30 Days of Not Writing
After writing for a while, have you stopped?
I feel like when a writer stops writing, they are trying to drive themselves mad. There have been many times I took breaks in writing.
Day 1- You didn’t write—no big deal.
Day 2 - You are tired and will go to sleep instead, so you are rested for tomorrow’s writing session.
Day 3 - Oh, that show you wanted to watch is on during your writing time. It has a character that would maybe help you develop yours.
Day 4 - Soccer practice in 100-degree heat.
Day 5 - Reading a friend’s blog. They are so good.
Day 6 - Late night trip to store for ice cream.
Day 7 - You are so irritated by everything today. No way you are writing. You are too mad at nothing.
Day 8 - Facebook.
Day 9 - Walking the dog and getting out in nature. What a beautiful day to write about tomorrow.
Day 10 -The book you have been waiting for comes in, and you start reading it because it is like the book you have been trying to write.
Day 11 - You must sleep because you feel like crap after staying up all night to read.
Day 12 - Family fight about you being too irritable.
Day 13 - Stare out the window, and your mind just wonders.
Day 14 - Clean the entire house from top to bottom.
Day 15 - Youtube Worm Whole
Day 16 -Totalling up student loan debt.
Day 17 -Trying to figure out how to make money doing the thing you love.
Day 18 - Twitter
Day 19 - Planning out your life for the next six months.
Day 20 - Movie Night
Day 21 - Realizing there is still a deadly virus out there and you rewrite all your goals.
Day 22 - Wondering why everyone is producing books and blogs, but you still don’t.
Day 23 - Instagram
Day 24 - Thinking about a book about the end of the world, it is no longer fun because of current world reality.
Day 25 - Netflix binge-watching shows you have already seen.
Day 26 - Wondering when the next Marvel movie will be out.
Day 27 - Start playing a new game to relax.
Day 28 - Become obsessed with the game.
Day 29 - Beyond occupied by game.
Day 30 - Okay, this has to stop, and you need to write tomorrow!
Okay, that was fun, just keep writing.
Monday's Mug 019
Hello, Writers of the World.
Welcome back to Monday's Mug! I always love to be drinking from my mugs daily, but Monday is the day I like to catch you up on what has been happening since we last talked. Tonight I am drinking water because it has been sweltering and humid here these last few days. All my fall feels are being pushed to the back burner, and summer has decided to show she means business. August usually is the hottest month we have, and sometimes I seriously consider moving further north. Do you enjoy the weather where you live?
While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you last week was especially busy I had four meetings this last week. I haven't had that many in a couple of months now, but they were all exceptional. The first one was with StoryADay SuperStars. We usually have an online get together once a month, and this time I actually got to attend. It was excellent to interact with some writers I haven't before. I appreciate listening to where everyone is and what their interests are. Towards the end, I really started to open up more about things going on in my life and who I am. As quiet as most people think I am when I feel comfortable enough, I won't stop talking. Is there something about you people assume but are wrong about?
While we sip from our mugs, I would share with you, I was a part of a write-in a friend hosted. This event was online at night, and it totally up my alley. We had a little prompt, and I created a short children's story—afterward, we did some writing sprints and had breaks to talk to each other. There were writers I had never met before. Still, it was fabulous to meet new people and expand my writing community. It made me feel great to see my friend stepping out for me and helping me by writing in at night to help me get back in the groove of writing. When it comes to writing, there were a lot of things I have been struggling with. Being able to find a write-in at night has been one of the items at the top of my list. Is there something you have been struggling with a lot this year.
Would you like to refill your mug? I know I need to.
While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you I had a meeting about social media. I have been educating myself about social media for a while now. I enjoy helping others navigate the platforms and to share the knowledge I have learned. There was a day trip to the lake yesterday, but I didn't go swimming or go out on the water. Actually, I make myself ill driving to the lake house. It was a great day of sharing and building relationships with a team I am a part of for a single mom's group I help out with.
While we sip from our mugs, I would share with you the thrill I have had for writing has started to grow again. There are days now I can focus on writing, and I am picking up more story sparks. I am trying to work on my consistency and keep promises to myself about what I am ready to accomplish. There has been a lot of mindset changes underway, and there are so many times now throughout the day, I am excited about writing a new story. I am so thrilled about this because my mind has been under construction for me a lot this year. Is it easy for you to keep your promises to yourself?
Let me know how you are doing in the comments below.
Until next time just write.
Free Write - Blue
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Welcome to Free Write Friday!
I will be adding an image every Friday to free write with.
It is a practice to allow your mind to wander creatively into new stories.
Set your timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and write!
Have Fun!
Embrace Yourself Writer
It takes me a little bit to remember what it was like in my world before the internet. Days lasted forever because I was outside, always running, playing, and making up stories. I would spend hours staring outside my window, watching the wind blow through the trees. Now I look at trees in pictures on my phone. My world revolves around the internet, even my job relies on it. I got caught up recently in the comparison game on social media. I had to tell myself daily, jealousy isn’t worth it because no one’s life is perfect, and I only see the highlight reel.
So when I was struggling with the comparison game, I’d come across hundreds of posts, blogs, and videos about loving who you are. With all this time at home lately, I have been overly reflective of my life, and I was considering the following...
How many of us, especially artists, take self-love to heart?
Do you believe people when they say you can dream big dreams?
When someone compliments our work, does it get through to our hearts? Do we even know how to take a compliment?
Comparison is one scab I have been picking about often now. This year, in particular, because I have been online more than have been ever, I am comparing myself to everyone out there.
My social media reads...
He is writing 2500 words every day!
She just published her first poetry collection!
They are making thousands of freelancing and off their blogs how!
These posts would be motivating for some people, but for me, all I am doing is comparing my life to theirs. No, I have no idea what their home life is like or other commitments. I am strictly looking at how much they produce and noticing I am not producing that much. Kindly I remind myself of the writer I am and to go at my own pace in my own time. I have to tell myself I will work a little every day to chip away at what I am trying to accomplish.
The next scab I am picking is you don’t know anything. In the grand scheme of the world, it’s true, I know very little. Even when I focus on writing alone, I am sure I have only skimmed the surface. I feel this way because I have a degree in creative writing.
Have you been to a university library where there are floors and floors of books?
There are millions of blogs posted daily as well.
How could I ever consume that much information?
Only an AI could read all of the material being put out there now. Again gently, I realize in my own life, I am an expert when it comes to my struggles with writing and getting in my own way.
The last scab I have been picking is that no one will read this or give a crap. There is some truth to that statement. Many will read this blog and never click on my site again. I know I am not alone because we all go through times where we question what we are producing.
However, I have to remember the one. The one is the person we all write for, but sometimes we forget about them. They are the ones that will say yeah me too. I have been there, or I am there right now. And even if they don’t get anything else out of this, they will know they are not alone fighting to be a writer.
It is easy to get lost in all of these mindsets as a writer, but I’m going to ask you to fight them as I do.
Your story really matters, write it.
Your creative mind matters, be kind.
Your writing could save one person from loneliness.
We were not all made to write 2500 words a day, or publish our book tomorrow. That is okay. No, really, it is okay.
Be the writer you were made to be.
I’m calling out to you struggling writers be kind to yourself because we still need you.
We really need you.
Stop self-loathing for wasting so much time.
Give yourself a break, wake up tomorrow with new hope, and try the next day again if it all goes to crap.
Start with 5 minutes and then work your way to 10 minutes.
Give yourself 10 minutes of self-care in one day.
Accept who you are as a writer and allow yourself to be that writer, not the one you think you should be.
In the meantime, let it all go and just write.
Monday's Mug 018
Hello Everyone! Welcome back to Monday’s Mug! I always love to be drinking from my mugs daily, but Monday is the day I like to catch up on what has been happening since we last talked. Tonight I am drinking an herbal mint tea and loving it. So, tonight we would definitely be outside enjoying this mug because it is colder weather here and I love it!! Have I ever told you Fall is my most favorite season of the year? What is your favorite season?
While we sip from our mugs, I’d tell you it been a long time since I checked in with everyone. July was a busy month with family medical issues. It was stressful waiting for answers only to have more tests to be run and more waiting. Even now, a month later, we still have no answers about what is going on. I know I am a little cryptic here, but I need to work on my patience is the moral of the story.
While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you have been doing a lot of reflection these last couple of weeks. I have been talking personality test, which I love and reflecting on myself as the person I have become now. I was marked as an INFJ, which I have been for years that really didn’t surprise me. I took an enneagram test and found out I was just as much a 1 as I am a 4. These all made sense about who I am as a person. I am a perfectionist striving to be creative. I have not quite figured out that path. It isn’t like I base my life on what these tests say; it helps to understand who I am more. Do you ever take tests like these?
While we sip from our mugs, I’d tell you I haven’t been writing much. Not writing is driving me crazy. I have been redoing websites, and while it has been a creative outlet for me, it is not the same as writing. I love creating a website to be visually pleasing. Write though has been my lifeblood for so long that it has been strange without. It’s like I am walking around without the watch I wear daily or whatever you have daily, and you forget it at home. I was on a kick at the start of July writing. I had gotten back on my favorite site 4thewords.com and was busting through the ceiling of what I was trying to do just get the words out.
While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you haven’t got to be part of writing groups much lately. I have had internet problems a lot this last month, so tonight was the first night I had gotten to see by StoryADay people in like two months. It was great to see people’s faces and to get to know them better. I think I talked a couple of people’s ear off towards the end of the call. I miss talking to people, but my favorite way is one on one.
While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you right now I don’t know where my writing is heading. I still want to be published, but I haven’t been making any process towards that. It is like saying I will run a 5 k, and I only walk 10 minutes a day. Again I think I am too hard on myself because I have to process many life events, and then I wonder if I am too easy on myself. Perhaps soon, I will find a balance and overcome my struggle.
Until next time just write.
Free Write - Sign
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
Welcome to Free Write Friday!
I will be adding an image every Friday to free write with.
It is a practice to allow your mind to wander creatively into new stories.
Set your timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and write!
Have Fun!
When Dreams Don't Work Out
Do you know what it is like to have a dream, and then life throws you problem after problem when you are just starting out. Then, you finally give up on the said dream? The life you always imagined is gone in the blink of an eye, and you start to think about old goals, and you try to come up with new ones, but none of them fill that void of the dream that will never be. This has happened to me so many times I can’t even count.
At first, I wanted to be a ballerina, but I was told from a young age, I never had the body. My turn out was not enough, and my body type would always be an issue. I did dance for 14 years despite the abuse until my body couldn’t take it anymore.
There were shorter dreams like wanting to be in the FBI or CIA to be an agent. It was about the greater good for me, thinking I would make a difference in the world.
My life long dream has been wanting to be a writer. Even now, while writing, I still have those moments when I struggle with the idea of being a writer.
What is being a writer, really?
Writing daily?
Writing a few times a week?
When you publish your work?
When you are paid to publish your work?
When you are paid to publish your work by a literary magazine only?
When you win an award?
I had this professor in college, and it was my first time on campus. I was randomly assigned to him and had decided on an emphasis on poetry because the previous year, I was having a love affair with Yeats, Keats, and Byron. We were quite the foursome, and I was still lost in my lovers’ haze when the professor sat there staring at me.
“Do you have a burning desire to write?” He turned back to his computer, searching for classes.
“Sorry?” I only am concerned with burning sensations when I pee.
“Do you have a burning desire to write, is a fire within you that can’t be contained?” He was yelling now. “It is the only way you will ever make it.”
I was silent and unsure why someone would associate burning with desire. When you say burning, I immediately go to infection
“WELL!”
“Yes,” I whisper, raising my brow to see if I have said the correct answer.
“Okay.” He stared a few moments at me and then continued on planning my classes.
This was my introduction to if you know whether you are a writer or not. While I still think he should have seen his doctor about all his burning feelings, it wasn’t until many years later that I understood his point. My goals in that first meeting were still the safe route, and I planned on being a professor. I had to make sure I had a stable income while I produced my art.
What I didn’t understand then was how much passion it would take to get my dreams off the ground. I was not a favorite student of anyone in the department. While I had good grades, no one told me to submit my work to publish or anything.
When I graduated, I did whatever other student was doing trying to get a job as a writer. Without an internship or experience of any kind, I had to give up on the dream then to pay the bills.
I didn’t know years later I would pick up writing again, and I would dream of a new dream. It was about writing for the one person who needed it.
There are many times I have gotten caught up in my dreams of changing the world. I have always thought if I am not changing it in significant ways, then clearly, I am not doing enough. But I am improving this world with the one person who reads what I write and gets out of it what they needed. So I am learning it is okay to take an old dream and give birth to a new dream. It is okay when things don’t work. Just don’t stop dreaming.
In the meantime, just write.
Monday's Mug 017
Hello friends! Welcome back to my Monday Mug. It is hot here in the Midwest, and summer has arrived. It is excellent outside before 7 am and after 7 pm, but without a breeze, the daytime temps can take it out of you. Our weather has been strange this year we had a lot of rain in May. I am settling down with my cup of tea tonight. I will get you some if you would like.
If we had a mug, I’d tell you I feel like I am being tested this year in what I know about my limits. I volunteered to do something outside of my comfort zone when it comes to social media. Doing media in this way was a risk for me to see what I could produce and what type of progress I could make for this client. It made me see how much I could be there for someone else. I loved helping them with the successes of their business. It was a victory for me in more ways than one, and I hope it will lead to future endeavors.
If we had a mug, I’d tell you about doing the NYC Midnight Challenge for micro-fiction in May because we haven’t spoken since in a while. It was so much fun and a lot harder than I expected. I was given an action, a genre, and a word to use. I enjoy prompts, and because I have been a prompt addict for a long time, so this was perfect. The part I didn’t realize would be so hard is cutting down my word count. I focused on every word I used and what purpose the term served to my story.
If we had a mug, I would tell you how great superstars for StoryADay have been. People were talking all the time about writing, which was terrific. I live in a more isolated area where there are not many writers locally, and with Covid-19 restrictions, a lot of groups have been going online. I love that StoryADay exists for the community to writers all over the world. There are writers all over the world. It is exciting to meet new people.
I have been learning about myself this last week and how I haven’t been there for myself in a real and loving way. I want to accomplish many dreams, and I know I’m in my way. I have learned I will go to the moon to encourage someone else and help them believe in their dream, but I haven’t believed in my own. It is time for a change.
In the meantime, just write.
Free Write - Alien Cow
Photo by Bruce Warrington on Unsplash
Welcome to Free Write Friday!
I will be adding an image every Friday to free write with.
It is a practice to allow your mind to wander creatively into new stories.
Set your timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and write!
Have Fun!
Spring Writing Community
I finished up Camp NaNoWriMo with flying colors this year. I got another 30,000 words written on various projects throughout the month. Sadly I didn’t get as much poetry written as I had hoped. There were other short story projects I was experimenting with, and even though I had left poetry behind, it was what I needed right now.
I have already started my participation in the SuperStars at StoryADay. This group writes a story every day in May. I am a prompt addict, so I love this challenge and have participated for a few years now.
I can’t tell you how much this group of people have changed my life and how I look at writing. I have forged really great friendships and community within StoryADay. I love May because there can be so much interaction, and each year we get to meet new people. The growth is impressive as I look back on my experiences over the few years of being with StoryADay I have blossomed and grown so much.
My writing habit lately has been suffering this year. I have taken on a new project for people and their social media, so it has been a little bit busier than I expected.
This week though, I have been buckling down to write even just a little bit each day. What do I mean by a little bit? I mean, if I get one sentence on the page for me, it is a win.
Do I want to do more yes, and do I usually yes? But there are days when the exhaustion hits me, and maybe I am just getting a few words out, or perhaps I am just journaling today because I have too many things on my mind today. I believe writing in any form or feeding that creativity helps you be a better writer.
This weekend is also the NYC Midnight 100 word microfiction challenge. I have decided to participate in this contest. I enjoyed the short story challenge so much in January I thought this might be a great way to get my feet wet in Flash Fiction.
Flash Fiction was not something I was taught about in college. Still, thanks to the age of the internet, I have found many resources to help me navigate the flash fiction world. A writer friend recommended Kathy Fish, and can I say her classes on Skillshare were great for this art.
I have been learning a lot on Skillshare, brushing up on my German, which I have been doing for the last six months now. There are many drawing classes and just writing courses in general. I am not going to say every class is quality because it isn’t to me just like you are not going to like every book I like.
This month has a lot of promise, and I will be excited to share with you next week how I have been getting out of my reading funk.
Don’t forget, just write.
Monday's Mug 016
Hello Friends! Welcome back to my Monday Mug. I am sitting down on this very rainy day in my living room on my fluffy couch. I will be drinking some green tea again because I am still loving it.
I can get you a coffee or tea if you would like?
Last week was a blur. I feel like lately, I am busier with doing all these things at home than I was when we were out and about in the world. Now don’t get me wrong I am in no rush to get out and about with this pandemic going on, but sometimes I just want to feel more relaxed in my own home.
Do you have this feeling too?
I work at home, and I am incredibly grateful to be able to do this, but my work/home balance is really off right now. I think it is because my office is in my living room, which worked fine when it was just my writing desk, but now it is my daytime working desk too. 14 hours at one desk is a little too much for me. If I am on the couch, then I am still looking at the work desk that reminds me of work, not writing. In fact, I have had to take most of my writing in my bedroom to get it done.
I find myself on more zoom meetings than I can count because it is educational, community, or school stuff for my children. Now I enjoy a good zoom meeting, but there is only so much screen time I can take. I am homeschooling my child, something I had only ever dreamed of but have been doing full time for about a month now. Our relationship at home couldn’t be better aside from the days when we are exhausted, and cabin fever is getting to us.
Camp Nano is going great. I am meeting my word count goals, and I am writing a lot. I am not getting a lot of poetry done, but I am writing in general.
The days I cannot get poetry to flow, I have been working on different aspects of my writing. Currently, I am working on dialogue and trying to get a more realistic feel for it. As well as allowing the character to really shine through. It is not as easy as I thought it might be. I am on the hunt for more exercises for dialogue if you have one for me leave it below or email me.
The struggle of this stay at home life has been hard. It was only a couple of weeks ago I was able to focus long enough to finish reading a book. I have been keeping a journal of what is happening and when I feel overwhelmed.
Being overwhelmed for me usually happens when I am on social media too much. Sometimes being overwhelmed is because maybe I was foolish and turned on the news in the morning while I got ready for work.
I would recommend keeping a journal of what is going on in your life. You never know when you might use these experiences for a writing piece later.
So until next time, just write.
Free Write - Snow Dog
Photo by Valentin Salja on Unsplash
Welcome to Free Write Friday!
I will be adding an image every Friday to free write with.
It is a practice to allow your mind to wander creatively into new stories.
Set your timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and write!
Have Fun!
Poetry Camp for NaNoWriMo
Hello April! I hope everyone is as safe as they can be. I am here to talk a little bit about Camp NaNoWriMo this year. This year is the first camp with the new NaNo website makeover. It was difficult for me last year in November to get the hang of what we were doing and how it all worked. I have since played around more with the site, and I am enjoying my camping experience.
The best update I see so far on the NaNo website is that the cabins we had during camp have been turned into permeant writing groups. It certainly doesn’t mean you cannot leave the group you are in if you don’t like it. However, it does mean you have instant access to the buddies you have been writing with twice a year in November too.
There were some other updates to the projects and goals I have not been as excited about. In the past, I used the hourly timed options as my goal when it comes to my writing. It was a way to build up my writing time during April and July. There are only options for the number of words now. However, you can make your project a little more specific now with drafting, editing, and publishing options as well as the type of writing you are working novel, short story, poetry, nonfiction, and more.
While I miss the hourly goals, they have made two websites now one, and they more useable all year round. Just being able to talk to your writing group year-round is an exciting thought. If you wanted to track projects with word counts and dates, it is also a valuable tool for free. I think this was a brilliant move on their part to make Camp and Nano more uniform and user friendly.
I have decided to join a couple of different writing groups this year. I am with my regular group this year. I have been a part of my regular cabin for two years now and a new writing group to expand my writing community. I have been getting to know new writers and chatting with my regular group since mid-March. I recommend trying out different groups if you have never attempted camp before, and it is such a great way to find new people to interact with in the world.
This year for the camp, I am writing poetry. Poetry was how I started writing. I didn’t write short stories or a novel as a child. It was poetry that came out of me. I couldn’t figure out how to express the emotions running deep in me, so the way they came out was in the written word. For me, it was oral before it was written while I bottle-fed baby calves in the barn. Poetry was dancing in my head and then out of my mouth like a song I always knew but had never heard. I have missed poetry; she was always my first love. It was the thing that understood me before I understood myself.
Poetry has been something that has trying to get out of me for years now after I tried to silence it. Poetry has been all along bubbling under the surface. I decided to let out this lion inside me out for a solid month to see what I could produce. I am not sure what will happen, but I hope it will help me process my life as my writing often does. I hope to see you in the CampNaNo world and if not…Just write.