Like everyone else, there are times when I feel like writing and times when I don’t. I often experience brief bursts of sudden inspiration at random, and my writing peaks.
I write better, faster, those sections need less editing when I re-write them.
A few short days in, though, I’ll notice that my pace has slowed and I’m struggling to find the right words. In no time, I’ve stopped and while I’ve written quite a bit in a short time, I won’t write at that intensity again for several weeks, even months.
What inspires me to write so much, so quickly? How can I lengthen that time? How can I pace myself so I don’t burn out that quickly?
The answer is delightfully simple.
As with all writing problems, I’ve found that nothing works better than a change of scenery.
Simply going to the park, the lake, a cafe, even a crowded shopping centre or bus trip and writing on paper, my phone, anything I have handy helps me to be re-inspired.
I become bogged down without realising it. I’m inspired at a place - normally at my laptop at home - and therefore it seems that my writing must take place there. When my inspiration begins to wane, and I realise that I’m no longer ‘feeling it’, I just pack up and go to sleep.
The next day, I’ll find that I’m at a park or just somewhere new and my fingers will itch. I’ll pull out my phone or my notebook and words will appear as if by magic.
I can never extend it for too much longer, no matter how much I wish to. There are problems involved in high intensity writing for too long, such as burning out, stress, and losing any interest in the writing at all.
As such, I’m always careful to stop when I find myself being distracted and struggling. I leave a few notes so I know where I was heading and leave it be.
By lately I mean in the last two days. And by that I mean 20,000 words in the last 36 hours.
Exactly 36 hours, in fact, as of twenty minutes ago.
I’ve had twenty five minutes of sleep. If you can call that sleep. It was more like dozing off with the intention of sleeping and then being woken up by my boyfriend who wanted me to pay attention to him for six hours.
Men.
ugh.
so clingy and needy. ~sarcasm~
I haven’t written this much in so long! In fact I don’t think I’ve ever written this much in such a short amount of time.
I wish this was NaNo. It’s less than two days and I’m already nearly halfway through.
I really hate how people keep breaking my stride though. I had so much written then I had to go out yesterday, come home and it takes me nearly four hours to write two lines.
Anyway.
I’m at a primary school now while my boyfriend teaches kids to play sport. I took a netbook and my phone and I’m writing in the carpark at a primary school.
How awkward.
That is all.
I kinda wanna do a writing thing, like…writing some sort of rubbish for each month of this year. Obviously January is skipped right now cause I only thought of this last night, but…
Jan -Juxtaposition January
Feb - Foolish Fiction February
Mar - Mythical March
Apr - (In)Appropriate Anecdote April
May - Misfortune May
June - Jaded June
July - Judicious July
Aug - Apocalyptic August
Sep - Seductive Story September
Oct - Obscene October
Nov - Naive Novel November
Dec - Deceiving December
As you can tell I pulled those out of my ass, but I wanted inspiration to write more, so, this is what I thought of. It’s all entirely stupid but meh.
Anyone wanna join me? xDD
I’m thinking of writing a book as I want to be an author when I’m older, so I think I should probably start now!
I want to explore all the good times, bad times, ridiculas times, the not-so-believable times with your family.
I want to go into detail on all kinds the relationships between siblings, mother and daughter, father and son, mother and father, etc. All the tragedy’s, how your family dealt with them, and the bonds; the unbreakably strong ones, and the weak.
Are you proud of your family relationships, embaressed of your family, do you adore them or loathe them?
I genuinely want to know, so please, comment comment comment!
Marianas Trench - or rather, their frontman Josh Ramsay, has recently been a huge inspiration to me.
Not only is their music amazing and fun, but the songs have meaning. The Fix Me and Masterpiece Theatre albums both tell of Ramsay’s past, touching on both the pleasant memories and the darker times.
Listening to these albums one can’t help but feel better - no matter what you’re going through, someone else has gone theough something similarly dark and escaped to do something truly amazing with their life. That knowledge; that I could one day overcome my personal darkness and become something brilliant, has helped me through some really tough times.
Although the story behind the songs may be sad - bulimia and heroin tales are never happy - hearing them makes me determined. If he got out, so can I.
So when I feel at my worst, and I play my music really loud, Marianas Trench makes me feel a little better and I think to myself: ‘my strength is my writing. I may not be the best, I may not stand out, but I’m good at. If Josh got through it and is writing and producing his own albums, I can at least write my books.’
But I really really really hate the word ‘got’.
THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER WAY TO SAY THINGS YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY ‘GOT’
‘I got a new game on the weekend’ - I was given a new game/ I bought a new game/ I somehow acquired a new game in a manner which I am not at this time inclined to share/ SEE THERE ARE OTHER WAYS
‘have you got the latest update yet?’ - have you updated your (___) yet?
‘I’ve got one of them at home’ MY GOD I HATE THIS SENTENCE AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT BUT ESPECIALLY THE FIRST TWO WORDS. - I have one of those at home/ I have one of them at home/ I have one like that somewhere at home but I don’t know where so I’m going to be intentionally vague.
AND PEOPLE ACTUALLY WRITE LIKE THIS AND SPEAK LIKE THIS
WHYYYYY
WHY IS GOT A WORD
TO ME IT ISN’T
ONE DAY I’LL FIND OUT IT ISN’T AND IT’LL BE THE BEST DAY EVER
Rarely will I reblog something from my personal blog, but this I felt was relevant to both.
I really do hate the word ‘got’ and I do everything in my power to avoid using it.
Does anyone else find certain words unbearable? Other than the obvious ‘irregardless’ - I think everyone with a firm grasp of the English language loathes that nonsensical word.
NEW PRODUCT! Home is where the books are. Lot of three post cards on Storenvy.
I’m sorry for not updating recently. As you can guess by the title, life got in the way. It always does.
Ahh but I use my other blog to vent.
Anyway - my laptop is slowly (well not really slowly anymore…) dying, and as a result it’s difficult to open something as basic as Wordpad, let alone write or update tumblr.
On the plus side I now have the money to buy a good laptop, I’m tossing between Alienware and Toshiba so if anyone has any input into either that’d be fantastic! I don’t really have a budget (well, within reason of course) so if anyone has any better ideas go for it!
Oh but I’m not sure about a mac. So unless you’re going to blow me away with reasons as to why I should get one…I won’t listen to mac suggestions.
Anyway - I’ve been considering cheaping out a few hundred on my laptop and getting a netbook as well. I’m not getting a desktop - my life is nowhere near stable enough for that - so I need a fantastic laptop to deal with my hardcore usage of it as a desktop, and a netbook to be my version of a laptop (portable, small, pretty slow and weak and otherwise crappy…)
Oh I actually just realised that Dell do Alienware now. So, uh, no thanks. I’m not risking another Dell. Unless someone’s got one that’s still fantastic and can convince me to, I won’t be getting one of them. Toshiba it is, by the looks of it. Now which one…
I love computer shopping. It’s so fun. Until I have to pick one :/
So until that happens not a lot will be happening on this blog, unfortunately. I’ll try to post some of my inspirations, however! I think that’s a good use of time until I can start writing again properly!
So until next time~
Love me xx
I actually found a draft of a story I’d like to write immediately after my last post.
It’s sci-fi - not normally my thing - and it’s pretty good.
I intend to finish it. It should be fairly brief but it has potential to be a series. Probably a trilogy, that seems to be the way to go. I’ll see.
