Life Update!

Hello! A few things have changed for me lately so I wanted to write an update.

1. I joined a gym! I'd been thinking about it for a while. I love swimming but I would very rarely go because of the price. After experiencing an increase in anxiety and depression, I was recommended exercise for my mental health and that gave me the push to look into a gym. I was nervous and excited about starting. I am so glad that I joined! It can be a struggle to get myself there but once I am there, I really enjoy it. I start on the treadmill, which I have been building up on. I like using the rowing machine and I am also increasing my time on other machines. I find swimming so peaceful and on days where I don't feel too well, I take it slightly easier. 

2. I joined Wattpad! I have thought about joining Wattpad before but I was worried about whether I'd be able to submit my manuscript to agents if I had put some of it online. I discovered that there were some authors who had started on Wattpad. I actually messaged a couple to find out more and they were really helpful! I found out that you can still write on Wattpad and become traditionally published! So, I started posting my novel on there. It was one that I had started a couple of years ago, I recently started editing what I had written so far which is about half of the book. I am editing chapters and posting them regularly and then I will write on from there. I hope that Wattpad will give me the push to finish stories and I am so excited. 

Writing: Change of Focus

I tend to come to realisations. I will be struggling with something for a while and then suddenly someone will say something or I will read something that will just click with me and it will help me feel better. Most of these realisations do not stay with me long-term but they move me along on my journey transporting me to the next learning curve. This is why you will often see my posts on topics such as writing providing different perspectives as I learn and alter my perceptions. In my last post, I discussed how I have been struggling to write creatively lately. I read something that has made me realise what the source of this problem may be for me.

Writing Update

I thought that I would write a small update regarding my writing. My dream is to be a published author, it has been for a long time. I have started different ideas and even got halfway through a first draft but I have yet to finish a first draft. It got to the point where the idea of writing was making me feel stressed and anxious so I took a break but when I tried to come back, I ended up feeling the same things again. I want to write but it feels as though the creative writer in me is hibernating in a deep dark cave. I have no inspiration. I don’t know whether to try to continue with my existing draft, work on another idea I had already formed or come up with a completely new one. Great and large ideas are failing me. 

Since starting this blog, I have discovered a love for it and it makes me happy. However, I miss novel writing and I would like to do both. 

The only part of a plan I have at the moment is to read some of my writing books and see if an idea strikes me. I want to write because I love the story, not because I feel like I have to. I’m hoping the solution will present itself soon! 

Have you ever felt like this? How did you get to the other side of the tunnel?

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder Book Review

Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder Book Review

The Liebster Award

Thank you to Chloe at bookdragons247.wordpress.com for nominating me!

The rules:

Answer the 11 questions that you have been asked.

Nominate 11 other bloggers.

Ask your nominees 11 questions.

Let them know you nominated them.

1.       If you could get any two characters from any two books and put them in a relationship/friendship who would they be?

I would love to put Sydney from Vicious by V. E. Schwab and Yelena from The Chronicles of Ixia series together as I feel like they have a lot in common and would be good friends.

2.       Favourite song at the moment?

I don’t think I have one favourite song at the moment but I have been listening to some songs from past decades lately!

3.       What’s your spirit animal?

I did the same quiz that Chloe did and also received a deer. It was an interesting result!

4.       Any advice for people thinking of starting a book blog?

Do it! Just start and see how you feel.

Sunshine Blogger Award/ Q&A

So, I have already been nominated for this award. However, another lovely blogger nominated me again! I decided that I would like to answer her questions anyway so here is a mini Q&A.

1.       What is your dream job?

My dream job is to be a full time blogger and author.

2.       What do you think your life will be like in a year? And in ten years?

This is a difficult question because you never know what is going to happen! In a year, I hope to be earning something from my blog, to still be reading a lot and to be working on a creative writing project that I love and will finish. In ten years, I hope to have my dream house and be a published author.

3.       What is your proudest achievement?

The first thing that comes to mind is my degree. I worked so hard to do well and despite feeling bad mentally and physically, I got to the end and received a 2.1.

4.       What is your favourite blog post you’ve ever written?

I think my favourite would be How Anxiety and Depression Can Affect Reading and Writing

because I expressed some raw things that I have struggled with and people who related to that felt like they could reach out and talk about it too. One of my main aims in life is to help people and I hope that in a small way this blog does that.

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder Book Review

Things that help me relax

I have anxiety so I don’t often feel relaxed. I am working on improving my anxiety but there are a few things that I have found helpful when I am feeling tense:

1. Walks

Sometimes I feel like I can’t think straight, I cannot decide what needs to be done and when I should do it so I find that going for a walk, even just fifteen minutes actually does help to create mental clarity. By the time I come back from the walk, I have a plan or at least know what I am doing next.

2. Music

I have recently started listening to music again. I use Spotify and just put on a playlist or a particular song that I feel like listening to whilst I do other things. I find that after a while I can be singing along and feeling a bit better.

3. Drawing



I have always wanted to be a good artist but I did not really think that it was possible for me. I thought that I just didn't have the artistic talent. In the past, I have used different artistic forms, including sketching and sewing. I had thought about trying digital art in the past but I just thought that I wouldn't be any good at it. However, recently I began wanting to try digital art so I was fortunate enough to have some gift cards that I used to get a Wacom Intuos tablet. It comes with a pen that you use on the drawing tablet, as well as an art programme. You can also download free art software to use with it. It was actually a lot easier to use than I thought it would be and I have discovered that after I have done a drawing I feel so much calmer! I thought that I would get frustrated with any mistakes that I made and with the drawing not being what I envisioned but you can easily undo any errors and you can keep trying until the drawing looks how you want it to look. Although I don’t think that I am going to be a great artist any time soon, I am using this entirely as a hobby: something that I enjoy doing and that I want to keep practicing. I am currently only drawing fan art because I find it a lot easier to use a reference picture and because I love the characters that I am drawing.

4. Blogging

I love writing blog posts. Similarly to writing creatively, it allows me to pour my thoughts out. I can write about topics that I am interested in and I hope that I am reaching people and that my content helps them/ that they enjoy it. I love the community: everyone is so nice and they are passionate about the same topics or have shared similar experiences or give me advice when I need it. I feel amazing after posting a new blog post, as well as talking to people online. Blogging has become something that I am incredibly passionate about and that I wish to continue and work on regularly.

5. Reading

How could I not include reading on this list? It is so enjoyable and relaxing once my mind becomes completely immersed in the story and when I feel compelled to keep reading.

6. Video games

Some games make me feel really relaxed. For example, watching the environment in Skyrim. I think that it depends on the type of game that you play, some are for a challenge, others for enjoyment but that are not necessarily calming and then there are those that just make you feel calm as you stare at the beauty of the visuals, participate in the cute gameplay or fall in love with the characters.

Thank you for reading! What helps you to relax?

Writing Strategy

My last writing post was about getting back to writing my novel after taking a break. I said that I wanted to write when I wanted to write. I still do, if I start to feel stressed about the prospect of writing, I will change what I am doing. However, I would like to finish at least a first draft this year if possible so I am going to look at different strategies that I could use, here (inspired by my current read, Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder):

Image

Strategy 1: Counting Words

One method of making writing progress is to create a word count deadline, either daily, weekly, monthly or bimonthly. I have tried daily/weekly and monthly only once when I participated in NaNoWriMo. Daily/ weekly caused too much stress. If I did not reach my word count (which was often), I would feel terrible and I would stress about trying to catch up or having to write a certain amount of words the next day. Monthly did not really work either: I wrote probably more than I would have normally but I was far off the 50,000 word count goal and lost steam after a while. Bimonthly is an option: I know of at least one author who uses this method. It would be less stressful than having a daily goal and it would be quite lenient, especially if I didn’t set it too high. However, the impending goal could be stressful. Then comes another problem, deciding on what the word count should be.

Strategy 2: Time

Another method to track writing progress is to set a time goal, for example, spending an hour a day writing. I have tried this before but I felt as though I could not relax doing anything else until I did my writing and when I did, I spent a lot of the time not actually writing.

Strategy 3: Scenes

I could make goals based on scenes, for example, I could say that I wanted to finish a certain scene in two days. However, each scene could differ in length and as I do not plan everything in detail, I would not know how long each scene would take me. I could just say that I will focus on a certain scene until I finish it. However, sometimes if I’m not very excited about a scene or if I have spent a lot of time on that scene then I can procrastinate writing about it. I don’t like skipping ahead to other scenes because I like my progress to be quite linear. However, perhaps it is something that I should consider.

So, here are three strategies. Which one would you choose? Or do you follow another? Let me know in the comments below. I am still figuring my one out.