Heather Wright

Let the Brainstorming Begin

IMG_4382Back in October Jean Mills, and I applied for a joint Writer’s Reserve grant through the Ontario Arts Council. Jean is a friend, but also an experienced writer and wonderful colleague. Among other things, we share two former employers, membership in PWAC and our sons went to school together for a while. We thought we’d make pretty good partners on a creative project. Receiving a grant doesn’t mean that a publisher will buy the finished project, but it does mean that a publisher thinks our idea and our writing samples are good enough to get some support to move ahead.

Last Wednesday, we received a letter from Dundurn Press to tell us that we received a grant. Yay!

And yikes!

Now I have to get writing. Our project is an anthology of short stories, and as thrilled as I was by this concrete gesture of approval, I’ve been stewing since Wednesday about whether I’d even come up with any ideas, let alone be able to write one–or six. It was one of those moments when you think, “it seemed like such a good idea at a time.”

Well, yesterday I got the idea for my first story. Yesterday I took time to create ‘white space.’ Here’s Sarah Selecky’s definition of white space: “White space: time spent doing nothing. Staring into space. Watching steam from your teacup, watching waves lap at the shore, listening to the wind through tree branches.” Selecky’s theory is that it’s impossible to be creative if we don’t give ourselves time to let our minds rest, to spend some time with no distractions. Here’s how she says it, “How can you have that gorgeous, rich feeling of having images come to you as you write, if you haven’t given your mind any time or space for insight?” Take some time to read her blog and then see what happens when you create some white space for yourself.

I am a to-do list maker from way back. If I’m going to reach my goals, ‘white space’ will be on the list, too.

If you have any strategies for shutting the attention-grabbing distractions down so that you can create, please pass them along. I’d love to learn how others find creative time and energy. Hope you find some white space today!

Writing Prompts for February

A Snowy DriveThe Christmas poinsettia is thinning out, the fireplace mantle is empty of snowmen, musical snow globes, and the seasonal moose, the last of the holiday chocolate has been consumed, and I’m on week 4 at Weight Watchers. It must be February.

Today horizontal snow is flying by my window and the temperature feels like -17 degrees Celsius with the wind chill. Two weeks ago it was +12 and my daffodils were poking through the red stones on my flowerbed. This is winter in southern Ontario.

Tomorrow, our provincial prognosticator of the duration of winter, Wiarton Willie, groundhog extraordinaire, will be jarred from a nice sleep and asked to step outside his warm home and look for his shadow. If he sees his shadow, there will be an early spring, if not, expect six more weeks of winter. Either way, we’re pretty much programmed here to deal with winter as long as it sticks around.

To keep the creative fires burning, whether you have snow or not, here are some writing prompts for February.

1. Write a piece using one, some or all of the following words: snow, windows, night, candle, branches, waiting.

2. Try one of these opening lines:

  • Jim glared out the window as fat flakes of snow filled in the sidewalk he’d just shoveled. “Mary!” he called. “What did you say the temperature was in Las Vegas today?”
  • My boss was right. Sunday was the perfect day for a murder.
  • It was too damn quiet.
  • Outside the diner, a black pickup rolled to a stop.
  • Helen never looked good in red.

3. See if these lines of dialogue inspire a scene:

What’s that?
I don’t hear anything.
Shhh. Listen.
Oh. That’s not good.

How’d it go?
The captain was less than impressed.
But did he believe you?
Yes. We’re leaving in an hour.

What’s so interesting? You’ve been staring out that window for the past hour.
Bill’s late.
Wouldn’t he call if he were going to be late?
Yes, if he could.

Did you get what you wanted?
Yes.
Then let’s get out of here.

4. Maybe one of these titles will work for you: Wet Roads and Stars, Miranda’s Memory, Black on Black, Gateway, Red Light, Washed in Dreams, Sundown and Sam, Wild Winds, Empty Pages

Have a fantastic February!

Webcopy Writing Tips

I’ve just uploaded a mini white paper to my business site. If you’re thinking of reworking or refreshing the copy on your website to attract more clients, check out Five Tips for Creating Client-Friendly Webcopy at http://wrightwriter.com/?page_id=119.

Hope your 2013 is off to a great start!

Writing Prompts for January 2013

Kitchener bus station in December rain
Kitchener bus station in December rain

Here are some writing prompts to give you a creative start to the new year.

1. Use these song titles to inspire a story or poem: What’s New, New Sensation, New World in the Morning, All Those Years Ago, Year of the Cat, 2000 Light Years from Home, Last Year’s Man, Reelin’ in the Years.

2. Here are some opening lines you might try.

  • “I’d wish you a Happy New Year, but I have a feeling it would be a little inappropriate at a murder scene.”
  • Jasmine held the small shell, looking at it closely for a moment before putting it carefully in her pocket.
  • The icy rain clattered on the windows like an endless chorus line of rhythm-challenged tap dancers.
  • Winslow put down his pen and read the note one last time.
  • Eyes that green were definitely dangerous.
  • Mike’s Saloon was usually closed in the morning.

3. Use one, some, or all of these words in a story.

  • cheer, light, shadow, photograph, branch, water
  • paper, glass, sand, flight, scent, mirror, bloom

4. See if one of these titles sparks a story: Close By, Amanda’s Wish, Consolation Prize, Run It By, Close Quarters, Light the Way, Last Candle, Jewel Box Mystery, Footprints in Snow, Quinn’s Destiny.

5. Have you ever wished you could travel back in time in your own life? What event would you love to relive? What would you wish you could do over? How are you going to make this new year one that you want to live over again?

I wish you all a creative, prosperous and healthy 2013! Happy Writing!

Looking Back

Dec 2012 blog tagxedo
Inspired by Patricia Ann McGoldrick’s blog , I created a word cloud of what I’ve been writing about this year. I can’t use Wordle, because I can’t stop my computer blocking the software I need to upload to use it, so I used Tagxedo instead. You can make it more Wordle-like by changing the emphasis to 1. I warn you that playing with either of these programs can be addictive!

I thought that the word cloud was pretty informative actually. The words goals, writing, and time featured pretty predominantly. Obviously these are things I was writing about and concerned about last year. Did I set goals and accomplish them? Yes–and no. I finished my 30-day writing challenge, so that was a definite yes. Some other writing goals I wanted to pursue fell by the wayside.

So what about next year? What will my goals be? The writing challenge brought a few things into perspective about where I am with my writing and my writing business. Do I have a novel ahead of me? No. Some shorter pieces? Yes. Do I have some marketing plans? Yes. Am I still teaching? Yes. Do I have one major goal that I want to accomplish in the new year? Yes, I want to be a lot kinder to myself. Yup, that’s the goal I picked. And I think that if that is the starting point for any other challenges that I take on–writing, marketing, losing weight, exercising (oh yeah, the last 2 are definitely on my list)–I think I’ll have a better chance of succeeding.

I’m trying to turn the have-to’s and their accompanying moans of gloom into actions that I do because they are actually good for me, that come from treating myself well. It’s an effort to fix my head voices that are far more often negative than positive. I hope to end the year with them less eager to point out failure, and more inclined to shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, not everything works out the way you plan. What can we try next?”
What are your next steps for 2013? Have you set writing or health-related goals? Do you have any strategies for success that we should know about?

I’ll be back in a few days with your writing prompts for January.

Until then, be kind to yourself. 🙂

Writing Challenge Update

Two more days to go and I will have almost achieved my goal of writing every day for 30 days. Like millions of people shocked by the horrific events of Friday, I spend a day tearful, numbed and shaken. I wrote nothing, and felt very thankful to be able to hug my son. In the big picture, my goal doesn’t really mean that much.

I did do one thing that day. I had promised myself, when I had time, that I’d finally houseclean the list of the people that I follow on Twitter. I have become increasingly annoyed by the hourly promotions that are automatically generated by people that I have chosen to follow. Many of them are writers whose purpose on Twitter seems simply to sell books, rather than engage with other writers. We’re not fellow writers; we’re potential buyers. Yup, I’m that naive.

Anyhow, Friday afternoon, I scrolled through my Twitter feeds and simply ‘unfollowed’ a bunch of people. They were easy to spot among the many who posted personal responses to the events of the day. When I started using Twitter in its early days, I felt that I was connected with people who were actually in front of their computers at the same time I was. We sometimes had conversations! That seems to be gone. I realize that I was harsh to judge people on that awful day, but it did clarify an issue that I’ve been thinking about for a while.

Yes, I’ve done some promotion on Twitter, but if you check the history of my tweets @hwrightwriter, you’ll see that I don’t do it very often. And certainly not more than once a day. To many that means that I’m not using Twitter to its best potential. To me, it means I’m respecting my followers who have better things to do than read hourly book plugs from me. If you’re thinking that, if I don’t like it, I shouldn’t play in Twitter’s sandbox. You’re probably right. And when I’ve had a little more time to think about it, I may do just that.

How do you use Twitter? If you use it to drive sales, is it effective? Have you found other social media that you prefer to keep you connected to people in the publishing business or to key people in whatever field you are interested in?

Planning for 2013

photo by Jenny Kaczorowski WANA Commons
Time Disappears in a Good Book Photo by Jenny Kaczorowski WANA Commons

The writing challenge that I set myself 22 days ago is progressing well. I haven’t missed a day, though I pulled couple of late nights to make sure that I kept to my commitment. I’m looking forward to reading all the crazy things I’ve written when the challenge is over. Writing whatever comes to mind has been a very “interesting” process.Today, and for the next couple of weeks, I’m focusing on making plans for my freelance writing business for 2013. I’m looking for ways to grow my services by developing a training course in clear writing for local businesses and by expanding my creative writing workshops into more schools, and by … Well, you get the idea.

The task of setting business goals is a lot easier with some guidance from other experienced writers. Here’s a link to Paul Lima’s chapter from Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing. Whether you are in business or not, answering the questions that Paul poses here will help you create a plan that will help you reach your goals.

Another link that certainly helped me get my goals in perpective is from Kristi Holl at Writer’s First Aid. Here she talks about small goals that she believes will make a big difference to her writing output next year. http://kristiholl.net/writers-blog/2012/11/simplified-writing-goals-for-2013/ Also have a look at Set Goals NOW for 2013, and with Kristi’s and Paul’s suggestions enjoy New Year’s Day knowing that you’ve done good work to make 2013 your best year yet.

Do you take the time to make yearly plans for your business or your writing life? Do you have any resources or suggestions that help with goal setting and planning?

December Writing Prompts and Challenge Update

Flags at DeerhurstYesterday, I completed Day 14 of my daily writing challenge. There were a couple of days last week when I really just wanted to forget it and have a nap, but I was very happy that I persisted–not because I created a particularly riveting piece of prose, but just because I wrote something instead of nothing. Yup. That was all it took to put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

Here are some writing prompts for you for December, and if you don’t find these inspiring, I’ve just posted another 20 at http://wrightingwords.wordpress.com/writing-starters/ Have a creative December!

1. December brings the year to an end, and if the Mayans were right … no, I really don’t believe that. Here are some song titles  that might inspire a story: End of Night, End of the Road, My Endless Love, End of Time, Last Waltz, My Last Breath, Last Child, Last Time, The Last Night.

2. Use one, some of all of these words in a story: pine, snow, wind, crack, red, dead leaves, flame.

3. Here are some opening lines:

A dead battery was the least of my problems that morning.

Jim said he’d checked the cottage yesterday. It wasn’t like him to forget to lock the door.

Beth put her mug down with a thud and jumped up from the table. She really had heard it. It wasn’t her imagination.

Dry leaves scuttered across the driveway.

I hated it when snow fell horizonally.

Chris woke to the sound of crying. It was 3 o’clock in the morning and he’d been alone when he went to bed.

4. Use one, some or all of these words in a story: chimes, midnight, window, stone, willow, song

5. Try one of these “seasonal”story titles: The Holly and the Slimy, In the Creep Midwinter, Siren Night, Shiver Bells, Snowfall Blues, Black Ice, Gifts, Holly’s Heart, New Years and No Tears, Ribbons and Robin.

Writing Workshops for K-W Teens

Once again, I am offering a free series of writing workshops for teens through the Kitchener Public Library. The workshops begin on Wednesday, February 6, 2013 and will be at the Forest Heights’ Branch from 4 to 5 pm.  I’ll be working with teen writers to help them  develop story ideas, write dialogue, create characters and add action and  suspense to their writing. Check the KPL website for registration details.

Day 8 Writing Challenge Check-In

For someone who for months has been despairing that any creativity she professed to own had the life spark of mud, the fact that words have been hitting the page for seven days is a small miracle. Maybe they’re being written because I’ve left the laptop unopened, and I’m using paper and pencil instead. Maybe the words are coming because I have committed to writing something every day–not something great, long-lasting, or toward a goal of publication–just something. Whatever is going on is just fine with me.

I’ve been totally surprised at the workings of my brain. (Okay, that might be a surprise to a few people.) What I mean is–where do these stories and people come from? I just start writing and things happen. So far, though, all the protagonists have shared one thing–isolation. They start out alone or apart from others. In one story she is fairly content where she is–until she meets ‘him’. In two others, she is curious about something strange in her environment and that leads to a suprise (in one case a corpse.) In another, he is desperate to finish a manuscript that holds a secret, knowing his life is in danger. In the story that I’ve been working on for 3 consecutive days, she is a grumpy tourist who leaves her group long enough for them to be all gunned down. (Of course, I would continue the one with the highest body count!) Do you have a pattern to the beginnings of your stories? What do you do go get the creative sparks lighting? Do you write only on the computer? With pen and paper? A combination of the two? Do you find yourself suprised by stories or ideas that seem to come out of nowhere? I’d love to hear your surprise stories and how you tap into your imagination.

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