Tuesday, October 30, 2012

NANOWRIOMO Eve - Pep-Talk



It’s three in the afternoon, which means there’s Nine hour until I can grab my laptop out, turn my music up way past the hearing requirements and begin to start my novel in a caffeinated and sleep deprived induced high. I’m having a hard time believing that its November already and that very soon ‘ll be eating way to many chocolates, wrapping presents in eco-newspaper and making very bold texted Santa wish lists so I actually get what I want this year for Christmas.

This year I’ll be kicking things off with a trip from the boogie-man and no I don’t mean that horrible monster that lives under the bed who may or may not make an appearance in my novel, no I’m snuffluffigas with my heat pack and cough lollies pinned to my knickers. You might think that would be enough to deter me, especially it being in the high 30’s which feels like I’m sloshing around in a sauna, but no, the sun is shining, my skin is melting, my eyes are watering and my heart is beating so fast with excitement that I’ll probably need to go for a nice nanna nap after I’ve written up this post.

It’s that time of year again. Nanowriomo eve and let me tell you guys it feels more exciting to me than Christmas Eve ever has. Maybe it’s the warmth that’s heating up the room, shining a light on the enormous pile of TBR books on my dresser and bedside table or the joy of celebrating Halloween with the man I love cooking burritos while we watch Misery and anticipate our own writing misery, or maybe it’s just the simple fact that when the clock hits 12:00 I get to enter a world, create a world and share that experience with thousands of people in a way I can’t often with my other hobbies.

Whatever the reason [ and does there really need to be one to be this ecstatic about writing] when my fingers hit the keyboard and the words come spilling I know within my heart that it doesn’t get much better than this. 30 days of following my bliss and taking a chance to do something that makes my heart sing despite the craziness and the horrendous voices of reason that spit at me like vipers from non- nano believers and non-writers who think that I’m just wasting my time or putting more crap into the universe.

Hands up if you have endured this in the past or recently? I still do, even though I’ve been taking the leap since 2007. Let me tell you guys I’ve only won two times technically, but in my heart I’ve won every time because even if I’ve been shy 20 words or 20,000 words I’ve loved every painful, ecstatic, maddening moment of it and I’ve met some freaking amazing people, who still to this day are very good friends and writing buddies.

 I laugh, I smile and I dance with taco sauce on my lips because all those people who want to put me down; they’re all missing the point; I am following my bliss, doing something, taking a chance whether I fail or succeed and let’s face it guys how can you really fail when you know that you were brave enough to do something that you are passionate about, while they complain and leave their dreams untouched?

My dream is to reach out to people during Nano and I have done this already with my Vlogseries  [which will hopefully be a PDF ebook by the start of next year] Blair’s PROMPTS System. If you guys have not watched the videos I will leave a link, but a basic breakdown is as follows: acronym style.

P – Prompts
R- Reading and Rewards
O- Outline, Brainstorming, Plotting
M- Music
P- Partners
T- Today
S- Sweets and Stationary

During the month of November I plan on utilizing each point to help you guys out. Those who are struggling for inspiration might want to look out for a weekly segment where I will be using lyrics, pictures, sentence starters and exercises to jolt your enthusiasm or to give you ideas and inspiration for your novel and its characters. Some will be from the net, others from well-loved books I own and if you have a suggestion feel free to email it to me and I’ll add it to the list for others to benefit from as well. The way I see it, were all in it together; and for every prompt each person will perceive it differently and take it to different places.

For those of you struggling with keeping an outline, or who want to branch out and brainstorm during Nano I will have a few examples and ideas for you to try out as I approach a variety of ideas myself and I will also give you a few suggestions with saving and backing up work as well.

As always I’ll be reading during Nano so you can look out for the books I’m reading if you want to rewards yourself with some youtube videos and I will be popping a few quotes and words of inspiration into my weekly segments to give you something to write down, or print out to keep you motivated [as well as myself]

Lastly I will leave you with the strongest piece of advice that I can give anyone during Nano. This is; to just write. No matter what- just write because you can’t go wrong and Nanowriomo is about quantity not quality.

If you want to add me as a friend or leave me an email my name on Nano.org is :Disposable.Blair I will leave the link and you can PM me there or leave me an email at Blake.constance[@]hotmail.com I am more than happy to help out, give you pep-talks and kick you in the ass ^_^ in a friendly matter of course. You are more than welcome to contribute to my weekly segments and if you want to be added to the list to spread the word that you’re doing Nano and meet new friends then please let me know. [Note: no personal information will be shared]

Thursday, May 3, 2012

So recently I have started to really jump outside my comfort zone and almost [perfectionist personality] to try something that used to come so naturally to me, and yet is new, fresh exciting and [ can I mention recyling] fantastic for relieving stress and creating art. This my friends is Art Journaling.

So what is Art Journaling - My awnser - putting down my emotions, sensations, reactions and inspiration from daily life using whatever the hell I can find in my scrapbooking room and from the local bargain stores. More about that later, of course this is all new to me in the way of using paint with my fingers and really letting my creativity flow, and let me tell you it does flow. But it was not easy the first few times I played with the idea and I found myself wanting to stop, because lets face it for anyone who has seen some of the many creations out there online and on youtube it is enough to want to stay inside the craft room forever, or run from it. But this time I did not run - I jumped and I flew and I an head over heels in love with Art Journaling.

So what do I use? To begin with old scraps from my crafty projects, bits of paper of my floor, half opened stickers, old paint supplies, copius amounts of glimmer mist and lots of tape. After a few days I added bits of magazine cut outs, copic marker journaling and punched out shapes and hand cut and drawn shapes. Now only a few days into it I have added Gesso to the mix, and a number of other items to my arsinal. Like glitter, twine, ink, die cuts, ripped up books and lots and lots of other bits and peices I pick up off the side of the road [literally]

I am outta practice with giving others advice and I am a newby, but I want to share my experience to some degree and hope within the next month I will have some photo's of my creating space, and the items and tools I use to create the art that means so much to me. So stick around, it is late and I am a little high on craft glue but I hope in a few days to be more consistent and hey...I might even have a challenge for you gals and guys out there...

Blair