Infographic: 15 Ways to Write Faster

SOURCE @ www.custom-writing.org

On Being a Writer - Paulo Coelho style

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This is why my 2017 Goals are still on Track (mostly) – Part 1

A badge Linzé earned in a group
where writers hold themselves
accountable for daily writing

I wrote my first word of a first draft way back in 2001. While my odyssey to publication took another eleven years, I didn’t just write this one book. This first book was not my first published book, for that, I had to write some more before publication would be an option.
Why eleven years? There is no magic to this number, it was how long it took for me to figure out that I might actually be good enough.
What I did in those eleven years, established the foundation of why I now describe myself as a writer—I wrote.
In fact, I wrote another eight full-length novels: two are published, and the third is planned for October this year. The rest must wait their turn…it is a series after all.
In the years since that first attempt, writing became a habit. A daily habit that to date produced several more manuscripts, to the effect that this year my total creative word count now stands at over 2,200,000 words.
I started keeping a spreadsheet that I update at the end of every evening’s writing session. It was more curiosity in the beginning, but it has become more than that…it’s my daily ‘personal trainer’ if you like.

Source: Medium

Seeing the number of words I have written thus far is inspirational, but it is the words that have yet to come to life, that truly gets my writing brain into gear. So many stories that still need to be told!
Of course, I did not write as many words back then as I do now. In my own defense, it did take a while for my blonde brain cells to truly get the message: if you want to write, it is exactly what you should do. Write. Every day.
Some people set themselves a daily word target, others a daily time to write. I fall into the latter category. With a full-time job, my writing time is limited, and I want to squeeze every second that I can get out of it.
NaNoWriMo months change the goals a bit, but the words still count. They must. With an annual goal of one full-length novel, plus a few shorter stories to keep the creative juices flowing, I simply cannot help myself anymore—I have to write. When I don’t, I feel as if I am going to work without wearing a bra—something essential is missing.
Fortunately, that is one piece of clothing I have not yet forgotten!
I suppose it becomes a habit like brushing my teeth or putting on said bra. So that means when those words are not written, my creative mind will rot in a manner of speaking. Trust me, the zombie look will not look good on me.

Source: Medium

Whatever the target is you set for yourself, time or words, make it a habit. Habits become entrenched in the definition of who we are.
If you write, you will feel like a writer, you will think like a writer…you will be a writer.

Before you disappear back to reality, please take a moment to share this post with your friends. Thank you! 💜

Linzé Brandon is the author of several books and short stories. She is a project manager, closet artist, sometimes blogger and wife to an engineer who likes to play with a camera. The unicorns and fairies love playing with their German shepherds almost as much as their human pack members.

Live in Balance: A to Z Challenge - C is for...

C is for Colour

We all need a little colour in our lives whether it be literally, or metaphorically. Today I am focusing on the literal meaning of the word. I am sometimes teased because my favourite colour is black. My engineering friends and colleagues (including Francois) constantly tell me that black is not a colour. Well, technically I suppose they are correct since black does not feature in any colour of light. Note: if you mix all the colours of the rainbow (in lightwaves) you get white, but no combination will ever give you black.

When mixing paints you do get black, but let's not argue that point.

Today I want you to explore your favourite colours in an art entry in your journal. I have done mine with the video clips you find below.

Before you watch (and dig in) a few pointers:

1. Wear an old t-shirt to protect your clothes. Most water-based paints will set permanently once dry and ruin your clothes. A lesson I learned once when I dropped a paintbrush covered in black paint on my favourite denim-blue tennis shoes. I went out and bought the eye-blindingly bright pink housecoat you see me wearing in the video clips (now I paint with those shoes!). It works, what more can I say.
2. You are most welcome to copy my designs for your journal or use your own. Keep it simple, something you can draw and paint in a matter of minutes.
3. If you want to use another medium or design that takes longer to be ready, allocate the space in your journal to glue it in later when it's ready.
4. Use the link here, to find your colour (or its closest match) and pen your thoughts about that. Remember to explore your emotions about the colour, as well as your experience of doing the art project for today's prompt.

Hints and tips:

• Put down a layer of plastic on your work surface to protect it from the paint. I used a plastic bag that I cut open. 
• Put newspaper on top of the plastic. It will absorb any excess moisture and prevent your artwork from unwanted bleeding across the paper.
• Try to use only the text part of the paper. Any pictures will create odd colours or shading of your design.
• Measure your journal's page size and cut the paper rectangles the same size or smaller. This way you know the end result will fit.
• Remove any jewellery from your hands. Paint sticks to everything and will dry quickly because of your body's heat. If your wedding ring has no gemstones, grooves or uneven surfaces like engravings, it may not be a problem, but the smallest crevice will be very hard to clean once the paint is dry.
• I put my hair in a ponytail because I have accidentally painted the ends a time or two and then the paint gets transferred to my face or glasses. But that's just me.
• Lastly, enjoy the art project!

Watch the short YouTube Videos!

Introduction

Drawing and painting a flower

Finishing the leaves

Preparing the design

Finishing the design in my journal

My favourite colours, what they mean, and my thoughts on that

Black

According to the website, it is a colour of mystery and secrecy. While I would like to think that I am mysterious and secretive, the closest I ever get to that are the mystery novels I love to read. Deep down I don't think I want to be mysterious.

Perhaps because I am an introvert who is happy to be on my own or left alone to do my own thing. Took me years to figure that part out. Only when I got to know other writers, did I begin to understand this part of myself. Interesting thing to discover in your early thirties, I can tell you.

But knowing this also allowed me to more easily accept this part of myself. Understanding it has been a journey, but I feel that understanding this part of me, helps me define my path to happiness.

Purple

This is the colour of creativity. My mother used to tell me that it is the only colour where you can wear any shades of it together without clashing with yourself. I am no fashionista and have no interest in dressing fashionably (if I do, it is pure luck), so I don't know if that is true. What I do know is that creativity is something I am still learning about every day.

After reading The Artist's Way, it opened even more doors in my mind. While I love my art projects, I have not experimented much simply because of my (mistaken) notion that painting (irrespective of the medium) was the only true expression of visual art, excluding sculpting.

Logically, I know that is not true, but until recently painting was all I did. I liked it, but it didn't grab me by the throat to drag me to the blank canvas. Only once I started experimenting with pastels and pencil do I feel as if I have truly found my art. I have a lot still to learn, but learning is easier for me if I have a passion for the subject.

It was the same for my engineering studies until I discovered electromagnetism in my third year. But that is something to explore at another time.

Jade

The closest colour to jade (or teal) on the website is turquoise. According to the website, it is the colour of balance because it sits right in the middle of the rainbow (mix of blue and green).

Sheesh, was I surprised when I read that the first time. There is no way I can convince myself that my choice of jade as a favourite, can have anything to do with my Live in Balance motto for this year. I have always loved this colour (it is also one of the few colours that both my mother and I liked equally), so the meaning cited on this website was pure coincidence, but not an unwelcome explanation!

When I think about my three favourite colours and their meanings, I am quite happy with the combination. Of course, there are negative connotations too, but I prefer to focus on the positive. I am striving for happiness after all!

👉 What have you learned today about your favourite colour(s)?

Live in Balance: Are they the right goals for me?

With most of my colleagues back at work with me, we invariably chat about the holidays and that conversation then rolls around to New Years' resolutions. I usually listen with an attentive ear, not only because I can learn something but it is hard not to sympathize with some of their issues.
I might have mentioned it, about a million times or so, that I work in a very stressful environment. Most people have stress in their lives that follow a wave-like pattern - up and down, up and down. Meaning that the stress only occurs as peaks over a small time period: financial year end, completing a product for delivery, and so on.

In my case, the level of stress never subsides. There are even higher peaks at certain times (almost every month), but the pressure never lets up. While it is a supercharged and exciting industry to work in, it takes a heavy toll on people, myself included.
To get back to my original point, New Years' resolutions in our lives can get drowned out in the noise of this kind of stress. A colleague mentioned that he decided to do something different this year since he barely made it through the last one. It is nothing odd or stupid, but he knew that the plan of last year was not good enough, so he had to change it.
And that is exactly the thing we often forget to do: sit back, reassess our goals of the past. Did they work? Did they achieve what we wanted them to do?
Most people are concerned about sticking to their goals for the year. I think there are many cases where people stick to their goals but feel just as frustrated or unhappy as those people who didn't stick to their goals. Could it be that the List, those New Years' resolutions, were the wrong goals to begin with?
Sure, there are lots of advice available on how to stay motivated. How to find out what motivates you to stick to those lovely goals you set for yourself. There is nothing wrong with that advice if you start off in the right place.

Why would putting losing weight as a goal (yeah, I have that on my Live In Balance list too!) be the wrong thing for you? Could it be that the thing you need to fix has nothing to do with your body weight, but more to do with the reasons you gained weight in the first place?
Boredom? Broken relationships? Depression? To name but a small number of reasons. Shouldn't you rather spend more time in figuring out on what the real reason is and then making that the issue you need to focus on?
It took me a long time to figure out that my problem is boredom. I don't need a lot of sleep and tend to snack after dinner to make my nights shorter. The problem is not the time of day that we have dinner, it's the snacking.
Doing mundane things bores me to tears - and I put household chores at the top of that list. I love cooking but detest washing up. And no, a dishwasher is not a solution to that problem, since it still requires work from a human - loading and unloading. I dumped the unloading part on my husband's shoulders. Needless to say, the list is long and dull. So if you expect a meticulous house when visiting me, you will be disappointed. Dust bunnies and the odd spider or gecko live very harmoniously with us until I do get around to cleaning and vacuuming. At least the geckos are smart enough to make a run for it before they get vacuumed!

Before I wrote this post, I had another look at my Live in Balance list, and at first glance it is overwhelming. But knowing my personal issues with boredom, it is probably a good thing. If I can keep myself occupied with things I love - reading, writing, sketching, painting, Tai Chi practice - then my weight-loss efforts might be less of a struggle.
While I was writing this post, I realised that by writing about my issues also helps to keep me motivated. As someone who has been struggling with being overweight my whole life, I need as much motivation and conviction as I can muster at this point.

It is the start of week 3 and so far so good. Are you still on track to achieving your goals for 2017?

And the debate on diet vs exercise rages on. Click to read more...