What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I'm currently reading While We Run which I'm LOVING! It's the sequel to When We Wake which was also excellent. I really love the Karen Healey's writing style and the story is so real and so possible... it just reels me in.

What I'm Writing
As I mentioned on my post on Monday I'm taking a bit of time away from my WIP now that I've finished my first revision while I wait for feedback. It's a little nerve wracking! In the meantime I'm playing with a few tentative ideas for my next book which is quite exciting but that's very much in the early early stages!

What Inspires Me Right Now
To be honest I'm not particularly inspired right now. I want to say exactly what I said last week, as what is inspiring me at the very minimum would be the summer weather and getting out of London City. The thing is, I read the news and everyday it's like a punch in the gut. The Malaysian Air disaster, the Palestine troubles, the problems in Gaza... what is the state of the world?! Where has humanity gone? How can a human look in the eyes of an innocent child and put a bullet into his head? How can a human detonate a bomb on a beach where there are children playing, or shoot down a plane without knowing for sure that it's the intended target? It breaks my heart to see this and in the last week in particular I've really been struggling. My Facebook newsfeed is likes doomsday. All the fighting, all the hatred... and then I get sad about the animal cruelty that's alive and well around the world. My newsfeed is filled with awful pictures of poor elephants, leopards, lions, rhinos.... beautiful creatures shot and killed by poachers who want to make money at the expense of a life. Baby animals left orphaned and ill when their parents are so heartlessly taken from them. Circus animals being whipped and chained.... the last remaining captive polar bear in Argentina who is sick and struggling in the completely inappropriate conditions. I'm finding it really hard to find inspiration around me when we're just dragging the world and all inhabitants down with us. It breaks my heart the amount of pain and suffering that's going on at the moment... *rant*. So that's uninspiring, although the people who are stepping up and doing something about it are really inspiring so I guess that's something!


What Else Have I Been Up To?
I've been going to so many job interviews. And they're no easy. One of them was three and a half hours long, another involved a presentation, another felt like I was being interrogated! It's soul destroying but something will come of it. Then I get really rude recruiters who find my CV online and call me about jobs .... they could at least be a little bit nice when they call!

Aside from that Jesse and I have been taking a few day trips. We went out to Brighton on a very hot sunny day which was really lovely. I got sunburnt, we ate fish and chips by the beach and listened to the waves crash on the shore. It's a pebble beach which is crappy but I didn't care enough... it was just so nice to be by the ocean again. I should move to Brighton. I really loved it out there. I really don't think I'm a big city girl. That fact is starting to really sink in! I should've forged a career around something that allows me to live in a sleepy town within easy reach of a bigger city. Maybe if my dreams come true and I get a book deal I might be able to do that....! We also went to the Museum of London which is really interesting, lots of information there about the development of the city, and we went to the Old Spitafields Market which was nice.

Yesterday we checked out Highgate Cemetery which was creepy and beautiful at the same time and had a lovely lunch at Kenwood House - the house from the film Belle if you've seen that (great movie!) and we walked around Hampstead Heath which was nice! It's nice getting out of our tiny little studio room for a while! You can go a bit stir crazy in here!!

We also went to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I didn't particularly enjoy the stage version to be honest.... it felt very.... slow and uninteresting, but others love it I'm sure! This week we're heading to see Skylight which has Bill Nighy and Carrie Mulligan! Very excited about that! How's your weeks going? :)

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a super-awesome-cool-fun blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other. If you want to take part, head over to either of their pages to check it out!

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading Hollow City, the second in the Miss Peregrine series. Now I've started on the latest book in the Pretty Little Liars series, Toxic. *sigh* Those books just keep coming and coming and I'm getting sick of them but I really need to know what happens!!! I'm also reading Salt, Sugar, Fat; How the Food Giants Hooked Us which is really interesting, informative and scary!!

What I'm Writing
Before I took my blog hiatus, I worked my ass off to get two - three posts up a week. Part of the reason I stopped it because I just couldn't sustain that any more. I was writing my blog instead of writing my book and my book is the whole reason for my blog in the first place! So when I came back to my blog I decided I would post when I could and when I wanted to but not feel the pressure to have to post all the time, and it's helpful. So i'm still working away on my WIP, the one I finished and then completely rewrote. If all goes well I should have my first draft finished by the end of day!!! *cue applause* so fingers crossed!

What Inspires Me Right Now
Two things - adventure and summer. I'm trying to make the most of the weather by exploring the UK, seeing what's in and around London and heading out of the city for day trips. Last weekend we headed to Epping Forest and took a walk through the trees (unfortunately summer didn't come to the party and we had a picnic in the rain) but even still! For me, it was very inspiring as the scene I was about to go home and write involved a forest. How convenient!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
I'm still unemployed. It's VERY depressing. The UK job market is tough to crack into! So it's been really hard but I've been looking and applying for jobs an awful lot! I also have been making an effort to get out and do as much as I can (as given the job situation I don't know how long i'll realistically be able to stay in London...). SO a week ago I headed into Trafalgar Square where they put on this free event called West End Live. Stars from all the Broadway shows came out and sung numbers from their shows! It was so great! While Les Miserables and Wicked are my all time favourite, I loved seeing the performances from the upcoming revamp of Miss Saigon. The Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia songs got the whole crowd on their feet dancing. It was fun!!

I also went to a creative writing course with my man (who has finally decided to unleash his creative writing potential and write his own book!) The course was on intricate storylines and while it was interesting it was more geared at those who hadn't started writing their book and possibly didn't even have an idea in mind. So for me I didn't find it particularly helpful at this point in time but I think Jesse did. There was also a lot of workshopping which I wasn't a huge fan of.... just lecture me!

I checked out a performance of The Drowned Man which is put on by Punchdrunk of Sleep No More fame. It was really good! It had a similar style to Sleep No More - four floors of set, audience members wear masks and they're free to wander as they want to follow the stories they choose to follow. It was really complicated but a great show. If you've seen Sleep No More.... think bigger - bigger cast, bigger (and way more) storylines.... bigger. It was awesome

We also went to the Southbank Philharmonia Concert on Friday where they performed 'screen themes'. We're talking theme songs from the favourites - Indiana Jones, Ghost Busters, James Bond, Batman, Superman and so many more. Then they ended with a few songs from their new Abba album which had everyone up on their feet. Best Orchestral concert I've ever been to!

The week ended at Wimbledon where we sat for many hours watching an empty court in the rain (and totally not dressed for the cold!) but then finally got to see some quality action. We saw Serena Williams defeated by Alize Cornet. Wowza it was an epic game. Pretty sad actually too, I was cheering for Serena but almost everyone else in the crowd was going for Alize.

So that's pretty much me! How's your weeks been? I'm going to leave you with this little picture as I thought it was quite clever....

What's Up Wednesday!

Wow, it's been a while since I did one of these!

What's Up Wednesday is a blog hop created by Jaime and Erin to help writers keep in touch with each other.

SO, without further ado....

What I'm Reading
I've just finished reading the Kindrily series which I really enjoyed and am now starting on Sapphire Blue, the second book in the Ruby Red series. Although I don't seem to have a lot of time to read at the moment, I'm spending more time working on my writing instead :)

What I'm Writing
A week ago I completely gutted my WIP that I've been working on for a year and a half and pretty much started again. I kept the bones of the original wip but it needed a total make over so hopefully this will make it much better!

What Inspires Me Right Now
My photos from my travels. I had so many great ideas for new stories while I was travelling and so many of them are held within the thousands of photos I took. I honestly get lost in them every time I start looking through them. The life that many Africans live is somewhat similar to the life of my central character in my WIP (yet also very different), so I was able to really gain a lot of insight and inspiration from that. That and the gloomy London weather! (Summer, what summer?) A rainy day is always conductive for inspiration!

What Else Have I Been Up To?
Well I've just made my return to the blogging world after 9 months away. I wrote a post here about why i've been away and what I've been up to. More recently though, I've been working on cutting out grains and sugar from my diet, have been going to the gym, learning guitar and applying for job after job (with not a lot of success. Le sigh). I did go to a writing seminar on Monday night which was hugely interesting and i'll write a post about it soon :)

How is everyone in the blogosphere going? :)

Blogging Inspiration

I know we've talked a lot about finding inspiration for our WIPs and future WIPs but I haven't talked all that much about finding inspiration for blog posts.

I know the whole reason Jaime and Erin started What's Up Wednesday is because they too were finding it increasingly difficult to find topics to write about regularly on their blogs.

So I would love to know, where do you find your inspiration? Do you get it from other blogs? From the news? From google searches? Or does it just come to you out of thin air?

You remind me of....

One of the questions I often see authors being asked is whether their main character (or another prominent character) is very much like the author themselves.

While one particular author would say that the character is very much like themselves or their best friend or mother, another author would say that the character has elements of themselves or is nothing like them.

When I started writing my WIP, I was basing part of the male lead (Noah) on my man. I imagined them to look very similar, and the personality to be quite alike, but as my WIP has grown, they're nothing alike. They don't think the same way, act the same way, the even look totally different (in my mind). Their motivations in life are completely different.

I find it quite amazing that Noah has grown to be very much his own person and now isn't actually based on anyone. By the time he walked onto my pages, there was no resemblance to my man at all. I was telling him how interesting I found this and asked him if he thought I was anything like Chlo (my MC).

It's a hard question really, as I haven't based Chlo on myself at all. I haven't written Chlo to be anything like me. She's from a different world, a different upbringing, a totally different life... but she's still a product of me so I guess it would make sense if by accident she really had turned out to be very similar to who I am.

We came to the agreement that while she's very different in her way of life, and the way she thinks about things and see's the world, and her reactions to situations presented to her are very similar to my own. Her emotions and the way she copes when life throws crap in her face are eight on par with my emotions and the way I would cope. Although, she's a lot stronger than I am and she's got way more balls (so to speak).

As my book progresses and the characters evolve, I'm sure I will see more of myself, my friends and family in the characters - most likely by accident.

What about y'all? Do you recognise yourself or your friends and family in your characters? Do you purposely write your characters to be based on someone or does it just kind of ....happen?

A new resolution

I'm not yet confident in my skills as a writer. It's all still feeling quite new for me. Because I'm not so confident I've asked two people who know I'm working on this WIP to read what I've written. However I found that the comments they would come back with was really affecting my writing and my need to get the story out.

While one would simply say, I don't like this part, the other would ask the small questions that I hadn't even thought of and certainly weren't necessary to think of in the first draft. But I'd look at their questions and comments and panic. I'd say if these questions are coming up now and I can't answer them, or I'm giving the answer they don't want to hear, then my book isn't going to work. The story isn't going to be right.

Consequently I would stop writing. I'd stop for a few days or a week and then I'd usually delete huge sections. Then I'd feel deflated. I'd think I couldn't do it and that I'd never be good enough.

I know they didn't mean for their comments to have that affect on me, but I was so desperate for my story to be....right. I wanted their approval with what I was writing, I wanted them to like what was written on those pages. I'm not saying they didn't, but there were aspects that needed work, or questions that were raised that they wanted to bring up with me.

Eventually I sat back and said to myself, I'm writing this story for me. It's my story and these bits this person is telling me to include or exclude will totally change the vision I have for it. I need to do what's right for me to get this story told. I need to do whatever I can to get the first draft complete, then I can hear what they have to say.

To do this I had to basically cut them off from my story. I don't talk about the content with them much anymore, and I definitely don't send them chapters. They understand, which I'm grateful for, and for the moment that is definitely what is best for me and my WIP. Since I stopped worrying about the comments they'd make and the questions they'd raise, the ideas poured into my brain and helped the story form in my mind. Now i'm more on track than ever.

I've asked a lot of people for help getting past my roadblocks over the past month or so, and I thank you all for your advice. Every piece of advice I was given, I've kept, and I use when I need inspiration. It turned out for me though, the way to really open the dam and let the ideas flow was to get rid of the external forces and to write this story on my own.

It's scary, but I really think it's going to be worth it! 

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme, started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk, that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. Join by visiting their blogs and signing in on the widget.

I've been pretty bad at blogging lately, and even pumping out a What's Up Wednesday! (Partly because I get Wednesday almost 24 hours before America/Canada so I get confused by the time difference...!)

But this week, it's all on!

What I'm Reading
I finally finished Cody Name Verity which took me quite a while to get through then I followed it up by one of those guilty pleasures... Pretty Little Liars number 13 (!!). Dang guilty pleasures! Now I'm reading the new book from Khaled Hosseini, And The Mountains Echoed. There are so many others on my list that I've been meaning to read for over a year now, but I loved The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns so really want to crack into this one!

What I'm Writing
Still pumping away on my WIP. I've finally broken free of my mind block and barriers (there'll be a blog about this in the next few weeks) and now the words are flowing more freely. The key is to keep them flowing! I've made up two of the chapters I deleted, so just got to get a move on and make up the rest!

I'm happy with where my story is heading now, but I am spending more time getting those words down  and unfortunately less time here on the blog. I'm trying to avoid using my blog as a procrastination tool and avoid procrastination in general! We'll see how that goes... haha!

What Inspires Me Right Now
We've been having some pretty crappy weather in New Zealand lately. It's heading toward the middle of winter and New Zealand has been utterly battered with wild weather. In the past week we've had a massive wind storm, a massive rain storm (which caused huge amounts of flooding) and a huge snow storm. My character is in a pretty dark place currently so bundling up in front of the heater and writing while the rain pours outside is what has been inspiring me!

What Else I've Been Up To...
It's been busy over the last few weeks. Our Festival programme launched - if you're interested in just looking or think you might be in Christchurch in August/September check it out here. That's been one of my big projects and I'm very happy with how it turned out!

I've been braving the -3 temperatures to get out to the gym at 7am each morning, and have finally started watching Game of Thrones. I know I'm SO far behind, and I did watch most of the first season in 2011 but just couldn't get into it. I'm trying again and am loving it so far! About to start on season two :D

Aside from that, I've just been working and hanging with my family. Heading up north to see my man on Friday which i'm VERY excited about! 

As I said, it's mid-winter so we're all in hibernation mode so not a lot is really going on! Hating this cold! Bring on the summer!

What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

How is it What's Up Wednesday time again already? If you're not up to date yet, What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that allows us to touch base with our online friends to tell them what's up in your world!

What I'm Reading

I'm ashamed to say i'm STILL reading Code Name Verity. I've been so crazy busy over the last few week that it's been a bit abandoned! Whoops! I miss my daily subway reading time! I'll get there, I promise!

What I'm Writing

A lot of you are aware I've been having some mega issues getting past my writers block. I deleted a good portion .... okay most of my current WIP and am starting again with a different angle. So I did the deleting and then I stared at the blank page and got frustrated. I blogged about my frustrations, got some great advice and then stared some more at my blank page. So I took a week off. I've barely even thought about my WIP for the last week until today. I went to the gym, and started to let my mind wander to my WIP. It was the first time I'd let myself think about what might happen next. 

See I've been writing out a broad plan of the book and I got to this point and I just couldn't figure how to get from point A to point B. At the gym, it was like the dam had been blown up and the water could flow freely. No kidding, I suddenly got the answer. It hasn't got me to the end of my plan, but it's got me pretty close. I feel I'm ready to get back on the horse and start writing the chapters again. I don't know why it's taken so long, but I'm glad things are flowing again!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Nature. Everyone always goes on about how beautiful New Zealand is, and I know they're right. I do live in a really stunning city. But truth be told, I don't see a lot of that on a daily basis. I live in a city, I go to my house, to the gym, to work and back. Last weekend I got out into nature and saw just how beautiful it can be. My book is very tied in with the power of nature, and so that has really got me inspired!

What Else I've Been Up To


Yikes I just wrote a whole speil here then it disappeared!

The main thing I've done in this last week was head to the West Coast of the South Island with my man so we could go to the glaciers! We had planned to go up on Franz Josef, but the whole time we were there it rained and rained. The cloud was really low which meant that the helicopter which transfers you up onto the ice couldn't operate so the tour was cancelled. We were so gutted! We headed 30 minutes down the road to Fox Glacier and as they don't need a helicopter their tours usually still operate in the rain. Only problem was, there'd been a rock slide so all their tours were cancelled too. We were so disappointed. There wasn't a lot else to do there except the glaciers so we packed up and left a day early. Typically within two days, the sun had come out and the tours up to the glacier had perfect blue skies. grrr! We did have a good chance to really spend some quality time together though. It was the first time we'd seen each other properly in 3 months so we were in dire need! We also managed to walk through the valley to the bottom of the glacier (in the rain, we got very wet), but that was nice to see.

Aside from that I've been busy at planning more of our big trip for next year! We've added in 5 days on Crete which I'm very excited about as my Grandad fought there during the war! We're booking the rest of our flights this week which will be great to get locked in! Then it's all about saving as much money as possible!!

Speaking of money, I've been working like a mad woman at work - the festival have released four of our top shows for the festival ahead of our main launch which has been very busy! So if anyone plans to be in CHCH, NZ in August and September you'll have to see some of the shows we've got on offer!

Lastly, I've been spending a lot of time with my parents lately which has been nice. My brother-in-law convinced us all to start watching this BBC show Orphan Black. I don't always trust his recommendations but this one is actually really great so far! Have only watched one episode but I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. Does anyone else watch this?

What have you been up to this week?

Inspiration

If you could see my "to read" pile right now you would raise your eyebrows and wish me luck. Truly. There are so many incredible books out there just begging to be read. So many different types of stories, so many characters.... where do we find the ideas from?

The book I'm working on right now, I have no idea where the inspiration came from. I was explaining the plot to my brother-in-law the other day and as he is a total sci-fi geek he was very excited to inform me my story had "very strong elements of sci-fi". No way, not true. Okay maybe a little true, but not intentionally! Honestly though, I have no idea where this particularly story idea came from. It wasn't a life event that gave me the idea, and it wasn't an image or a TV show or anything of the sort... I had one idea and it just developed from there.

In the past six months there have been a number of events that have triggered that little light bulb in my head to light up. The "this would be a great idea for a book" light bulb. Then there are the plans I'm making for the future which I can already tell would provide a great setting for a story.

So I wonder, where do you find your inspiration? Do you write books based on events of your life, or your friends lives or do you find something entirely and completely obscure and go from there?

What's Up Wednesday

I swear the weeks are just whizzing past!


So word is starting to get out about What's Up Wednesday which is GREAT! I just now need to remember the time zone difference and get them up at the right time! Yikes!

How's everybody's week been? :D


What I'm Reading
I've now officially started on Cody Name Verity, and so far it's pretty good. Has a bit of a slow start but it's enjoyable to read. I've been going to bed really early to try and get lots of reading time in but unfortunately I end up falling asleep within half an hour. My co-workers do find it funny when I say I went to bed to read my book and ended up asleep by 9pm! Crikey!

What I'm Writing
Well I sat staring at my blank page with the title Chapter 8 for just over a week. You know when you read a book that is so boring you have to force yourself to get over it and just read but it's SUCH. A. HASSLE? Yeah, well my book's been like that. So repetitive and boring, and I sat there saying 'this is going no where.' So I did two days of serious brainstorming and then I looked at what my issues were.

I was trying to focus on two many characters at once. There wasn't a sole purpose of the story and there was too many smaller story lines trying to creep in. So I'm pretty much going to scrap chapters 4 - 8 and start over. Chapters 1-3 are where I want them, but I need to hone it in, and focus more on the issue and the resolution... the characters journey. I was also writing in split narrative as I thought that was the best way to get over a certain language barrier, but it was creating too much confusion so i'm kicking the guy's narrative to the curb and going to change a few things up. Hopefully it'll work better this time!

What Inspires Me Right Now
My motivation to get the story right, that's inspiring me. Every time I log onto my blog and check the newsfeed I get inspired. And of course my lovely man who won't let me give up even when I feel it's useless.

What Else I've Been Up To
Sleeping! I've been so tired I've been sleeping so much! A lot of physio as well - I have a slipped disc in my neck which is causing these awful headaches so I've been doing a lot of physio exercises to help that come right. I'm still planning my trips, and at work we're planning a big launch party for Friday night. We're pre-releasing four shows that'll be in our Arts Festival which is very exciting! And the brochure has finally been sent to the printers!

Aside from that, my man is FINALLY coming down to see me - it's been two months since I saw him last so I'm very exciting, and in a week's time we're heading to one of New Zealand's best glaciers which I'm very excited about!

What have you been up to? :)

What's Up Wednesday

I've been meaning to do What's Up Wednesday for a couple of weeks since Jaime and Erin came up with this awesome idea.
Only problem was I kept getting confused with the different time zones and pretty much failed. This week though, i'm on it!

What's Up Wednesday is just a way to keep in touch with blogging friends and let everyone know what's been happening in your life!

What I'm Reading
I just finished the latest Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller which I, embarrassingly, took two months to read. It was a good read, just very heavy and life kept getting in the way!

Tonight i'll also be finishing The Future of Us. Tomorrow I can finally start on Code Name Verity. My friends been bugging me for ages to read this, so hopefully it sucks me in!

What I'm Writing
I'm taking my good sweet time to get through my current WIP. Seriously, I'm up to chapter 8 and have been writing for three months already. I currently have hit a snag and haven't written all week. I'm sure i'll be able to pick it up this weekend when I'm a little less crazy with work and life in general. I just need to stop changing so many important aspects of the book!

What Inspires Me Right Now
I'm not getting a lot of inspiration from certain things right now except perhaps my dreams. When I need something to come to me I go to the gym and about half way through my work out, once i'm well and truly lost in my story land my ideas come pouring out. Then of course there are a few of my own life events and parts of history that lend themselves and inspire me.

What Else I've Been Up To

At work
We're in full on brochure production mode for the Arts Festival Programme Brochure. It's a lot of work and I've done a lot of proofing and editing over the last few weeks. I had no idea how much work went into those brochures. It's almost time to send it to the printers - very exciting but also nerve wracking.

At home
I've been thinking a lot about my book, but haven't done a lot of writing. I've been playing my guitar a lot too, losing myself in the music is a great way to spend some 'me time'. I've also been planning my next lot of travels! My man, my sister and my sister's man booked flights to Africa on Monday, we're all booked in for early next year to head to the great African continent and safari for 5 weeks before spending 9 days in Egypt, 6 days in Athens and 10 days in Turkey. Then we'll move to London. The plans are starting to come into place, I'm very excited! I'm also planning my trip to the New Zealand glaciers which I'm doing with my man in two weeks time. I've never been before even though they're only a few hours drive away, so i'm looking forward to that!

In Remembrance
The last week has been pretty difficult. On Friday two people I knew died. One was expected, and one was incredibly sudden and unexpected. I saw this guy on Friday morning and he was happy and full of energy. Within a few hours a brain aneurysm had snuffed out his life. So cruel and unfair. I've rarely known anyone to be so chirpy and living life to the full. It's hard to believe that someone who really was larger than life could be taken from us so early. Words can't fully do justice to how much of an incredible guy he was, and why he managed to touch so many people's lives, but he really did. A good portion of my town knew him in some way or another. His death has hit me harder than any other I've been through, including my grandparents (but that would be because I was so young). All my love, prayers and thoughts are going out to his wife and his two children who haven't even reached the age of five.

Sooo that's me for now! What have you all been up to? :)

Under the flags

I can't help feeling, right at this moment that I'm a little bit lucky.

I work for an arts festival in one the cities in New Zealand and currently one of the other cities, Auckland, is holding their Arts Festival. My work has sent me up to view a few of their shows, and check out how their festival has been going.

I have a little downtime today, and althoguh the summer in New Zealand is drawing to an end, it is the most beautiful day in Auckland today. Blue skies, not a cloud in sight and the sun is beating down on me.

The festival I work for is going to be bringing down this incredible exhibit by one of New Zealand's contemporary artists, Tiffany Singh. Basically thousands of children participates in these workshops with Tiffany to create flags that reflect their hopes and dreams for the future. They're based on Tibetan prayer flags. They're then hung up in a mass installation so they plays are sending the hopes and dreams up to the sky.

Auckland has the exhibit as part of their festival and I am currently sitting underneath this installation of flags in a lounger with the sun streaming down between the flags.... and i'm writing my book.

This is how I define perfection. I wish you could all be filling up the other sun loungers, having a drink, listening to the music that is being played out over the square and working on your own novels.

It's days like this when I remember why I love New Zealand.

(C) Samantha's Bookshelf

(C) Samantha's Bookshelf

My word vomit writing style

I feel like I have 'The Word Vomit' disease. That is, the little issue I can't seem to get past whenever I'm writing.... well... anything. An email, a Facebook status, an essay.... a blog and most definitely a book I seem to just vomit up words out of my finger tips. That gives me a really gross visual - apologies - but you know what I mean, right?

Even when I feel like I don't have much to say I just start typing and before I know it there's all these words on the page. Consequently it makes editing a real mission.

My FH (meaning, current boyfriend who is pretending he doesn't pick up the hints that "if you like it then you should put a ring on it...") has a very different writing style than I do. When we were in college, all those years ago (okay it was only three years ago, but whatever), we took one paper which required a 15,000 word paper. That's not a lot of words. At all. Particularly when you have lots to say (or when you suffer from The Word Vomit disease). Anyway, I would word vomit all over the paper for weeks before the assignment was due. In this case I was actually working on it for two months. My dear FH picked up his laptop and books a week before the thing was due and delicately wrote out his essay. Now he edits as he goes. I would spill 30,000 words out and then go back and revise numerous times until it was under the word count and as refined as perfectly as possible. I would get so anxious walking past his screen at 2am (on the one occasion during my college career when I stayed up half the night working) and see he'd only achieved three paragraphs. If he worked the same way I did he would have probably finished his first draft already and would have moved on to editing.

I guess his way of writing essays was more productive than my unorganised mess. He ended up with an A+ for his 'less than a week long effort' and I was given an A- for all those hard hours of word vomit mania! I can't seem to let it go. ha!

The thing for me, is as I write, more ideas keep coming to me. I don't want to lose the thought so I just write it. It may not make sense, it may not fit in with the rest of the book, the whole vibe of the book may change completely or it may mean a character is doing something totally uncharacteristic.... but that's okay. At the end of the day I can look through my work and start the revising period (well, not at the end of the day, more like the end of the book). My word vomit will often help make my book better. Granted, it was probably not likely to sit too well with essays because I did tend to go off on a tangent ... much like I do in my blogs. But for my own novel, I feel it helps rather than hinders my writing.

Just my thought for the day. What do you think? Do you have the word vomit disease too, or is whatever you put on the page planned out from the beginning?

ps. I actually really hate the word vomit, but at the same time, I kind of like the way it sounds.

RTW: Our Inspiration

Another Wednesday, another Road Trip! Road Trip Wednesday is a blog hop hosted by YA Highway!

This week we're all sharing our most inspiring and/or motivational video, book, or quote on writing!

When I was 11 I collected motivational quotes. I'm not entirely sure why, I just loved them so much. I had folders and books full of the things. Not all of them stuck with me, but there is one in particular that I've never forgotten. It's not specifically about writing, but in general I think it's a great approach to life.

"Always aim for the Moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

Of course there are a number of variations of this particular quote but I love it so much. I feel it can certainly be applied to writing, and any other aspect of your life. In general I use them as words to live by. 

To me, this quote is saying to aim as high as possible, always believe you can achieve, and never think any dream is too small. To that end I've always never thought of dreams as merely dreams, I think of them more as something that can be obtained if I work hard enough. Of course it's not always easy, not at all, but if you want something bad enough I believe you can get it. 

The other quote I really love, which can be applied to writing or again, life in general, is by the amazing Dr Seuss. 

'Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.'

It's true! Those who matter don't mind!

As for videos... again, they don't necessarily motivate or inspire me in terms of writing, but more in terms of life which consequently motivates and inspires my writing. The best place for inspirational videos is, of course, YouTube. You can find some real gems in there. 

There are heaps that I love, so I can't add them all here so I'm just going to show you one of my favourites.

This boy is such an inspiration. If he can build a windmill, I can ... write a book, climb a mountain, get a new job etc etc. This guy goes to show that if you want something, and you work at it, you can make miracles!

In terms of inspirational books, I talked recently about some non-fiction books that really inspire me.

Elissa Wall's story, document in A Stolen Innocence and Kay Bratt's story from Stolen Tears, inspired me to stand up for those who don't have a voice in this world. It motivated me to get out there and learn about other cultures and to do something worthwhile with my life. They're both brilliant books, I highly recommend them!

So they're mine! What are yours?

A strange morning of inspiration

Have you ever found sometimes you find inspiration in the strangest places when you least expect it?

Once I week I usually have to go pick up something for my workplace from midtown. It's quite nice to get out and about in the city first thing in the morning, seeing everyone rushing around like crazy, trying to get to work on time.

Earlier this week I was sitting on the subway, heading to midtown, and I had this strange feeling. I can't explain what it was, it just seemed like something wasn't quite right. I shrugged off the feeling and got off at Herald Square to head to my destination. I was standing outside Macy's when I heard this shout behind me. It seemed like a policeman on a bicycle chasing another guy on a bicycle. I couldn't quite gauge what was going on, but before I knew it, the guy in front had biked straight into the oncoming traffic and the cop was screaming at him to stop. I stood frozen in the middle of the road, with my eyes as wide as saucers, as the guy on the bike was hit by an oncoming bus.

It wasn't a disaster though. The traffic was pretty heavy in midtown, so the cars weren't going particularly fast. The driver of the bus hit the brakes as soon as he saw what was going on, so the impact wasn't as hard as it could've been. It was crazy though, seeing his reaction as he turned his head and saw a huge bus coming straight at him. He simply held out his arm in the hope that he could stop the bus from hitting him. He was fine. He was pretty angry at the cop who he believed had caused the whole thing (I can't see where that logic comes from, but whatever), but it left my heart racing. I replayed the whole thing over and over in my head, realizing just how incredibly lucky he had been. That scenario could have been much, much worse.

Walking back to the subway to head back to my office, I accidentally took the subway uptown instead of downtown. I must've still been shaken from the whole bus incident that I failed to notice the train was going in the wrong direction. Annoyed at myself, I jumped off at the next station. It was while I was walking to the correct train that I saw a really amazing site. I saw an old homeless guy sitting against the wall, looking very alone and sad. He wasn't wearing any shoes and his skin was pale. Suddenly a beautiful little puppy appeared out of no where, went up to the old man and cocked its head at him. The old man's eyes lit up and he held out a hand. The puppy went closer and then climbed onto the lap of the old man. He got settled into the old man's lap then looked up and gave the old man a lick on his lips. As I walked away I saw the old man settle back down against the wall, snuggling into the little puppy, with a small smile playing across his lips. He looked much less alone than he had just a minute ago.

Ten minutes later I arrived at my correct station and emerged from the street to find my subway top surrounded by twelve policemen. Two of them were speaking to a street vendor who had closed up his cart while the rest stood around watching the crowd. Half the street had been blocked by 5 police cars, yet I still couldn't figure out what was going on.

I tentatively walked through the group of NYPD officials and carried on down the Manhattan street to work. The sky was a deep grey colour, and with the buildings looking the same shade of brown and the street looking dark and dirty, the area didn't look particularly appealing at all. In fact... it looked depressing. After the last hour, all I wanted to do was go home and go back to bed. Then I saw something amazing. A vibrant looking monarch butterfly was flitting along beside me.

I love butterflies. I have a butterfly tattoo on my ankle, I have all sorts of clothes, decorations, lamps and various other objects that are butterfly shaped or have butterflies printed on them. For me, butterflies symbolise simple beauty, peace, freedom, calm and tranquility. When I was growing up my primary school (elementary school) used to have a swan plant which was filled monarch butterflies. They were everywhere. Every summer, they'd come out to play and I was always in awe of their great beauty.

Since I moved to New York 12 months ago I haven't once seen a monarch butterfly. So you can imagine my surprise to see one flying along beside me without a care in the world. The butterfly's vibrant colours stood against the dreary Manhattan backdrop and it seemed to linger in front of my head before accompanying me down the street. I was speechless. I don't even know how I could possibly explain how I felt in that moment. It was almost like some sort of sign - except I don't know what it could possibly mean. The butterfly lingered in the doorways of a few shops before flying near my head again and then circling around and flying off into the distance.

When I couldn't see the flash of orange and black anymore I turned around and headed to work somewhat in a daze.

In each of these little events from my morning I could easily pull out a few scenes or storylines for a novel.  That's certainly not what I was expecting when I headed off to run my errand this morning.

Have you had an instance like this where inspiration has literally jumped up out of no where and slapped you in the face until you took notice? It's crazy....!

Images that inspire

When I was 14 I had to have surgery. I had another at 15, another at 17, two at 18 (one was for appendicitis), another at 20 and then countless other procedures in between (I was such a healthy teenager, ha!). The recovery times for each of these surgeries varied significantly, but for the most part they always involved some form of lying in bed for at least a couple of days. After my first surgery, my parents got me a bunch of DVDs and brought one of the TVs into my bedroom during my recovery. The only problem was, after the anesthetic I was too sleepy to be able to focus on anything other than music and staring at the ceiling.

For my next surgery, my parents bought me a bunch of CD's and before I went into the hospital I printed out a selection of images and arranged them on my bedroom wall so I would easily be able to see them from my bed. 

These pictures would be of places I wanted to go around the world, vibrant cities, European villages, tropical beaches, the Northern Lights, rainforests ... they'd be pictures of places where in my mind I could escape to and pretend I was there instead of lying in bed trying not to pull the stitches in my stomach.

These pictures would inspire me, I would create a world around me which could be completely different than the world I was living. As I started traveling around the world, I would buy postcards in each town, village, city or country I would visit. I stuck them all over my bedroom until I had each wall filled with pictures of places all over the world. Some could think I was obsessed with traveling. This is partly true, but primarily these pictures gave me inspiration.

I could stare at these images and write an entire novel in my head (let's face it, I had plenty of time up my sleeve!). It was a really good way to exercise my brain and to stretch my creativity beyond what I thought I was capable. Many of those ideas have never seen the light of day, however the WIP I'm currently working on is a product of one little idea that came to me during one of those recovery periods. The story was never formulated in my head, but I had this image of a girl, and her surroundings were so curious and interesting... and she looked slightly different than most people I know. I think only one scene played out in my head, but that scene stuck with me, and all these years later I am finally telling her story.

Now, whenever I go to write I think of those images, or I ask Google to give me some more inspiration, and those images will help create my story.

What images inspire your writing? Here's a few of mine....

Photo by Dirk van der Made

Photo by Makemake

 

The stunning Niagara Falls! Photo is my own :)

Rarotonga, one of my favourite places on earth! Photo is also my own

Squeezing past the road block

How do you overcome writers block? That massive block in the road which you just can't seem to get past. That moment when you're ripping through a new story, you have so many great ideas.... and then suddenly you don't know where to go next....What happens? How does your character get from A to B? How does your character overcome this obstacle?

So what do you do?

Here's a few things I do

1. Take my favourite novels and pull them to pieces (not literally. Please do not hurt your novels!). I think about what it is that I really love about them. Chances are the things I love about those stories will help me overcome my current roadblock.

The character in my one of my favourite novel's loves sitting by the river. That is something I love about the book. It's her place to go, to think, to reflect, to get away and to dream. This could open my brain to new possibilities for the character in my novel. Perhaps instead of trying to escape on land, she escapes by swimming down the river. Perhaps instead of hiding in her bedroom, she has a place on top of a mountain she goes to think. It's the perspective thing - stepping back and getting a new perspective. This was a terrible example - but you get the gist! (I hope)

2. Plan the next plot point. I'm a planner, I like details and I like to know where things are heading. My life, my relationships, my travel plans, my career and my novels! This freakish planning often helps me avoid too many roadblocks. It means I know where my character needs to get to. If she's at point A and she needs to ultimately get to point B, what is going to happen in between point A and B to get her there. If I didn't have a point B, I feel she'd wander around aimlessly, but the fact I know where she's heading, where she has to end up, it helps to work past those blocks.

3. This point I got from Pixar! Make a list of what wouldn't happen next. If you sit down and say, okay, well I don't think there'll be an earthquake or flood you might see that a volcano might erupt. Basically writing down what wouldn't happen next helps you find the things that COULD happen next. It helps unblock the road!


4. It is a character you're having trouble with? You don't know what to do with your protagonist? Think about what you would do if you were in their position. Identify with the character and the situation. Write down 5+ ideas, then think about which of those ideas would be the most exciting for your audience to read.  Don't be afraid to be honest either. Honestly will often be more incredible than a fabricated feeling or emotion. It will feel more genuine as well.

5. Throw in some action. Have the character meet someone that is a total opposite. Challenge your character and take them out of their comfort zone. A positive for a negative, a tall for a short, a beautiful for a plain, a jock for a nerd. Someone that will clash with your character, someone that will create some drama and action. Having that character in there might help move the story forward more smoothly.

6. Just keep writing. Who cares if what you put down is absolute crap....... Keep writing, then come back to this point later and rewrite it. By the time you come back you might know what needs to happen here.

7. Skip this section. Figure out what is due to happen next and write that, then come back and fill in the blanks.

What ideas do you have? How do you get past writers block?

RTW: How our writing changes with the seasons

Wow, the week just flew by! I didn't even get a chance to write any other posts since last Wednesday! Not only that but I almost forgot to post today's RTW! I'll have to remedy all that this week! So, this weeks RTW topic is talking about the seasons and how our writing (place, time, inspiration, etc) changes with the seasons?

As I write this I look out the window at the trees down the street which are slowly changing colour into that gorgeous shade of orange and yellow that can really only be associated with fall (or autumn as I call it back home). The sky is a misty deep grey colour and the rain is pouring down. It's what we would probably call 'miserable'. Because lets face it, it is kind of miserable to have to leave the house on a day like this. Lucky for me (or unlucky really), I'm sick today and had to stay home from work, so I sit here cuddled up under the blanket (although it's not really that cold), watching the rain come down outside.

Like so many people, my mood really does change with the seasons. In the summer I feel a kind of freedom. The weight on my shoulders from the winter has lifted and I feel much happier. The neighbourhoods come alive, people seem much friendlier and the atmosphere completely changes - especially in New York! In the winter it's cold and dreary and you have to wear a gazillion layers and that includes hats, scarves and gloves (not something we need to do back in New Zealand). People have shorter tempers, everyone is in a hurry (more so than usual) to get to where they're going because it's too cold to stay outside for long, and if you count the frowns on the faces you pass you'll be well over 200 by the time you get to your destination.

In that respect, my writing changes a lot with the seasons. In the spring and summer the settings I talk about are very magestic, they're inspired by the summer - long grass, tulips, daffodils, blue skies, scorching sun, lakes and beaches, endless and carefree days. I get inspired by the people I see flocking to the parks, by the smell of the barbeques, by the hot and sticky nights. My storyline, scenes and characters may form from the Independence day fireworks, the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island which kicks off the summer, or the mass exodus from the city as everyone heads to the Hamptons. Often when I think of the American summer, I get transported back to the 50's, 60's and 70's. Not that I was alive then, but just because I can imagine these carefree, small town American summers.... OR I will think of the New Zealand summers, the traditional 'Kiwi Bach' or the camping holidays by the beach.

In the fall and winter I'm inspired in a different way. The gloomy dark skies will give me ideas for dark stories and events, for bad characters or for horrible and painful scenes. On a day light today when I can almost see down to the park from my window, the scene is almost magical. So I may get inspiration for something beautiful, something mystical or mysterious. It may build on the material I already have or it may spark and idea that takes me in a totally different direction. The winter seasons also transports me to different times and places, specifically the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, to London, Venice or sometimes back home to New Zealand.

Even if I don't realise it, the weather, the seasons and the atmosphere the seasons bring to the city have an impact on my writing and my thought process. I have never really thought of the impact it has before, so it's interesting to really pick through how it inspires our writing.

To read more answers to this topic, be sure to head over to YA Highway

Forming story ideas

In the last two days I've spent about six hours lying in the park. I desperately needed some sunshine, so took the opportunity to get out there and soak up some rays.

While I was lying there, I watched all the people come and go - mothers with their kids, teenagers with their friends, toddlers with their nannies and young couples on what could potentially be their first date.

It's a great place to get inspiration for future story ideas, to imagine the lives of these people, their ups and downs and what makes them tick. In fact, I probably spent about an hour creating the spider web of relationships in my head for a toddler and her nanny yesterday.

One thing I found interesting though, was that none of the stories I came up with while in the park really spoke to me in the way that my past characters have done. The stories I write seem to jump up and down in my head, demanding my attention and doing whatever possible to force me to tell the story.

The stories I'm compelled to write honestly just come to me when I'm actively thinking about ideas.

I read a lot of authors say they have an image come to them that they then build on, or they saw something in their daily life which they turned into a story. My ideas don't seem to work like that. Sure, I've had some images that have come to me, but none really speak to me in a way that I can pull a story out of it. It might give me a general idea but that's about it.

So I'm wondering, where do your ideas and inspiration come from? Are you the type of author who's ideas just appear before your eyes or do your ideas come to life when you really sit down and concentrate?