The Hopeful Emo Kid

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blogger tag: writing habits

August 11, 2017 by Briana Herr 1 Comment

Hello everyone! So today I’m bring you a uber cool thing. I loved doing writer/blogger tags so much that I made one myself! making a tag was one of the first things that I thought about doing when I first started this blog so I’m excited to actually post one.

So as you can see, with this tag I’m going to confess all of my weird writing habits and then I’m going to tag people to also confess theirs. it’s going to be great!

Where do you go write and what does it look like?

I have a couple of places that I like to go.

During the day, I write in my living room, I have a dog that’s older so going up the stairs to my room is a little hard for him and he gets lonely if he’s downstairs by himself.

My living room has big windows that lets in a lot of light and has a fire place which is great for setting the mood. (plus I like fire maybe a little too much.)

During the nighttime, I write in my bedroom. Sometimes at my desk but mostly sitting in my bed. I like having low light while writing during the nighttime so my room is lit either by the Christmas lights I have up, candle light or a small desk limp if I feel like I need more light -yes I know it’s bad for my eyes, I still do it. –

And if I’m feeling writer’s block hit I’ll walk down to a coffee shop or the library that’s not too far from my house and write there.

Snacks or drinks?

There’s no one snack or drink that I have. I love coffee a lot…maybe more then what’s healthy. but I only really drink that during the day.

Tea or soda is what I drink during the nighttime and I usually have water to go alone with everything.

As far as snack food, that depends on what I’m feeling at the time. A lot of times it’s chips or popcorn. Lately it’s been candy.

Although honestly, a lot of the time I go through long periods of time when I’m writing where I forget to eat or drink for a couple of hours…okay more like 10 but who’s counting?

Do you like to write with noise or in total silence?

I’m super weird about this. I’m warning you now lovable kids.

So, I need a LOT of noise. I listen to music, or YouTube videos or have a TV show on. sometimes all of three of these things going at once.

when I watch to YouTube videos it’s either people reading creepypastas or video game related things.

TV shows is stuff that I’ve seen a billion times like House or Law and order: SVU. or some sort of adult cartoon show.

As far as music goes, I have a playlist that I make for whatever project I’m working on and I only listen to that or I’ll listen to a song on repeat for hours -okay real talk, some times days at a time.- if it fits the scene I’m writing. or if I feel like being an emo kid.

Paper or computer?

this is also another question that’s very mood based.

for blogging and outlining I like writing on paper, I always get my best ideas when I’m writing in a notebook.

Novels I do every thing on the computer unless it’s a hard scene or I feel writer block-ie then I switch to paper because it helps me to think feeling the words drag out with every loop and line. dorky I know.

and I always keep a notebook by my bed because I like to write before going to sleep.

so both I guess is the short of it.

what do you do before you start to write?

lots of things. I try to make sure that I get things done like dishes or other cleaning, it doesn’t always happen though.

and I also like to pace around for a second before siting forever.

sometimes I even Meditate to calm my soul.

I also read my outline notes or even the last chapter or so to help get me back into the world if it’s been a little while.

What time of day do you like to write?

a 10,000% nighttime. I am so much a night owl that I might as well hoot instead of sneeze.

I’m not a morning person at all. There’s too much stuff going on during the day for me to be able to focus only on writing.

although I do my best writing at like 1am-6am so I guess technically that’s in the morning but I usually hadn’t slept before hand then so that’s still night time in my book!

Plus, there something about crawling into bed after staying up all night to write that I adore for no reason at all.

what distracts you from writing?

There’s a lot of things…a lot.

I play video games. hearthstone is something that is very much so apart of my writing routine. it’s turn base and you don’t really have to pay much attention to it when it’s not your turn so I just wait for the dink telling me that it’s my turn. take my turn and go back to writing and start the cycle anew. Although sometimes I get so into the game that I forgot to tab out.

another thing I do is I watch my best friends stream (and they have a YouTube channel that also likes to distract me.) and while I do write a bit when I’m watching them, I also end up talking in the chat only to look down and realize that four hours passed without a single word written at all. it’s so bad but good.

there’s a discord channel that I adore that also distracts me from writing…even though it’s filled with writers who also should be writing.

oh, also twitter is very bad for me to have open during writing time.

anything to help set the mood?

candles, music, fireplace, doggo and tea/coffee can’t get much better than that. I’m a simple person really.

are you a plotter or pantser?

I am very much so both. I’m a plottser!

I plan big plot stuff, or in the case of blogs the idea of it, and the points of the post. I think about the big details but after that I pants the crap out of the rest.

so I’m about 50/50 when it comes to it.

Any other weird habits?

I tap stuff when I’m thinking. I’m SUPER restless so sitting still even with typing on a keyboard just isn’t going to fly at all. so I tap my hands, feet. I bounce in my seat. I sing along to music, spin a pen, I know it sounds so ADD but I just have to distract myself as much as possible before I can write anything down.

I also make lots of funny faces when I write, I don’t know why, it just happens. which is awkward when I write outside of my house or live streaming but whatever.

I also talk to myself, I narrate everything I’m doing or cheer myself on.

There you have it lovable kiddos. My weird habits and odd ball things I do while writing. I hope you enjoyed hearing about how I made words happen.

And since this is a tag I’m going to go ahead and tag Brie, Camille, Nicohle who are all my writing buddies and I’m also going to tag my sister Desi who’s a super cool web designer and blogger.

all of these people are super cool so make sure to clink on their names and check out their stuff.

I’m also tagging everyone who’s read this. so make sure to link yours answers in the comment/ twitter/facebook/whatnot.

Until next time!

Filed Under: tag Tagged With: my life, tags, writer life, writers

when the muses don’t want to speak.

February 16, 2017 by Briana Herr Leave a Comment

Writers are weird creatures, (sorry but it’s true.) we pull not only totally made up people out of thin air. but lands, worlds and monster. even now I’m pulling a whole blog out of nothing, out of my brain and out with my fingertips. It’s great and awesome. Writers are a cool group of people. Go us!

But that doesn’t mean that it’s all that easy, anyone that has ever had to do a paper for school understands the dreadful feeling of sitting down and staring at a blank page for hours and getting nothing done.

And no, it’s not because you are getting distracted from the internet (well mostly.) and it’s not because you’re not good at writing (not by a long shot.) no, It’s writers block. it happens to the best of us.

If anyone saw how I wrote anything, wither it’s a blog post, something from my WIP, or even a tweet would see that 90% of the time me working looks like this.

WHAT AM I DOING?

WHAT AM I TYPING?

WHAT ARE THESE WORDS?

WHY IS THIS SO AWFUL?  

WHY I AM DOING THIS?!?!

Pretty much over and over until I get my stuff together.

So for the times that the voices in your head don’t want to talk to you, or if the fog covering that new and wonderful place won’t show themselves to you, or the monsters are hiding in their dark caves. Well then maybe some of these tricks will help being them out in the opening.

 Change your writing space.

you know the ins and outs. You have seen that same spot on the floor, or that same chip on your desk (if you have one.) the cup that might have been sitting there for days. You have seen all that stuff a billion times now.

you spend hours in there, sometimes days at a time, you can close your eyes and picture it too vividly that you don’t even have to be in there. and that’s just boring to us creative people. It doesn’t make our minds run excited as much. So spacing out starts to happens, boredom sets in and if you a phone or a computer with you, the internet is calling for you to watch cute animal videos or taking quizzes about type of bread you are, based on your star sigh.

And if your writing space is at your home office, a working office, there’s even more to keep your mind off of writing,

Dishes and laundry are piling up, you should be trying to get that great deal for the office, make your boss proud. You’re at the office so you should be working, not staring at a blank page! The kids want you to play with them, the list goes on and on it’s hard to just only think about writing and nothing else.

Now as much as I think it is importation to find your space, if you find that any of this is happening to you then you should change it up a little.

go out to a coffee shop, go sit in a park, go somewhere you don’t normally write and just look around.

There’s probably a lot of people, a lot of stuff going on, let your mind try and posses all that information and get your mind running.

Or if you already write in that kind of setting to begin with then maybe there’s too much going on for you to settle your mind. It could be just overloading your senses too much, rather in stimulating it.

so try going to a very quiet place, try and clear your mind, let it breath and do its thing.

Like for me, I write in a space with a lot of noise going on, but I’m writing this blog, sitting on the floor of my best friends’ house at 2 in the morning with only the sound of my keyboard.

I always find that I get more work done here or when I’m at one of my sibling’s houses I find that the words come out easy because there’s less things that make my mind want to wander away.

Even changing small things, like what you drink, eat, use to light the space, what you use to jog down the words will also help this problem.

Go back through and edit what you already have.

Now, I know that a lot of writers are against doing this but bear with me here.

I’ll touch on this much, much further on a different blog, but for now I will state I am so far on the band wagon for this I’m pretty much driving it.

Editing when you have writers block is great way to stay productive while in the endless desert that is writers block. You stay well versed into the world of your project, and its lore and magic or any of the sort. Instead of spending more and more time away from the world, and then have to reintroduce yourself to the world that you had made.

You can also save time while editing bad grammar and awkward sentences while you can’t think of anything new to write. making a lot less work for yourself in the long run.

You can fix any plot holes that might have popped out now that you might not have noticed before.

showing all the feelings and in tenseness through well place setting rather than just telling your readers why we should feel anything towards your written baby.

and make sure that any foreshadowing that you put in, are hiding in plain sight. And get new ideas or develop other ones that might have only begin to bud.

Just write random stuff.

So, my little intro wasn’t just me being funny (well okay a little,) when writers block hits me, I just start randomly typing. Anything, any thought that pops in my head.

I writer my feelings, I write about the weather, sometimes I just put on a movie or TV show and write the words along as the speak.

Whatever to keep my hands moving and my mind thinking.

Also, a lot of times writers block is triggered or even a directly caused by self-doubt and writing any bad feelings or doubts you may have, helps get it out of your system, then going back to the kick ass writer that you are.

Not only that but if you just stop writing for days, weeks, months whenever you hit wall is more damaging then doing you any good. Writing is like a muscle, if you stop using it, then it will get weaker and weaker.

So, it’s a lot better to type or write ‘I suck.’ Over and over for five pages then to walk always and might never pick it back up.

I think that one of the worst things as a writer you can do is just stop and wait for inspiration to come to you, I’ve been guilt of this too, I think at some points all writers are. but that old saying goes that if you wait around for inspiration to hit you then you’ll never be able to write.

So even if you are tired, or can’t think of something. Or depressed or anything of the sort, just write. Not only will you most likely feel better but you might end up with something great. It keeps your mind forced on something other than self-doubt, pity, sadness or whatever wants to take away your voice.

And if it isn’t great the first time around well, that’s what editing is for.

Knowing when it’s just not working.

If writer’s block is happening every time you are sitting down to write in a current project, every time it makes you want to pull your hair out or you stare at blank pages for weeks on end, cry your eyes out or feeling less of your ability then it’s not you, it’s the project that you are working on.

sometimes it just doesn’t work, about the idea needs to be reworked,

maybe the theme or topic just isn’t as exciting as you thought it was.

Maybe the characters just plain blow.

You can’t find the rhyme that means what you want it too.

Or that post feel like meaninglessly words just to have something.

If deep down, you feel that it’s not working then there’s no shame in scrapping it, and moving onto something different. It doesn’t make you a failure to move on to something that you care a lot more about.

Because if you write (or make, do any of the sort.) something that you don’t care about, not only will everyone know that you don’t care. But it makes mockery of what you were trying to say in the first place.

So, there you have it lovable kiddos, hopefully these will help you out next time that the muses feel like calling in sick.

have a good way to get passed writer’s block? let me know! Via comments/Twitter/Facebook/whatnot

Until next time.

Filed Under: how to's Tagged With: editing, how to, self-help, writer's block, writers, writing

Hiya!

Hi, I’m Briana! I’m a coffee addicted night owl who likes dark, depressing books and upbeat music. I also happen to be an author. Want to read about my life in lists? Click Read More…

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