Well, I said I’d report on word count this week, but I have realized what a dumb measure of writerly activity that can be. I finished a short story draft for the anthology (1190 words) and worked on a second story (771 words), which is the sum total for my creative writing word count. I’ve also rewritten the introduction to my book, 201 Writing Prompts (more on that later), many pages of handwritten journal notes, lots of information updates on Amazon’s Author Central, and a pile of research notes (also handwritten.) I also, finally, finished formatting my middle readers’ fantasy for ebook and hard copy publication–not a speedy process, but greatly helped by a set of book design templates created by Joel Friedlander. Yes, word count really doesn’t reflect the writing and writing-related work that does get done in a week and doesn’t count the staring-into-space thinking time that also makes up a part of my writing life.
The rest of the week was busy with classes, finishing a crocheted afghan for my mom, lots of driving my son around during March break to music lessons and friends’ houses, a visit from a plumber for a leaky pipe, a fun trip to Chapters, and, most scary for me, a trip to the licence bureau for my son’s learner’ permit. Although, after the most recent pick up, at midnight last night, I’m thinking we should have started on that sooner. All in all, a good week.
As I mentioned above, I’ve done some revisions on 201 Writing Starters, including changing the title to 201 Writing Prompts to land it in the right place in searches on Amazon, etc. To celebrate finishing this long overdue change, the book is on sale at Smashwords, at 50% off the $2.99 price with this code ZA54M. Here’s the extended blurb about the book:
All writers have th
ose days when inspiration just seems to fly out the window—when the blank screen becomes a sadly accurate reflection of the sorry state of your imagination and you start your fourth game of FreeCell in ten minutes. Or you have a day when the current writing project just sits there like an ugly pile of February slush—all memories of the lovely white snow it started out as are gone, and all it’s good for is creeping in that one small hole in your boots and making your life miserable, wet and cold.
Some people call this writer’s block. I call it a temporary pause in the creative process—actually,I call it a lot of other things, too, but I’d have to change the rating on this book if I printed them.
The writing prompts in this book are for those days.
But they’re also for the days when you just want to play with words. They’re for those times when you need to clear your brain of the messiness of your day and warm up before tackling the project that means so much to you. They can serve as prompts for your daily writing journal, too. Trust me, if you break them down into their individual components, you’ll have enough to last a year! Maybe you could share one with your writers’ group one night and enjoy the completely different stories that emerge from the same prompt.
How you use the prompts is up to you, but I encourage you to use them for whatever purpose works for where your writing is right now.
The book is divided into chapters of ten random writing prompts each. The prompts come in a variety of formats from lists of titles and opening lines, to reflective questions, to random snatches of dialogue and brainstorming topics. Work through them in order, or dip into the book anywhere you please.
I hope you enjoy exploring these writing prompts, and I wish you many, many hours of imagination and creativity.
I still have to make changes to the book/cover on Amazon, and it will take a while for the other ebook distributors to get the current issue. All on the list for my next writerly week!
What writerly things are on your agenda for next week? Hope you have a creative and fun seven days ahead!