Sometimes you are going to find yourself too sick or tired to string words together. For instance, that sentence just took me five minutes of typing, editing and retyping.
I'm taking a sick day. When my cold medicen kicks in, I will probably read a book like Dragonfriend by Roger Eschbacher so that I can blog about it in a week or two.
Why don't you read a good book, too? May I suggest one? Oh! I already have! Scroll through the blog and choose a few. Can't afford books? Enter to win The Grimoire by S.M. Boyce.
Not in the mood to read someone else's awesomeness? Why don't you try out one of our writing exercises? Grab a notebook and a pen and get busy creating your own awesome. Or, you could play "Find the typos" in this Sick Day post.
Go ahead, write amongst yourselves. I'll just lie here and sniffle.
Gotta Kleenex,
Heather
Showing posts with label writer's life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writer's life. Show all posts
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
The Writer's Life: Encouragement
****If you would like to win a free copy of TEEN Agents in the Plundered Parent Protocol by Joshua Unruh, please leave a comment below.****
I love teaching almost as much as I love writing. Each year I get to work with some incredible young writers as we write together during National Writing Month. I work with writers as young as second grade! It's fabulous fun watching them try new things and bravely capture all their thoughts and ideas on paper. I love it!
I find middle school writers to be particularly interested in developing their craft. However, these writers are so often easily discouraged by teachers, parents and friends when the people around them don't see the value in the hobby they have chosen. It's often solitary work, that of a writer, and I think young people feel the pain of it more easily. They don't want to be the weird one who would rather curl up with a good book than play soccer, or hide in a quiet spot with their writing notebook instead of play at recess. But, for those of us with this love of words burning in our hearts, we can't deny it for long. Eventually we're right back in that favorite place, scribbling furiously or reading as fast as we can stand.
All it takes to keep us going is a friend smiling good naturedly when they find us hiding with our journal, or a pat on the back from a teacher, a "good job" from mom or dad or favorite aunt. A little encouragement goes a long way. Some of these young writers will be the next great novelist or write a smash movie script, but most will just be really eloquent as they defend their doctoral dissertation or write an encouraging letter to a heartbroken friend. So, let's cheer them on! Give them a smile when they chatter to you about their writing and then show them this blog. I hope to be the friendly voice who encourages them to keep trying, keep reading, keep writing.
If you know any young writers you want to encourage, please share my site with them, too. Hand them some paper and a pencil on Mondays when I post a writing exercise or ask them what they think about The Writer's Life posts each Thursday. Challenge them to think, to read and, above all, to keep writing.
Gotta write, Heather
I find middle school writers to be particularly interested in developing their craft. However, these writers are so often easily discouraged by teachers, parents and friends when the people around them don't see the value in the hobby they have chosen. It's often solitary work, that of a writer, and I think young people feel the pain of it more easily. They don't want to be the weird one who would rather curl up with a good book than play soccer, or hide in a quiet spot with their writing notebook instead of play at recess. But, for those of us with this love of words burning in our hearts, we can't deny it for long. Eventually we're right back in that favorite place, scribbling furiously or reading as fast as we can stand.
All it takes to keep us going is a friend smiling good naturedly when they find us hiding with our journal, or a pat on the back from a teacher, a "good job" from mom or dad or favorite aunt. A little encouragement goes a long way. Some of these young writers will be the next great novelist or write a smash movie script, but most will just be really eloquent as they defend their doctoral dissertation or write an encouraging letter to a heartbroken friend. So, let's cheer them on! Give them a smile when they chatter to you about their writing and then show them this blog. I hope to be the friendly voice who encourages them to keep trying, keep reading, keep writing.
If you know any young writers you want to encourage, please share my site with them, too. Hand them some paper and a pencil on Mondays when I post a writing exercise or ask them what they think about The Writer's Life posts each Thursday. Challenge them to think, to read and, above all, to keep writing.
Gotta write, Heather
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Writer's Life: Dream Journals
I have very vivid dreams. I like to call them, Movie Dreams. Often, in my movie dream I am not myself. I get to see the world from someone else's point of view, experiencing the world through their eyes. I may be exploring Africa on safari, or attacked by villains at a fancy party. I've seen ancient Rome, climbed mountains, been chased by wolves, and fallen in love dozens of times - all in my dreams. I learned years ago to use them as inspiration.
It started after a particularly fantastic dream. I woke up with that familiar frustration. "No! Why did I wake up? I wanted to see what happens next!" So, I lay there wishing, trying to see what I had seen before and when that didn't work, I began to fill in the blanks. What would have happened next? How did they get into that situation in the first place? Before long I had a pretty good story on my hands. I didn't want to forget any of it. So, I climbed out of bed and grabbed a pen and a journal. I wrote feverishly, desperate to get it all down on paper. Before I knew it, I had nearly ten handwritten pages.
I kept that journal, even added to it a few times when I woke up with a particularly great story in my head. A few years later, that dream became my first finished novel, one I will hopefully be able to share with you before the end of the year.
People always want to know where great writers find their inspiration. Some find their ideas from life around them, from asking deep questions, from news stories, from re-imagining history, and some find their inspiration from dreams. This is why keeping a detailed log of my most vivid dreams helps me to be a better writer. When I have a truly fabulous dream, I write it down before I can forget. Then, I keep it until I am ready to write more. I have many more dreams logged than I will ever write, I'm sure, but it is nice to know I won't run out of ideas.
Do you have vivid dreams? Wish you could go back and relive some of them? Do you wake up wishing you knew what happened next? Try a dream journal. Just a spiral notebook and a pencil is more than you need. You'll be on your way to becoming a great writer.
Gotta Write,
Heather
It started after a particularly fantastic dream. I woke up with that familiar frustration. "No! Why did I wake up? I wanted to see what happens next!" So, I lay there wishing, trying to see what I had seen before and when that didn't work, I began to fill in the blanks. What would have happened next? How did they get into that situation in the first place? Before long I had a pretty good story on my hands. I didn't want to forget any of it. So, I climbed out of bed and grabbed a pen and a journal. I wrote feverishly, desperate to get it all down on paper. Before I knew it, I had nearly ten handwritten pages.
I kept that journal, even added to it a few times when I woke up with a particularly great story in my head. A few years later, that dream became my first finished novel, one I will hopefully be able to share with you before the end of the year.
People always want to know where great writers find their inspiration. Some find their ideas from life around them, from asking deep questions, from news stories, from re-imagining history, and some find their inspiration from dreams. This is why keeping a detailed log of my most vivid dreams helps me to be a better writer. When I have a truly fabulous dream, I write it down before I can forget. Then, I keep it until I am ready to write more. I have many more dreams logged than I will ever write, I'm sure, but it is nice to know I won't run out of ideas.
Do you have vivid dreams? Wish you could go back and relive some of them? Do you wake up wishing you knew what happened next? Try a dream journal. Just a spiral notebook and a pencil is more than you need. You'll be on your way to becoming a great writer.
Gotta Write,
Heather
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Writer's Life: My best advice
Okay, here it is. My absolute best writing advice, and it’s just for you.
1. Notice the world around you.
2. Pay attention.
3. Take notes!
4. Write about it.
That’s it. Really.
If you are anything like me, that’s not enough. I’m the one who always wants more. So, here’s an example or two from the past week to get you started.
Last weekend I was at Silver Dollar City with our family. Seeing a sign for “Science Theater” we decided that was the sort of thing we couldn’t pass up (I know, we’re nerds. Seriously. The kids weren’t even with us.) So, anyway, the guy begins his demonstration and we’re wavering somewhere between, “that’s cool” and “that’s ridiculous.” Suddenly he makes this statement, “Our eyes only allow us to see a fraction of the light that is all around us. We can only process certain wavelengths. So, there are many more colors of light than what we see.” He goes on to talk about the different microwaves and radio waves and other waves that are passing around us, through us, bouncing off of things, all without us being aware that it is happening constantly just in front of us.
Now, this isn’t really knew information for me. I think I learned about most of that in fifth grade science. But, for some reason, his words start waves in my brain. I start thinking and asking questions like, “What if someone could see the other colors? All the colors? What if you could see all those waves? What would that be like? Would that help you in some way, like a superpower? Or would it just make you crazy? Could you maybe turn it on and off?”
So, I missed the rest of what he said, because I was thinking about all these things and my mind was creating a super hero who could see all the different colors and waves and soon he could manipulate them like sending out radio waves of his own somehow or redirecting light waves so that he seemed invisible, that sort of thing.
What I wanted to do was write it all down. If I had been at home, or even had my purse with me, I would have pulled out a notebook or a computer or a smart phone and started typing notes for myself. Then, I would put that into my “book ideas” file for later. You never know when an idea like that is going to come in handy someday.
Here’s one more example for you. Last night, I’m sitting in church listening to a Bible lesson that was very good, by the way. One of the scriptures catches my attention and I flip through my Bible to read it again. Lucky for me, the teacher had passed out a set of notes and I had the scripture right there on paper already. Well, that scripture led to a thought, which led to another scripture and another thought and soon I’m writing all over my paper and I have to dig through my purse for another sheet of paper. Within minutes I have the rough outline of my next book in my hands.
Now, to be honest, it’s a book I have been thinking about for nearly five years now. I had been stuck on what the central theme of the book should be exactly because the first two books in that series had very strong themes that were straight out of scripture and I wanted the next book to be just as good, or better. It wasn’t as though I didn’t have any ideas. Honestly, I had too many! It was just hard to narrow it down to one really good idea and find how it fit with the first two stories. Well, sitting there in class, my brain had solved the problem for me. I wrote it down. I came home and typed it into my computer under “Light series, notes”. It will be there for me when I am ready to write it next month.
So, here’s my challenge for you. Get a notebook and a pencil and keep it handy at all times. Look at the world around you. Pay attention! Then, when you see something that makes you think harder than usual, makes you ask questions or imagine something new, GO WRITE IT DOWN! Then, come back here and tell us all about it if you want to. Better yet, go write your story and then we can all read it!
Gotta Write,
Heather
1. Notice the world around you.
2. Pay attention.
3. Take notes!
4. Write about it.
That’s it. Really.
If you are anything like me, that’s not enough. I’m the one who always wants more. So, here’s an example or two from the past week to get you started.
Last weekend I was at Silver Dollar City with our family. Seeing a sign for “Science Theater” we decided that was the sort of thing we couldn’t pass up (I know, we’re nerds. Seriously. The kids weren’t even with us.) So, anyway, the guy begins his demonstration and we’re wavering somewhere between, “that’s cool” and “that’s ridiculous.” Suddenly he makes this statement, “Our eyes only allow us to see a fraction of the light that is all around us. We can only process certain wavelengths. So, there are many more colors of light than what we see.” He goes on to talk about the different microwaves and radio waves and other waves that are passing around us, through us, bouncing off of things, all without us being aware that it is happening constantly just in front of us.
Now, this isn’t really knew information for me. I think I learned about most of that in fifth grade science. But, for some reason, his words start waves in my brain. I start thinking and asking questions like, “What if someone could see the other colors? All the colors? What if you could see all those waves? What would that be like? Would that help you in some way, like a superpower? Or would it just make you crazy? Could you maybe turn it on and off?”
So, I missed the rest of what he said, because I was thinking about all these things and my mind was creating a super hero who could see all the different colors and waves and soon he could manipulate them like sending out radio waves of his own somehow or redirecting light waves so that he seemed invisible, that sort of thing.
What I wanted to do was write it all down. If I had been at home, or even had my purse with me, I would have pulled out a notebook or a computer or a smart phone and started typing notes for myself. Then, I would put that into my “book ideas” file for later. You never know when an idea like that is going to come in handy someday.
Here’s one more example for you. Last night, I’m sitting in church listening to a Bible lesson that was very good, by the way. One of the scriptures catches my attention and I flip through my Bible to read it again. Lucky for me, the teacher had passed out a set of notes and I had the scripture right there on paper already. Well, that scripture led to a thought, which led to another scripture and another thought and soon I’m writing all over my paper and I have to dig through my purse for another sheet of paper. Within minutes I have the rough outline of my next book in my hands.
Now, to be honest, it’s a book I have been thinking about for nearly five years now. I had been stuck on what the central theme of the book should be exactly because the first two books in that series had very strong themes that were straight out of scripture and I wanted the next book to be just as good, or better. It wasn’t as though I didn’t have any ideas. Honestly, I had too many! It was just hard to narrow it down to one really good idea and find how it fit with the first two stories. Well, sitting there in class, my brain had solved the problem for me. I wrote it down. I came home and typed it into my computer under “Light series, notes”. It will be there for me when I am ready to write it next month.
So, here’s my challenge for you. Get a notebook and a pencil and keep it handy at all times. Look at the world around you. Pay attention! Then, when you see something that makes you think harder than usual, makes you ask questions or imagine something new, GO WRITE IT DOWN! Then, come back here and tell us all about it if you want to. Better yet, go write your story and then we can all read it!
Gotta Write,
Heather
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