I really should be getting my Moleskine notebook and see what I had planned on writing, picking anyone of my ideas, and get down to business. Unfortunately, I’m not going to do that, due to the slightly feverish state that I’m in.

I’ll let you in on a little secret instead, a technique I’ve used over the years to change my writing, and my experience overall.

I use music.

That’s right, the noise rushing out of my speakers is affecting my writing. There are albums that I, to this day, still connect to the work I did 10 years ago.

It is not so weird when you think about it. Say I’m writing fiction, say I want speed and action, a tense and dangerous situation. Listening to music with a rough beat will help me get to the right state of mind, whereas a slow love song will definitely ruin it all. Right now I’m not feeling too well, as I said, and the slightly disoriented mindset that this sets me in is something to use as well, so I’m making it even more unfocused and tumbling by listening to a PJ Harvey album. I have no idea what to do with it, other than to wrap up this blog post.

Music can help you get a sharper edge to your writing. Try it, you just might be amazed.

It’s not just me that realized how blogging stinted my writing, it seems. My colleague Andrew writes about how blogging killed his fiction writing, something I certainly can relate to! You might remember that I started publishing short stories from the world of Orn to get myself started writing fiction again.

It worked. I am writing fiction again, with a lot of ideas in the pipeline. Sure, I’m still struggling with the fact that other writing fills some sort of need, which makes me less hungry to jot down stories, but on the other hand, I’m spending more time thinking about what fiction I want to write with the time at hand.

Welcome to reality, no one, not even Stephen King, can write all the time. I felt really sad when I reached that conclusion…

Anyway, do chip in and tell Andrew how blogging is affecting your writing in the comments!

A little while back I received an e-mail with an unusual request. Someone, which I’ll let be anonymous for the time being, asked me to write an e-book for him detailing the secret behind my success in the blogosphere. The take was that he didn’t perceive how I made direct money from any of my blogs, and therefor recognized that I must be making it from spinoff services promoted through my online writing. This person was pretty well informed about my background, because he found it equally interesting that I managed to get into the international blogosphere by starting a blog (here at tdhedengren.com actually), and going from there, with English being a secondary language.

I found this interesting, and I’ll tell you why. More

Just a quick blog post before I leave for the weekend.

I just published the World of Orn page. It’ll be a constant work in progress, but now at least there’s something.

I also updated the bio page, which will give you a little insight in what I’ve done so far, but it’s not much of an author bio yet. That’ll come with time, when it’s warranted, I’m sure.

Finally, I’d like to pipe in a push for my blog posts on writing over at rethord.com - that’s my blog. Take a look if you’re interested, they’re not directly related to Orn or OrnTales.com, but naturally they reflect my writing philosophy and whatnot.

Enjoy the weekend, and read a great book, as well as part two in the Quest for Knighthood story!

I’m blogging about writing over at rethord.com. Check out my writing category to see what goes on in my mind when it comes to writing, and also see what tricks of the trade I’m employing.

Also check out my first book review, a Fritz Leiber anthology! The following ones will be published in this blog instead. Sorry for the inconvenience with this one.

I always thought that the Orn project would be my first international launch (not counting this blog of course) but that will not be the case. As of today I have four projects in the pipeline with the first one only weeks from announcement, and then an additional week or two before it launches.

Yes, it’s a blog.
Yes, it’s in English.
Yes, it revolves around the blogosphere.
Yes, I’ll let John Evans read it as well.

*giggles* More

I just realized that the title of this post needs some explanation. So I give you, the official sub title of The problem with alien monsters post!

Besides the fact that they might be invading our world, eating your brain, mating and probing (err) and being obnoxious in the real world.

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I just can’t help to link Seth Godin’s post, Advice for authors. It’s a good read.

And this is a short post. I really should get that “nice reads” box I’ve been planning up soon.

The Blog Herald is a great blog about, er, blogs and the business around them. It’s the largest blog and news opinion site around, and we’re talking tens of thousands of readers daily here.

And now I’m there as a columnist, which is great fun so far. Sure, only one post so far but still – I’m very excited to be writing for this major site. In other words, my blog-biz related posts won’t appear on tdhedengren.com anymore, you’ll be reading them at The Blog Herald.

Wordpress.com starts to monetize is my first post, and I also have the great honor to get an introducing-post.

Now, finally, I’ll sign off for the weekend. The first anniversary is always special, isn’t it? I’ll know Monday morning.

Some people just knows best, plain and simple. They tell you how things work, what you’re doing wrong and how you can fix it. Of course, you’ll never be as good as them since the pupil seldom beat the teacher but sure – have a go and be happy.

Some of these brilliant minds actually exist. Then there’s some that really want to elevate themselves to that particular near-divine status.

You know what? It never works.

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