Art Is The Only Way To Run Away Without Leaving Home.

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”

— Twyla Tharp

Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.

Paul Theroux (via quotemadness)

Hi!

If you happen to know someone who writes too, ask them if they’re okay to be your writing buddy 🙂

You don’t need to belong to the same fandom, or write the same kind of stories/tropes/OTP, you just need someone that you can rely on, and that you know relies on you too, to get a little push and help you get started.

Find together two hours at least once a week (two hours is a minimum to get started and have the feeling that you’ve made something at the end), two hours that fit in the middle of your other obligations (and maybe timezones 😋) and well, meet 😊

The most important thing is to sit down to dedicate some time to your writing, and writing is more than actual writing. It also requires thinking, research, inspirational visual or music, editing etc. The sessions can be dedicated to any of these. Just decide what your next session will be about and share it with your buddy as a nice chat to start off (goals/struggles/questions/tips...)

Meet again at the end of your dedicated time (or in the middle) and share what you’ve accomplished (no competition okay? it’s cool)

I’ve had a writing buddy for nearly two months, and it’s really a moment I’m looking forward to every single week 💜

Good luck!

Is there a good way to remind and motivate myself to write? I really love writing, but it's hard to remember to do it often, and sometimes even if I remember to, I don't feel motivated. But I love writing, so I'm at a loss for what to do here.

Give yourself the time to write. Book some time into your schedule that is dedicated writing time. Remove any guilt around needing to do chores or homework or work/family responsibilities. That time is dedicated to writing and that means it’s a shame-free zone. 

Once you have the time to write, the next thing you need to do is make sure that your space is conducive to it. Find a nice place with good lighting and a comfortable area to set up your device. Trying to write while people are talking around you or when you’re too crowded into a corner or where you can’t really see your screen just makes the whole process more difficult. Figure out what you need in order to get into the zone and give yourself those things. 

Finally, write what you actually want to write. If you’re filling prompts for other people or writing things that you think will be popular in the fandom but they aren’t actually interesting to you, that will make it harder to get yourself started. Do a quick warmup of writing whatever it is that you think would be fun. Then, after you’re started, you can switch over to things that are perhaps less inspiring for you. 

Those are my top tips for the day, but what about the rest of you? How do you find your motivation?

Epiphany

It’s just crossed my mind that Ao3 could very well be the modern tower of Babel, what with the amount of stories, cultures, knowledge, creativity, art, languages, talent, and it’s just so freaking awesome!

Pic: The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (circa 1563, Rotterdam)