Writing can and is a mental release; your Digital Martini!

So, for a hobby and/or relaxation, what do you do?  

Hunt, fish, camp, watch TV, hike, walk, run, sleep?  Well, personally, I enjoy writing.  I write Science Fiction novels and when I get the urge I like to develop cookbooks.

The interesting thing about writing is that a lot of the time the writer is amazed and shocked as to how the story develops, takes an interesting turn or side track as it were, and forms into a completely new creation.

Take my first novel, The Archives: EDUCATION for example.  In this novel we meet Benjamin Jensen and in some ways can identify with him to a varying degree, BUT we also see him at his worst after the near death of the woman he loves or loved.  A woman whom he must let go of if she is to survive in this futuristic world.

I had no intention of causing an accident that would kill, or nearly kill, the love of his life.  That thought was no where in the notes or outline of the original story concept.  The story wrote that part on its own, it just fit.  That section of the story needed something to shake it up, and in a big way it accomplished this goal.  But, it also opened up for me the opportunity to create other characters, and bring her back at times in the subsequent 4 novels, to fill in a portion of his life when he needed the boost.  

It provided me the chance the consider future medicine, future mental therapies, and show that with all of this technology the human form can heal itself to some extent on its own.  With the assistance of others, she is repaired as best as the medical capabilities can fix her; and he needs to learn to live without her, let her live her life without him.

But, this is the first of 5 novels in this series.  This universe takes place several hundred years in the future and spans nearly 30 years of THEIR time.  Each novel can stand on its own, but if you read the series there are snippets of all of them in other books.  This was done so the reader can be a part of the story.  A small comment in book three refers back to book one.  Meaningless to someone reading JUST book three, but significant to someone who read books one and two.

This is how I enjoy my personal time.  This is what I do to relax and get things off my chest.  This is my therapy.  This is my mental release.

Several years ago (July of 2005 to be more precise) I submitted an essay to a magazine, the name I forgot, but the essay is called The Digital Martini.  The magazine limited the entry to 500 words, and the topic had to be relaxation.  The text is below, tell me what you think.  Afterward the essay, I will continue with this article.

Digital Martini

By Christopher E. Cancilla

July 2005

 We all have friends who come home from work and feel the need to search for some type of liquid refreshment.  Myself, and other creative people I know, search for what we call the Digital Martini.

 To relax after a long day racing rats, where the rats usually win, requires a certain amount of mental and physical relaxation.  Working out at the gym lifting weights, swimming, walking, jogging are a few of the methods people use to physically relieve the stress of the day.  But what about the mind?  Some choose to watch television, cartoons, sit-coms, while others choose to write down a sit-com that is playing out in their mind.  These are the artists of the written word.

 To do justice is to start with a small thought, nurture it as it begins to grow in your mind, and help it to develop its own unique personality by letting it run itself.  Sitting in front of a keyboard is the most relaxing thing I have forced myself to do.  Allowing my mind to become intoxicated with an alien world, or the distant past of my hometown is the greatest decompression chamber available to the human animal.  For those who prefer manual entry, i.e. pen and paper, you have a small advantage.  1) You can read what you have written as opposed to simply reading the text, and   2) you are getting more of a physical element than those of use who use a keyboard.  It does not matter how you express your mind, as long as you do.

 Starting with a few random thoughts a story or an essay is born.  How the artist directs the story line is unique in not only the person, but also unique to the individual story at that moment.  If the artist started the same story a few hours later the events would undoubtedly differ from those formed earlier, depending on the events and mood of the writer.  If the author was having a bad day, there may be a dark story line; if the author was having a good day, the story may be brighter or more positive. 

 Regardless of the words actually entered into history one thing is for certain.  The author of the text is relaxing their mind and dealing with the stresses of the day.  Once that is accomplished, the artist can join their family refreshed and happy in the knowledge they are free from the stress of the world, at least mentally, and continue on with their evening.  Eventually someone will read the ramblings of the writer and perhaps find entertainment and some level of pleasure, along with a measure of mental relaxation of their own, in the reading of the manuscript.  Who knows?  The writer may even be good.  But you can’t know unless you try.

--end--

 That essay received a response (email) from the magazine.  They liked it and it was one they may use someday in the future.  If they do, I will be notified and paid.  Well, more than a decade has past, no letter so far, so I can safely agree with all of you it will never happen.  But I am not discouraged.  I have received a lot of rejection letters and hope to receive a lot more.  My writing is not curtailed.  My time at the keyboard has not been cut.  I write.  Why do I write, because I personally enjoy writing.  It makes me feel better.  The more I submit the better my chances are that someone to benefit from my writing, and let me know.  The more that read the novels the better.  In the grand scheme of things I have heard people say they want to be #1 on the Bestseller list, first of the top 100 books.  I would be very happy to be #100.  Making the LIST would be great.

Perhaps a publisher or agent will see this article and become curious, read the series and like it.  Make me an offer and I end up with a contract!  Cool...but suppose that one 13 year old receives my cookbook - Camp Menu Planning - as a gift, uses it to teach him or herself to cook, and becomes the next great chef.  More cool(er)!!  FYI, I give the digital version of my cookbook away you youth organizations free, for this reason.  Teaching the art and life-skill of cooking.  If they contact me from a Boy Scout troop or cub scout pack, or a girl scout troop I will sell them the physical copy of the cookbook at my cost.  I make nothing on the sale, but I earn future cooks and chefs who one day may be cooking for me in a fancy restaurant....reference that agent again.  :-)

When my computer died a couple years ago I was devastated.  Not because I would lose a lot of data, not going to happen.  I save to a Network Accessible Drive I set up in my home.  But I was devastated because I could no longer sit and write whenever I felt like it or needed it.  The day I replaced that computer I was ecstatic. I actually wrote quite a few thousand words that evening, and it felt great.

Doing 'stuff' on the computer, the internet is one thing.  Accomplishing something is a total other thing.  I do not say that lightly.  Because if I can put my thoughts to paper, or screen, they are no longer bouncing around in my head causing 'issues'.  Which for me means that anxiety, frustration, sadness, joy, hatred and other emotions can be and are put to paper; this gives me a way of dealing with these feeling in a safe and private manner.  

Read my stories if you want a glimpse into my mind.  Read my stories if you want to experience a small bit of the frustration I have in dealing with egocentric people on a daily basis.  Read my essays if you want to see how my mind  focus' on a task or not and how it may wander or or stray from a particular path or story-line. 

 What is it about writing your thoughts down that give you a mental release of those emotions.  Did people of days long past have an advantage in the use of keeping a diary?  Possibly.  But today we can blog.