This is a good post about creating content, certainly not just for marketing. Confirmation that we caffeine addicts are on the right path. Booze plays a nice role too. I’m sorry to let go of the nicotine and Marijuana possibilities.
Better Content Through Chemicals? How Caffeine, Alcohol, & Other Substances Affect Creativity
Raising a nice bourbon, neat, with a coffee back. So juice up and create some content.
Cheers to you all!
I write this from a lounge chair in Utah, facing a stunning pool, surrounded by majestic mountains. Sometimes my day job has nifty perks.
These perks are a rarity so I am getting the most out of this adventure. My first commitment isn’t until 8:00 p.m. tonight so I took an early flight to enjoy a full day. After a 3:45 a.m. wake up and an unusually smooth hop through the airport, I boarded a long flight. And what a great flight!
I finished Arran Bhansal’s beautiful novel, Infertility, Infidelity and Insanity. His very smart, brutally honest portrayal of a terribly challenging time in his life is shared in luscious prose. I couldn’t put it down and I applaud Arran for his bravery and his clarity of thought. Visit his page to learn more. I’m not a reviewer, but I can tell you if I were, Arran gets very high marks. I don’t trust hyperlinks on my phone so… http://arranbhansal.com.
I made good progress on Book 2. The characters are developing voices and starting to speak to me. The joy that brings me is impossible to describe. I was a little worried it was a one and done thing, but it seems to be ongoing. My god I love writing. Don’t you?
So I finally arrived in Salt Lake City. I have never traveled this area of the country as there are no beaches. I decided to be a big girl and rent a car and explore. Lord only knows when I’ll have this opportunity again. I picked up the little SUV and got some excellent advice from the rental agent for how to spend my day. I followed her instructions to a tee and they were great instructions.
Without getting boring with details, suffice to say I did the following:
Navigated all the hell over the place all by myself, on unfamiliar highways, blaring Mumford and Sons with all four windows open, staring at unfuckingbelievably gorgeous snow capped mountains with tears in my eyes.
I hiked a very steep trail. Alone. I could have fallen to my death in any number is places and no one would have ever heard me scream. And I should mention I was neither raped nor murdered. Authors note: we don’t do much trail hiking alone on a weekday around DC.
Lastly I explored Park City and had a marvelous lunch overlooking a city that looks more like a movie set. A hostess was very shitty to me and I did NOT tell her to fuck off. Yay me.
All in all it has been a great day. I had to share. The moral of my story… Get the fuck out of your comfort zone. It’s a hell of a lot of fun out here.
On February 7, when I started writing Circling, we were in the middle of a horrid winter. I was never so happy for piles of snow since I was strapping on skates and skimming frozen surfaces as a child in Rhode Island. Snow days, as I quickly found, are ideal writing days. There is literally nothing better to do than to snuggle up with a laptop and create a new world full of gorgeous, complicated people, who have sex in public places.
Carving out time to write Book 2 seems a bit trickier. Gone are my seemingly endless 16 hour shower free days. And I wasn’t doing any blogging back then. Every evening as the sun sets, it is a choice. Blog or book. Now on weekends the damn sun is shining and beckoning me to do things like visit beaches and climb little mountains.
So forgive me for going light from time to time. Any writers’ tips for avoiding the sophomore slump? How do you keep the writing energy up in the summer? Should I encase my laptop in plastic and bring it into the sand?
Paige Randall 