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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Dec 10

Three popular posts about fueling your writing through journaling

I was on a reorganizing binge recently and realized I had way too many notebooks, even for me, a notebookaholic. They’re full of notes from writing workshops and observations about life that I felt compelled to write down in case I could turn them into a story or poem. My next rainy day project is to review them and pull out the ideas to spark some new writing. If you’re like me and love journals, you might like these blog post from our archives.

A twist on the writer’s journal: The commonplace book is another approach to creating a journal.

Writing in a journal is a powerful way to create the bits and pieces that become literature. See how these writers did it.

For excellent tips about using a journal to record our evolution as writers, read, Two great reasons to keep a writing journal.

Dec 4

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Liberate your writing mind with these prompts

Some people think writing exercises are a waste of time. I heard one writer once say, “just write your story.” But I’ve found that writing prompts can be a doorway for something surprising – an intriguing plot or the birth of a character.

In one writing workshop I attended, participants were instructed to write about the tools they needed to do their job. I didn’t expect anything compelling but found that as I wrote, the words picked up steam, spilling out a very emotional essay about a story I had reported on as a journalist.

Since then, I’ve collected interesting exercises and think of them as warm-ups when I need to flex my writing muscles. As I was doing some reorganizing recently, I ran across a favorite book called The Write-Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing, by Bonnie Neubauer.

Here are a couple exercises from “The Write-Brain Workbook.”

Exercise 1 – Spoiled Rotten Read more

Dec 3

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Translating Nanowrimo success into your daily writing life

Congratulations to everyone who completed NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month– where writers around the world commit to writing a 50,000-word novel during the month of November)!  This was the first year I completed NaNoWriMo. I started it last year, but gave up after falling behind in my first week.

The best part of the entire process was learning more about who I am as a writer.

Before NaNoWriMo, I suffered constant interruptions (both business and personal) that left me with many days, often leading into weeks, where no writing got done.  With NaNoWriMo on my calendar for the month of November, I cleared the decks and made announcements among my family and friends of my intentions. I pictured clear skies and smooth sailing for my journey. Nobody would interrupt me and nothing would get in my way. Read more

Nov 30

Do you fear writing? Try these tips

Do you ever fear writing? I think fear can be a sign we care: the stakes are high and we want to get the words right. We want the plot to work and characters that grip our readers.

Being scared of writing is not the same thing as not being a good writer, writes Jennifer Watkins at A Different Daylight. Watkins, (@ladyfuchsia) writes about why she’s scared of writing (and tells a story about a famous writer who also feared writing).

In his guest post on the blog “Make a Living Writing,” Ollin Morales offers tips in The Definitive Guide to Overcoming Your Writing Fears.

At Men with Pens, Agent X writes in the post, 7 Deadly Fears of Writing – Part 1 of 8 that, “many creative people often scare themselves out of a good project before they even put a pen to paper.” He suggests Your Writing Coach, a book by writer and coach Jurgen Wolff, that works as an antidote to transforming your inner critic into a constructive guide.

Nov 28

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The holidays are upon us: Tips for writing a letter to friends and family

It’s that time of year. Time to dress up the dog in a Christmas sweater, sprinkle tinsel on a tree, and write the beloved holiday letter. Just in case you’re at a loss for what to write about, here are a few prompts:

Milestones — Note anything you’ve knocked off your bucket list (if you don’t have a bucket list, start one!). In her letter last year, one friend reported her twins had graduated from college.

Life changes — How have you changed in the past year and how did the changes come about?

Plans for the future — What are your hopes and plans for the future? Give your readers a sneak peek of life to come.

For even more ideas and insight about writing holiday letters, check out my Apply your writerly skills to a holiday letter post from last year.

Nov 27

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In memory of Precious: 30 authors inspired by their feline pals

We’re sad today at One Wild Word because we lost Precious Chase, one of Carol’s cat’s affectionately known as “PC.”

Precious died Monday after blessing us with her presence for 14 years.

In honor of PC and the inspiration cats everywhere give their writer pals, we’re sharing this link from BuzzFeed.com: 30 Renowned Authors Inspired by Cats. You’ll find lovely photos of writers and their cats, as well as quotes.

In this earlier post, Carol writes about her cats as muses.

We’ll miss you PC.

Nov 26

Follow your creative instincts: It worked for Francis Ford Coppola

I’m all for listening to good advice, the value of critique groups, and feedback in general. But in the end, you must follow your own creative instincts.

Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, The Godfather II, and The Godfather III, as well as many other movies, had creative differences with movie studio Paramount Pictures during the making of The Godfather. For one thing, he disagreed with Paramount about casting the movie. Coppola wanted to cast Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, while Paramount wanted Ernest Borgnine or Danny Thomas.

At one point, Coppola was told by Paramount: “Marlon Brando will never appear in this motion picture.” After pushing back, Coppola was allowed to cast Brando, but only if he met certain conditions. Read more

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