Where readers, writers, and stories meet.
November is nigh. It’s time to decide. Are you jumping into National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year?
Last year was my first shot at National Novel Writing Month. I didn’t get very far at 11,654 words, but I still found NaNo a valuable experience. As I mentioned in a previous post, last year’s NaNoWriMo really pushed me to look at my writing process and figure out this whole outlining of the novel business. Continue reading “Who’s doing NaNoWriMo this year?”
It’s hard to believe summer is over already. So much for all of that writing I meant to do this summer. I only taught one course over the summer semester, and that was online so I never actually had to BE anywhere. I did a bit of freelance writing, but the work was hard to get this summer for some reason. I had a lot of time to write, yet somehow couldn’t ever seem to get anything done. Now that I’m back to school with a full-time teaching schedule, I suddenly have all sorts of material begging to be written. It seems I need chaos in my life in order to write. Continue reading “I Need Chaos to Write”
When I was a kid, my great grandma, Wilma, always had a quilt in the making, stretched out in her big quilt rack. She probably made hundreds of quilts in her lifetime, but I unfortunately never got my hands on one for myself.
Last summer, at my family’s annual Christmas in July celebration (there’s too many of us to try to get everyone together around the holidays… July just seems to work better for us!) one of my aunts came armed with a box load of Grandma Wilma’s quilt blocks, all framed, as gifts for the family.
My aunt had come across a box of unfinished quilt blocks and had thought long and hard about what to do with them. She wanted to share them with as many of us as possible, so putting them together into quilts was out of the question. Like I said, there are a lot of us (my dad has 11 brothers and sisters living… I think… I always lose count!) Continue reading “Framing Great Grandma’s quilt blocks”
If you’re a teacher or student (or both, like me,) your head is probably about to explode from all of the recent end-of-year academic activities. So, for today’s Wednesday Writing Prompt, I thought it might be appropriate to pick something fun and light to write about. Of course, if you’re in the mood for deep and dark, you could probably take it that way too. Here goes:
Without looking, reach into a drawer, any drawer, in the room in which you are right this moment. (If you’re in a public place or someone else’s home, you may want to ask for permission first.) Pull out the first item you can get your hands on. Remember, don’t look in the drawer or look for a particular item. Instead, I want you to grab one random item Continue reading “Writing prompt: Pick an object”
As a high school student, I always hated it when my literature teachers insisted that we identify the themes and motifs of the stories we read. However, as an adult, I have found that my life is laced with a few distinct recurring themes and motifs.
For today’s Wednesday Writing Prompt, I invite you to take a look at your own life and consider what themes and motifs seem to appear most frequently. Then choose one of these themes (and/or motifs) and write an essay, short story, or poem that explores the impact of this theme on your life.
You might also consider how the themes and motifs from your everyday life influence your writing in general. For example, do you often find yourself incorporating these same themes into each piece? Continue reading “Themes and motifs in everyday life”
Yesterday I promised that I was going to begin to share a writing prompt on Wednesdays here on my blog. So, without further ado, here is today’s prompt:
Do you consider yourself a “real” writer? Why or why not? What makes a writer?
For today, I chose a topic that will likely make a better essay or blog post than a short story. However, I think it’s a topic we should all be considering if we take our writing seriously. Continue reading “Wednesday Writing Prompt: Are you a real writer?”
Earlier this week, my 12-year-old came home from school with a booklet of poems he’d written for his English class. They’d read the book, Far North, by Will Hobbs, and had to write several poems about the book in a variety of forms.
I was more than just a little impressed with some of the poems my son had written, so I asked him if I could share one on my blog for Poetry Friday, which is sponsored this week by Random Noodling. This is the poem he chose for me to share:
Could you see that plane fly by
Like a bird
In the sky
Now the plane is going down
The bush pilot Clint was never found
~By Corbin DesJardins
And I wanted to share one more. This place poem was one of my favorites in Corbin’s collection: Continue reading “Corbin’s poems about Far North”
It’s April. The poetic vibes fill the air as our collective minds turn themselves to poetry for National Poetry Month. I haven’t shared anything for Poetry Friday in several weeks, but I’d like to get back in the habit, at least for this month.
I wrote a lot of poetry last fall while taking a course in writing poetry for children and young adults, but I haven’t written much since. I’ve noticed that if I’m reading poetry regularly, the poems flow from my pen (or keyboard) with little effort. But, when I’m not reading poetry regularly, I just get the occasional snippet. And if I don’t sit down right away and work that snippet into a full poem, it just sits in my pretty poetry notebook and goes to waste. Continue reading “April is National Poetry Month”
For this week’s Poetry Friday, hosted by Writing the World for Kids, I am sharing another original poem. This is a rough draft I think could use some revisions, so I would love to hear any feedback you might have on how to make it better. I am especially having some problems with the rhythm in a couple of these lines. Please post your feedback in the comments below.
Red painted church marm in a
white Grand Prix
squeals around the corner and
glares at me. Continue reading “Poetry Friday: Church on Time”
Today I’m writing a story about something that happened to me about 13 years ago. I don’t know how you feel about the passing of time, but for me, 13 years is a LONG time ago. So, I can remember major details, but some of those minor details have me questioning my memory. In this particular story, there is a nasty fight and an unfortunate incident with an apple pie. But I can’t, for the life of me, remember which happened first. Dilemma, dilemma.
So, what do you do when you’re writing about something that actually happened but can’t remember such important details? And what if you can remember the details, but the story works better if you rearrange events? I’m not writing a memoir, simply using actually happenings as the basis for a short story I’ll pass off as fiction. All names will be changed to protect the identities of those involved, of course. Continue reading “What happened first: The fight, or the apple pie incident?”
Write on the World 