2024 - October - A Prompt Challenge

 

Give your imagination a break from story writing.

Taking a time-out and doing a writing prompt can invigorate the subconscious. So this month, I challenge you to do one or both of the following writing prompts. Keep either under 100 words if possible. Any genre, any writing style. Think outside the box, but most of all, let yourself have some writing fun. 

6-Word Challenge Prompt - autumn, orange, gargantuan, burnt, muddle, bole (either the clay pigment or the wood of a tree)

Writing Challenge Prompt  - While walking in the park, you encounter a gnome, a witch, and a robot under a park bench. What happens next?

Let me know how your prompt turned out. 

Happy Autumn! Happy Writing!

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2024 - September - WRT#13

 

This month, I am not going to discuss a craft or industry topic but promote a very worthwhile Western Pennsylvania event for writers— 

The Writer's Road Trip is now in its twelfth year. 

It is an in-person, one-day writing conference held in Erie PA and is hosted by Area 1 Pennwriters, who are part of Pennwriters Inc. https://pennwriters.org/ (founded in 1988).

At this mini-conference, there will be three learning tracks. I will be giving two workshops, one on pitching to an editor/agent and one on the perplexities of paragraphing.

Rather than expound on why you should consider attending this conference, the event coordinators have already done that at their website —   https://www.writersroadtrip.com/ 

At their website, you'll also find the list of the conference speakers, the topics, and how to register for the event (lunch is included).

I hope to see you in Erie on Oct. 5. Oh, and if you come, look me up in the Hospitality Room and say hello.

P.S. — SPREAD THE WORD!  Permission is given to re-post and share this event on your social media and, especially, tell your fellow writers.  

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2024 - August - DOG DAYS OF SUMMER WRITING

 This is August. The last month of summer. 

Usually it's hot and dry, and thus you'll hear the expression "dog days of summer."

However, the Farmer's Almanac lists the modern dog days as lasting forty days from July 3 to August 11. Curious, I googled the subject* to learn the history of dog days. 

It seems when the constellation Sirius appeared in the sky near the end of July, that marked the beginning of the hottest days of the year. The Romans dubbed this period "dies canicular" or "days of the dog star," which was eventually translated to simply "dog days." 

But time passes and the earth rotates, thus that dog star isn't in the same position the Romans and Greeks saw it. It's moved, and will continue to move as time advances. One day it will become the dog days of winter.

What's the dog days of summer got to do with writing? For me, it means I'm not writing.

I'm not writing because this is my favorite time of the year—Fair Season. 

The writing goes on hold in favor of fair French fries, ox-roast sandwiches, peach pie, junk fries, lemonade. There's the carny sounds of dozens of vendors, the music of the Ferris wheel, the clink of the ring toss on glass bottles. There's the chicken dinner at the fireman's stand—and the 4H dairy ice cream wagon. Ah, fair and food, gotta love it!

In the barns, buildings, and arenas, a menagerie of cows, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits, et. al. And the best building ever? The Home Show department where I enter my sewing, crafts, flowers, and sometimes baked goods. 

And in that Home Show building, I am astonished by others handiwork, their art in  cloth and yarn. There's baked and canned goods and garden vegetables. I'm speechless when looking at quilts. Just how can half-inch squares so tiny become such a picture-perfect quilt?

Being as it is the dog day's of summer, the last weeks before Labor Day, and the end of picnics and vacations, it's the best excuse I have for not writing.

What's your best excuse for not writing?

* — I researched this before the switch to AI at Google. However, before posting, I redid the search. I got paragraph summaries. Only after skimming down the page did I find the original information. In other words, it took far longer to search than the first time. And AI is touted as saving time? For reference, check out last month's post.

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Registration is now open for this

great one-day, mini writer's conference in Erie PA.

I will be giving two workshops.

Speaker list, workshop topics, etc. are

at--- 

https://www.writersroadtrip.com

or https://www.pennwriters.org

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2024 - July - AI ?

Whether we like it or not, Artificial Intelligence is now on our computers, cell phones, and other devices, and it is now the all-consuming interloper.

I used to be able to research and google questions or topics and get a list of choices as to where to look for answers. Now the AI gives me summaries. Summaries? Really? Research for my writing is about finding facts that bolster a premise or idea for a story, or to verify far-fetched what-ifs for my science-fiction, space-opera romances or to check on something for a medieval tale.

As with new technology released on the populace, there are and will continue to be problems. Overwhelming is how AI's will hallucinate confabulations. That is, they perceive to fabricate data from whatever they come across, even copyrighted material, which gets mixed and matched, resulting in sometimes nonsensical summary answers.

Case in point: an AI creating a heath article and recommending we humans eat a rock a day to get a day's worth of necessary minerals. Then there was the gasoline-infused spaghetti recipe. And my favorite, putting glue on a pizza to make the cheese stick.

Love it or hate it, be for it or against it, but the push is on for AI's to do the writing for us writers. It's the new trend. 

Here's a bit of wisdom from author Michael Woudenberg: 

". . . If you’re writing isn’t any better than an AI, I’d look hard at improving your craft and finding out where you can be unique."

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Enjoy a Happy 4th of July!   

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2024 - June -- Not Writer's Block

 

What to do when you get stuck writing and it's not Writers Block?

If you have writer's block, that' a whole different kettle of fears.

Today, or rather this month, I'm talking about when things don't seem to be going well with the WIP (your Work In Progress). 

The ideas may be there, but they do not flow steadily onto the paper or computer screen. The old adage to just keep writing seems irrelevant considering what's generated ends up scrapped as unusable, torn up pages or a deleted file. 

So, what to do? 

Simple answer—stop worrying. Such episodes happen to writers. 

Here's a better idea— Change something. Get away from the angst.

If using a computer, go write by hand on a yellow tablet in another room, or on the deck or porch. Go to a coffee shop with your laptop or a notebook, a journal, or even a composition book. Enjoy a brew and goodie, sit by a window and watch people inside the building and out. Write about what you observe and feel.

But what if the problem that mucked up the day's writing is an indecision about a character's motivations or a need to figure out how to get Character A to point B in a story? In that case, go to your writing partners or that friend or sibling that will let you talk it out and ask questions that make you think of new alternatives. Or simply do The List of 20, wherein you list idea after idea. Somewhere around the twentieth idea comes one that works. If not, keep listing items until The One hits.

You might also consider going for a walk in the park and sit on a bench, drink up the sunshine. How about walking the dog twice around the block? Sit on the grass, watch the wind ruffle leaves, flowers, find animals in the cloudy sky. Listen to the sounds of nature and humans. Feel the sunshine.

The above paragraph may be fine for a sunny day, but what about a cloudy or rainy day? Take an umbrella and put on your rubbers. walk through puddles, listen to the beat of the rain, enjoy the mist, the smell of fresh rain.  Do be safe — don't go out when there's lightning.

When you return home, write about what you saw, what you felt, what you heard, what you pondered. Write a poem. Write an essay. Write for the sheer joy of creating and putting words into print.

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