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[RokofAges75]

Yep, same with the typos!  I leave out words or double up on words a lot too, and of course spell check doesn't catch that kind of stuff.  Like you said, my brain fills in the right words most of the time because it knows what I meant, especially if it's something I just wrote.  I'm more likely to catch those mistakes when I proofread it multiple times with fresh eyes, weeks or months later.

The text to voice is a good idea.  I've never thought of doing it that way.  Knowing me, I would probably just end up laughing at it and forget to listen for awkward phrasing because it sounds so awkward anyway LOL.

Yeah, the editing took a while, but I only did it with the stories I think are good to begin with, so it was worth it to make them even better.  I didn't waste my time on the really old ones cause they would need a lot more work than fixing typos.

Honestly, just having people here who wanna talk fanfic is motivating to me.  I've missed this!

[nicksgal]

I found a double "and" today, so I feel you. I also found an instance where I'd written "erratically" and laughed so hard that I had to take a break, because I kept imagining the sentence saying "erotically".

I don't like the pre-loaded ones that word or google docs use for the same reason you mentioned, but I found a site where you can choose different voices/accents and it's not as bad, there's just a time limit per day on some of the "premium voices". It's called Natural Reader.

Even PBox which I adore has been an undertaking to edit! After all this I'm like "Maybe I should find a way to file off the serial numbers and make it original fiction!" But then I'm like, would I like it as much then? Who knows!

I have several years of talking about writing to catch up on, so I will be your motivation muse! This has kept me going for sure. I think for the most part (minus Howie, AJ, and Brian's gifts they received) I chunked out my holiday story over two days because I wanted to post it and have other people enjoy it (of course I did not post it after those two days, hoarding!).

There's a question for everyone this week: What's most motivating for you? How do you keep the motivation going? What do you do when the motivation wanes (any particular rituals)? What does your inspiration station look like? (e.g., desk, location in your home, not your home at all, etcetera)

[RokofAges75]

Reading is usually good motivation for me, whether it's books by published authors, other fanfics, or even my own fanfics.  When I haven't written in awhile or am stuck/unmotivated, I start by rereading some of my story to get back into it.  That usually helps to some extent because it reminds me what I liked about it in the first place and makes me want to continue it.  Reading stuff by other authors is motivating because it makes me want to write better and create the same kind of experience for readers that I have when I'm reading something good.

Of course, comments from readers are also hugely motivating!  I don't write strictly for the feedback, but it feels like a reward for the time I put it into when I'm finally able to post something and it gets a response.  Feedback is our form of payment for creating and posting free entertainment LOL.

I have a whole room in my house dedicated to my hobbies.  I call it my Room of Random Things because it's where I keep my collection of literal weird, random things and most of my pop culture memorabilia, but it's also my writing/BSB sanctuary.  Here's a picture: https://twitter.com/RokofAges75/status/1081711811358089216/photo/1  I write up there a lot, but I also go through phases where I write in other rooms of my house.  Lately I've been writing in my living room so I can enjoy the Christmas tree and lights, or my bed because it's warm LOL.

[nicksgal]

I have a whole room in my house dedicated to my hobbies.  I call it my Room of Random Things because it's where I keep my collection of literal weird, random things and most of my pop culture memorabilia, but it's also my writing/BSB sanctuary.  Here's a picture: https://twitter.com/RokofAges75/status/1081711811358089216/photo/1  I write up there a lot, but I also go through phases where I write in other rooms of my house.  Lately I've been writing in my living room so I can enjoy the Christmas tree and lights, or my bed because it's warm LOL.

I love that! It looks nice and cozy! I've been trying to write in our living room this week to enjoy our Christmas tree and Bubbles the Holiday Narwhal, but it's really distracting for me with the TV and the kitchen nearby. I have to declutter my desk before I'd feel like I could post a picture of it, haha. Perhaps tomorrow!

[RokofAges75]

Thanks!  Bubbles the Holiday Narwhal! LOL, love it!  My writing room is currently cluttered with storage boxes for my Christmas decor, which is another reason I'm writing downstairs until all that's put away.  I get distracted by the clutter.

[nicksgal]

It's one of those Target "Wondershop" light up wire lawn ornaments, but it is too precious to go outside. That's under our stairs right now. My husband hates it, he also gets distracted by clutter, whereas I've always been a "Let me find that thing for you, I know exactly which organized pile of junk it's in" type person. It's why I'm fine writing in our office that has piles of things I'm trying to konmari (that "does this make you happy" organization method), but he works from home on our kitchen bar counter.

[RokofAges75]

I love those!  I wanted to get the T-Rex they had a few years ago, but it was sold out.  The narwhal is super cute!

I watched one episode of that Marie Kondo show on Netflix a couple years ago, hoping it would help motivate me to reorganize, but the problem I have with her philosophy is that everything in my house brings me joy, or I wouldn't have bought it LOL.  I do probably have too much stuff, but everything has its place.  When I really need motivation to clean or declutter, I watch Hoarders instead LOL.

[nicksgal]

I saw they were having a sale on them last year when we were at the airport to fly home and my grandmother got sick right before we left, so I was having kind of a bad day and decided I really needed it. So we landed and I dragged my husband to Target to buy it. I think I may have sobbed in the parking lot if they had been sold out. There was a penguin several years ago that I liked but never bought, and I think of it regretfully some times...

The book explains the whole thing better than the show. I think it works for me because I project so many feelings on to things probably due in part to the whole #growinguppoor thing, so I realized I've hung on to things for the reason that "someone bought this for me, so I have to keep it!" but I never look at them or use them or anything. I'm pretty sure I have every single thing I've ever owned at our house except for maybe pages I pulled out of Tiger Beat and Bop back in ye olden times. It was nice getting rid of old clothing that didn't make me happy anymore, I got rid of several books that made me feel ho-hum even just looking at them on the shelf, and I'm about halfway through paper. I had phone bills from 2005! Why do I need that? I'm dreading getting to "sentimental," but after going through everything else I own, maybe I'll be better at it. Plus I found some old, but great things like the frame Sarah made me when we did Maremas.

[RokofAges75]

I do think it's easier to purge and organize once you get started.  I spent my spring break doing that a couple years ago, one room/closet at a time, and it was really satisfying.  I didn't even intend to do the whole house, but after seeing how happy it made me to organize one closet, I wanted to do another one, and then I just got on a roll.  I definitely need to go through my bookshelves and get rid of some more books because I'm running out of space again.  I hate to get rid of things that I bought with my own money or that were gifts from people I care about, but if I'm never going to read/use something again, and it's just sitting around taking up space and collecting dust, it needs to go.

[nicksgal]

I find going by room/closet hard because I'll later find that I have the same type of stuff in a different place and I'd rather look at it all at once than have to refocus on "personal toiletries" after I thought I moved on to a guest bathroom or something.

I got rid of a dictionary. That was a proud moment. "I don't need you in 2020, who cares if you were probably very expensive back in the day!" I've been trying very hard to separate my feelings for the thing from my feelings for the person. But the nice thing is if it's joyful, then the philosophy is "keep it without qualms!" so I've put some things I forgot about in more prominent places in our house to enjoy them.

[nicksgal]

This derailed from writing a little. I feel like Mare will pop in some time in the next week and tell us that this has nothing to do with writing.

Back on writing, I just left myself a comment where I highlighted an edit and wrote "Castles are distracting, come back to this after you've researched/loved/enjoyed castles on your own time!" I've done nothing productive over the past couple days because of this.

What are everyone else's rabbit holes? Either in general or a particularly memorable one from the past?

[mare]

I just popped in to say, even though I don’t have much of anything to contribute to these conversations, I have enjoyed reading them lol Happy New Year!

[RokofAges75]

Happy New Year!  I always appreciate you adding your two cents, Mare.

What are everyone else's rabbit holes? Either in general or a particularly memorable one from the past?

I definitely go down the rabbit hole of YouTube a lot.  I discovered some cool YouTube channels with ambiance music that I like to write to, but a lot of the time, I'll pull up YouTube to play one of those videos and promptly get distracted by one of the recommended videos on the main page, which then sucks me right down a rabbit hole.  I was looking up a lot of morbid stuff for a story I wrote last year and discovered a channel called "Ask a Mortician," which is oddly funny and fascinating. 


Ask a Mortifican: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5iiEyLwSLvlqnMi02u5gQ

Ambient Worlds: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfR8HhkbpDAwvYxrecNg4Mg

Epic Worlds: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxlt4MvYjbfVjF6c9ofGm9Q

[nicksgal]

I just popped in to say, even though I don’t have much of anything to contribute to these conversations, I have enjoyed reading them lol Happy New Year!

[nicksgal]

I was looking up a lot of morbid stuff for a story I wrote last year and discovered a channel called "Ask a Mortician," which is oddly funny and fascinating.

I stumbled on that a few years ago after I saw her TED Talk "The Corpses that Changed My Life," which I thought, I should watch this because what a weird thing to call a TED talk. And you're right, oddly funny and fascinating is exactly how I would describe it.

Overly Sarcastic Productions is always really distracting for me. They retell history, classics, and do trope talks. It's all good and funny. I think my favorite was the retell of Paradise Lost, I've laughed every time I've watched it.