A creative way to brainstorm and generate ideas!

Sometimes I get the urge to write so bad I will grab a pen and a notebook and curl up on the couch and just stare at my blank white page. I pretend I have magical powers in my eyes that will just summon words to the paper. The urge and want to write is there, but the words and ideas won’t flow freely. This becomes a problem. Here are some ways I counter that:

Music: Listening to music is probably my favorite way to brainstorm. I use this particular method I like to call “Sound-tracking”. I listen to a song and ask myself this question: If this song was playing in a movie or show, what would the scene be like? I can listen to the words and the sounds and I am able to almost see in my mind a scene unfolding. Music helps me get into certain moods as well. 

Watching Boring TV: OK, so Planet Earth ISN’T that boring. It is really educational and the scenery is beautiful. Some of the best ideas can come from taking something that is a fact in our world and adjusting it to fit your world. I have sat there before watching TV, shows like Planet Earth, 1000 ways to die or even sitcoms, taking notes on a small pad or book. Looking back on them when I need to brainstorm or get an idea really helps me out.

Read a Book:  Reading has always been one of the best ways to get ideas. I don’t consider it stealing so much as doing research. You writing a novel about Vampires? Read both sides of the Vampire coin, Get an Anne Rice book and that one about the girly Vampires that sparkle. Read the books that look and sound really cheesy. Don’t just read the BEST book for the genre, read the mediocre, the boring, and the bad as well. You can learn what works, what doesn’t, and even improve current facts and myths.

Look at Pictures:  A picture is worth a thousand words. You can stare at a picture and just let your mind wander about it. Look at the picture and write down as many questions as you can. Like this, Why was this picture taken/painted/drawn? Who is that person/thing? Why are the doing this/that? What IS that? Why is the sky green instead of blue? Once you have your questions, take a moment and answer them yourself making it up as you go along. You have just started brainstorming! See how far you can take it from there! 

Hope this helps you the way it has helped me!

Love,

Ness

 

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, chapter 2 has been done for a day or so. Eric and I had a very productive meeting over the chapter and what is to become of our book. We really have our differences in thoughts and ideas, we can go back and forth a million times until we do have that same singular agreement and thoughts. Once we get on the same path of agreement, we find it easier to branch out from there. We have been MIA from the blog scene for a bit so I’d thought I’d stop by and say hello.

I am sure you noticed our lack of posts. We kind of hit a bit of a writing rut and have been dealing with real life problems outside of our fantasy nerd world. Hopefully getting back on track will be easily done. We are two chapters in and excited and anxious to finish our first collaborative masterpiece. Even if just one person reads our story, it will be an amazing experience for us.

On a side note, I am a Bronze League player in League of Legends. I cannot get out of bronze no matter how hard I try, how good I am, it never fails that I am matched up with people who throw the game because “my mom hit the router” “GG they got first blood AFK in base” “OMG ::insert random laner here:: just took my kill, report them” .. I could go on about the plagued matches I have had. It really made me think that I should lay off the games until kids are back in school… Or have one of my friends carry me XD.

The most important thing I need to remember is NOT TO GIVE UP!! I told myself I will make it to silver league. I will keep trying! Just like with writing, when words will not come out – I will force them out. What comes out may be twisted, trashy, and worth nothing… but to me if I can make something come out it will jump start my creative energy again.  We will finish this book because we said we would. Even if the result is garbage – the lesson we learn will carry us into our next projects.

Love,

NessP.S. Eric is camping for the weekend, he most likely will get eaten by a bear or moose while taken a bathroom break, drunk, in the wilderness of Canada. We will all say a prayer for our lost fellow Nerd. Updates when this happens.

“Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time I feel alive and the world it’s turning inside out Yeah!” ~Queen, Don’t Stop Me Now

When life gets the best of me and makes me mad or tries to bring me down, I find that music really helps me feel better. I haven’t been able to write much, had some issues come up, like my car not starting before I had to be at work. All the problems aside right now some good music and my story is pulling me out of a bad mood and into a great one.

Also, Last of Us is really a fantastic game!! I am so addicted to it. I am about 75% done. My boyfriend is right on my tail, we have to split the day up and play at separate times so we don’t ruin the game for each other. It makes me annoyed when I feel like I was super thorough and really combed through the place….then he plays the same level later and I see that I really missed a lot of crap. I will have to beat the game AGAIN to 100% it. The game is well worth a second play through though, so it won’t be that bad.

OK, back to the story, I hit a brief wall and this little post helped me clear my mind a bit. Thank you!!

Love,

Ness

P.S. Queen is still on, I am really rocking out.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”- Mark Twain

I am feeling pretty good today, a little over 2k words into the second chapter. I find that setting myself little writing goals helps me out tremendously. My goal is at the least 1,000 words a day. A chapter a week for us, maybe even two weeks. We don’t want to burn ourselves out or let our ideas get tired and cranky. We want to nurture it slowly, and raise it right. We started out with just a little idea, broke it down to characters, and now we are taking it chapter by chapter. Hell, I don’t even think we know our true ending yet.

Writing is easy once you have something to work with, it’s keeping track of all the ideas and twists that becomes a pain in the butt.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” -Jack London

I sat last night listening to Nessa type away at chapter 2, sometimes clarifying why something happened in my story the way it did, or my thoughts on what will happen next. After she was finished writing we started getting on the subject of what was going to be happening in our story. I realized something. We were looking for the book to go two different ways to, not just end the story, but tell it. This was our first real clash as collaborating writers. This being said, we had worked side by side for years in World of Warcraft, as either guild officers, raiders, achievement hunters or near the end Co-leaders of our guild, this wasn’t the first time we had ideas that clashed. We both are passionate about what we think, regardless of what anyone else thinks of it. I was starting to think, after our disagreement, that this might be over before it started. That’s when I thought back to every other time we had ended up tell each other off, I gave it about an hour then messaged her to play League of Legends. We did, and we made a few seriously awesome comebacks. It was great!

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” ― Orson Welles

Just stopping in for a quick post. I have a lot on my plate today. I have to squeeze in laundry, dishes, writing, cooking dinner, and playing Last of Us. I am hooked on that game. But seriously, who has time to do all that stuff and not get sidetracked?

Good thing I have a slow cooker – set it and forget it. I am still a novice at cooking but put a recipe in my hand and I become Betty Crocker. I can follow directions, I even love pictures. Tonight’s kitchen boss battle is: Lemon Chicken. I am the master (according to my boyfriend, Mike) of fried hot wings. So more chicken? Shouldn’t be too hard. My friend, Google, helped me find this recipe:

http://www.thecountrycook.net/2013/04/crock-pot-lemon-garlic-chicken.html

A beautifully and tasty looking little recipe. The pictures help you so you can follow along by picture, without even reading the text. I am really excited about this recipe. I will be assembling it shortly. My side dishes will be steamed broccoli and roasted garlic potatoes.

Food has always been a passion of mine. I love great tasting food and I will try anything that looks and smells like a piece of heaven. Now, I will eat my BLT and start some laundry and do the dishes while waiting patiently on dinner.

Love,

Ness
P.S. Our first chapter is done. I finished reading what Eric wrote last night. It is FANTASTIC. A strong start! Chapter 2, here I come!

“Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.” -Christopher Parker

Quick post! This has been a hectic weekend.
Firstly, I would like to thank Plotting Bunnies! (http://plottingbunnies.wordpress.com/) for nominating us for the Liebster Award! I am in the process of collaborating with Eric on a post with our answers, questions, and nominees! Thank you so much for your support and interest in our blog!
Secondly,  I have received from my lovely boyfriend a gift! It is in the form of a PS3 game “The Last of Us’. I have only played for a couple hours but I am instantly drawn in. I have to beat this. Especially considering the subject is close to what Eric and I are writing about! I guess I can consider this research instead of procrastination…. but it is what it is! Please, do expect a nice little review of the game once I finish!
Stay tuned! With the first chapter penned out courtesy of Eric, once we get it in type form…. the second chapter is next!
Love,
Ness
P.S Sorry again for the short post! We didn’t forget about you wordpress!

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. -Joseph Campbell

You know what? Sometimes people just don’t make any sense to me. Like last night, there was some concert or something going on in the park across the street from my apartment complex, there was some pretty fun sounding music being played and I wanted to know what was going on. So, I got dressed, put down my pen, and went over to my friend’s apartment, where I knew most people were, and asked if anyone was interested in seeing what was going on and maybe enjoying some of the music. No one was interested, they just wanted to stay in and play games, and don’t get me wrong, I would normally have been there with them, maybe I was just feeling adventurous. But, going down, I met some people, had a few conversations, dancing a bit and overall had a lot of fun! Looking back today, I’m sad they decided on playing video games because they missed out on one hell of a free concert.

I can understand where they were coming from, but, it was just across the road, if they weren’t having fun they could just leave, only losing a few minutes of game time. I wonder why people do this, because I know even I have a tendency to do things like this, we keep with what we know is fun, or at least was fun, and we don’t explore new things. I think my new mantra is going to be similar to the movie “Yes man”. Yes, I will try that new kind of food I normally dislike. Yes, I will jump out of a plane with you! Yes, I think I would like to ask this pretty girl out to coffee. Yes, I will go to that free yoga class. Regardless, I had fun with the music, the people, everything. I wish my town-city had more things like this, or I at least knew about them before they were half over.

Speaking of half-over, I finally finished writing the first chapter of our novel. Once I transpose it from paper to the computer I will be posting an excerpt, I hope you’ll read it and let us know what you think! I’m always looking for constructive criticism on my work.

We have never posted what started this whole thing did we? Well, let me tell you a little story!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

Boy, is it hard to keep BALANCE sometimes. Keeping up with life AND trying to fit in time to write…. that is a challenge. I start to think of ways to get more time in for writing – ‘Well, If I had woke up 2 hours ago.’ ‘If I only played 1 hour of video games.’ ‘Do I really need to spend time eating?’

All things considered, I find that the more I write, the easier it comes to me, and the more time I magically have in my day to commit to writing. Once I stop writing, it becomes harder to start back up. I get a little rusty and have to start over.

The good news is, I finished my character back story and bio. I know, you don’t NEED either of them to write well at all. You may not need them, but I am so particular about the way I do things I have to build things from the ground up or everything will just get lost in the void. My mind just becomes this violent, thrashing ocean of ideas and words when I am deep in thought. And I am going to need a bigger boat.

Any who, three cheers for me. I finished a bio and back story. This basically sets me up right to the point we want to be in our book so I can begin Chapter 2. The character is Morgan Avery. She plays a big part in said book. She comes from a broken home and abusive parents. The following excerpt is after she had went out for a bit to escape her drunk father and came to the revelation – she is moving out.

Thank you all for reading!

Love,

Ness

P.S. My food is finished, it is time to finally catch up and watch the first episode of the new season of True Blood! ::excited squeal::

The best part of waking up, is falling right back to sleep.

Good morning world!

I just had the greatest sleep I’ve had in awhile. I think it was a combination of finally getting a bunch of housework done and some of the writing ideas out of my head. I kind of feel like I lost some of my day, but if I can manage to stay away from the video games, T.V. shows and my bed, I should be able to accomplish anything!