First off, happy New Years Eve to everyone and I hope you have a fabulous year!
I was on Pinterest one day, looking through a ton of different writing related things, mostly writing prompts. I've been trying to keep those creative wheels greased in post NaNoWriMo. And there are a LOT of writing prompts on Pinterest. I highly recommend you go there for creative inspiration.
One of them I found was a very simple one and I think I've decided to use that one over the next year to see what comes from it. I won't put any sort of limit on myself, just let what happens happen. If it's only one sentence that gets done, well hey, that's one more sentence than I had done before. And those words add up. I'm adding these prompts to my calendar so that I'll see it every day and know which one I'm supposed to do. I'm still trying to think how I'm going to share each day's usage (which I think I've worked out now), but I would like to have a way to share my progress and such.
I have started up a group on Google+ for this very thing. I'm not sure that the link works directly, but just search A Year of Writing on Google + or just go to my profile and it should be there. There are boards on there for introducing yourself and for each day's prompt to be shared. You don't have to share how you've used the prompt of the day, but I plan on doing this as a way of keeping my own self accountable so maybe I'll actually write every day. But I would love it if you wanted to join in as well, there's still plenty of time. I'm planning on starting this January first (so...tomorrow...ahh!). :)
The link to the prompts list is here: 365 Writing Prompts for Creative Writing Since some of them repeat, I'll probably be substituting some of those from my own sources. That way it will always be something fresh to inspire everyone.
Have I mentioned how excited I am for this? I really do hope more writers will join me and the others already in the group. The thought sort of hit me somewhere around the middle-end of NaNoWriMo and the beginning of December. I toyed with it for a little bit and finally decided, hey...what the heck and decided to just dive in head first. Besides all that, I simply love writing communities. I've been blessed enough to be a part of several through my own close knit group of writing friends in my personal life, and then constantly meeting new writers through NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo, not to mention Twitter/Facebook also. And if any of you should be reading this, know that I love you all. :) I think really, it's that mutual love of the written word and brainstorming about the impossible worlds we can create with just a few simple words, just hearing the kind of passion one has for writing always gets me excited about writing. Which is great because it always seems to come at the right time. So please, come join in on this adventure. The more, the merrier!
Feeling inspired...
-Liz
Showing posts with label Writing Prompts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Prompts. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Saturday, November 22, 2014
NaNoWriMo 2014: Week Two
(Yes, you're reading that correctly, I'm sorry this is a week late...it's been a crazy week. Please keep in mind as you read that this is all from the perspective of the end of week two.)
I suppose you could say this week was sort of up and down-ish. But mostly up, I’m glad to say. Heh, so much for the two week slump. Although, as far as what to say, yes, there was a bit of a slump. But word count, well…read on for yourself…Here are my stats so far.
My week two stats are as follows:
Day Eight: 0 total word count
Day Nine: 1,546 total word count
Day Ten: 338 total word count
Day Eleven: 0 total word count
Day Twelve: 935 total word count
Day Thirteen: 1,025 total word count
Day Fourteen: 0 total word count
Week Two: 4,604 total word count
So yeah…after the first day of week two, I had a better week, at least when compared to week one. It's been a little rough as far as trying to get out of the slump of the beginning of the story. I think I finally decided to just skip ahead a bit and try to gauge when I would get to the main part of the story. But since I'm Pantsing this year, that's a little bit difficult to do.
I did find out two very exciting things about my potential that I never knew before. I'm still psyched about it too! Within the last 15-20 minutes before midnight on day 12, I wrote 639 words in a rush to up my count a little bit before the clock struck midnight and my novel turned into a pumpkin...wait...
Anyway, I had known before then that I could write 500 words in 30 minutes, but I didn't realize the potential hidden inside me. I didn't know that until I went searching for it. And you know what? It's a fantastic feeling and is still doing wonders for my confidence knowing what I'm capable of. But just wait, I'm not done yet...keep reading...
I further found out my potential that I never knew about in all my years of writing. @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter has been having #1k30min sprints throughout the month, meaning they were challenging WriMo's to write a thousand words in 30 minutes. Having found out that I could write almost that much in less than 20 minutes, I wanted to stretch myself further than I ever had before and just see if I could do it. Any boy did I. My fingers were flying across the keyboard like they never have before. And I. Made. It!! I wasn't sure if I could in the last few minutes, but I was close. But by the time the clock hit zero, I managed to crank out 1,025 words!
I think I've about decided to make December my month to focus on all the short stories I've been wanting to post on Wattpad/Booksie. I want to try to finish or edit them in hopes of beginning posting them either late December, or in January. I feel like that would be a pretty great way to start off the new year though, to do what I promised so long ago and post all of the shorts I've been working on. I wish I could've gotten around to it a long time ago, but every time I think about it again and realize all over again how much time has gone by since the last time I said "soon", I'm usually in the middle of some crazy day/week/month...etc. But I think I'm going to just make a stand against myself now and just decide to set aside some time just for those stories that have been so neglected. I feel like they've waited long enough to be read.
I've made quite a few new WriMo friends in the NaNoWriMo chat rooms this year too. I've actually kind of searched out a few rooms to see who all else was awake-at 3 or 4am. I'm glad I did too, there's some pretty cool WriMos out there. A couple of them are awesome enough to make a slight error in type just plain epic! For those who aren't as familiar with NaNoWriMo and it's inner workings, there are these chat rooms where we can interact with each other and share in the madness that is our chosen hobby/profession/whatever you may call it. In these chat rooms, we can arrange little word wars where we sort of compete against each other to see who can write the most words in a given amount of time-15 minutes is usually the most popular. Whether or not any of us consider it a true competition, it's still a great way to get more words written and get that much closer to that goal of 50,000 words by the time the clock hits midnight on the last day of November. Another type of war that can be held is a chain war, where a selected number of word wars are held back to back with a short break in between, as opposed to one war with however long of a break you wish.
Whew...now then, how, you may ask, did a couple of girls make this thing called a chain war into something epic? Remember the typo? I'm not sure what the original number was supposed to be, but it ended up being 300 10 minute wars back to back. One of them figured it out and it was going to be three days straight of the same war. All thanks to a typo. And now, since that one ended, there's one set up to continue til the end of the month. Pretty convenient when the chat rooms are quiet, or there's no one in the chat rooms, but you still want to war. It can be pretty motivating to war with yourself too. Try to beat your previous best enough, and who knows? You might just up your writing speed. Or discover a hidden potential you never knew existed. :)
To make things even more epic, there's now talk of creating a chain war at the start of next year's NaNoWriMo and have it run the entire month. Yeah, that's right, you read correctly. It's going to be so awesomely epic and I can't wait! If any other WriMos are interested, I'll share a little more detail on it the closer it gets...just don't let me forget, lol.
Too much excitement to contain...
-Liz
I suppose you could say this week was sort of up and down-ish. But mostly up, I’m glad to say. Heh, so much for the two week slump. Although, as far as what to say, yes, there was a bit of a slump. But word count, well…read on for yourself…Here are my stats so far.
My week two stats are as follows:
Day Eight: 0 total word count
Day Nine: 1,546 total word count
Day Ten: 338 total word count
Day Eleven: 0 total word count
Day Twelve: 935 total word count
Day Thirteen: 1,025 total word count
Day Fourteen: 0 total word count
Week Two: 4,604 total word count
So yeah…after the first day of week two, I had a better week, at least when compared to week one. It's been a little rough as far as trying to get out of the slump of the beginning of the story. I think I finally decided to just skip ahead a bit and try to gauge when I would get to the main part of the story. But since I'm Pantsing this year, that's a little bit difficult to do.
I did find out two very exciting things about my potential that I never knew before. I'm still psyched about it too! Within the last 15-20 minutes before midnight on day 12, I wrote 639 words in a rush to up my count a little bit before the clock struck midnight and my novel turned into a pumpkin...wait...
Anyway, I had known before then that I could write 500 words in 30 minutes, but I didn't realize the potential hidden inside me. I didn't know that until I went searching for it. And you know what? It's a fantastic feeling and is still doing wonders for my confidence knowing what I'm capable of. But just wait, I'm not done yet...keep reading...
I further found out my potential that I never knew about in all my years of writing. @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter has been having #1k30min sprints throughout the month, meaning they were challenging WriMo's to write a thousand words in 30 minutes. Having found out that I could write almost that much in less than 20 minutes, I wanted to stretch myself further than I ever had before and just see if I could do it. Any boy did I. My fingers were flying across the keyboard like they never have before. And I. Made. It!! I wasn't sure if I could in the last few minutes, but I was close. But by the time the clock hit zero, I managed to crank out 1,025 words!
I think I've about decided to make December my month to focus on all the short stories I've been wanting to post on Wattpad/Booksie. I want to try to finish or edit them in hopes of beginning posting them either late December, or in January. I feel like that would be a pretty great way to start off the new year though, to do what I promised so long ago and post all of the shorts I've been working on. I wish I could've gotten around to it a long time ago, but every time I think about it again and realize all over again how much time has gone by since the last time I said "soon", I'm usually in the middle of some crazy day/week/month...etc. But I think I'm going to just make a stand against myself now and just decide to set aside some time just for those stories that have been so neglected. I feel like they've waited long enough to be read.
I've made quite a few new WriMo friends in the NaNoWriMo chat rooms this year too. I've actually kind of searched out a few rooms to see who all else was awake-at 3 or 4am. I'm glad I did too, there's some pretty cool WriMos out there. A couple of them are awesome enough to make a slight error in type just plain epic! For those who aren't as familiar with NaNoWriMo and it's inner workings, there are these chat rooms where we can interact with each other and share in the madness that is our chosen hobby/profession/whatever you may call it. In these chat rooms, we can arrange little word wars where we sort of compete against each other to see who can write the most words in a given amount of time-15 minutes is usually the most popular. Whether or not any of us consider it a true competition, it's still a great way to get more words written and get that much closer to that goal of 50,000 words by the time the clock hits midnight on the last day of November. Another type of war that can be held is a chain war, where a selected number of word wars are held back to back with a short break in between, as opposed to one war with however long of a break you wish.
Whew...now then, how, you may ask, did a couple of girls make this thing called a chain war into something epic? Remember the typo? I'm not sure what the original number was supposed to be, but it ended up being 300 10 minute wars back to back. One of them figured it out and it was going to be three days straight of the same war. All thanks to a typo. And now, since that one ended, there's one set up to continue til the end of the month. Pretty convenient when the chat rooms are quiet, or there's no one in the chat rooms, but you still want to war. It can be pretty motivating to war with yourself too. Try to beat your previous best enough, and who knows? You might just up your writing speed. Or discover a hidden potential you never knew existed. :)
To make things even more epic, there's now talk of creating a chain war at the start of next year's NaNoWriMo and have it run the entire month. Yeah, that's right, you read correctly. It's going to be so awesomely epic and I can't wait! If any other WriMos are interested, I'll share a little more detail on it the closer it gets...just don't let me forget, lol.
Too much excitement to contain...
-Liz
Friday, October 17, 2014
Writing Prompts
With NaNoWriMo fast approaching, and me not exactly having the clearest idea of what I want to write yet, I've started looking up basically all the writing prompts I can find to get the wheels greased and going. I've already found one list of Sci-Fi prompts that do well in getting me to think outside the box. Or perhaps it's inside...it is bigger on the inside...(you're welcome fellow Whovians). I think I would rather have my "writing box" to be more like a TARDIS for that very reason, come to think of it.
One of these days, I'll eventually make it through my ever growing list of writing prompts. One day. But while I was searching, I came across this picture that said to describe it without using any of the obvious things in it (beach, people, sand, etc). Basically, the same concept for Taboo. Making that connection, it got me thinking, "Of course! Why haven't I thought of that before?" One good writing exercise is just that-to describe something and forcing oneself to not use any of the obvious words. Use the senses other than sight perhaps, how a place smells, how it makes you feel. I'll go on ahead and say it right now, that would be a fantastic exercise for me to do. I need more practice doing that.
And then I remembered this long (I'm talking 6 months here) writing exercise I've had since last year. I kept telling myself last fall that I would set aside the months starting from the summer, and go until the end of the year and I would complete the exercise. And according to what it says, "be a better writer". I remember it saying that you (the writer) would hate him for challenging you to do this, but in the end, you would be a better writer. I'm not really sure what or when it happened, but I've noticed lately that I am again going through another time in my life when I want to truly be a better writer. One worthy of having my stuff read. I want to be happy with what I write and be perfectly ok-content even-with the idea (and hopefully it would actually happen) of people reading what I write.
Anyway, I think perhaps next week I'll do my blog post on the six month writing exercise. For now though, I still can't make up my mind on what I want to do for NaNoWriMo. So from now until the end of this month, if you want to help me decide, I'm including a poll with the three options I keep bouncing between. The first is to do the third re-write of my first novel I started. I am determined to finish it one day and hopefully publish it. I love the story, but it needs serious updating. I shudder when I remember the things 15-yr-old me wrote way back when. But it is the story that made me really want to be a writer for the first time, so it's special to me. :)
The second is to start from scratch on a new story idea that I got in the past couple of months. It's not very well fleshed out at all, so I would probably end up pantsing through NaNoWriMo. A concept I'm still trying to get used to sometimes.
And the final one is to just work on a bunch of short stories I've had promised to post for a long time. If I concentrated on my list of short stories, I think I could potentially get up to ten (length of each one varying) stories done and posted on my Wattpad. Part of me really wants to do this because I feel like I've been neglecting y'all by keeping on promising I would post a new story or chapter, and it hasn't happened yet. And I feel like I would have a sense of accomplishment seeing more short stories ready and waiting to be read.
So. If you want to help me decide what I should do for NaNoWriMo, then let me know! :)
Well, I think that's about it for this week. I'm sorry today's post is so late in the day, today's been an off day. But the important thing is the post is up now for the second Blogging Friday. Here's hoping I can manage to keep this consistant with how crazy life is, lol.
Liz
One of these days, I'll eventually make it through my ever growing list of writing prompts. One day. But while I was searching, I came across this picture that said to describe it without using any of the obvious things in it (beach, people, sand, etc). Basically, the same concept for Taboo. Making that connection, it got me thinking, "Of course! Why haven't I thought of that before?" One good writing exercise is just that-to describe something and forcing oneself to not use any of the obvious words. Use the senses other than sight perhaps, how a place smells, how it makes you feel. I'll go on ahead and say it right now, that would be a fantastic exercise for me to do. I need more practice doing that.
And then I remembered this long (I'm talking 6 months here) writing exercise I've had since last year. I kept telling myself last fall that I would set aside the months starting from the summer, and go until the end of the year and I would complete the exercise. And according to what it says, "be a better writer". I remember it saying that you (the writer) would hate him for challenging you to do this, but in the end, you would be a better writer. I'm not really sure what or when it happened, but I've noticed lately that I am again going through another time in my life when I want to truly be a better writer. One worthy of having my stuff read. I want to be happy with what I write and be perfectly ok-content even-with the idea (and hopefully it would actually happen) of people reading what I write.
Anyway, I think perhaps next week I'll do my blog post on the six month writing exercise. For now though, I still can't make up my mind on what I want to do for NaNoWriMo. So from now until the end of this month, if you want to help me decide, I'm including a poll with the three options I keep bouncing between. The first is to do the third re-write of my first novel I started. I am determined to finish it one day and hopefully publish it. I love the story, but it needs serious updating. I shudder when I remember the things 15-yr-old me wrote way back when. But it is the story that made me really want to be a writer for the first time, so it's special to me. :)
The second is to start from scratch on a new story idea that I got in the past couple of months. It's not very well fleshed out at all, so I would probably end up pantsing through NaNoWriMo. A concept I'm still trying to get used to sometimes.
And the final one is to just work on a bunch of short stories I've had promised to post for a long time. If I concentrated on my list of short stories, I think I could potentially get up to ten (length of each one varying) stories done and posted on my Wattpad. Part of me really wants to do this because I feel like I've been neglecting y'all by keeping on promising I would post a new story or chapter, and it hasn't happened yet. And I feel like I would have a sense of accomplishment seeing more short stories ready and waiting to be read.
So. If you want to help me decide what I should do for NaNoWriMo, then let me know! :)
Well, I think that's about it for this week. I'm sorry today's post is so late in the day, today's been an off day. But the important thing is the post is up now for the second Blogging Friday. Here's hoping I can manage to keep this consistant with how crazy life is, lol.
Liz
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