Saturday 31 January 2015

Foxy February!

I haven't even got out of bed yet.

Let's put it this way, I had an idea that would help me be more regular to writing and find a way to creep it into my daily schedule.

A writing challenge.

Which I don't like to do. At all. Instagram challenges, them I like. But writing challenges? Not so much. Why? Because it forces you to write which at one point I thought kills the creative process you have inside your head. Till I realized, this may be the EXACT thing I had to do.

I am planning to blog every single day for the whole month of February.
Is that crazy?
Oh, good.

Remember my last post? It spoke about writing and writing, and making yourself feel like you can't write anymore? Till you are forced to pick the pen/ laptop up and write again? Well... I suppose this is it.
I hope you bear with me (Grrrr?) as I explore this challenge. It would be quite nice to see what comes out. Even if I have to blog from my phone- which is what I am doing right now!

And maybe it would be so much easier to upload pictures from here too. Plus, I get to test out the blogger app! And finally review it in the right sense.
So much win!

Are you ready? Because I am!
FF# 1

P.s. Foxy February sounds so fun to me. Like it's breaking inhibitions a little. You can't second think your blog articles at all. Plus I like the term, foxy! So... Foxy it is!

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Writers block? I had one for 4 years. (And this is what I did)

Hola!


If you must be reading this post, then clearly you are stuck in the worse possible scenario any writer can be in.

The dreaded writers block.

Oh no, it’s not just a scenario. It’s a way of living. You are stuck in this little bubble of empty air, with a transparent wall of ideas trying to break into your bubble, but they just can’t get in.

You can faintly see these ideas, they are within your reach. You can nearly taste the sentences of your next story/ blog post on your lips.  The only thing stopping it is this thin wall which you just can’t crumble.

The funny part of it all is, you can write all the mandate things in life; Bills, homework, essays, resumes, etc. But when it comes down to the part when you write for yourself, you draw a complete blank.

And you ask yourself. What just happened?

Now if writing to you is a good as breathing then I am sure you can feel what I am saying. If it isn’t, then you must be just mentally tired and facing something like ‘performance pressure’. Where you are forced to write something so good, it blows the readers socks off. Or in my case, fluffy slippers.

And that’s normal.

But if you are unable to write something so beautiful, like you have left a part of your soul (woah there, Harry Potter fans. A tiny fragment, hardly noticeable) into your work then… you have the sickness.

The I-Can’t-Write-For-Shells-Of-A-Nut-Forget-The-Peanuts sickness.

But hold on! Before you turn your head down in dismay and hopelessness, let me tell you (like many) that I have found a cure!

A cure so simple, you may just punch the screen of your PC.

You Just Have to Write Some More.

Yes, you heard me. You just have to write so much that your fingers have developed an everlasting bond with your pen/keyboard. Anything, everything, sensible or senseless, you just need to write and write and make an effort to write even when you feel like you can’t.

Because that is the only way you will be able to flush out the trash and get down to the good stuff. 
Like the layers of a double chocolate disk ice cream cone. No one really likes the ice cream, everyone just wants the chocolate frozen at the bottom of the waffle cone.

So write about everything under the milky way (sorry Sun, you aren't big enough for this problem) and see your way through to a better foundation of writing.

And you also have to make sure you write on different platforms.

Usually, we get so accustomed to writing on a computer, or in a notebook, thinking anywhere else seems odd and out of place. And that is exactly what you should try for! The uncomfortable situation is what you need to probe your brain to fit into. Try something new. 

“Hey Brain”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t feel like writing on my laptop today, do you remember how to hold a pen?”

Trust me, your brain will comply.

The two things above are exactly what I am doing right now.

I started this blog to get out of my writers block. (Check)
No joke, I write things on paper, edit them, and then type it out on a computer- so not I am forcing my brain to directly write using a keyboard without the use of stationary. (Check, with itchy fingers)

And now to test and see if my post actually does make sense to pass it off as a slow recovery from a writer’s block. (Pending…)

Good things to you fellow solution seekers!  


Image from Google. 

Saturday 17 January 2015

10 days. 5 flights. 3 cities and 1 incredible start to the New Years.

Happy New Year everybody!

The circumstances of this post are actually quite comical, and I really don’t know how to begin.

So the last week of 2014 prepared me for a project in January that would require me to travel. Now the dates of the travel weren't confirmed, but I was looking forward to it all the same and the project was quite interesting as it required a substantial amount of creativity. And since I was directly involved in it, I was even more excited to get started.

So when the dates of travel came around, I was laughing at the coincidence of it all. I had a shoot in one city on the 5, 6 & 7, then I had to leave for another city on the 9 to the 12, for another conference, then while I was on that conference, I was told that I would have to travel to yet another city on the 14 till 15th.

So given the fact that I love travelling (I mean, who doesn't?) even though the flights were back to back, I was still quite excited. Out of the 3 cities, 1 was a cosmopolitan city, the 2nd was a seaside city and the third had a beautiful chilly climate which I couldn't wait to experience.

So first let’s talk about what was comical about this;

For the last city, we got a text telling us that our flight to go back home has been delayed from 8:20 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. So we called our office and spent a little more and pre-poned it to an earlier flight of 6:20 p.m. When we got to the airport (2 hours earlier for the lack of things to do) we checked in and asked the attendant if our flight was on time. He said it was.

Happily, we proceeded to the terminal, grabbing a quick bite on our way and happy with our decision of booking an earlier flight. We get to the terminal a few minutes before our scheduled boarding time to see…

Our flight has been delayed by three hours.

Right.

Wait, it gets better. So we check our earlier flight to see if that is still at 9:20 p.m. and fortunately, that has been further delayed to 10 p.m. Now we were subconsciously expecting this. I mean, the chilly city is known to have flights delayed because of the climate and everything, and we were mentally prepared.

So when member of the cabin crew sat in the seat next to us, (he wasn’t inform of the delay either) I don’t know what compelled me to ask him the reason for our flight’s delay, his answer was something I wasn’t expecting.

Technical difficulties of the aircraft.

Ha, it gets even better.

So we sat at a terminal which has another terminal in the opposite direction. That terminal gated the same airlines as our delayed flight. So when their boarding call was made, guess where were they headed to?

Yep. The same city as ours. Back home.
So they get to leave, and we don’t.

Even better you ask?

Guess who we see walking into the terminal gate?

The client whose brand we came to this city to work for!
Sighs. And now as we wait for another hour and a half for our flight, I just wanted to share this experience that if something, anything is meant to happen, no matter what, it will happen.

All we can do is pray that it’s always for the best :)



Update: Haha, I made it back, safe and sound. Except for a bit of climatic turbulence, terrible last seats which don't recline and strategically placed next to the restroom. Oh, and getting a tad bit excited to see the food that I spilled it on the floor. *Thumbs up*
Thanks for reading! :)