Voices of the Ribbons©.

  Opinion? What Opinion? Photo by Lucas Newton on Unsplash Why My Opinion Really Doesn't Matter. I t seems to be that everybody, and I mean everybody  these days has an opinion to share, on everything  and everywhere . Whether it be publicly, in your face, or on FaceBook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube. . . literally everywhere . For the last several years , let alone months, the Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp legal drama has been dissected, analyzed, rehashed, and relitigated. People have loud vocal opinions about public figures, politics, religion, climate change, the economy, culture, the MeToo movement, the LGBTQ movement, racism, and everything small and large in-between. You can't take a breath without someone having an opinion about it, often completely unsolicited and completely unnecessarily. Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Change doesn't occur without discussion Society is, by its very nature, fluid and dynamic. The opinions of others help us consolid...

 W-Two Worlds Apart Image from Netflix How one K-drama validated my entire perspective as a writer. I t is easy to think, as a writer, that we are somehow Gods, holding the Universe of our imagined worlds in our creative hands. This is a dangerous belief for we are not gods, but care-takers.  I once heard an author-tuber say something I have never forgotten and, equally, have never forgiven. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for this particular author-tuber, though I freely admit I have no specific desire to read her work. I mean her no disrespect and she's certainly free to have her own opinion. That doesn't mean I can't vehemently disagree with what she said. The offending comment?   They're only characters, people! They're not real and they do what YOU tell them to so get over yourselves. Heresy! I don't know about other authors but, to me, my characters are not simply cardboard cutouts on a storyboard. They're rea...

 The Problem with DID Dealing with Multiple Opinions in the Same Mind For those not automatically in the know, DID is the acronym for Dissociative Identity Disorder and, since this isn't a treatise on the condition, if you wish more specific insight, please feel free to look it up.  In its simplest nutshell, DID refers to having multiple identities residing within one mind, and, most often, those identities are independent of one another and rarely communicate between themselves. This can lead to complications. Many  complications, not least of which occur when they have differing and oftentimes completely opposing opinions on things.  I  have DID and, to date, somewhere around seven separate personas reside in my mind. I liken it to having a boardroom meeting taking place between my ears. A boardroom meeting before it's been called to order, when everybody is talking at once without any specific agenda. It can get very noisy and very confusing. The reason I was...

The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Just kidding. E very man, his wife, and his dog who's ever aspired to be a writer seems to have their two pennies' worth to say on the subject of writing. Some of it is great, and I've learned far more than I ever thought I needed to. Some of it is mediocre at best and I can only think the writers themselves could do with a little more research, study, and practice. And some of it should never have been committed to the page, let alone inflicted upon an unsuspecting world. Yes, this is a little rant. Blame it on the weather (cold), frustration (things aren't currently going quite according to plan), or even on one of the alters (always entirely possible). You don't have to read it or comment on it, or do. It's up to you. I'm simply venting that there are times when I'm drawn in by a title that gives the impression I might learn something of genuine value and, by the time I've reached the conclusion of whatever I...

 The Little Eden Diaries (OR Chronicles of an Author come Accidental Guinea Pig Farmer) Making writing a daily habit. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step  and it doesn't matter what that journey actually represents, whether it be a literal trip to someplace or learning a new skill or doing the day's chores or, given I'm a writer (when I can get my sh*t together), writing a novel or a blog or even a post on SM. The only damn way stuff is gunna get done, is to get on and get it done! If necessary: One. Step. At. A. Time. Or one word at a time. Because one word today and tomorrow and the next day is already three words that weren't there yesterday and one word generally leads to another word and another and another until you have a sentence, a paragraph,, a page, a chapter, and A NOVEL! Fancy that. 🙄 I'm a procrastinator, a super-specific procrastinator because, oddly enough, I procrastinate most often about the one thing I actually enjoy the most...

 Writing as Therapy "I shall eviscerate you in fiction" Chaucer; A Knight's Tale One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies (because Paul Bettany's 'Chaucer' was legendary) and today, today when I finally feel I have my life back, this quote resonates even more powerfully. I'm ready to take control again. I'm ready to begin laying the past to rest, to stop permitting myself to walk naked,  and stop giving in to the needs of others before my own. " You need to be selfish in order to be selfless,"  somebody recently said to me, and this is true. "A man who can't swim can't save a drowning man."    And sometimes, it takes more courage to say no  than to say yes . Meanwhile, what does this have to do with writing and, more specifically, Chaucer's quote? Fair question. I've always been a believer in ' discretion being the better part of valor' . Instead of fighting or being reduced to pointless count...

 What to say if not 'Said'? Has the verb 'said' become obsolete? Recently, someone (on Twitter?) raised the question: "Does anybody else hate the word 'said' as much as I do?" which I took to imply that this particular person has a personal dislike of the verb in question. I asked for enlightenment, genuinely curious as to why this might be the case, but have yet to receive a  response. It did, however, raise a valid question. Is the word 'said' genuinely unnecessary or obsolete? There is a great deal of writing advice in circulation advising against over-use of this word in dialogue. But I argue that 'said', in the same way as any other word, has its place if used in the right way and in the right places. It's all about context. To my way of thinking, 'said' is a neutral speech tag. It merely defines 'who' spoke without assigning emphasis to the manner in which the content was spoken.  As an example, take the dialog...

 World-Building Or How not to assume your readers are fools. There is world-building, and then there is WORLD-BUILDING, and the two aren't necessarily the same. There is so much information, so many articles and so much advice from so many sources on the Do's and Don't's of writing. As a relative newcomer to the world of publishing, having only recently had my third novel published, I find myself constantly researching ways to do things better, seeking honest advice and critique of my work, and analyzing feedback. One of the subjects which interest me most is that of world-building. In the course of my research, (and I wish I could recall where I read or heard this), somebody made the very astute observation that we 'should not assume our readers are fools'. It took me a while to figure out exactly what this meant or how to apply this critical piece of advice. In the end, this is what I, personally, took away from it. We don't have to fill in every single bl...

 I Am The Abyss By Soldier/ The Black "Be careful when you stare into the abyss because, eventually, the abyss stares back." "I AM the abyss."          The Devil Judge TvN K-drama 2021 Push someone long enough and hard enough and one of two things will happen: they break, or they push back. Take them to the edge of the abyss and either the abyss claims them or they claim the abyss. To claim the abyss is to become the abyss. I'm not here to spout a tirade of pointless self-pitying nonsense. Fuck that. I don't do self-pity. Shit, I know there are  people who've had it far worse . I know that, on the whole, day-by-day, I've got it good in comparison to most of the rest of the world. Every day, someplace, somehow, people suffer. Shit happens. Everywhere.       But choosing not to acknowledge the bad stuff doesn't mean I have to accept it if I have the power to reject it.       And I'm rejecting it. I've always been a...

 Just Be You But. . . Who Am I? (By Tai?) There is so much advice circulating everywhere, in all forms of media and from all kinds of sources, to simply be yourself . What does this even mean? Don't have an answer to complex problems facing you in your everyday life? Just be yourself. Don't know how to respond to an ethical dilemma? Just be yourself.  As a writer, don't know what to write or how to convey your voice to your audience? Again,  just be yourself.     That's a fabulously easy piece of advice to give. Three easy words and one easy catchphrase: Just be yourself . But, what does this mean if you have no idea who yourself  even is? I've been struggling with this very dilemma for more years than I care to count. Whose voice do I consider my own? Who of all my inner voices speaks for me on any given day or under any given circumstance? Am I speaking from my own beliefs, on behalf of others who lack a voice of their own, or under a misguided pressure t...

PR15M: The Price of Freedom By Ice It should have been a relief, the burden of ten years, at last, lifted from my shoulders. It was, instead, a nightmare.  My days were filled with relentless questions alongside the equally relentless probing and examination by the medical staff. Despite the tight security, cameras frequently flashed from unexpected corners and doorways and nothing, nowhere, seemed safe.  Instead of the freedom I'd prayed and fought for, I'd somehow returned to the captivity I'd left behind and I had no idea how to voice my anxiety or my fears, and Taehyun's absence became an ever greater chasm in my heart. If it wasn't enough that my days offered no relief, my nights were little better, a muddled confusion drifting between dream and reality, nightmare and peace. It was in the night that Taehyun would return to me, holding me close, his body pressed reassuringly to mine; his scent, his touch, his warmth, his whisper in my ear.  And then I would wake...

 A Day in the Life... Phase One: The Dawn Chorus By Writer Seriously, the West Coast (as in, the wet n wild  West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand) isn't much fun in the winter if you don't handle cold and gloomy very well. I  do not handle cold and gloomy very well AT ALL, ergo, I do not handle the West Coast in the winter very well.       Don't get me wrong, it's nice on those rare days where there's a crisp frost (anywhere down to -15C in winters past) followed by pale blue skies and spectacular views to snow-capped mountains. But when it rains miserably for weeks at a time, or when the fog is so thick you can barely see your hand in front of your face, or the mist lies inside the house equally to the outdoors... winter loses its appeal pretty damn fast.      Add to that; damp and muddy dogs, sad guineapigs in houses we struggle to find windows of opportunity to clean, mud-encrusted ponies waiting for hay, soggy cats, and weep...

  Five Months Later By The Author This was never meant to happen, this absence, this break. Then again, many things aren't meant to happen and that doesn't stop them from happening anyway.  Still, all things for a reason and the last few months have been vital for both a re-set and a re-invention. We can move on now, to bigger, better, bolder things. First of all, the next novel is in its final stages of preparation for release (to be confirmed for sometime in August) and meanwhile, we're working hard on the one to follow that. We're expanding our horizons, testing our limits, each project more challenging than the one before. We live to learn and, for us, the end goal is to do justice to the stories we're given to tell. And, yes, it's we  now. The Muse will be sharing this forum with me, along with all other platforms, to permit me (as in The Author ) to do more of what I   do best while not leaving you, what few of you there currently are, left unattended. You...

 PR15M: Guilt By Ink Those first days after Ice’s return were overwhelming and, if for me, then how much more so for Ice. I could feel it radiating from him in waves that pulsed in my temples and throbbed in my chest and yet there was precious little I could do except be there for him in the quieter hours of the night after the doctors and the visitors finally left him to some measure of peace. It wasn’t surprising. Hae-jin and the Black Dragon security team managed to keep a great deal of the media at bay, but news of his return slipped out despite their best efforts. Journalists camped at the hospital doors and did their best to make it to the private room the company had transferred Ice to and so security around him was tight. Then, naturally, there was his actual physical condition to take into consideration, which wasn’t great, and the questions. So many questions. His physical and emotional condition led to many of those questions. It wasn’t only about where he’d bee...

 When I was a Child By Guest Contributor: SueC " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Corinthians 13:11 I remember learning this in Sunday school, gosh, how long ago was that? Sometimes, it feels like a lifetime ago and sometimes it feels like just last week. Our Sunday school teacher, Mrs. MacEachern, whose voice always sounded like she was singing an octave higher than God intended, would tell us, 'Don't worry about what it means, you've got the rest of your lives to figure that out. For now, you must commit it to memory." I remember thinking, "Well, that's dumb!" Now, here I sit, the events of this morning swirling in my head. The day started out like any other. I woke at the usual time (7am), ate the usual breakfast, (Cheerios with milk and half a banana), watched my usual program (Captain Kangaroo) while absentmindedly searching for treas...