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.