Beautifully haunting...

Edgar Allan Poe ~ widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole

Birdy and Rhodes ~ Let it all go...

Birdy - Shelter [Official Music Video]

Investigating the yin and yang of a heart.

I like to write emotional conflict. I really feel comfortable writing scenes that capture the rawness of love in full glory or the kind that can only be found in the depths of despair. Investigating the yin and yang of a heart. There's something about the truth found in heartbreak or a newly discovered love that captivates parts of my soul, inspiring creativity, and I use these elements in my writing. Music helps me to delve into these places, such as Birdy, Gabrielle Aplin, Mree, James Bay, etc, all capture the essence of reflective haunting but in a beautiful way. Melancholy is a layered veil, and once each layer parts, pieces of the self, are uncovered. 

Riding the ripples of karma

Catharsis is the release of tension and anxiety that results from bringing repressed feelings and memories into consciousness. My main characters are cruelly tortured by karma (Vororbla), a mystical power beyond their reach. They experience a lot of emotional turmoil, but to release the past they need to understand their inner self/emotions. 'What do they really want?' Their story is a journey of learning, understanding that actions can and do affect others far beyond immediate time. That we are all connected and not as distant as we think. Actions create invisible ripples that spread through time, there is no running away from Vororbla.  Bea, Karian, and Chance, all need to find their inner strength and answers to questions of the heart, which lay hidden between the layers of the self, lost in the past and present. Only then will their future be decided. 

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Bestseller ~ A Carpet of Purple Flowers - May 2016 ~Quick Update - I'm happy. :o)

Bestseller List

http://www.enbook.cz/mccartney-tracy-anne-carpet-of-purple-flowers.html

Czech Republic

Romantic Dreamers...

1. a person with romantic beliefs or attitudes.

"I am an incurable romantic"

synonyms: idealist, sentimentalist, romanticist

2. a writer or artist of the Romantic movement.

"Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the later Romantics"

Art by Deonta Wheeler

A hopeless romantic ~ http://www.urbandictionary.com

A person in love with love. Believers in fairy tales and love. All hopeless romantics are idealists, the sentimental dreamers, the imaginative and the fanciful. 

They often live with rose coloured glasses on. 

They make love look like an art form. 

What does it mean to be a romantic? 

By Freya Watson

They are the visionaries and the dreamers. They see possibilities that others don’t and they believe in them wholeheartedly. They live with their hearts firmly pinned to their sleeves and caring more for love than for practicality.

They wish that the world felt the same.

As long as the world delivers according to their expectations, they greet each morning with open arms and a smile that comes straight from the heart. When it doesn’t, it hits them particularly hard and can send them spinning into a depression from which they don’t always recover.

We’re all different combinations of spirit and matter. Each of us has a particular way of expressing ourselves in the world, a certain emotional make-up, a characteristic way of thinking.

Are you a Dreamer? by Cebulon ~ DeviantArt

Romantics are more naturally attuned to the world of spirit than matter, although they may not know it. They more easily perceive the deeper realities of life, the innate worthiness of others. They have no difficulty in believing in ‘happy ever after’ because, at some level, they are anchored to a place where all is well—the realm of the soul.

What they struggle with, though, is the more mundane. 

If some of us are more naturally attuned to spirit, there are many who are more anchored to the material aspects of the world. 

 

Life has a funny way of trying to balance things out, though. Those more comfortable being focused in the material world often find themselves prompted to discover their spiritual aspects as years go by. 

And us poor old romantics are often thrown a few curve balls to help us develop our more material sides.

To put it another way, the world eventually challenges romantics to find ways of grounding their dreams in the same way that it challenges ‘realists’ to broaden their perspective beyond the material.

Via Nadine Keller (Google)

From a young age, many romantics are discouraged from actively dreaming—either being told off for living in their imaginations or encouraged to participate in more mainstream views of how things are instead.

But unlike those of a more practical disposition who tend to focus their energy externally, the energy of many young romantics is initially directed internally before it can be given external expression.

Dreaming is vital to their natural way of being and to their happiness, and without being allowed permission to explore their inner landscapes they start to lose their way and themselves, cut off from their source.

Most of us are ill-equipped to become something other than who we really are. Romantics are natural dreamers and encouraging them to be anything other than that will end up in unhappiness not only for themselves but also for those close to them.

Not only is dreaming essential for romantics, it is also important for society in general. It is a dreamer who can see possibilities which others can’t see—whether that is a relationship’s highest potential or the opportunities for peace in a war-torn country.

It is part of nature’s balance to have people who are more tuned into possibilities than actualities, as well as the other way round.

Banksy

Are you a romantic?

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Writing Style...

A kind reviewer, via Goodreads, mentioned that she liked my 'writing style' and this prompted me to blog a post concerning 'The Voice' of an author. Further down, I've provided links to websites with more information. Enjoy. :o) 

A writer's style is what sets his or her writing apart and makes it unique. Style is the way writing is dressed up (or down) to fit the specific context, purpose, or audience. Word choice, sentence fluency, and the writer's voice — all contribute to the style of a piece of writing.
In fiction writing, the style must represent the author's personal expression of these events that comprise the plot; setting the mood, and leading the reader to a subjective, non-literal, emotional understanding of the subject.

How a writer chooses words and structures sentences to achieve a certain effect is also an element of style. When Thomas Paine wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls,” he arranged his words to convey a sense of urgency and desperation. Had he written “These are bad times,” it’s likely he wouldn’t have made such an impact!
Style is usually considered to be the province of literary writers. Novelists such as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner and poets such as Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are well known for their distinctive literary styles.

Elements of style

Many elements of writing contribute to an author’s style, but three of the most important are word choice, sentence fluency, and voice.
WORD CHOICE
Good writers are concise and precise, weeding out unnecessary words and choosing the exact word to convey meaning. Precise words — active verbs, concrete nouns, specific adjectives — help the reader visualize the sentence. Good writers use adjectives sparingly and adverbs rarely, letting their nouns and verbs do the work.
Good writers also choose words that contribute to the flow of a sentence. Polysyllabic words, alliteration, and consonance can be used to create sentences that roll off the tongue. Onomatopoeia and short, staccato words can be used to break up the rhythm of a sentence.
SENTENCE FLUENCY
Sentence fluency is the flow and rhythm of phrases and sentences. Good writers use a variety of sentences with different lengths and rhythms to achieve different effects. They use parallel structures within sentences and paragraphs to reflect parallel ideas, but also know how to avoid monotony by varying their sentence structures.
Good writers also arrange their ideas within a sentence for greatest effect. They avoid loose sentences, deleting extraneous words and rearranging their ideas for effect. Many students initially write with a looser oral style, adding words on to the end of a sentence in the order they come to mind. This rambling style is often described as a “word dump” where everything in a student’s mind is dumped onto the paper in no particular order. There is nothing wrong with a word dump as a starting point: the advantage of writing over speaking is that writers can return to their words, rethink them, and revise them for effect. Tighter, more readable style results when writers choose their words carefully, delete redundancies, make vague words more specific, and use subordinate clauses and phrases to rearrange their ideas for the greatest effect.
VOICE
Because voice is difficult to measure reliably, it is often left out of scoring formulas for writing tests. Yet voice is an essential element of style that reveals the writer’s personality. A writer’s voice can be impersonal or chatty, authoritative or reflective, objective or passionate, serious or funny.

Source  HERE

Tone vs. Voice

Anything you write should still have your voice: something that makes your writing sound uniquely like you. A personal conversation with a friend differs from a speech given to a large group of strangers. Just as you speak to different people in different ways yet remain yourself, so the tone of your writing can vary with the situation while the voice -- the essential, individual thoughts and expression -- is still your own.

Links:
1. A Simple Exercise to Find Your Writing Style ~ HERE
2. What’s Your Creative Writing Style? Tips for Developing Your Voice ~ HERE
It can take years for a writer to develop a stylistic voice. Some writers have a natural voice. Others work at crafting a unique voice with a particular tone or attitude. And plenty of writers don’t think about voice at all. But voice is a key element of writing since it represents you as a writer and can help readers connect with your work. For example, some readers will be turned off by a sarcastic tone whereas others may be drawn to it.

Creative Writing ~ HERE

I don't think about 'voice' when writing, but I am aware of tone. In general, I feel reality, day-to-day tasks require a different form (tone) of self and I usually need to get into that 'writing-mode' before I put any words down. If I didn't do this the 'tone' would be different. Does that make sense?
I block out the world and create a mental sphere (bubble) where I draw in and keep a flow of inspiration/creativity around me. Initially, I do this with images and music (headphones on). Depending on the day, it can take minutes or hours to find that balance, but once found the word count moves up. Yay! :o)

What works for you?

Are you aware of 'Voice' or 'Tone'?

 In My Bubble by Love-and-Blades

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo