Novelist Notions: Writing, Creativity, and Personal Growth

  Lessons Learned and Advice for Aspiring Writers and Bloggers Blogging can be a fun and exciting venture for anyone who has something unique to say or a particular knowledge of or passion for a subject that they want to share with others. It’s a fruitful venture if you’re camera shy like me and/or have a passion for writing. As with any new endeavor, however, you’re bound to make mistakes. Looking back at my blogging journey to this point, to say I’ve made a few would be an understatement. But with each mistake there is a lesson, and each lesson has shaped how I approach my writing and blogging today. I am not an expert, but I hope that if you’re just starting out, my experiences can serve as a guide to help you avoid the mistakes I made. Choosing the Wrong Blogging Niche Choosing the wrong niche might sound like a simple mistake to avoid on the surface—believe me, I thought so too—but it happens. We are often driven by trends, especially when just starting out. Thinking the lates...

Exploring the delicate balance between inspiration and focus in different settings At its core, writing is an intimate act, a symbiosis of body and mind most often undertaken in the most intimate and private of settings. This setting, wherever it may be, is one of the most overlooked aspects of the creative process. Whether it’s at a coffee shop, in an office chair at your desk, or in your favorite chair with your laptop across your lap, the location in which creation takes place plays a crucial role. Whether it’s the hustle and bustle of a busy cafe, an outdoor retreat, the traditional office setup, or even a cozy armchair with your laptop—my current setup—each choice of writing location can offer its own set of unique advantages, disadvantages, and quirks. In today’s installment, I will explore the dichotomy between the different environments and offer my thoughts and advice for choosing your ideal setup. The Cafe Buzz: Creativity Among Chaos Cliche as it may sound to some, there is ...

How to Embrace Restless Hours Without Losing Your Creative Spark I nsomnia in some form has plagued me for years. I’ve never been a consistent sleeper. I always thought of it as a necessary evil. Little did I know it would afford me extra opportunities to create, albeit at the expense of sleep. Despite the concerns associated with it, there is a strange beauty in lying awake in the waning hours of the night. As a writer, I’ve viewed these sleepless nights in a couple of different ways. On one hand, these battles with insomnia can be physically draining; if too many come in rapid succession, there can also be some cognitive effects. For writers and creative types, insomnia can often fuel bursts of creativity, but that creativity comes at the cost of much-needed rest. In this article, I will explore the oddly fascinating relationship between insomnia and the writing process and ways to manage fatigue while maintaining creativity. The Correlation Between Insomnia and Creativity Writers an...

How a Pause Can Renew the Creative Spirit Writing, for me and for many others I would wager, is just as much a calling as it is a craft. It lets us express our thoughts and feelings in ways other mediums don’t allow. It also allows us to, providing our introversions don’t get in the way, interact with others who may share our knowledge or passions. But what happens when we, as writers, decide to take a step back, to put down the pen as it were? What could we hope to gain from a temporary separation from the blank pages and blinking cursors? What could we learn from, for the sake of argument, a week away from these things and the inevitable silence that results? I did it, and today I’m going to tell you what I learned. Rediscovering Observation One of my favorite things about stepping away from the writing desk from time to time is being able to just sit back and observe. When we’ve got the blinders on, focused on creating content and sharing it with our readers, we run the risk of lett...

Time travel isn’t possible yet. We don’t yet have that technology. But what if we did? What if you could go back in time and give your younger self advice? What would you say? I’ve given a lot of thought to this question, and I can’t help but think of a great many things I would tell my past self—if I could resist the urge to slap him first, of course. Come along and take this journey with me, and perhaps you will ponder your past and what you’d do differently. Blogging Platforms Exist, And They’re Right In Front Of You Blogger I graduated from high school in 2007. I had no direction in life. I did not know what I was going to do or where I was going to do it. I can still hear the haunting sound of the speaker’s voice at my graduation referring to me as “undecided” when it came to plans after graduation. Deep down, I think I always knew I wanted to write. I just didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that. You can imagine my surprise, and instant regret to boot, when I found out the...