Author: amywestphalcreates

Emerging writer building a platform. Stay tuned!
Amy on writing

Enemy Mine

amywestphalcreates

 

I close my eyes to reclaim my peace. But in the darkness I come at you swinging with the force of a thousand wrongs.

 

Always swinging, never connecting.

 

I bat at you with kitten paws but you never even flinch. I kick and scream at your impenetrable walls, but you’re a fortress. I am lost.

 

I break the glass with banshee cries and chew the shards to sand. I taste the blood and spit it out, a bitter pool for your reflection.

 

I hope you drown.

 

I grab your hair and lick your face to mark you as my own. You belong to me I say when I Holyfield your ear.

 

And when I think I’ve won again, again you slip away. The light of day has won this one. It always is the same.

 

Enemy of my enemy, enemy mine.

 

In my angsty, community raised, couch surfing, teen years I wrote a lot of poetry. In lieu of a heart dotted i diary, I would sit with my Mazzy Star, The Doors or Alice In Chains and write all the wrongs of my little world. When I was done, I would smile and frolic off on my merry California way, refreshed and ready to do what teenagers do.

 

I miss that feeling of renewal.

 

I love poetry, and have mentioned how cathartic I find it. However, I seldom write it just for me anymore let alone share it. Especially since I get to read wonderful poetry everyday here on WP. But lately, in my self possessed, collected adulthood, my old outlet found me in a time of need.

 

So in honor of candor and stress relief I decided to share.😅😳

 

Cheers, Amy

 

Self portrait in sepia pencils on canvas by me.

Amy on writing

Amy’s Bad Advice #1

amywestphalcreates

On writing…

It’s worth what you paid for it.

Amy’s bad advice for seeing your work with fresh eyes.

Believe it or not, this is not advice from the source, I read it somewhere and gave it a shot…literally…

Then I hand wrote this post in my journal while simultaneously mouse scrolling my manuscript on the computer. (Ambidexterity is a handy skill) I do admit that my Norwegian grandmother would have been ashamed of my penmanship. I too found it questionable. (And hard to transcribe🤫)

So you have edited your book many times, so many that you could easily recite it verbatim like a monologue for the school play. Your betas are exhausted and you’re without a CP. What do you do?

Drink. Drink a bit, not enough to take residence in your toilet bowl, and not so much that you can no longer read. Just a bit. Just enough.

Then….

Bask in the glory of your own work. Or balk at the horror of it. Either way you’ll have the fresh eyes of a new born baby. It seems like a very writerly thing it do right? Glamourous Martini drinking in a dim room with a typewriter? Smoke looming thick in the air from your cigar? Fedora artfully a tilt? I feel dashing just suggesting it.

I suppose an alternate outcome would be sulking in the corner lamenting your vices and cursing this ugly world we live in…. But that sounds pretty writerly too now doesn’t it?

There it is my writers, Amy’s Bad Advice #1. See above quote fot its value.

What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever been given? This? I love our repartee.

Cheers, Amy

Amy on writing

Beta Readers Required

amywestphalcreates

via Beta Readers Required

Stephen from fracturedfaithblog.com is looking for beta readers for his novel The Kirkwood Scott Chronicles – Skelly’s Square

Check out this incredible blogging teams site for more info.

Cheers, Amy

Amy on writing

Amy’s Bad Advice #2

amywestphalcreates

If you’re wondering where Amy’s Bad Advice #1 is, don’t be alarmed. I have to transcribe it from my own handwriting. 🧐 (I’ll explain later)

I’ve been a very busy girl and am sorry for the slackin’

So for this weeks Bad Advice, I advise you that everything you ever needed to know about writing can be found on a coffee cup.

Exhibit A-

I hope everyone has wonderful and productive week, and I hope to join y’all on the regular again real soon.

Write on writers, cheers!

Amy

Amy on writing

Sink Bananas

amywestphalcreates

I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. -Bilbo Baggins

They say that when life hands you lemons you should make lemonade…

My life hands me sink bananas. My life is sink bananas, what do I do with those?

Let me know how you deal with too little time and too much to do in the comments. Let’s commiserate! I love it!

Cheers’ Amy

Amy on writing

Simple Things

amywestphalcreates

I hit 100 followers today! Just shy of my 2 month blog-iversary. Thanks for joining me on my adventure and making this whole endeavor a much richer experience than I thought possible.

Cheers! Amy

Pssst…Been a busy week here in Amy land but I hope to get back on my 1-2 post a week schedule soon. Thanks again for all the ❤️

A.

Amy on writing

Amy’s Bad Advice

amywestphalcreates

It’s worth what you paid for it.

This week I’d like to introduce a weekly-ish segment called Amy’s bad advice.

Every week(ish) I will post bad advice I’ve either given, gotten, or thought about giving on topics about writing, life, entrepreneuring, kids and whatever in between.

I’m not sure how personal we’ll get here, my well of shenanigans runs pretty deep, but we will see….

Also, please feel free share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and ADVICE in the comments. Is this a good blog idea? I love our little interactive interludes.

Stay tuned for my first post: Amy’s Bad Advice #1 : On Writing

(because that’s what inspired it of course)

Cheers! Amy

Spot on doppelgänger compliments of Bitmoji

Amy on writing

What I learned…

amywestphalcreates

I’ve got thick skin and an elastic heart. – Sia

img_0212

What blogging has taught me about writing.

If anyone read Know When to Hold them…they will know that I’ve hit a rough patch in my publishing journey. I’m getting through it though, you lot are pretty nice with your encouragements and stuff..

Anyway. In my frantic rewrites, I decided to take my blog approach and go balls-to-the-wall, full-on pantser mode, and I must say I Like it! My blog is a semi string of consciousness that I edit lightly, but is almost essentially, my voice*

(Significantly less f-bombs, I’m a lady and a professional after all, not a ruddy fuckin’ pirate.)

And why did that work for me?

Well, to spare you too many details, the beginning of my book is overwritten. I tried too hard. But using my blog approach, I sat down and wrote like I was verbally telling the story to someone, I let the words fall out and land. When I was done, I had written something fresher and more vivid than I thought was possible after spending so much time with the material. And that felt amazing.

I’m not saying that this is the new way to fly, but I’m glad to know the next time I get stuck, I have a solution that doesn’t involve me sulking in the fetal position.

How has your blog affected your other writing?

Amy on writing

Know When to Hold them…

amywestphalcreates

…and know when to fold them.

I am the patron saint of mediocrity. Antonio Salieri, Amadeus

For the past few days I have been in a pit of rewrites for my novel. After a handful of rejections from agents, I have done what the internet told me to do: review my first five pages.

First I read them over and tried to lightly edit. That didn’t work. So I deleted them and started over. I have printed them out, draft after draft, scribbled on them, crumpled, ripped, chucked… And just when I thought I was getting somewhere I was told they were so overwritten they couldn’t be read. 😔 That sucked…

So I recoiled into a ball of self-pity and sulked, cursing the very notion that I had a right to write a book.

And now? I am finally getting somewhere, I’m close to trying to shop it again. I might end up in another sulking assball but that’s okay.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. It might cut deeper too. But nobody said this shit was easy. My advice? If you want to be a writer, keep writing, write more, write often, and be tough. Your book is yours but it is not you. Separate the work from the person you are and be proud that you aspire to something, because that is something.

Write on writers, cheers, Amy.