Chicken Soup for the Soul Submissions

Guess who is looking for submissions? Yep, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Contact them at
http://www.chickensoup.com/form.asp?cid=possible_books

Here's what they say:

We're looking for stories!

We have many Chicken Soup for the Soul® books in development and are adding new titles all of the time. We are always looking for new stories and poems and hope you have some for us to consider. Take a look at the list of our future book topics to see if you have a story or poem on a subject we are looking for and then please submit it to us.

If you have a great story or poem you want to submit but we are not collecting for that topic at this time, please save it and check back with us soon. Our list of Possible Books Topics is added to frequently and hopefully, in the near future, we will add a topic that will be a perfect fit for your story or poem.

We prefer that you submit your stories only once, but if you believe your story fits in more than one book topic, please indicate which other topics you have submitted it for in the Comments line on the submission form. You can submit your story by going to the link at the bottom of the page. Thanks!

Here Are Our Future Topics:


Independent Woman
Whether you are single or married, widowed, or divorced, you are in charge of your life and the lives of many other people. Tell us your story about running your independent life, achieving independence, and being a complete person. We are referring to all kinds of independence, not just financial or emotional. Share your story of empowerment and independence to help women of all ages feel stronger, more capable, and more confident. The deadline date for story and poem submissions is July 31, 2012

Inspiration for Writers
Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, books or articles, paranormal or romance, the process is equally challenging. Thus, it's important to learn from others who have made the transition from dreaming about writing to being a writer. If this describes you, we want to hear about your setbacks, breakthroughs, and successes. How did you overcome writer's block? Who or what encouraged you when you were about to give up? When did you realize that your story was ready to be shared with the world? This is your opportunity to help other writers -- published and unpublished -- draw inspiration and learn from your journey to publication (including self-publishing and blogging). The deadline date for story and poem submissions is June 30, 2012.

New Friends
Throughout our lives we meet new people and social circles change. Sometimes we have to say goodbye to friends and make new connections. We are looking for stories about men and women making new friends. Whether it was a move, a divorce, or a friendship that failed, share your stories about finding new friends. What led you to form new relationships? How did you go about it? This book will encourage and support other adults who are looking to expand their circle of friends. Funny stories are great too. We are not looking for teen or preteen stories for this book, just stories from people over 18. The deadline date for story and poem submissions is March 31, 2012.

Parenthood
They always say it's the best job and the worst job. But basically it's the best! We are looking for your stories about parenting - the hard work, the joy, the unconditional love, the funny times and the occasional sad ones too. Whether you're a new parent of one or an "experienced" parent of several, by birth, by marriage, by adoption, or by fostering, tell us your stories about parenthood. Funny stories, stories that will make us tear up, stories with nuggets of great advice - all your anecdotes are welcome. The deadline date for story and poem submissions is June 30, 2012.

The Power of Positive
Everyone knows about the power of positive thinking. After the success of our book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive, we are ready to make another book full of stories about how you changed your life, solved a problem, or overcame a challenge through a positive attitude, counting your blessings, or an epiphany of some kind. Tell us your success story about using the power of positive! The deadline date for story and poem submissions is April 30, 2012

Thank you!

SO, GET WRITING!

A Slice of Writer's Life: Submissions News

Joy E. Held
Editor
Submissions Manager

The indie publisher is gaining traction in our business, and that's good news for authors! Look at these indie publishers actively seeking submissions at the moment.


1. Martin Sisters Publishing is relatively new and open to non-fiction and fiction inspirational and Christian writing.


http://www.martinsisterspublishing.com/ Click on Aspiring Authors.



***


2. Secret Cravings Publishing is open to submissions for a new series called "Love On A Plane". As long as the story includes a plane (or air travel of some kind) and a happily-ever-after-ending, they want to see your manuscript. Any time period, any length.

http://www.secretcravingspublishing.com/



***


3. Surely you've heard that e-monster Amazon is now in the publishing business, and we're not talking about their self-publishing avenue. In fact, there are six new lines at Amazon Publishing covering a wide range of genres.

http://www.amazon.com/amazonpublishing


The newest Amazon genre is romance:

montlake-submissions@amazon.com


Would you like assistance with your submissions? Talk to me! We have several options and very reasonable rates.


Joy@Inspirationforwriters.com

Meanwhile, don't forget to check out my book available online and from Who Dares Wins Publishing http://www.whodareswinspublishing.com/

I will be in Huntington, West Virginia Monday, April 23 as a featured author at the Ohio River Festival of Books 2012.

http://www.ohioriverbooks.org/

If your Huntington area group would like a workshop or book discussion with yours-truly while I'm in the neighborhood, contact me soon.

I will be in Cincinnati, Ohio June 1-2 as a featured editor at the Lori Foster Reader and Author Get Together.

http://www.lorifoster.com/

If your Cincinnati area group would like to schedule a workshop or book discussion while I'm in the neighborhood, contact me soon.

Be well, write well,

Joy

http://www.joyeheld.com/

http://writerwellness.wordpress.com/

"Women with clean houses do not have finished books." ~Joy E. Held

A Slice of Writer's Life: Platform, Product, and Promotion

"Platform, Product, and Promotion"

By Joy E. Held

PLATFORM, PRODUCT, AND PROMOTION. Write these three words on a slip of paper and tape them to your forehead. Okay, tape them somewhere around your writing space so they will always be on your mind. Why? Because we write to connect, and these three words should serve as your launching pad for everything you think, write, and do as a writer.

Platform is your message, the reason you write. Yes, even fiction writers have a purpose for writing their stories. Platform isn't only for non-fiction writers. It's all about connecting with readers, and platform provides a reliable jumping off point regardless of genre. It helps identify not only the story basis and background, but it helps writers find those specific readers who will most enjoy your story. For example, if you write sweet contemporary romance (which is your product, by the way,) you wouldn't search for readers, reviewers, or publishers whose main interest is paranormal urban fiction. Having platform guides you to like-minded souls who will appreciate and support your work.

Product is obviously the book(s) you write and publish. But product expands beyond just your books. It includes a website devoted to your product(s), a blog where you connect and conceive with your ideas on issues, and the opportunities you have to promote your writing such as presenting at writer's conferences or speaking to local groups, i.e., public speaking. And this ties you into the promotions aspect of the package.

Promotions are non-stop for writers and include regular "get the word out" efforts in your blog, speaking engagements, newsletters, direct snail mail campaigns, and bookmarks to name a few. The idea is to have a cohesive approach and appearance and you need platform, product, and promotion to be a writer in the fast paced world of contemporary publishing.

How do you start? With your writing, of course, but from there try writing out a one or two sentence statement about why you write what you write. This is your platform. Work diligently on your manuscript(s) and get a website and blog up and running or back in gear if you've already created them and let them slide. This is your product. Last, stay active in the world of writing and publishing by blogging on a regular schedule (whatever you can manage, anything is better than nothing,) attending writing events (at least one per year,) and spending whatever your tiny budget will allow on promotional materials such as business cards. This is your promotion.

For a website/blog, try blogger (this host) or wordpress.

For business cards and post cards try Vista Print.

Would love to hear your thoughts on platform, product, and promotion. If you can see around the piece of paper taped on your forehead, please tell me about the ideas you've tried.

Many thanks to the concepts of authors Bob Mayer, Jen Talty, and Kristen Lamb.

Be well, write well,

Joy

Writer Wellness, A Writer's Path to Health and Creativity

http://writerwellness.wordpress.com/

http://www.joyeheld.com/

Copyright 2012 Joy E. Held

Submissions News

Steampunk calls for submissions

by Joy E. Held

IFW Submissions Manager

If you aren’t on the steampunk bandwagon yet, don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to write your story and get it published. Steampunk isn’t showing any signs of slowing down for the new year. The genre is still going “full steam” (I couldn’t resist) ahead. What is steampunk and who’s looking for your writing?

Does your story clank with inventions, have energized time travel involved, or perhaps some space exploration? Do your characters resemble heroes from the wild west but they employ unusual gadgets with gears? And have you submitted your story only to hear, “Sorry, it isn’t right for us”? You may be writing a steampunk genre novel and submission success lies in knowing where to send the manuscript. There are several small to medium publishers calling, begging, or screaming at a decent decibel level for steampunk work.

For the unsure at this point, check out this genre definition for more about what we’re talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

http://www.steampunk.com/what-is-steampunk/


There are a couple more general steampunk resource sites below for further investigation.

A. If your steampunk novel includes a romance (happy ending or not,) Carina Press, a Harlequin company, wants to read your stuff asap but they will probably take about three months to get back to you.

http://carinapress.com/blog/2011/10/carina-press-call-for-submissions/

B. Got a great steampunk novel full of gadgets and flying dirigibles? Untreed Press is the place to submit.

http://www.untreedreads.com/?p=1534

C. Can’t let go of the vampire sucking thing but it’s set in a time period no one else seems to want to touch because your vampire is also a Victorian inventor? Blacksails Press has the desire to read your manuscript for a 2012 anthology coming out soon.

http://blacksailspress.com/Submissions.html

For up-to-date info and general hanging around with like-minded nineteenth century literary innovators check out these sites:

http://www.steampunk.com/

http://steampunkwriters.ning.com/

Whenever you have a finished novel in any genre, contact me here at IFW and let’s talk about making your completed manuscript the dream come true for an editor soon.

Be well, write well,
Joy E. Held

Writer Wellness, A Writer’s guide to Health and Creativity
Who Dares Wins Publishing

http://writerwellness.wordpress.com/

Copyright Joy E. Held 2012

Why Not eBay?

We at Inspiration for Writers have done something we've never done before and most likely will never do again. But we've done it for the fun of it, for the excitement of it. We've done it as a special Christmas gift to some lucky writer out there. What have we done? Are you sitting down? We are offering a gift certificate for the detailed edit and critique of a book-length manuscript (fiction or nonfiction, your choice, up to 100,000 words) on eBay. The starting bid is just ONE DOLLAR. There is no reserve. If there's only one bid, well, the winner will get a gift certificate worth up to three thousand dollars for that buck. Yep. For real.

The winner will also get the same personal care and professional quality we give every client.

Want to know more? Better yet, want to submit a bid? Just go to
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290646489420#ht_2703wt_1038. If you have any problems with the link, go to ebay.com and search for item number 90646489420.

And if you still have problems, email me: sandytritt@gmail.com.

But whatever you do, hurry. The auction will end on Wednesday, Dec. 21. That's in TWO DAYS. Or less, depending on when you're reading this.

Please help us get the word out by passing this on to your writing groups, list-serves, blogs, enews, etc. Thank you!



If you prefer a more traditional approach (or a guarantee you'll "win"), we are also offering gift certificates of any amount for any of our services. You can visit our website at http://www.inspirationforwriters.com/products/giftcs.html to order one yourself, or you can email me and I'll help you. We can email gift certificates so they'll arrive in time for Christmas, or, if you prefer, we'll gift wrap and drop ship for you. Yes, we'll even include a hand-written card personalized just for you. The good part? You'll get a 5% discount! Order a $100 gift certificate and pay just $95. Save $50 on a $1000 certficate. Certificates can come in any denomination, so you can make it fit your budget.You can also order a gift certificate good for a specific service instead of a monetary value. Email me and we can figure out the specifics and make sure you get exactly what you want. The best part? You can order one for yourself! It's a great gift to give--or to receive. This offer ends on December 23, so hurry.

Now, go enjoy your day and start the new year off right.

God bless us, every one.

All Work and No Play Makes a Dull Writer

by Guest Blogger Karin Gillepsie

Have you ever read the work of a young, uncorrupted writer? It’s like venturing into a jungle: Fresh. Green. Wild. Monkeys beating their furry chests. Parrots shrieking. Anacondas curling around trees. A chaos of creativity.

Such a writer is ruled almost entirely by her subconscious. The subconscious—let’s call her Crazy Daisy—doesn’t know the difference between a gerund and a dangling participle; she only cares about expressing herself. Writing is play, not work.

Unfortunately, Crazy Daisy, charming as she is, has a problem: her work meanders like a toddler strewing petals at a wedding; she needs to be reigned in.
Enter Ms. Grind.

Ms. Grind Cares About the Rules

She’ll tell Crazy Daisy that a sentence can’t run on for three pages or that exclamation points shouldn’t be showered over a page like pepper. She’s so bossy and judgmental she frightens away Crazy Daisy. Ms. Grind doesn’t care; she doesn’t needs that wild little girl hanging around anyway. Yet when she tries to have fun with her prose, it’s scary, like having Dick Cheney ask you to pull his finger. Most of her writing comes out freeze-dried and soulless.

Fact is, all writers are slightly schizophrenic, their minds divided between Crazy Daisy and Ms. Grind. We usually start out dominated by Crazy Daisy but once we immerse ourselves into the sea of endless writing rules, Ms. Grind tends to take over.

Can Crazy Daisy and Ms. Grind live harmoniously in a writer’s head? In other words, is it possible to create prose that’s technically proficient but also has passion, wonder, and playfulness? Yes, but only if you allow Crazy Daisy and Ms. Grind to play to their strengths.

New Ideas Usually Come from Crazy Daisy

You’re taking a walk or daydreaming and suddenly . . . BAM! You get a great idea. Crazy Daisy, impetuous minx, wants to start writing immediately. It’s like she has a case of diarrhea. You’ll be tempted to run with her. Don’t do it. Stop and take a moment to diaper the little imp.

Believe it or not, it’s time to bring Ms. Grind into the equation—not to shoot down the idea—but to structure it. Ms. Grinds loves outlines and plans and she’s good at them. After a little structure work, she might find that the idea isn’t workable after all. Sadly, not all of Crazy Daisy’s ideas are golden. She likes to take risks—and some don’t pay off.

In fact, it’s wise to begin every writing session with Ms. Grind and structure your thoughts when you sit down to write, whether to compose a short scene or a brief essay. You’ll satisfy Ms. Grind and give Crazy Daisy some perimeters. T.S. Elliot summarized this process:

When forced to work within a strict framework, the imagination is taxed to its upmost and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom, the work is likely to sprawl.

Keep Ms. Grind Out of Your First Drafts

Once structure’s in place, it's time to let Crazy Daisy loose. Allow her to scribble on walls, turn somersaults or eat paste. Sometimes she might break down structural walls—but that’s okay too. Ms. Grind, however, isn’t allowed in. Why? Because she’ll keep up a steady stream of inner dialogue that sounds something like this:

That sentence was abysmal. It must be fixed immediately. Can’t you do anything right? Who do you think you are, passing yourself as a writer?

Occasionally Crazy Daisy interjects, bringing flashes of brilliance, but mostly it’s Ms. Grind who stands over the writer, wielding her ruler.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Grind doesn’t give up her authority easily. How can you keep her out of your head when you're drafting?

Learn How to Break the Judgment Habit

Most people aren’t aware of the stream of criticism flowing in their minds while they’re writing. Thinking is so fast and transitory, it can be hard to catch Ms. Grind’s endless digs. That why it’s helpful to develop a habit of sitting quietly and meditating for fifteen minutes each day. Ms. Grind will no doubt object, saying, “What a ridiculous idea. Do you realize we’re wasting valuable writing time sitting around doing nothing?”

She’s no dummy. Ms. Grind knows that meditation is the best way to access all of Crazy Daisy’s wild brilliance. Meditation helps you to recognize Ms. Grind’s judgmental thoughts, and to ignore them when you’re drafting a piece.

When Crazy Daisy takes over the draft, watch out, because diamonds and gold nuggets will start shooting out of your computer. BEWARE. Don’t pat yourself on the back because that, too, is a judgment, and any time you make a judgment, you’re issuing an invitation to Ms. Grind. The time for judgment, positive or negative, is in the re-write. Not now.

Writing will suddenly be fun again and as effortless as letting out a whoop of joy. You’ll find yourself falling in love all over again.

One caveat: Crazy Daisy is very messy.

When you go back to revise, you might be horrified at the results. Yes, the writing was intoxicating but the hangover’s a killer. Ms. Grind will say, “I told you so.” Don’t listen to her. Simply ask her to help you clean it up. She’ll balk at first, saying, “If you left things to me there wouldn’t so much clutter.”

True, but neither would there be so much fresh, wild writing. Give it a try and see. It can be a little disorienting. You might not even recognize your own prose. By the way, there’s an easy way to tell which personality dominates your writing. If you love the drafting phase and hate structure and rewriting, Crazy Daisy probably dominates your writing. If you like outlines, loathe the drafting phase and love to polish your prose, you need a T-shirt that says “Team Ms. Grind.”

*If you resisted reading this article, thank Ms.Grind. She’s not interested in articles about making writing fun. It threatens her authority. She much prefers list articles like “Ten Ways To Punch Up Your Dialogue.” They’re useful; this article is a waste of time. Crazy Daisy, indeed.

Karin Gillespie is the author of five novels. Her publisher’s website is http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Karin-Gillespie/20149647.

Stop! Grammar Time!

There are several common grammatical mistakes that haunt everyone: even writers. In order to overcome this grammatical wasteland, you have two choices.
1. You can spend endless time studying, learning and relearning in order to become the world's next great grammarian... OR
2. You can take a look at this quick and easy cheat sheet whenever you have doubts about the the way you've used the words which, that, who, whom, its, it's, whos, or whose. Or if you an unsure about one of those pesky semi-colons

Graphic created and compiled by Stacy Tritt, Brigid Cain, and Kate Scott.

Included in the graphic above are some of the most common grammatical mistakes that people make in writing everyday, and was created and complied by a group of English 304 (Technical Editing) students at West Virginia University.

My First Semester in an MFA Writing Program

by Rhonda Browning White

I had no idea what to expect when I arrived on the idyllic campus of Converse College for my first semester in their MFA in Creative Writing Program. I was nervous about meeting my dorm-mate (Me? Staying in a dorm? With a total stranger? At my age?), who turned out to be a spectacular poet, mother and now my sweet friend. I wondered if I’d be accepted among a group of sixty students, forty-five of whom already had a history together, or if the professors and visiting authors would look down from their lofty positions as they berate my writing. After all, these people were real writers—authors whose names I recognized, whose novels and poetry collections sit on my bookshelves even now.

I needn’t have worried.


These same instructors and brilliant students are now my friends: we touch base via email, follow each other’s daily lives on Facebook, share links to interesting blog links and sometimes chat on the phone about everything from a class assignment to a great novel we’ve read to a recipe you’ve just got to try!


But what is a low-residency program, and what do you do in it, I’m often asked. Well I can’t speak for all of them, but I can tell you about mine. Here’s a typical day in the life of a Converse low-res student:


Breakfast in the dining hall (surprisingly yummy food), begins at seven and lasts until nine, and you are welcome at a table with your cohorts, or you might want to sit with a professor or a visiting author to chat about, oh, anything.


Before the first session of the day begins following breakfast, students can attend one-on-one meetings with their faculty mentor to discuss the semester syllabus, to brainstorm about a current project, or to chat about suggestions for their reading list. On some days, student group meetings are held in this time frame, as well. If students don’t have a scheduled meeting, they’ll often use this for a leisurely chat over coffee, free writing time, strolling the campus grounds (beautiful gardens, impressive statuary and quiet nooks for settling in with a good book).


The day’s first craft lecture follows. Doesn’t this sound boring? I mean, come on, a craft lecture? Let me tell you, these things are amazing! This semester, Dan Wakefield taught us using his late friend Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction, authors Leslie Pietrzyk (my mentor this semester—Yay!) and Marlin Barton gave inspiring lectures on story beginnings and using violence in fiction, and national bestselling author Robert Olmstead lectured on how characters’ thoughts can change the whole direction of a story. Powerful stuff, and these were only a few of the fiction lectures! “But wait,” you say, “do you mean you studied things other than fiction in a fiction program?” Absolutely! One of the reasons I chose Converse is that students are encouraged to attend lectures by professors outside their primary genre. Not only does this present inspiration in directions you might not have considered, but it provides a broader scope should you decide to teach in the future. Hence, I enjoyed seminars by phenomenal poets Denise Duhamel, Suzanne Cleary and Albert Goldbarth. I also benefited from seminars, lectures and readings by guest faculty and speakers, including Brock Clarke and Marshall Jon Fisher and faculty Susan Tekulve and our amazing program director Rick Mulkey.


A leisurely two-hour lunch followed each day’s first seminar, when you’d hear chatter and laughter throughout the dining hall and across the campus as new relationships budded and old friendships grew fonder. Of course, some of this two-hour period was usually spent writing or reading, digesting not only dessert but the instruction and information we’d received in our day’s first lecture.


A walk in the sun across the campus green led us to our afternoon workshop. Workshops are broken into genre—fiction, non-fiction and poetry—and each workshop includes only five to ten students and one or two professors in a roundtable setting. It’s here where the real work occurs, where students watch their skills grow like magic and their writing improve before their eyes. No kidding. I’m still amazed at how much better my writing was on the last day as compared to the first day. Not only were we instructed in methods to improve our work, but we applied those things to our writing and discussed what worked and what didn’t. Workshops were very “hands on,” and over the course of the residency, each student had an hour’s discussion and constructive critique of their own work by the workshop instructors and fellow students. Instructors welcomed our questions and encouraged each student to offer feedback and share their opinions of the selections we read and the writing exercises we completed.


A second stimulating lecture period followed our craft workshop. Some days, these periods consisted of events like a panel discussion of authors or even a sit-down Q & A with Algonquin Publishing’s Executive Editor Chuck Adams. Receiving this kind of insight into the world of publishing is critically advantageous to a developing author’s success and, as students, we were ever aware that we were being provided a “secret map” that will guide us through the tangled jungle of submission and publication.


Dinner (and more laughter) follows this last lecture of the day, then we’re treated to an hour of guest speaker, faculty or student readings. The readings are casual and comfortable, and some of the stories and poems shared take us from hilarity to tears and back again. The night’s readings end with a social hour, which tends to morph into social hours. As our ten-day residency progressed, these social gatherings grew longer as our conversations grew deeper and our friendships became stronger. A few at a time, students and faculty disbursed to grab a snack, study, write, or do a load of laundry. The common areas of the dorm (usually the veranda) always remained a social meeting place, however, even into the wee hours. Get an idea you need to bounce off someone? Head to the veranda. Can’t think of a word you need to complete a rhyme in your sestina? Head to the veranda. Can’t finish your bag of popcorn? Don’t worry, your friends on the veranda will devour it for you. Eventually—sometimes as the sky begins to brighten again—the rocking chairs slow, and the last few upright writers head to their beds and dream of new stories before time to rise and do it all again.


Too soon, our residency ended, but the flame of passion for writing still burns strong as each of us work from home to complete our semester assignments. We study the novels and books on our individualized reading lists. We write critical theory papers about what we’ve read, discerning what works and what doesn’t in those stories, and deciding what we’ve learned that we can apply to our own writing. We also write our own stories or essays or poems—creating packets that we’ll send to our mentor every three or four weeks. We stay in touch with our mentors and our cohorts, and always, we look forward to the next semester, when we’ll be together with our like-minded, creative family at Converse.

Make a Splash with Summer Writing Prompts

by Stacy Tritt

Summer heat fried your writer’s brain? Bust through writer’s block with these fun prompts!

1. First Line Revamp:

Take the first line of one of your old stories, poems, novels or nonfiction piece and try to take it in a new direction. Or, borrow someone else's first line to get you started. Here are a few you can use, but please, don't get in trouble for copyright infringement; make sure to make these your own or credit the author.

· “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

· “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

· “I am an invisible man.” —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

· “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” —Samuel Beckett, Murphy

· “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” –J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

2. Favorite Words Shake-up:

Write down several of your favorite words on small slips of paper, put them in a bag and shake them up. Be sure to include different types of words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives are all good choices.) Draw two or three words out of the bag and see if you can create some fun new lines that will get you started on a new story. Here are some of my favorite words to get you started.

Scissors, Creepy, Eggplant, Ghastly, Skipped, Dropped, Awkward, Guffawed, Lost, Monster, Toe, Outraged, Dangerous, Wandered, Kitten.

So, let’s say you draw the words Scissors, Awkward, and Kitten. You could come up with the lines, “I kept telling Bobby Blackburn that if he didn’t stop running with scissors, a kitten would laugh at him for being awkward. But would he listen? Of course not.”

Now, these lines may sound a little silly, but they just might spark a story: Who is speaking? What sparked the idea that a kitten would laugh at a boy? Is the narrator trustworthy? What really happened? If the answers to those questions don’t spark a story, they might just spark a character—or another situation. The idea here is to get the creative juices flowing, and to get unlikely words to match up.

3. Down with the Weather:

Look out the window right now. Imagine being stuck outside with only three items (any three items you want!) in the current weather. How would you feel, what would you be doing, what would be your emotional responses and physical instincts? Get a vivid picture in your mind of what it would be like, then start writing a scene from one of your character's view point about being stranded in the weather you see outside right now.

4. Point-of-View Switcheroo

Take a story that you’ve already written and change either the point of view OR change the viewpoint character. So if it was originally written in third person, try writing it in either first or second person and vice versa. Or try it from an omniscient narrator. OR, pick a different character as your viewpoint character. Here’s one example:

“Sally ran to the corner, panting.‘Wait! Don’t leave, you jerk! We weren’t done talking yet!”’

This could morph into;

“I ran to the corner, breath tearing at my lungs. ‘Wait!’ I panted, clutching my side. ‘Don’t leave, you jerk! We weren’t done talking yet!”’

The point of this exercise is to revisit your old work and see it from a different angle so you can improve it.

5. Social Network Stew:

If you are a member of a social network like Facebook, Twitter, or even blogs and email, they are a breeding ground for interesting phrases and dialogue. Try to create a conversation between two characters by tweaking random friend’s status updates, tweets, or one-liners from your email inbox. You’ll be amazed at all of the great writing fuel that you overlook just because it appears to be just a normal part of your daily life.

Got your brain cooled off? Or is it just heating up? Now that you’ve got your wheels turning, go hit your word processor, quick! The heat of your summer writing is just getting started.

(c) Inspiration for Writers, Inc., 2011. For more writing tips and techniques, visit our website, InspirationForWriters.com

A Slice of Writer's Life

" Keeping the Well Filled With Creativity"

“So you see, imagination needs moodling—long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”
~Brenda Ueland, author If You Want to Write, A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit

Creative people are dependent on their imaginations. The perpetual answer to, “What if?” fuels the work of artists, choreographers, teachers, writers and anybody who relies on ideas for sustenance. Ideas are generally responses to sensory input from the world we experience day in and day out. If all it takes is the world to stimulate creative ideas, where did the idea of “writer’s block” come from? How is it possible NOT to have something to write about if all we need is experience? Writers become too comfortable in their surroundings and what feels like consistency becomes boredom. Boredom becomes complacency. When the brain is bored it shuts down. When we stop feeding our brains a variety of sensory impulses, we go on autopilot for a while, then the ideas dry up.
In Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way, she describes a process called “filling the well” as the work creative people require on a regular, ongoing basis in order to maintain “focused attention,” or what I call awareness. Many people think they are aware, but most people are secure in their situations because they have created and repeated them over and over until the sensory organs shut down and they think they are experiencing writer’s block. While it’s popular to say you have or have had writer’s block, I think it’s a bunch of whooey. Because if we journal often enough, read plenty, exercise regularly, avoid foods that cause us problems, and engage the world in new ways then writer’s block is a myth. A writer may not have the whole story plotted out or be writing on the work-in-progress every single day, but as long as that writer keeps the keyboard tapping or the pushing the pen or the body and the mind thinking and moving, they are not blocked. Ever. How does it work?
I was in the audience at a book fair several years ago and young adult bestselling author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was answering questions. A young man asked what she did when she had writer’s block. Ms. Naylor responded, “I never have writer’s block. I have writer’s diarrhea. I don’t have time to write all the stories I can think of.” A very prolific writer, Naylor knew that the more she wrote the more she had to write, but everyone gets tired. That’s when the brain needs entertaining and the chance to feed itself with sights, sounds, motions, smells, and feelings it hasn’t experienced recently to shake up the creative juices and get them spilling onto the page again. This is what I refer to as creative play. It’s when a writer takes a leap out into the world and thoughtfully fills her mind with the ideas, arts, and images of other creative people.
It’s more than reading a good book or going to the movies. It’s going to museums, taking walks, taking pictures, doodling in a journal, taking a class in ceramics or ballroom dance, and attending concerts and lectures that open your awareness to the possibilities out there. The practice of creative play or “filling the well” is the opposite of what most writers do all day in their jobs. That’s primarily why it’s such a challenge. Our writing is about us and just us. We manipulate fictional lives and imaginary settings, but creative play demands we go out in the world and gain a new awareness by appreciating the work of other artists. It’s that simple. Appreciate someone else’s work in a deep, thoughtful manner on a regular basis and you will never run out of anything to write.

What do you do to keep the well full of creative juices?

Have you checked out my writer's guide to health and creativity? Writer Wellness, A Writer's Path to Health and Creativity (Who Dares Wins Publishing, 2011, http:whodareswinspublishing.com) is packed with ideas to help you in many ways. Visit my blog to get a taste of how to journal, exercise, relax, eat, and stay creative.

http://writerwellness.wordpress.com/

be well, write well.

JH

(copyright Joy Held 2011)

Buy link:

http://www.amazon.com/Writer-Wellenss-Writers-Health-Creativity/dp/1935712306/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1