Let the Writing Commence! (Also...I Want a Desk)

This is what a good night looks like for writing. A 'typical' night doesn't have cider. Just my computer and my imagination. But on a good night, I have cider...or hot cocoa. I've found that these drinks have a strange and beautiful way of opening up the doors to my creativity. Cider is one of those things, like chocolate, that satisfy your innermost self in a way that not just anything can. :)

Pacing also helps my creative juices start flowing. In fact, I am almost convinced that pacing is what turns the wheels, literally, inside my head. It's like....pacing is the gas for my engine. I don't think it works at all if I don't pace regularly. Maybe it's not gas...it's more like a battery charger. 

So, a good warm Fall/Wintry drink. Plenty of room for walking in a straight line back and forth (Actually, circles work almost as well). These are the things that I need to be able to write. Quiet generally helps as well.

Why am I telling you this? Because, once again, I have no inspiration. This is starting to become a theme, which is almost disturbing. This cannot go on. Anyway, I have no inspiration so I am scraping the bottom of all my barrels to find something to write about. Tonight I thought, why not discuss what my ideal writing setting looks like?

Well...what I've really described to you is my bedroom. Lately I have spent more time writing on my bed than at my desk. But either work just as well. Depends on my mood really.

But for the ideal....

What I need is a desk in a corner of a room. A desk the spans both walls on either side of the corner. The floor would need to be a surface easily slid upon because I want one of those wheeled chairs to get from one end of my desk to the other. Now why do I wish I had a desk like that?

Because with every book I write I have a million things with me to help out. And I don't have enough space to lay out all my tools in a useful and convenient manner. 

• Every single book I write has a timeline. Sometimes this is a spiral notebook. Sometimes this is so many loose-leaf sheets of paper I think I killed fifteen hundred trees. 

• I have my computer, of course. This is a given.

• I have a notebook full of helpful facts. This usually includes a description of what each character looks like, what their personality is, that sort of thing.

• I have random papers with vital information. Sometimes, when I am doing my research I do not catalog things properly. Because of this, in my Robin Hood stack of helpful items I have a random piece of paper that has facts about Dusty's childhood, I have another random piece of paper that has locations of where gang members originate from, and I have a sticky note with things to remember about writing dialogue with a Scottish accent.

• I have multiple books. This is especially true when writing any book in the Robin Hood series. I have every single book with me. Either open on my computer or a physical copy. As I write each scene I bounce back and forth between books to see what the scene looked like from Lucy's perspective, from Guy's perspective, from Much's perspective. This usually means that I have three or four books besides the one I am writing open at all times.

• I often have a drink. Usually cider.

• And snacks. Granola bars and gummy bears are sometimes a necessary when bunking down for a long writing spell. Popcorn can also serve a purpose, although it leaves my fingers a bit messy and has a nasty habit of getting stuck in my teeth.

That's a sample of what I use to write my stories. Because I don't have that ideal desk, my writing space usually looks like this: If I am at my desk, the computer is in front of me. Beside it, on the desk, will be the timeline. If there is cider it is on the desk as well. That takes up almost all the space. So, the stacks and stacks of paper that have vital and/or random helpful information are on the floor to the left or right of my chair and I have to bend over to dig through them when I want to look something up. Very inconvenient. If I have physical copies of the other books on hand, they are either on the floor on the other side of my chair opposite the random paper stack or they are open in my lap. 

It's actually rather a mess. :(

If I am on the bed, it's even worse. Because there is no order or designated place for anything. It is all scattered helter-skelter across my bed in every direction.

Hence the need for my ideal desk.

So, I guess the moral of tonight's story is......you all need to look into getting me a very special desk. :)

Poems, Books, and Blogging Just Because

I haven't blogged in what feels like forever. I realize this so I want to write something, anything...I hate not posting anything for more than a week. It's a pet peeve of mine. But I have nothing to say. No motivation or inspiration or anything that I want to share. I don't feel like it is worth my time or yours to write for the sake of writing. I don't want my blog to be boring, or forced.

But today I have decided to write for the sake of writing....because I really want to blog about something.

I once wrote a poem about my sister's cat....it's really dumb, because I am NOT a poetic person. But since I have nothing to write about that's what you're getting today. It's called Bandit the Cat.

Fuzzy, warm, soft, cozy
these are words to describe you.
beautiful, sleek, slender, homey
How can I live without you?

So there you go. My pathetic attempt at poetry. Do not laugh or judge. I am not a poet. I understand that I am not a poet. In future I shall stick to what I can do...writing books. :D

Speaking of...there's a new book in the works (isn't there always?). I haven't actually started writing it, because I want to save it for a time when I actually have time. I don't want to write it in spurts. It's a completely different route than my other books. It is not a fictional tale. It's called Created to be Obsessed. You might hear more about it in the future if I ever actually write it. :P

Routines and Advice

School is back in full swing and I am super busy. Writing has been rather non-existent. That isn't to say I haven't written at all...but it's been few and far between for the last three weeks.

I hope things settle back into a routine where I'll have time and energy to write. That's how it worked out last year. So far it's a no-go, but I'll still remain hopeful.

In the meantime, I am learning new things, getting advice, and hopefully improving my writing skills. The advice department is sometimes hard to take. I like to think that I can handle constructive criticism and suggestions; take it with humility and grace and thankfulness. But it's turning out to be harder than I thought it would be. My defenses go up immediately and I have to tell myself that I'm not perfect and they're only trying to help. I think I am learning valuable lessons along with the writing advice. :) So as my writing improves, I guess I'm improving as a person too. :)