Aim High, Willis!

Hello, people of the Internet!

I can't remember the last time I had as busy a busy weekend at work as I just did... I am sore, tired, and so very happy that next weekend I won't have to work. Damn it, I won't work even if all my coworkers got sick. Do I sound awful? Nah.. I earned my time off. Besides, I need to catch up on school work anyway. 

I haven't told you guys yet, but I'm on the lookout for a volunteer placement abroad! If you know me, it's not hard to guess where I want to go :) I have sent out inquiries (a lot of them) and gotten a bunch of replies... but I won't share more until I have something concrete. I know, I'm a tease. You guys know, however, that I cannot keep my mouth shut if I get a chance to go abroad for an extended period of time, so you'll be sure to hear if/when I have good news. 

I just realized I have an unopened bottle of wine here... it's late, so I'll save it for tomorrow. Mondays suck. 

Have a great week! <3

Some Of My Favorite Blogs

Hey, lovelies :)

First of all, happy weekend! I will be working through it, wishing I could stay home and cuddle with my cat instead, but a girl's gotta work! Not complaining :)

What are your plans for the weekend?

I wanted to share a list of some of my favorite blogs today. I love reading other people's blogs and am always looking for new ones to follow. If you'd like me to check out yours, leave me a link in the comment section below! :)

Here's what I'd like for YOU to check out:

In English:

A Beautiful Mess

A lovely blog full of life. I absolutely love this blog; it's got wonderful pictures, a lot of recipes, tips from scrapbooking to doing your hair, DIY's etc. Life in the Midwest at its best! (A Beautiful Mess is also an app, and it's actually the one I used for the picture above!)

Keiko Lynn

I LOVE this girl's style. Unique and beautiful. 

Yummy by Jenni Ukkonen

This blog is written in both English and Finnish. She is from Finland and lives in London, so if you're into a life in big city and want to read about it in the point of view from a fashionable Finn, go check her out!

Kami McArthur

Kami is a talented writer and I just love to read her tips for writing! She's helped me a lot, probably without her even knowing.

The Always Believer
This blog is so inspirational and positive and full of life I can't even begin to describe. Just check it out. I've had the pleasure to work with this blog's creator, and am really looking forward to what we'll come up with in the near future!

Noniin! Käykäähän ihanat lukijani tsekkaamassa nuo yllä mainitut blogit + nämä mitä listaan seuraavaksi! :) Jos haluat, että kävisin lukemassa sinun blogiasi, jätä minulle linkki kommenttiboksiin! 

In Finnish: 

My State of Mind's All Purple

Ihanan Elamilian musiikintäyteinen blogi! <3

Let's Fake It

Päivän naurut saa sitten täältä. Jennin tyyli kertoa asiat on niin omaa luokkaansa, eikä siitä voi olla tykkäämättä!

So Restless

Marsa kirjoittelee kauniisti elämästään ja kaikenlaisista asioista; tällä hetkellä Espanjan auringon alla.

My American Dream

Anna on vaihtarina Amerikassa ja blogin lisäksi tekee hulvattomia videoita YouTubeen. Kannattaa käydä katsomassa ja lukemassa!

To Write.

I just realized I haven't talked to you guys about writing in a loo-ooong time! Boo! On the other hand, it's impressive how long I've been able to keep my mouth shut about my favorite subject. 

Usually, when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. If I'm not consumed by my own issues, I'm trying to solve my characters issues. The worlds and people I've created in my head take up a lot of room in my life, and I think that's how it should be for anyone who wants to be a serious writer and make a living out of writing. 

I also think sometimes it's good to know how to let go for a while.

Within the past month or so I've been stressing about work a lot, and let me tell you, my work isn't exactly the kind that's worth stressing about. It's not something I have to take home with me, which is great. Yet, certain changes at work have really gotten under my skin and I hate the feeling. Going to work didn't used to bother me so much, now on certain days it bothers me a lot. I can't go into details on this one, so I'm sorry for the vague description of my situation. Just know that I am planning on switching jobs after summer. Why not now? Because I have a full vacation of four weeks ahead of me, and if I quit now, I won't have any vacation at all (unless I'd be completely unemployed, lol).

Man, I wish I had a pink typewriter.

Anyway, my point in telling you all that is that due to stress and all my writing has suffered. My constant thinking of writing has suffered and I need to get back on track. I'm glad to notice that I have gradually started to ponder about my novel on a daily basis again, and now I just need to get back into the writing mode. Any tips? 

Well, motivation isn't the issue anymore. I'm thrilled to get back in business! :)

Have a jolly weekend, everyone!

Seriously, that typewriter, though...

Make It Happen March: Let's Talk About Goals

Spring is here! :) I am so thrilled about it. The thing is, weather's been acting super weird this year, and usually around this time of the year we still have a ton of snow and it's cold, but there's hardly any snow, the temperature's above zero and… yeah, we even have sunny days every now and then ;)

Today was the first day that I put on this pair of Converse, the first day this year that I left my winter shoes inside and decided to wear something lighter! Little things make me happy :) Oh, what do you think of the bag? I just got it from Germany and love how it matches with my shoes. Looooove pink!

Anyways, I wanted to talk about goals today. I feel like sometimes it's really hard to set firm goals, whether they're short or long term goals. And achieving them can be even harder. This is why I rarely announce my goals out loud. The less people know, the less humiliating it is if I don't make it. Others find telling people motivating - the more people know, the more they want to be true to their word. 

However, I have a few goals I would like to share with y'all. These aren't something I can achieve within a month, but am definitely setting things in motion asap.

*Switching jobs this year (most likely not before the fall; I will have a full four-week summer vacation this year, which is kind of a big motivator right now, and I don't want to switch until I've had the chance to enjoy that.)

*Finish the first draft of my book (I'm not setting a time limit here, because lately I've noticed how irregular my life is, work schedule and all. All I can do is my best, and hope that it gets me somewhere.)

*Travel some (just waiting to get my official vacation dates so I can book the flights)

It's good to have goals; having something to work for, something to look forward to, is vital. What are your goals? Short or long term? :) Let me know!

One more thing: I now have 91 followers on Glipho and 10 on Blogger. One of them follows me on both platforms, so that means that I have

100 followers.

This might not be a big thing to many of you, but to me it is huge. To have 100+ people reading my blog is something I value more than you'll ever know. 

Thank you so much!

<3

Sudden Inspiration

Sometimes, pretty rarely, though, I get this rush of inspiration to write, and I do so immediately (or at my earliest convenience). These rushes have resulted to one short story, written in about 2 hours, a prologue for my novel that I'm currently working on, and most recently, I wrote 162 words for the same novel; a scene that's been troubling me. Now I finally knew how to write it.

But yeah, told you it doesn't happen that often. Three times so far. Of course I have an inspiration to write every day, but now I'm talking about something stronger. An urge to write now, right now, and knowing exactly what to write, without giving it that much thought. Does that ever happen to you? It's like the words were all there in your head, and then, click, all of a sudden they rearrange themselves and everything is clear. It's kind of frustrating… Once it happens, I want it to happen again and again. But I guess if it did, there would be no magic.

I have had a very loose week, but still very little time to write. I have read a lot, though, I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. I guess I'm still a bit confused after my vacation, even though I've been home for almost two weeks. I have made a firm decision to write more, and even cut my working hours. Not by much, because a girl's gotta eat, but I will have a couple more days off from now on. Yay!

I will try to do a post about everything I got from the US sooner than later. Also, I'm working on some changes for my blog, and one of them is the layout in Blogger. I'm in the process of changing it, so don't be surprised if it's different every time you check my blog :)

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Not dead

Oh my goodness... Sorry for not writing. Again. I feel bad :( sorrysorrysorry.

Blogging used to be one of my very favorite things to do, but lately I've been feeling like all the ideas just escaped from my head. I want to write, it's basically all I want to do, but there's nothing to write about!! I could tell you about the major writer's block that's been bothering me for too long, but writing about writer's block... meh.

My internet failed a couple of weeks ago, just stopped working. Both my laptop and iPad have the same carrier, which had some problems, but my phone has a different carrier and so I was able to run errands online (facebook) with my phone. Not having Netflix take all my time, I had to get creative. I got a lot of reading done (Stephen King's On Writing is uh-mazing!!) and worked on my novel. I'm not completely happy with what I came up with it and might just erase everything and start all over. But at least I'm writing something. There should be a way to transfer images from one's head to paper.

A while back I realized this summer is almost over (here in the arctic at least) and I have worked through most of it. I have vacation days that I'm saving for December, when I will be traveling to the States. Totally worth working for the summer, and despite my hectic work schedule I feel like I have improved my social life from what it used to be. At least my friends seem to know I exist nowadays ;)

So yeah.. That's what's up. There's always something. Sometimes I wish there was nothing.. Hope you're all having a good weekend :)

xxo

From thoughts into words

It's a long, rocky road to get a story finished on paper. For me, at least. Here's how the process goes for me:

1. A rough idea comes to mind

2. Figuring out if the idea's any good --> developing it further

3. Storylines, twists, etc.

4. Naming all the characters

5. Characters relationships and backgrounds

6. Random scenes go through my mind like movies

7. Writing some scenes, in no particular order

I'm bad at taking notes. Basically, all of the above is in my head in the end, and when the mental exhaustion is getting too overwhelming, it's time to start the actual writing process. By the way, I'm using the term "mental exhaustion" very loosely. I find all of this too much fun to think of it as something exhausting. Sometimes it does get to me, though. I get very attached to the story and the characters, and when things don't go as I want, it can be frustrating. Even though it's a world and people I've created, what happens to them is sometimes out of my hands. 

I'm sure other writers have their own ways to transfer thoughts into short stories and novels, but this is mine. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts :) The nerdy side of me is dying for some new information!

lovelovelove,

iira

Write Great Fiction

A couple of days ago I allowed myself a little treat. I ordered books on Amazon. Yeah.. Books do it for me ;) 

As someone who wants to be a serious writer one day, the books I ordered are important and I've heard a great deal of positive things about them. 

It'll take at least a month for me to get my hands on these babies, but I'm so excited to have some summer reading to do! :) The Write Great Fiction -series has other books, too, and they are: Dialogue, Revision and Self-editing (I SO NEED THIS!!) and Description & Setting. I'm going to wait to get the first two I ordered, and then see how I feel about them. But right now I think I will just order the rest of the series as well. 

The past few days I've kept a little break from working on my novel. I'm basically done with the plot and all that, and feel ready to write, and I have started writing. But with these books, I feel like I could be better (and I haven't even read them, yet!). I'd rather take things slow and get a better result than hurry and be sloppy. 

Have a nice week! :)

-iira

P.S. I have three days off! Stoked!