My NaNoWriMo survival kit!

Posted on by under life

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m gonna do NaNoWriMo this year! (Don’t know what it is? Check out http://nanowrimo.org/about). And for this month, there are a few things I’m definitely gonna need to survive, so I thought I’d share them with you. Without further ado;

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NaNoWriMo survival kit

  • Coffee, if you like coffee.
  • Other stuff, if you like other stuff. Like tea, hot chocolate.. because writers DO NOT HAVE TO BE OBSESSED WITH COFFE. Seriously you guys.
  • Kindness. This is why telling people about NaNoWriMo is a good thing. I usually don’t tell a lot of people, simply because I always have a thousand projects going on and I’m not the type of person who feels the need to share them all. But you want people to support you, people close to you, and obviously people in your home. Nothing beats an unexpected food tray on late evenings when your writing has made you forget the concept of eating anything else than words and sentences.
  • Links to all the amazing writing tips and inspiration there is out there. I’m gonna write a post with all of my favourite links in a few days, and I’ll link it here, but for starters here’s at least my writing board on pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/eiriaan/writing/
  • Tools. Where will you write? In word? Scrivener? Maybe on actual paper? And even if you’re oh so modern and prefer everything digital, make sure that you actually own paper. Yes, that can still be useful, even in this day of age. I keep my journal, a simple, moleskine thing, with me everywhere I go. Seriously. I might take it with me if I’m just going upstairs, turning halfway up the stairs because I forgot it. Also, art stuff can be fun if you’re into that, if you like to for example draw your character designs.
  • Music. If that’s your thing. Compile a few playlists, maybe different ones for different moods? Personally, I prefer silence. I can’t even study while listening to music. Sometimes, with very particular songs, it can work. Or if the volume’s so low I can barely hear it. Or maybe if it is the song that inspired that certain paragraph. Some things I like to have on low volume though, or maybe listen to while thinking about the story, is the playlist Creativity Boost from spotify, and this video on youtube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShI_fv38qYQ
  • A cage. Where you can lock away every part of you that screams about grammar, structure and actual good writing. NaNoWriMo is not about that, and the faster you realize it the better. It’s about getting a rough draft out on paper. To find out what your story is actually about. Remember that you’re.. what is it they say? Let me google it.. right, this: “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” -Shannon Hale

Happy writing!

Autumnbreak – monday

Posted on by under life

Oh my, I’m actually being productive. I don’t quite know what’s going on, but for some reason I’ve just been doing a bunch of stuff. Things that I actually should do. Relatively fun stuff, but still.

And now I want to write a list. Maybe I’ll post it here if I actually get around to it. I want to write a list of things that inspire me. Links to things that do not absorb me, but that I instead can’t look at for more than like 5 minutes before I get so inspired that I have to go do something. Make something, create something. I should make another list too, I suppose, of things that I let absorb me but still love, things perfect to curl up in front of with a big mug of hot chocolate during these cloudy days.
Because they really are cloudy days, so freakin’ cloudy. Not dark, just light grey, everywhere, everything. It’s okay though. Life’s okay. Maybe I’m heading in the right direction.
     Oh, and I’m also doing NaNoWriMo this year! Check it out (http://nanowrimo.org) if you haven’t heard of it, will probably post further about that too!

Summer evenings and writing

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I should just write. Maybe the inspiration will flow from my brain like the ink from my pen and maybe the sound of violently pressing the keyboard will bring my heart to a path and back from the distracted zone of nowhere and everywhere. Maybe I should write because I actually do have things to write about, friends and laughter that have passed by, and imaginary people in faraway cultures whose adventures lies at my feet, waiting for my hands and letters. And maybe I should not write. Maybe I should never write again because I never write when I’m happy. Or maybe I should just learn to find another source to creativity, bright days and sunshine instead of bittersweetness and hearts teared apart. And maybe I should write because whatever the answer is, I know that the only way to find it is searching through my thoughts, and the only way to search through my thoughts is falling through them line for line, a never-ending flood of commas and vowels and me.

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Hail

Posted on by under life

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The weather is getting colder and the sun rises bright every morning but the sky opens up for rain every dark afternoon. Autumn is closing in but I don’t want to think about hot chocolate and oversized sweaters, not yet. Not now when school hasn’t even started and I can still lock myself inside my room and ignore that time passes by so quickly.

 

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Thank you

Posted on by under Longer thoughts

There is literally not a lot more I can do than be grateful. I’ve always liked that we’re sort of “allowed” to be angry with God but I’ve never quite managed it. I write one angry sentence in a prayer and then go on to always, sooner or later, realizing that my text instead has turned into gratefulness. As I write, I realize how small it is, or how everything worked out for the best, or in any way how God was always right there in the situation. I thank you, thank you for your love. For the people you’ve put into my life, and for the life I’m allowed to live, so lucky in comparison to such a big part of the world. I thank you for every single person I’ve loved, every single person I’ve met, close to me or now far away. And I thank you for the peace you put in my heart so that I have a core strong as stone when you send me out on adventures.

The clay under the sand

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On the beach next to my grandma’s summer house we found a pier where I asked my mother to put her hand in the water for it to look like she’s magic. I don’t know, she might be. And underneath the sand you can find clay that you can shape and let dry, or just apply all over your body for a homemade clay mask thingy. We looked very strange. It was a good day. IMG_7101IMG_7117IMG_7135

If you do not love

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There is nothing you can do on this earth that is as great as loving God and loving other people. I’ve always been annoyed by how every single song is about love, every single thing in life centered around whether or not yo have someone special, and it still bothers me a bit. Because love is more often than not, not romantic love. It’s every single person in your life, your best friend and your family and the stranger whose bus ticket you offered to pay. True love starts in a heart that’s overflowing, and it’s everything, touches everyone.

Stay

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I swear to God I will never forget. I could write down page after page of the inside jokes, the memories and the stories from this week, but I prefer to keep them securely in my heart, just in my head and in the messy handwriting in my moleskine. I’ve been away to a youth camp where I always seem to spend the best weeks of my life, and I do not want to be here. I do not want to be home. I want to still be there, not thinking about the fact that the disadvantage of getting to know people from all over the world is that you can consider yourself lucky if you get to meet them once a year. And now I’m stuck in this room, in this house, in this city and in my school with these people. If I could, I would relive the weeks I spend at this camp over and over again for the rest of my life. I just want to go back.