Yet another month goes by in my writer’s life. This time it was full of excitement: some planned and long-awaited, some unexpected. I also managed to be quite productive, as if with the summer gone, my body woke up from the “heat slumber”. (more…)
August was another month that whizzed by faster than a speeding car. I found myself torn between taking it easy after the Camp NaNo’s final rush, and keeping the general progress, so I finally settled on writing three short stories I’ve been meaning to get ready. It seemed like a reasonable goal, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. (more…)
I’m going on an assumption here, but I think that majority of writers and aspiring writers is, at some point of time and their writing career, getting over the fear of writing—or at least trying to get over it. It’s usually the fear of being not good enough, of writing something that won’t be worth reading, or even worrying of how the readers will react to our innermost thoughts. (more…)
July went by so quickly, I hardly noticed it. Between taking part in the CampNaNoWriMo and my other projects, time flew. This month turned out to be another stepping stone in my writer’s life and in learning more about my process. (more…)
Another month went by, marking the half of the year gone. As usual, I had big plans and ambitious goals, but at the same time I took into consideration the approaching summer. Last year, the heat I’m not used to anymore, thwarted most of my productivity, and I feared this might be the case. Thankfully, June turned out better than expected. (more…)
I never had the need of learning to drive. Poznań, my hometown in Poland, has an excellent public transport network, and when I moved over to Ireland, I couldn’t afford a car. Also, with the narrow and always jammed streets of Dublin, it seemed better to just search for an apartment near my workplace and walk to work. But moving over to the USA and living at the very edge of the town meant I would finally have start driving.
After waiting for my residency to be sorted out, I got my driver’s permit, and started getting familiar with the “controls” of the new game called “driving,” but it wasn’t until later I found similarities between learning to drive and writing. (more…)
The other day we’ve met our neighbor heading out with his dog and his camera. “It’s this time of the year,” he said with a smile. I also watch the growing display of Halloween decorations in stores (many more than what I was used to in Ireland) and the biggest pumpkins I’ve ever seen (which in a way proves the cliche saying that “everything is bigger in America”). Because, yeah, it’s this time of the year too.
And then, of course, almost every writer out there will recognize it’s this time of the year. Frantic plotting, digging out prehistoric projects for inspiration, desperately stocking on notebooks, caffeine-products, and snacks. As NaNoWriMo approaches, the writers’ universe on the Internet polarizes: from all decked-up to panic-stricken, authors share their preparation progress, exchange their NaNoWriMo usernames, and join the fantastic community that grows bigger and bigger each year. (more…)
When over eight years ago I boarded the plane for the first time ever, I couldn’t help wondering whether I’d like flying. I still remember the first step I made on the steps leading up and the moment my other foot left the ground… My last step on the Polish ground for who knew how long: I was just about to immigrate to Ireland—excited, anticipating, maybe a bit worried—but I still couldn’t resist thinking of flying. After all, it’s the dreamer’s ultimate dream, isn’t it? (more…)
Summer is the time when people think of the sun, long-awaited vacation in some nice place and focus on relaxing if they can. Those of us stuck in the day jobs can only dream of the sea and beaches while glancing at the patch of the blue sky through the office window. And with the weather being moody this year in Ireland, I got my heat only from my projects, because July was quite challenging. (more…)
Oh look! Another month went by. Compared to the bumpy February, March had proven more understanding, allowing me to add the words at a steady pace, and to appreciate the effects of the long-term commitment. It reminded me of hiking in the mountains where the peaks always seemed to be as distant as in the beginning of the journey, but once you’ve looked back, you saw the whole stretch of valleys and narrow paths you’ve scaled already. And writing felt similar: a thousand word on its own doesn’t seem that much, but when you look at a month, then two and three months of such thousands, they grow into stories, blog posts and novels. (more…)