Lots Of Things, All At Once

I’ve been gone a while. I wonder if anyone noticed…?
I took a little holiday, but it wasn’t to a foreign country to escape from everyday life.
I was getting frustrated with myself and the process I’d locked myself in.
I was doing all the things I normally do eg. gaming, working, getting slightly drunk and listening to music late into the night. I did it to escape from the computer for a bit and, if that means not posting for 10 days, so be it. I posted a few updates (alright, one update) on my Facebook page to let people know I’m still alive, however I’m changing up my post schedule soon. More on that later.

In the meantime, I haven’t been shirking my creative writing. I went exploring! I found a park not far from where I live that I didn’t even know existed. Many hours were spent spread out in the long grass with a notebook and pen, scribbling down lots of great new developments.

I’m trying to develop my writing style. Although I haven’t asked anyone to give me an honest opinion about the way I write, I judge myself to be complicated verging on boring. The reason for this is that I tend to use long, complex sentences with lots of commas, which make perfect sense in my mind but lose a lot of their structure once they become translated into words. Ironically, that sentence is a perfect example.
To try to fix this, I’m trying to use shorter sentences more frequently. Take this link as a good example. Short sentences grab attention. Longer, complex sentences are used for important details, like plot points you’re trying to draw attention to, but are only useful once the reader’s attention has been grabbed. Varying the sentence length helps keep it interesting too.

I’ve developed a system for controlling my rampant nightly inspiration. This has been a real problem for me in the past. Long nights without sleep. Disturbed daily activity. Missed meetings. Studying the conditions under which they happen most has led me to notice some patterns.

Listening to music is always involved.
It always happens in bed, or a similar state of relaxation.
I’ve frequently been drinking beforehand, though not massively.

I’ve started recreating these conditions. On certain nights, when I don’t have to be up too early the next day, I’ll have a drink. I’ll take the iPod to bed with me and listen for an hour or two. The few times I tried this have all been successful. There’s a notepad by my bed now, ready to record the forging of new ideas.

Have I learned the secret to manufacturing my own eureka moments? Quite possibly! Only time will tell.

That being said, the RKDA story has been fleshed out beyond anything I had a week ago. It is more rounded, more mature and more confident in itself, if a story can be confident.

I will make another post this week, tackling a question at the very core of writing: the Pen or the Keyboard?

These words you are now reading, whose are they? Yours or mine? The point of writing is to take charge of the voice in someone else’s head

– AndroidBrotherHood, Imgur

Why don’t you leave a comment here. Yep, right here. I want to know what you think.
Is my writing style too convoluted? You may have to refer to previous posts for a better example.
Have you ever had to change the way you write? If so, how did you do it?
Do you have a particular method for attracting creative thoughts?
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