Tools for a writer: The Cabinet of Awesome

I read this post today and I had to share.

A cabinet of awesomeness? Yes please, give me one of those.

Maybe it'll look like this? I love the rustic feeling of this cabinet.

Ideas are precious. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a bad idea. Sometimes they’re just not ready to be written or we as writers lack the skill to do the idea justice.

This one has a magical feeling surrounding it. And really, what is more magical than an idea?

But every idea is precious and deserves a place to be kept safe and perhaps even grow into something more.

 

And of course, when I read the words 'Cabinet of Awesomeness' I immediately thought of this little blue box. A more awesome box simply doesn't exist.

I don’t have room for a filing cabinet right now, so for now I’ll manage with the folders on my computer, but someday, I’ll have a cabinet of awesome of my own. You can bet on it.

The ripple effect of awesome

Dear blogreaders? I love you.

I’m kind of addicted to my blog-stats. To see where you all come from is fascinating. To see what brings you to my blog is even more interesting. I know some blogs get hits because of truly bizarre search-terms. That’s not the case for my blog.

Oh no. There are no hits for sparkly merpires or batman eyebrows (my blog is boring in comparison to the wonder that is the blog of talented writer Carrie Harris)

Do you know what brings readers to this little part of the blogosphere? Aaron Paul. It’s crazy how many hits this post I wrote about him has gotten.

But it’s not just me who’s doling out Aaron Paul goodness. Oh no. By looking through the search terms, I discovered that the adorable Aaron Paul has had a part of another legendary part of TV-series history.

He was on Veronica Mars*.

I re-watched the episode he was credited to be in and he was in it for like a total of 3 minutes, but he was there (unfortunately, none of the scenes he was in are on youtube).

This is just further proof that all exceptionally awesome things in life are connected to the wonderful Aaron Paul.

Lesson to learn: Awesome is as awesome does.


*If you don't know what Veronica Mars is,you're in for a treat. It is a really great TV-show that had too short a life-span. You should check it out, you won't be disappointed.

'Suiting up' to face reality

I am an avid watcher of  TV-shows and right now there are so many great shows out there. I’ve recently begun watching ‘Suits’ (a show on the wonderful USA network – seriously, I love that network).

I’m having difficulties explaining to people what exactly it is that I like so much about it. First off, there are now vampires in it. No supernatural beings. No violence.

What it does have is an abundance of great dialogue and witty banter between the characters in the show.

Here’s the trailer:

Don’t be fooled by the setting. ‘Suits’ is so much more than just a guy getting a job as a lawyer.

It’s a about a young man who wasted his potential, but through a stroke of luck get a second chance. It’s about getting what you always wanted, finding that it was harder than you thought, but still sticking it out, because it’s worth it.

Patrick J. Adams, who plays the main-character Mike Ross, explains what drew him to the show:

"The thing that inspired me most about Mike was this idea of getting to a place in your life where you finally have to make the decision to go after what you say you've always wanted."

By the way, this is Patrick. Isn't he just adorable with that cello? No, he doesn't play a cello in 'Suits'. I just really liked the picture.

It’s always interesting to see characters that are faced with choices that mirror those you are experiencing in your own life.

Maybe a bit of setup is necessary? I’d had a rough couple of days before the weekend. Unexpected bills and a sucky day at the job was all it took to bring me down. I needed some confirmation that all my hard work wasn’t wasted. That even though things weren’t going my way career-wise, I wasn’t wasting my time.

‘Suits’ gave that to me.

It’s cheesy, but it gave me just the right combination of distraction and inspiration to get me ready for work Monday morning.

It’s just a TV-show, but it helped me face my own reality. So yeah. Thanks for that, dear creators of 'Suits'.

How to deal with pain a.k.a. the suckiness of life

Short answer: You don’t.

And the long answer? Well, read on…

I saw this vlog by Hank Green and it kindda broke my heart.

The first part is hilarious, but then it turns serious. What do you do when you’re being bullied? How do you deal with life when everything about it sucks?

Hank didn’t know. When he was younger he would cry, he would hate himself and hate his life. He didn’t know how to deal with the pain. He still doesn’t know. To quote him: "You're job is not to deal with it. Your job is to survive it, which you can do because it will end."

I think he’s right. When life truly sucks, you’re not supposed to deal with it. When you’re knee-deep in suck you’re not supposed to somehow grow from the experience. You’re not supposed to learn anything. You’re not supposed to act like a mature human being.

You’re just supposed to survive.

Don’t put additional pressure on yourself to handle whatever suckiness you’re in, in a mature manner. To be nice. To learn from the experience. To behave like a mature adult.

Sad Aaron Paul accompanied by sad cat. It's a double-whammy of sadness.

If you want to lie down on the floor and kick and scream, by all means, do it.

If you need to block out the pain to be able to function, then do that.

If you need to cry, then do that.

If you need to take illegal substances or harm yourself, please reconsider (suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem).

Do whatever you can to get through the day (and those long lonely nights). Just please get through, okay?

You can always deal with the repercussions of the pain later. It’s not like that childhood-trauma is going anywhere (sorry to burst your bubble).

But before you can even begin to deal with your pain, you need to get through it.

So yeah. I don’t know how to deal with pain.

I don’t know what to do when life sucks and your cat just drowned and you just got dumped and they just cancelled your favorite TV-show (I’m looking at you, the TV-network that cancelled Veronica Mars).

I don’t think anybody really knows how to deal with soul-crushing pain. Should you know the answer please enlighten me.

But you’re not supposed to deal with your pain. Not while you’re in it.

You’re just supposed to survive.

And for what it’s worth, it will get better.

See? Aaron is smiling at you. He's  happy again. You will be happy again too. I promise.

(I hear there are talks of a Veronica Mars-movie… hey a girl can dream right?)

"The concept is insignificant"

I read an interview by TVLine where Jeff Wachtel and Chris McCumber, co-presidents of the USA Network, talked about their successful TV-shows*. The interviewer asked them what percent of a show's success was attributed to casting versus concept.

This was Wachtel’s answer:

“If I might, it would be casting versus writing; the concept is insignificant. The writer is almost half, and the cast is the other half. There’s a little bit about the concept, but it’s almost the excuse for the show to take place.”

According to google a concept is an abstract idea; a general notion.

What I get from this, is that the premise of your story doesn’t have to be very original, fantastic or engaging.

You don’t have to wait for the perfect idea to write a story. The idea (or the concept/premise/[insert other buzzword here]) is insignificant. It’s just the excuse for the story to be created. I’s the writing that can make (or break) a story.

Stop waiting for that perfect idea to come slamming into you. Just write. It doesn’t matter if you feel like it’s the most unoriginal story ever. It doesn’t matter if you feel like all you write is a bunch of clichés. It’s not the concept of a story that matters. It’s the writing.

So write.

*USA Network is responsible for TV-shows such as Monk, Burn Notice, Psych and my personal favourite Covert Affairs. Do you know why I love that show? Other than the fact that it’s very entertaining and well-written, it also features the awesome and adorable Chris Gorham.

Who can say no to that? So yeah. You should watch that show. It’s good.

CopyCats

For the longest while, I would see all these cool things around me and marvel at them. I would never dare to make them my own and try to get the coolness into my own life. I would just sit by the sideline and appreciate the beautiful things around me.

Who was I to think that I could pull of that hair-do? Who was I to even consider pursuing a career as a writer? The only place I’d ever be awesome would be in my dreams. Who was I?  No one special. And as such, I couldn’t do anything special.

But you know what? That’s not the way life works.

It’s not a case of ‘She has it, so I can’t have it too’. Being awesome isn’t some kind of child’s toy that only one person is allowed to play with at a time.

I wish somebody would have told me that. Maybe someone did. I wish I would have believed them.

Life is not a case of you either have it or you don’t.

If you see something you like, you are allowed to copy it. I’d even encourage it.

Somewhere along the way, it became a big no-no to be a copycat. You were supposed to be awesome just by being you. And maybe there are people out there who can do that, but I couldn’t. As a teenager I had no idea who I was or even who I wanted to be.

It sucked.

And because I felt so decidedly un-awesome, I came to the conclusion that I just didn’t have what it took to be awesome. I obviously wasn’t anything special. I didn’t deserve anything special.

But that’s not true.

I’m not saying that we’re all unique little snowflakes with superstars and rockstars inside of us. We’re not.

Tyler Durden agrees with me. 

But that doesn’t mean that our lives can’t be awesome.

Quite the contrary.

Not to be a Debbie-downer, but we are all going to die. It’s pretty much the only thing in life you can count on so get used to the idea that this is all you get.

Since this life is all we get, doesn’t it makes sense to cram as much awesome in it as humanly possible?

If I see something I like, I mimic it and try to adapt it to my own life.

I’m a CopyCat and proud of it.

Where did June go?

I know that time is on my side, but it’s moving very quickly at the moment. A lot is happening. A lot of good things.

Awesome things that have happened to me in the last month:

• I got the acceptance letter for ITU. I’m going to be a student come this fall. And even though I had a little resistance toward returning to school (understatement of the year), I’m really looking forward to it now.
• I got a roommate.
• I got short hair. Like, really short.
• I got a desk at the IT department in G4S.
• I got wireless internet in my apartment.

All those awesome things? They happened because I made them happen.

It’s odd, but sometimes good things happen. Sometimes when you go after what you want, you actually get it. I’m still not quite used to this whole ‘Life is good’-bit that’s been happening to me lately. But if you’re out there, and you’re struggling, I guess I just want you to know that good things to happen to good people.

I found this video on YouTube today, and I thought I’d share it with you guys.


Formula for success:
10 % luck + 20 % skill + 15 % concentrated power of will + 5 % pleasure + 50 % pain = 100 % reason to remember the name!