Another month whizzed by which means I have another collection of the Wordwitch drawings for you. Enjoy!
Art
Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of art things, both traditionally and digitally, and it felt good. Like… actually having a hobby, because as much fun as I have writing, I do treat it far more seriously than I treat my art activities.
What is your hobby? Do you have a hobby that became something more?
Fixing Chapter 1
For the last two weeks, I’ve been rewriting and reworking chapter 1 of my epic fantasy. I didn’t expect it to take that long, but well… sentences were stubborn and the chapter was resisting, so it was like a constant struggle with words.
But I’m almost there!
Too Many Ideas
They say there’s no such thing as too many ideas. But when I have all my work planned out, stumbling upon notes for yet another project I entirely forgot about and getting excited about writing it isn’t exactly what I need.
I need to finish all those other things.
That Devouring Addiction
I had things to do on Monday, so I went to bed early on Sunday. I worried that if I stay “just a bit longer,” I’ll end up reading all night. Guess what? I started reading as soon as I woke up.
Beside tea, reading is my only other true addiction; one I can’t easily walk away from: if I start reading, I often end up on a binge beyond reason, so the drawing seemed amusingly accurate.
What are your reading habits?
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I used to do a lot of traditional arts stuff, but since I’m writing full time I use my free moments to get movement whenever I can. I have my little trekking bike–called Stürmchen–and I raid the Bavarian landscape all year round. It’s a great way to think up solutions to writing problems. I call it thinkbiking, so it sort of clicks into my work. What do you do to think up solutions?
If the weather is bad, I play tabletop T-RPGs and boardgames. It was actually RPGs that led me to writing, because after 25 years of being a GM I started sensing the limitations of the T-RPG medium. Maybe it was a GM’s frustrated epiphany of, “All right, you herd of willful kittens! For once I want the campaign to end my way.” Nowadays I restrict RPGs to sandbox crawls and some occasional epic opera. It’s often light hearted and a little bit monty pythonesque. In other words, my angst-existentialism Sturm-und-Drang days are over and now go fluently between burlesque and tragedy.
Hey, I’m at fixing chapter 1 of my novel, as well. And yay, it’s been a royal pain in the arse, too! Writers unite! 😀
Oh, and I can relate to that too-many-ideas problem. I have a special vault in my head, called the Vault of the Unspeakable Conceptualizations. When I need a new idea, I sneak in there when they’re all asleep, snatch what I need and dash for the door, slam and bar it. And then you hear it: thousands of fresh ideas, waking, running for the door on their tiny little feet, all calling “Hey! Pick me, Alice!”.
My reading habits are… odd, I guess. I read in pulses. One month it’s all history. I read everything I can get on a specific topic, listen to lectures and read some novel related to the theme. Then I have a month where I snatch up philosophy and read only Nietzsche, for example. Then mythology, so I chew on Jung and nibble on the Illiad. Then comes a month where I barely read (because I’m writing intensely, for example), or my free time is gobbled up by something else (like Morrowind recently), or I just can’t find a book that would draw me in. Do you also have such pulses? Do you read less when you write intensely?
For solutions I do “other stuff” – from thinking about it in the shower to playing video games. Back in Ireland, I used the “commuting” (a.k.a. walking to work) to figure things out, but now it’s not possible really.
As for pen&paper RPG, it depends how it’s ran. I had a great group who was focused on the story side, so we would often “reset” scenes that felt flat or pushed the story in a weird direction and start over. We also discussed what would make an exciting story, brainstorming and planning. Everyone enjoyed it as much as the actual role-playing part.
But yeah, writing is “easier” in a way when it comes to controlling the plot or making dialogues fun.
My reading is all over the place. Mostly, because I can’t find books I really enjoy (I like “higher shelf” books, but since I don’t write them, I also want to read the ones focused more on entertainment), and end up disappointed. On the other hand, if I find something good or fun, I end up binging baaaadly…
I love this!
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