Bjørn Larssen's Blog

Phil at Asymmetric Creativity wrote a really good Medium post about creative anxiety.

“Dr. John Kounios’s research revealed something that changed how I think about creative doubt: people who experience moderate levels of creative anxiety produce significantly more original work than those who experience either very low or very high anxiety.

There’s a sweet spot where doubt actually enhances creative output. Too little doubt and you skip the refinement process. This often produces work that migh...

Phew! I’m heading towards the fourth base!

My writing process goes like this:

1. Draft zero, where I just vomit the text on the page to see what I don’t know or what I’ll be writing. I don’t even re-read my draft zero and I even more don’t show it to anybody.

2. The first official draft, where I figure out the missing parts to the best of my ability.

3. Many, many revisions, which in my case tend to be complete rewrites. I’m actually shooketh, because the last redraft of Bloo...

Ever since I’ve read the results of a BookBub survey about authors’ use of AI I’ve been low-key depressed and demotivated. 45% of the 1,200+ authors surveyed (I was one of them) have used AI in various ways – take a look at the survey to see what they’ve done with it. Some are pretty smug about it. Others, including me, are… I’m not sure. Fossils?

(All the quotes used in this post come from the survey, unless indicated otherwise)

“It’s a great accelerator (I have two books in fli...

(originally posted on www.ko-fi.com/bjornlarssen)

If I could own one work of art, it would be Cathedra by Barnett Newman.

I’ve never been into abstract paintings. I find Rothko interesting mostly because I wonder how he got so many people to fall for it. (Did you know that towards the end of his life he received an order to decorate a ship with his paintings, and he had his students paint them all under his direction? But you can bet the students didn’t get to sign them.) So, seeing this paintin...

I got my writing mojo back since I last posted about my complete creative block. This is obviously very good news. I don’t know what has changed. Perhaps I just needed time to process what had happened in December, which I tend to do in my subconscious – if I am completely exhausted mentally despite having done nothing, that means my subconscious is working.

My subconscious also works on writing the same way.

I’ve been asked many times where I get my ideas from, and my answer is always the...

Originally published on my ko-fi page as subscriber-only post on August 27

I was talking to a fellow author, Tessa Hastjartanto today, when it struck me. Children is the question; Land is the answer.

My cPTSD therapy has ended three weeks ago. Since then, I have been doing things that have been nowhere near my reach (“comfort zone” LOLOLOL) for, often, six years. Today, for instance, I went out to lunch with Tessa, unaccompanied, at an actual cafe, and it was our first ever 3D meeting. So, techn...

[Note: this post has been originally written a day before Melon 1) endorsed Tr*mp as his dream US president, 2) two days before the news about him donating $45 million a month to his campaign – Melon called the  figure ‘total gnus’  which I suppose means more than that?), 3) four days before the addition of ‘raining American flag emojis’ to the #tr*mp2024 and other related hashtags: “the first time X has added a custom hashtag icon in a partisan matter promoting a specific candidate”. Food for tho...

So, it’s official. After mere three years of delays, Land will be with you on November 5 (unless life starts happening again, which is why you didn’t get it on November 5, 2021…)

I got so used to saying ‘the sequel to Children‘ that I nearly forgot that The Ten Worlds is a series. (Updating the website will be a bit of a pain.) Some of what follows are spoilers for Children, so in case you haven’t read that one yet and intend to, close this page and don’t read further…

Land ...

This post originally appeared on my ko-fi on May 25

Since 2022, May has always been my worst month, sales-wise. (I know that’s a grand total of two Mays, but 2020-2021 were great years for indie authors.) May 2024 is my actual worst month ever*. It’s May 17th as I am writing this. I have, so far, sold one book – a single copy of Storytellers. If not for my Ko‑fi supporters (thank you SO much!) my writing-related income this month would be €3.32. I spend €9.99 a month on the aggregate app that al...

I’ve spent almost all of 2023 writing, even though it might seemed like I hid from the world (I have). If you like any of my books so far, good news follows! (I’m really looking forward to having TWO books in ANY series…)

It’s happening. A few months ago, on a Thursday, someone asked me if there will ever be one, and I said no – I just didn’t have any ideas. I’d have to force myself to squeeze something out and it wouldn’t be very good. Then I had a dream. (Which is actu...