What Is The Best Time Of The Day For Writing?

I've always been the kind of person who writes during the evening and at night. At any other time, it becomes very difficult.

I tend to be very tired after waking and it takes a few hours for my energy levels to rise. In fact, they continue to rise until about 6/7pm and that's around the time I usually do my writing. And then my energy levels start to drop after 11pm. I usually stop activities by 2am as my energy levels are so low that I can't stay awake.

So I write late during the day.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this.

Advantages of writing during the evening/night:

• The world is sleeping or getting ready to sleep so emails slow down, less people call you and you're confronted less by distractions. 

• You've had the entire day to do other stuff and can now concentrate on writing. 

• The house is quiet. I like to be able to hear myself think and it's easier when no one is talking/banging doors/running up and down stairs. 

•  The night time can be inspiring for some. 

• Space. While everyone else is in their rooms, you can temporarily migrate to the living room/dining room and splatter your writing stuff everywhere.

• You get to wear pyjamas. You can do this in the morning too but you'll smell in the morning, have bad breath and be hungry. At night, you'll just be cosy. 

• It gives you something to do if you have insomnia. 

But there are also disadvantages.

Disadvantages of writing during the evening/night: 

• Some people can be tired at this point and will go to sleep. You may find that your energy levels are higher during the morning. 

• You may still have other things to do. If you're a parent, you'll have children to put to bed and then get their school uniforms ready for the morning. Or you may work night shifts. 

• Most writers work other jobs/are students and so will need to wake up early to get to work/school. So not everyone can write at this time. I write at this time during the holidays. My writing slows down during term time. 

• It can mess up your sleep clock and that can have a serious impact on your health. It is ideal for people to sleep in a dark room and going to be at 2am means that the sun will soon rise and you will be sleeping in a light room. This prevents you from going into a deep sleep and most people will wake up early and be tired. 

• Some people will be completely unable to get anything done at this time. They just may not feel motivated/full or energy/would rather wind down in front of the TV. 

It doesn't matter at what time you write. The most important thing is, when you do WANT to write? When do you have TIME to write? And when do you get the MOST writing done?

I personally find the evening is the best time and will write into the early hours of the night if I have the energy.

If you are going to write in the morning and suffer from sleep drunkenness then take a short walk or run in the morning just to help you wake up. And take a shower before writing so you can smell nice shampoo when you get stuck for words!

Kamille.

Really Bad Ideas For Your Novel - Part 3

It's been a long time since I last did one of these. They were fun so I thought I'd do another one.

Click below to go read part 1 and 2.
Part 1
Part 2

Make your chapters really long. Readers need breaks and this comes in the form of chapters. Keep chapters to a maximum of 7500 words. If they get too long, it becomes more likely for a reader to turn off.

Give your characters unpronounceable names. I hate writers who give their characters foreign names or make complex ones up and then provide no information on how to say the damn name. I used to call Hermione (Her-me-own-knew) and it was really embarrassing when my teacher laughed at me for it.

Include no chapters whatsoever. And you'll end up with a big, ugly block of text. Formatting is good people! Take advantage of it.

Include personal details. Would you like a stalker?

Include the personal details of other people. I'm pretty sure this is illegal.

Have a prologue. Go read this post on prologues (CLICK HERE!)

Set your novel in a real life place you have never gone to and then include a lot of specific details of this place. This is dangerous. By including a vast amount of detail, you're digging yourself into a hole. When you include this detail and have no idea whether it is right or not, you're increasing the likelihood of a reader catching you out. If you haven't visited this place, invent a new place based off it.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Kamille

Blogging Mistakes And Tips

I've been blogging around the internet since around 2007 but I never really got the hang of it and I still haven't. This blog is probably the best blog I've created since I manage to actually update more than once a month with actual content. On my old blog, I updated around once in a blue moon with a few lines that went like this

Title: OMG I forgot about you!!!!


"Oh My God! I haven't blogged in ages! Got lots of work to do. Really busy atm! And the weather here is awful! My life sucks."

Now it's pretty easy to see what is wrong with this blog 'post'.

Here is essentially what a good blog post includes:

• One clear subject.
• Clear formatting without chunky paragraphs. 
• A good title.
• Original content/perspective.

Now look back at the bold bit.

Is there one clear subject? No. In fact, I don't see a 'subject'.

Clear formatting? No, it's just 6 sentences running together with no direction. 

A good title? Hell no. Never include more than one exclamation mark. It can look messy in a title.

Original content/perspective? Look at other teen blogs. Most of them will have at least one of the example 'post'.

So you can see why my other blogs were pretty fail right? Because I can. And that's because I had no clear direction with the posts. Now, I update with posts that have quality (I hope) and I update as often as I can.

Although this blog has gone further than I expected and I've improved a lot, I'm still making mistakes.

These are the mistakes I'm still making:

• Not posting consistently. - It's advised to have a posting schedule such as two blogs posts a week or once a week. But I just update when I get the chance to sit down and write. 
• Not writing within a specific niche. - I'll admit that I've failed to fit into a niche. I'm trying to develop a more writer/student tone but it gets hard when you just want to talk about your grocery trip to the supermarket!
• Failing to edit all blog posts. - Yeah, I'm just lazy.
• Not marketing the blog. - See above.
• Not interacting with other bloggers as much as I should. - I try and do this often but it gets very difficult especially with some blogs where the author doesn't respond. It makes you feel like your comments are being ignored.
• Failing to use sources and research. - A well researched blog post is a good one. I'm lazy.
• Publishing posts that don't deserve to be published. - I've written about two blog posts so far in May that I've deleted. I just couldn't see someone reading them but I still have some blog posts that I should either take down or modify. 

So here are some simple tips for all bloggers:

• Format Format Format. No chunky paragraphs and organise how everything is going to be laid out. Don't ramble on one topic and switch to another in the same paragraph. And don't ramble!
• Edit every post.
• Determine a posting schedule. It doesn't have to be every day but make sure that when you do update, you actually post something meaningful. 
• Have a clean design and layout. No one wants to see 100 'Follow Me On Twitter' icons. And black text on a white background is easier to read than white text on a black background. No funky colours unless it follows a colour scheme. 
• No background music.
• Make sure your pages aren't too loaded with content. People instantly switch off from a blog that takes ten minutes to load. 
• Make sure your title is relevant to the post. 
• Post on other blogs. 
• Do your research.
• Be consistent. Aim to have all blog posts up to a certain standard. 
• Connect with your readers. Reply to their comments. Ask them questions at the end of the post. Visit their blogs. 
• Stay fresh and passionate. Blogging can be boring when it swallows your life so keep yourself motivated by loving it and try to stand out from the crowd.

Kamille.

Book Love: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It's been a LONG time since I have posted a Book Love post (and a BIHTEL post) so I thought I'd write a bit about The Book Thief.

Reading this book was strange because I couldn't understand some of what was happening and the narrative from Death was unusual. As Death was the narrator, I had a feeling that we would see the life of someone who would die. I won't mention any more of that if you don't want a spoiler.

In History lessons we were taught that Nazi Germany was an evil place full of evil people and were always told about Hitler and his crimes. But it was rare to see what life was like for people living in Nazi Germany and how their lives were affected by what was happening.

This was a fantastic book in my opinion. We see the life of a girl, Liesel, who is living with foster parents in Nazi Germany. She is an innocent girl surrounded by horror. But this is not a depressing tale. I wouldn't call it happy either but it's somewhere in the middle. There are moments where you'll smile and moments where you'll feel sad. You see how Nazi Germany affected now only gypsies, Jews, homosexuals and the disabled but how it affected the lives of ordinary people who were victims of the brutal regime.

I wouldn't call it a novel and see it as a fictitious account of history documented in a long book. In novels, there are usually a clear set of chapters where the pace is steady and then peaks towards the end. The Book Thief was different. While the pace was steady mostly, there were moments where it dived but it picked up again.

Why do I love this book?

I didn't care too much about the characters themselves but understood what they were going through. I was able to see what was going in the book and why they were reacting. When I was done reading, I saw the Nazi regime from a different viewpoint: the ordinary citizen's life. Plus, I read this while studying Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany so it was fascinating to see history without the facts and figures that plague the majority of History courses out there.

And for anyone who hasn't read this, be prepared for a book that will require effort. Although I love this book, it was heavy and required effort. This is not the Jersey Shore of Literature.

Kamille.

10 Reasons I Hate Being A Writer

I know it may seem ironic that I hate being a writer sometimes but I think most people will be able to relate to at least one of my reasons.

1) It's all I can think about. - There are times where I lose track of things because I was too busy building my imaginary world in my head.

2) I don't feel like I'm any good at it. - I think it can be very easy for us to doubt our abilities. And writers face this a lot in my opinion.

3) When I tell people I write stories, I get the 'look'. - You know?! The look of "you'll never get anywhere in life as a writer!".

4)  It's difficult to make a living at it. - Seriously, this is the most annoying reason. It just makes all this writing feel like a waste.

5) Everyone is critical of you. Especially non-writers. - The number of non-writers  (and often non-readers) are not usually full of praise. I find that the writers and readers tend to give better advice and find it easier to spot the good things in a piece of writing whereas non-readers and non-writers can't recognise strengths and weaknesses.

6) It takes up a lot of time. - Find notebook. Find pen. Write a sentence. Rip up paper and start again. Write rubbish. Scrap. Start again. Scrap. End up with nothing at the end of the day. Repeat a million times.

7) Computers. - A lot of writers write directly into computers and all will need one to submit to an agent. And guess what? I hate computers! Honestly not kidding! They die when I touch them! They cost a lot of money. I can't repair them! And my computer keeps failing! In fact it's crashed like twice today!

8) You need a thick skin. - People can be very critical. Writing is something that I pour my blood and soul into and any criticisms feel like a personal attack.

9) People think you'll become the next JK Rowling. - Lol. Yeah right. JK Rowling is an anomaly. The vast majority of writers will never make a living solely from writing.

10) The stupid need to continue. - It's painful. It hurts. It ends in failure. But I still have to keep on going at it. Why? Because it's how I can make sense of the world. It's how I can deal with my own problems. And most of all, it's my voice. For my whole life, writing has been the only way I can get my voice across without being corrupted by the voices of everyone else. This is me. All me. And nobody can touch my words.

I might update again later this week but if I don't then have a good week everyone!

Kamille

Losing Your Work

Hello everyone! I know it's been a long time since I last posted on here but life has been incredibly busy for me during the past few weeks. Fortunately, I've worked fast enough today to get some time to update.

Most people reading this will understand what it feels like to lose something you own. You feel lost. You feel stupid. And you blame yourself for losing it.

Some will also understand what it feels like to lose something you made. Something you invented yourself. Something which was entirely unique to you.

I know exactly what it feels like.

During a Graphic Design class in secondary school, my teacher sent me to the computer area outside the classroom to complete some work I had fallen behind on. Two of my friends were with me and we joked around for an hour. At the end of the lesson, I handed my work in and logged off the computer. I then left the class for my Science class. It was when I got home that I dug into my pockets to find my USB.

I was going to continue with the story I was working on. I had more than 10,000 words and felt happy to be making good progress. But when my fingers hit the empty sides of the pocket, I felt everything fall onto me.

I had lost my USB. And I had no backup files.

The next day, I reckoned it was still at the computers so I went there before all my lessons and scrambled around the computers looking for my USB. I went to the main reception and dug through a vast collection of USB's other students had lost. I still couldn't find it.

For a few weeks I was heartbroken. All that work had gone down the drain. And I felt lost. I didn't know where else to go with my writing. I also lost a lot of school work and had to start it all again which felt like someone had shot me in both hands. After a few weeks of rushing through all my school work, I had finally gotten my course stuff in order and turned my attention to starting again.

I remembered the first scene of the story I was on and just began writing from there. While I hated the fact that I had lost the story, I was determined to never let it happen again. And I still have the rewritten story on my computer even though I never finished it. It was soon after losing the story I realised it wasn't the story for me.

So while it was gut wrenching and awful to lose my writing, it gave me the chance to look back on it all and make some important decisions. Since then, I have backups of almost everything and I am able to look at my work differently. I know what didn't work with that story and losing my USB helped me see that.

But I'm still sad to have lost it. I had a lot of memories with everything on there and worse, it pains me to think someone out there might be able to find the USB and go through it. I just hope I never left any private information on there. Now that is something that could be very embarrassing!

Have you ever lost something? How did you feel? I know I felt horrid but eventually, I moved on. I realised life wasn't going to stop for me just because I lost something but I still imagine what it would be like finding my USB again. But I think I understand I will probably never see it again.

What did you learn from losing something?

I'd love to know so feel free to leave a comment!

Kamille!

Samantha Brick - Deluded Or Sneaky?

For those who don't know, Samantha Brick is journalist who wrote an article for the Daily Mail (one of the worst examples of British Journalism I've come across) claiming that women hate her because she's so beautiful. And in case you were wondering, she's not that stunning. I may be no oil painting but at least I'm not deluded.

Now there are two explanations for her 'article'.

The first is that she is seriously deluded. She must look in the mirror and see something else because she is not as beautiful as she claims. Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Kate Beckinsale and Sofia Vergara are women who are beautiful. Ms Brick is just average compared to them.

The second explanation is that this is a method by which she can gain the publicity. And I think the publicity is just to help her snag a book deal. Because let's face it. This article has collected a large number of hits and loads of people are talking about her. And while this isn't the best kind of publicity, I feel she knew she'd face backlash. But I have to admit it was probably the easiest way for her to get this publicity. And I feel it's worked.

I see her as deluded but also feel she's somewhat sneaky. She knew what her article's reaction would be. And also, the more readers you have, the more you can demand for an article.

Despite what she is, her article has whipped up a storm but her attitude has come across badly in the article and even if this is a ploy from her and her publicist, bad publicity is great in the short term but long term, it can be detrimental. I hope this returns a decade or two later to bite her in the arse because that would just be too funny to miss.

Read an article on her here (Daily Mail article by the way. Open at your own link. Caution: Reading the article may result in the loss of IQ points).

So do you think she's deluded or sneaky? Do you like her or hate her?

Kamille