Writing Prompt

Taken from The Writer's Book of Matches:

Without warning, a massive earthquake hits Chicago. Write about the following people and what happens to them because of the quake:

• an emergency medical technician on her day off, at home in her 24th floor apartment
• a drug addict
• a retired father of four, riding his motorcycle through downtown traffic

A Fun Way to Brainstorm (or How to Waste Valuable Writing Time)

I found Bubbl.us a few years ago. It's a fun way to brainstorm if you're feeling stuck. I used it when I was working on magazine articles last year. You can add friends and collaborate on projects.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Story Soundtracks

Depending on my mood and the mood I'm trying to capture in my story, I play a certain kind of music. It's almost always blaring (thank God I'm in my own house now and not sharing a wall anymore). When I wrote a sex scene for one novel I played Come Away With Me by Norah Jones on repeat. I still can't hear that song without thinking of my two characters falling in lust love.

What are your favorite songs to write to?
Do you make soundtracks for your stories?
Or do you just blast any ol' music?

Writing Prompt

Taken from The Writer's Book of Matches: 

A woman goes to visit her mother at a nursing home. While there, her mother confesses that she wants to die and begs for her daughter's assistance.

Prologue: Yay or Nay?

Having a prologue is sort of like beginning your story twice. I have two stories I'm working on that I'm tempted to use a prologue. I feel the need to describe what happened before hand, but don't want to drag in on too long by making it part of the story. I just want to mention it, then move on to present day.

Have you used a prologue? Care to share your thoughts, pros or cons?

Free to Write

I have quite a few books on writing prompts. Way back when I wasn't a parent I'd have hours to do nothing but write. I'd take my sweet time thumbing through my prompt books looking for the perfect one. It couldn't be too hard (I didn't want to work at writing), and it couldn't be anything weird like sci-fi (God forbid I stretch my imagination).

Then the struggle began. The writing then deleting. The banging of the head on the keyboard. The sweat over knowing my grammar sux sucks.

Then I discovered freewriting. Glorious uninhibited freewriting.

And my writing took off. (No, not published, but off...somewhere other than my head.)

One writing prompt said to write about your family during the summer when you were little. Lord knows I have enough When I Was Little stories. Instead of writing about my parents fighting and splitting up, I pretended they were still together.

I went on and on for pages without stopping once and wrote about the made-up summers we spent in our beach house in Cape Cod. I skipped the reality of Steak-um dinners and went for seafood ones instead (and not fish sticks!). I wrote about how we laughed all day playing on the beach, and played games on our screened-in porch at night while listening to the waves.

Sure, I made up that part of my childhood. But I would have never even thought to do that if it wasn't for freewriting and being open enough to see where it would take me. Now I have those summer Cape Cod visions in my head. In some alternate universe I spent summers there. I can see it.

Why I Love My Blogger Friends & Being an Awkward Teen

One of the best things about my blogger friends is the information I get. I love reading about your writing triumphs, struggles (I don't love your struggles, but I love trying to help and seeing what other writers have to say) and ideas. I'm always interested things like how you find time to write, plot your stories and your book suggestions. Which brings me to my next thing.

I have found my new favorite author: Robin Benway. I love, love, love her writing. It's witty and sarcastic and, did I say witty? I'm reading Audrey, Wait! and can't put it down ( I was up til 1:30 am last night reading with one eye closed). I can't wait for her next book, The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June. AND the fun part is I found out about her through a blog where someone did a review.

My next boring thing is...oh yeah, I have struggled all of my life to find my niche with writing. I've always known I wasn't interested in sci-fi or fantasy, but besides that it's been up in the air. I love horror and thriller films so I came up with (what I thought were) good ideas and set to writing screenplays. Turns out I'm not good at writing thrillers and my horror story depressed me (though I will finish that one someday!).

I came up with a (again, what I think is) good YA story idea a few months ago. I outlined all of the characters, some of the plot and dialogue. Then that voice set in.

The one that tells me it's not such a good idea and who do I think I'm kidding, I'll never finish this story. Well, it didn't take much to convince me. I put it aside and moved back to the adult novel I started years ago. The one I have 75K words on, and the one whose main character I like and think is funny. I gave it to two readers and got great feedback on it. Now I have a ton of rewriting to do. But.....I don't want to work on it anymore. For now.

This is my pattern:

• Get excited.
• Write tons of notes and ideas for story.
• Realize how stupid/boring/depressing the idea is.
• Look through old stuff and/or start something new.
• Repeat.
• Again and again.

When I was working on rewriting the adult novel I didn't let myself read any YA (I'd previously devoured over 15 YA novels in a matter of months). I knew if I read YA I'd want to go back to my story. Well, the other day I put my adult novel aside and started reading Audrey, Wait! and I pulled out my YA novel notes.

I get so mad and discouraged at  myself for doing this over and over. The only things I"ve ever finished are two short films. I know that's an accomplishment, but come on! It's not like I have a lack of ideas. I have about a million just waiting to be written about. And I have about a hundred characters spread out over many stories just hanging around wondering where I went.

Ok, so this turned out to be a longer post than I originally thought. But my point is (and I do have one) that I really love YA. I think it's because I still feel like an awkward teenager deep down (regardless of the fact my husband says I act like a 10 year old boy). I still do and say silly things, I'm sarcastic (I actually bite my tongue so I don't say things to people that I know will sound teenagerish), and I'm embarrassing (just ask my husband).

Does anybody else struggle with sticking with a project? Do you juggle more than one in different genres?

I Miss the Olden Days

Ok, so I wasn't really around in the olden days. But I miss the days I was around in: the 70s and 80s. Everything was so simple. I only had to think about which tube socks to wear with my silk shorts, and what color yarn to put in my ponytails.

There were no iPhones to check twenty times a day. No Facebook where you go from ten real-life friends to 300 cyber-friends who you never see in person.

We didn't have 500 tv channels to choose from, Netflix or Blockbuster.

My parents didn't run us all over the place. We played outside all day long and came in when the streetlights came on. I remember my mom watching a lot of soap operas. I'm sure she did more than that, like cleaning and cooking. Not to mention taking care of us.

Sometimes I wish there was no such thing as the internet, Facebook, email...It's all such a time-sucker. I asked my husband the other day if he thought I'd get much if I sold my iPhone. He said not to do it because then I'd always be using his to check email and Facebook. He's right.

Me & My Time Management Problem

I think of myself as organized. Other people think of me that way too. My husband says I keep my notebooks, pens and books organized but I can't manage my time at all. He's right.

Througout the day I'll think of 10-15 things I need to do (put laundry away, empty dishwasher, make doctor and dentist appointments for my son, vacuum...). I end up either forgetting half of them or getting carried away with other things and never even getting to them. The main things that suffer are my son and my writing. Writing is the last thing on my non-existent list. And it's one of the things I think about consistently.

I struggle with keeping the house picked up and clean. We just went from a four room townhouse to a ten room, three bathroom house. What used to take me one hour to clean now takes me a few days. It's much harder for me when I'm working, which is sporadically.

My four year old is constantly asking me to play with him and I feel like I am always telling him, "In a minute." That minute usually never ends and we don't end up playing until much later. I'll sit down to answer a work email and end up updating my iPhone with podcasts, time-sucking Facebook, homeschooling sites, etc.

I'll run upstairs to grab books to read to my son and end up putting away two baskets of laundry. I am constantly putting him and my writing off to do other things. To me the other things are necessary and I feel like if I can just get them out of the way, I'll have more time to play and write. But it just doesn't work out that way.

How do you manage your time? Any tips?

I'm Suddenly Crafty

Years ago I used to be in craft fairs and sell...a bunch of crap, basically. Then I stopped doing craft for about 12 years. Now, suddenly, I'm back into them.

I don't know where this urge is coming from or how to stop it. I'm thinking it's the fact that I own a house again and I have lots of room to do stuff. Plus, I have a four year old who loves to do anything crafty.

I could kick myself for selling a big box of rubber stamps at a garage sale we had a few years ago for $20. $20! Do you know how much those stamps cost me? A helluva lot more than $20. Now my son loves stamps and I can't believe I have to start all over buying them.

Most recently I made my son a felt calendar to learn from. I'm going to be homeschooling him in the fall and I thought I'd get a jump start. I went to Jo-ann Fabrics the other day to buy felt, and ended up buying a ton of stickers, notecards and stock paper. It was all on sale. The stickers were marked down from $4.99 to $.97, so I HAD to buy them. I'm thinking of making my own notecards to send out. Not that I send notecards, but I'd better start since I have so many!

Are any of you crafty? What do you like to do?