Personal Rants / Writer's Other Hobbies

Writer’s Other Hobbies: Drawing

Writer's Other HobbiesOne would think that writing keeps me so occupied, I don’t have time for any other hobby, and in a way it does, though at this point I consider my writing more of a job than a hobby. I try to do it daily, and I still do it for fun, but also with quality in mind, and I write with a mindset of one day getting my work out there.

Therefore, since writing is a job, I should have some hobbies, right? I’ve already mentioned polymer clay, but it’s not the only creative thing I do. (more…)

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October 18, 2016
Personal Rants / Writer's Other Hobbies

Writer’s Other Hobbies: Polymer Clay

Writer's Other HobbiesI consider myself a writer, but there are days when words in my head resemble a pack of pigeons fighting over a piece of bread, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t focus and the stories are not flowing. I might try to work through the chaos of thoughts, drink tea, and put on my favorite writing music, but if it’s not helping, I turn to other ways to be productive or to channel my creativity.

With this post I’m starting a series on other creative things I do. So, if you’re curious what does a writer do when she’s not writing, today you can get a peek at my polymer clay creations. (more…)

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August 1, 2016
On Writing / Personal Rants

That Novel I’m Not Writing

ThatNovelThis post has been prompted by a chat with Meg Cowley (if you’re not following her on Twitter, let me fix that for you: @meg_cowley). We shared our experience of being immersed in the worlds we create and jumping between them, and the conversation steered toward one of my projects. Meg got curious, and I somewhat promised her more information on it. (more…)

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August 17, 2015
A Month of Writing / On Writing

A Month of Writing – May

MoW-ENIf you’re here in hope of finding news of disasters, missed deadlines and too low word counts, I have to disappoint you. So what happened in the fifth month in my 365k Club challenge? I probably should have report May has been dull, filled with steady progress, and nothing more, but I’ve made several discoveries about my writing process along the way, which I’d like to share with you. (more…)

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June 8, 2015
A Month of Writing / On Writing

A Month of Writing – April

MoW-ENIt feels like I just have been writing the March post, looking forward to April’s challenges, and now I am here, at the beginning of May, thinking of how crazy April has been, and ready to tell you all about the fourth month in the 365k Club’s challenge.

As you might remember, I was planning to visit Pyrkon (you can read more of the convention in the “Little Melfka on a big Pyrkon” post), and considered I might break the writing streak during the trip. I didn’t expect the life to lay its traps for me at the very beginning of the month…

(more…)

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May 10, 2015
A Month of Writing / On Writing / Personal Rants

A Month of Writing – February

MoW-ENI didn’t intend “A Month of Writing” to be a monthly post, but I think some people might be curious how my adventure with 365k Club goes – and whether it goes at all. Just as I expected, February turned out a bit rough, due to both life circumstances and distractions I brought onto myself. Believe me, buying the video game you’ve been waiting to play so badly really can mess up your writing times… (more…)

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March 8, 2015
A Month of Writing / On Writing / Personal Rants

A Month of Writing

MoW-ENNot so long ago I’ve explained how NaNoWriMo, although great initiative, wasn’t really working for me and how I’d be more eager to participate in something to build up the writing habit instead of speeding into a book within a month. And there it came, the opportunity to challenge myself, commit to writing and make friends with a group of people who do the same: the 365k Club.

The idea, originating from Jane Steen, was brought to life by Katherine Grubb and Jessica White from 10 Minute Novelist group. They invited fellow writers, professional and not, to partake in the challenge of writing 365,ooo words in a year, which meant to produce on average 1000 words every day. I thought I’m not capable of meeting such a goal. I thought that life will surely interfere preventing me from even trying. And I thought that a hopeless plotter such as me won’t be able to plot quick enough to meet the daily word count.

And with all these thoughts… I signed up. (more…)

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February 6, 2015
On Writing / Personal Rants

Cleaning Your Literary Wardrobe

1Every once a while I look into my wardrobe and think it’s time to sort it out. Not only put all the skirts together and put sweaters beside one another, but actually take out all the clothes, check if they still fit and try to remember when was the last time I actually wore them. I don’t like it as it requires parting with pieces I feel sentimal about, but never really wear or admitting that there’s no way I’m going to fit in that blouse again. And the jacket? I love it, but it really starts looking shabby… If you can’t relate, maybe you can imagine how unappealing this task can be.

But what I do love is cleaning my literary wardrobe: looking back at all the ideas I scribbled down years ago and inspecting the forever postponed works in progress. It’s not only a pleasant surprise of finding hidden gems I’ve forgotten, but also a decision whether anything is worth coming back to. Some texts are archived to be forgotten forever, but others get to be considered again, and kept for later. They will be perfect for these grim days every writer has sometimes when they feel out of fresh ideas. (more…)

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January 19, 2015
Personal Rants

Another year goes by…

2014ENA couple of days I got an automatic post from Facebook inviting me to view my 2014 summary and – of course – share it with my friends. I looked out of curiosity and noticed that the snippets were based on the pictures I uploaded and the amounts of “likes” they got, so Facebook pretty much missed most of the important events in my life. I shrugged and created my own: a simple collage of seven anthologies published this year. Because, in the end, writing is one of the most important parts of my life and I always get very excited seeing my stories released. (more…)

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December 31, 2014