Category: Muse Monday

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AM Devine

Hey look! It’s a shiny Muse Monday! Throw a great ball at it!

*wiggle*

*wiggle*

*wiggle*

*CLICK*

Hey look at that! You caught a shiny Muse Monday! Congrats!

I’m mostly back on track with my various writings, but admittedly I had to take a media break. This is important as a writer.

Let me tell you why. (And why it’s here as a Muse Monday thing.)

A media break is where you take a break from writing to take in some other form of creative media. From binge-watching your new favorite show on netflix, to seeing that movie in theaters that you’ve been wanting to see, to just doing some pleasure reading – it’s all really useful for recharging your brain.

Even switching to another project for a while can help give you a break from your primary project.

Why is this important? Because eventually, you’re going to run out of the ability to create. Creativity is both a finite and an infinite resource. It’s like bamboo. It something that grows remarkably easily (and pretty prolifically), but you have to plant the seeds first.

Sometimes, this works as simply as switching to another project, or finding a creative prompt. Sometimes you’re more low on the creative juices than normal and just need the break.

Taking in new stories and new things helps your creativity, your muse, have a better and easier time coming up with new ideas. This means it will be easier and easier for you to knock out your word count goal every time you sit down to write. If your creativity is too tired or burnt out, you’ll eventually give up and you’ll no longer want to write.

So definitely take the time to recharge your creative battery. Plant the seeds of creativity and take a break.

I personally try to build in breaks into my schedule, specifically, I try to make sure that I get far enough ahead in my writing that I can take the weekends off. Treat writing like you would a job, where you have those breaks built in and you’ll discover that writing won’t tire you out as much as it once did.

My personal schedule, thanks to probably one of the most laid back jobs you can have, matches my work day literally. I work in an office where they don’t mind if I write in the down time. So I’m actually sitting in the office right now, busting out words with my portable wireless speaker sitting on top of the desk organizer and my laptop next to the primary computer. So far tonight, I’ve written nearly 1.8K words, and am relatively on track for 7k words in my shift. As a side effect of this awesome job, I have a lot of time to sit at my desk here and just write. So I’m working on getting into the habit of doing that, so that I can have my weekends free to do whatever I’d like. Which also includes reading for pleasure and just generally recharging my mind.

If you’re not lucky enough to have time to write on most days, then go ahead and make a schedule that you can keep to for writing, and guard your writing time fiercely. If you can get into the habit of doing it each time that you’ve set aside, eventually, you’ll have programmed your creativity into working best at those times. And your mind will have it’s recharge times built right into your schedule.

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So, take some time to recharge your muse, to make your muse better.

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AM Devine

Okay, so, after the depression situation that was last week, let’s look at something cool again!

If you know me IRL at all, then you’ve probably heard me gush about architecture. It’s probably one of my strongest loves outside of space and coffee and swords and winter. (Yes, I know my list of cool things is weird. Did you actually think I was normal, because if yes, please be advised: AM WEIRD.)

So , anyways, BACK to the architecture!

One of my most favorite things that I have ever come across on twitter was an account that tweeted cool looking home design pictures. It was connected to a website called Home Adore – and let me tell you, Home Adore is a bit addictive.

They have hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of cool residential architecture.

Like the Edgeland House, which is a unique take on a Native American Pit House.

Or the Sorrento, which caused me to have a twenty minute long crisis of the mind. You’ll figure out why when you read the page and then look at all the pictures. Hint: Look closely at the kitchen pictures.

Or the Vista Mar, which has absolutely stunning views as well as both stunning interiors and exteriors.

I find the Derby House to be one of great value to me for one of my stories – it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the house I see in my head for one of my characters. Though, their decorations are more colorful.

This Penthouse in Moscow is probably one of the coolest I’ve seen on the site, I especially want the light fixture from the kid’s room. But, I will say it’s got interesting features in the form of the exterior walls – being at such angles.

And this Modern Home in California, with it’s unusual design including lots of skylights and lots of glass accents, and unusual windows on each of the bedrooms.

And then while I was just kicking around on their website I found a modern castle like thing, and I WANT IT.

A setting tells as much about the story you’re writing as you choose to let come through. A slick clean space may mean that your character’s don’t spend a lot of time in that area, versus a warm comforting room may be the hub of the home. Or, it could even reverse.

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AM Devine

Hey lookie! It’s a little late, but it’s another Muse Monday post!

If you’re just joining the club here today, a quick review: Muse Mondays are days that I post things that inspire the muse and that I’d like to share with all of you!

Today’s Muse Monday is going to be a little different from the previous ones because I want to tell you something I’ve discovered triggers a desire to write. This isn’t something digital today, it’s actually something in the physical world.

It’s WRITING UTENSILS.

Pens, Pencils, Markers, you name it, I *love* them. Everything I comment about here today I’ll list at the end with Amazon links, because why not share the love? The reason I think these things inspire the muse is because it makes it so easy to storyboard and plot and even snowflake out my stories if I have multiple colors available to me. And having all the colors laid out on the desk is so pretty and

Onwards to the Writing Utensils:

I personally prefer Zebra F-301s for my day to day writing (including most work related tasks), and Zebra G-301s for journaling. The steel tubes make them easy to spot down in my dark and overcrowded purses, they’re durable and you can buy ink replacements for them as well. This makes them a very valuable tool for writing in my life.

Next up, we have Papermate Inkjoys. I love the variety of colors in these pens. When I was working as a server – this helped me to keep my tables straight. Each table had a single ticket, but each seat had a specific color that I’d use to make sure I remembered everything that a single person ordered or asked me about. I actually use three versions of this pen, being the normal ballpoints in both the capped and clicky variety as well as the gel pen clickers. These are also fantastic for keeping track of various characters on a storyboard as you’re plotting out your stories. Each character can have a color and trust me when I say that helps.

Onwards to the Sharpie. Those who know me in person know that I love love love sharpies, and almost always have three or four at hand. I use the sharpie pens in many colors to handle my planners. (I use both a bullet journal and a passion planner, and color code things in each.) I use normal sharpies in all the colors for various speed writings that I do to work on plots and storylines. I use the highlighters during editing phases, along with the pens. I also use the highlighters in my physical copies of Writer’s Market that I buy, it allows me to mark the publishers and agents that I think I might want to look into for the possibility of traditional publication.

 

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Zebra F-301:  http://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Stainless-Retractable-Pen-27104/dp/B002VL8H5G

Zebra G-301: http://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Stainless-Retractable-Pen-41312/dp/B002JG7736

Papermate Inkjoy (clicker): http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Retractable-Ballpoint-Assorted/dp/B00PZ9IR24

Papermate Inkjoy (capped):  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0067Y5KWG

Papermate Inkjoy Gel: http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Assorted-14-Pack-1951636/dp/B019QBOG3U

Sharpie Pens: http://www.amazon.com/Sanford-Sharpie-Assorted-12-Pack-1802226/dp/B005LU2QAQ

Sharpie Markers: http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Fine-Tip-Permanent-24-Pack-Assorted/dp/B0003WN0DO

Sharpie Highlighters: http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Fine-Tip-Permanent-24-Pack-Assorted/dp/B0003WN0DO

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AM Devine

Muse Monday!

Woohooo! Here’s to hoping that I manage to stay on track from here on out, yes?

Onwards to today’s MUSE MONDAY!

I know that when I’m writing, I absolutely love to listen to music. Sometimes it’s actual music soundtracks, sometimes it’s classical music, and sometimes it’s royalty free music.

Today, we’re discussing ROYALTY FREE MUSIC. My favorite source (of which I have some 27 active somethings on my current playlist) is this: >http://incompetech.com/music/<. I love the things I find here, and I love the system by which they sort things even more.

My current three favorite scores of the Incompetech creator’s are: Jellyfish in Space, Floating Cities, and Infinite Perspective. The songs aren’t too busy, and they’re not too heavy and make excellent background noise for me to work on my steampunk story (Of Mage Lights and War Machines) and my space saga (The Aurora Universe).

Check them out and enjoy all the lovely music that can keep your stories going!

Muse Monday 0001

AM Devine

So the inaugural Muse Monday here at ASW is all about SEVENTH SANCTUM.

The motherload of weird generators, Seventh Sanctum is one of the coolest places I’ve ever found on the internet.

Do you need a technology name? Seventh Sanctum has you covered.

Mechas? Seventh Sanctum has those too.

Magical Classes? Yep, you guessed it. Seventh Sanctum.

Government names? Corporation names? Realm need naming? How about that tavern? Seventh Sanctum has all of those.

Dark Rituals? Spell names, technomancy, magical items? They’ve got them all.

 

Since back in 1999, Steve Savage has been the creative genius getting people out of writer’s blocks and into crazy creative modes. Later this month, he’s releasing a book, and honestly, everyone should check it out. ( Keep up with it here)

 

 

*** This post is in no way sponsored by Seventh Sanctum, I get nothing from my love of the website and it’s generators besides a great deal of amusement. ***