Thought Wheel

Ann Chiappetta

2024 Creativity Check-In ✅

| Filed under assistive technology blogging nonfiction novel writing pets and people Poem reviews writing

The 2024 Creativity Check-In

 

“Rejected pieces aren’t failures; unwritten pieces are.”

—    Greg Daugherty.

 

It felt like a year of rejections. I’d increased submitting my work in 2023, mostly poems. The ‘R’ dominated the accepted/rejected submissions column on my spreadsheet.

 

It was a pivotal point in my writing life.  I admit I pouted, my husband remarked I sounded cranky. I asked a few of my trusted friends what they thought of my poems. In general, they said my poems were understandable, made them feel something and the imagery and metaphor wasn’t confusing or trite. A good response. But I wanted my poems to be better.  I wanted to learn how to craft poetry with memorable themes, with a message, once read, would not be easy to forget. Based on the number of rejections from editors I was not reaching those goals, at least not yet. I did not want my work to be “nice”, I wanted my work to be “Wow”.

 

I was recovering  from a string of serious grief provoking circumstances. The loss of my job in 2019 and the  death of my first guide dog in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.  Add the emotional toll my husband and I bore resulting from  the death of my second guide dog in early 2023 and being estranged from our first-born child for the last five years. It is understandable I sought  an avenue of expression which also proved cathartic but did not achieve  the accolades I craved.

 

The spark of creativity fueled by the last four years of my personal journey was rich in potential themes. How to plumb those depths became my focus.  I trolled the interwebs, found poets and writers who felt equally as stuck. It wasn’t writer’s block, it felt like I’d taken a wrong turn and couldn’t exit the traffic circle.

 

Thankfully asking others what they might do if faced with a similar creative conundrum, through personal conversations and the interwebs, I formed a plan.

 

Theoretically I could  submit to as many publishing calls as I fancied but I first had to write the quality poems  editors and journals sought. The next thing was to find poetry writing workshops and focused critique groups  with good mentorship and instruction. A few weren’t the right fit. One  instructor, however, offered a structured critique group and it checked all my boxes.   The groups did not exceed six poets, it was conducted over Zoom, including written commentary and suggestions for each poem submitted and  the sessions were recorded.

 

During the first session of a series of workshops in 2023 I shared I felt lost creatively and I wanted to unplug the emotions using poetry. The kind and caring attitude of not only the facilitator, john, but also the other poets, lent me the confidence to focus on  capturing the emotions and crafting the imagery and metaphoric language. Being open to constructive and kind feedback from the other poets and providing my own feedback to their poems encouraged me to become more confident and adjust my assumptions regarding the messages poets mean to convey in their quest of expression within their work. What became clear to me was I could address my grief   and the losses I bore using poetic devices I’d previously did not feel practiced enough to employ. Releasing  emotions, experimenting with and validating and recording them on a document healed me from within.

 

By the end of  2023 I’d completed a few workshops and my writing friends commented positively regarding the shift in style and power of the messages expressed in my work. A second opportunity developed for a second more intimate critique group. Two other poets and I began meeting weekly for a generative fellowship. I loved reading their work. Thanks to their mentorship,  I practiced how to offer kind and concise constructive feedback.  A spark of hopefulness morphed into energetic motivation. I began crafting , improving and sculpting poems evident by the feedback received by both my critique group and those outside it. I was finally getting somewhere.

 

It’s the end of 2024 and I am happy to share the acceptance rate of my poetry submissions is much improved. The quality of my poems has also improved and my friends and colleagues have noticed. The best part of my development is I feel more in control of my creative effort and it is conveyed in my work with a confidence and flair I willingly share with both poets and those who love reading and benefitting from reading poetry. I discovered other people cared about me and my creative efforts.

 

John Sibley Williams: John Sibley Williams

Behind Our Eyes Writers with Disabilities: www.behindoureyes.org

 

Find me on bluesky:  @anniecauthor.bsky.social — Bluesky

 

 

 

 

Missing Mouse 🖱️

| Filed under assistive technology blindness

Living the life and being a blind assistive technology user means  interacting with my pc from a `keyboard. I ditched the mouse when I began navigating a computer with JAWS software. We refer to the various text-to-speech software programs for blind and low vision as screen readers, not to be confused with a live person reading aloud.  These programs accomplish much more  like assisting me in writing, formatting and interacting with the internet when posting blog content, holding interviews and attending virtual meetings, or checking my Facebook account.

 

The mouse, and to an extent, a touch screen for a laptop or desktop computer isn’t useful because I can’t see . For example, the mouse for my system is tucked on the little shelf beside my laptop.  Unless Jerry needs to assist me with something on my pc, it stays there gathering proverbial dust. One day I was cleaning the real dust and cat hair from the desk and the mouse tipped over and slid down the back of the desk, wedging itself under the floor mat behind the desk. I didn’t notice. The following week I noticed odd things happening on my pc like the windows jumping around and arbitrarily closing.  Then our pet dog, May  started sleeping under the desk where it’s cooler and I finally realized her napping was somehow responsible for my pc acting weird.   I confirmed the mouse wasn’t in the usual place next to my laptop. I slipped off my shoe and located the  mouse, easing it out with a toe.

 

Now I have the mouse back and in a safe place. May can go back to laying on the remote on the bed and changing the channels instead of  laying on the missing mouse and messing up my documents.

 

 

 

The Word River

| Filed under assistive technology blindness writing

 

Being an author, I am often asked about the writing process. Where do I write? What is the time of day I am the most creative? What equipment or software do I use? How do I get my ideas? The answers are straightforward. I write in my office and prefer the daytime from mid-morning to early evening. I type all my work on a pc with Windows and assistive technology   software for the blind. I edit my work with this technology, listening to   documents with text-to-speech access.    Ideas come to me via observation, examination and experience. They  form through dreams, news, conversations I hear, observing the sensory  information and what surrounds me. Curiosity  leads me through it all.

 

Once an idea reveals itself, I make a mental note to   track it. . If it persists, if I fall asleep mulling it over and it is there the next morning, I know it is a subject or idea I must  relax into for it to develop.  When I say develop I mean a piece of something  destined for words taking hold and growing. Setting an idea free means being conscious of it while it travels through  my gray matter, collecting relevance and resonance  until we meet again.

 

The most difficult question regarding the writing life is describing the creativity involved in the writing process. There isn’t a short answer, it’s more like paddling a canoe along the sluggish tidal pools and terrifying rapids of a miles-long river .  An idea is the starting point. What if the dream  I woke up remembering  could be written into a short story? What if the influx and pattern of birds and their hierarchy at the feeders could be described in a poem? What if the  blog articles I’ve already written on a particular topic could  be organized into a handbook of some kind?

 

Once I know the idea is forming, I write a brief note to myself and  step back, absorb my effort into another writing project. This is essential for the idea to continue developing.

 

For example, I got an idea for an urban fantasy short story about garden gnomes  playing a major role in helping rescue prisoners of human trafficking in China with dimensional magic. I sketched out the timeline, location, characters, and other details. I researched elements in the story following a rough outline. I am a hybrid of a planner and a Pantzer, creating enough of a timeline of scenes and the story arc to follow but loose enough for it to  flex as the story expands.

 

Next is the typing, word play, placement of scenes,  theme of the story, plot, and deleting, replacing and revising.

 

When the story stalls, because inevitably it will stall as part of the evolution of the story, I go onto another project. I do not believe in writer’s block. I believe the story will write itself as long as I have faith it will do so. If the story is meant to be written and I am purposeful about writing it, it will get done.

 

Sometimes the ideas lay dormant for years, others seem to call to me in a more creative urgency. Some stories , after a few hundred pages sit in my manuscript folder on Drop Box because I wrote myself into a corner.  I think about them all the time, consider pulling one up and begin the revision process.  I am not the only author to lament unfinished work laying in the manuscript closet.    Maybe a few will eventually be revived and become something for the masses, but I do not question. This is how my first two novels were completed. When the piece beckons, I’ll take up my creative paddles,  push off into the word river and ride the current, trusting the words will come.

 

 

 

 

Zoom and Zap 🚀

| Filed under assistive technology Relationships

One of the volunteer hats I wear is being a Zoom host and account administrator. I manage the account settings, schedule meetings and  download and distribute the recordings for small nonprofits.  It is a geeky-techie thing and I like it. It allows me to be involved with others and  I feel  like I am giving back to the community.

 

The opportunity to train as a Zoom administrator was a direct result of the pandemic. I couldn’t visit  libraries, schools and civic organizations to present  topics or share in poetry readings. Back then, I felt I needed to learn Zoom if I did not want to fade away from the public eye. I needed to learn Zoom for the organizations I  represented and for the people  I liked and loved to survive while in the clutches of pandemic isolation.

 

The internet saved me from obscurity. I attended Zoom training sessions, presentations and meetings and improved my video and audio presentation skills.  I spent hours recording, deleting and reciting my work and reading biographies. I trolled YouTube for Zoom  tips and memorized short cuts. I increased my knowledge base regarding my assistive technology. I helped other people to improve their skills.

 

It is 2023 and thanks to being a good self-starter and being self-reliant , I am a Zoom administrator for small business and personal accounts. I reached  past my comfort zone and met my goals. I did not overreach and  this is essential to be successful.

 

Here is a poem I wrote about video conferencing platforms.

Zoom and Zap

By Ann Chiappetta

 

Prior to the pandemic

I got zapped with the Zoom app.

Now I zig and zag, click and tap

Interact on the Z

Meetings and webinars

Zoom zooming zoom

Unstable connections

Am I unmuted?

Get the got it button

Waiting for host

Virtual  connections

continue  after the pandemic ends.

☄️