by Chris on October 4, 2011
I’ve always been more comfortable writing nonfiction than fiction. I think that the issue is fear of having people criticize work that I’ve made up. The only attempts I’ve made at nonfiction are poetry (as an angsty teenager) and playwriting. I loved writing plays, and since it was during college, other students acted out my scenes. It’s great fun to watch people act out something you’ve written. Sadly, despite being very cool, it didn’t seem like something that could sustain me financially. Writing original stories, or a fictional book, seemed crazy. What if people hated it? Could I handle that rejection?
I create stories in my head constantly. Why not put them down on paper? I’m finally working on writing fiction, and it’s more fun that I’d expected. It’s a pleasant change from the academic writing I work on several days per week, and I can already see progress. Part of the process for me is working on improving my craft and reading about writing. For months I’ve struggled with forcing myself to write blog entries, and apparently what I needed to do in order to gain motivation was get outside of my comfort zone.
I’ll be honest; I’m not working on a great masterpiece. In fact, I’ve started out by writing Harry Potter fan fiction, which I can’t make money on and will go nowhere other than possibly making people who love fan fiction happy. However, I can post it on fan fiction websites and get feedback, which I love. It’s fun to have instant gratification from people about my story. It’s different than a professor’s comments about a paper I write for school. It’s nice to hear when I’ve done a good job on a paper, because the papers are usually technical and take a great deal of research. But I’ve been writing academic papers for so long it’s hardly a challenge anymore.
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by Chris on September 11, 2011
As I think about 9/11, I remember where I was that morning – with Jason on a United flight bound for San Francisco. Here’s an excerpt from Magical Shrinking about our experience:
On September 11, 2001, we have an early flight out of Baltimore, and I’m tired. I nap on the plane, and a couple hours into our flight I wake up to the captain talking about terrorist activity. He says he’s landing the plane in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I’m groggy and it doesn’t make any sense. I look out the window and we’re close to landing. I can’t imagine what could have happened in America that would cause our flight to land. There’s a buzz on the plane, and the minute we land people are on their cell phones trying to find out what happened.
Once deplaned, we aren’t sure what to do. We doubt it’ll be very long before we’re allowed to get back on the plane. I walk toward the front of the terminal to go outside for a cigarette and pass a television with an image of a World Trade Center tower collapsing. I stand there for a moment in disbelief. Surely I didn’t see that correctly. I call my grandmother. She tells me the events of the morning. The World Trade towers have collapsed, a plane has hit the Pentagon, something about another plane. I’m too overwhelmed with information.
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by Chris on September 10, 2011
Please assist me in my dissertation work by taking this short survey! It is completely confidential so please feel free to answer honestly. If you have any questions, please email me at chris(at)christianewells.com.
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Thank you for your time!
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by Chris on August 14, 2011
Please assist me in my dissertation work by taking this short survey! It is completely confidential so please feel free to answer honestly. If you have any questions, please email me at chris(at)christianewells.com.
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Thank you for your time!
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by Chris on July 20, 2011
Inertia is the concept that a body at rest stays at rest, and although I was never great at physics, this particular theory has always made sense. Recently when I told Jason that I was shocked at how much I’ve changed over the past several months, in mind and body, he suggested it was life inertia. Basically, that I have momentum in a positive direction and as I continue on that path, the momentum picks up. A body in motion will stay in motion.
Life inertia can also go the other way, and I’ve experienced that side as well. When a body is at rest, it’s tough to get moving. Gaining momentum is difficult, and most people can probably relate to the feeling that things are probably not going to change, which dampens motivation. Seven months ago I was feeling pretty hopeless about my obesity. There was nothing in my past that led me to believe I could make a positive change, because every time I’d ever lost significant weight it was because of heavy drug use.
This time, I had an idea of how to make a change because I witnessed Jason making life adjustments that were working. It made sense to join him and change my eating habits. As I lost weight, I was encouraged to stay on the path and keep losing weight, because it feels good to see success. Also, my mood was improving, and I had less drastic mood swings. Despite some serious health crises that Jason went through, we both stayed positive and things are going well.
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