Episode 3: Cuppa Creativity in the Literary Lounge

The host, Kenda Faith, discusses the purpose of writing and introduces the concept of "ger words" that should be avoided in writing. She also mentions the origin stories of a local business and a comedian, emphasizing the importance of stories in culture and providing guidance. Faith Publishing, a nonprofit publishing company, aims to support and promote writers, and plans to offer writing scholarships and fellowships. Writing is compared to childbirth, and the importance of storytelling in connecting and learning is emphasized. The challenge is given to avoid using bland and overused words, and to use a thesaurus to find more descriptive alternatives. Hello. I hope everybody has their cup of creativity. This is Kenda Faith. I am your host for today's cup of creativity in the literary lounge, the place where writing doesn't have to suck. Today, I kind of like to talk about our purpose, why we write, our purpose. I also want to discuss ger words. I mentioned this in our last episode, ger words. And finally, I also want to address how to change from average to being awesome. But, of course, before I dig into today's topic, I need to give a shout out at Wichita's Advanced Learning Library for providing all of this amazing podcast equipment. And then, of course, I also have to do my own pitch, of course, for Faith Publishing, Inc. Again, we are a nonprofit publishing company, very grassroots. And we're known for working with authors, supporting our writers. And we want to help their writing journeys. We aim to foster the art and craft of writing. And we also want to promote, not just support, but we want to give the world a chance to see all these amazing writers. Additionally, we are gathering our sources to create writing scholarships and eventually writing fellowships. I mean, come on, how cool is that? If somebody just pays you to write for like a day or two, I think that just sounds amazing. But you and I know, get ready, my loves, that we need to start our little episode with our mantra. Get ready, stand up, put your hand on your heart, or not. I mean, whatever. Don't forget to do the jazz hands at the end. Are you ready? Okay. Today, I will face fear. Today, I will be brave. Today, I will struggle. Today, I will grow. Today, I will get through this. Today, I will embrace this experience. Huzzah! Yay! Okay. Let's move on. Let's talk about an origin story. We're not talking like Batman origin story or a superhero origin story. I kind of want to think about our own origin story. And so this kind of reminds me, of course, this is how I'm going to start it. I'm going to start it out with a story. I like to call it a corn story. Just go with me here. Pupusas. And I will apologize in advance that if I am destroying this word, I apologize. This is a story of pupusas. It began over 2000 years ago with an indigenous tribe from El Salvador. And if you have never had this dish before, oh, it is so glorious. It is so, like my mouth, I'm kind of salivating like Pavlov's dogs right now. Anywho, if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's kind of like a flatbread kind of thing or like a stuffed tortilla. It's made of a cornmeal and it's stuffed with cheese and beans or maybe even pork and it's served with this amazing, crunchy, spicy cabbage slaw. Now, why on earth does this have to do with writing? It actually has to do with stories. So it began on a Sunday afternoon and a colleague of mine invited me to an event that highlighted El Salvadorian culture and food and Hispanic comedy. Pinole Blue, I'll give them a shout out. They don't know that I'm doing this, but I'm doing it anyway. It's a local business that specializes in Pinole Blue corn products and they're the ones that sponsored the event. And that's kind of when I learned about the owner of Pinole Blue, his origin story, and even the headlining comedian's origin story. So origin stories are important in relation to knowledge and culture. These stories, they kind of infuse the significance of like everyday life and relationships between people. They explain why a culture or a group of people, they are who they are, right? And they also provide guidance of how this group of people operate in the world. Now, the best aspect of these stories is that they begin organically. And the person that began his business, actually, of Pinole Blue, he started in his dorm room at Wichita State, which I think is amazing. And he received the support and the needed catalyst by joining heads with one of his college professors, Professor Kate, which is amazing. Anyway, the comedian there kind of has a similar thing. Not that he had a professor and he started things in his dorm room, but he started his comedy career creating a patio on his mother's backyard. And this essentially just turned into an event in his neighborhood with pupusas and beer, and of course, laughter. Now, I think these are absolutely fascinating, but I also think these stories kind of share a little bit of wisdom and lessons with all who actually pay attention to these stories. So, this kind of got me thinking, what is my origin story? What is your origin story? What's the origin story for faith publishing? And what are these stories, what kind of wisdom will these stories actually provide for these readers and writers and followers? So, my story or our story began with actually a group of students a couple of years ago. Oh, my gosh, has it been, what, three years ago? Who actually had the courage to trust a teacher, me, and we all believe that words mattered. And it actually, you know, it kind of is a two-way street. So, this teacher actually entrusted all of her faith into her authors and their work. So, writing, it's challenging. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It can be hard. I like to compare writing to childbirth. So, at first, you find out that you're pregnant, as in you have this idea, and oh, my gosh, this is amazing, and you feel great, and this is super, and we're excited, and you go down the baby aisle. Or maybe you just keep on changing your highlighting pens, or maybe you have to get yourself a new journal to write out all your ideas, and this is great, and you have to organize your emotions, and then things start getting bigger, and you're like, oh, well, this is a little uncomfortable, right? And then you start having, you're getting closer to the due date of your story or of your writing, and people are still excited about it, and they're waiting to read your work, and then maybe you think that you're getting close, and you have like the Braxton Hicks, if you guys don't know what that is. It's kind of like false labor pains, right? Labor pains suck. They do, but you're like, yes, is this going to be worth it? Yes, yes, yes, and then you get to a point where you're just like, I just need this out, right? And then, of course, by the time your baby slash idea slash poem, prose, etc., comes out, we're all celebrating, right? But in this journey, you have to gather your details. You have to organize your emotions, and you have to access your working memory, and you also have to expose your vulnerabilities. You need to share your work, and you also need to create this connection between the reader and the writer. So stories and poems, lyrics, of course, told with a narrative arc, they're also woven through all aspects of our life. I think our stories can be found in mythology, folklore, songs, TV shows, movies, those beloved YouTube shorts that I can't stop watching. It can also be found in how blue tortillas are made, right? Sharing stories is a fundamental component of our existence. Stories help us remember important information, and this actually can guide our future actions. It's not like, you know, going into my grandmother's basement for the fear of monsters. You know, it's actually a warning for steep steps, right? This helps us to survive, and it reminds us that we are a part of something that's bigger than ourselves, and I guess that's Faith's publishing origin story. We write because we need it to survive. We need it to learn. We need it because we need it to connect, and we promote this because every single person has a story to tell, and every person should experience feeling bold. So with that, I just want to know our stories are becoming bigger than ourselves. This process is not just about us. This process is actually about you and your world. Now, using that beautiful segue that I just left open as a process, I'm going to write. I want to talk about a process of writing, and it's called grr words. I mentioned this last episode, and grr words, I call them grr words because I literally growl when I read them, and grr words, like I said, are not bad. They're not evil. They don't show malice toward people, but they are overused, borderline cliche, and they're kind of non-descriptive, right? They are the ultimate bland words, and so I will read you off a list if you want. I can definitely post these if you would like because it's a great resource, but the big kicker, try your darndest not to use these words. So without further ado, words are other, more, new, good, best, many, great, big, no as in K-N-O-W, a lot. We use it a lot. Cool, happy, bad, nice, thing. That one's pretty popular. Funny, laugh, like, little, look, mad, pretty, sad, said, ugly, very. I hate that word. Went, really, fine, many, interesting, literally. Oh, God, that was so hard to read through. So here's my challenge to you. I've got actually two challenges for you. One is after you write something down, one, don't listen to your editor voice. My editor voice is named Janice. It's a thing. A student gave it to me, and it just made me laugh. And so ever since then, I've just kept it. So I had to tell Janice to kind of like F off, go take the K off and leave me the hell alone because I got some writing to do. I don't edit when I'm writing. I just write. I just like word vomit on a page and just go with it. Then I go back and I look for ger words. Now, if you, you know, find those ger words, highlight them, right, and then go to one of my favorite websites, and I would love to get a sponsorship from them someday, is thesaurus.com, right? The absolute word dinosaur, right? Thesaurus, T-H-E-S-A-U-R-U-S.com. So definitely use those. Switch those. Switch up your words. Make them vivid, right? Instead of, hmm, what's a good one? The lion was very sad. Oh my gosh, it's lame. Completely lame. Give me something different, right? Give me something that the lion, disappointed in his lack of kill, licked his wounds in a corner. That gives me a lot more perspective about things. The other thing I'd like to challenge you about is what I like to call the continuum of average to awesome. And I would love to take credit for this, but hi, like all good authors and teachers, what do we do? We steal. I actually got this from Taylor Molly, a colleague. He probably doesn't remember me from back in college. We did Hamlet together. He's a great spoken poet, spoken word poet, and he has a document that he likes to share from everything from taking it from something that's very general and making it extremely specific. So example, going from something unnamed to something that's named. An example would be, I had a stuffed animal that I took everywhere. Okay, all right, that's cool. But let's name it and let's make it more specific. Scurvy was a dirty pink stuffed piglet. Yeah, that is vivid. That means I can see what's in your brain, right? Go with some from general to specific. I was filled with emotion. What kind of emotion? How full were you? These are the things that I ask, right? So going from general to something more specific, such as think regret mixed with pride wrapped in hunger. Yes, I like it. Think about something from plural, like many things to actually something that's more specific to like something singular, such as plural, which is a rock collection, singular. A piece, of course, Emma told me was a diamond. Yeah, I like it. Maybe you could do something that was more abstract, and you want to turn it into something that's more concrete, such an abstract, like a diary filled with hope and wonder. That's great. But give me something that's real, something that I can see and touch and put my teeth into, like a page stained with tears and a coffee ring. Ah, coffee ring, maybe a cup of creativity. Maybe something commonplace, like a blue shirt, and you can change it into something unique, like a shirt with a blue ink stain shaped like Vietnam. You see where I'm getting with this? Be clear, be vivid, show me flaws, show me risks, show me something that is completely unexpected, right? So instead of pride, maybe you could turn it to guilt, like, oh, pride, it's tough being beautiful, hair flip, hair flip. Or you could say, I kissed her, but I think she wished I hadn't. Do you see like the change of that? It just is deeper, and it's more real, right? That's what we want. We want something real. Give us something to connect to, because remember, you are the only person that knows your world. You are the only person that knows what's in your brain. And in order to share and to connect it, you need to be specific. So I will kind of cut this a little short today. My call to action to you is practice your word choice. Keep writing. Write about anything. I always have, I have notes everywhere with me, and I always write any kind of word or phrase that happens to catch my attention, right? It could be anything from the way that my son plays a game, and he's like yelling at the screen to this beautiful, beautiful woman who, I don't know, maybe she was like in her late 70s or 80s, and she wore these bright pink Velcro rollers in the grocery store. Dude, the backbone of that lady. I think that's amazing. Those are the things I think that you need to make connections with, right? Pay attention to your world, and tell me what's going on. Share that world with us, right? Yes, right. So without further ado, my name is Kendra Faith. Writing doesn't have to suck. And I really look forward to reading what you wrote. Until next time.