auria “Hussein” cortes

Archive for March, 2008

Mar 27 2008

Blog of The Day Award

I won the Blog of the Day Award. Yippie. Do you think it was my post on the nipple action? Thanks Rain for nominating me. You’re the best!

8 responses so far

Mar 27 2008

Thursday Thirteen: Dream Dictionary

Published by auria cortes under Thursday Thirteen

So I had a dream last night. A dream that an agent jumped on my back while I was sleeping and pulled my hair and pinched my nipples. Yep, you read that right. He pinched my nipples and it wasn’t in that nice sexual way. No. It was painful. Also, the faceless agent was a man but I felt it was a woman disguised as a man. Anyway, we struggled and ended up on the floor. And somehow back on the bed. What could this dream mean?

I took to Dream Moods Dictionary to come up with a reasonable explanation. Below are thirteen keywords that appeared in my dream. But somehow I still can’t make out my mess of a dream. Any thoughts?

Nipples: To see nipples in your dream, relate to infantile needs and a regression into dependency. To dream that you are squeezing pus out of your nipples, refers to your negative feelings about relationships. You are feeling sexually inadequate.
Author: To see an author at work in your dream, signifies that your mind is preoccupied over some literary work that you or your associates is working on.
Acquaintance: To see an acquaintance in your dream, signifies positive affairs in business and harmony in your home life. It also foretells that you will see or hear from them shortly after this dream. To dream that you are in a dispute with an acquaintance, denotes that you will soon find yourself in a humiliating situation.
Bedroom: To dream that you are in the bedroom, signifies aspects of your self that you keep private. It is also indicative of your sexual nature.
Aggression: To dream that you exhibit aggression in your dream, denotes repressed sexual needs. It is also a reflection of conflict in your waking life.
Fear: To dream that you feel fear, signifies that you achievements will not be as successful as you had anticipated. You are having anxieties in certain circumstances of your life. However, your worries will be temporary and short-lived.
Pain: To dream that you are in pain, signifies that you are being too hard on yourself with regards to a situation that was out of your control. It may also be a true reflection of real pain that exists somewhere in your body.
Terror: To dream that you are in terror, forewarns of disappointments and loss. To see others in terror in your dream, signifies that the unhappiness of friends will impact you as well.
Back: To dream of your back, represents your attitudes, strengths, burdens and stance in the world. It may also relate to stress and pressure that someone is putting on you. To see a naked back in your dream, symbolizes secrets that you may have kept from others or aspects of yourself that you have kept hidden and shielded away. Consider the pun, “watch your back!”; this dream may be telling you to do just that. Traditionally, seeing a back in your dream, forewarns that you should not lend money to anyone. In particular, lending money to friends will cause a rift in your relationship. To see a person turn their back on you, signifies that you will be deeply hurt as a result of envy and jealousy.
Head: To see a head in your dream, signifies wisdom, intellect, understanding and rationality. It may also represent your accomplishments, self-image, and perception of the world.
Hair: To dream that you are cutting your hair, suggests that you are experiencing a loss in strength. You may feel that someone is trying to censor you. Alternatively, you may be reshaping your thinking or ambitions and eliminating unwanted thoughts/habits.
Faceless: To see a faceless figure or person in your dream, indicates that you are still searching for your own identity and finding out who you are. Perhaps you are unsure of how to read people and their emotions. And therefore are expressing a desire to know and understand these people in a deeper level.
Floor: To see the floor in your dream, represents your support. It may also represent the division between the unconscious and conscious. To see a polished, wooden floor in your dream, indicates that you are fully aware of your unconscious and keeping it suppressed.

12 responses so far

Mar 26 2008

How To Think Through Writer’s Block

Published by auria cortes under Fiction Writing, Guest Contributor, Writer's Block

In his book, On Writing, Stephen King says, “We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style…but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.” When something is really well-written we tend to think it was effortless for the writer, that it seems magical. We wonder, “Did that author ever have to deal with writer’s block?” Yes, he or she probably did. Pretty much every writer does. But how do you work through a block when the inside of your brain feels so foggy? These tips will show you how to clear things up.

1.) Work Consistently When I started my first novel I joined a class to help get me going. After it was over, I took a few more workshop sessions with the instructor, but when those ended all my work ground to a complete halt. Why? Because from then I was only working on the book a day or two a week, mostly on weekends. If I got stuck that meant I wouldn’t write for two or even three weeks. Then I went out and got a place to write. I committed myself to going there 3-4 times a week to work on my book. Suddenly the writing got easier! I thought it was because I was putting in more time–and that’s partly true–working consistently helps to build momentum. But that wasn’t the whole answer. Here’s the rest: I was thinking about the book all the time! Which means…

2.) Don’t Leave Your Book on the Desk When I started working consistently I found that I was still thinking about my character and plot issues when I went home at night on the subway. That thinking continued in the shower the next day and on the streets as I walked to work. Once I was flying to Cleveland to visit my family and during the flight I figured out the answer to the problem I was having with a flashboack in my novel. So write at your desk and do your figuring out everywhere else throughout your day. Ideally you are thinking about your book while you drive, while you shower, while you watch a baseball game. In fact, Stephen King has said he has worked through a chapter or two in his head while at Fenway Park watching the Boston Red Sox. When you think about your book away from the desk, it ensures you’ll have something to write when you get back to your desk.

3.) Ask Yourself Lots of Questions Okay, you might be asking, “What am I supposed to be thinking about?” Your book, of course, but I understand how difficult it is to just have generalities floating around in your head competing with all the media we’re flooded with already. To focus your thinking, ask yourself a series of questions related to the issues you’re stuck on. For instance, “What story or incident can I create to best highlight my character’s strength and/or weakness?” Possible answer: a party where most of the guests snubbed my character’s party which took place few weeks earlier. “How would my character be responsible for that situation?” Maybe she told a secret and everyone is upset with her because of it. “What behavior will my character display that will reveal her true essence to the reader?” Maybe she quietly vandalizes people’s belongings throughout the evening, ripping coats in the closet, “accidentally” breaking glasses, spilling drinks on someone’s designer dress. You can keep going that way, with each question leading you further down the path until you complete a picture in your head of what you want to write when you sit down again. No more writer’s block!

4.) Remember Why You’re Writing When you do get stuck, it helps to remember why you’re working on the project in the first place. As I mentioned before, I got stalled many times working on my first novel. But I was motivated by several things including my sincere desire to be a published author and my devotion and commitment to my characters. (Once, when going through a period of non-writing, I had a dream where the main character of my book was screaming at me–I knew it was time to get back to work!) So, why are you writing? And is the reason powerful enough to make you do what it takes to get through the difficult times of the writing process? If it’s not, perhaps you need to re-think your reasons and your project. But if your motivation is strong, go with it and allow that sheer force to help you break down the walls in your work.

Sophfronia Scott, “The Book Sistah,” is author of the bestselling novel, All I Need to Get By. If you liked today’s issue, stay tuned for more because The Book Sistah also offers FREE audio classes, FREE articles, workshops, and other resources to help aspiring authors get published and market their books successfully. http://www.TheBookSistah.com.

Click HERE for previous Writer’s Block posts
Click HERE for prevous Guest Contributor posts

2 responses so far

Mar 25 2008

At the Podium: Toni Morrison

Published by auria cortes under Quotable Quotes, Random Thoughts About My Writing, at the podium

Out of thousands of words in a novel, few paragraphs can stand on their own. It’s these paragraphs that everyone can relate to. It’s these paragraphs that take an old story and give it new life. It’s these paragraphs that separate authors from writers.

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye: “Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved. The lover alone possesses his gift of love. The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.”

Toni Morrison is a true artist. It’s her novels that inspire me to write. It’s her novels that weaken my knees. It’s her novels that stop me in my tracks for fear that I will fail miserably.

Where I would simply write: The Catholic Irishman didn’t notice the little black girl.

Toni Morrison writes in The Bluest Eye: He does not see her. Because for him there is nothing to see. How can a 52 year old white immigrant storekeeper with the taste of potatoes and beer in his mouth, his mind honed on the dough-eyed Virgin Mary, his sensibilities blunted by a permanent awareness of loss, see a little black girl?

Take a listen:

Click HERE for previous At the Podium posts

2 responses so far

Mar 24 2008

Poems on Racism

Published by auria cortes under Poetry

In light of Barack Obama’s speech on Racism, I thought it appropriate to point out a post on The Huffington Post entitled, Poems about Racism.

Here’s a sample of the post:

Harlem Renaissance poet Claude MckKay’s The White House lays out more of the difficulties faced by African-Americans and speaks to the resentment that might build in a community. There is dignity and power in the poem’s rigid form.

Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate.

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Mija is a literary work and I’ve been reading poetry so that I can develop my skills writing prose. As a teenager I wrote a few poems. Not my best work. That’s for sure. But I wrote the poems at the suggestion of my eighth grade English teacher. Not since then have I studied the art of writing poetry. I’m hoping that reacquainting myself with poetry will help with specific scenes that appear in Mija.

Click HERE for previous poem posts

3 responses so far

Mar 24 2008

Random Thought: Hobbies and Passions

Published by auria cortes under Character Development, Random Thoughts About My Writing, Writing Lyrics

Many people ask me how I have time for so many hobbies. Well, let me say that I don’t consider writing a hobby, but the painting and music I do.

Whenever I write lyrics or a melody, I do so with a character in mind. Some of the lyrics will make it into the final book and others are not intended to ever make the cut. Rather, the lyrics or melody act as character development exercise. It’s information that the reader doesn’t need to know to understand the story, but information I need to write the story.

Until last week, I didn’t incorporate my painting into my writing. But my recent At the Podium post with JK Rowling changed all that. In the video embedded in the JK Rowling post, we see that she drew sketches of The Harry Potter characters. This gave me the incentive to create paintings of the characters or settings in my book.

What you see in the above picture is the beginning stages of a painting for a guitar that makes its presence throughout my book. It’s not close to ready, but I decided to showcase the piece because the final product will have lyrics that will appear in the book. As a result, I won’t post the finished painting until the book finds a home with a publisher. But I thought it would be neat to show everyone how I incorporate my hobbies and my passion.

Writing in many ways is similar to painting. The first draft of a novel has many kinks. And the beginning stages of a painting always looks like a kindergartener’s work. Each activity needs to be nurtured. Patience is key. I’m learning that lesson slowly.

Click HERE for previous Random Thought posts

3 responses so far

Mar 23 2008