Inspiration and Motivation

Yes, I know what this must look like. No Blog entries for several months. Lazy little writer-wannabe.
Actually, I am not. I _have_ continued writing my novel, but sort of neglected/forgot about this Blog. When I tried to get back into it I couldn't work out for  the Love of God how to post a blogpost, which resulted in a few more weeks of not posting anything. Being too impatient with these internet things, I procrastinated and told myself  'I'll find out again how this works later.' Well. Now I've found out how to work this and am back for Good. Hopefully. If I wont forget about it again.


Rather fitting with what I wrote above I thought I'd write about what inspires and motivates me to write my novel.
To be honest, it _is_ quite hard at times to sit down and write if I'm not in the proper mood for it. But if you want to finish a novel, you just _have_ to do it and force yourself at times. Writing fiction is by far not like you might think: You don't just write one sentence after another, tiping away all day. There are days which I spend on one single paragraph, trying to make it look and sound as good as possible (which includes grammer, esp syntax, vocabulary, esp prevention of reiteration etc) and that is this kind of work that can be highly frustrating while doing it, but equally highly satisfying when you've finally completed a paragraph which meets all your standarts of a good paragraph.

So how do I motivate myself when I'm not really 'feeling it'? Well. First, there is tea. Tea and food. And I don't just take a tea-bag, put it into any old cup and fill it with hot water. I celebrate the tea, take my most beautiful teapot and fill it with the tea I like (usually chai, nice and spicy ;) ) , put it onto my beautiful silver tea tray and take the matching tea-glass ( I love drinking tea out of special tea glasses) and prepare sth to eat with it (sandwich, cake, chocolate etc). This has become a routine which is actually more of a ceremonial than a routine. And this ceremonial helps me to get into 'the mood', helps me to focus and relax.
Also, prepaing tea properly has sth magical about it, and that certainly helps me.

The next thing that not only motivates but also inspires me is music. Obviously, music touches your heart, mind and emotions like nothing else, it basically stirrs your emotions - which is what need for writing. I need my emotions and feelings to be in 'full motion' because it stimulates all of my brain cells that are responsible and in charge of creative writing.
I tend to listen to the kind of music that would fit as a soundtrack to my novel - sth like Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, Narnia (The lion, the witch and the wardrobe), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Game of Thrones, Schindler's List, The Hobbit, Pride and Prejudice and lots of classical music from Tchaikovsky to Rimsky-Korsakov or Shostakovitch. So in general magical and dramatic music. I can't possibly listen to music with lyrics when I'm writing - too distracting.

A big motivator and inspirer is nature. One of the most inspiring situations would be me sitting in my parents lovely garden, it's sunday and the sun is shining (but not too hot). The cat's are playing with each other or sleeping under the huge elder bush and my hand is holding a glass with berry wine (preferably blueberry). This is pure heaven, relaxation and peace and that usually always makes me want to write.
Another inspiring situation involving nature are train rides. I do that quite a lot, twice a week actually. Some of my best ideas came to me on the train and I generally like to write there. I guess this is a, because I see a lot of nature and the constantly changing sky from the train and b, because my brain has to process a lot of images in a short amount of time, which is again very stimulating.

So there you go, lots of stimulation, inspiration and motivation. My motivation will now have to carry me to my writing file on my computer - lots of paragraph's need my attention now.