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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Jul 1

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Use Camp NaNoWriMo to reach your writing goal this month

Want to write a novel in the month of July? Well, now you can thanks to Camp NaNoWriMo. Based on November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo provides the online support, tracking tools, and hard deadline to help you write the rough draft of your novel in a month… other than November.

Not ready to write a novel in a month? No problem. You can use the support and deadlines of Camp NaNoWriMo to set other big writing goals–edit a manuscript, finish a first draft or finish a second draft. I even know a man who’s going to use this month to write one new poem a day.

Whatever your writing goals this month, check out the website and see how you can use it to reach your targets.

While you’re at it, check out these past links about how to write a novel in a month:

NaNoWriMo or not, boost your word count

How keeping a writing practice list can increase your NaNoWriMo word count

Jun 27

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How to remain an artist once we grow up, part one

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up – Pablo Picasso

This quote by Picasso is touched upon in a delightful Ted Talk given in 2006 by Sir Ken Robinson who says our education system is designed to educate the creativity out of children.

When we’re children we’re curious and play without inhibitions. The world is our secret garden. Once we go to school and become educated, we worry about “making mistakes.” We worry about whether or not we have the “right answers.” This worry about being correct all the time kills our creativity and our spontaneity. Read more

Jun 26

Experience a coffee shop vibe at your desk

Sometimes the world is just too loud. When my blogging partner Carol and I used to meet at various coffee shops to write together, we found that sometimes it worked. Other times, the noise of blenders grinding up Frappuccinos drove us away. We’d dream of creating a writing utopia with just the right amount of quiet to focus and brainstorm ideas.

Some writers like music — with and without words — and others like to work in a quiet zone with just the hum of the refrigerator or traffic whooshing by outside. Still others like the background noise and energy of a cafe. If you like the commotion of a cafe as your writing soundtrack, you might like a website called Coffitivity that offers that coffee shop vibe without leaving your desk. Read more

Jun 24

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Do you write in a lab or a factory?

I’ve always called my writing space, my “writing room.” This room is where I have three bookshelves crammed with books, my table with my computer and office supplies, and my chair and file cabinet. But inspired by this post from Seth Godin, I’ve decided to call my writing room my “writing lab.”

We work either at a lab or a factory, Godin says. People who work in labs are searching for breakthroughs at the risk of making mistakes because making failures helps us learn what works, he says.

Factories are all about churning things out – Twinkies, car parts, widgets – in the most efficient possible way. Read more

Jun 17

Find writing success in small, daily actions

It is a universal law that you must express your power

or the power will turn against you. What do you choose? 

—Michele Jamal, Shape Shifters:

Shaman Women in Contemporary Society

The above is one of my favorite quotes because it reminds me to express my power or be my “gift” each and every day. We all have gifts—a light that we uniquely bring to the world—but we don’t always display or use our gifts.

Recently, I was reading “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy, the publisher of Success magazine, and realized how easy it is to ride along in life and not make the daily little choices we need to make in order to allow our gifts to shine. I spent much of my early adult life just going with the flow and letting others make choices for me. Because I wasn’t proactively living my life, life was living me.

You know what I mean and, if you don’t, here are some examples:

  • Did I really inhale that bag of potato chips without even thinking about it? Read more

Jun 13

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Challenge your writing mind with free online short story and poetry classes

I’m a learning junkie, so I’m always excited to find new resources.

A One Wild Word reader alerted me to Academic Earth, which features a collection of free online courses from top universities, including MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

While it’s not the same as sitting in the classroom, and you don’t receive college credit, you’ll find class notes, suggested reading, and videos of lectures.

Here are several classes in the humanities category:

Writing and Reading Short Stories

Modern Poetry

The American Novel Since 1945

While you’re at it, check out this 2-minute video about the late Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451: A Novel.

Jun 12

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Immerse readers in your stories by using micro details

Have you ever analyzed which qualities of a piece of writing draw you into a story?

One way writers can immerse readers into their stories is by using micro details. Something about these details makes a setting or character so real and authentic that the reader can’t help but sink into the story. Read more

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