Sunday, June 17, 2012

WEEK 4: Writing

Sorry, this is SO LATE, but it took a while for me to compose all my thoughts & get it all typed up. So, behold Week 4:

If I'm being honest I haven't been great at writing since my mom passed away. I make all sorts of excuses for why- It's grief. It's punishment. I shut down that part of my brain to deal. And there have been a couple spurts of writing energy- finishing my first novel, my fantastic writing class with Holly Black, & my "author" interview. But it's been slow & coming for a long time now.

GOAL: So, for my week 4 goal I decided to get my writing mojo back & make a plan/schedule for writing. Also it's a chance to reassess what does & doesn't work for me when it comes to writing.

1. TWITTER: What may seem like a "time-waster" is actually one of my most inspiring helpful parts of the internet. I follow all sorts of authors & something about reading about their writing struggles makes me feel better. Also, lots of authors start "word wars" or "2k a day" spurts of writing. This sums up why I love twitter:



2. REINFORCEMENT: I sure do well with positive reinforcement- Scott & chocolate- but maybe it's time to have some negative consequences. Maybe I'll just give Scott a little teaser to zap me with whenever I stop writing? Okay, maybe not. But I did make this handy reminder for my desktop:

3. WRITING GROUP: Ah me, I could write for miles & miles on how much I love my writer group girls. They are not only amazing writers (you guys, I am not even joking they are jaw-dropping great writers) but they are there for me (little ol' me- not jaw-dropping writer) at all hours day or night. If you want to write, get ye a writing group that rocks.

4. SCHEDULE TIME: Sometimes it doesn't work for me to schedule an exact time to write, in general I don't do great with schedules, but to have a general goal. This week, now that the kids aren't in school I don't have to get everyone going first thing in the morning, I've been trying to write in the morning. My brain is a whole lot less full in the AM.

5. MUSIC: Ah me, music, I could not write without you. Here's a mini playlist from the beginning of the story I'm working on right now- it will be added upon 100 fold so feel free to recommend other music too:
6. PINTEREST:
I have a writing inspiration board & it's been awesome to use to to help out with writing ideas- quotes, setting pictures, characters, etc. My writer group girls do this too & I love reading their work, then seeing their pinterest boards to see how the envision the characters or setting.

CONCLUSION: It hasn't been as instantaneous inspiration as I thought it would be. But it's slowly coming. I finally settled on what I want to work on right now- something new-ish, not revising my last novel. I really need to remember how much I love writing, not get bogged down just yet with revising.

I'd say wish me luck, but I'm trying to remember that I make my own darn luck- this is a lovely necklace from a friend that reminds me of exactly that:


P.S. My past weekly goals- Week 1, Week2, & Week 3

4 comments:

Cranberryfries said...

Oh gosh. Seriously this just brought back the flood of emotions I got when I used to write. (I sorta brushed them aside for now saying 'it's not my season for this just yet'.) Good luck in your infusion of the love of it again! You certainly have a talent for it that some of us are lucky enough to enjoy.

Monica @ All Things Lovely said...

I hope you get your mojo back.

I am envious of your writing ambition, I wish I could write. I wish I could make the stories in my head reality. Can't wait til you get your book made into a movie someday. :)

April Carter said...

You are so funny!

Bahia said...

Great post, Olivia! I respect that you blog so much - that is such a challenge. I love the idea of the writing inspiration board on Pinterest - so I copied you and created one!

I've just entered into a writing project with a friend where we take turns finding or creating prompts and then we both have to write a piece using it. We try to keep the deadlines short to push us to do it and it's been really great since we started.

Also, having penpals is a great way to get yourself to write about your life in a different way.