Mental Block

Hello Lovely Readers and writers,

I have gotten to a part in my story where I have hit a mental block. The part below is my post "They all clear out" on my blog Sisters of Pine Haven however I can't figure out where to go from there. I can't think if I should change the text or what? 

If you are a writer, you know the aggravation of having a mental block. Having a mental block is part of the journey of writing, I know that, but if you have any suggestions to help a mental block. Please let me know. 

Thanks,

-Blaire 

After another week Kathryn announced that Mrs. James had written, she had come down with a summer flu and requested Kathryn come and care for her. Kathryn knew immediately that she and Brandon must go to Connecticut to care for her ailing mother. Brandon eventually agreed to attend with her but initially he wanted to stay to see if he could be of help to Emmy but as time went on he realized Emmy hardly recognize any one being in the room. He could that even if he stayed he would be of no use, so he promised to escort Kathryn to her mother's home but he said he could not stay there too long as he had to return to Boston. Kathryn was sweet and understood that he wanted to get right to work. Nicholas however was willing to attend Kathryn Connecticut and to stay with her till Mrs. James was well and Kathryn could return to Boston.

            "Why do they get to leave and I am stuck here?" Julia moaned to Victoria.

            " Kathryn and Nicholas are leaving to care for Mrs. James."

            "Mother, besides Mrs. Taylor's ball and the Melbourne picnic I have attended nothing. At Mrs. Taylor's ball everyone paid attention to Emmy and at Mrs. Melbourne's picnic the only reason I got attention was because Emmy looked two days away from death. And we must admit mother no one here would make a very good match for me. Please mother do not let me miss Mrs. Crane's ball in New Port, it is the best ball of the season and all of society is there, it is a disgrace not to show."

            "All right."

            "Really?" Julia squealed.

            "Yes, I thought this summer away from society would make you enjoy other things besides following society's ways."

            "Oh mother that is my life, that is how you raised me and the Crane's are not just society they are the best of the best and being invited to their ball is the crème de la crème."

            "Yes I know, it s quite thrilling you got an invite."

            "Well I didn't but you know Howard Stuart did and he asked me to attend with him."

            "He wrote you?"

            "Yes. He has been writing me all summer. I guess a summer has made him miss me."

            "Has he made any attentions towards you?"

            "Not yet but I am sure he will once he see me."

            "Is that what you want to do, marry Howard Stuart?"

            "Maybe, I am only eighteen, I haven't decided."

           

            That wasn't true he wanted to Caleb James but since he seemed to care little for her, she the best line of action was to move on.  She knew the Stuart family was from good breeding and they were wealthy enough to be of good standing.

            "All right, I will write to Branson and tell him to get our home down there ready. I doubt father will be able to come so we won't be able to host anything but compared the Crane's home to our home will be no place to host."

            "Thank you mother," Julia gave her a kiss on the cheek.

            "But be careful Julia things you do today, you could regret them tomorrow."

            Julia barely heard her mother, she was too happy to accept an invitation to an Crane ball and happy to finally be leaving Pine Haven. She had not been able to stand watching Emmy and Caleb becoming close but watching Emmy morn him was mind dulling. Emmy should have known Caleb could not have loved her, so why did she attach herself so strongly to him. Julia thought this was a sign of Emmy's complete disadvantage in society at large. 

So in a matter of a week Danford Hall was emptied out. Fiona took a breath as she watched her brother and sister-in-law leave the drive and was happy that with the house being empty so she could focus again on her own children. Laurel had hardly spoken two words to her since the night she revealed her broken heart. Emmy had also hardly spoken but for other reasons; so the only one who spoke to her was Gloria. Mrs. Danford's health was still poor so Fiona could not go to anyone for comfort and she felt incredibly alone. The only thing she could think to do was write her good friend Iris Dumont.

           

            In her letter she laid all that had happened over the last few months and all the heart ache she felt and the loom that hung over Danford hall like a very heavy cloud. She begged Iris to come visit and take Laurel and Emmy back to Boston. She thought if they could get to Boston the new city would distract and perhaps take the pain away. Fiona hoped though she did not mention in it her letter they could perhaps meet other men that would fill the holes that were left the summer. Iris Dumont was fast to respond to her letter with a sincere hope to be in Pine Haven by the end of a fortnight. Fiona was deeply relieved by Iris' quick response and quicker action. 

A night at the Oscars

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Last night I watch the Oscars with some of my friends. I have watched the Oscars almost every year with my mom and step dad, and since moving to Boston I have continued to watch them mostly by myself so it was fun watching them in a group. 


We watched the red carpet and I made my friends laugh at how excited I got to see Colin Firth. Sadly they had not seen Pride and Prejudice so they could not understand my love of the best Mr. Darcy. 

Some Red Carpet Moments...

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As much as I love Emma Stone, 

I was not thrilled with this dress.

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J LO reading Edith Head's quote...

"Your dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman

but loose enough to show you're a lady." 

made me laugh.

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This was probably my favorite of the night...
Michele Williams rocks vintage fashion.

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I actually liked Cameron Diaz's dress.

Through out the night we voted for who we thought was going to win and keep a tally of it. Out of the 5 of us watching only 2 of cared by the end what the score was. It added a little competition to the night. Considering I had only seen "The Help" and "The Artist" of the big nominated films, I really didn't think I was going to do so well in the "competition." My friend was giving me "evil" looks the better I was doing, I couldn't help be happy for every right guess. 

Over all I thought Billy Crystal did a fine job, brought back years of memories when he hosted them when I was a child. The Metro, a free newspaper in Boston, did not like Billy Crystal "opened with familiar formula bu it felt more tired than true...he barely strayed from tradition with a tone deaf sing-along parody of the nine nominate films -- a gag he and others host have done year after year."-Heidi Patalano. I personally want to see Neil Patrick Harris host the Oscars. After watching him host the Emmy's I think he would do a good job.

The opening of the Emmy's

 I am glad that the Academy made fun of its self with having an appearance by Justin Beiber in order to get the 18 to 24 demographic. Billy Crystal joked how good it was to watch millionaires give each other golden statues. Billy Crystal made other jokes, I thought he could get away with. But I thought the bit between Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. in presenting best documentary lasted too long. And I thought the Cirque du soleil performance was the best the best part of the Oscars and like nothing I had seen at the Oscars before. Probably my favourite part of the night besides laughing a lot with my friends at little moments.

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I hope you had a good time watching the Oscars too. 

New Blog Design

After almost a month and a few drafts my new blog design is here!

I owe it all to Annie from Wattlebird 

She has wonderful Blog Designs at a variety of prices.

Her blog is also really fun. 

I hope you enjoy my new space. 

A good Saturday song

Waste- Foster the People

This song I think is appropriate for a Saturday. Part of the chorus says... 

Everyday you that you want to waste

That you want to waste 

You can. 

...

'Cause I just really wanna be with you.

Saturdays I think are wonderful days to lay around, do very little, and enjoying some time to relax. 

I hope you enjoy your Saturday. 

I'm a blogger (part 2)

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In August I started really getting into this blog. And I wrote a post about how I had become a blogger.  I wrote to my favorite blogger Sarah at Desirous of Everything about asking for advice on how to be a better blogger. And she gave me some advice, some I followed right away others has taken me some time.

1. Blog Design.- I immediately put my blog under construction and started re-vamping it but I have continuously changed it over time. Sarah actually recommended paying money to get a blog designer. I didn't thin that was necessary then but now I am working with Annie from Wattlebird who does blog design for a range of prices. We are working through a few drafts but I can't wait till my new blog design is live. 

2. Try to post every day or more- I wrote furiously in August. But I wasn't always happy with my blogging. And I wrestle with quantity over quality. While I can see posting a lot good, unfortunately I don't think I have that interesting life to post something everyday. Also in my Blogging Ponderment, post I wrote about how posting so much made me feel very self adsorbed. So I am not following that advice to a T but I am trying to get better at my post.


3. Follow other blogs. Before Valentines day I joined a comment love challenge sponsored by Desirous of Everything. I did not do as many comments as I would have liked but I did discover some great blogs and I think I made some blogger friends. That feels nice. Now I need to get more serious about making thoughtful comments.

4. Blog about whatever you want- Oh I do. I blog about movies, books, TV shows, my friends, my obsessions and most importantly my faith. While I might lose some readers when I talk about my faith, I am okay with that because my faith is the most important thing in my life and if I don't write about it then I wouldn't be true to myself. This is my journey and it is full of random stuff.

This is my computer background and a good representation of my life.

5. Sponsor blogs you like- I need to do this. I am not sure how to make buttons for my blogs? If any one has suggestions for a non computer person to make buttons please let me know. 

5a. Collaborate and guest post with others. In my Blogging Ponderment post I wrote how I was seeking guest bloggers. Well I still am... I am not sure the best way to spread the word.

Contact me 

6. Start a Facebook page- done. You can find me at Delightful Scribbles it is more than just my blog it is articles I find interesting and pictures. I guess I had kind of magically hope that when I created that page it would take off but it has been a slow process and I have sometimes thought about getting rid of it. But as soon as I think about getting rid of it a friend join it and it makes me so happy that people are looking at it. I have also started a twitter account, I am still trying to understand, all this social media.

My Facebook page 

7. Sending emails- I have not done this actively. Because I don't want to bug people too much. Though when I wrote my Christmas letter, blog post I did email it to my family and that was the largest number of reads for one post. So maybe I should do that again. Sorry friends and family you might get annoyed at all my blog post emails. 

8. In her P.S. Sarah wrote suggested that instead of being at blogspot.com I buy my URL. It is is only $10 dollars a year. I finally did that at the beginning of this month. So now instead of being blaire-awannabewriter.blogspot.com I am http://www.journeythroughwriting.com/. 

There are more bloggers out there with ideas on how to grow your blogger. Sometimes I think about being a bigger blogger but I as much fun as that would be I like my little blog. My new blogging friend Laura at Girl Plus Everything Else wrote to me once and said "I don't know if blogs like ours will ever have the huge numbers that fashion blogs do but I have decided that that's ok. I think that by sharing a part of yourself, you can inspire people." And that is the most important thing I want to do. I want to inspire people, rather it be a small group of people or a large group.

After I emailed Sarah she wrote a blog post about it, here is the link...

What I have learned about blogging this year

Other blogger's suggestions...

Tips to Grow your blog

Grow your blog series

Back in August I wrote about how I am blogger and I am happy to say I am still in love with this blog and sharing my hopes, struggles, and my laughs along the way. I am still on the journey of figuring it all out. So thank you loyal readers for staying with me on this journey. 

Since this has been a rather long post, I thought I would treat you to a song... "Walking the Dog" by Fun.