Well. I think this month can be summed up by the Lord of the Rings characters that were featured in three consecutive calendars for the month of August.

Azog. Sauron. Gollum. 

Yep. August is the dreaded month. It’s the month . . . of SCHOOL.


School has been . . . interesting. I found a GIF below that accurately summed up what happened the first week of school:

"I feel . . . thin. Sort of stretched. Like butter spread over too much bread." (Incorrect quote)

Honestly, though, I like school. I really do. (Can you tell I’m a Ravenclaw?) But I definitely wasn’t prepared for the amount of HOMEWORK I would receive. And math, of course, has become the bane of my existence yet again.

But let’s not dwell on the negatives of this month! I met up with friends I hadn’t seen all summer, our parish had their annual picnic, and, best of all, my cousin had her bridal shower yesterday! I saw cousins there that I hadn’t seen in months, maybe even years, and it’s amazing.

It’s so weird to think that summer is over again. Another three months of sun, swimming, and seclusion (because that’s how I spend my summer: in my room writing or reading) is done, and another nine months of socializing, studying, and stressing is upon us.

But we will survive.
Now, for the cheerier part of the month! Except . . . I didn’t read much. The notable reads that I did devour were:

The Silver Eye. Guys. This is so good. It's a webcomic (click HERE to read it) by Laura Hollingsworth, and it has book violence and rocks and frenemies and mysterious magic and it is amazing. Read it. Seriously.

The Hobbit. This was a reread, but I enjoyed it just as much as I have every other time I read it. But Kili....... <3

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For the first time ever . . . I read the last book of the Harry Potter series and so cemented the end. I cried buckets for the last 200 pages. Too many feelings, guys.
As I get more adjusted to my school schedule, hopefully I’ll read more, but I also have an announcement. (And yes, this has to do with my clickbait.)

This week, I got Goodreads.

I’d been debating it for a while, ever since Lisa posted about the benefits of the site, but I finally got permission to get it right before school began. You can find me HERE. (Shameless self-promotion, right here. XD)

I’m hoping that it will help me keep better track of my out-of-control TBR pile. (Or maybe it will make my TBR even more out of control. Bookworm problems, guys.)
In terms of the writing world, I honestly did my best to keep up with the 100-4-100 challenge. I had to take more “grace days,” though, because school began to consume all my time. (I’m seeing a pattern here....)

I began edits of my current WIP, which, I realized:

The idea for it was sprouted a year ago this August.

Really, I can’t believe I’ve had this idea for so long. I plan on sharing some things about it with you (soon!), but for now, I’ll just say that it’s been an awesome journey. *sniff* They grow up so fast.

Now, for my writing/life goals:

Goals? What goals? Who said I set goals?

*guilty face*

Okay, I’ll just say it: I accomplished all of two goals this month. No, I’m not referencing them. I’m not going to set goals again this month, just because of (guess) school.
Here are the mini writings (aka posts) I shared this month:


Elsewhere in the blogging world . . .

Gray, Julian, and Ivie all did an accidental-collab on blogging, which was pretty awesome to watch unfold.

Danielle talked about creativity, joy, and inspiration in a recent post for which I have no words.

And the REALM MAKERS posts were awesomely overwhelming. These include the posts by Tracey, Audrey, Christine, and Savannah. I’m so sorry if I forgot anyone! They really make you feel like you were there with them. <3
Well, that was my August! I wish you all the luck in the world with school, and see you around!

-Nicole

Happy Sunday! If you’re in school, I hope the first couple days treated you well.

Happy Sunday!

I don’t know why, but these last couple weeks have been really hard for me, concerning the writing spectrum. I’ve been having to force myself to sit down and type just 100 words for me to meet my word count goal for the day. I have to be honest: it’s been a rough few weeks.

How? How are we, as writers, supposed to write when it seems like we have literally no motivation for doing so?

I don’t claim to be an expert on giving advice. I’m not an expert on much, period. But here are some things that I’ve learned during these past few weeks that have helped me just sit down and spew out sentences.



But first off, maybe I should define what I mean by “no motivation.”

This week, I haven’t been motivated. I sit down at my keyboard and iPad screen, ready to write, and . . . then I do absolutely nothing. I don’t feel like writing, and I wonder why I’m even trying to write.

This is what I mean by being unmotivated. You don’t feel like writing, and you may not even want to write.

So what should you do if you have no motivation?

Turn off Wi-Fi

You probably knew I would say that, didn’t you? :) But the past couple weeks, after staring at my cursor blink in my document, I would go straight to the Internet and google, for instance, “TED talk about introverts” and start watching a 19-minute video that has nothing to do with my story.

(And yes, that actually happened a couple days ago XD)

So click that button and turn off your Internet. If you’re not motivated, you’ll use any excuse to stop writing. At least give yourself another chance to write a couple more words.

Skip to the Exciting Stuff

Sometimes, the reason I have no motivation is that I’m trudging though scene after scene of my characters walking to their destination. Absolutely nothing happens, except maybe to introduce a plot device.

There’s an easy fix for this.

If nothing really happens during this time, make something happen. Are your characters fugitives? Maybe have assasssins find them. Maybe make up an entirely new character and place him near your characters.

Or, if you want, skip ahead a week, reference what happened in the parts that you skipped over, and go straight to the action.

(Just so you know, I don’t really take my own advice on this. I struggle through. And let me tell you, it is NOT FUN. But all of the points on here are just advice. You don’t have to listen to any of this.)

Remember Why You Do It

Why do you write? Why do you sit down at your computer screen every day? Why do you choose to pour your heart out onto a page?

Remember your reason for doing it, and maybe reconnect with that reason. Prayer is always a good activity. Read an inspiring book. Watch an inspiring movie. Or . . .

Listen to Motivating Music

This actually does help. Right now I’m listening to my Motivational playlist, which features a lot of intense soundtrack music. Sometimes music can just put you in the right mood to do things. You can use this to your advantage.

You can also pretend that what you’re trying to do is something extremely important and the world will end if you don’t do it. Role-playing can be extremely motivating.

Hey, if you have to pretend that you’re in an epic movie, go for it! I do it all the time at work.

Take a Break

Nadine Brandes recently made a YouTube video debunking the writing advice “write every day.” I won’t tell you what she says, exactly - you guys should watch it for yourselves. But I CAN’T write every single day. I just can’t. I need more refuel time or I get so sick of writing. I don’t know why.

This is from personal experience, but if I have no motivation, I’ve probably been writing too much with no refuel time. If this is the case for you, take a break. You will write more and better when you have refuel time. I guarantee it.

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This was a short and sweet post - I’m busy trying to do EVERYTHING before school starts. *insert ominous music* There’s just TOO LITTLE TIME! But I’ll still have a post next Sunday. (Just in case you thought you could get rid of me. :) *cackles*)

See you guys around the blogosphere! And if your school is starting up this week, tell me in the comments and we can suffer together!

-Nicole

Happy Sunday, friend! I hope this post finds you well. (Also, apologies. I accidentally hit publish a couple days ago, and it WASN’T READY THEN. But it is now, so enjoy!)


A couple months ago, a friend and I were sitting in the lunchroom at school. I had recently finished the final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I had borrowed the sequel comics from my local library. (They’re excellent, by the way. Highly recommended.)

My friend had laid one of the comics out on the table - I was lending it to her, since she had never read them before. I noticed the comic and asked her what she thought of it. Of course, this led to a very fangirl-y conversation.

At one point, a classmate came and sat down at the table with us. She’s a good friend of mine, and usually we like the same sort of media.

This time, however, she took a look at the comic next to my friend and asked, “You guys are actually reading that?”

I don’t remember exactly how we responded, but we said something to the effect of, “Yeah, it’s really good!”

Her response was, “Oh. I thought you guys would be too old to read that.”
Now, maybe this exact scenario hasn’t happened to you. Maybe something like this has never happened to you. But I think we can all agree that a person can learn about people based on what books they read.

Take me, for instance. If you looked at my bookshelf, you could probably guess that I love fantasy, I’m a Christian, and I prefer clean literature. All of that is true.

Is this necessarily a bad thing that we can learn about people? No.

This becomes a bad thing when we begin to judge and dislike people based on what books and movies they like.

For instance: I love the movie Rise of the Guardians. I think that it’s an excellent, fun movie with good messages.

However, I always have this nagging worry that if I tell someone I like it, they will automatically think, “Oh, that’s a kids movie! You must be stupid if you actually like that kind of stuff.” Would they say this in person? Probably not. But I’m always worried about it.

And I don’t think there’s a set age where people have to stop liking kids movies. Heck, I’ll probably be watching them when I’m ninety!
But Nicole, what if I think what a person’s reading or watching is morally wrong? you might ask.

There are going to be books and movies out there that contain some less than satisfactory elements. There are going to be people that read and watch them.

However, we still shouldn’t judge or dislike these people. I know people that have read Fifty Shades of Gray. I don’t believe that this book is something that my conscience would allow me to read. I still love these people, and I don’t dislike them for doing so. But I do think that this was an unwise choice for them to make.
That leads me into one final point - I didn’t mention something about my Avatar example above. I would lend the comics with my friend at school, since we didn’t really have a better opportunity. However, I would always try to do the hand-off when people weren’t looking.

Why?

The short answer: I was embarrassed that I liked a “kid show.”

Now, there’s a fine line between embarrassment and shame. I could probably do a whole post on this, but in short: I believe that shame comes partially from your conscience, to tell you that what you’re doing might be wrong. While embarrassment could be part of this, it’s more of the I-just-dropped-my-mashed-potatoes-all-over-the-floor type thing.

Why should we be embarrassed to say that we like a kid’s movie? Why should I be embarrassed to say that I like Avatar: The Last Airbender? Are we this afraid that people will judge us?

We can’t control people judging us. But so what? I’m not the one doing wrong by watching How to Train Your Dragon.

Now, if we’re ashamed to say that we like a certain book, movie, or TV show, maybe we should re-evaluate why we like it. If we’re ashamed to say we like it, that might be God telling us that you know, maybe you shouldn’t be watching this.
I’m trying to get over my fear of people judging me for the kids movies and books I like. I’m not perfect, though (if you were hoping to find a perfect blogger over here, you might want to go find someone else).

I’m also trying to get better at listening to my conscience. If I get a nagging feeling that I maybe shouldn’t be reading this book, I try to put aside my absorption into the story, and put the book down.

Anyways, the whole point of this rant was to say this:

Don’t be embarrassed to like kids movies. Don’t dislike or judge people for the books and movies they like. And if you feel ashamed of a book you like, maybe you shouldn’t be reading it.

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Well, that kind of went in circles, but I think you get the point! I haven’t had a rant in a while, and this one has been building up inside of me for a while.

Hope you have a restful, fun-filled Sunday!

-Nicole