When you’re preparing for a productive day – dress the part.
A massive part of productivity is the mindset. Ask any online entrepreneur- you get way more done on the days that you feel like it.
So the massive trick is to learn how to kick-start this mindset and what I find works is to put on the right clothes.
Whenever I prepare for a productive day of writing I put on my decent jean and a nice T-shirt, because that way I feel ready to charge the day head on. Be mindful about putting on what you’ll need for the day so when you start your job you can tell yourself you are one hundred percent ready for it.
I know that I should publish a creative life post but unfortunately I haven’t written it yet…
I’m not going to make any excuses but to make it up to you I will give you a little bit of insights into my current work in progress High Queen.
Currently the story only has about two scenes written and is still poorly planned but what I can share with you is some world building.
A long timeago the Caelipeople were at war with each other. The five different kingdoms all battled for as much ground as they could. They never got along, they never compromised and they never shared.
Eventually though a great enemy came in from the coast and faced with sudden destruction the Caeli kingdoms joined together. Alliances were formed and after a massive battle the enemy was banished.
The king who killed the enemy was then announced the High King and the other kings swore to serve under his rule. This Kingship system is still the governing system in place – and the High King’s heirs are still on the throne. This new great Kingdom is called Caelum.
With so many years past, details of the enemy had been lost, but rumours have it that it is held captive somewhere in the massive forest which grows next to the capital city.
The fear of it is what drove the citizens to start painting protective marks on their house walls and the city’s streets. They claim that the markings can keep the old enemy away.
Despite the fact that a large amount of people simply believe this is superstition they still paint – which leaves the capital city one of the brightest places to live as layers and layers of paint have been used to create these patterns.
Since the ancient times, the Caeli have turned their eyes outwards and made alliances with the surrounding nations.
These surrounding nations include the giants, the humans, the pixies and the pirates (fancy names still need to be created)
This series is going to start with the newest High Queen, Aster who has to face a monster that may or may not have snuck out of the forest. Her only help is the shy young Lord Nickolas and the Princess Flam whose mother is bent on dethroning Aster. But then you can’t always choose your friends can you?
That’s the small sneak view that I can give you today. Please let me know if you like the idea of the story so far and then I’ll post again on Friday (or Saturday because I’m tardy)
Wash your face and brush your teeth at the beginning and end of every day.
This is one of those pretty normal habits that can have an amazing effect on your life. The simple power of cleaning your face and mouth is that it makes you feel more refreshed.
For me it has the mentality of every time I do this small routine I clean away what was and prepare myself for what is to come.
It’s good for your body and helps put you in the right mindset for either starting or ending your day.
It’s 11:30 pm and I just finished with the second draft of Falling for Pink and I’m just so excited about this!
I literally sat down read it from beginning to end after not touching it in over a month and fixed any spelling errors or plot holes that I came across.
The amazing thing is that I have been putting this off because I’ve been sure that it’ll be bad – and I was honestly surprised. Especially by my characters who I thought where going to be figurative garbage.
They weren’t and it’s like I got to know them again for the first time. This time I wasn’t focusing on if they are consistent as characters but instead I simply read it and hoped that how they feel authentic.
If you asked me a month ago to describe Peggy the main character I would have said she was insecure, slightly pathetic but at least she tries… sounds stupid right but while I have always loved writing Peggy I was certain that this was the case and that no one would ever want to read about her.
Now I’ve reread the story and actually got to witness Peggy and not write her my mood about her changed completely.
She’s funny and romantic and gutsy when she feels like it. Yes she’s insecure but that’s a massive part of what the book is based on and I don’t feel like it makes her less of a character. She’s awkward but not afraid to call people out and I absolutely love her.
Benjamin the love interest has also been completely misunderstood by me – his creator.
A month ago I would have said he was respectable, confident, and even headed. BOY would I have been lying.
Benjamin King is a rebel, and a bit of a moody teenager. He’s a flirt and a goof but he has morals even if he takes unconventional ways to reach them. More than just that he literally does not care about other people’s nonsense. He rolls his eyes in the face of danger and I love him almost as much as I love Peggy.
Here is a quote that I feel just says so much about the couple and is part of the reason I love them.
“Do you really think you and I can be a good couple? I mean your parents don’t even know that I’m a banshee, your sister still mostly dislikes me and I’m still not really good at handling people, especially not your aunt,” Peggy said. Benjamin shrugged. “It’s not like I’m any better,” he said. Peggy frowned at him shook her head. “You’re stubborn, charming, and not at all bad to look at either.” “And you think you’re not?” Peggy shrugged. She wasn’t a pretty girl, and she wasn’t aiming to be one either which was why she had piercings and pink hair. He simply shook his head. “It’s a shame that you don’t see what I see then.”
They’re just so cute!
The hard part for me right now is I’m the only fan of this story (because I’m the only one who has read it) so bare with me if I choose to fan girl about it here.
Right now my next step with Pink is to send it off to Beta readers and then I have an editor friend who said she’ll look at it in the holidays. So I’m super excited about this right now and hopefully you’ll be seeing some more inside sneak peeks here.
I should probably go to bed but I have this really stupid urge to draw fanart…
Or is it concept art if I’m the writer???
Anyway, I can’t wait for you all to read the book hopefully I get someone to read it soon so I can have someone to talk to about it 🙂
Last week I posted about how we need to surround ourselves by creativity and other creative people so that we can take in their work to fuel our own.
This week I want to do something a little different. We will be pin pointing certain elements in other artist’s work and mimicking it.
Why should we do this?
Well the only way for us to know what art looks like is for us to observe it. Or in other words we are going to be looking at art and dissecting it so that we can understand how it works.
Through mimicking other artist’s you aren’t only looking at art but you are also busy building up your own creative process. When you mimic artists you are figuring out how things are done and what methods work bests for you. You are forming a habit or a flow of creativity that will help shape your future original content.
Now this is all nice to write down but the important question is where do you start?
Where do you start when you want to mimic an artist?
Well to speak the obvious you will need 2 things.
1. The right materials.
2. Some art work that you want to copy.
I’m going to leave the first part up to you, because I don’t know any details about what you want to do with your life.
The second part though, I can tell you isn’t so hard either. The internet is full of amazing artists that really can use your support. I talked about this in last week’s post so if you haven’t read it then you are probably regretting that now. (go here)
Now to imitate it.
You can do that school thing where you analyze the art and try to fully understand it.
I suggest you take notes on paper of what the artist did. You can ask what is it that drew you to the piece? What style did the artist use? Do you think there’s a meaning behind the art?
Put these notes where you can see them and now honestly putting the artist’s thing next to your own blank canvas/page/music sheet/dance floor start to mimic what the artist did.
Mimic them while looking and while not looking. Try to memorize what the artist did before trying.
Now here I would like to add that you shouldn’t worry about perfection just yet. Instead focus on creating art. Focus on simply getting something done even if it’s horrible.
For this week’s mission I want you to simply go mimic as many artists as you can.
Try to do a little every day or every second day otherwise. Really just practice a lot.
Get into the flow of being creative and you’ll be surprised what happens before your eyes.
That’s it for now. I’ll be writing more on the topic next week. I hope to hear from you 🙂
Not half an hour ago I wrote and posted a post about how I recently participated in a talent contest and did not win.
I don’t know it you can read this in the post but when I typed that last part I was deeply sad and feeling really disappointed.
It’s true I was hoping to place in the finals because I felt like I needed a win after months of struggling with my body and my mind.
As I said in the other post though, I didn’t win. But what I didn’t say in the previous post is that I have been supported by my friends and family throughout my life, the past three months and yes this contest.
So this is a thank you letter to every one of those who support me. This is a thank you letter to all of you.
Thank you to my aunt who helped me pick my song and who kept telling me that she loves my voice.
Thank you to my dad who got me the supporting music for my performance, and who came to take a video of me singing.
Thank you to my sister for asking me if I’m ready and joking with me around the kitchen table the night before.
Thank you to everyone who watched and liked the video of the performance on facebook.
Thank you to everyone who left a nice comment, there are so many of you that I can’t name each of you individually.
Thank you to my grandma and cousin who messaged me personally to tell me that they like my song.
Thank you to my boyfriend who despite not being able to come to the performance personally still supported me over the phone.
Thank you to my friend who joined me in joking that I should perform on SA’s got talent.
And finally to the real hero of this show.
Thank you to my mother who not only paid for me to perform but who came to the performance to cheer me on. Thank you to my mother who made me a dress to wear – it is absolutely stunning and I really appreciate the effort so so much. Thank you to my mother who would hum while I’m singing and who tells me I’m the best singer ever.
Thank you to my mother who didn’t simply leave me to feel like a failure when we came back from that contest, despite the fact that I knew I wasn’t going to place.
Thank you to my mother who painted my nails when my left hand wouldn’t do it.
Thank you to my mother who put the video on facebook because she wanted to brag about me.
Thank you for pulling me back to that church today to go find out who won.
Thank you immensely for being my support.
So with immense gratitude in my heart I will once again just stop typing…
(because I’m awkward)
Okay so I missed yesterday’s life lesson post so here is a bit of a makeup post. It’s like a makeup kiss but very possibly more intimate.
Now yesterday was by all means a successful day.
I woke up early with the sun and went to get some exercise in at my Pilates class.
Pilates I find is a lot of fun, and it actually manages to push my unused muscles despite it being slow exercise. I’m the youngest member in my class with everyone else being older than my mother but I have to go. I have to go because this is the exercise that my doctors and physiotherapists said I need to do to help get rid of my chronic lower back pain.
Which as a teenager is a really weird thing to explain to people.
I then got to spend hours on writing and I spent it well. My story high queen has been stuck. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I kept trying to start it and then not manage to write anything that really works. To me this is important because if I don’t like my own story then why would anyone else?
So I went and I pulled the story planning apart and looked at what it is that was bothering me and I fixed it. Now I’m feeling much more connected to my characters.
Then I went to the main event of yesterday which was a talent contest. I had about a week to prepare and my mum made me a dress.
These are my one entry…
I feel really proud of my performances. In the second one my microphone died because of flat batteries and I feel proud of how I handled that.
Then I finished off my day by going to my small group. I went there and I got to tease my boyfriend a little.
Then I got home, took a bath, and went to bed.
Good day right?
Today we got the results for the contest and well I did not win.
I wasn’t second or even third… I didn’t place among the winners this year (I was second last year)
So now I’m sitting in my room drinking a pity can of coke and hoping that no one who passes my open door notices that my eyes are red with crying. I messaged the news to my friend – she hasn’t responded yet. I haven’t messaged my boyfriend yet because I’m not yet ready for someone to tell me that it’s okay that I didn’t win.
I know that’s not why I participated. I participated because I love singing and my mum loves hearing me sing. I participated because last year was fun. But you know what? I at least hoped that I would place.
I feel like I needed to at least place.
I’m not going pretend that this is the best year of my life and after three months of not managing to achieve anything I really wanted win at something. Singing has been the first thing I’ve truly attempted since hurting my back and I wanted to just break away from this period in my life where I’m stuck.
I considered ranting a bit more about how I feel and share that I think it was unfair to make me compete with grownups. I feel like I could complain how one of the winners just repeated the same act as the previous year while I had to learn a whole new song on short notice. I could be mad at myself for not practicing more but I’m not sure that would have helped anyway.
I’m not going to spill everything that has been leaving me feeling hollow though because if I do that I’ll just be frustrated with myself for not being able to suck it up and get myself going again.
After all I have to take ownership of my life and after three months of complaining I’m really getting tired of my own nonsense.
So that’s it. That’s my makeup post… I know it doesn’t really make up for anything and now I realize I have no idea how to end it off.
I’m just going to stop typing now…
