I belong to a prompt community. I joined, oh, four years ago or so with the idea that I’d be able to use the prompts to stir the creative juices. It hasn’t really worked out. Oh, it’s not the community’s
Following the White Rabbit
Let’s say you’re walking along, minding your own business, when BAM a story idea waylays you. It’s interesting, it’s fun, it has all the information you need to sit down and get going. Let us also assume that you are
Get Out and Live
As we speak, my husband and I are somewhere deep in the Rocky Mountains. I’m using his cell phone as a modem – it’s like being on dial-up again – and we’re jamming to Falconer as my husband drives my
Rabbits and Snakes
So, now that Spring has sprung (or so I assume – it’s hard to tell around the rain) I am getting a better idea of how my yard works. We have a ridiculous amount of wildlife. Foxes, coyotes, raccoons, birds
When is a Story Truly Dead?
I hear it in interviews, from my writer friends, at book signings – the novel that went into a drawer, never to come out again. Their first or third or eighth novel that was so bad it didn’t deserve to
Why Doodling is Awesome
I have a habit of doodling. I draw on everything. I always have, with the exception of college that I can’t really explain except I think perhaps too much physics sucked the joy out of life. Or something. I do
Turning on the Backburner
I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m not here. When this goes up Friday morning, I will be far away from here, hopefully most if not all the way up a mountain. “What does that have to do with
Reluctant Muses
Turns out it’s hard to follow Alpaca Poetry. Ever had a story you really want to write – premise, characters, setting, the whole nine yards – but something was missing that was keeping you from actual writing. Aggravating, isn’t it?
Delve into the Depths
My mother was telling me the other day how – of the two stories her students wrote for NaNoWriMo last year that she actually read in their entirety – both were more or less rip-offs of other media. Apparently she
