I C Summer Blog Tour – “Navigating the Writing Path: From Start to Finish”

I want to give a shout out to the person that invited me onto this tour, Demi Hungerford, who I know through Scribophile.com and is a fellow blogger. You can check out her blog - http://windr0se.wordpress.com/. She doesn't use humor as much as me and, compared to me, she's a very experienced writer who actually knows what she's writing about. Thank you, Demi, for passing this my way. I had a blast answering these questions. 

1. Share how you start your writing project(s). For example, where do you find inspiration? Do you outline? Do you jump right into the writing? Do you do all of your research first?

Honestly, my inspiration could come from anywhere. It could come from an image that just pops into my head, a dream, something that someone says, a small adventure somewhere, a certain feeling I get. But when I get these inspirations, it's kind of like a storm rushing around in your head. Most of the time, I'm not really sure how to organize it. I don't necessarily outline it. I jump into the writing head first and apply first aid after I'm done. But then again, it depends what I plan on writing. I adventure into a lot of genres, some of which I don't get very far into before moving on. If it's romance writing or supernatural writing then I might jump into it but with mystery, I tend to do more outlining before I start writing my first chapter or story. 

2. How do you continue your writing project? i.e. How do you find motivation to write on the non-creative days? Do you keep to a schedule? How do you find the time to write?

Every writer that I know (which, let's be honest, isn't a lot) have time they put aside each day to write, that's why I'm in awe of them and their writings while I'm over here struggling to put together a simple compound sentence. I have a lot of time to write in the summer and no time at all when school starts back up (college is getting in the way of my passions!) but no matter what, I'll always find time to procrastinate. I don't really have a strict schedule because my schedule is sort of everywhere. But I know that as soon as I sit down and force myself to start doing simple writing exercises to warm up, my motivation will kick in and I can start working on the projects that matter. 

3. How do you finish your project? i.e. When do you know the project is complete? Do you have a hard time letting go? Do you tend to start a new project before you finish the last one? 

My personal opinion on finished projects is "A project is never really finished." I know a lot of fellow writers will agree with me when I say that I feel like any project I do can be better or it's not at it's full potential towards the end. It's rather frustrating and enough to drive a sane writer like me into a strait jacket, though if I was insane then maybe I could create masterpieces and actually publish instead of worrying about how the story will come out before I even start it.

4. Include one challenge or additional tip that our collective communities could help with or benefit from. 
The challenge is always getting past the beginning of the story. Because the ball starts rolling and then you realize you have no idea what happens next... or how it'll end. My advice (and it's very common) know the ending of your story and work backwards from there. Don't worry to much on the details until after you write out your story. If you're writing a novel, then don't go back. Keep pushing towards the end and then go back and make all the corrections and changes you want.

Unfortunately, I have no one to pass the torch onto with these questions because I don't know many bloggers or writers. I guess you could say that my network is very small and MIGHT grow in the future. 

Organization (or lack thereof)

I apologize for not posting for the past few weeks, but between drama, injuries, and lack of time, I haven't really had time to write. But I'm back and you can all rest assured that I am not in a mental institution somewhere, driven mad from trying to write.

But this huge gap between articles gave me a very good segway into this article's topic... Organization. I italicized it, underlined it, and put it in bold because it is ON.

Obviously, I don't have it. Or do I?

See, when I say the word 'organization', I don't necessarily mean neat, clean, alphabetical, or whatever. I mean that you have a system that you use to keep YOURSELF organized. It could be in binders in a drawer by your desk, or it could be in notebooks spread out across the room, or it could even be a lot of post it notes covering a lot of wall in that office which, let's face it, definitely DOES NOT go with the rest of the decor anyways.

Point is, we all have a system we feel comfortable using. But that doesn't mean it's the best system to use. I'm the perfect example of it. My organization extends to numerous notebooks that are scattered in and around my desk (which I rarely sit at) or across the room by my bed. I ALWAYS forget which notebook I recently wrote in with my story ideas or mental notes and it's becoming a problem.

Looks like I need an..... (pause for dramatic effect) ORGANIZATION MAKEOVER! Of course, I can't be the only one out in this great big world of ours looking for a better way to keep track of all the insane ideas and stories we put down. So here are a few:

1) Notecards: May seem kinda strange when I just told you everything in my room is scattered and notecards will, more than likely, find a way to play hide-n-seek, but there's a way to organize that as well. I'm not sure of the proper name because I haven't used one in quite a while but I'll call them "Notecard Boxes" and the general purpose of these boxes is to hold all your notecards. These can be found on the same aisle, probably, as the notecards.

I, sometimes, like to get color coded notecards to go a little deeper into how efficient I work. I'd use green as a poem ideal or, if it's a story, the plot. Red as characters. Purple as setting.And so on. May seem like a lot of work keeping track of all these colors but I keep them all together when I have them all filled out.

2) Binders. They're a great way to hold all the stories or poems you've written over the years and allow you to go back and take a look at where you've been and how far you've come. I use them. The only problem is that I use too many! I have multiple binders! So to help MYSELF organize, I'll try to use just two. One for holding my stories. One for holding my poems. And maybe a third to use for working on stories or poems in the making.

3) Simple is better. I got this after I realized that I consider using 3 binders to be "organized". Simple can be any number of things. What do you need to cut down on? The amount of 'organizers' you use? Whatever it is that you think you have too much of, work on it. If there isn't a way to make it simple, try to make it more efficient for you.

4) Back up your back ups. Nothing says unorganized like a caffeine induced writing frenzie ONLY to have your only copy get lost, or accidentally deleted because your computer decided it would be a GREAT time to restart itself (I swear, computers plan these things on purpose). But outsmart those machines by saving it constantly and onto something like an external hard drive or USB drive, along with on your computer. Now you have two copies. Now god forbid you lose your USB drive on the same day your computer restarted itself, then you might just have bad luck. I, personally, use a USB drive and I've set up folders on that drive so that when I save what I'm working on, I know right where to go. One folder is titled 'Poems'. The other 'Novels' and it has its own sub-folders of plot, story, character, and so on. I would do the same on my computer but I think my computer has joined a Computer Activist group and refuses to let me be the Administrative User.

5) Do what works for you. They say it takes 5 weeks to learn a new habit, so in that time it takes some forcing and constantly forgetting to do something that will help you. But it gets easier. Hopefully. I'm still in that '5 week learning' stage and I have to say, I've screwed it up multiple times. But I remember and go back and try again. That's the point. But don't do something that destroys your entire system. You're simply adding or improving a part of your system, not blowing it up with dynamite and putting a nice little apartment complex on it.

If you thought this was unhelpful, just remember that there will be more articles with actual "helpful" information on it in the future.

Why Do You Write? (A Personal Account)

   Sorry for my late blog, everybody, but I decided that this week was a good week to procrastinate... I mean, I was too busy. Yeah, that's it. This week's blog I figured I would open up to you a little bit.       Understand who I am as a person and help myself get past my low mood level that is keeping me from writing. So I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane and remind myself WHY I started writing to begin with and, with your permission, I'd like to take you with me down this lane.

    So sit back, relax, and enjoy a story of a story teller. Maybe if (or when) you're down and can't write, you'll recap to your own reasons to why you write.

   "I was 13 years old and the summer sun started to fade away, leaving behind it's unforgivable southern heat in the month of August. I had just returned from visiting my favorite relatives in New Hampshire and returned to my life as a good son to a single, alcoholic father and straight A student in my Middle School where I was a minority in a violent school.

   Up until that point, I only wrote every now and then. My 7^th grade English Honors teacher from the previous year had made a thing called 'Free Write Friday' where everyone would spend 10 minutes just writing. Anything. Everything. I suppose that was the first time I really put pen to paper and made something come out. Every Friday I would expand on what I wrote the previous week and turn that in. My writing wasn't the best but I received praise for my use of dialogue (when in reality, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was just assuming it was right) and encouraged to continue to write, which I didn't until the following year.

   Anyways, as August dragged on I began to find out that thing's were different from before I went away for the week. My Dad was always the short tempered type but I found that it was getting worse. Not in the sense of him, but in the sense that I took more of a stance against his temper which, in turn, made arguments and a very hostile trailer to live in. At the time, I began to feel like no one really cared about what was going on so I didn't really talk much about it, but I needed an outlet so I started to write again. I didn't focus on short stories until I was in Junior year of High School, but I did write poems. Countless poems. Unrequited love and 'sorrowful' poems that helped me vent the complex emotions that I couldn't really verbally express.

 

  I started writing my short stories when I realized that poems were not really doing it for me, anymore. I wanted to expand and become better as a writer. I didn't really care before then, I just wrote for the expression and not for the images or metaphor or how it read, as long as it was out there. But now I wanted to grow as a writer so that readers would read my stories or poems and enjoy it instead of suffering and dragging their way through my writings. So I started to write and I started to revise and edit. I wanted to tell my story but in a way that made it readable. It would help me express all my emotions and pain while becoming a decent enough writer to the point where I might be able to publish and get my story out there in the world.

   I still work and strive to become a better writer and I have a very long road to go before I feel my writings are considered great."

   So that's my writing story. It's why I started writing and why I continue to write. So what's your story? Why did you start writing? What keeps driving you to write that next sentence or paragraph? Let me know! Or simply write it down for yourself so that you can keep yourself motivated and know why you keep doing what you do!

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Check out my blog out every Tuesday for a new blog on writing tips, advice, stories, and so on!!!

Title To Be Determined (Procrastination)

pro·cras·ti·na·tion [proh-kras-tuh-ney-shuhn, pruh‐]

noun

the act or habit of procrastinating,or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention: She was smart, but her constant procrastination led her to be late with almost every assignment. (Dictionary.com)

My History teacher always use to say “Procrastination is the Assassination of the Proclamation of Motivation.” In his defense, we were also talking about Abraham Lincoln and his assassination at the time he said it so his confusion is understandable. But the point is he was right... maybe. Procrastination is such as pain in the ass but it's the kind we can't get enough of. Don't deny it. Right now, you're reading a blog about procrastination because you're procrastinating on that thing you need to do.

So why are you procrastinating? Don't know how to start your piece of writing? Is it your project so big that you have no idea where to start so you decide a nap or reading an amateur’s blog would be easier? Or is it simply because you have no desire whatsoever to do the thing that needs to be done? Well let me tell you something, good sir/madam: Stop it! Ok, think about stopping it. Actually, don't stop at all. Just keep procrastinating.

This may sound very insane, but stay with me, some of us are actually very good at the whole “last minute, time crunching, night before its due, caffeine rampage” thing. We do our best work when we have a deadline and that deadline is up in an hour or so. You need to reach your 10,000 word mark by tomorrow to get it into a contest for publication? Pff, no problem. There are levels of procrastination that you should be aware of. Know where you are and embrace it. And if you're a super slacker, I applaud your bravery to dive into all your assignments the night before it's due. ROCK ON SUPER SLACKER and shame on your master procrastinator! I, too, have been guilty of smooth talking into an extension for many assignments in High School, only to procrastinate on it.

However, some of us can't deal with doing all that so last minute but we don't feel like doing it anyways. It's either too big of a project, too long term to the point where you you don't see the need to, or you just don't have the motivation. So here are 2, I repeat TWO, Faraway Tips that are fairly easy to understand:

1. Do it. I HATE doing homework, or starting a new story that I have no idea how I'm going to write, waking up, showering, socializing, and so on. But I do it. Why? I think about how it's similar to me and working out. I don't want to run 5 miles or do those insane amounts of bicep curls or pull ups, but after I force myself to do it, I think about how great it feels to accomplish it. So even though I have no desire to do absolutely anything, I do it and as soon as I do, it's easy to find a rhythm and keep to it so I can get everything done. So if you don't feel like doing whatever it is that needs to get done, force yourself to. Once you start, it's not that bad.

2. Schedule it. If it's one of those long term projects where you want to do, say, 10000 words before a certain date, make sure to stretch out over time. For example, if you need to do that many words over the course of a month, aim for a certain amount of words each week. So each week, write 2500 words. Then break it down from there. How are you going to do that 2500 words in the week? Are you going to do it over the weekend? Or do a few words every other day? Then when you schedule when you'll do what, resort back to the 1^st tip; DO IT! This kind of thing doesn't just apply to writing. Obviously it goes for homework, projects, essays, business stuff where business needs to get done.

I know you're probably thinking to yourself, “Ian! Surely there's more to it than that!” No. That's cutting past all the bull crap and getting right down to the point. I could probably come up with 5 or 10 reasons but it'll all come down to the two points I mentioned above. Besides, I don't really feel like coming up with more reasons than that!  

WRITE ON!

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Check out my blog out every Tuesday for a new blog on writing tips, advice, stories, and so on!!!