Author: Christine

Christine http://www.mombie.com I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Co-Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Ready for summer…

I’m just waiting on the damn weather to get the hint.

It’s 5 degrees and raining today.

I’m not a fan.

A photo of a patio, a chair, and two tables on a rainy day
Image description: a photo of the corner of my patio. There is a lawn chair with a red cushion, a small round red table and a white table that is hanging off the patio railing. The grass in the background is bright green, but the tree directly behind the chair has only very small leaves on it yet. It is a rainy day.

Writing for an audience?

I don’t think anyone is reading this blog unless they happen upon it. I’m sure it’s not particularly interesting most of the time.

And I’m not sure I want to make it more interesting.

Obviously, I wouldn’t want to bore a reader on purpose but seeing as I am writing here for my own sake, as a placeholder, as a daily ritual, the reader is not the main focus of this particular type of writing.

If I were to think about potential readers, I would probably post far less frequently because ai would get too tangled up in what to say on any given day.

Instead, I am thinking more of some writing advice I read a long time ago – ‘What do you need them to know?’

I’m concerned with saying what I mean to say as clearly as I can instead of concerning myself with whether the reader likes what I am saying.

I mean, I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read anything I have written but I think it’s important for me, and for any readers, to know the whys and hows of this blog.

I’m writing to keep my gears turning, for the comfort of ritual, to make sure that my brain knows the way to the page.

On some days, the way to the page is clear and I have something specific to say.

On others, I am stumbling forward and I have to find something to say.

The posts here are about the process of thinking and posting much more than about trying to be any good.

I’ll worry about that in other contexts.

Thumbnail Drawings

I took a fantastic workshop today about writing and illustrating micro fiction and I got a lot of things out of it (more on that in a future post.)

One of the key things I learned was that I was conflating the idea of sketches and thumbnails.

Thumbnail drawings are a series of tiny drawings that have little to no detail, just an idea of objects and composition.

Sketches are a draft version of your final drawing that expand on one of your thumbnails.

This may be old news to everyone else but, all along, I was thinking of a sketch as the brainstorming stage, as the earliest visual.

The fact that there is a even more preliminary stage of drawing is marvellously helpful to me.

Here are a few of my thumbnail drawings from today:

A series of small drawings of scenes inspired by the ‘Mother Hubbard’ nursery rhyme.
Image description: thumbnail drawings of the ‘Mother Hubbard’ nursery rhyme. 6 small squares on white paper that depict an empty cupboard, a woman and a dog looking into an empty cupboard, a sad dog holding a bowl, a woman holding a dog in her lap,,a faint drawing of a woman saying ‘oh no’ while a dog lies at her feet and a dog on its hind legs carrying a hobo bundle on a stick.

Belated Monsters

I forgot to post these when I drew them but they have been doing their work the whole time.

Image description: a group of small round monsters that look a bit like a cluster of grapes in a variety of colours and different faces. Each monster has a series of gold spikes encircling their head. Text next to the monsters reads “ this group of tiny monsters sticks together until someone tries to take over their space. If that happens they spread out in a circle so they have all the room they need. They told me to tell you that they’ll do the same around you anytime you need them.
Image description: a group of small round monsters that look a bit like a cluster of grapes in a variety of colours and different faces. Each monster has a series of gold spikes encircling their head. Text next to the monsters reads “ this group of tiny monsters sticks together until someone tries to take over their space. If that happens they spread out in a circle so they have all the room they need. They told me to tell you that they’ll do the same around you anytime you need them.”

I like ‘em anyway

I know that dandelions are technically weeds but who decided what got to be called a flower and what would be designated a weed?

Dandelions look like flowers to me.

Khalee, ?my medium sized light haired dog, is sniffing in some grass that is liberally covered in bright yellow dandelions.
Image description: Khalee, my medium sized light haired dog, is sniffing in some grass that is liberally covered in bright yellow dandelions.