Dead but not really

This is going to be  half-arsed update because it’s too late and I’m way too tired to come up with something longer.

I got a new job, so I’m spending almost all my time in front of a computer screen, so when I’m not working, I usually stay as far away as possible from computers.

I think I wrote about that story that wrote itself, I’m seriously rewriting it (yeah, I’m rewriting it!) and hopefully soon you’ll be able to buy it in a bookstore near you (in about 10 years or so) I’ll let you know when 😉

With that I just want to say, hi, hello and goodbye, goodnight.

How to Be a Writer: 210 Tips

Read about how to create a successful mindset, develop your writing, establish good writing habits and become a better writer, about professional development and how to become more creative. I should print these and stick them to the wall so that I can see them daily… 🙂

How to Be a Writer: 210 Tips.

Youtube – So You Want to Write? One Author’s Perspective

So You Want to Write? One Author’s Perspective – YouTube.

How to write a novel: the 30-day method

After failing pretty badly (okay, I shouldn’t say fail, because I did write over 20’000 words) in NaNoWriMo, I’ve re-thunk my ambitions and my goal with writing. And I realised I don’t really NEED to be published. It would be a nice side effect, but what I mostly want is my books in my bookshelves, and with todays POD and everything I could basically just slap together a jumble of words and pay for postage etc. and then I WOULD have my book in my bookshelf.

Then we come to the actual writing part, because my brain is flooded with ideas and plots and characters that are just waiting there, with the grey dust between my ears, playing chess, waiting to come out. I always write about writing, but lately I’ve done more thinking about writing than actual writing. That makes me a bit sad. I’ve been “home” for Christmas and New Years (visiting my parents) and I haven’t had access to a computer all the time (nor have I actually had the time to sit in front of the computer either) but I’ve somewhat had the urge to write. Now when I have a computer I’m sitting here, staring at the screen and thinking ‘what now?’

So my New Years resolution is going to be to finish at least one novel this year. And I found this to help me and you, if you’re in the same swamp as me:

How to write a novel | How the 30-day method works | Books | The Guardian.

Write on! 🙂

Writing dynamo

There is this girl… She’s writing 12 novels in a year (13 if she writes fast and have some time between novels). All year round NaNo.

Who else here thinks she’s crazy? And who else here would like to give it a try?

*slowly raises hand and looks around* Me.

Wouldn’t it be the same feeling when you’re reading? The first few words you’re still on the planet Earth, but the more words you read, the more removed from reality you become and suddenly you’re totally engrossed in the book’s world. What if it’s the same with writing… let’s say the first 50-60’000 words are hard, you’re still on planet Earth, but as you approach the reality threshold the smoother your writing becomes, the easier it gets, the more your hands seems to be in possession of someone else but you – they are moving, but you have no idea how or how the fingers can hit the right keys when your mind is somewhere in outer space without a spacesuit?

I have to try it. I seriously have to try it. No more excuses. 12 novels in a year. So be it! November and beyond here I come!

If you want to have a look at above mentioned crazy girl’s blog go here: http://12novels.com
Talk about “keep on writing”! 🙂

I’m not very organised when it comes to writing

I’ll have to admit that. Even with work (I should rather write “work”) not being much of a problem I’ve sort of fallen off the writing wagon. I just don’t write, even though i sort of want to. I blame I’m too tired, I’ll do it tomorrow, the next day, next week and so on… with the result of 0, zero, nil, zip, zilch, nada words written at all. It kind of bugs me.

Because I WANT to write. I really WANT to, but obviously not wanting it enough. How would I otherwise just not do it?

I was going to write and finish Getting Even in June, I have barely finished the first chapter (which will probably be scrapped later on any ways) I have started a short novella for a competition (in Swedish) and I have had a lot of thoughts about it, about the plot, the main character, the other characters and what should happen to them. (The theme is Summer and Something Scary) I’m aiming for a sci-fi novella. To be honest I have never written anything sci-fi from the beginning to the end. It always ends before it starts in the middle whatever I write in the sci-fi genre. So this time I’m trying to really really finish it (with a beginning, middle and end).

Something is telling me though that I’m not trying hard enough.

Do or do not. There is no try…

 

Effing Easter bunnies, stop eating my words!

This is the third fifth time I try to get anything up on my blog. (so excuse the multiple post spamming) But I JUST CANT SEEM TO SEE MY OWN POSTS! The last one (below) disappeared in a whiff of smoke. No, not even that. It disappeared with a whiff of nothing. Gone. Poof!

Luckily I’m a quick keyboard user and got the brains to click cmd+A and cmd+C (yep, mac user) before it all got wiped away.

So, if you can read the post, good for you. If you can’t, below is the copy-paste of the post named Happy Easter and How to write a novel in 100 days or less. The first version got eaten by the cyber bunnies before the unknowing author realized.

Oh, joy! Oh, rapture!
So, I posted this, and then there’s nothing there! Not a single word of what I had written! I sat here, staring at the screen, wondering which Easter bunny ate all my words… and where did the effing link go? Now I have to go and find it again. So this will be a shorter frustrated post, because of the Easter bunny eating all my words.
1. Happy Easter!
2. I have rye bread, the Finnish version. And I’m so happy. But I only got 10 bread left (20 slices) because someone ate four slices for breakfast this morning. I have to hold back. I want a rye bread right now! But if I eat everything now (yes, I’m very capable of doing that) then I’ll be without rye bread until someone sends me some (or brings me some).

3. The link. Still looking for it. How to write a novel in 100 days or less. There you go.

Go have a look. It basically takes you from the first line to the first draft to the editing process and finally to the query process. And take extra note of what you’re supposed to do on the 101st day…

Now, stop surfing the internet doing “research”, close the facebook tab, and start writing! *kicks self in butt*

Happy Easter and How to write a novel in 100 days or less

Fools day and ten rules for writing fiction

April 1st came and went. I think we were too busy at work to notice it. At least I was busy. Things are going on at work and I’m sort of caught up in the middle of it. Things need to happen, and quick, but there is nobody to set the ball rolling. Or they’re setting the ball rolling veeeeeeeeeeeeeeryyyyyyyyyyy slooooooooooooow…

Things need to be made official, and it’s hard to talk with my colleagues and superiors when I’ve had conversations with the big boss that I didn’t have – one of the quirks of working in a dungeon. I’m so cut off from the rest of the world that a lot of managers see it as THE PLACE to talk confidential-ish stuff… and I’m often there eavesdropping (well, I guess it’s not eavesdropping if they know I’m there.)

So beside work, April is the month of writing frenziedly (if not every month is it.) So head over to scriptfrenzy.org and sign up.

Although it’s called Script Frenzy I’m not writing a script. Been there done that, I didn’t even manage a page before I succumbed to the too detailed writing of the art of novelling. So I decided to decimate April to finishing as many outstanding novels/novellas/short stories as possible. (And I’m pretty sure I mean dedicate, not decimate…)
Because that is my biggest vice when it comes to writing; I start a lot of stories, I plan them, at least I know how they will end – most of them. And then the initial thrill sort of wears off and they strand in the boring middle, unable to reach the waves of the sea.

I realized it’s because the middles are boring. They’re absolutely sagging. So I’m training myself in writing every single chapter as exciting as possible (without destroying the climax of course). Off-Piste is a short story where I’m just training on captivating the reader to read more. It’s about Jess who is learning to ski in the Alps, and she’s not really good at it. In fact she actually sucks at slaloming and usually goes freight train down the slopes – until her gorgeous skiing instructor helps her. (No it’s not sexy or romantic, it’s… sort of funny… I might put it up when I’m done. Might.) I’m going to finish it and then start on finishing Getting Even, because I’m in a good mood and up for pranking characters.

Before I go back to my crazy world of writing (which included a 30 min writing marathon where I managed to pen about 1000 words and then spent the rest of the day looking for old writing desks, portable writing desks and how to make your completely normal monitor a touchscreen monitor. I even found a steampunk touchscreen computer D: me wants!) I want to share something with you. Yep, it’s another link. To get you writing.

Ten rules for writing fiction | Books | guardian.co.uk.
Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray. Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for their personal dos and don’ts

Learn the rules well, and then forget them – Matsuo Basho

Three-hundred-and-sixty-five-stories

Three-hundred-and-sixty-five-stories.

I’m awed.

Yep, simply awed.

You should be too, or you should be writing one story a day for a year, and then you’ll probably be awed.

I don’t think I could have the patience to write a different, complete story every single day. All the ideas one must have! I’m good with writing just a couple of thousand words on a current story… but I guess it comes with practice. Still, I’m awed.

Anyone got any advice on writing a short story every single day? How do you go around getting all the ideas?