Hey guys, You see, I'm quite worried about my writing thing. Two weeks from now, I'm going to the university, and I'm pursuing a degree in Computer Science. Apparently, I will be an irreg sophomore or junior, depending on what the dean's gonna say. Taking that, I am working as a Developer for an IT company, meaning I will be a working student. I will be much exposed to codes and the geek stuff. What's bothering me is that with all that's gonna happen, I might start to lose time to write and eventually forget about it along the way. Can you give me some tips to keep me inspired to write? Will appreciate it. Thanks much! :>
As a student in Mechanical Engineering, I haven't written anything for class but math calculations for the last two years, so I get your concern. I was an avid writer before I came to college, and unfortunately I did loose touch with my creative side as time went on. I fell silent on this website for at least a year, and didn't produce any new works of literature for at least as long. I'm trying to revive my skills this year. What I did do in the interim is join up with my campus's creative literary magazine. Small though it is, it allowed me to read and critique other people's works to decide what we would publish. I did this for the last two years, and now I've left that organization, but I think if I hadn't been a part of the magazine, my connection to creative writing/art would be even more strenuous. So, my suggestion is to see what sort of literary community exists on your campus-to-be. Even if you are spending most of your time with computer rather than human language(s), having people/a place to step away from the code and read/discuss/critique works of writing will at least keep you in touch with your creative side. I wouldn't try and force yourself to produce written works when your schedule doesn't have the wiggle room, but regularly exposing yourself to such stuff will probably prevent the left side of your mind from falling completely asleep. Of course, these forums are an awesome supplement to an in-person community as well
This is a great idea. Also, while I was working on my MBA, I would carry a notepad and just periodically jot down a flash fiction story. Maybe it wouldn't even be flash fiction, maybe just a scene that popped into my head. I didn't write much. I don't think I finished a whole story during the entire course. But I still feel like I got my "writing fix."
In keeping with the computer side of it, have you thought about gaming? Not playing games, per se, but actually designing one. I've found that when I'm off my writing for fiction, I am tending to try to keep learning computer programming languages. But I have a goal in mind for that. When forced to work with code, your mind finds ways to make things work within the coding, and debugging. With games, your creativity will still be allowed to continue to develop without rewiring your brain away from programming or turning off the creative side of you. There is also the goal setting part of it. You may lose a lot of your time that you need to write to the work, but even just half an hour a day, or every couple of days would still be helpful to you. Without my goal of actually doing something, like finishing my first book, I would never have completed it. Now its completely written in its first draft state, and I need to change goals to make it fully revise it until I am satisfied enough to send it for editing by a professional. Make your goal and stay with it. Even if you don't write a word during that half an hour, read something that you enjoy that is creative. or climb on this site for that half hour and see the enthusiasm and imbibe our goodwill. It will help.
Have faith. You will find your inspiration once you have settled down in your classes. When I started college I couldn't writer for a month. Too many new experiences and a different way of life. But one day I had notebook open pen in hand and found myself more interested in the page in front of me than the TV screen because I found my muse once again. As for IT code and "Geek stuff" taking over your brain. Who knows maybe all that stuff might lead to a mystery story for you? I have a favorite music group called a-ha. One of the band members and the one who seems to write all the songs is Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. One their last album he wrote this song called Start the Simulator inspired by the Apollo moon missions. The whole song is phrases and NASA Geek codes from actual apollo manuals. for the launch of the spaceship and the steps taken during that launch to get them into space. I'll admit it took me a while to get into the song BUT now I find it breath-taking and well worth the listen. May I suggest you find it on You Tube and take a listen. Perhaps it won't have you so worried.
In my teens through my early twenties, I fell in love with writing. Then I got married, dropped out (was majoring in English) and through those crazy twists and turns that make up life ended up in an IT career also. For the most part I stopped writing (Other than small snippets here and there, often poetry born out of the need to put frustrations out of my head and onto paper), but what helped me was consuming media about writing (blogs, books, podcasts, articles, etc.), and continuously nurturing my love of words through reading regularly. Now knocking on 30, and having conquered some demons over the past decade, I'm picking up my pen again to scratch that itch that never quite went away. Good luck! Brandon (But still in IT. Gotta pay the bills! )
Keep a journal, for they are not as time consuming as stories or even flash fiction, but they allow one to practice putting cohesive thoughts together, strengthening your awareness of syntax and wordchoice. They don't have to be the day to day type, and they can, but you can still get creative. Maybe you can describe a chick you find attractive in class, or write a paragraph about a teacher yelling at you and then has a heartattack during the episode. Maybe you can write about how one of the computers you're working on blows up during the scriptiing phase, losing all the important data you worked so hard to shape. Life is constantly changing for us, it would be boring otherwise, and through the ups and downs, and the lefts and rights, one should always find time for themselves, and for me, a journal is the best venue, allowing me to step back and breathe a moment. Sometimes, we get consumed by the things we're doing, sometimes they own us. We fight this by always setting time aside for us, and it can be anywhere from twenty minutes, to an hour, or a full day. Personally, I work 50+ hours monday-friday, and write/read as much as I can in my spare time. Saturday is the day I've set aside to chill, free from work, from writing, and everything, and I relax. I know the task ahead seems daunting, and you may feel overwhelmed and constrained by time itself. Personally, my opinion is: all that is nonsense. If you truly love something, you'll find time for it. And if something is taking time away from your passion, your relaxation, and your ability to simply enjoy life, then it shouldn't be apart of your world in the first place. I have a friend who is a molecular analysis/genetic analysis and is currently in grad school for it. He is so focused on what he does, constantly filling up his time with all this great stuff geared towards his career, that he forgets himself, the wheels fall off, and then wonders why he becomes so stressed out. He never sets time aside to relax or do something he loves. You want my advice? Keep writing, and find time for it, because it exists, you're just not looking hard enough.
haha. I'm too lazy to use the pen-and-paper, but I think this is a cool suggestion! I downloaded a sort of notepad app, and I hope it will serve me well along the tedious way.
Totally heart the idea! :> Coding games is like writing and coding. So if I'll try this, there is a great possibility that I will be writing as much as coding! Yay thanks!
Yay I hope when I reach that age, I can also manage both passion like you! Thanks for the inspiration. :>
Thanks! :> Writing on journals is actually a boring thing for me, but realizing what you just said, I am convinced to get myself to do it. It will become easier (I hope) to do once it's become a routine I think. :> (And btw, regarding the "chick" thing, yea I find every girl attractive, but I am a girl too. LOL)
I used to be an avid reader and writer before I got into medical school. For 6 years I had to read and memorise an overwhelming amount of professional literature, so much so, that I developed aversion to the written word. It took me years and change of jobs to be able to rekindle my passion for reading and writing fiction. I am a proponent of doing something to the best of my ability. If I wanted to study writing, I should have studied writing. Since I decided to study medicine, I went to do that right, learn everything, and writing simply had to wait. Obviously, with courses easier than medicine, doing both might be perfectly possible.
Well as someone who's in 3rd year Actuarial Science at University I can definitely sympathize. Studying all the maths, stats, accounting and economics has made me wonder from time to time if its negatively affected my creative spark and I did lose touch with my 'inner writer' for a period of a year or two. I managed to catch a wake up call in life recently and now in the last 3 months I've written more than I've written in the last 3 years. Slowly but surely, I'm finding myself becoming more motivated and more assured in my ability and I'm improving as a result. There are two things that I feel have really helped me to stay motivated: 1) Keep notes. Whenever I got an idea for a story I wanted to write or a scene or a character or even just a line of dialogue, I wrote it down somewhere. I have notebooks, notes on my phone, on my computer, all over. But I found that as long as I kept making notes, I never forgot about my dream and now that I'm writing again I'm putting all those ideas and creative energies to good use. 2) Never stop reading. I've started reading again this year and I've been devouring book after book and now I just can't seem to get enough of them. Reading, I believe, will always be crucial to being a writer and there are few better sources of inspiration than a book you enjoy reading. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever you like. As long as you keep reading and, more importantly, as long as you're enjoying it. Your attention, interest and inspiration will wax and wane as time goes on and you become more or less busy. The important thing is just not to forget about it and, when the time comes to write and you feel that creative energy building, don't waste it. Make the most of it. Good luck with the writing and the studies. Work hard at both
Look, if you love something, really love something, trust me when I say you'll never give it up. Sure, you might run into some dry spells that last for maybe even 2-3 years, but at some point, you always come back. To keep yourself going, I'd read a lot. Reading inspires tonnes of stories. Keep reading, and your love for writing wouldn't be far behind. If you don't have much time to write during term time, then I'd encourage you to write during your holidays - I personally stopped writing for a good 5 years (2 years of A-Level and then 4 years of uni - during the end of my third year I finally started again). It was thanks to the 3-month-long summer periods that finally got me back on track. And as for how I started again - all thanks to a role playing game called Baldur's Gate 2 lol. It gave me inspiration, which made me itch to write again. Which is why I say, keep reading lots - reading is passive and relaxing and you can certainly squeeze it in before bed or on the bus to and from lectures etc, and it'll keep your mind active enough to pick up a pen when you wanna get down to it Alternatively, pure and simple discipline would do the job too Make yourself write something every week. When I had a full time job, I still managed to write. The trick is telling yourself constantly, "I need to write need to write need to write need to write!" It worked for me lol and I'm editing my novel now. Couldn't have finished my first draft otherwise.
