A Month of Writing – March

MoW-ENOh 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…)

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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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The Writer’s Other Half

WritersHalfENThey say that writing is a “lonely” business: hours spent on research in the library or on the Internet, hours spent writing and editing… all of it alone. But they also say that no man is a lonely island, and that also seem true: we have families, we have friends (even if they feel neglected at times) and we often work full-time which means having coworkers. And most importantly, we do fall in love and find partners, create new families. We are not alone, yet… we are sometimes, struggling to be understood or accepted not only as beloved family members or best friends, but also as writers. (more…)

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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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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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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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No Excuses for Plagiarism

plagiarismRecently I came across an article from 2010 about a German writer whose first book, a bestseller, was proven to be plagiarized from a novel of another author. What shook me more than the act itself, was the author’s defense. “It’s not copying, it’s mixing”, even though supposedly whole passages were copied from another author’s work.

Just a week later I witnessed online a similar situation: a young Polish author publishing with a vanity press openly admitted that his book is a fan-fiction set in one of the bestselling fantasy author’s world and using her main character. This time the excuse was similar: “it’s only inspiration and it’s ok if I use the main character’s name, because it’s not the same character”. I didn’t get to read an excerpt from the book, but the book’s description suggests the main character is a dragon, just like in the bestselling series. (more…)

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Brace yourselves! The NaNoWriMo is… not coming!

NaNoWriMo(1) Are you doing it this year? I’m so not ready! I need my outline done. There is so little time left! OMG! Are you ready? Do you have any tips? Here’s my plan for success! What will you be writing?

If you are a writer or have any writing friends, these comments pop in social media quite often at this time of the year. Almost everyone is preparing for (or dreading) the start of National Novel Writing Month (that has, in fact, become quite international). Everyone, except for us, few people in the corner, watching this cheerful madness with unusual calm. (more…)

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Music Inspirations – part 3

5825010322_7211eb8d22_zThere is only a few more songs left on my list and I hope you enjoyed this musical journey with me. This is the last part of the “Music Inspirations”, but as I usually discover new music and come up with ideas, maybe one day there will be few more to be posted. If you found inspiration while reading or listening feel free to share them in the comments as I love to see different perspectives and ideas. (more…)

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