Alright, after some careful research (and an inability to fall asleep last night), I googled my blog name "connection the dotz" and discovered that there is a greeting card company called "connecting the dotz". So, to nip any legal dealings in the bud, I made a new blog and here is the link:
Musings of a Sleepy Student
The "connecting the dotz" blog will no longer be updated, so please head to the new blog!
Sunday, 2 June 2013
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Writing Tips
For the last little while I've been trying to get back into my writing because I've had ideas piling up through the fall/spring semester. However, when I sat down and said to myself "okay, now write!" my fingers just hovered above the keyboard.
I was stuck.
So, I tried to force myself to write a few lines, and it alll turned out garbage but I know a couple of tricks that help me write:
1) YouTube
I went to YouTube to try and find some songs to inspire me. There are some really beautiful music videos out there such as "Little Talks" by Monsters and Men:
and also of Monsters and Men "King and Lionheart":
These two are just a few of the videos I watched that in a way, triggered the mental scenes I had my characters involved in (being chased, facing their fears, finding love, etc). However, I was still stuck, so I went to my second trick to get writing:
2) Fanfiction
I know, I know, before everybody starts hissing and spitting, just hear me out first. Now if authors do not contest fanfiction there is some problems with copyright (if the author doesn't sue for their copyrights concerning fanfiction, do they actually own the characters/worlds?). However, we can also look at fan fiction as a form of viral marketing aimed at online readers (if you are not sure what fan fiction is, fan fiction is fiction about a movie/book/television/video game series written by fans without the consent of the original author of the series). If you remember the popularity of Harry Potter, then you might also be aware that fan fiction played a huge role in its popularity on sites such as Fanfiction.net. Suddenly everyone was a student at Hogwarts or writing a goodbye letter to Sirius or Dumbledore. These two are just among the many hundreds of plots in the Harry Potter fan fiction worlds. Other series, such as Lord of the Rings, Twilight, and Doctor Who, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic all have lively and popular fan fiction fandoms. These fandoms are also sources of attention to series. Even 50 Shades of Grey started off as Twilight fanfiction (I believe it was called "Master of the Universe"? I'm not completely sure though).
So what are the advantages of fanfiction as a writing exercise? Well, the characters already exist, the world already exists, and you as the fan have probably got a good inkling about the characters backstory and relationships. It works as a writing exercise in that you have the rules set and you can tinker with a day in a characters life or write about someone innane such as, Hannibal's First Day at cooking school (for all you fannibal's out there). In short, you've already got a connection between the characters and the world and surely something has you itching to write about it.
3) The News
About a week ago there was a story from down in the states where, before she died, a young girl bought a cookie tin (or biscuit tin for you Brits out there). Anyway, her family took to placing the lottery tickets in this tin. After she died, her family found out their house was to be foreclosed on. Her father went to her room, which they had kept as she had, well, left it, and he prayed at her bed asking God to let them keep the house so they could keep her room because he could not bear to let it go. Her father then went to the cookie tin and looked through the old lottery tickets and checked each and every one. At the bottom there was one ticket and it was the winning ticket. It allowed them to keep their house and keep her room safe.
This story is true and it brings to mind gentle stories of a young angel looking down upon her parents, or a kind spirit helping them through their grieving process, or God or the Universe helping this family.
4) Just Write
It's hard, it's horrible, the words don't taste write, you hate yourself for what you wrote, but you know what? Just write. It doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to look good, just write your way through the scene and make a reminder to fix it at a later period when you've gotten further into the story and are comfortable with an idea. Furthermore, if you are planning on writing a story from start to finish, then chances are you might run into a few roadblocks. What I do is I write in chunks and what I mean by that is I write the scenes the characters are involved in and the later start pasting the scenes together in word. Usually when that happens I can figure out how to move the characters from scene to scene and the writing flows just a bit easier.
5) Take a break and Let Your Mind Rest
Lastly, take a break. Take a break, relax, go outside and garden or go for a walk. Sit in the park and watch the world go by or window shop. If you put too much pressure into writing you just might end up frustrated, angered, and depressed because the words won't flow. Remember Homer didn't write Troy and Ulysses in a day and Stephenie Mayer wrote while her kids slept. Don't be too hard on yourself, just take a break, allow yourself to daydream, and soon you'll be back to writing in no time!
I was stuck.
So, I tried to force myself to write a few lines, and it alll turned out garbage but I know a couple of tricks that help me write:
1) YouTube
I went to YouTube to try and find some songs to inspire me. There are some really beautiful music videos out there such as "Little Talks" by Monsters and Men:
and also of Monsters and Men "King and Lionheart":
These two are just a few of the videos I watched that in a way, triggered the mental scenes I had my characters involved in (being chased, facing their fears, finding love, etc). However, I was still stuck, so I went to my second trick to get writing:
2) Fanfiction
I know, I know, before everybody starts hissing and spitting, just hear me out first. Now if authors do not contest fanfiction there is some problems with copyright (if the author doesn't sue for their copyrights concerning fanfiction, do they actually own the characters/worlds?). However, we can also look at fan fiction as a form of viral marketing aimed at online readers (if you are not sure what fan fiction is, fan fiction is fiction about a movie/book/television/video game series written by fans without the consent of the original author of the series). If you remember the popularity of Harry Potter, then you might also be aware that fan fiction played a huge role in its popularity on sites such as Fanfiction.net. Suddenly everyone was a student at Hogwarts or writing a goodbye letter to Sirius or Dumbledore. These two are just among the many hundreds of plots in the Harry Potter fan fiction worlds. Other series, such as Lord of the Rings, Twilight, and Doctor Who, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic all have lively and popular fan fiction fandoms. These fandoms are also sources of attention to series. Even 50 Shades of Grey started off as Twilight fanfiction (I believe it was called "Master of the Universe"? I'm not completely sure though).
So what are the advantages of fanfiction as a writing exercise? Well, the characters already exist, the world already exists, and you as the fan have probably got a good inkling about the characters backstory and relationships. It works as a writing exercise in that you have the rules set and you can tinker with a day in a characters life or write about someone innane such as, Hannibal's First Day at cooking school (for all you fannibal's out there). In short, you've already got a connection between the characters and the world and surely something has you itching to write about it.
3) The News
About a week ago there was a story from down in the states where, before she died, a young girl bought a cookie tin (or biscuit tin for you Brits out there). Anyway, her family took to placing the lottery tickets in this tin. After she died, her family found out their house was to be foreclosed on. Her father went to her room, which they had kept as she had, well, left it, and he prayed at her bed asking God to let them keep the house so they could keep her room because he could not bear to let it go. Her father then went to the cookie tin and looked through the old lottery tickets and checked each and every one. At the bottom there was one ticket and it was the winning ticket. It allowed them to keep their house and keep her room safe.
This story is true and it brings to mind gentle stories of a young angel looking down upon her parents, or a kind spirit helping them through their grieving process, or God or the Universe helping this family.
4) Just Write
It's hard, it's horrible, the words don't taste write, you hate yourself for what you wrote, but you know what? Just write. It doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to look good, just write your way through the scene and make a reminder to fix it at a later period when you've gotten further into the story and are comfortable with an idea. Furthermore, if you are planning on writing a story from start to finish, then chances are you might run into a few roadblocks. What I do is I write in chunks and what I mean by that is I write the scenes the characters are involved in and the later start pasting the scenes together in word. Usually when that happens I can figure out how to move the characters from scene to scene and the writing flows just a bit easier.
5) Take a break and Let Your Mind Rest
Lastly, take a break. Take a break, relax, go outside and garden or go for a walk. Sit in the park and watch the world go by or window shop. If you put too much pressure into writing you just might end up frustrated, angered, and depressed because the words won't flow. Remember Homer didn't write Troy and Ulysses in a day and Stephenie Mayer wrote while her kids slept. Don't be too hard on yourself, just take a break, allow yourself to daydream, and soon you'll be back to writing in no time!
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