writers

Ready for Another Writing Challenge? #WinWriWk

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Well I’m not! But I’ll be doing it anyway, because you know me and a writing challenge. And apparently I’m going to do two.

First things first, as this is more time sensitive, there’s this one from my friends over at Fiction Can Be Fun,  and @debsdespatches. It’s a writing prompt based on a funky image called the Mondretti Cylinder, stories to be posted on your blog this Friday, January 12, 2018 (TWENTY-EIGHTEEN, PEOPLE, it’s nuts), with the link in the comments of the original Fiction Can Be Fun post.

See? Fun. Can’t resist.

On to challenge two. This one is called “Winter Writing Week,” (#WinWriWk) and it comes to us from @FunSizeSuze and  (he’s a really busy guy!) via his blog, A Back of the Envelope Calculation. Here’s the post for details, but the best part, in my opinion, is that we can choose our week, any time from now until the end of February to commit to a writing project or our writing in general. Or, even better, to form a writing habit.

I love an open-ended challenge.

I know what I need to do–I have a novel about 20,000 words from completion–so I’ll find my challenge within that. Check out the post for more ideas, including those suggestions for boosting your writing routine.

So who’s with me? Pens in the air! Ready, set, type!

What’s that, hypothetical reader? Yes, you can put the pen down now. I didn’t really expect you to do this with a pen.

Check out my recaps of the hit new show “All My Traitors.” Recap of episode 2, “Lock Him Up” is available now!

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

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Getting Back That Old Writing Glow

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IMG_1631So sometimes you just feel…off. Out of sync. Like you’re blinking at the wrong rate. That’s me this week.

Physically I’m fine, though a little tiny bit stiff from a new exercise video I tried. Mentally, though — particularly when it comes to writing — the thoughts aren’t quite lining up.

And that happens.

I assume. I could be the uniquest unique writer in the unique universe (note, is anyone else shocked that “uniquest” appears to be a valid word?!). But I’m probably not.

This could be a chance for a new kind of creativity. Or it could just require a little more finger grease, to loosen up those darn typing muscles. Who knows.

Yesterday, for example, I labored over a sketch for our comedy group. If there’s anything that shouldn’t be labored over, it’s probably comedy. My does it show.

But if writing was all butterflies and singing flowers and sunshine and rainless rainbows everyone would do it.

Hmm. It kind of feels like everyone does it, but then again I socialize with a lot of writers, so I might have what one might call a biased sample.

Still, I will step once more into the manuscript, and clean up if nothing else. Even if I’m not in time with this universe, it’s possible that I might be blinking just right for my imaginary ones.

Check out  my full-length novels,  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only), and the sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) which is now available!

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

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The Gifts of G

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G was tricky, given that it’s great letter gorged with possibility. So many words, too good to gloss over. So I’m going with “gifts,” and I discovered something kind of of funny and too good to share.

There are a gaggles of books called “The Gift.” Some have subtitles like the one below, some are simply “The Gift.” Gobs of variety under one title. So that will be the title of both books in the book posts today. The genres? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see the other one.

 


The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World (Vintage) by Lewis Hyde. Amazon for $9.15. Discusses the argument that a work of art is essentially a gift and not a commodity. “The best book I know of for talented but unacknowledged creators. . . . A masterpiece.” —Margaret Atwood

“No one who is invested in any kind of art . . . can read The Gift and remain unchanged.” —David Foster Wallace

“Few books are such life-changers as The Gift: epiphany, in sculpted prose.” —Jonathan Lethem

“A manifesto of sorts for anyone who makes art [and] cares for it.” —Zadie Smith

“This long-awaited new edition of Lewis Hyde’s groundbreaking and influential study of creativity is a cause for across-the-board celebration.” —Geoff Dyer

Download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities. It’s free!

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Boredom is Better than You Believe

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I admit that title was slightly tortured, but it will have to do. It’s a B we all deal with, at some time or another, and the work of artists and writers throughout the centuries can reflect it. More so, creative work may even be shaped by it. See? Being bored isn’t all bad. Hmm. That would have made a better title.


Boredom: A Lively History by Peter Toohey. Amazon for $11.99. In the first book to argue for the benefits of boredom, Peter Toohey dispels the myth that it’s simply a childish emotion or an existential malaise like Jean-Paul Sartre’s nausea. He shows how boredom is, in fact, one of our most common and constructive emotions and is an essential part of the human experience.

This informative and entertaining investigation of boredom—what it is and what it isn’t, its uses and its dangers—spans more than 3,000 years of history and takes readers through fascinating neurological and psychological theories of emotion, as well as recent scientific investigations, to illustrate its role in our lives. There are Australian aboriginals and bored Romans, Jeffrey Archer and caged cockatoos, Camus and the early Christians, Dürer and Degas. Toohey also explores the important role that boredom plays in popular and highbrow culture and how over the centuries it has proven to be a stimulus for art and literature.

Toohey shows that boredom is a universal emotion experienced by humans throughout history and he explains its place, and value, in today’s world. Boredom: A Lively History is vital reading for anyone interested in what goes on when supposedly nothing happens.

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