Internet problems + Life = Apology

I do sincerely apologize for not updating for the last few days. I've been struggling with my internet connection and getting personal time for any purpose(I'm so far behind on my NaNoWriMo schedule that it isn't even funny anymore) has been a massive chore. Why do all of my friends seem to break up with their boyfriends, have pregnancy scares, or start experimenting with their sexuality in the middle of November?

Oh well. I just need to keep telling myself that I'm a good friend and a loving daughter.

I'm sorry to say, you guys are probably going to have to miss out on inspiration for this week and the weekend. I suck at helping with Week Two Slump . . . but I do have a funeral to go to on Saturday and family to console.

Peace,
Emily Grace

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A worn sock monkey without any button eyes.

Suggested Listening: I Don't Need No Help Gettin' Down - Michael Rault

Quote: "They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong." Ronald Reagan

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "Poutine . . . is . . . GOD."

Suggested Listening: I Need a Dollar - Aloe Blacc

Quote: "Any old place I can hang my hat is home sweet home to me." - William Jerome



All first drafts suck. It's a fact. It isn't going to change any time soon. Sorry.

You, as a writer, can't let that discourage you. There will be days when you look back at what you've written on a specific project and just want to burn whatever you wrote it on. We all have those days. The mark of strength comes from surviving those days with our unfinished first drafts intact. I have three rules that I strictly adhere to when I'm writing:

One: Never, ever, EVER edit ANYTHING until you're done.

Two: Never be caught without something to write with. Paper and writing surfaces are everywhere - the utensils with which to write, however, are not.

Three: Write to tell a story. Never write to be popular.

Until your project is finished, don't even change a misspelled word.

Do. Not. Edit. Until. You. Are. Finished.

Once you've put down the last punctuation mark of the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last chapter, go hog-wild with it if you want to. I personally find that leaving it for a few weeks - upwards of a few years, depending on what else I'm working on - lets me return to it with less of a desire to burn it for sucking.



Also, sorry for the late blog post. I meant to hop on the laptop before going to work, but I ended up sleeping in.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: An alien the size of a button invades the White House (or equivalent prominent political building of moderate importance) and holds the staff - not the political leaders, the staff - hostage.

Suggested Listening: Birthday - Kings of Leon

Quote: "God is a concept by which we measure our pain." - John Lennon


No inspirational blurb today. I'm studying for my midterms.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "You want to put what in the where now? Why?"

Suggested Listening: Carrickfergus - Charlotte Church

Quote: "More fun than a sack full of dead kittens." The slogan for FLEM comics (link in the sidebar.)



Find yourself running low on things for your characters to say? Don't want to randomly eavesdrop on strangers' conversations? Why not find an internet forum site and poke around in one of the subforums you might not usually look at if you were a member of the site? Instead of angling directly towards the writer's forum, look at the roleplay forums, or the forums dedicated to intellectual debates.

Even if you aren't struggling for inspiration, go ahead and do it anyways. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "He is so your kid."

Suggested Listening: Master of Puppets - Metallica

Quote: "Honor is but an empty bubble." - John Dryden



Sorry, another day with no inspirational blurb. Feel free to send me angry emails.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Waking up in prehistoric times.

Suggested Listening: Everyday - Webster

Quote: If I have made an appointment with you, I owe you punctuality, I have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own. Richard Cecil



No inspiration today. Just go talk to people.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "Er . . . is there any way to shorten that name into something more . . . pronounceable?"

Suggested Listening: Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Lady Antebellum

Quote: "Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without." Confucius



Your writing should have the same importance as anything else of value in your life. Dedicate a small amount of your time every day to write, and do nothing but write. Make appointments with yourself to do it, if you find that other things keep stealing you away from your writing time. Think of these writing appointments as doctor visits. Your doctor won't postpone your appointment because the laundry needed doing or a friend wanted you to go for coffee, so you shouldn't postpone your writing for those reasons either.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "It's squishy and smells funny . . . is it safe to eat it?"

Suggested Listening: Siulil a Run - Celtic Woman

Quote: Life isn't life without what ends it. Yours truly



No inspiration today. Go play in the snow, if you've got it.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Topless night punching bag.

Suggested Listening: Lost the War - Paper Lions

Quote: Mountains are only obstacles if you don't know where to buy hiking gear. Yours Truly



Rescue a stray key from that junk drawer in the kitchen. Put it next to your word processor or typewriter. Try to remember or imagine what this key once unlocked. Start writing.

From The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "My cranium is safe within my hat."

Suggested Listening: Details In The Fabric - Jason Mraz

Quote: "As soon as forever is through, I'll be over you." - Toto



Reposted Inspiration (because it's something worth repeating.)

Try thinking of your writing area as a train station, and your physical body as a train. Now make yourself a schedule to stop at your writing "station" every day, at the same time every day, for the same amount of time every day. Once you have that pattern of arriving, writing, and departing, it'll be easier for you to slide into the mindset of writing every day on that schedule.

Miss a day? Arrive early or late? Don't worry about it. The trains don't always arrive on time either, but they always arrive eventually.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Another mother.

Suggested Listening: Pokerface - The Glee Remix

Quote: "I'm right. Why? Because you're stupid and I'm less so." Yours Truly


Writers require, maybe even crave, connection with all stages of life. We need old people, children, peers, teenagers, people we envy, people we pity, the whole human spectrum.

How many people do you talk to on a regular basis? Is it time to expand your world a bit? Take a kid to a ball game. Chat with the local librarian. Ask the girl at the 7-Eleven where she's from. Say hello to that neighbor you've never met.

If you say you're a writer, they'll tell you a story.

From The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Squirrels.

Suggested Listening: Carry on my Wayward Son - Kansas

Quote: "If girls can marry boys, then why can't boys marry boys, and why can't girls marry girls? Really? The church is stupid. And it's stupid that the gov'rn'm'nt thinks the same way." Yours Truly, age 8



There's a lot in life that can't or shouldn't be explained. Today, pick one of those things, and write a scene where one of your characters figures it out.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: An island the size of Australia has mysteriously appeared in the South Pacific.

Suggested Listening: Spring, The Four Seasons - Vivaldi

Quote: "A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way." - Caroline Gordon



Today, write a dream.

Dreams are nonsensical. They are random experiences, with no reason or purpose. They're also hella fun to write. So try it. Write a dream.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A strange device that makes buttons out of string.

Suggested Listening: Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson

Quote: "I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds." - Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Trumpeter.



I want to, first off, apologise to all of you. I neglected my daily postings this weekend in favor of hanging out with my best friend and working my first shift at my new job. Thank you all for being patient with me. Or for at least cursing me in silence while I get my act together.

Moving on! It is November First and that means that National Novel Writing Month has officially begun. To all of you who have, like me, taken up the great challenge of writing 50,000 words this month, I wish you the best of luck and I hope I can help make it happen by providing you with daily doses of inspiration and wisdom.

Even if you aren't a part of the November Insanity, I wish you luck with whatever you've chosen to dedicate your time to this month and hope that this blog will be of some small assistance to you in whatever you're doing.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Expired chocolate milk.

Suggested Listening: New York - Frank Sinatra

Quote: "The autosave feature is invaluable." - Yours Truly



No inspirational nugget of wisdom today. Go hang out with your friends and loved ones.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: French fries with peppermint and hot sauce.

Suggested Listening: Santa Fe - Rent

Quote: "I'm self-employed. I'm creating. I'm in love. I'm happy." Quoted from Dar: A Super Girly Top-Secret Comic Diary


I'm going to start off this post by saying I'm blogging from my Caves to Cathedrals art history course, and that while I really should be paying attention, I've got liberty to ignore what she says now in favor of replaying it on my tape recorder later. So there.

Next, I'm going to say that I've got a big ol' fat crush on Erika, who is the creator of DAR: A Super Girly Top-Secret Comic Diary, which I've been quoting from lately. Her webcomic diary is, in essence, the most perfect way to describe the life of somebody dedicated to their craft. The link above takes you to the final page of her webcomic, and I highly recommend that you all read the rest of it, because her artwork is fantastic, and her messages are even better.

The reason I'm putting so much emphasis on this today is because if you want to be a serious, dedicated writer, you need to put almost everything that you are into your words. Sometimes, you need to work in a place you dislike or outright hate in order to make enough money to keep writing your epic saga. Sometimes, you're fortunate enough to find a niche job where you can balance your writing and your work without stressing yourself out. In both cases, you still need to be dedicated to your work - option B just makes it easier to dedicate yourself.

That being said, never let your writing get in the way of your day job unless you know your writing will bring in at least as much, if not more, revenue than said day job. You've still got to put food on the table, pay bills, and, y'know, do that thing people do from time to time. What was it again? Oh yeah, have a life. Just don't forget your passion by the wayside as you move onwards and upwards.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A cold, rainy day, and a warm, loving hug.

Suggested Listening: The Lord of the Rings Soundtrack - Various Artists

Quote: "I am my own toaster." - From DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary



No daily nugget of inspiration today. I'm dedicated to getting Fable 3 completed before NaNoWriMo starts up November 1st.

Blog posts will probably not go up at midnight like I usually try to do. I thank all of you for reading and being present while I do this, and I hope you'll be patient as I geek out over my favorite game.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "I'm saying I was shit-stupid as a kid!"

Suggested Listening: The Sherlock Holmes Soundtrack - Various Artists

Quote: "What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness." - Leo Tolstoy



Rain is an infinitely powerful thing. It gives life to the earth and helps to wash away the dirt and grit of the world. Today, write a scene with the rain. Or if it actually is raining outside, go for a walk without an umbrella. You see things in the rain that you don't see in the sunlight or the darkness. The inspirational values are infinite.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Wither and Grow

Suggested Listening: White Houses - Amanda Stott

Quote: "Before God we are equally wise, and equally foolish." - Albert Einstein



I'm sorry this post is so late in the day, but I was spending the day with somebody whom I care about more than anything in the world.

Everything is chance. Meeting new friends, making new relationships, everything is chance. Every day is a different roll of the dice that gives and takes opportunities and offers us the ability to decide our fates for ourselves.

Risks and rewards are a part of our lives, and they should be a part of your characters' lives as well.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "Cough cough die."

Suggested Listening: One Week - Barenaked Ladies

Quote: Your fortune cookie says: An angry man opens his mouth and shuts up his eyes.



Two graveyard pictures in a row! I must like you people or something.

Anyways. Graveyards are some of the most interesting places in the world. The old ones have nifty sayings, the coolest tombstones, and probably the most interesting people you would ever want to meet . . . if they were, y'know, still alive. Take some time and visit a graveyard near you. Why?

Have a conversation with a dead person.

It sounds creepy and weird, but I promise you, it is worth the awkward factor. Death does not judge the living. Talk about your day, your hopes, your fears, your dreams, the characters you hate, the people you can't stand, everything that you can't say out loud to anybody else. When it's all over, once you've finished spilling out everything, you'll feel refreshed and new.

I visit my local cemetary whenever I need to talk without being judged, and it helps me figure things out. When I'm having trouble with my plots or my personal life, I talk to my Nanny Mahoney - she's as an amazing a woman in death as she was in life and I am grateful to have known her and to know her now.

Try it. You just might figure a few things out too.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "You delving into my sticky messes does not sound cool."

Suggested Listening: The Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Soundtrack - Various Artists

Quote: Alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity. - Sammy Davis Jr.



I am very drunk at the moment, so no wisdom for you tonight.

Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "You're crazy. Get the hell outta here."

Suggested Listening: Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles

Quote: "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light." - Hellen Keller



Playing with punctuation can turn a dark, deadly situation into a cute, funny situation. Today, take a scene from a project you've already finished and try changing up the periods and exclamation marks. It's good for a few chuckles and might give you some ideas to help you through the scene you're currently working on!

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Empty plates covered in crumbs.

Suggested Listening: The Assumption Song - Arrogant Worms

Quote: "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." - Mae West


Today, add some laughter. While not everything should be sunshine and roses in your story, there should still be some elements of happiness. The trick is to find a happy medium. Not too dark and depressing (unless that's what your plotline is based on) and not too bubbly-sunshine-happy-fun-times to keep things balanced.

Everything's about balance.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "They cannonized a hampster?"

Suggested Listening: Play With Fire - Hillary Duff

Quote: "You've lost your . . . muchness."
- The Mad Hatter, Alice In Wonderland, 2010

Today, add some colour to whatever you're doing.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Work is cancelled for the day.

Suggested Listening: Bitch - Alannis Morissette

Quote: Fuck them all and let chlamydia sort them out. - Speedy from the webcomic A Girl and Her Fed




Muffins. No brilliant nugget of wisdom today, just . . . muffins.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Your character is speaking to a gorgeous stranger, but can't understand a word they're saying.

Suggested Listening: Jesus Take the Wheel - Carrie Underwood

Quote: “Oh, I love hugging. I wish I was an octopus, so I could hug 10 people at a time!” -Drew Barrymore


Having trouble? Find somebody or something you love and give 'em a hug.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Good company, bad atmosphere.

Suggested Listening: Paint the Sky With Stars - Enya

Quote: To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world. ~Charles Dudley Warner



Everybody has reasons for doing what they do, including your characters. What makes them do the things they do? Why does your protagonist smoke? Why can't your antagonist use a public restroom? Their motives are as important to the story as they are.

Daily Inspiration (Warning: Graphic Image)

Prompt: "Here he is . . . poor kid."

Suggested Listening: If I Die Young - Band Perry

Quote: There are things in life that we just can't control. The world isn't a happy place and most of the time, we aren't happy in it. We need to take the good and the bad from everything, decide which we're going to keep close to our hearts, and keep our faces turned skywards. - Yours Truly.



Not everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows in your life. The same should be said about your story. If nothing goes wrong and everybody is happy through the whole story, go back to your planning stages and take a good hard look at what you've got. If you can't bear to put your characters through even a minor hardship, maybe you need to think about giving writing a little bit of a break for awhile.

It isn't wrong to love your characters, and it isn't wrong to want the best for them - these feelings should never interfere with your desire to tell a good story. Don't get so attached to your characters that you sob and cringe at the thought of letting anything, however small, bad happen to them. As much as they exist in your imagination, they aren't real people who will hate you if you write in a breakup or write in the death of a loved one.

Learning to treat my characters as characters was a hard lesson I had to learn a long time ago, and needed to remind myself of tonight.

I apologize if the picture stunned/shocked you.


Peace.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A coffee shop at midnight.

Suggested Listening: So Small - Carrie Underwood

Quote: The Master said: "Artful speech and ingratiating demeanour rarely accompany virtue. The Analects Of Confucius, Book One: Concerning Fundamental Principles.



I'll be posting this one again before November and the National Novel Writing Month challenge starts, because this is possibly the best way I can think of to emphasize how important it is to give your writing the same amount of time, effort and care that you give to everything else in your life.

Try thinking of your writing area as a train station, and your physical body as the train. Now make yourself a schedule to stop at your writing area every day, at the same time every day, for the same amount of time every day. Once you have this pattern of arriving, writing and departing, you'll find it easier to get yourself into the mindset of writing every day during that time.

Miss a day? Arrive early or late? Don't worry about it. The trains don't always run on time either, but they always get there eventually.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A rare old book covered in fresh blood.

Suggested Listening: Remember - Josh Groban

Quote: I then realized my appearance was a bit odd. My right leg was no longer with me. It had caught somewhere in the top of the cockpit as I tried to leave my Spitfire. - Douglas Bader



Guess what everybody? I'm back!

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: There is a very strange egg in a basket on the neighbor's doorstep.

Suggested Listening: Call Me - Shinedown

Quote: Our destinies lay not in the stars, but ourselves. - Unknown



There is a special throne in heaven for poets who labor in obscurity. The rest of us harbor an unexpressed hope for fame and glory.

You might be tempted to write for a market. You might be tempted to ride the crest of a trend.

That kind of writing is about as stable and fulfilling as day-trading.

Write what moves you. Write what interests you. Write what frightens you. Write what thrills you. Take a cue from the poets, bless their underfunded little hearts. From: The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: When God made the world, he asked: What's my motivation?

Suggested Listening: The Alice In Wonderland soundtrack - various artists

Quote: We are blessed and sustained by what is not said. - Unknown



Butterflies. No deep, insightful piece of wisdom today, just . . . butterflies.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Cookies made with fresh Espresso.

Suggested Listening: Can't Come Quickly - Scissor Sisters

Quote: Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. - Willy Wonka, the Remake


If you're stuck and have been for more than three days, move on. Leave what you're stuck on and just skip ahead to the next plot point or character conversation. It won't vanish if you don't finish it, I promise, and you can always go back later when you feel you're ready to do it.

An Apology

To all my readers - all two of you that I know about, and all the ones I don't - I am extremely sorry for my week-long radio silence. I wish I could say that I'll be updating very, very soon, but that would be lying and I dislike doing that. I've been working very hard to graduate - going to college is just a little more important to me than keeping regular updates in a blog at the moment.

The crunch is over on Monday, June 14th. Regular, daily posts will resume then.

Keep writing,
Seriah

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "Well. That was entertaining. Now what's for dinner?"

Suggested Listening: Once Upon A December - from Disney's Anastasia

Quote: Jesters do oft prove prophets. -William Shakespeare



Writing can be hard on the body. Don't forget to get up and stretch, often! While you're stretching, say a prayer, recite a poem, hum a song . . . keep yourself in a meditative state. - From The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: You're going on a date with somebody you met on the bus on your way to work this morning.

Suggested Listening: Will You Remember - The Cranberries

Quote: How quaint. Somehow, you've managed to delude yourself into thinking that I care about you, when really . . . I don't. - Angeline Devries



Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Cleanliness is also very good for your mind. Today, take all the projects you haven't touched in weeks, put them all into a folder on your desktop (or a three-ring binder if you're working with a pen and paper) and put it away. I think you'll find that once you've got a nice clean, clear space to work with, it'll be easier for you to concentrate on the here and now, as opposed to getting distracted with things from the past.

But don't throw anything away. Who knows? Something might be worth going back to eventually.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A macaroni picture of a gruesome murder.

Suggested Listening: Rat In A Cage - Smashing Pumpkins

Quote: People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. -Hermann Hesse



Description, description, description. The extremes are nothing but, and everything but. The happy medium is just enough. Today, pick one aspect of your least favorite character and apply both extremes to the description. Aim for three or four pages of floral, vapid, disgusting prose about one aspect of this trait, and maybe one sentence on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Once that's done, find the happy medium.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "Apparently, my coffee cup is a ninja."

Suggested Listening: Fatal Tragedy - Dream Theatre

Quote: Other things may change us, but we start and end as family. - Unknown




Write a scene that isn't supposed to be read. It may be the antagonist's first act of villany, or the protagonist's last bathroom break before the climax. Take yourself out of your comfort zone for this one scene just to see what happens.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "What's the monkey for?"

Suggested Listening: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

Quote: Listening to cool music does not make you cool. -Maddox



There's a fine line between devotion and obsession. Don't let your devotion to writing be an obsession - allot yourself a certain amount of time in front of your notebook or keyboard and once that time has passed, don't go back to it until tomorrow. Want to type more? Want to keep writing? Go ahead - but when it becomes a need to continue instead of a desire, give yourself a pat on the back for what you've already done and leave your work where it is.

Again, I promise that it will be there when you get back.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "Are you going somewhere, or are suitcases in living room the new "It" thing for decorating?"

Suggested Listening: This Love This Hate - Hollywood Undead

Quote: You either need to get fast enough that I'm not stepping on you, or get out of my way so it isn't an issue. - Yours truly, Seriah




The Mighty. If you've never seen it, you're missing out on something big. It's an inspirational movie about a dim-witted giant of a boy, and a brainiac kid with a degenerative condition who create an amazing symbiotic relationship. There's a line near the very end that every writer should be able to relate to:

He showed me I could read a book, so maybe I could write one too.

Sometimes, in order to keep writing, we need to close the notebook or turn off the computer and go look at what somebody else has written. (Yeah, you can totally cheat with this. "Why, just look at how hard somebody must have worked on the script for this TV show!" ) Just take it easy for a few days and read a good book.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: There are invisible pink unicorns in your living room.

Suggested Listening: 21 - The Cranberries

Quote: About a year ago, out of the blue, I just wrote a bunch of songs. - Rick Moranis



We all need some nice, relaxing time to ourselves. You can't find it when you're out and about living your lives, and it's hard to find it when you're sitting behind your desk and glaring at a story that just doesn't seem to want to be written yet. The solution? Step away from the project - slowly, no need to alarm anybody - and go take a bath. Doesn't have to be long or romanticized with candles and bath salts, but a bath will help wash away all the negative thoughts that are keeping your writing muse from being heard.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: The daily Soup & Sandwich combo.

Suggested Listening: Thunder Rolls - Garth Brooks

Quote: Through music we may wander where we will in time, and find friends in every country. - Helen Thompson



Characters need hobbies. Writers, more often than not, need distractions. Go to the local community college, rec centre, or the local Y, and sign up for a class. Try something you've never considered doing before - if you've never spun clay, sign up for a pottery course; try knitting or cross stitching; quilting, embroidery, shoe-making, fashion design, and painting are all good choices. Join a spin class or try your hand at Yoga. You can even validate getting yourself a gym membership. Doing something like this accomplishes two things:

One: It provides a scenario you might not have thought about before, and maybe inspires you in a way you didn't think was possible from behind your desk. Maybe a secondary character is a closet karate guy, or has an obsession for collecting stamps from WWII Europe.

Two: It gives you a chance to get out of your chair at least once a week and do something. Writing is important, but don't chain yourself to your desk.

Don't have the money or time to join one of those classes? Then pick a day of the week and every day, just go for a walk.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Two chairs on the lawn.

Suggested Listening: Prelude 12/21 - AFI

Quote: Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism. - Hubert H. Humphrey



Reward yourself. If you meet your daily wordcount, buy yourself something nice - like chocolate or ice cream. Finished all your goals for the week? Take the weekend off and go camping or something. Don't try to punish yourself for forgetting a day or missing a goal, just consider it a preemptive reward and spend the next day or week working to validate it.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A garden in an alley.

Suggested Listening: What Are You Looking For - Sick Puppies

Quote: Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes a human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. - Maya Angelou


Take from the above quote what you will, but I've always found it to mean that if you believe in something you're writing, you need to be able to vocalize it. If what you're writing makes your blood sing and your spirit soar, say it. Explain your ideas to other people, get a movement going.

Today, take what you've written and read it out loud to yourself. Don't edit, don't revise, just read it out loud. You can even give your characters funny voices for the dialogue, if you want to.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: An alien the size of a grape hiding in the produce section of a supermarket.

Suggested Listening: The Assumption Song - Arrogant Worms

Quote: Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me -
The carriage held but just Ourselves-
And Immortality - Emily Dickinson



Can't bear to look at the screen anymore? Is nothing flowing right? Go ahead and leave. Go about with the rest of your day and let out all the negative thoughts. A day away from the screen won't kill you and your story won't magically vanish because you aren't there working on it. Don't worry about losing a day, or missing your wordcount goal, or anything like that.

Take care of yourself before you take care of anything else.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A willing participant in a dangerous game.

Suggested Listening: Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

Quote: Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat. ~Henry Emerson Fosdick




Don't look back. No matter what you've written previously, keep going forwards. Editing fixes all evils. Don't let yourself get bogged down in what needs to be fixed before the project has been completed - once you're finished, print it out, take your editing pens, and make the thing look like a dying, bloody animal if you want. But don't change a thing until you type "The End."

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: "When the fire went out, strange orbs of light began appearing."

Suggested Listening: Oceano - Josh Groban

Quote: "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon



If you're having a slow day - can't focus, too many distractions, too many self-imposed walls - get away from the desk and step out into the world. Try hiking the local nature trails, or just visiting the nearest garden, even if it's your own. Stopping and smelling the flowers can do wonders for relaxing your mind and helping to get your creative juices flowing again. Why not grow some ivy or a flowering plant in your writing area?

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: Ice Cream in the freezer that has an expiry date of August 4th, 1985

Suggested Listening: May It Be - Enya

Quote: "I'm not ready to die. It petrifies me. I go alone. I go to a place I don't know. It might be painful. It might be the end. My thought is that it is the end." William Shatner




Think of your writing area as a train station, and your physical body as the train. Now make yourself a schedule to stop at your writing "station" every day, at the same time every day, for the same amount of time every day, and build up a routine. Once you have this set pattern of arriving, writing, and departing, it will be easier for you to write every day and keep the pattern going.

Miss a day? Arrive early, or late? Don't worry, the trains don't always run on time either, but they always arrive eventually.

Daily Inspiration

Prompt: A tarnished silver ring abandoned on a restaurant table.

Quote: Hold your own, know your name, and go your own way. Details in the Fabric - Jason Mraz


A writer's tools are like extensions of our souls. Let your tools reflect your personality. For the next few weeks, skip the five dollar coffee and the two dollar muffin and save up for a leather-bound notebook and an engraved pen with your name on it. Using beautiful, quality utensils can do wonders for your self-esteem as a writer, too.

Remember: You are worth it.

The Introduction

The Happy Notes is a companion blog to Leading Into It (a list of alphabetized titles) and Post It Notes (an idea-generator blog) and was created as a resource for writers who have found themselves running a little short on creativity or ideas.

The Happy Notes is a collection of visual and written prompts, inspirations, and motivational quotes to keep your fingers attached to the keyboard or the pen in your hand. Updating (almost) daily, there will always be something here to keep you inspired to write whatever it is you're writing.

Enjoy!

~Seriah