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#inspiration – @youreallwrite on Tumblr

@youreallwrite / youreallwrite.tumblr.com

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hollowloch
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homesteadchronicles

You Will Write Again

I know I am not the only one in the writeblr community who has struggled with their original work lately.

At the outset of our literary adventure, it’s seemingly inconceivable how we could ever tire of our beloved novel, our passion project, our masterpiece-in-the-making. Yet, despite our initial enthusiasm, that apparently-infinite source of fervor starts to wane. Our writing becomes a chore, a task, another check on the laundry list of life. And then, all too soon, the story ends without its climax, its resolution, its “happily ever after”.

It’s no small secret that these symptoms have plagued my projects recently. After months of continuous inspiration, that outpouring suddenly ceased. So, I rested. That’s a lie. I tried to “power through it”, to work myself into a stupor - and I did. I could not understand what interrupted the overflow.

Throughout this time, one song continually came to mind - Honest Questions by Daniel Bedingfield. Oh, I had a lot of honest questions to ask. Why had the inspiration stopped? Should I work harder to overcome this obstruction or should I take this time to rest instead? But above all else, I wondered: am I to blame for my own inability to yield the result I desire?

I wrestled with this honest yet unanswerable question for weeks. I searched for an answer in every nook and cranny I could…except for the very song that prompted this expedition. Amidst these lyrics of pain and promise, one phrase haunted me: “I will pour the water down upon a thirsty, barren land and streams will flow from the dust of your bruised and broken soul. You will grow like the grass upon the fertile plains of Asia. By streams of living water you will grow.”

I have never possessed the power to change Winter to Summer, Spring to Summer, nor Fall to Winter. Why would I assume I could command my life to produce fruit in a dormant season? I cannot control the seasons in my life - but I can choose to trust the One who can. Or, for those outside of my own faith, trust that every season in life, just as on Earth, will too pass.

Yesterday, I trusted. Today, I wrote again.

I would love to tell you that I have an answer for your inspiration shortage. I wish I could give you a formula to follow so that the creativity returns to you once you complete these three easy steps. But ingenuity is not so straightforward. Life is full of winding paths and impassable roadblocks and gates that cost a hefty price to pass through. You might need to fasten your bootstraps and strut through that storm until you pass the rainclouds by. Or maybe you need to lay by the wayside and sleep until the storm subsides. I don’t know. But I do know one thing: this season of fruitlessness will not last. Seasons are, above all else, only temporary. And when the new season comes, those storms will have yielded a hefty harvest. Hold on to this truth:

You will grow again. You will create again. You will write again.

That is a promise.

#inspiration#returning to projects#moving on#project
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Anonymous asked:

many people, such as myself, have only recently picked up writing. i dont know how to improve or where to start. i have stories and characters in my head but one i try to write them, i cant. i write a few chapters and then it gets boring and dull and they all start to sound like fillers. any advice? how do you improve or should i just drop it altogether?

Hey nonnie, two things.

Firstly, not everyone in the world has to be a writer. I firmly believe that everyone has a story in their head. But not all of us enjoy writing. Explore if writing is for you, firstly. Perhaps a comic, art prints, animation—sometimes these other outlets can help tell your story. But I’m assuming that you have great passion for this little craft because you’re here! So if you do this and find that, no, screw that, I am a writer, then try the following. 

Secondly, what you’re feeling is very common. It seems counter-productive to say don’t worry about it because you can’t control that, but hopefully with some tips the worry will die down on it’s own. It might not even go away, but you only need to control it to get on with writing. 

Don’t drop it!This is the most important rule. You only get better at something by practise. So, we can all sit around gushing about our imaginations and how wonderful they are (because they are), but to be writers we must write. That means scale down the planning side of things and start up the drafting. 
Remember that everyone’s first draft is terrible. It’s just a fact of being a writer. The first draft is so hard to get written and it will always suck. Hell, even sometimes people get their works published and they still aren’t perfect. Sometimes works become classics and they still aren’t perfect. Don’t aim for perfection, just aim for enjoyment. 
Write what you’d like to read. If you’re bored, then your reader is bored. It really comes across in the writing. Think of things you enjoy about reading books: do you enjoy a fast pace, dialogue, beautiful description? Do you wish a character had had the balls to do something else? Do you get fed up of the same traits in villains? This is your chance: you are in charge here. Be new, original, be fun, be whatever you want to read. 
Read.I can’t stress this point enough. To be an effective writer it’s important for us to expand our minds and hon our voice by reading around our writing. Plus, it’s awesome. I love reading.  
Create a schedule and keep organised.Some people find that it benefits them to have set times to write and goals-per-day or goals-per-week, so that they feel they are working towards something in the short term. I have found this beneficial for myself. It is also a good idea to organise your work space. Fill it with pictures that inspire you. 
Engage in stress relief. Writing is stressful. My own personal stress is that I worry too much about plot holes, to the point I get so caught up in pointless detail I’m sure no one asked for or cares about. I used to have a thing too where I thought that my dialogue had to be broken up by big, descriptive paragraphs or my book would look childish. I’m over that one at least.
Some stress relief ideas include meditation, having a warm bath, pressure ball wristbands, keeping hydrated, buying some wind chimes for ambience, etc. 
The random ideas are sometimes the best.Keep a note book with you. Put it by the shower, by your bed, keep it in your bag or pocket when you go out. Those random thoughts you have in bed or on the bus are sometimes world-changing, and they might come and go and never get recorded. 
Ask why?You say your characters become boring? Or your scenarios become boring? Ask - why? Get your note book, and note down why this scene or character bores you. Then, you’ll know what to change. 
You might also try the writer’s block game, which, is not necessarily what you have but it sounds similar. So, imagine there is a scene going on where two characters are travelling along a forest road, talking. Ask yourself what would happen if the pair suddenly got attacked by a lunatic with a gun/crossbow? Or, you have a scene where a new Queen is being crowned. Ask yourself, what would happen if the Royal Guard were suddenly assassinated? It changes things up a bit. Even if we don’t end up using it in our work it let’s us see how our characters would react. 

Good luck nonnie. I believe in you. 

#writing#writing questions#writing help#writing advice#writers block#Anonymous#answered#questions#inspiration
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elumish
“Beginning authors often get in their own way … They forget that they’ve been telling stories since they could talk. … The important thing to remember is, you know how to do this. You’ve been doing this your whole life.”

Cynthia Leitich Smith, New York Times best-selling author of TANTALIZE and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME, on the intrinsic nature of storytelling.

Listen to the full interview here, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

(via firstdraftwithsarahenni)

#quotes#inspiration#others input#first draft#beginners#beginning a story
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jfictitional

Famous authors, their writings and their rejection letters.

  • Sylvia Plath: There certainly isn’t enough genuine talent for us to take notice.
  • Rudyard Kipling: I’m sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.
  • Emily Dickinson: [Your poems] are quite as remarkable for defects as for beauties and are generally devoid of true poetical qualities.
  • Ernest Hemingway (on The Torrents of Spring): It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it.
  • Dr. Seuss: Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.
  • The Diary of Anne Frank: The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.
  • Richard Bach (on Jonathan Livingston Seagull): will never make it as a paperback. (Over 7.25 million copies sold)
  • H.G. Wells (on The War of the Worlds): An endless nightmare. I do not believe it would “take”…I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book’. And (on The Time Machine): It is not interesting enough for the general reader and not thorough enough for the scientific reader.
  • Edgar Allan Poe: Readers in this country have a decided and strong preference for works in which a single and connected story occupies the entire volume.
  • Herman Melville (on Moby Dick): We regret to say that our united opinion is entirely against the book as we do not think it would be at all suitable for the Juvenile Market in [England]. It is very long, rather old-fashioned…
  • Jack London: [Your book is] forbidding and depressing.
  • William Faulkner: If the book had a plot and structure, we might suggest shortening and revisions, but it is so diffuse that I don’t think this would be of any use. My chief objection is that you don’t have any story to tell. And two years later: Good God, I can’t publish this!
  • Stephen King (on Carrie): We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.
  • Joseph Heller (on Catch–22): I haven’t really the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say… Apparently the author intends it to be funny – possibly even satire – but it is really not funny on any intellectual level … From your long publishing experience you will know that it is less disastrous to turn down a work of genius than to turn down talented mediocrities.
  • George Orwell (on Animal Farm): It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.
  • Oscar Wilde (on Lady Windermere’s Fan): My dear sir, I have read your manuscript. Oh, my dear sir.
  • Vladimir Nabokov (on Lolita): … overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian … the whole thing is an unsure cross between hideous reality and improbable fantasy. It often becomes a wild neurotic daydream … I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.
  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit was turned down so many times, Beatrix Potter initially self-published it.
  • Lust for Life by Irving Stone was rejected 16 times, but found a publisher and went on to sell about 25 million copies.
  • John Grisham’s first novel was rejected 25 times.
  • Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul) received 134 rejections.
  • Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) received 121 rejections.
  • Gertrude Stein spent 22 years submitting before getting a single poem accepted.
  • Judy Blume, beloved by children everywhere, received rejections for two straight years.
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle received 26 rejections.
  • Frank Herbert’s Dune was rejected 20 times.
  • Carrie by Stephen King received 30 rejections.
  • The Diary of Anne Frank received 16 rejections.
  • Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rolling was rejected 12 times.
  • Dr. Seuss received 27 rejection letters
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cidermoon

Now this…THIS inspires me.

Source: ramoorebooks.com
#inspiration#motivation#authors#rejection#cover letter#cover letters
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mrjakeparker

INKTOBER Day 14!

The world of Airth. Literally torn apart by an ancient war between the gods who created it, Airth is divided into 4 sections:

1. the Stratos, a chain of islands high in the sky where the Sylph people live

2. The Rimland, a massive ring of continents and giant islands where Most of the inhabitants of Airth live. Wake lives here.

3. The Abyss, a stretch of atmosphere filled with incredible cloud formations and tiny floating islands. Limberg and Grimm are from here.

4. The Core, an ocean covered rocky sphere filled with colossal caves. The Tengru, monsters and beasts, and the Dark Lord live down here.

There is a prophecy that the Dark Lord will regain his power and destroy what’s left of Airth to start a new planet with him as ruler. The only thing that can stop him is the Star Seed. It is the key to making Airth whole again and destroying the darkness forever. But is the Star Seed only a myth?

http://skyheartcomic.com

#inktober #inktober2015 #SkyHeartComic

#inspiration#showcase
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