Tag: On writing

Autumn Is Icumen In

So I sit here by my window and finally have to admit that summer is gone for this time. The leaves are yellow and I don’t feel bad for staying indoors anymore. That’s a sure sign.

I have three-day weekends now, meaning I work four days and then I’m free from Thursday night until Monday morning. It’s a beautiful week layout, since I don’t work enough to wear myself out totally, and then I have three days to do what the fuck I want until I have to go back to work.

That means a lot of writing, as you might have noticed. Currently I’m about a third into my Writober challenge to myself, where I have to upload at least one story every day to this page. This far I have succeeded, partly thanks to my stash of old texts that I can fall back on when I don’t have the time or inspiration to write a new one. Yesterday I put up a brand new text called The Silence of Her Voice, and today’s text is a humorous writing prompt response named Securing the Family Business.

Apart from these short stories, I’m working on my writing project in Swedish and that is going great. I don’t think I have much left to write there before I can go into the editing and cutting phase. I’m rather excited about finishing that project, since I´ve been working on it since late 2012.

I’m also writing a story together with a friend of mine, and I think it is turning out quite nice.

And last but not least, I’m doing quite a lot of academic writing as well. I’m currently trying to get a long thesis on Religious studies accepted for examination, and I’m also doing assignments for my journalism class. While working as a freelance journalist, of course.

I feel like I’m on a roll and I have lots of inspiration. I hope that feeling will hold all through this year, because I really want to pull all these things off. Now I’m going back to writing all of the things above. Have a nice day!

Writober 5th

OK, so I have this thing going. You may have noticed it’s October now. You may also have noted that I’ve been publishing one story a day thus far this month. I didn’t think about it myself until earlier today, but realized this is a pretty nice coincidence. So I will continue trying to upload one short story for each and every day of October, to see if I can pull it off.

I’ll call it Writober. I’m witty and funny, I know.

Some of the stories will be brand new, straight out of the proverbial oven. Others will be older texts that I have revised and reworked for this purpose. I bet you haven’t read any of them before in either case.

Feel free to follow me through my Writober. View it as a countdown for Halloween, if you will. I know people like Halloween – I sure do, at least. And if you want to join me in this October writing challenge, please let me know. I’d love to read your stuff!

Today’s text is “How to Write A Definite Bestseller” – a humorous text that’s not nearly as pretentious as the title makes it sound.

Friday Night

I could have gone out tonight, listened to a band and had a drink. Or two. But I didn’t. Well, the drinks I had, but from my fridge instead of buying them expensively in a bar. I have music at home as well, and I feel that I really – I mean really – need to calm down. The past couple of weeks have been stressful (albeit in a good way), and now I feel a bit jumpy. I need to land.

Two weeks ago I drove to Stockholm for a two-day workshop meeting with my journalism course. The next day I continued on my way to a place an hour or so south of there, to participate in a three-day LARP-game. Then I had a four hour drive to get back home, and the very next day I began my week of substituting as a cultural editor at the newspaper I write for. At the end of that week, I think I can say without exaggerating, I was spent. Luckily, I really like the job, so that’s okay. This last week I have been back  at my job as a high school teacher, and there’s never a shortage of stuff to be done there.

Phew.

Today I have spent writing. Two chapters have sprung forth for my Swedish writing project, and although they both turned out short I am really happy with the end result. I don’t know how much I have left to do on that text before it is finished, but I suspect it is less than I think.

I have also gone through some photo folders on my computer, and uploaded some of my favorite pics to this blog. Then I found a subreddit for short stories, and got stuck there for a good while. I posted a link to one of my own stories, sure. But in the process of doing so I also stumbled upon several great and inspiring texts from other writers. Some of them I will definitely get back to later.

Now I’m thinking about whether I should continue writing for a couple of hours, or if I should do something else. I’m yet not done with Darksouls 2, and I have a fresh novel by Nora Roberts waiting for me on my bed table. Hmm hmm, a tricky one. I’ll have to consider for a bit. Until i decide, I think I’m going to post another of my finished texts here as a separate blog post.

Stay tuned!

Oh, I just had to…

Did I mention I am working on a novel in Swedish? Well, anyways, I am.

And while writing some today, I decided to start the process of a chapter with a sketch (if you can call it that). I simply wanted to line up what was going to happen in the chapter before I got started writing it. The sketch, however, ended up looking almost like poetry. And while the project is in Swedish, I still felt I had to share this accidental poem in some way. So I translated it. Without context it makes little sense – but then again, must it really?

Here goes:

#13.53

Abstract illustrations of bliss.

More concrete plans for the night?

The present: a visit from A, starting to suspect something is wrong.

The truth hatches, a moment of realization and rational thought.

Then the world falls. Abstract again, emotions, metaphors.

Out. Some kind of poetic darkness to build atmosphere.

In the middle of this a phone call from the private place that is dark now.

The close is a promise and a gunshot. Decides, this must end.

On the floor in the room with all the pictures. Affected by memories, emotions and substances.

Disconnected thoughts between substantial dialogues where the answers don’t make any sense.

A dead bird outside the window. They take the bottles and the pills. Rage.

Wants out, but they calm him with sleep. Darkness.