an article that I discovered (via a Twitter friend) called, "How to be more creative."

1. Ruthlessly limit your selection of tools to only the most vital.
Hmmm, I'm a writer, so I guess I'm all set here. My head and my fingers would be the most vital tools and they are the only ones I need (though my notebook sure helps).

2. Don’t listen to feedback, keep following your own path.
Do I agree with this? No, I don't. I don't things are so black and white. It's like when I write about being in the now--being focused on the task at hand--but the effort you are placing into the task should be taking you somewhere and you have to remember that direction. And sometimes, those around you can help to kick you back on the right path. There's a template that I refused to change in my book, though some have criticized it, their comments have only forced me to improve the template so that it works. Feedback makes your art better, if you know how to listen to it the right way.

3. Having a routine is actually not a bad thing.
I routinely have a routine that's not a routine, know what I mean? *smile* I know what I need to accomplish in a day. Rewrite this chapter, write a blog post, discuss some facet of thought or love with a friend, record those thoughts, read-read-read... I know that I have to accomplish those things on a given day, but I don't have to do them in the same order. I have discovered one thing, when I read, I think more and then I write more. Keep reading, Roth.

4. Don’t try and be right.
What's right and wrong got to do with it? I'll tell ya what they have to do with it, if you're writing a story and there are logical fallacies, then the whole thing crumbles to the ground and the moral that you're attempting to teach is lost in the wreckage. Just be right in a way that no one else has ever been right before.

5. Imperfection is beautiful.
Absolutely, our imperfections are what make us unique. You might replicate a famous artist's painting to practice technique, but what you create should always be a function of the unique you that you are. Besides, in America, we don't believe in perfection because we're constantly trying to improve ourselves. Get it? Something perfect can't be improved, so forget about the ideal concept and just be your imperfect self creating imperfect things.

6. Ignore trends.
I'm beginning to think that I went to the wrong doctor to check my creative pulse. Trends are life in a span of time. If you truly want to be creative, you should be receptive to everything that is going on around you and find a unique way to transform it or interpret it for your creative output.

7. Spend a lot of time alone.
I know where the writer is coming from with this bullet, as an INTP I know that I have to recharge by being alone, but should I spend lots of time alone to force creativity? Hmmm. There are lots of ways to be "alone" even when in a crowd. Life largely stays the same when you're isolated. You can dive into the world of a book, a magazine, or a movie, but those are replications of other moments captured in time. There's no substitute for being in the fluidity of life through a conversation, as a participant or an observer, taking action and keeping the mind open to what it is experiencing... don't lock it up in your secure little steel box.

8. Don’t watch TV, don’t listen to the radio, remove the vapid elements of popular culture from your life.
Moderation, the doctor says, moderation. Here is a point that we can agree on. I don't have a television or a radio in my house, so that's no problem for me. But I do believe in two things: there's value in brain-dead activity and there are some creative things being done in popular culture.

9. Don’t try and fit into a genre.
Maybe yes, maybe no. Are you trying to create a work of genius or something that will be consumed by the masses? Only you can know which.

10. Ignore the past.
WHAT? Okay, that's it, no co-pay for you because I think you must want to live on this disconnected, unplugged, isolated, deserted island drawing art in the sand that gets washed away by the tide each day. You can have fun with your creativity there and it will be imperfectly perfect in its lack of relevance to anything or anyone other than yourself.

Don't tell me this is what ObamaCare is supposed to be about, is it?

In conclusion, the creative part of creativity is, basically, that there aren't 10 things that you must do to be more creative. There is no perfect equation to creativity because we're all unique in what we've seen, learned, done and we're inspired by so many different things: a child, a candy bar wrapper in the gutter, the tail lights of a plane en route towards a waxing moon, a darkening sky during the normal light of morning, something silly that Jon Stewart said, the way your lover looks when she's asleep and calm... I could go on forever...

Point is, screw the 10 rules and do your own thang until you figure out what works for you.

When Mary-Louise Parker writes...

...we read.

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

A Thank-You Note to Men
By Mary-Louise Parker

To you, whom it may concern:

Manly creature, who smells good even when you don't, you wake up too slowly, with fuzzy, vertical hair and a slightly lost look on your face as though you are seven or seventy-five; you can fix my front door, my sink, and open most jars; you, who lose a cuff link and have to settle for a safety pin, you have promised to slay unfortunate interlopers and dragons with your Phillips head or Montblanc; to you, because you will notice a woman with a healthy chunk of years or pounds on her and let out a wolf whistle under your breath and mean it; because you think either rug will be fine, really it will; you seem to walk down the street a little taller than me, a little more aware but with a purpose still; to you who codifies, conjugates, slams a puck, baits a hook, builds a decent cabinet or the perfect sandwich; you who gives a twenty to the kids selling Hershey's bars and waits at baggage claim for three hours in your flannel shirt; you, sir, you take my order, my pulse, my bullshit; you who soaps me in the shower, soaks with me in the tub; to you, boy grown-up, the gentleman, soldier, professor, or caveman, the fancy man with initials on your towels and salt on your chocolates, to you and to that guy at the concession stand; thank you for the tour of the vineyard, the fire station, the sound booth, thank you for the kaleidoscope, the Horsehead Nebula, the painting, the truth; to you who carries me across the parking lot, up the stairs, to the ER, to roll-away or rice mat; to you who shows up every so often only to confuse and torment, and you who stays in orbit, always, to my left and steady, you stood up for me, I won't forget that; to you, the one who can't figure it out and never will, and you who lost the remote, the dog, or your way altogether; to you, wizard, you sang in my ear and brought me back from the dead, you tell me things, make me shiver; to the ones who destroyed me, even if for a minute, and to the ones who grew me, consumed me, gave me my heart back times ten; to most everything that deserves to call itself a man: How I do love thee, with your skill to light fires that keep me warm, light me up.

BBB: I can't say anything to improve that... or her.

The entire Esquire "A Woman We Love" piece can be read here.