by Kajsa Forden | Apr 21, 2016 | From the Author, Get Motivated
There are many, many, many, notebooks I would love to buy in one massive splurge; I get emails from Knock Knock, Paper Source, Barnes & Noble, all of which show off such pretty and inspirational notebooks. Doomed to never-ending lists of beautiful notebooks, I’ve given in and started online window shopping. Here are my top notebooks suppliers:
Knock Knock is sarcasm and inner frustrations printed prominently on notebooks, notepads, and other helpful office supplies. In addition to relatable notepads like My Portable Pessimist or Paper Tantrum, there are notebooks featuring fun designs and even notebooks to achieve inner peace, like I’m So Freaking Freaked Out or I’m Kind of Awesome or The F*ck It List.
Paper Source is all about the aesthetics. Even offering customizable options, Paper Source has a lot of well-designed, high-quality choices. Spanning nearly every aesthetic, even visiting the site makes me wish I had a whole separate budget just for stationery stores. Watercolor Notes, Cavallini Vintage Clocks, and the Gold Star Journal are only the beginning of a great varied collection.
Anne Taintor might not have notebooks, but there are notepads. And they make my day at least ten times better with their clever, bitter, sarcastic humor. We Go Together Like Drunk and Disorderly is a personal favorite, along with Success is 1% Inspiration 99% Caffeine. The entire brand crushes expectations of pretty 1940s/1950s housewife images, and it all started with phrases like “Born to Be Wild,” and “Intellectuals Gone Bad.”
Notebooks make up a large part of a writer’s expenses, and understandably so; they are creative and inspirational. When in doubt, buy a notebook. Or, use one of the many you probably already have.
by Kajsa Forden | Apr 21, 2016 | Reader, Recently Read
With our minds more focused on brief social media posts and reading articles online, reading a full-length novel, or even a series, can be difficult. We are stimulated in such different ways from even ten or fifteen years ago. Growing up, reading was simpler and satisfying. Now that Im more digitally dependent, I have to reprogram my brain for books.
Reading Girl, A.C.W. Duncan
Although I’ve started multiple books in the past couple years and worked through required reading for university, I haven’t read through a full book in quite a while. For a soft transition, the first Reading Challenge is Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a book I have read many times before and is a fun read, especially when compared to more dense stories like anything by Dickens. Rereading a book will utilize the muscle memory of my mind, stretching it and preparing it for more books and heavier reading.
The Challenge: Read at least 100 pages of this sci-fi classic by the end of the day.
I’m fairly certain I can exceed the goal, as a speed-reader, but this is just as much a test of my focus abilities.
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun …”
by Kajsa Forden | Apr 21, 2016 | From the Author
Procrastination plagues even the best of us. Sometimes everything that needs to be done in a day looks overwhelming and the urge to just not can win the day instead. But, hark! There is a solution: lists.
Aside from obvious reasons for owning notebooks as a writer, one of the main reasons I own so many notepads is to make lists, breaking down Mount Overwhelming into tiny rocks of I-Can-Do-That ore.
For example – Today:
- Feed self
- Clean room
- Reading Challenge
- Schoolwork
- Upcoming blog posts
- Daily writing stretch
- Early to bed
That’s a basic example, but it reduces the pressure of a busy day, especially when you also have writing bouncing around the back of your mind as well. The process works just as well for any writing project, from an overall outline kind of list to a list of character likes and dislikes.
Still a university student, I usually don’t have classes on Fridays, making them available for household tasks and for creative influx. Keeping all my tasks listed out means less time being stressed and more time being creative.
Whether you make your lists on notepaper, sticky notes, an app, or Excel spreadsheets, lists are a highly recommended part of organizing writing, work, and a busy mind.
by Kajsa Forden | Apr 20, 2016 | From the Author, Get Motivated, Try Something New
Many writers feel that sense of shyness around their writing, hesitant to share their work with the outside world. Pinterest forced my words into the open and helped to establish a disconnect; my writing isn’t my baby to shield from the world, it’s a form of art that should be shared. Whether or not my writing is high or low art is a subject for debate, but letting it be free turned out to be much more satisfying than I expected.
I started posting blurbs and prompts on Pinterest over a year ago, and the collection has grown consistently. The prompts will double-post on here; the site will start at #1, while the Pinterest continues from the most recent number. When a blurb or prompt grows into a story idea, likely to keep developing, the idea gets its own storyboard. These storyboards do not encompass all my work, but are a visual addendum.
Daily Writing Blurb: Prompt #1
Linked above is the very first prompt written and featured on my Pinterest, inspired by the photograph used. Most of the prompts written are inspired by or based on images that I did not create myself. Instead, I start from that visual inspiration and develop it into a written blurb, something anyone can use to further create their own story. Like a virtual plot bunny jar, you can pick a random number between #1 and the most recent number (currently #658) to find a workable prompt, for nearly any possible genre.
Check out Bits & Baubles; Bits & Baubles, Part 2; and Writer, for writing tips and motivation!
