Yesterday was Infinite Possibilities Day. I love that word. Possibilities. In fact, it may be my favorite word. Doesn’t it just sing of magical unknown treasures and adventure as it rolls off the tongue? I picture each day as a vast space filled with boxes of all sizes and shapes. Some […]
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Take Time to Build the Layers
This morning saw the end of more than fifty hours of low, thick fog surrounding my house. By noon, the last traces of it disappeared, revealing a cold, gray sky. Weather forecasters said layers of snow created the fog. And the lack of any trace of sunlight for three days kept it in place. That […]
Riding the Story Flow
Have you ever had the bulk of a new story drop into your consciousness while you teetered on the edge of sleep? It happens to me every once in a while, and that’s what I experienced a couple of nights ago. I wasn’t planning to start a new manuscript. I wasn’t even looking for a […]
It All Began With an Idea
Everything that’s moved our world ahead, and some events that have moved civilization backwards, began with an idea. One night, sitting beside a campfire on a grassy savannah, a caveman had an idea to make bringing home the sabre-tooth-tiger-bacon easier. Refining his idea several times, he experimented with chipped rocks, laced one to a straight stick, […]
When the Story Runs Wild
Have you ever had one of the days where the story and your characters want to journey anywhere except where you planned to take them? Well, that’s the way it’s going for me today. Like wrestling with a greased pig. Every time I think I have all those thrashing little hooves pinned down, they slip […]
Holidays Inspire Stories
Around the world people are celebrating. Some, the birth of a child in a stable. Others, a day of gifts and gatherings with family and friends. Others celebrate their own beliefs in traditional festivities. No matter what you celebrate, or who you celebrate with, enjoy this season of goodwill. And while you are unwrapping presents, […]
Take Your NaNo Skills for a Test Run
More than 170,000 writers are lining up in the starting gates at NaNoWriMo, blowing the dust from their computer keyboard, shaking their pens to get the ink flowing. In the less than 48 hours left until the starting bell, wouldn’t you like to check out the race-track? Here’s the challenge: Write a short story for […]
Where the Wild Ideas Play
Still struggling to find your story idea for NaNoWriMo? Don’t you know that somewhere story ideas run and play, wild and free, until some lucky writer manages to lasso one and corral it into his manuscript? Maybe that’s not so crazy. I believe there are an infinite number of ideas available to everyone at all […]
Thinking About Writing
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing. Have you? Have you spent time mentally creating a story, holding plot lines to the light, shifting them here or there, looking for the best fit? Have you focused your attention on where you’re going? Don’t be in a rush to whip through your manuscript. It takes time […]
Rejections Pave the Road to Publication
A new writer friend and I were chatting the other day and the conversation turned to rejection slips. We agreed that while having a manuscript or article rejected really isn’t a personal dig from the editor or agent, it sometimes feels that way. Because I’d been doing this for a while, I told her that […]