Welcome readers,
writers, authors, and bloggers!
We're glad you're here!
It's the First Wednesday of the month; when we celebrate IWSG Day in the form of a blog hop featuring members and guests of
the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Founded by author Alex Cavanaugh (Thank
you, Captain!) and fostered by like-minded associates, IWSG is a comfortable
place to share views and literary news from our perspective writing desks as we
record our journeys. Check out the July newsletter here.
Our awesome co-hosts
this month are: PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre! Feel free to hop around and say hello to
everyone!
The optional question for this month
is: 99% of my story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours
predominantly come from?
I'm reminded of a quote (I'll paraphrase for
brevity) by Orson Scott:
"Everybody walks
past a thousand story ideas every day,"
A few cool and unusual things happened on my way to a job
fair a few weeks ago; I received a great compliment and a strange prompt. There
was also a promise of rain. Thankfully, the praise came first, or I might have
disregarded the prompt to describe my own funeral from the attendees' point of
view. This is going to be so much fun!
I wrote the first 300 words in a parking lot! Later, it took
me longer to decipher my own handwriting than it did to write those words in my
excited state ;-) But the seed was planted and already growing. *In my defense,
Agatha Christie also had terrible handwriting and had to dictate much of her
work ;-)
The compliment was also just the encouragement I needed to
revisit, revise, and at last release
a story (I've left blowing in the wind) to the capable hands of an editor, who
by now must think I've given up and torched the manuscript. Not so. I've just
been…distracted.
So, what do you do when focusing is easier said than done?
Has anyone heard of the "Pomodoro
Technique"? Setting specified writing sessions – or Pomodoro, which is
Italian for tomato - sounds like
something that just might work for me. One
tomato, two tomatoes, three tomatoes, four…It all adds up.
Hemingway's tip for keeping the creativity flowing between
sessions was to stop right in the middle of a scene you can't wait to get back
to. That way, your next session is already in progress, and you're not facing
the dreaded blank what-do-I-write-now page.
Fun Fact:
Author Roald Dahl was a taste-tester for Cadbury Chocolate.
"Hold the
vision, trust the process.”
