Author: writer_admin

Writing Journal Entry: Words for January

word for January

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Today I want to experiment with a new kind of blog post. Something in the lines of the traditional blog entries from the beginnings. Kind of like a journal entry… Tell me what you think in the comments below, if this is interesting enough for a blog post.

This is the Writing Journal Entry for January 2023

… and hopefully I’ll be writing more of these as I go along. January has been a tough month. You might say “as they all are”, to which I don’t agree.

There are events, or clusters of events, that do change everything at once and that throw us off course. And even though these events have a huge impact in my life and, consequently, in my writings, they don’t relate to it per se, so I won’t be sharing those here (those will go into the proper paper journal).

But I do want to do a profound review of what this January has been and what it means to me to work on these projects.

I have started this year putting into paper my goals for my writings. Creating and sharing the free workbook Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023, was part of my personal efforts to create some balance in my life, and keep myself aware of my ongoing writing projects, as well as reading and mind-growing projects. This was important for me, it has helped me cope with the always latent overwhelming feeling of having so much to do, and not controlling the creative output as I envision doing, among other more distasteful things. To be an author and to show up for it, whatever the situation, has costs and it takes a big toll on our health. All of our health.

Again, this is the link for the free download… [No dropbox account is needed to download it] It’s never too late to draw some plans.

During January I have been pondering about what I want this blog to be really about. Not that I haven’t thought about it before, or made my kind of impromptu planning of it, because I have and I did.

This blog’s service will remain aligned with my will to share more about themes related to Writing, in a broad sense of this area of expertise.

I just keep depositing high hopes in this little corner of the web, and working on it as a kind of repository of ideas about the writing practice, and what it entails in this world of speedy images and an important need for the right words.

In January, this Writer’s blog saw a few of my favorite themes:

It might seem weird but I’m pretty proud of these blog posts. I do love to write in this format/genre and about the craft. 

To me, writing exists in a full spectre, and each writing project has its form, function and gift associated with it. Blog writing is just one piece of the large array os pieces that make this puzzle.

As for Long Fiction Writing efforts:

January was a month for the ‘The Shapeshifters’. I have defined some goals and I’m keeping my word on it. As times passes, and I keep attentively looking at The Shapeshifters #1, I notice other things I need to take care of.

It’s not just about writing the manuscript and crafting the story as I want it to be: as a good starting point of a series… It’s also about the vision for the whole series, the proper way to do other non-related writing work, the acceptance of what I can’t change and the going with my gut while discovering these stories inside me.

I have set a few goals for book #1 and #2 and I’m keeping my word on those. But also, I’m finding that I need to do other exploratory works on these and, even change some things on the first book.

This is my first series materialising itself. I have written other projects that were thought as series but this one is my first full out attempt right at doing so. And this is fun and scary at the same time.

And not just because is my first serious attempt at writing a series but also being out of my comfort zone in so many ways. I have chosen some things for this story that will need a careful editing process and I keep finding things to stress about.

Short-Fiction and Poetry

I always have parallel projects on these formats. There are goals set for some works in progress, but it has been six months since I have devoted the time to constant practice.

I do not like it. Nop.

In my defense, I have been channeling a lot of energy into ‘The Shapeshifters’, but this should be no excuse for my lack of attention to my other writing practices. After all, poetry has been with me since my teens, and I do have a few published poems and a (very ignored by now) poetry blog.

As for short-fiction…

Again, I’m always working on something. This is the elected format for the current writing contests around me, so it’s something to think about if I want to publish any of my stories through the usual channels.

I have put some of this on hold until I figure some things out.

How can people do it all? Frankly, I do not know. Planning only takes us so far… But this is my journal-type of vent, to put the questions out and give them the chance to be answered in a timely manner. 

This was the Writing Journal Entry for January 2023… about writings and feelings and stuff.

How was your January?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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Writing Dark Romance in Fantasy Worlds

dark romance

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Today I want to talk about some of my favorite writing genres.

Writing has its tricks. Writing in some particular genre, or cross-genres as is more frequent, also obeys to some rules. It has a certain way it should be done, it has tropes, it starts, progresses and end, in a certain way.

Even if we think we are writing something different from what is considered mainstream for the genre, truth is that it can go in one of two ways:

  • Or we are writing something that doesn’t have readers interested in it;
  • Or it fits some genre that already exist we just weren’t as well read as we thought we were, and weren’t able to categorize it properly.

Either way, we seem to be at a lost to whom our books may be of interest.

For example, I love to write romance. I love to write romance in different genres.

About this theme, I truly think that life without love isn’t easy… or worth it. I also don’t think that loving is easy. It is hard work and a discovery process that is painful enough.

But I do believe that, it is the search for love that helps us cope with the ugly demons of this world… us.

So I love to write romance in Contemporary, Fantasy, Urban, Supernatural genres. It is not fluffy, next door vibe kind of romance. It’s painful, gritty, pain induced, self-discovery journey, which Love helps set right.

I believe that a story is as compelling as characters try to chase their inner demons out of their lives or, at least, invite them to tea and lay out the ground rules for coping in the same body and mind.

Throughout the years, I have been writing some tragic short stories, some of them quite supernatural themed. I always seem to gravitate that way when I write short-stories and I frankly don’t know why.

But it’s on the longer fiction that I find solace in delivering some satisfying endings. I put them through hell but in the end they find meaning in their sufferings… The eternal hope for those that, no matter how much they suffer in life, just have to keep hoping to find some meaning in all of it.

While growing up, and learning about stories in books, films and series, I always thought a story benefited greatly from a good, sometimes not achieved but always latent, love interest.

Some of those stories weren’t romances at all. In some of those we were not supposed to follow that thread except as a backstory that accompanied throughout the pursuit of some main quest. Several crime series come to mind.

But, truth be told, it was in those snippets of almost conquering something that shouldn’t be (and weren’t) the main concern of the story that picked my interest. I do remember this clearly in lot’s of series and films, through my teenager ears. That and a great interest in sci-fi, supernatural and drama.

I keep trying to find my way through these genres and personal tendencies while I write my stories. I keep seeing the plots and sub-plots as worlds that are worth exploring. Worlds of pain and grief, and expectations unmet, betrayal and pure unadulterated love… or not so much. Finding demons to subdue through the oh so human need to love and feel loved.

Does this give me an all fluffy, next door vibe kind of romance? Not quite. But it gives me some dark personal universes to work with.

And I enjoy every moment of it. If I could just make it darker, as it should be… 

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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Edit the White Room Syndrome in your writing

white room syndrome

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Let’s talk about writing! Let’s talk about the White Room Syndrome.

The White Room Syndrome happens when we are writing a scene and fail to give the details to help the reader imagine what the surroundings of the characters look like.

We start telling the story without giving it a recognisable physical space to live in.

The physical details helps us ground a story. Instead of having the action happening in a nondescript, empty scenery around them, we have the opportunity to bring it to life by sharing a bit of what’s going on outside our characters experience, and how those surroundings may or may not affect them in that scene.

In further analysis, the details we infuse our stories with, may be of specific relevance and representations of themes and points we wish to make with our stories.

We should never neglect the chance to make our narrative more meaningful and choosing some specific details to intertwine in our narrative will achieve this.

Theme and the White Room

It’s not just describing someone’s space, making it speak about the character in itself, or decorating the set so we can feel a more vivid imagery and immersion in the story. It’s using those references to allude to the bigger theme and propelling our story in the way we want it to go.

Not everything has to have a double meaning, or be on theme, but if it’s possible to have double meaning and if it serves a function in the telling of our story, know that she gets better for it.

Describing in the White Room

Description has its objectives and it serves the story, helping to construct a narrative that feels more real. The surroundings can be working with, or against, our characters and thus elevating the story to other levels of artful complexity.

But to capture the scene we have in our head and commit it to paper requires attention to detail. Even if we want our readers to fill in some blanks, and trust me a reader is quite eager to do some of that, we must be careful of leaving too many blanks to fill.

If a reader has difficulty in envision the setting, or if he’s seeing something else entirely from what we thought we had created, then we have incurred in the White Room Syndrome.

But this is only contemplated when we have other people giving feedback or if we can distance ourselves enough from our work to catch these inconsistencies.

Fixing the White Room Syndrome

Answering some simple questions like:

  • What so we want our readers to see in this scene?
  • What are our characters feeling and how can their surroundings reflect that?
  • Which objects or surroundings may enlighten the reader toward the characters inner struggle?
  • Which senses are we using when in that space? (smell, hearing, taste, sight…)

The dangers of Filling the White Room

Be mindful not to over-share information. Those long, boring, uneventful pages of description may be a pain to read and make our readers drop our work as if it burned them. I know I have dropped a few myself.

Over-sharing is a very common mistake and it hurts our story. Nobody wants to sit there and read all about every tiny bric-a-brac in a room… or of a story. Too much detail is as hurtful and no detail at all.

Don’t use random things just because you want to paint a picture so bad that anything would serve this purpose. There are meanings behind most objects, color, ambiences, weather… Don’t use them idly. References will work only if they are respectfully and diligently chosen for some effect.

Avoid the clichés. This is something that is cross-cut in all of it. Avoid a cliché like you would avoid the plague (LOL).

Filling the room with a few well beaten references to some idilic little town, or a creepy old mansion, or using other types of “It was a dark and stormy night” type of descriptions, it’s not very imaginative or advisable… Unless you’re doing an all cliché type of story.

When we need the White Room to do it’s thing

There are certain moments in a narrative that may require a White Room. Like when we want to convey more attention to some character’s internal landscape. To focus on the important is better than to distract our reader with the casual and just there for the word count.

In these moments we might want to shed more light into dialogue, or inner monologue, or sensations, and not so much in what is outside our characters. Describing feelings and thoughts gain the front stage to better tell some part of the story, while their surroundings may fall back.

In conclusion…

The White Room Syndrome is something to tackle on a second draft, when we are on the editing phase of our manuscript. It shouldn’t be considered in the initial stages of creating a writing piece.

Being too worried with this in an earlier stage may damage our writing flow and the ideas we have for the initial draft… which can always be worked on and improved upon, but later in the process.

And it’s one of those things that is here to remind us that art is made of meaningful details added in specific moments, when we are focused on making our writing better and more meaningful.

In our composing efforts we should pay attention to it in order to improve our manuscript. But we shouldn’t let it define us while we are creating a piece.

We have been suffering from the “show don’t tell” and “the cut all the fluff out”, at least I know I have, so it’s normal that we have difficulties in discerning what details to put into our stories. Good editing will solve that.

I’ll leave some outside articles for further reading and reference below.  

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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References: 

Why writing a blog matters?

writing a blog

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Let’s talk about writing!… blog writing.

Why should a writer maintain a blog? Why should they deviate from their fiction writing? Why should they waste time in other project than his books?

Having a blog requires us to learn new skills and put them to use. Not just gaining writing skills more adequate to the blog format, but also research skills on our favorite blogging themes, technical skills on a miriade os subjects connected to this format, and other creative mind paths that help us write consistently.

From my personal experience, I stand by every reason I’ll mention bellow, in this article. I have been a witness to them all.

It has been a fun trip – sometimes not so fun but exasperating one – devoting part of my attention to a blog. My Portuguese blog is celebrating its fifteen birthday next month, of regular two/three weekly publications. And my English one has just started and is already teaching me tons about this new blogging world.

It requires a lot of constant work, I give you that. But it gives me such pleasure to have these writing projects always on the move, and feeling that I can share something that might make a difference in other peoples creative lives. There’s no feeling like the one of receiving feedback from one of my articles.

I will leave you some well-known writer’s blogs so you can see for yourself what I am talking about, and what we can do with it: Neil Gaiman; Ursula K. Le Guin; Joanna Penn;

So… why should a writer maintain a blog?

Writing practice…

Practice makes perfect, at least that’s what’s how the saying goes. Blogging requires a constant flux of writing and this is good practice per se, isn’t it?

Nurture Creative Writings

Writing in a different format from the usual fiction, non-fiction or journal practice, nurtures other types of publications. It pushes us to be creative outside our normal writing formats.

Develop our Researching Skills

We learn a lot while we research for blog writing and we can become real experts on our subjects. Also we keep research as a constant practice which allow us to hone our researching skills.

Broadens our Knowledge and Themes

We have a constant incentive to look for writing subjects, making us more attentive to what goes around in our fields. Writing themes get expanded and thoroughly investigated. And it gives us other themes to talk about besides marketing our published works.

Public Exposure

It gives us public exposure, gets new people to know and visit our website, and broadens our like-minded community of people.

Grow our Reading Community

It helps us reach more possible readers for our other works. We have a chance to show ourselves, and with that to captivate more people that might enjoy our fiction and non-fiction writings.

Gives us Access to Readers

It makes us contact with our readers in a more private way. We get to talk about our personal experiences and to connect with readers in a more direct way. If a person subscribe, it allows us to connect with them on a more regular base.

Unravels Opportunities

It gives us beneficial exposure and other opportunities related to our writing career. We show up and talk about our themes, and our books, and our creative work and, sometimes, work opportunities materialize themselves.

Allows for Other Creative Outlet

It serves as another creative outlet for those of us that like to create in different areas. We get to work on blog writing and on creating content that may be very different from our usual creative pursuits.

Serves as a Life Journal

Sometimes it serves as a journal for our own writing life, or other life experiences. Getting other ideas for what comes next, while sharing some experience with our readers is very common. We use it to work out some of the kinks of some creative projects. We use it as a tool to unwind some concepts about a theme. We use it to share our progress or digress from our plans and goals.

It’s an Outlet of sorts

It can be an outlet when things get tough in the big writing business. We get to talk about what’s bothering us, or about what options there are, or about how we are coping with something. And maybe we find someone that relates to our experience.

Eleven reasons why a writing a blog matters.

And these are just for us, writers. Because if I look at it from the readers perspective, I’m sure I’ll be finding many more.

We are writers because we write, and we may love to write in different formats. I know I do.

We have good examples of this by creatives that wrote on different formats that the usual book. We have letter writers, e-mail writers, list writers, bullet journal writers, song writers, poetry writers…

Having also worked on some blog writings, transforming them into book format, I tell you there are a lot of seeds dwindling in our blog writings that can be properly cared for in other formats.

So, blog writing also gives us seeds for growing new works… 

What do you feel about blogging? Or vlogging? Or other writing formats? What do you favor most?

Do you have a blog waiting to be put into a book format? Talk to me!

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

***

Marketing Writings and work out the Work

marketing writings

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog!

Let’s talk about writing!… and how Marketing our work affects our Writings, and how our Writings affect our Marketing work.

As authors we have a difficult time in cramming all the work we have ongoing into our daily live’s, and still keep ourselves motivated and inspired to write.

At least, this is how I feel.

There are too many things to consider, too many things to learn, too many projects I wish to devote myself to, and I find it hard to put in the good work in all of them at the same time.

We must be a Jack-of-all-trades in order to do a, let’s be truthful, mediocre job at most of the tasks we have going on. We may be savvy in some things but we lack in others… like technical skills, for example.

Or we can spend lot’s of money, that we usually don’t have to begin with, in order to outsource those tasks that can be done by others. And spend more time doing all the research and trial to find some decent professionals to do them for us.

Which would be a nice to have, but it’s not doable for the initial (big) part of the time we take pursuing our dreams.

Marketing is one of those tasks

We find it simple enough to do it ourselves, so we start dabbling in it, and start seeing the immensity of juggling all of it ourselves.

But we need to know a few things first.

Learning the foundations of usable images, formatting, creating online content, sharing throughout platforms, helpful apps and gadgets, and all sorts of things that are needed, just to be able to do a somewhat decent job.

Decent, but only after a few years of a learning curve, or a steep few months if we have the strength for it.

I know this reality. I have been dancing to this tune for fifteen or more years.

Marketing is Images

First it was the images issue. All images had author rights associated and this implies having another cost. While starting a blog as a marketing tool, we have to produce content always accompanied by good, relevant, beautiful images. So I needed the images and had a passion for creating them. Uniting both I created my own images library.

So I worked my way into creating my own visual content, including all the images for each blog post.

Marketing is Brand

Also on the brand, constructing it made me meddle with logos and brand images. I got to learn how to develop the online presence imagery that I use, and spruce up when needed.

A few years ago, I discovered a new online design tool (canva.com) which gave me a lot more leverage to work on my visual content. I have learn a bit of Photoshop, back in the day, but I have never mastered anything but the strict basics of it. Also Gimp wasn’t friendly enough for me.

With Canva I got to experiment a thousand ways to create content and still use it daily.

At the same time, I had concerns about formatting the whole thing, about headlines creation, about visual presentation, tags, niche audience, and so much more. And I’m kind of allergic to SEO! Not that I don’t use it. I try to.

Marketing is Social Media

It has been a slow, but very rewarding, struggle managing all the need to know’s about the marketing experience connected to my blogs and online presence. I have been experimenting different social media tools and online presences and it requires focus and effort.

Marketing is Effective Writing

Permanently underlying all of this is the need to write good articles.

Marketing is supposed to be an accessory to our writing. It is not. It’s a full, complex, independent area of knowledge. And learn to write copy is hard work.

Writing blog posts, articles of sorts, is another type of writing that needed to be studied, and enhanced with practice. Even blog titles have a spin to it that needs to be learned.

As for my writing articles practice, I will not call them great content because until this day, my blogues remain the desired blog experience, not quite Content, focusing on sharing my experience through the meanderings of the writing dream, not the ‘build a business type of blog‘. And I do enjoy to write for my blogs. 

Yes, I would like to have some revenue, sustaining my twenty year efforts and allowing myself to continue doing this thing I love the most: writing on its different formats.

I find that I like to put in the work but lack in other aspects.

After all, the writing dream does come with major costs associated, but I’m always struggling with how real my content is, opposed to the ‘How to write a best-seller in two days’ mentality.

And these views of the matter don’t produce good marketing content, do they? Trying to inspire others to pursue their dreams is not the same thing as promising them magical improvements by reading a single blog post.

A ‘write better’ article, a ‘devote more time to your writing’ or a ‘read from better sources’ aren’t appealing. People like to have it simple, not too much work, without too much pain. And we all know how that saying goes… 

Marketing is Blogging

Since my first days blogging, I wanted a platform for my voice, my writing voice, and the cheap-online-business model will never do it for me. Blogging is supposed to add value, inspiring others to pursue their creative callings, not take it away. Not frustrating readers when the promise on life changing magic doesn’t appear.

All I ever wanted was to add value. To help someone in the pursue of their dreams, if possible.

We can teach how to put in the time to do better, but we cannot make it magically better just by existing. You have to put in the time and effort to do it.

Just like writing fiction, or non-fiction, or in any any form or genre that we may devote ourselves into. For example, writing a book is long, hard work. And also, very fun work. If we let it be so.

Marketing is Exposure

With all of this in mind, Marketing and how to grow the exposure to what I write, is very relevant.

Choosing my platforms, my public voice, working on my content, devoting myself to my writing practices, and trying to see a bit further away than today’s viewpoint, are constant efforts.

[So I resent it immensely when the players change the game, no warnings offered, in what seems to serve only big commercial self-interests. Yes, things change, tools evolve, social media is the golden egg chicken which needs to prevail through time… and it needs to evolve to prevail. But it has evolved poorly.

And, I know that all of the things we use freely aren’t free. I am the commodity, the product, the final endgame for them is to make money out of my needs.

We need it to reach other people that maybe would like to see what we have to offer. But no ‘buying space‘ = no ‘algorythming‘. But I’m digressing here…]

Marketing our work, on top of all the Real Work we have to put in to create our Life’s Work, is a conundrum of sorts.

No one will do it better than ourselves. Nobody knows our book better. Nobody knows our message better. Nobody knows what we like better.

Marketing is Connection

Marketing end’s up being just me and my big dream, fighting to get it to other people, so they can find some value and maybe inspire them to pursue their dream.

Not just sharing for vanity, but always searching to add something that others can use in their creative pursuits. Even if it doesn’t seem obvious.

Not just creating different iterations of the same well studied booklet, but offering a personal view. Not just copying the trendy stuff but making our own possibilities of trendy.

Truly knowing what we want to write about, and how to go about it, is a good strategy for finding a Marketing that works for our projects… to find a Marketing that works for our Work.

We may find the commercial side of things is the way to go but we need to have the skills for it. Or develop them.

It’s like learning to walk again. We will get up and fall down. We will take a step forward and stumble. We will manage to stay upright a few more moments at a time. And even after we have learned to walk, we need to find our balance and to avoid the slippery patches, and not run ourselves into walls and street posts.

Marketing is Learning

Marketing is showing how to register all of that process, how to paint our travelling experience in a captivating way, how to make others come together in communities of sorts.

It’s a hard and fun job. Even if accumulating with all sorts of other tasks. Like writing our books.

Quick question: How can we marketing what doesn’t exist yet?

See?! Another conundrum of sorts…

What’s your marketing strategy? How do you deal with the cheap feeling of pushing your work? How do you balance time for all of the works you have to do?

Leave the comments below. We would like to talk about this more.

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

***

Reading for the Writer in you

reading for the writer in you

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog so…

Let’s talk about writing!

Today, I want to talk a bit about the importance of Reading to our Writing practices. Not just about what we read or how much, but also the variety we incorporate.

I figure this is not a strange assumption to make, that reading is truly important for our writing practices. After all, Writers are Readers and there’s no other way to go about it.

Reading helps us learn the craft, discover new and important themes, refine our own writer voice, and simply enjoy the fruits of our labor, even if made by someone else.

But what if we can’t read for a while?

Sometimes, we get ourselves into some deep holes, some occurrences to which we call reading slumps, the reader counterpart of writer’s block, forgetting the real pleasure we have while absorbing a good immersive story.

Just like when we forget the real pleasure of writing our own imagined story.

Sometimes, we try to erase the appreciation we have for these activities and instead, we start listening to what we should be doing, or enjoying, instead of what we do love doing and truly enjoy. 

Not just reading serious books is Reading, nor just writing literary fiction is Writing.

But we tend to forget this while pursuing the genres that make us feel more vibrantly alive in our literary practices.

I believe our reading habits are made not just of books, nor certain genres.

We have plenty of material around that adds up to our love for reading. Like magazines, blogs, essays, letters, manga… Our readings are, and should be, made of multiple and different materials, providing us with a wellspring of ideas difficult to match by the sheer diversity of it.

I find that reading different book genres has the same benefits. Having access to other types of literary texts will put us in contact with themes, and ideas, which would not enter our minds if we just sticked with the genre we like to read the most… Or the genre we think we should be reading.

Diversity helps us forge a clear perspective on different subjects and expands our bandwidth so we can embrace growth in our practices.

Keeping this in mind was what got me to contemplate a new reading challenge for this year.

This week I’m organising my readings for 2023, but I’ll not be giving you too many details, because I’ll be talking about it soon enough. I’ve reimagined a reading challenge, more fitted to my current situation, and reading needs, and I am fully devoted to make it work.

This challenge has already brought its fruits:

First, I have a problem! Yep. It’s official. I have made myself take a real, long look at my reading habits, and how I motivate myself to reading, and I found I have a flickering motivation. 

Second, it allowed me to go in search of all the books I own, or at least the majority of them, and have a notion of how I have been making choices just by not choosing. And not choosing is a bad thing, isn’t it?

Third, I’m feeling more energised by the attempts of organising my readings. Which already had made me do things I have been postponing for ages, like creating a sheet for all of my books, and setting a new more objective goal for this year, and not just the amount of readings I’ll be doing.

Keeping my readings organised helps me getting my head clear about what I want to read, and what I need to read, and what would be beneficial if I read.

And I guess that’s why I have not gone about it this way… too much pressure and constraints.

Also, reading for research must have a specific time bound, while reading for mere pleasure has other restraints. And these are important notions to have. Adding to our reading materials must come with a time stamp on it (so you don’t end up like me, as you’ll see soon enough).

And, never forgetting that we should be careful of what we are reading while we are working on some of our writing projects, lest we confuse our writing voice. Creativity fuels herself with all it gathers around her (us). We must be careful so it doesn’t take over while we are writing in our own voice.

I find that keeping our readings more directional towards the kind of writer we want to be is an effort that has a ton of value.

But I also believe that we should expose ourselves to the most diverse lot we can arrange. This feeds our imagination and helps create those worlds we wish to live in or just write about.

Balance is key. And unbalanced is the creative spirit. Or at least is what it seems sometimes… the constant duality of life, isn’t it?

So, the three ideas I wish you would keep in mind:

  • Reading is instrumental to Writing.
  • Choosing what to read is important.
  • Reading diversity is what makes us versatile.

What do you think about this?

Thanks for being here and for being willing to talk about writing!

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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I have a gift for you: The Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023

Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023

Hello all! Welcome back to this blog.

I have been working on some creative projects, and trying to find a better way to plan this year’s writing efforts, as I’ve been sharing with you on the previous blog post…

One of the Creative Projects I have been working on is this Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023, that you can download for free here…[No dropbox account is needed]

Usually, around this time of the year I do some planning of the year ahead. Gathering some creative projects to work on, in the first months of the new year, and trying to envision what the big picture for the year can be, while I expand on these projects throughout the year and for the following years as well.

All of these plans are flexible enough to allow changes.

And what does this mean? I plan some creative endeavours and I leave space to introduce new one’s during the year. Which I usually do anyway so I might as well leave space for them.

I keep checking in with my initial plans and its iterations, sometimes on a weekly basis. And this year I’ll be using this Workbook to do it.

I will be upfront with you: not all check in’s are productive. Sometimes, I keep analysing if I was on track only to find out that I wasn’t. Not really. Not if I want to make a significant improvement on my creative practices… but this is another subject altogether.

But these efforts are indeed repeated periodically, as I try to expand for longer spreads of time. Formulating SMART Goals is hard and sometimes fear set’s in and tries to overcome all my efforts.

So, this year I created something, a small Workbook with some work tools for planning my creative projects in 2023.

As I have written in the Creative Contents Page:

workbook

In accordance with my Annual Word for 2023 [EMPOWER] I figured I should share with you this workbook. To empower is also to promote better practices for others, not just myself, so I’ll be true to my annual choice of word.

This is my New Year’s gift to you: the Plan You Creative Year Workbook for 2023.

I hope you find the Plan Your Creative Year Workbook for 2023 useful and leave a comment if you do… or don’t, and what I can improve upon.

Again, this is the link for the free download… [No dropbox account is needed to download it] Enjoy!

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

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