Hey hey, Readers!
It's a new week and I'm excited to share a lot of the things I have on the go at the moment. It's fun creating things in general, but it's a little more exciting when you have someone to share it with. One of the more interesting things I've created this week is an awesome short story about the days of the week personified. After I edit that up a bit, I'll be posting it as my first short story in my Creative Fiction Section. Last week I didn't get around to posting a YouTube video, but I'm in the process of editing that and it should be going up within a few days. Another update is that I made a nice big purchase from BookOutlet.ca and I can't wait to share the book babies that are on their way. Follow me on Insagram @trulyhuntercreative to get updates about that. This week I have been musing on a few different writing ideas and it seems to me that there are kernels of wisdom about writing nearly everywhere you look in the world. From the ways strangers interact on the streets, to the dreams that come to you when you're deep asleep, it's incredible how much insight you can get into storytelling when you keep your eyes open and look for it. At this point in my life, it's my habit to think like a writer and auto-analyze everything that happens as if it's material for my next story. But it seems to me that perhaps not everybody thinks that way, and so I'd like to encourage any writers and aspiring authors to start doing this if they don't already. One of the ways you can practice this is by carrying around a notebook, or even using the note taker on your smart phone, to start writing down anything you see that catches your eye. Anything can be material for a story, from an interaction between a scolding mother and her fussy child, to a woman dressed in colourful patchwork clothing, there's always a story behind any experience. When you witness something interesting, try to think of a story to explain that something. Think about why it's happening or what might happen afterward, and write it down. This way, your mind is always thinking about stories and possibilities; you've got so much more material to be inspired by. Stories have always been my primary means of relating to the world, so this method can also be helpful if you are confused by a situation or experience. Perhaps someone said or did something to you and you can't for the life of you understand their perspective. Try writing a story about it, dissecting their behavior, and giving a reason or motivation to their character's decisions. Even if you're not spot on with the real motivation behind that person's behavior, it might give you some insight into the way you relate to them in real life. This could also allow you to work out some internal frustration as you create a story around your experience. So, that's my Musings & Updates Blog for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you have any insight into gathering stories from the real world to use in your fiction, comment about it down below. Let's start a conversation and share our ideas. As always, read on, Readers. Tru~xoxoxo
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Hey, blog lover!
What's new with you? Things have been continuing on at their crazy speeds and through all the jumbled chaos it's been difficult to master my time management skill. But if things stay at the slightly less blinding pace they've been settling into the past few days, I stand to actually catch my breath in the next week or so. Despite the stress and anxiety that accompanies being busy, at least I know I can face a challenge head on, and I suppose that's what matters in the long game. My writing has been coming along quite nicely and I'm excited to report that I have finished the first draft of my structured outline and am well into creating the universe for my latest novel. Falling in love with these characters and this story has been filling my heart to the brim with happiness and it makes the late nights worth the lost sleep. It's going to be a wild ride to get to the end of this job, to complete my novel and publish my first self-published novel, I'm just as excited as I am scared. This past week there has been a lot of people ill around me, and I was fighting a cold myself, so it's been some time since my last YouTube video. My target is set to get back to two videos a week starting next week at the latest, so wish for my aim to be true (haha, 'tru') and my arrow to fly straight. Target number two? Read more books in September than I did in August. My reading goal is as little as 3 and as many as 5; what's your goal for this month? Have you challenged the Good Reads Reading Challenge? Let me know below what your reading goals are and we can talk books. Until then, read on! Tru~ xoxoxo Hey, blog lover!
How are things going? I hope all is well wherever you are in the world. My August has been a little bit nuts, but the more things fall apart, the more they come together. I've noticed that in life, nothing new can form if you don't let go of the old, and 2016 has been a year of change and destruction and rebuilding. I've rebuilt my brand, to a certain degree, though I don't think I'll ever stop changing and growing the brand I am creating. YouTube has become a big part of my plans, and I've been writing and creating content more than ever before. Gratitude abound as I move forward into the future and begin to achieve my goals, change my life, and grow into my best version. The next big thing I'm planning is to begin posting episodically my short stories and novels. It is a long term goal of mine to become a published author and I want to begin by putting my work out there to my readers and getting feedback. The best way I can think of to grow an audience of friends and readers is by getting my stories out there to be shared and enjoyed in a place where people can feel a sense of community with me. Where they know their opinions will be heard and where they know they'll always get first access to all the content I create. So keep an eye out for some of my creative fiction, coming soon, by keeping up with me on social media and here on the blog. Have an awesome day wherever you are and keep on reading! Tru~ xoxoxo Hey, blog lover!
August has been a pretty exciting month so far and a lot of really great content is on it's way to you, my friend. Not only is there an awesome new Fallout 4 DLC coming on the 30th of the month, I have been having a tonne of fun with my Skyrim Let's Play on YouTube too. Recently I posted an analysis of the Nuka-World trailer (which you can read by clicking here) and as soon as I get my hands on that game, a Let's Play will be posted for it as well. Hopefully I can keep up with my Skyrim and Sims 4 Let's Plays, but I can see myself spending a lot of hours on Nuka-World already. As far as reading and books go, I have received an influx of books this month that I intend to blog about, and I have a few book reviews I am itching to post as well. August has been a great reading month for me, and I hope I can get at least one review and an August Reading Wrap up onto the blog before we're too deep into September. Life has been somewhat chaotic, but somewhere in the chaos I have found peace. The one thing you can count on is that things will always change, nothing is permanent, so try to find comfort in knowing that all things come to an end. Because that means the bad things aren't going to last forever either, which is definitely encouraging when you're facing some barriers. Keep working hard and doing your best, and most importantly, keep on reading. Tru~ xoxoxo Hey, blog lovers!
This week is setting up to be a great one for this blog and for my YouTube channel. Not only did I start a new and exciting Let's Play, I'm also writing a new movie review that I can't wait to share. Life has been a lot better now that I am working on what I love; and I thought I'd update you on all the projects I have planned for the next few weeks. This week's Let's Plays will be focused on my new Skyrim Season One episodes. This LP is heavily focused on Role-Playing and getting right into the world of Skyrim as if it were real life. I've really enjoyed recording this kind of content, I hope others enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed creating it. My movie review blog post won't be the only new piece of writing on my site in the next couple of weeks. I'm also planning to blog a book haul and some reading recommendations while I search for some nerd blog sites where I can do some guest blogging. Aside from site updates, life is going pretty well lately. I've been working on creations I'm passionate about and it's taking me deeper into myself as well as allowing me to connect more deeply with others. I can't stress enough how important it is to make sure you're doing what you love to do, even if you're not making money at it. Because money comes as a direct result of how much effort you're willing to put into what you're doing. And what's easier to put effort into than something you love to do? So start that passion project as soon as you can, because there's nothing that makes a person happier than igniting the passion inside and showing everyone what you're made of. Keep on reading, Tru~ xoxoxo Big things are happening on the blog this week, I am having so much fun brainstorming and putting plans into action. Recently I posted my Nerdy Faves for July and there will be another blog coming at the end of this week. YouTube videos have also been recorded and the next part of my Sims 4 Let's Play should be up Wednesday the 3rd. Actually, I have so many ideas for YouTube Gaming content that I want to start recording. Fallout 4, Skyrim, some visual novels, and even some browser games are in the works for Let's Play content.
In other news, I'm going to start creating Podcasts! I'm interested in creating Nerdy podcast content of all different kinds, and I can't wait to start uploading some of the ideas I've been coming up with. Another new development is my persuit of blog touring, that is to say that I want to blog on other people's websites and have them come here and blog on mine as well! I can't wait to get that started and it will be so much fun to experience writing for someone else's blog and creating new relationships with other people in the blog community. That's my update for this week guys, but stay and hang out a while! Click down below to view some recent blogs, and as always, read on. Tru~ xoxoxo
How do you achieve a sense of personal value? What I've learned on my journey is that personal value boils down to how you choose to live your life. When I first started my journey of self-love, I had spent the previous years of my life living as someone I didn't value. This way of living was one of the biggest reasons why I was constantly searching for validation and confirmation of value from others. One day, after years of losing myself in others expectations, I realized I didn't know who I was anymore. Not long after that wake up call, I decided I needed to ask myself a few questions. The first question was what values do I look for in others when I decide if I should include them in my life? The next was do I trust myself and could I be trusted to make the right life choices? Then I asked, would it be okay if I failed? What if I made the wrong choices sometimes? And finally, when I discovered my truth, could I live that truth without apologizing for it? The long and short of it is that I'm still on this journey of self-love. However, I have uncovered a lot of inspiration on my journey and I want to share my insights with people who might be looking for their own answers.
I began by weighing the importance of traits I valued in others, and it turns out my answers were easy to figure. Love, friendship, kindness, honesty, respect, forgiveness and loyalty are my most basic values. Then I realized that these are the things that I expect from others, so they also need to be the things I expect from myself. And that before I can ask them of anyone else, I must first be able to embody them on my own. It was then that things became a little clearer for me. In order to be a happier person, to value myself more, I needed to align what I valued with how I behaved. Slowly I began treating myself with the same love and friendship, kindness, honesty, respect, forgiveness and loyalty that I would expect from my closest friends. It wasn't long before I could put into words what I wanted from myself; to establish a firm set of values and personify them. Reach a place where my thoughts, words, actions, desires and beliefs all existed in harmony. Only then could I feel at peace with my life. Finally things had started to fall into place, and from there, the momentum of what I was discovering began to break through other barriers too. The next wall I had to demolish was the one I had built to separate who I thought I should be from who I really am. To do this, I had to question whether or not I could trust myself. Admittedly, I had to think pretty hard about that one, because when you don't trust yourself, you suspect everything you tell yourself to be a lie. Eventually I concluded that I hadn't trusted myself in a very long time, and a lot of my past had been spent treating myself with disrespect and dishonesty. I had put myself down, lied to myself about my needs, and abused myself until I was too confused to fight back. Just thinking about that behavior, it became obvious that I hadn't been treating myself with love. Now I had to decide if I could forgive myself for those transgressions. It took a long time, but I've come a long way on my journey since then. I'm proud to say that I do trust myself now, because I've decided to offer myself the same loyalty that I offer others, the same love. The interesting thing I found along the way was that the more I forgave, the easier it was to forgive. Now I find it easier than ever to forgive myself for all my mistakes, ones I have made before, and the ones I will make in the future. This breakthrough led me quite easily to my next question. Could I still treat myself with forgiveness if I failed? Sometimes I still struggle with this, the challenging problem of treating myself badly when I fail. It has been hard to concern myself more with what is right for me than what other people's expectations are. A lot of my personal value was previously balanced on a delicate scale weighing other people's expectations against my own. Needless to say, the weight hadn't been properly distributed. The question now remained, could I discover the right balance, and how would I go about tipping the scales in my favor? Through extensive soul searching and learning, I was able to come to a conclusion which, while it's not an easy answer, is - I'm grateful to say - a simple one. What you think controls what you feel. It’s so simple and yet complexly poetic. My thoughts control my emotions, and I had convinced myself that I was powerless to change what those thoughts were. Fortunately, when this realization hit me, I was launched into action. Again I set out searching my soul for answers and finally I happened upon a technique - thought replacement. It begins by checking in with myself and my thoughts; next I assess what I am thinking; then asking how it has made me feel; I ask if it serves me; if not, I replace it with something that does. The beauty of this is that it is as straightforward as it is dactylic. Unfortunately, it's not a matter of a one, two, three, magic solution. Like poetry, there are nuances to this technique, and I've only just begun to master it. So what was my next hurdle shaping up to be? It turned out that the next thing I learned was also going to be the most important. It was the act of living life without apologizing for it. The hardest part about this is that there are so many barriers, so many ways in which life tries to make you feel sorry, that sometimes the road feels insurmountable. Maybe you're not thin enough, so you're asked to feel ashamed of that. Or perhaps you're not the right colour, well then you better regret it. Maybe what you love isn't what others agree is important. You had better feel downright chastened for that one. After facing that kind of reproach daily, it became impossible not to internalize it and start telling myself it was what I deserved. But, after learning so much about how to treat myself with value, nothing felt right about that belief system anymore. It had made sense when I was afraid, but that fear - the false evidence appearing real (thanks, Infinite Waters) - was holding me back from achieving my true potential. So I started weighing my values again, I began to reinforce my trust in them. When that happened, I began to be okay with it when things didn't work out and when I clashed hard with other people. In the end, it became obvious that I had nothing to apologize for, I never had. By living my life authentically, I was finally living a life I valued, and in doing so, I'd found the value in myself. Before long, it didn't bother me when someone's values didn't match mine, and I wasn't sorry for it. Because I now knew that the differences between us are what give our world its value. And honoring them is the only way I can think of to allow myself and others to live fully and joyfully. The best part about this whole journey has definitely been the friends I've made. Through loving myself and gaining a deeper connection with my truth, I have learned to connect deeply with others again. In the end, the best friend I have is myself. Not only because I'm always there, every step of the way, but because I’ve taught myself valuable lessons I could never have learned otherwise. By spending time caring for and valuing me, it's loosed the energy I need to be able to spend more time caring for others. And at the end of the day, what makes me feel best and most valuable is what I can do for the people around me. Now I choose to live with a deep connection to myself and others, and those choices have showed me my personal value in a way no one else’s approval or confirmation ever could have. |
What?The ramblings of a writer with her head in the clouds. When?
July 2019
Where? |