swirlsofpurple

Hello. These are the second writing prompts for July. Everyone feel free to write something. The next prompt will be on Thursday, and will be given by the first person to post a piece. Comment in this post with a link to your piece.

You can write whatever you want, as long as it includes the following words:

balance
perspective
compromise
sock

And the line: Things that drift away

I’m still waiting to start my new job, very excited, I think it will probably end up starting in May. I’m thinking of taking a hiatus from writing when I start the job for a couple of months, partly so I can focus on the job and not have the combined stress of job and writing. But also because I’ve gotten into this head-space where there’s always something I’m ‘supposed’ to be writing at the weekend. I feel pressure to get all the things in my head out of my head and onto the page. I have a list of things I want to write and I try to stop myself from spurious ‘other’ writing. And it’s all a bit of a mess. I think I need to allow myself to not write for a while. I was also thinking that in a few years I’ll have a family and kids and won’t have the luxury of having nothing to do. So I shouldn’t spend so much time stressing over making writing ‘a thing I should be doing’. Also, I don’t let it stop me from going out and doing other things, but it does make me frame going out as more of a nuisance and as something that takes time away from writing, even when it’s something I will enjoy, which seems an unhealthy thought process. So I think I just need a writing break in general.

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Who am I?

It’s hard to explain a person in words on a page. There are the bullet points of life, which sometimes say too little. Then there are those level five friendship - whisper in the dead of night- deepest desires and darkest fears type things, which are probably too much information. So, as we’re here to read and write, and given that writing is often akin to spilling a soul onto the page, I think I’ll explain what kind of writer I am instead; that might give some insight.

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I wrote three thousand words this weekend, which I’m happy with. I have a week off this week so I’m hoping to get some more writing done. I want to get these fanfics written so they will stop bugging my muse and I can then focus on my original. I’ve been thinking a lot about writing lately, I watched a bunch of Neil Gaiman talking about stuff vids and one thing stuck in my head. And it wasn’t his popular ‘make good art’ speech, which frankly just doesn’t work for me. I suppose I do have reactionary writing to things in my life, but that tends to be stories that happen in my head and then are never written down because I have little interest in growing or developing them, they are merely stumped mutations of stories created in a dream-like fog of emotion, incapable of being an actual story.

No, the thing that stuck with me, was him talking to a fledgling writer. And he said, imagine you have a million words of shit in you and you have to get all those words out before you get to the good stuff. I suppose some might find this disheartening. I found it massively encouraging. I am holding onto these words. It’s too easy to go back to things I’ve written in the past and think I haven’t improved enough or as much as I should have. But things like this serve as a good reminder that we’re always growing and learning as writers and it does take a lot of practice and a lot of work. Also as much as I think I’ve done, I’ve probably only written around four hundred thousand words, and in perspective, it’s not actually that much, not as much as it’s easy to think it is. There is still plenty of time and space for improvement yet.

Also a quote from author Beth Revis; ‘I wrote a book. It sucked. I wrote nine more books. They sucked too. Meanwhile I read every single thing I could find on publishing and writing, went to conferences, joined professional organisations, hooked up with fellow writers and critique groups and didn’t give up. Then I wrote one more book.’

Writing is an art-form and it demands dedication, but while I would happily fall into a writing slumber and forgo all else. I do think a balance still needs to be maintained, lest I wake one day with a house full of pieces of paper lined in the written word and nothing else. I do wonder sometimes whether I have it in me, but I’m going to try anyway and not give up.

Anyway, the three thousand words was of an Angel fanfic and I’m using the theme of Pandora’s box. I do find it a fascinating myth. All the evils let out, but hope trapped inside. The notion that hope remained trapped inside, that hope is an evil because it offers us something we cannot have. The notion of what hope is; evil? Good? Perhaps the difference is between hope and false hope. I do think hope can accomplish amazing things. But here it references what damage can be caused.

So I’ve decided to do my own version of the whole ‘100 days of LJ’ thing, where instead I write a post once a week for almost a year. This feels much more manageable to me than writing a post every day. First I should probably apologise to all the LJ Idol peeps who I promised to badger with comments who I haven’t thoroughly badgered. Work has been hectic. And now, not only am I not badgering you, I’m insisting on posting on my own journal as well. Ah well.

I thought a lot about doing this; I don’t post much on LJ because I am quite introverted/private. (This doesn’t really explain why I ramble along all sorts of stuff about me in other peoples comment sections, where I have no control over the privacy settings, but whoever said neuroses were rational). The thing is I’m trying to make more of an effort to open up to people and LJ seemed a much less scary place to start than real life.

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Hello new people and welcome to my livejournal. Thank you for friending J.

As I do non-fiction posts relatively rarely and am not sure what to say I’m just going to dive right in and talk about some of my real life stuff and writing that’s going on at the moment.

I’ve decided to put my attempts at a novel on hold for a couple months. I worry about my muse playing with my anxiety issues. My friend pointed out I could just stop writing if it became too much of a problem. Because yes, just stopping in the middle of writing something is totally something I’m capable of. I totally do not have a fic I started in 2010 that I’m still intending on finishing. I suppose she does have a point though. If it was detrimental to my health I’d have to stop.

My six month probationary period at work finished a week ago. Which yay! Some level of job security. On the other hand I’ve had quite a hard week with my anxiety. I think I was holding on a little too hard on getting through the six month probation without and thought that after I wouldn’t have to be so anxious as I wouldn’t be on probation anymore. I forget that I can’t think so logically when it comes to how my anxiety issues are going to choose to manifest.

Hmm, yeah, I guess I don’t do light and fluffy welcome posts.

Anyway back to the writing, I’m going to focus on shorter pieces for now but still do planning for the novel. I really need to understand the language and voices the characters use properly before I begin anyway. The main premise is a slave rebellion, with slaves fighting to overthrow the regime. Would a slave who has only ever known masters speak like a slave? In terms of submission yes, in terms of phraseology probably not. There are also slave ‘training’ centres so I need to think about what someone trained from birth would’ve been trained to speak like. Would the supposed ‘high quality’ slaves be given different training in use of language and if so wouldn’t the trainers of ‘lower quality’ slaves try to replicate the language usage so they would get more money for them.

But of course before I can do any of that I need to develop the type of English everyone speaks. I want to go beyond mere surface adjustments of the odd word here and there. I have decided that the word ‘waxed’ will be used as a synonym for excited though.

What have you been writing? What writing obstacles are you currently navigating? Come sit by my fire, let’s discuss.

End of year Meme stolen from bleodswean and theun4givables

1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before?

I almost got arrested for making a miniature fairy house.

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At the moment I’m working part time and also doing two other volunteering jobs other than that. So I’m a bit short on time and energy. And also my anxiety issues are in a heightened state due to this. I think one thing that’s giving me unnecessary stress is writing, so I’ve decided there’s a lot of the writing I said I was going to do, that I’m just not going to do. Sorry about being rubbish. I’m not doing the hiatus thing; I just end up thinking about the things I’m going to do later. So there’s some things I’m just going to put on the permanent back burner until further notice, those are as follows:

·         Big Originals meta
·         Any anon requests
·         I am Neal fic
·         Pretty much anything that isn’t listed below in the things I’m planning to do section.

Of course my muse’s response to me deciding to not write for a while is to pour bucket-loads of inspiration on me and promise to keep niggling around my thoughts until I write, in part the fault of the lovely juicy idea-provoking shows I’m watching. These are the things I will be mainly doing:

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I have to start writing nanowrimo tomorrow, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I've got a story sorted out in my head but I now want to do something else that I can do better. And I'm turning 26 in two days and I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. This is not a freak out.

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swirlsofpurple

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Writing Prompt
50 days of LJ: Day 7
LJ Idol: Week 0, Title: Who am I
50 Days of LJ: Day 5
50 Days of LJ: Day 1
*Waves at new people* + real life stuff + writing
End of the year Meme, also Happy New Year
Writing stuff
Writing and Real Life

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Writing Prompt

50 days of LJ: Day 7

LJ Idol: Week 0, Title: Who am I

50 Days of LJ: Day 5

50 Days of LJ: Day 1

Waves at new people + real life stuff + writing

End of the year Meme, also Happy New Year

Writing stuff

Writing and Real Life