I had a rough writing day. I’m in the middle of my Work in Progress when I did some massive maneuvering. Whilst writing some new chapters, I took chapters from my other draft and plotted them into my new draft. By doing this, I confused myself about the timeline and placement of these chapters. Easily fixed but also stuck. How do these chapters flow together? What do I need to delete or add, in order for these things to flow? I’m so overwhelmed. I felt like I was losing my writing mojo for the day, and got upset. With my busy working schedule and not finding time to write, I don’t like to squander that time when I do get it.
So as a way to keep the juices flowing, I hop on to another project, either my blog or other short stories I plan to write. However, on this stressful day, I wrote something silly. I took a break from my overwhelming writing session and saw two rats in my countryside back garden. One was more gentle and slow whilst munching on some liquid leftovers in my dog’s bowl and the other was much faster, agile, and skittish. I watch their interactions, and their movements, and whilst my mother was washing dishes, I started naming them out loud to her.
I named them “Timothy” and “Rogan.”
I don’t know why, but I started to imagine the lives of these rats, and what adventures they would be on and came up with a concept. I picked up one of my lovely journals and started to scribble about their rats. Something really stupid but it reinvigorated my creative brain. Something so silly that I never intend to publish, gave me a healthy break from my project and didn’t make me feel I wasted my writing day. Also by writing something silly, I was having fun and it helped break away from the overwhelming feelings I had about my big project. Now I know that if I’m stuck or need a break, I have the Adventures of Timothy and Rogan to go back to.
So my advice from that day would be if you ever feel overwhelmed with a project and feel like you waste a writing day just sitting at your computer screen and not writing anything, write something silly! Write something for fun, to keep the creative juices flowing.
“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.” – George R.R. Martin
A very old quote and topic to discuss, but I find it very relevant. I found this quote best explains my years of struggling with writing (well one of them anyway). When it comes to writing, are you an architect or a gardener? Or as the Internet like to say. pantsers or painters? Do you like to plan out your projects to a tee? Build a world so extensive and make your story so ironclad or do you like to let a story grow? Without an outline or real concept as to where your story will take you, so you run with it. For me, I’m a proud gardener. Since I was in secondary school, the education system pushed us to be gardeners. When it came to exams, I always pantsed my stories. We are given a prompt last minute so I run with the idea until I finish. It usually worked for me and I did it for years.
Until last year.
I always pantsed short stories and to be honest, it works really well for that. But for my big novel project, I realized pantsing wasn’t an option. I couldn’t just let the story grow because I barely had any seeds to grow. It felt like it wasn’t going anywhere and the plot was too much not to plan out. So at the end of 2022, I started plotting my novel and it helped. It helped me sort out some plot points I couldn’t figure out before, and give me the confidence to finally start it this year. So I love to pants and I am still a gardener at heart, but the architect’s tool does work when needed. When it comes to writing, it doesn’t matter which one you are. I found it ridiculous that the writing community would argue over which is best. You are not better or worse if you follow a particular ideology of writing. If something works for you, go for it. Gardening works better for me most of the time when it comes to short story writing, but for novels, I need to build my world and sort out my plots more. So I think these methods can be used simultaneously and by everybody. They are not mutually exclusive or titles used to bully other writers. I saw a lot of people arguing this on the Internet and found it ridiculous. Write however you want to write and with the method you want to use. Write for yourself, for passion, and write to have fun.
I mean, that’s why we are all writers at the end of the day. We write because we love it. We write for fun and the passion of it. So semantics and distinctions with what type of writer you are, doesn’t really matter. It’s fun to discuss at the end of the day, and hey, you may learn something new from it. But write the way you want to write. That’s what makes us different and unique within the writing world. Hope ye are having a lovely day and I shall see ye in the next post.
Recently, I went on a wonderful trip to Edinburgh, Scotland with my boyfriend. I was terrified and excited all at once. It was my boyfriend’s first time abroad and it was my first time traveling since COVID. So I was scared of the restrictions and how bad Covid might be over there. But I was excited because it was my first abroad trip with my boyfriend. We’ve been dating for over a year now and I wanted to treat him to a holiday. So we chose Edinburgh. The reason for it was because we decided on the holiday last minute. Our workplace was closing for the month and we had a full week off together. So we booked a short trip to Edinburgh because of the price and it was the easiest choice for the short notice.
The travel to Edinburgh was tiring. We booked a flight for half six in the morning so we had to take a bus at half 1 in the morning. Three hours bus ride and an hour flight away, we arrived at Edinburgh airport. We took the 45-minute bus trip to the city. It was really early in the morning so our first stop was breakfast in McDonald’s. I can never escape that place. But their breakfast was so nice. Everything was fresh, not too greasy. In Scotland, they call the bacon and cheese toasties, flatbread. I prefer the flatbread because it was thicker and more filling than our toasties at home. Since we arrived in the city at around half 8 or 9, we had to wait to till 3 to check in to our hotel. So we started walking on Princes Street to look at all the shops. Beautiful weather right off the bat. I dragged my tired boyfriend to Waterstones because I had to. Quite a few amazing choices and we dragged ourselves to the cafe upstairs.
A lovely place to chill for about an hour. But after overstaying our welcome, we moved along to the local park on Prince’s Street. We went to the section of green that was beside the National Museum of Scotland. Best place to chill. The sun beat down on us as we chilled. My boyfriend snoozed a bit as I listened to my audiobook. My current listen is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The main thing we did throughout this holiday was to go to this park and chill in the sun. Nothing exciting but relaxing nonetheless. After we chilled for a couple of hours, we headed to our hotel. We stayed at a very modern and quirky hotel called Moxy Edinburgh Fountainbridge. I highly recommend this hotel. It has a rooftop bar, you get complimentary cocktails when you check in, and the beds have a sensory light under them. If you get up or hang your foot on the edge of the bed, it lights up. You can see I was highly amused by this!
Once we chilled in the hotel, we headed out for some food. We had huge trouble trying to find a place for food. Surely on a Tuesday night, it wouldn’t be that busy. Every restaurant we went past, was packed. So we had to resign after an hour or two of searching for a restaurant. My advice for anyone going out for dinner in Edinburgh is to go earlier in the day. We learned our lesson on the first day so for the duration of our stay, we got our dinner at around 5 o clock in the afternoon and then hibernated in the hotel for the night. Also on our excursion for food on the first night, my boyfriend and I walked about the famous, Elephant House cafe. Unfortunately, it had a fire recently so it’s closed until further notice. Heartbreaking!
The one thing I couldn’t get over in this city was the architecture and the way the streets were laid out. The cobbled streets and upward hills. A very Gothic hue and mystical element surrounded the city. I was at home in this place.
From every turn and up an alley, you never know what kind of beauty you are going to find.
For the first couple of days, my boyfriend and I just went shopping and relaxed in the sun. He convinced me to get another suitcase so that he and I could do a bit of shopping. Mostly, I bought books (no surprise there), he bought some clothes and things for his family. We could feel our batteries recharging in this place. Everyone is so friendly over there too. You never know who you meet or what you find. For example, we had our breakfast on our second day in a random cafe called Cafe near our hotel. (Yeah I know. A very original name for a cafe) It was a super small establishment run by two really friendly Scottish men. They were very chatty, and accomodating and the place felt very inviting. At the end of our breakfast, one of the men gave my boyfriend and me two slices of shortbread for free and he thanked us for choosing their place for breakfast. We came across so many good-natured people in Edinburgh. When our third day in Edinburgh rolled around, we decided to do some sightseeing and went to Edinburgh castle.
Bring me back to my castle in the sky!See my goofball x
I made him do it.
It was a beautiful experience to share with my boyfriend. I saw the castle years ago when I was a small girl. So to watch him get excited to look at all the tall walls of the castle and the beautiful view of the city below was so cute. We could see the spot we sat at the day before looking up at the castle. I couldn’t describe to you how surreal and perfect that view was. No photo could compare. If ever you find yourself in Edinburgh, visit the castle and take a look at the view.
The food in Edinburgh was amazing. We got beautiful ice cream in Artisan Gelato on Cockburn Street (the best ice cream I’ve ever had), and fish and chips in Berties on Victoria Street. We shopped in Waterstones, a fair trade shop called One World and found nerdy items in the Enchanted Galaxy. On the last day in Edinburgh, we spent it doing the last little bits of shopping and heading to the airport early.
This trip was the most beautiful experience I ever had. I call Edinburgh a writer’s dream. because you can’t help but feel inspired there. Everywhere I went, I saw someone reading. The black hues of the Gothic buildings can’t help but grapple your imagination. A shame I didn’t carry a pen and paper, but I did purchase a beautiful notebook on my travel. So I’ll always carry Edinburgh around with me, and I’ll pen any wonderful ideas I have. I hated that we had to leave, but the holiday was fun while it lasted. I intend to visit again at some point but on a more writer-orientated holiday.
writersblockwhat 