Tag: writing

April Wrap Up (part one)

Published on by Phoenix @ Books With Wings20 Comments

Hey, everyone! Sorry you haven’t heard from me lately, I’ve been a little bit busy but you should be hearing from me a bit more in the coming days! (key word ‘should)
I swear, wrap ups are like the only thing I do anymore. In reality, they’re 2/5 of the things I post, but that’s still a lot. Nearly half. But I am but a small child* with only so much time to blog and I also really like my wrap ups. Clearly. Anyways, let’s get into part one of my wrap up, which, just like last month, will be about posts and updates! (part two coming Sunday)
*Relative, but for this case we’ll say I am

~Posts I Enjoyed~

~April Blog posts~

I posted a few times this month, I feel like I didn’t post as much as I usually did but here we go!

~Monthly Goals~

April Goals:

  • In free time, do what I want to do (aka, blog if I want or write what I want, don’t do what I feel like I have to do)✅
  • Drink more water (a constant problem for me)✅❌
  • Write some more✅
  • Try to get outside more✅
  • Be more efficient in homework (granted, this is something that I’ve been doing towards the end of March as well)

I do think that I did better in managing my free time with what I want to do. However, I’m a little worried that this will make my blogging quality go down as I spend more time writing but I really hope that it doesn’t come to this! Hopefully I’ll be able to keep blogging as well.
I mean….I drank a little bit more water??? Sorta?
I was able to write a lot of my realistic fiction book! I wasn’t too focused on the fantasy WIP I have this month but for now I’m just putting that aside because I haven’t really been excited to write fantasy at the moment whereas I’ve been really pushing through this realistic fiction, which I don’t usually write at ALL!!! (this is probably my first realistic fiction that is more than 25 pages long so far)
Going on vacation to the woods really does help you get outside a bit more.
Honestly, I have no idea what I meant by ‘be more efficient in homework’ means so I’m just leaving that one blank…if anyone has any ideas whatsoever, you can definitely tell me in the comments.

May goals: (holdup it’s already May next month?)

  • When you have school stuff, do it first!!! Writing/blogging comes afterwards (not saying I don’t do this already but my schedule is about to get a lot busier)
  • Drink more water (please?)
  • Blog a liiiiittle more (be on top of my posts more)
  • Remember to study (the end of the school year is, amazingly, coming right up!)

~Blogging Updates~

Alright, we have a few updates for all of you…first of all, I’ve reached 200 followers! Thank you all so much for following me and loving my work, if you have anything that you think I could do better for my blog, please tell me in the comments!
…okay fine I think that was the only blogging update whoops

~Life Updates~

  • Well, I think we can all guess one thing I’ve been doing…of course Shadow and Bone came out this month so I’m watching that! I haven’t finished it yet, unfortunately, but it’s amazing so far and if you’ve watched some/all of it, I’d love to have a discussion in the comments!
  • Term 3 (out of four) ended at my school so now we’re in the last term already whaaat.
  • It’s April and April means baseball! MLB’s season started on April 1st and since then we’ve had a WHOLE lot of crazy things. I won’t bore you all with a bunch of baseball facts (even though they’re definitely not boring) but it’s been really exciting to see the Dodgers-Padres rival heat up, the A’s crazy win streak and Shohei Ohtani being an amazing two-way player, among other things. If you like baseball, talk to me in the comments I’d love to chat some more games with you!
  • I wrote some more. I know I already said this earlier, but I’m just super happy I was able to write more realistic fiction. It really is my first time trying out realistic fiction for more than a few pages and I’m super excited to keep writing this (but a little scared I’ll run out of things to say…how does someone make a person’s normal life interesting?)
  • It’s softball season! aka Phoenix suddenly plays softball every day of the week because she’s crazy enough to try out for her school team (plus is on another team already)

That’s it for today’s wrap up! How was your April? Have you written anything interesting, and what do you think about baseball? Please chat with me in the comments!
As always, thank you so much for stopping by! Please, stay safe and keep on reading!

Writer’s Block

Published on by Phoenix @ Books With Wings1 Comment

Hey everyone! Sorry that I haven’t been posting much lately, I’ve been busy with school starting up and just haven’t had time to write some posts! Hopefully I’ll be able to write a few more now! This post may be a little different than some others because this isn’t about reading, it’s about writing! I figured that since I’ve been writing for a while I may have some advice to give to other writers! So in this post I will talk about how to deal and hopefully get rid of writer’s block.

Anyone who likes to write gets it sooner or later. It’s the boring scene in your book that you just want to be done with. It’s just not having enough ideas to continue writing what you’re working on! I’ve been through it, published authors have been through it, even people like artists struggle with a sort of long-term creativity freeze. Here are some ways that I have used to get through writer’s block

  1. Write something else:

If you can’t write what you want to, write something else. This may be the most useful thing to do when you have writer’s block. Sometimes it’s frustrating to turn away from a project you really want to work on, but sometimes it’s a relief. But what do you write? Oftentimes, if I’m struggling to write a certain scene in a book, I’ll skip over that scene entirely. Maybe I have an idea for the end of the book, or the next chapter, or another scene. I write it! Once I shaped half a book by writing the really important scenes and then filling in the small things in between until I reached all the way back to the scene I was stuck in. Another thing you could write is a different story. Just take a break from what you’re currently writing, start another story or continue one that you’ve been working on. This could give you ideas for the story you want to be working on or just let you take a break, think about other things for the time being.

2. Read!

Where better to get inspiration from manuscripts that have already been published? Read books in the genre you write to get ideas for what your characters can do, or what can happen next! This also works with watching television or a movie but in my opinion it’s best to read.

3. Organize your ideas

I’d describe this as, “Back to the drawing board.” Just try to plan more! Figure out more about the world your book is based in (or the place it’s based in if it’s on earth), or try to plan more about your characters. What are their flaws? Their strengths? Their weaknesses? Try to understand your character so well that you’re in their shoes. That way, you know what they’d want to do next!

4. Figure out why you have writer’s block

Maybe it’s not a specific reason. That’s okay. But sometimes there are reasons that you have writer’s block. Here’s an example that I could think of. Maybe you play a lot of computer games. Whenever you get on your computer you play the games. Then, you try to write but your mind is stuck on the game and you can’t think of anything to happen in your story! Try to stop whatever it is that’s causing you this, if you’re able to stop it.

5. Just take a break.

Writing can be stressful, but it’s not meant to be! If you are choosing to write, it is supposed to be a fun activity. And if it is not, especially if you have writer’s block, just take a break. This sort of fits in with the other ideas of writing something else or reading, but it’s very true. Just push your writing away, don’t look at it for a day, two days, even a week or more. When you look at it again, maybe you’ll be thinking in a whole other mindset and suddenly come up with an idea that seems obvious.

Other kinds of writer’s block:

Having writer’s block does not just mean that you cannot come up with ideas. It could also mean that you just don’t feel like writing. Maybe you know exactly what’s going to happen next but you don’t know how to write it or you just don’t feel like writing it. Fortunately, a lot of the tips I suggested above also work here. Don’t know how to write a scene? Read a book, see how a published author did a similar scene! Don’t want to write? Take a break. It’s the best thing to do. Maybe you just aren’t having a writing type of day, or week, or even longer. Just do what’s best for you.

One more thing to remember: You write for yourself. Maybe you share your stories on an online platform or show them to your friends. Chances are, they’ll keep asking for more, more, more, because your story is awesome just like you. But what if you don’t feel like writing? Do you push yourself through, get those words on just to please your friends? Well, maybe putting words on a page really will help you get through writer’s block. But if you don’t feel like writing, don’t. This is your story and your choice whether to write it. Don’t make yourself do something you don’t want to. Always, always remember that.

What did you think of this blog post? Do you have any tips that you use when you get writer’s block? Comment your ideas! And also: do you want to know something about how to do something in the writing world? Comment here to ask and I’ll try to write a blog post about it if I think I know enough about the subject.