Music Inspirations – part 5

Music InspirationsIt’s been quite a while since I’ve last posted my music inspirations, even though my Spotify writing playlist now boasts an awesome 15 hours worth of music. Mostly, because I rarely search for songs that would reflect specific scenes. Instead, I either listen to my playlist in a shuffle mode or pick a song that keeps me focused and motivated.
Still, some songs come up and seem to be fitting perfectly to scenes or plots I’m writing and I tend to put those songs in a loop until I’m done, and these four songs stuck with me. (more…)

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5 Ways Video Games Can Help Your Writing

5-ways-video-gamesIf you follow my Gaming Writer’s Saturday posts, you already know I love video games and share my time between writing and gaming (and few other things), but those two hobbies are not as separated from each other as one would think. I play video games whenever I feel uninspired or when I need to fuel my creativity, and in a way, video games are a part of my writing process. They might come before I even write the first word down, but they definitely contribute to my plotting, worldbuilding, and outlining (in one case, a game and its soundtrack inspired a whole novel). So when a friend asked in a writing group about video games, I couldn’t stay silent, and my response became the root of this post. (more…)

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All the Novels I Write

all-the-novels-i-writeEven though I usually end up focused on one project at the time, it’s never the only one that is brewing in my head. I’ve mentioned before I usually have several projects going, in different stages of (de)composition, as this is my way of escaping the dreaded writer’s block. If one project feels tiresome or boring at the time, I can always jump into another one and get my writing momentum back. (more…)

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A Month of Writing – October 2016

MoW-ENI find it hard to believe another year of my 365k Club adventure slowly comes to an end. It feels like I’ve just started it, but on the other hand with the turmoil and changes in my life, I haven’t really settled back into my writing routine until autumn. And once I was positive I’d be able to catch up with all my tasks, life again proved me wrong. (more…)

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All My Halloweens

halloweenI was born in a country where Halloween tradition doesn’t exist, so I missed all the candy-collecting fun as a child, but the holiday itself had always seemed mesmerizing to me, especially in its darker and spookier way. The lanterns in the dark, the ghosts wandering between this world and another… What’s there for a speculative writer to not like? (more…)

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NaNoDoubts

nanodoubtsThe 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…)

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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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A Month of Writing – September 2016

MoW-ENSomehow September had played a time warp on me: it hardly started, and then instantly jumped to the end of the month without any prior notice, and with the days (if not weeks) lost in my memory, I had a fuzzy image of once more having fallen behind with my 365k Club challenge, but apparently the soon-to-be-autumn aura had a beneficial influence on me, since I did better than expected. (more…)

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Gaming Wirter’s Saturday: Guild of Dungeoneering

Gaming Writer's SaturdayGuild of Dungeoneering was one of those indie games I’ve never heard about until it popped in my GOG suggestions, and I always hesitated to get it. The sketch-like graphics had their unique appeal, but the game play itself didn’t seem to offer enough engaging. As you can guess, I got it during one of the sales, when I accidentally watched a trailer video for the game which featured a fun song to match the not-so-serious interface. The game promised building my own dungeon and letting an adventurer in on what seemed like a digitalized version of early Dungeons&Dragons dungeon crawls. (more…)

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