Saturday 30 April 2011

Tumblr, Internet Projects and Inspiration

Seems it's the last day of BEDA today I can't NOT write a post. I'm currently researching artists- Marc Chagall's work is really interesting, you should check it out. So...does anybody here use tumblr? I, personally, think it's an awesome tool for inspiration- I don't post much but I could easily spend hours on end surfing through the different pages, looking at quotations, pictures and photographs, which always leave me feeling creative. I definitely prefer Blogspot as a place to write (although a friend of mine regularly writes on tumblr) so I'm not being "controversial" talking about tumblr on here. I see tumblr as more of a visual source of inspiration, whereas I see blogspot as inspiration in a written form. Both are awesome sites for gaining inspiration and expressing inspiration. If you're in the slightest bit interested, here is my tumblr page. I gave it the title "My visual source of inspiration" but I don't blog or re-blog anything enough, at present, to make this title a worthy one. I'm working on it though, not for other people to visit it, but for me to be able to visit it for reference and inspiration. What do you guys think of tumblr?

Now I want to talk a little about forced creativity (and by that I mean things like BEDA, VEDA and NaNoWriMo). There's been a lot of discussion on YouTube and here on Blogspot about whether or not these projects are actually encouraging creativity. Some people question whether they actually stifle creativity and force people to put out content which isn't interesting or entertaining. I admit that I have some posts on here that, as a result of blogging every day (well, I say every day) which aren't up to a standard that I am proud of. However, I have posted a few things which I really do like and that I wouldn't have come up with if I hadn't been doing BEDA, this year. So, overall, I have mixed feelings on this "every day" malarkey but I have, on the whole, really enjoyed it and haven't found it too taxing*.

As for NaNoWriMo, I confess I have barely even looked at my novel, since November; partly because I'm trying to focus on school work but also because I haven't been that inspired to edit it. I don't blame this on NaNo, I wouldn't have even wrote it in the first place if it wasn't for that but I just hope that I'll still feel it's worth editing when I go back to it...I am feeling more inspired to finish it at the moment though, for the record. The main problem I have with writing is that I tend to get super, super, super absorbed in a writing project if I allow myself to think about it too much and the reality is that, at the moment, I cannot afford to be overally involved in a huge writing project when I have exams to revise for. I'm currently putting off several projects until my exams are over; time consuming YouTube videos, large writing projects, huge book series re-readings etcetera. I want to try to get out of this mind frame though- I know I could still be writing whilst revising for exams, I know tonnes of writers manage to fit writing in when they are super busy. I'm just an unmotivated, lazy, unproductive person who can't focus on more than one thing at a time. Gosh, sorry, I've gone of on a rather negative tangent- I'm sorry for moaning, I just get frustrated with myself. The funny thing is I don't even mind sharing this with the internet.

To sum up this post I will say that I've enjoyed doing BEDA; I did it for a new experience, to see if I enjoy it and because I thought it would be an easy, slightly creative activity to do alongside revision. It's worked pretty well- maybe I'll swap to daily novel editing instead, just a tiny bit at a time. We'll see how it goes, shall we? I'm a great supporter of not just accepting your flaws and problems but trying to change them. I'm also a big supporter of just freaking doing things- you regret things that you didn't do more than things you did do. I don't regret spontaneously doing/failing at BEDA, I don't regret spontaneously doing NaNoWriMo in my mock exam month and I will continue going ahead with creative projects until the day I die. So many creative people just sit around talking about things they're going to do instead of doing them.

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