Tag Archives: inspiration

The best place in New Zealand: Lake Tekapo

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Thinking a little bit about Throwback Thursday made me realise that even in the space of less than a year, there have been so many twists and turns that it seems to be okay to do a throwback to only about three months ago. Specifically, to here:

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This is Lake Tekapo and is one of my favourite places ever. If you look closely, you can see the tiny chapel in the middle. Talk about views from the pews. It was one of my favourites from New Zealand when I was over there a decade ago, so going back this time was something special. Only a few hours outside Christchurch, but it felt like another world away from the construction and the temporariness of life there. It was a quite place, where I could get out a notepad and just mull over ideas and life in general.

Over time it had changed a little bit, but I was lucky enough to go there three separate times this year.

NZ wasn’t the place I needed to be any more, but I do miss the lakes and the mountains on a blue sky day…

Fortune Cookie

An Abundance Mindset

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I really struggle with having an abundance mindset, but I’m trying. An abundance mindset is not believing that just because someone gets something it means you don’t. Even though my rational brain states that it’s not true, my emotional brain always tries to scream ‘mine’ and get me to run to the corner and hide.

I think I can firmly place how this all began. As a child, I played nicely and looked after my things. I’ve always been very careful with my ‘stuff’. I don’t consider myself to be materialistic in the sense that most people think; I don’t want fine art, the best things, or even things that are better than what everyone else. I’ve no desire at all to keep up with the Joneses. I just like my stuff to be my stuff. I’ve had been that way since I can remember. Then, when I was six, my baby sister was born and came into my life like a tornado (which, in fairness, she has pretty much remained ever since) and as a baby / toddler had no qualms about breaking my stuff or smearing it in melted chocolate that she had refused to relinquish from her grubby little fist for six hours.

Thus began the concept of ‘mine’. If I share, it will be taken from me and destroyed.

Of course, as an adult, take that attitude too far and you simply become cynical and bitter. So whilst I’ll probably never be great at sharing with the other kids, that doesn’t mean I can’t be happy for them when they have achievements and blessings in life. It might mean overcoming the worst parts of my nature, but I’m determined to give it a try.

Now give me my blog back. It’s mine…

Pre-Writing – The Playlist Creation

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I don’t actually listen to music when I’m writing any more. I used to do it all the time, but when I made the transition to morning writing, it stopped almost instantly. I think it’s because I have a natural tendency towards good old fashioned rock, and at 6AM I don’t need a killer riff blasting into my pre-caffeinated brain.

Nevertheless, for each longer piece I’m writing (that is, anything from novella upwards), I always make myself a playlist. Every book I’ve ever written has a few songs that I strongly associate with it. I enjoy that. And just because I’m not listening to it while I’m actively writing, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a purpose. I’ll copy the playlist onto my iPhone and burn a CD for the car. Then, during the day-to-day moments of life, it will be there, playing in the background. It’s a good way to keep the story ticking away in the back of my mind. When I’m stuck in traffic, especially, I find this useful. I’ve lost count of the number of scenes I’ve come up with, or plot holes I’ve daydreamed my way out of, whilst stuck behind a bus on the Wolverhampton ring road.

Writing is always about more than just putting a pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). It is not solely words that go into making a story. People who have never tried it don’t realise what an immersive experience it is. There are connections in songs, yes, but also in that old record store from when you were a kid, a coffee shop where you met an old friend who’s laughter was so unusual it made it into your main character, or smell that was in the air the moment your life changed forever. All of these things make you who you are, and that comes through onto the page as you write.

So even if there’s no more air guitar before sunrise, I’ll still always want a playlist. Preferably with some great guitar solos in there somewhere…

Fortune Cookie

Short Stories For Fun

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The concept of doing a series of short stories keeps ticking over in the back of my mind. They’re not really a form I would usually consider, but I think it could be fun. Not only for me to write, but also as in funny ha-ha. I can’t quite see myself as a comedy writer, but I can see how the short story can be useful for short bursts of pithy characters full of wit.

One of the key elements in my head is a recurring character who is already quite well rounded in my imagination. I’d like to play with a little bit of darkness too; I can’t imagine getting away from that too much, no matter what form I was writing in.

Of course, there is the possibility that this is just a new shiny thing to distract me from the many current projects I already have on the go. Plot bunnies do always turn up, after all, when you least want to be distracted by them.

Perhaps I’ll just try one out to see where it goes as a lunchtime project or something.

Wow, that whole post was more stream of consciousness than I’d intended. Oh well…

Sheaffer 100 Fountain Pen Review

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Searching the interwebz, it seems as though this pen hasn’t got a lot of love from the pen community at large. Which is a shame really, as it falls quite neatly into the entry level bracket with some success.

I wrote with a fountain pen for years growing up, but then when you enter the real world, the standard Bic seems to take over a lot of the time. I was looking to get back into fountain pens, but without any current experience, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t blowing hundreds of pounds on a Mont Blanc just because I wanted one (still do).

I’ve been using the Sheaffer 100 now for two months, ever since I purchased it on a trip to Canada. The lovely lady at The Vancouver Pen Shop talked me through a whole range of brands and styles before we settled on this one.

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Forgive both the terrible photo and the equally bad handwriting. It’s a dreary day with bad lighting and only an iPhone for pictures. The handwriting I have no excuses for.

Firstly, the positives. From a cost perspective, this was only $30 + tax, which for a pen of this quality is great. The nib and feed, by all accounts, is exactly the same as what you get in the more expensive Sheaffer 300, which makes it a good way to try it out for size.

The ink flow to paper isn’t too wet, which is also a bonus as I used a variety of notepads from Moleskines to Field Notes to El Cheapo supermarket brands, not all of which are good for fountain pens. It still delivers enough ink to not be too scratchy. In the time I have been using it, it has only skipped a handful of times.

I got the fine nib because my handwriting isn’t conducive to anything thicker, and I found that to work perfectly. Not really any flex as you would expect, but still a smooth write.

The barrel has that more expensive look and feel to it too. I have to be the only person in the world who doesn’t find the aesthetics of Lamy of Kaweco pens pleasing. I definitely prefer the more classic look that comes with this kind of pen. Of course, I still intend to try both of those now I know that I am really enjoying using fountain pens again, so I may yet still be converted.

The only negative for me is the the grip area is super smooth and about an inch deep. That means I have to hold the barrel at a point slightly higher than I normally would, up where the ridge gives a bit of traction. It by no means makes the pen difficult to use though, so I wouldn’t call it a deciding factor.

The best bit about using it has nothing to do with the pen itself. I’ve found a joy in writing creatively in long hand that I hadn’t realised I missed in this day and age of digital devices. It feels subtly different in the care taken for each word choice, and the sense that I am actually crafting something, rather than just banging down on the keys. Especially when I’m travelling, it forces me to slow down and really be in the moment.

Analogue certainly isn’t dead and gone, that’s for sure. If you’ve read this far, you probably agree.

World’s Cutest Library, Banks Peninsula

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I have officially found the world’s cutest library:

 

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How adorable is that? It’s in Tai Tapu village, which you can find on the main road out of Christchurch to the Banks Peninsula. In a country whose European heritage is actually not that old, it was quite a find. The building itself is not actually that old (1932) but having spent so much time in a place where pretty much everything has been levelled, I was thrilled to find it at all.

Plus the lady in their was lovely, offering to take out a book for me in her name. She was happy for me to just meet up with her in Christchurch and hand it back over at some point when I was done with it. This was the Kiwi friendliness that I remember from last time.

Plus, there’s a nice cafe on the corner, so you can completely justify making the trip if you have a nice brunch. Calories are free when you support local libraries, honest.

New Job and Writing

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Next week I will begin the tricky balancing act of starting a new job with that of being a writer.

Essentially, it is starting a new full time role in addition to becoming self-employed and starting a business. Many people would not think of being an author as also being an entrepreneur, but in a lot of respects it definitely is.

There is the act of content creation and development, marketing, accounts and finance, as well as any legal elements that might be included. Depending on how much available time there is after a full day at work, this might eat into virtually all of what would traditionally be considered ‘free’ time.

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Of course, actual number of available hours is only a part of it. Time is only valuable if you have the mental energy to use it effectively. That is why some times you can get more done in a single hour than you can get done in an entire day. It becomes about leveraging that mental energy to make the best use of your time to get things done effectively. It may also be having the courage to admit that you are doing a job poorly and it is worth stopping now before you make a bad thing even worse.

This is what I will try to remind myself of over the next few weeks, when I feel as though my writing is not progressing as fast as I would like. I always commit myself 100% to an employer, something I believe to be vital if you want to be credible and trustworthy as a human being. Obvious caveats apply if your employer is treating you unfairly, of course. But my free time is the the time where the hardest fought battles will take place, because honestly, watching TV is just easier than locking myself away and editing.

I guess the hardest fought battles are the ones most worth winning.

Letters From The Past, Thanks To FutureMe.org

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About 9 months ago, I was on a nice beach holiday, reading Quitter and Start by Jon Acuff. It was there that I first read about the FutureMe.org website. I made a note of it to investigate when I got back. Essentially, it allows you to type an email to your future self, sending it to arrive on a date of your choice. This can have all kinds of purposes. For me, I wanted to keep my future self going in the direction I want to be heading.

You see, the previous six months had been a roller coaster of life spinning out of control. The highs had been high but the lows had also been super low. Life does that to you sometimes. You have to learn to roll with the punches. But because of that, a creeping sense of dissatisfaction had begun to pervade my life. I knew I was heading towards a point where I might be able to make some changes. I wasn’t sure yet what they were going to be, but as I sat there, toes in the sand, honestly assessing my life and scribbling everything in my notepad to make me accountable, I was determined to do something.

Sadly, I’d done (to a lesser extent) the same thing on previous holidays. One of the things I had confessed to in my notepad was not having the courage to do some things, nor the motivation to do others. Therefore, when I penned my email to my future self, I wanted to be kind, but also realistic.

It arrived this morning:

Dear FutureMe,

So you’ve just come back from two sunny weeks in Spain, where you did a lot of talking and thinking and list making for the future. You often do that on holiday. But this time, you wanted it to be different. This time you really wanted to mean it.

I strongly suspect that when you get this, you won’t have made the wild progress that you want. Your dreams won’t have all magically come true via a lottery win. But over the next few months after writing this, you will have been making some of the biggest decisions ever. The ones that will shape your life. The ones that will start you on the road to being something and someone you want to be. Remember that.

Remember it, because I suspect when you’re reading this, then the reality you are living in won’t be massively different from the one I am writing this in. That doesn’t mean it’s time to quit. Just look yourself in the eye and ask if you’re really doing everything you can to make the life you want happen. If you can, then great. If you can’t, then pick yourself up and get going again. Keep taking the steps. Keep hustling. Keep going.

If, by some chance you are everything that you were thinking about during this last holiday, then congratulations. Keep being the best you can be. Don’t get lazy, arrogant or sloppy. Be the person you need to be for the people who love you most. Keep living your life so you can look yourself in the eye.

I hope, regardless of anything else, you’ve done those things you needed to do to get some self-belief.

Keep going kiddo.

That is it, completely unedited or censored.

Have I made some changes? Yes, I’ve got to spend six months in New Zealand really working on what matters most to me. Am I a published author yet? No, but I’m trying and I continue to try. I’m exploring self-publishing too, so that I can continue to grow and learn about the industry as it rapidly changes alongside me.

The reality is also that I’m heading back to the UK soon, at least for the immediate future. So perhaps if I had chosen to not have the mail arrive now, but instead a month from now, the geographical context might have made me feel differently. I don’t know. But that’s not really the point. It arrived now, and gave me a little bit of faith for the next steps.Today I will write another one. I’d recommend that you do too.

More info here:

Mistborn: The Final Empire Review

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So, I am a bit late to the game with Brandon Sanderson. I admit that much. I’ve known of him for years, largely because of the Writing Excuses podcast (which is supremely awesome – you should check it out). But when it came to reading his books, I’d never picked one up, despite my sister’s constant proddings to do so.

Confession time: I’ve always loved the concept of epic fantasy, but The Lord Of The Rings put me off. Not The Hobbit – I read and loved that as a kid. But I’ve lost count of the times I’ve started and failed to finish LoTR. As far as I was concerned, the best thing about it was that my Dad had bought an amazingly bound set that looked perfect on the bookcase. Don’t judge me.

It is therefore a pleasure to be able to say I enjoyed being eased back into the genre by Sanderson. I mean, who wouldn’t be tempted by this cover?

 

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The one thing I knew about Sanderson was his strength when it came to creating magic systems (use that google thing to find all of Sanderson’s Laws – much of it can also be applied to other areas). In this book it is Allomancy, which is one of the most engaging magic systems I have ever come across. It is handled with elegance and balance, not once causing the reader’s suspension of disbelief to waver. Even the action scenes are handled with a deft touch, rather than I have magic, I can beat you, BAM! VICTORY!!!!! which means the main characters never become so competent that they also become boring in the process.

For me, having a female main character rather than just dudes in cloaks walking with elves made it more relatable too. Not that I can’t enjoy books with elves in, in fact I read one very recently (When Elves Attack), but I think there is still an element of masculinity to the genre that is only just beginning to loosen its hold. Which is a good thing, I think.

I’m not going to spoiler it, but the storytelling and pace, along with the characterisation, makes it worth the time investment to get through the hundreds of pages. Sanderson is not exactly known for his brevity, but I was happy to see that it wasn’t just words for the sake of it. To complete something as grand in scope as the vision he has for his worlds, well, it’s going to take a bit longer than your average novel.

If you haven’t already read it, you can buy Mistborn: The Final Empire here.

Fortune Cookie

Let there be stories

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Yesterday was devoted to getting back to the mortgage-paying kind of paid work, as I’m coming up to the end of my little writing sabbatical. Today will be back to the writing. I don’t need to tell you which one of these activities I prefer.

Of course, even writing has elements I don’t like and these are the ones I try to focus on when I get free time that isn’t first thing in the morning. 6am is my writing time. Not my ‘creating’ time (I’m an outliner) and certainly not my editing time. I actively make my stories worse if I try and edit them before coffee.

Generally I have 3 books on the go at the same time. One in the planning phase – this can be as little as an idea knocking around in my head or completed outline and character development.

The second will be in the writing phase. This is the most enjoyable phase for me. Just sitting back, making the story appear from the outline.

The third will be in the editing phase. Definitely the least favourite. Not to mention the one that gets progressively worse. There’s the first read through that can have some pleasant surprises (hey, that’s not actually awful after all!), to the line edits where your brain has read the damn thing so many times and is looking at it in such detail that you get your its confused with your it’s and you want to tell passive voice that it can go and be shoved.

The writing dream is definitely a hard slog. People don’t see the years of hard crafting and sacrifices that go into whipping something into a state where there is a glimmer of hope that a publisher might snap it up. But aren’t all dreams that way?

You can’t guarantee publishing success, but if you can put your hand on your heart and say you tried your best, then that is something to be proud of.