Help with research.

1. If you could ask a witch for any kind of spell, what would it be? It can be good, bad, small, big, anything.

2. What trade does a bit of everything? A trade that has an apprenticeship, but might involve wearing a suit.

You're help is appreciated (I'll thank you in my acknowledgements, if this thing ever sees the light of day :D).

Happy writing!

Procrastination

A short post today.

In my last non-book review post, I was talking about my GAD. At my appointment with my psychologist today, we looked at some ways to tackle procrastination.
I procrastinate a lot. A lot of people do it. I even feel comfortable saying that everyone does it now and then.
But I'm not comfortable with the way I put things off. Especially things that make me happy, like writing.
Part of what we talked about today, was writing down the pros and cons of the task I might be putting off. If the pros outweigh the cons, do it. If the cons outweigh the pros, then you've stopped procrastinating and confronted the issue*.

So, regarding my NYWM project, my heart just wasn't in it. I'm sorry if you enjoyed it, but I've put it on the back burner for now and may return to it when I'm ready to put my heart into it.
Talking to a professional has helped me to look forward to writing time again. I've never believed in writer's block, until this year when I started yet another WiP while I had a two book series on the go too. I still don't believe in writer's block, not really. But I do believe that there are emotional and other problems that create the blockages, not the writing or creativity in themselves.

To be clear, I'm not just seeing a psychologist because I haven't been writing as much as I liked, but this is mostly a writing blog, so I'm posting my writing relevant thoughts here.

:D Not such a short post after all.

*That probably didn't make sense. I'll figure out exactly what I meant and get back to you.

The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing by Richard Hugo

The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing by Richard Hugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This might seem like a writing book by a poet, for poets. But it is just as valuable for other writers.
If you took each lesson or tip, and replaced the word 'poem' with 'novel' or 'story' (I can't say so much for scripts), you would have some great advice.
In my opinion, more prose writers could take a few lessons from poets anyway.
Of all the lessons, the one I appreciated the most was Hugo's sentiment that he was teaching 'his way' of writing, or showing us new writers how to find our own way. And that is so great. From high school through a creative writing degree to Twitter and the blogosphere, there is so much advice for writers out there. So when someone says they are going to teach me how to teach myself, I welcome it with relief and a smile.

Like many writing books, Hugo includes accounts from his life, and he uses the parts that inspired certain poems. I enjoyed these parts too, I always like to see what kind of life writers lead before/during their writing career.
Overall, this book is worth reading although some of it I'd heard at Uni. But it's always good to be reminded.


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Reassessing.

I have a tendency to take things a little too seriously. In this instance, it's NYWM. I started it because I thought it would be a fun way to start my character blog and challenge myself in a new medium as well as developing my protagonist from my book further.
Then I missed a day. Then another. And a third time.
I started to get anxious because I wasn't following through with my goals. And I started to get anxious because I thought it was crap and who would want to read it?
The best part was that I was concentrating on my other projects because I was putting off my NYWM goal.

Recently I've started seeing a psychologist, because this worry isn't something exclusive to my writing. He told me I have something called General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). It's treatable and already I'm starting to feel better.
However, I used some of the techniques I've been learning to manage the worry, and applied them to how I'm feeling about not following through with NYWM goals.
I've overreacted a little, and realised that the idea behind NYWM (besides the writing of course) was to have fun. At least, that's how I should have been taking it.
And it's something I need to remember about my writing. I write because I love it, and it is ultimately fun. As soon as I start taking it seriously, nothing happens and my projects lie stagnant. The same with Twitter and Blogging. If I take them seriously as 'networking tools', then all of a sudden, I'm overcome with anxiety and nothing gets done.

So, especially for the rest of this month, I'm going to have fun with NYWM. Who cares if my character blog doesn't go anywhere? Who cares if it doesn't make sense?

Right now, I don't. I'm going to have fun.

Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi

Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finished this book a week ago. I finished it in two days.
I haven't connected with a book this emotionally since Going Bovine by Libba Bray.
This was different of course, being non-fiction. A book about Portia de Rossi's struggle with Anorexia Nervosa and coming out.
I'm not anorexic, nor am I gay. But the way de Rossi wrote about her compulsivity with food and the fear of losing control which then leads to a loss of control in a hellish loop, touched on some deep issues for me.
I couldn't break away from the beautiful, honest prose. I cried when my Mum and sister came over and I had to stop reading. Not because I had to stop reading. Because I was dealing with my own anxiety issues through de Rossi's journey.
The whole last chapter I cried for her and myself.
Then the epilogue. It brought hope, and I felt relief. If she can come back from that obsession, I can certainly deal with my own problems. There is brightness in the future.

Now, one thing I asked myself before reading was: Can this celebrity write? Was there a ghostwriter?
Yes and no, respectively. There were passages where de Rossi's love of words was clear: in high school, she loved reading out Shakespeare and Poetry and giving emotion to the words.
And no one else was mentioned in the fine print. De Rossi is amazing and I hope she writes more.

Lastly, I loved the sense of Australianness I felt throughout the book. De Rossi hasn't lost her roots.


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First day of NYWM!

I have started my new blog! The first post of Long Lost: A Diary, has been posted! Check it out, leave a comment. Or tell me what you think here on Asterisk That Thought.

In terms of responding to comments on Long Lost, I have decided to use them in improving my writing as I go. I won't be editing after I've posted. Just cause that would get messy.

Anyway, enjoy! And I will be back with non-fiction bloggy things as per usual on this blog :D