Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Deidre Knight, Lisa Buie Collard, Kim Lajevardi and JQ Rose.
First of all, I don't normally participate in any politics online, but I couldn't let today go by without asking if my American friends are OK. Whatever happens, I think you should all take it easy on yourselves!
With that out of the way, this month's optional IWSG question is: What creative activity do you engage in when you're not writing?
This is an interesting one because I used to have a lot more creative pursuits when I was younger that have fallen by the wayside as I've dedicated a laser focus to writing. As a child, I enjoyed acting, photography, and a little bit of drawing. But as I grew up, my time to do things just for me became more and more limited and I had to zero in on where my greatest passion lay. A familiar tale to many, I'm sure. However, if it counts, in recent years I've found some surprising enjoyment in making visual book-related content. I never saw myself as a particularly visual artist, but Canva is shockingly easy once I found my way around. I haven't made my own book covers - I've sourced images and entrusted them to a designer - but I've made things like book trailers and mood boards, and trying to strike a certain aesthetic that reflects my tone does have a certain satisfaction in it. Of course, my efforts are probably highly amateurish compared to some, but I thought I'd share a couple of things anyway. Here's a trailer I made in the runup to the release of my book The Becalmer:
13 comments:
Hi Nick - you're creative that you keep experimenting and working things through ... you must have learnt loads through your visual creations - good luck with the Indieverse entry ... Cheers Hilary
it's fun that you are learning something new that engages you. How wonderful about the cover competition!
That's cool you are making trailers and other stuff for your books now.
I think you've very creative in making book covers and figuring out how to do trailers. Congrats on the cover competition.
That moodboard definitely evokes an eerie vibe--well done. I've heard of Canva but don't know much about it. I definitely need an update to images on my blog, so maybe I'll check it out. Thanks for the good wishes to Americans!
It's nice that your creatives will double as great marketing tools!
Book trailers are fun. Now you can add to the marketing of your books.
Cool preview video. I'd like to learn to make those too!
Love your book trailer. Making trailers is whole different kind of creating.
I just started using Canva, and yes, it is very easy to use. Cool stuff you've been able to do.
I think you have impressive talent. We all okay here. Can't let politices hurt my mental health.
Thanks for asking how we are doing over here in crazy land. There's a lot of pain and fear at my house, since a couple of members of my family fit categories that seem to have big targets on them now.
Like your book trailer. I should mess around with that sort of thing, though I'm not sure what I'd do with it once I'd made it.
Bravo, Nick! You are very talented in the visual world here. I tried to vote for your Becalmer book cover but the link did NOT work for me. Could you send it to me through email? I’ll vote for you.
Post a Comment