Thoroughly modern millennial

Tag: 2015

  • Insta-round up | October

    10 October InstaLife

    Soundtrack: Airplanes by 5 Seconds of Summer

    *oh the irony of writing this post a f t e r posting about beating blogger’s block ~hides~

    I always feel like I’m apologising on this blog (and in emails to blogging friends) for falling back behind on Internet life. I know I shouldn’t. It’s a blog. It’s shouldn’t matter to me this much, but I do. I feel guilty for not keeping up or in touch with this corner of the Internet. I feel guilty when I’m get home from work and I still have five unfinished posts sat in drafts and I go straight to bed. I feel guilty when I’m out and forget about online life for a day – weeks – I feel guilty for ignoring emails or hide away from the world for a bit.

    Is that guilt healthy? Probably not to be honest, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling it.

    Now before you all get concerned I’ve been suckered into becoming obsessed with social media or blogging and can’t even go a day without it, or have been seriously affected by the Essena O’Neil story and am gonna go ‘I QUIT ALL THE THINGS BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS EVIL’ on you, stop right there.

    I don’t care much for chasing numbers (I gave up ever thinking I’d hit the thousands of followers long, long ago) and I’m very much opertate under the ‘I post what I want on here, so suck it up’ kinda mantra. I’ve been very lucky that I feel I can be honest on here. But I guess what this is is blogger burnout. I can’t keep up anymore, or at least I can’t give Wishing For Chanel the love and tenderness it really truly deserves right now. So I guess I’m taking a step back for a while. I don’t know for how long, but I want to siphon my effort into the other neglected parts of my online life (*cough* Feminist In Training *cough*)

    So as not to end on a bummer of a note with this, I want to point you on over to Blogger’s Bookshelf. Which has recently turned THREE years old (we have a giveaway and everything, go check it out!). I’m incredibly proud of BB and all the wonderful people who keep it afloat. Seriously I have so much love for all of them, they’re all wonderful, wonderful people who – again – I feel like apologise to more and more recently.

    So adieu for now? Who knows I may change my mind on this tomorrow (or maybe you can try talk me outta this/motivate me on Twitter?)

    R.xoxo

  • Beating Blogger’s Block With NaNoWriMo

    NaNoWriMo-logo
    *image via YWP’s website

    Happy NaNoWriMo!

    Now I know many of you won’t be participating in National Novel Writing Month’s (NaNoWriMo) 50k novel challenge, but have you ever considered trying to break blogger’s block using the same writing methods? As bloggers I like to think we too face a lot of the same challenges that novelists do. We write a lot of content on a regular basis and sometimes we hit a wall. Which is why I propose a solution. Take on the NaNoWriMo philosophy and apply it to your blogging world.

    The NaNoWriMo methodology to writing is simple. The challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel is tough. As writers we tend to self-edit or excessively plan before getting down to the nitty-gritty or end up watching a chain of Buzzfeed videos instead of writing, but NaNoWriMo requires you release those inhibitions and to ‘write with abandon’. This means writing whatever you want with no edits, no rules and with the goal of just putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) to get kick start your creative juices.

    Here’s my NaNoWriMo Blog Sprint Challenge for you:

    1. Open up your writing programme/tool of choice – notebook, word doc, blog editor etc.
    2. Starting writing out any and all ideas that come to mind. These can be post ideas you’ve had simmering in your head for a while or just start brainstorming. You can write whole sentences or phrases or just single words, doesn’t matter at this stage.
    3. Keep writing…and writing…and writing…
    4. Do this for an hour and see where you get to.
    5. Marvel at the fact you’ve probably drafted 5 blog posts without realising it!

    Top tips

    • Do not under any circumstances start self-editing whilst you’re in ‘writing mode’.
    • Forget grammar/punctuation/spelling rules – you can edit what you’ve regurgitated later.
    • Write even if the flow of words doesn’t make sense.
    • White out paragraphs of text you’ve already written if you get tempted to start editing.
    • When you run out of steam for one post idea, start writing about another one.
    • Don’t self-edit.
    • Turn off your wifi/unplug from social media. This is writing time not time to scroll through Instagram.
    • Don’t worry if ideas seem stupid at the moment, just get that word count down and deal with the consequences later!
    • If you can’t think of what to say add ellipses or leave a gap to fill in the blanks later (this is my favourite tip!).
    • Don’t self-edit.
    • Resist the temptation to Google or look up words/ideas/spellings on your phone – you’ll only spiral into distraction.
    • If it helps time yourself to write alongside @NaNoWordSprints. The account runs all the way through the month and helpfully alerts you of how long you have left to write – make sure you set it up so you receive notifications when they Tweet!
    • Ignore repetitions, focus on that stream of consciousness, you can delete those phrases later.
    • Did I mention don’t self edit?

    So are you ready to take on the challenge?

    Let me know how you get on!

    R.xoxo

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  • Top 3 | Tips To Get You Reading More Books

    One of the questions I get most often from people is, as a book blogger, how do you find time to read? Short answer? I don’t – you just need to take a look at my slow trawling pace on my Goodreads challenge and my exhaustive TBR pile to see that. Long answer? There’s plenty of tips and trickles of advice I’ve dealt out, but here are my top three (in celebration of three years of Blogger’s Bookshelf!)

    1. The 100 page rule

    Sometimes you start a book and can’t stop, sometimes it takes a while to get going, and the rest of the time you end up taking forever stubbornly finishing a book just because you’ve started. I’m totally guilty of the last point and though it is sometimes the case that some books will take more than 100 pages to gain momentum you shouldn’t have to force yourself to finish a book you don’t enjoy.
    So if you don’t find yourself gripped by a novel by page 100, put it down and start a different book. I’ve only recently starting doing this in myself and it’s taking a while to break out of old habits, but it has meant I’ve been finishing books I really enjoy instead of trudging through something like ‘On The Road’.

    2. Carry a book with you at all times

    Sure this one can get a bit inconvenient, especially when hardbacks can be so heavy, but you never know when you you need to fill a spare 5 minutes in the queue for the bank or waiting for a delayed train. Obviously the solution to heavy books is to use an e-reader, but I quite like the good ol’ fashioned paperback option – and it doesn’t run out of battery.

    3. Ignore book snobs

    Hypocritical considering I’m a book blogger? But I genuinely believe that you shouldn’t read something just because everyone else is or because it’s won a Pulitzer Prize. Like any art form literature is so subjective, so just because everyone is harping on about the latest dystopian doesn’t mean you have to too. Genres like YA and *rolls eyes* chick-lit are often looked down upon by ‘proper literary buffs’ but if you enjoy them then read them!

    Let me know what your top tips for reading more are!

    PSA: ALSO! Don’t forget to enter Blogger’s Bookshelf’s Third Birthday giveaway (there’s a YALC goody bag and a proof copy of The Baby by Lisa Drakeford among other bits and pieces!)

    R.xoxo

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