In episode 4×20 ‘Cover Story’ of NCIS there is a scene at the beginning of the show where Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) is teasing his partner Special Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), who in his spare time is best selling author Thom E. Gemcity, about having writer’s block. McGee, while being a computer nerd, types his novels out on an old fashioned type writer and Tony believes this might be one of the reasons for his lack of inspiration.

“McGee: I like my typewriter.
Tony: But it doesn’t like you. It’s a classic tale of an unrequited love between a boy and his machine.” (ep 4×20, quote from TV.com)

After noticing a poster for ‘Ferris Beuller’s Day Off’ in the crime scene they are investigating Tony asks McGee if John Hughes uses (sadly now past tense) a computer to type up his scripts, his reply is that most writers do.

In the modern world where computers are used for almost every single thing, it is not suprising to find that a majority of writers today do compose their works on computer word processing programs such as Microsoft Word. Typing is much quicker than hand writing and extra features such as word counts, spell check and backspace make both the writing and editing process a lot quicker. Also I doubt that there are any publishing firms, at least not reputable ones, that would accept manuscripts hand written. I know for a fact that most universities refuse to accept hand written assignments that are not undertaken in exam conditions.

However, for my own writing, I would consider myself a purist. I prefer to hand write the first draft of my stories and then after the first edit I type them up on computer. I like the thought that there is a hard copy in my own script, that I have actually put pen to paper and can feel the passion I had for the writing in the indentations on the paper. While most of my fan fiction pieces are now composed on computer, I still have pieces that were hand written while curled up in bed, a back corner of my university library or even on the train.

I know that if I had a typewriter, and at one point I did use my parents old one to write a very bad Buffy The Vampire Slayer fic, I would use that instead of my beloved laptop Sylvia. One of the reasons being that it is so easy to lose a computer file you have slaved away for hours on even if you have saved it.

Yes, everyone knows that they should save the story on not only the computer hard drive, but also on another source, however who hasn’t been in a rush and not saved a document properly or not had time to back it up? It is also hard to get the file back in many instances leaving it gone for good. I know I have had to pull at least one all-nighter to re-write an 2,000+ assignment that was due in by 9am the next morning because I did not save it properly.

Whether there have been studies on what medium writers prefer to use, or what inspires them more, I wouldn’t know, maybe I should check into that. Personally though I find it more inspiring with a notebook or notepad laid out in front of me, chewing on the end of my pen until that lightening bolt from my muse hits me. Even listening to the metallic clacking of a typewriter with the occasional chiming indicating the end of a line inspires me more than staring for hours upon hours at a glowing white screen of Sylvia. I guess that will be one of my biggest hurdles during NaNoWriMo.

While on the subject of hand written stories versus typing on computer I have to vent my anger at Microsoft Word. Being raised during the computer generation I have grown up typing many an assignment on the once beloved PC program but have become increasingly frustrated the last few times I have gotten a new PC, each computer (not to mention my laptop) has come equipped with Microsoft Office however when I type in the registration key provided the product still would not register. Eventually I gave up after having to go into my university library (a two hour train ride each way) at all hours of the day and afternoon, as well as weekends, just to have my assignments completed by the due date. I don’t know how many parties, outings and classes I missed because of that damn program. I caved in and eventually downloaded the free program that fanfiction.net promotes on their site Open Office, it is compatible with many different document programs including Microsoft Word… one problem… I have had to reformat most of my work including my CV, just so it looks normal.

No matter what tool you prefer to use for your own writing purposes or what inspires you the most the one thing you should remember is to make more than one copy. If you are hand writing or using a type writer scan a copy into your computer or photocopy one; if you are typing it on a computer then save it in more than one place, print out a hard copy or even email it to yourself just to be safe. Once you have lost your work you will never get it exactly the same as it was in the first copy, unless you have a freaky photographic memory.

Keep on writing.

Links:
Open Office – http://www.openoffice.org
NCIS -   http://www.cbs.com/primetime/ncis/

I have playlist upon playlist, mix cd upon mix cd, of mood setting music for when I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. For example for one of my creative assignments for a university course I wrote a story about a young girl getting an abortion and during the writing process I listened to songs like ‘Brick’ by Ben Folds Five and ‘Sally’s Pigeons’ by Cyndi Lauper, ‘The Freshmen’ by The Verve Pipe also helped.

It is not too hard to find lists of songs on certain topics. Wikipedia has  a few lists ranging from topics murder ballads to songs about school and songs on political issues such as anti-war songs and songs about September 11. If Wikipedia fails Google is the next best resource, by now I am pretty sure most of you will know how to do a google search.

A personal favourite of mine is a community on Live Journal called Mix_This_CD, it is not an overly popular group and has been known to go for months on end without someone requesting help but people do like to help out. Some of the requests have been for songs about Vikings, Election Day, Zombies, Superheros and even about Home.

Recently I came up with a basic plot for a story, it was just a simple outline, and then I started going through my head about what sort of music the two main characters would listen to. From certain artists I picked I discovered a new bunch of songs I had never heard of and the plot grew from two young lovers into a whole world, a story from beginning to end evolved in my mind. Basically I spent a whole evening on YouTube going through the artists and clicking songs that related to each one. I also spent a good part of the night Googling the lyrics where necessary.

As I continue with this blog I will be posting themed playlists on topics you might want to write about as well as music that sets the tone of your story (such as songs/instrumentals that provoke sadness, love, hate etc…) that may help you with the writing process. Links to download the songs won’t be posted here, there are copyright issues, but I will be providing titles and artists as well as snippets of lyrics and links to videos on YouTube.

My piece of advice today for all you writers out there that might be reading this is to listen to all types of music, don’t just stick with your favourite bands and genres, there is a whole world of inspiration out there in music and you never know, by listening to a certain piece you wouldn’t normally you might become inspired and write the next best seller.

Keep on writing.

Links:

Wikipedia: List of songs about a topic – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_songs_about_a_topic
Google – http://www.google.com/
LiveJournal: Mix_This_CD – http://community.livejournal.com/mix_this_cd/

Songs Mentioned:

‘Sally’s Pigenons’ by Cyndi Lauper -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqel8CNJ-Oc
‘Brick’ by Ben Folds Five – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axpuVLQ_m4w
“The Freshmen’ by The Verve Pipe – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNAp1C8LIw

Scrunched Up Paper will be my blog for my writing related attempts and inspiration.

The first challenge being my attempt at participating in the 2009 NaNoWriMo. For those of you who do not know what NaNoWriMo is here is a brief description from their website:

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” (from About: What is NaNoWriMo? @ http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano)

2009 will be my first year participating in the challenge to write a novel in a month, however, I learnt about it last year and seriously considered joining in then.

I have no clue what I will be writing about come November but it is only the 12th of October so I will worry about that when the time comes.

 Maybe I should explain a little bit about me so the blog readers who happen upon this site understand what is going on here.

My name is Beki, I am a recent graduate of Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing (second major being Media Studies). I am in the process of looking for a job in the writing industry however there is not too much out there for someone without experience. I am also looking in to starting my Masters in Writing.

Viletwrnrcblt, my username on both WordPress and NaNoWriMo, comes from the name of one of my characters.

I will unlikely be posting my work on here because I have been plagiarized before and don’t particularly want to be again. This blog is more about inspiration, progress and writer’s block rantings then it is about my actual work. If you want to read examples of my writing I will be partaking in a personal Fan fiction challenge over at fanfiction.net, link will be posted below.

The fan fiction topic leads me to the next part about me. I am a MASSIVE (and that is no exaggeration) television nerd, NCIS is my life blood, and have challenged myself to write at least one fan fiction for every show I have EVER seen… none have been posted yet but I have a few works in progress.

One of my university lecturers, I have a feeling that it could have been author Michael Hyde (link below) whom I had for Children’s Texts, once told the class that the two best things a writer can do is:

1. READ – read everything and anything you can get your hands on, no matter how good or bad it may be.

and

2. OBSERVE – watch and listen to those around you, take notes of conversations you may here on the train. However he did tell us to be stealthy and not get noticed copying down what other people say and do because it is a little freaky. Of course those were not his exact words.

One of my passions in life is reading. I collect books and never get rid of any of mine, that includes old high school text books. You never know when one might come in handy for your writing.

I have many, many authors who have inspired me. Not all of them being writer’s of literary classics or number 1 best sellers.  A lot include online bloggers, screen writers (of both television and movies of all genres), comic book writers, journalists and even the dreaded fan fiction writer. I hope to write about many of my inspirations in this blog.

Being as this is only my introduction post I think I will cut it off here and keep the rest as a wonderful journey of blogging discovery. I will try and update often and with a variety of topics so check back regularly.

Keep on writing.

Sites and authors mentioned in this blog:

NaNoWriMo – http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Michael Hyde – http://www.vulgar.com.au/hydehome.html
Fan Fiction – http://www.fanfiction.net
Viletwrnrcblt @ Fan Fiction – http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1925610/