Do you ever find something online that just sticks with you? It could be an article, a tweet, or just a meme. Maybe it was funny or heartwarming or even triggered a negative emotion, but something about it just wouldn’t let you go? Continue reading “Finding Inspiration and Running with It”
Tag: Inspiration
Haiku Sunday – Weird
“Weird”
Noir and strange collage,
uncommon inspiration,
worthy of dreams.
Steve D
September Writing Goals and Recap
I thought I got away with putting off writing this post for an extra week since the last day of August fell on a Monday, my usual post day. But then my procrastination bit me in the butt as work and childcare duties suddenly intensified this last week and I watched this first Monday of September fly by. But here I am – better late with my goals post than never!
Recapping August Goals (original post linked HERE):
August Writing Goals and Recap
That sound you just heard was July whooshing by and now it is August. I confess I did nothing towards my writing goals (with the exception of posting here regularly) until the last week of July. I co-procrastinated (if that’s not a word, it should be) those alongside a work writing project that had a hard submission deadline at the end of July. But! I got everything in on time (well, more or less).
Recap of July Goals (linked here for accountability purposes):
1. Keep posting here on Mondays and on my other blog, Illustrated Poetry, on Tuesdays.
Did this! At least one post per week on each blog. Didn’t adhere to the precise day of the week so much on my other blog, but eh.
2. Rewrite the first chapter of Enjoinjure.
This I put off until the absolute last minute. I do mean opening the file on July 30 and working on it on July 31. I’m fudging a little because I didn’t really attempt to smooth out and combine the new bits with the old bits until this weekend, which is technically August.
3. Put together an outline for my current untitled story.
I did do this!
I kept the bar low on these writing goals, I know. But overall it worked – I finally addressed that first chapter, which I had been actively avoiding.
July Writing Goals
As someone who has never been good about setting, let alone completing, writing goals – oh the NaNoWriMos that have come and gone! – I am hoping that the coronavirus lockdown and all the introspection that it has inspired will spill over into these, my first publicly blogged about WRITING GOALS: Continue reading “July Writing Goals”
Exercise 2: Am I Saramago
Steve’s post last week on his progress towards his goals was very inspirational. So I confess: I’ve never been good about setting writing goals. Partly because I have abysmal time management skills, but also because in the past I would write in fits and starts. I would plunge into a story and write for hours, day after day, and then when something would come up or the plotting/story would get hard, it would be weeks or months (or never – okay, pretty much never) until I would come back to it. I no longer have the luxury to write for hours on any day, let alone any sort of marathon burst of creativity. Life has forced me to write a little each day (only other option: none at all) and actually, this has served to turn the unsustainable torrents into more of a reasonable trickle. Circumstance-enforced discipline, I suppose. So maybe it is time to retry Writing Goals.
One goal I have had in the last month is to post here on Mondays – and so to keep achieving goal number one, here is the next exercise from Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft book. This is from Chapter 2, the chapter on Punctuation and Grammar. She calls this exercise a “pure consciousness-raiser” about the value of punctuation.
Continue reading “Exercise 2: Am I Saramago”
Exercise 1 part 2: A strong emotion
The last week has been so weighted, so heavy with sorrow and yet growing with hope too. With current events still in the front of my mind, I’ve tried to resume some artistic activities. So, a day late, but here it is – the next writing exercise from Steering the Craft.
Background: I’ve been working through Ursula K. Le Guin’s excellent Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story. Always glad for feedback or comments! (And if you feel inspired to join in – even better!!)
From Chapter 1: The Sound of Your Writing
“Part 2: In a paragraph or so, describe an action or a person feeling a strong emotion – joy, fear, grief. Try to make the rhythm and movement of the sentences embody or represent the physical reality you’re writing about. ” -Steering the Craft, Page 9.
This one definitely didn’t come from personal experience – no lotto jackpots here!
2020 Reading List – so far!
This is my first post in a very long time – so thank you to Steve and Jessie for letting me sneak back into the show! This year for the first time I decided to actually keep track of how many (and what) books I read. I consider myself a fairly prolific reader, but have no quantification of what that means. I am hoping to read about 20 books this year. We are almost halfway through 2020 (yikes) and so this seemed like a good time to check in with my list and see where it is at. This list only includes books that I finished. I admit, I abandon quite a few books partway through: those don’t get to be on “the list.”
On Actually Having a Positive Impact
The high school creative writing class I visited a couple weeks ago wrote a thank you card for me!
Friday Write-Day: The Joy of Writing
Sometimes, inspiration comes, not when you least expect, but in the manner you least expect.
Evening Satellite Publishing 