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[aubreyreverie]

aubrey reverie | writing blog turned 5 today!

5 years ago, I made this blog while on medical leave from work. I was really sick and writing to distract myself. It kicked off my “official” online author presence.

Flash forward to today. I’ve left that job and my old career behind, and I wrote a whole novel, which I’m currently querying to get published.

I don’t know where I’ll be in the next five years, but sometimes you just need to put the energy you wish for out into the universe to see what happens.

[aubreyreverie]

Writing Diary: November 13, 2023

Not to pull a Stephenie Meyer or whatever, but I woke up this morning after having a dream that solved the plot of my novel!

I've had all of the pieces for so long and I just was not able to cobble them together in a way that made any sense at all. It was all vibes, no substance and finally, I figured out a way to connect everything and make it make sense!

I am just so excited. I've been burning out on my other project, a novel that is almost completely done but I've all of a sudden decided to hate, and I need time away from it. I wanted to work on multiple things at once but also felt this burning need to have everything done.

But time isn't real and art can't be forced and this is how I was meant to do this, so here I am, over the moon.

I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year but if there is anyone on this site who is and would also like to become writing buddies, please reach out.

I just wanted to come on here and capture this feeling of bliss and joy to remind myself, later on, that I love writing and this is what I really want to be doing, especially when it gets hard.

[aubreyreverie]

I want a slow life. I want to listen to Sam Cooke while I make dinner and sway around my kitchen with a wooden spoon microphone. I want to make a 10 step recipe on a Tuesday evening and homemade pancakes from scratch on a Sunday morning. I want to pick tomatoes from my garden for lunch and laugh at the birds chirping at my feeders. I want sunset walks after dinner with a dog to keep me company and to watch snow fall with a candle lit nearby and a mug of hot chocolate in my hands. I want stacks of books and quiet, the luxury of time standing still, the nostalgia from the softness of my childhood. I want a slow life.

[aubreyreverie]

Happy new pretty notebook / planner day to all those who celebrate.

[aubreyreverie]

types of writing sessions

got on computer, looked at document, was like “fuck this shit” and got off

wrote like 150 words that consist of bloating the existing useless conversation or scene even more

wrote SO MANY WORDS but it was because you were so desperate to escape the Bad Part

wrote SO MANY WORDS but it was because you were so desperate to get closer to the Good Part

got on your document, ran into research issue, spent like an hour on Wikipedia, ah shit

the somewhat satisfying “fixing everything I hated about the scene I wrote the day before” session

decent amount of progress that took like 3x longer than it should have because you were repeatedly distracted

In The Zone and completely absorbed, just BLAZING through a few thousand words, probably close to the ending, probably listening to playlist

Not actually a writing session, just listening to playlist

the session where you write like a paragraph, suddenly realize the unfixability of your current plot predicament, and cry

that weird session where you don’t have much time and you’re super tired and you write like a page but you reread it the next morning and holy shit these words came from the fingers of god why is it so good

that session that is purely just navigating the boring shit of getting from one scene to the next and it sucks but you leave off on the cusp of something interesting and it feels good

the satisfyingly exhausting session where you write the Good Part and you’re confident it came out pretty well and you’re full of thoughts and stuff about where things are going next but you need to let them rest

get on computer, write exactly one sentence, get off computer. Now you can say you wrote today

[aubreyreverie]

happy public domain sherlock holmes year to all who celebrate <3

[aubreyreverie]

Advice for 2023:

Don’t go seeking the approval of those whose opinion you don’t respect.

[aubreyreverie]

[aubreyreverie]

https://www.instagram.com/terra_naut/ reposted

[aubreyreverie]

Converted engine house in Cornwall | photos by Polly Eltes

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[aubreyreverie]

Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

Franz Kafka (via writingdotcoffee)

[aubreyreverie]

Sunset paints the fur in flames.

[aubreyreverie]

[aubreyreverie]

Greetings, you Ghouls!

With one week to go till the month of Halloween, we’re well and truly in the guts of the gruesomest season. You absolutely murdered Hauntober last year (in the best possible way). Now, it’s back for revenge in its latest guise of the month-long prompt challenge: Hauntober Returns. Every Monday in October, we’ll be releasing a new set of narrative prompts to inspire the drabble dabblers, artists, shitposters, and hobbyistas among us. If you’re a scaredy-cat like us, have no fear—each set will include a spooky and a cozy prompt for you to choose from. (Or, you know, feel free to venture down both dark alleyways each week, if you dare.)

We’re summoning the season of crunchy leaves with this appropriately woodsy and autumnal spell ~🌲🍁🌳~ Here are your first prompts: It’s the beginning of October. A stranger emerges from the forest. OR The streets are empty and there have been whispers about a gathering in the woods. Manifest your response to our missives: create a creature, a costume, or a creepypasta, use the tag #Hauntober Returns, and we’ll share them with you goblins here on @fandom, @art, and @books.

[aubreyreverie]

I’m trying to stay grounded, I am, but I was raised to dream my way into the skies, over the sea, through mountains and the tops of trees.

[aubreyreverie]

TIL: Paper Size Rant

I’m about to make a silly rant, but I dunno, I think some of you may be able to relate to it.

I am trying to find a springback binder for letter-sized (8.5 by 11 inch) paper and it’s near impossible. Most of the cool ones, like these GORGEOUS Leuchtturm1917 springback binders, are made for A4 paper. 

I started looking into the difference, to see if I could finagle it, and I learned that A size papers make so much more sense than any silly nonsense we perform in America. 

Each smaller size is obtained by taking the next largest size and cutting it in half, creating a size with the same proportions and half the surface area.

In most cases, cutting a piece of paper in half would result in two pieces with completely different proportions than the original piece. In this case, however, it works due to the interesting mathematical phenomenon that when a sheet of paper with an aspect ratio (the ratio of its width to its length) of 1:√2 is cut it in half, the resulting two sheets of paper will have the same aspect ratio of 1:√2.2 

Source: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/paper-sizes-explained/pt/836

What?! That’s so smart? We are so stupid? Why can’t we just transition to using A4 paper like the rest of the entire world?! 

And yes, all of this came up because I watched Goosebumps and R.L. Stine had a very pretty collection of bound manuscripts where the paper just slid in, no hole punch required, and I’m jealous. I want it.

That’s all.

[aubreyreverie]

Tips for people who like to write by hand

So you’re an old timey writer who enjoys the feeling of paper as you breathe life into a story? Or, like me, you can’t use your phone at school and just wants to get some writing done while math class bores the others? 

Well, me too and I’ve come to your aid! I’ve done some pretty stupid things that costed me hours and hours of searching for lost scenes and struggling to find ideas I knew I’d written down so you don’t have to! 

Find the right notebook for you

By experience, notebooks take a long time to be filled. In good nanowrimo times, I take from 6 to 8 months to finish one. So you’ll be stuck with this guy for a long time. Make sure to pick one that you like and is right for your needs. I, for example, prefer spiral notebooks. You can rip out pages if you need to (if you mess it up, if someone asks you for one, if you just need a page to write down a grocery list or something, etc) and you can put a pen on the spiral. I also like having a pocket to put pieces of ideas I have. 

Some spooky stories about having the wrong notebook: 

I got stuck with a brochure old planner for two years. My mom didn’t use it in the year it was meant for, so I thought oh, it’s free real estate. As it turns out, it had really small space between the lines, so the pages would take forever to fill, it had all those day and hour numbers and the paper was really thin. It was terrible and it made writing terrible. It would have been a thousand times better if I just spent a few bucks on a regular notebook. 

More recently, I started using just the kind of notebook I like, a spiral notebook with a pocket. But I bought it a couple of years ago at a fandom event I attended and the cover was a personalized Divergent cover. At the time, I thought if was pretty cool and everyone would know the reference. But now it has aged so very poorly. The cover has blood all over it and it says “Faction Before Blood”. So now I’m scared to pull it out to write at uni and people will think I’m in a gang or something. 

Number your pages

I know, it sounds like a lot of work. But you can get a notebook with pages already numbered, number it yourself or do it like I do and number it every 10 pages (just because it’s easier). If you don’t feel like doing all of this repetitive work,  date your writing. It’s cool to see how much you progressed, how long you have been writing this project, when you had this idea, etc. One thing doesn’t have to exclude the other, but both methods serve the same purpose. 

And this purpose is to help you get an idea of how much you write (and feel good about your progress) and to help you organize yourself on all you’ve been writing. Which takes us to the next tip. 

Make the first page an index

Not only it will take the pressure off the first page, it will also help you so you don’t keep losing the awesome stuff you’re writing and forgetting it exists. Everytime you start a new scene or change projects, go to the index and write down the page or the date you started this new section. Since I number every ten pages, I find the first page with a number on it and start counting forward or back to the new page. But you can do it in any way that suits you. 

Make a random idea page 

It doesn’t have to be the second page (it usually isn’t for me), but it’s good to have one. Sometimes, in the middle of writing, you have that great idea for something you need to change on what you’ve already got, or you got a completely new insight. It’s good to have your idea page somewhere close you can just flip to, write it down and get right back to writing. And don’t go easy on that page! Write it diagonally, vertically, draw on it, anything. It’s just there to take out those ideas so you can take a look at it another time and not mess the flow you’re in right now. 

Keep your enemies close. And your pen even closer!

You know your favorite bic friend? It has a secret weapon just for you to use. That little flap of the cap? Use it to keep your pen always close. I normally put it on the spiral of my notebook. But if you have a brochure, you can put it on the cover. Sometimes it damages it a bit, but it’s a good trade for having it always ready for action. If you use moleskine, I saw that they normally have designated pen places. If they don’t, I have a tip for it just under this one! 

Take your time to find which kind of pen is your weapon of choice. Personally, I think nothing beats a black ballpoint pen. I know some people like fineliners for writing, but they make the other side of the paper all gross looking and I like to keep it clean. Plus, I write really small and fineliners often bleed in my handwriting. I took my time searching for my favorite brand and I settled on Molin ballpoint pens. 

I would recommend buying your favorite pens in bulk. Nothing is worse than pen hunting around when you have an urgent idea. I bought 50 pens for super cheap and I stack them EVERYWHERE. In all my bags, in my sketchbooks, in my bullet journal, in my writing notebook, in my drawers, anywhere I think it will be easy to find one when I need it ( also giving some to my friends who keep stealing my pens).

Crafting the perfect notebook

You don’t have to be a crafter to modify your notebook to better suit you! Find a ribbon anywhere in the house. Cut it to be a little longer than the book. Tape that bad boy to the inside of the back cover and everytime you stop writing, put that ribbon on the page you stopped. This helps you not to get lost in your previous writing and get right back to business when you resume.

Also, if you really like that moleskine vibe but don’t have the cash, just get a regular clothing elastic, make cut it just the size of the notebook and glue both ends to the inner part of the back cover. There you go! Now you can close it (and keep it closed).  

If you like post-its, you can take half of the block (or however many sheets you cant put in there and still close the notebook comfortably) and glue it to the inside part of the cover of your notebook so it will always be conveniently available for you.

If your notebook doesn’t have a place to put your pen on and you really don’t want to mess up the cover, you  take a small elastic (smaller than the pen) and tape (or preferably glue it) it to the back part of the notebook with both ends inside. There! Ready for the trip! Speaking of which…

Always carry your notebook with you

You never know when inspiration is going to strike. In class. At the bank. In a mall. Whenever you have a little time, you can write something. Or just take a look at what you’ve done and feel good about it. 

Not in the mood for writing? Edit. Reread what you’ve done and start finding what you want to change once you type it in.  When doing this, don’t be scared to cross out entire sentences and rewriting them on top. If it starts getting too messy, go to a blank page and rewrite the scene and you think it should have been done the first time. It seems counter-intuitive in a copy+paste kind of age, but I assure you it is worth it.

Typing your work

This is one of the biggest reasons I love writing in pen and paper. When you type, your first round of editing is done! 

Don’t zone out when typing. As I said, typing is your first round of editing. It is important to keep aware of all of the things you might have done wrong when writing. Some people say writing it on paper and then typing it is a waste of time. I say it saves time and lives. 

Keep it loose!

Just because you are writing in an actual physical book, it doesn’t mean you are writing a actual physical book. This is still your notebook and these are still your notes. So don’t be afraid to get messy. Write things out of order (seriously, it’s okay to not go chronological. i know it’s hard). Outline. Sketch. Tip-ex the whole thing. Get post-its on it. Take notes. Make genealogical trees. Draw maps. 

If you’re feeling down or uninspired, try very basic writing exercises: write what you see, what you feel, something to try and make you laugh or something to make someone cry. It’s your place to express yourself. And once you got those creative juices flowing, happy writing :)

I hope you enjoyed my tips and please, feel free to reblog this with your own tips and tricks. I’d love to hear them! And follow me for some more writing content!