Writing Vloggers That Help You Get Inspired.

Last week's post is more of a PSA letting everyone know why I haven't been around since last February. If you haven't read it, it's short explaining why. This week's post is inspired from the void of not being creative during that time frame and how I tried to fill that hole. Thankfully, these content creators were there to inspire and give hope. The list below is in no particular order and can be viewed in any order of interest. Although these vloggers have a lot in common, they have their own eccentric value in what they offer. Regardless, I hope they inspire you as much as they have me.

Kate Cavanaugh Writes

Kate is a delight to watch and to learn from. Humor abounds as she vlogs about her writing process while experimenting with other authors’ writing routines and much, much more. 

Bethany Atazadeh

Bethany is known for her young adult fantasy series, The Stolen Kingdom. She has won awards for her writing and is passionate about stories and her dog, Penny. Bethany gives an honest take on her writing process and journey. The ups, downs and side-ways. She has a wealth of information if you are considering becoming an indie author. What I respect about her writing vlog is her full transparency with behind-the-scenes information.

Brandon Sanderson

I shouldn’t have to do an introduction for Brandon. He has become one of the most popular fantasy and science fiction writers of our time. What might be unknown to inspiring authors is that Brandon has taught a series of classes on creative writing at BYU. The lectures are from 2020 and are a minefield of golden nuggets. Even if you are not interested in his genre of writing, he provides practical advice to becoming an author.

Abbie Emmons

Abbie enjoys teaching writers how to make stories matter. She gives insights into her personal process of writing. Abbie encourages us as we try and transform our passion for telling stories and putting our ideas into our projects. She shares her tips, tricks and resources that she uses for her creations. One of my favorite tips Abbie shared is the use of Epidemic Sound. There you can find a vast variety of music you can listen to as you write. I absolutely love their cinematic section. When writing I like to listen to music that doesn’t have any vocals because they are a huge distraction for me. I might do a short blog about them in the future and possibly talk about Epidemic Sound on the channel. This site has become an integral part of my writing process.

Daniel Greene

Daniel is YouTube’s fantasy and sci-fi guy. He is one of the most well-read vloggers on this list. He delivers thought provoking commentary and up to date fantasy and sci-fi news. His first novel Breach of Peace in the Lawful Times series is on Amazon. You never know, you might find yourself in the goblin hoard in no time. Daniel will explain.

Christy Anne Jones

Every now and then YouTube’s algorithm presents you with recommendations that you can enjoy. I just recently started watching Christy’s take on her writing process. She has published and illustrated her book, A Year in Tokyo where she lived for a while. The first video that I watched she gave an excellent tip about an app, Milanote. My mind exploded. You know that I love using Scrivener to keep my projects organized in a coherent manor and it does an exceptional job. Although I have always felt it lacked a few features. For example, mind mapping. In defense of Literature and Latte, the developers of Scrivener have a separate application called Scapple which is a note/mind mapping app. Milanote takes that idea and expands on it exponentially. It uses visual boards to keep you organized. Within these boards you can do mind mapping, note taking, create to-do lists, create a mood board with images, save files of all sorts, add web links and it even has a tool that you can draw with. As I said, mind blowing. Another crazy thing is that they let you sign up for the use of the free subscription… Yes FREE! Of course, there are only so many notes you can create and files that you can upload with the free subscription, but it is very generous. It is a must to check out for you to kick the proverbial tires of Milanote. I will have to write a blog about it sometime after I have given it a good run through myself. Back to Christy. She vlogs about books, her daily life, writing, and all things creative. Here video editing skills are exceptional. I can see myself viewing more of her videos in the near future. 

K. M. Weiland

Here is another author that does not need much of an introduction. Katie likes to live in make-believe worlds, have imaginary friends and has an affection for chocolate truffles and espresso. Besides her published novels, she busy helping other writers to become authors with her series helping writers become authors. You can easily find her work on Amazon. How she finds the time to vlog I will never know. If that isn’t enough, Katie has an award-winning blog where she gives additional advice on writing. Make sure you check her out, you won’t regret it.

Film Courage

For something a little different. Film Courage gives practical advice from professionals in the industry who want to become script writers. They have over 5,000 videos that give honest opinions, in an interview format, of what it takes to be a professional. Even though Film Courage is targeted for script writers, their knowledge can easily be applied to novel writing. 

Well, this is the end of this week’s blog post. Don’t fret, as you can see there is a lot of advice here, tips and tricks to keep you busy for a very long time. Enjoy.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Oh, my word…I’m back!

 

As I have written before, life events can become obstacles to creative endeavors. That is the main reason why I have not written or drawn since last - February. Yikes! That is too long.

 What could possibly pull me away? There were a few examinations that needed to be passed to move forward at my workplace. Full disclosure, stress levels were high. Study schedules were grueling. One exam was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. That is not an exaggerated statement. The good news is, by God’s grace, I passed them all. Ya!

Once over, in disbelief passing the last exam, I drove home thinking something needed to be studied. That feeling is slowly fading away. With all of that completed, inevitable burnout followed. This is where I am at now. It has been roughly three weeks since the last test and this is the first time I could muster putting my butt in a chair to write something. You may ask, why don’t you take a few vacation days. Well, I took a week vacation off before the monster study schedule to give myself ahead start. So that ship has sailed. I don’t regret it.

 The first thing I wanted to do is write to the people who follow my process as a writer/artis. While on hiatus, which is not a good word to describe what I went through. To my amazement people who followed me kept coming back to see when I might be back. Whether it was to my vlog locations or my blog, they kept checking in on me. I was blown away.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

That has given me so much encouragement to keep doing what I want to do. I also like to give a huge shoutout to people that live overseas where the largest group kept visiting.

 So how do we move forward from here. In all honest I am still exhausted from the pass schedule and stress that I have been going through since February.

 I am still figuring that out a creative schedule. The dream would be going back to writing three days a week and possibly an extra day on Saturday or Sunday. I need to also develop a schedule for posting blog posts and topics to be written for those posts. I like to redevelop how I multi-stream and the esthetic there within. Throw in life duties, ren fair is coming up quickly and raising a two-year-old daughter. She is an amazing little lady that melts my heart every day.

 So, as you can see, I am trying again to find life’s balance. How that will look is evolving. I look forward to what is to come, and I am glad to have you there along this crazy journey.