A Quick News Update

In about a week's time I'll be moving to England permanently. Because I'm moving outside of the Netherlands, I'm having to notify the government that I'm leaving the country and thus making visits to the Town Hall. I went in today, but was notified that I need to come in on Monday, as the government requires you let them know five days before you leave, and not before. So my visit was premature.

One thing I really enjoy about the Netherlands is the fact that everything has been made digital. So when I moved to Rijswijk, I notified the government that I'd moved through my digital government account (which I had to set up when I registered to have health insurance, a must, if you live here). However, because my host family aren't moving, I have go into the Town Hall to notify them about the move. Its really easy and straight forward thing to do.

In less than a month, NewDay 2017 will be starting. NewDay 2017 is a NewFrontiers Youth Camp for 11-19 year olds, and is taking place on the show grounds of Norwich, Norfolk, England. The week is made up of teachings and seminars, workshops and outreaches into the communities around Norwich. On average there are between 6,500 and 7,000 young people joining the conference. I'll be joining as a leader with the youth group from Redeemer International Church. I decided to go with Redeemer because I've been a part of the youth group for the last year and I feel that this will be a good week to close off my year with them. I'm really looking forwards to going as I expect that God will be doing great things in my own life and the lives of the teens that will be going. I'll be in England by this point so will be travelling to Norwich to meet the teens there. Its going to be an incredible week!

I'll make sure I post something here after NewDay is done, but I'll be posting on my Blipfoto Account on a daily basis through out NewDay 2017. The easiest way to get notified of my updates is if you create your own Blipfoto Account (personally, I would like to challenge you to your own 365 challenge on Blipfoto) and then choose to follow me, by clicking the the follow button on my profile (if you do, I'll make sure to follow you in return). Or you could save my Blipfoto page to your computer or phone's browser.

Until next time!

Thoughts... On Writer's Block

As I'm starring at my laptop screen I can't help but wonder... where can I get my inspiration from? What can I source my blog topics from?

I've had some great suggestions from the last survey I took but I still don't know what to do with these suggestions. In truth, some of these suggestions conflict with some of the others I received in this last survey and surveys before. One thing was clear, though, I had an overwhelming response to the question "Should I Delete My Blog?" with a emphatic "no". So this blog isn't being deleted, nor am I planning to stop writing here in favour of a new site. I do really enjoy writing. However, I'm still on a journey as to discovering the reasons I'm suffering with writers block (I literally never know what to write) and have been for a while. I would love to start writing another book, something I haven't done since I was about 18 or 19... the biggest problem I've had is a lack of sustainable ideas for a novel. All the ideas I've had just burn themselves out extremely quickly due to the storyline being too predicable. I'm a visual person, who sees everything in full colour photos or films. I also have some type of photographic memory. I also happen to have a very vivid imagination. So when I write, I write the films I see playing out in my imagination. So if I start writing a story based on a thread I see in my head, the story will only work if the thread doesn't snap. If the thread snaps then the story is over. This has usually been happening before I even go to put pen to paper as it were. The stories I've been thinking about aren't sustainable enough to survive a year's worth of writing, at least.

When I was about 18, one of my closest friends lived in the USA and I wanted to write her a book, so when she got home for the summer, she'd have a surprise waiting for her. Something to read during her holidays and on the flight back to college (university, for my English readers). I already had the plot line for entire story in my head and I'd even begun to write it... even though it did take me about four failed starts to get it going. As I wrote the book, the characters began to take a life of their own... in my head, and even I was greatly surprised at the plot twists that came up as I transferred the story from my mind to my computer. There were a few times when I got less than a hour or two of sleep a night, due to the surge of information that needed transferring from my mind to the book as my mind would start working overtime once I got into bed (like now for example). The end was a bit rushed as my friend got home a few weeks early but really enjoyed reading it.

You're probably wondering why I've shared that... I don't know, maybe its from a desire to be more open with something I've been struggling with, writer's block. This leads me to ask for your help again. If you've got any questions you'd like to hear from me about, please click here and you'll be able to ask them on the form. I won't be asking for any of your personal details, so they'll be anonymous. Please read the instructions and if you've got anything you want to ask me, please click here to go to the contact form.