Giving script writing a shot

I’ve done it. I couldn’t wait for November this year for another National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so I went ahead and signed up for April’s madness known as Script Frenzy.

Where the NaNoWriMo challenge is to write 50,000 words in November’s 30 days, the Script Frenzy challenge is to write 100 properly-formatted pages of original scripted material in April’s 30 days.

The script can be: a screenplay, stage play, web series, TV show, short film, or graphic novel.

Like NaNoWriMo (the two are related) Script Frenzy:

• is no cost to enter
• uses the same login as NaNoWriMo – so if you’re a wrimo, you’re ready to go!
• has cool banners and badges (like the one to the right) to download and post to a blog, website, or Facebook page
• has forums for moral support and advice
• offers regional forums to connect with other participants in the local area
• sends participants motivational emails
• is a great opportunity to push to achieve a new writing goal
• looks like a lot of fun

This will be my first-ever Script Frenzy and I haven’t decided on the type of script I’ll write yet. I started a TV show script a million years ago while working on my master’s degree in writing and literature, but have been more into short and novel-length fiction since then.

What drew me to Script Frenzy?

• Perhaps it’s that I got a discount on Scrivener (writing software) for ‘winning’ November’s NaNoWriMo, and Scrivener has a tool to help format scripts so I don’t have to stress about formatting
• Perhaps my muse needs something completely different from the non-fiction articles I’ve been focused on the past few months
• Maybe it’s the 2012 Script Frenzy logo that caught my attention

I’m not sure what drew me to this challenge, but in looking around the scriptfrenzy.org site, I’m impressed with the how-to guides they offer under Writer’s Resources.

They have great descriptions of the different types of scripts, examples, and even some self-paced ‘boot camps’ to get folks started. The only thing I know for sure is that I won’t be scripting a graphic novel. Every other script type is up for grabs though!

The scriptwriting starts at midnight the morning of April 1 and ends at midnight the night of April 30, your local time.

What do you say? Are you ‘frenzied’ enough to join me in the April challenge?

Lisa J. Jackson is an independent editor, writer, New England region journalist, and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. 

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Starting Over

Starting a new book is like learning to drive manual transmission: it’s all about getting into first gear. And even though a writer may have cruised along in fifth to the end of any number of novels before, each new one is like learning to drive all over again.

I’ve been jack-rabbiting, stalling, and crawling forward on a new book for some time, now. Mostly, I’ve been taking notes for my current project while I’ve rewritten and finished two other novels, one published and one currently with an agent. So now it’s time to take all those notes and ideas and relearn how to coordinate the clutch and the gear stick and get writing again.

            I have developed a process. First, I play computer Solitaire until I see spades in my dreams. Then I clean cupboards. Sometimes, I snap at my love ones, and other times I dissolve into tears. Eventually, I start walking. A hundred or so miles later, I overcome my resistance enough to sit down at my desk. That’s when I pull out my driver’s manual: Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, originally published in 1938, republished in 1987, and still filled with timeless advice.

For one, Ueland writes as if she’s talking to you personally, and when you’re locked in the solitude and – yes, loneliness, sometimes – of trying to channel an entire fictive world, it’s wonderfully comforting to have a down-to-earth companion by your side.

Next, Ueland believes everyone can write; she should know: she taught writing to all-comers for years, and gives examples of how good writing arises not from education or erudition, but from the writer’s inner truth and honesty – the world observed from her point of view. Ueland believes that everyone is talented and has something to say.

Ueland also says the imagination works slowly and should be given room to roam. “Resign yourself tranquilly to doing something slow and worthless for at least an hour.”  This alleviates some of my guilt and self-loathing about playing computer Solitaire.

Just like life happens while you’re making other plans, Ueland is a big believer that the “little bombs” of imagination burst while you’re doing other things, like “sewing, or carpentering, or whittling, or playing golf, or dreamily washing dishes.”

Ueland says, writing “is just talking on paper.” Long before Natalie Goldberg taught us about Writing Down The Bones, Ueland advocated  free-writing. Before Julia Cameron wrote The Artist’s Way, Ueland instructed us to write daily without looking at what we had to say. Don’t get me wrong: Goldberg and Cameron have done us wonderful service, and encouragement to write bears reiteration. There is something especially encouraging, however, about this strong-minded, mid-Western woman from the last century speaking these plain truths.

With Ueland’s encouragement, I’ve been able to sit down again, find my voice, and start over. I’ve succeeded into first gear, and have just shifted into second: still moving slowly, but definitely moving forward and thinking about my characters and narrative so intently that the fate of my other novel hardly matters. For the moment, that book is finished. All that matters now is the one unrolling before me. As I gather speed and shift up, all I can do is keep my eyes on the road.

Even with experience, this is harder than it sounds. But I have learned that writing a novel is like a long car-ride. There may be breakdowns, detours, road construction, and accidents. But there may also be chance meetings, beautiful vistas, and unexpected adventures.

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure where I’m headed. I could get lost; I may have to backtrack; I may even drive past my exit and have to delete pages and pages of text. This is okay. My experience has taught me faith in perseverance. It’s perseverance that fuels the novelist – eventually – to “The End.”

Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of the award-winning novel, Into The Wilderness, “a fiercely intelligent love story” set in Vermont in 1964. She is a regular Commentator on Vermont Public Radio and teaches for the Vermont Humanities Council. Learn more at her website: www.deborahleeluskin.com

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Imagination plus life experience creates story

Imagination comes in handy for writing fiction. For instance, I ‘remember’ seeing a mini octopus in the stream around the corner from my house during my childhood.

It was real, Mom. Sure it was, honey. I’ll prove it!

I grabbed my Polaroid camera and went back to the stream. No octopus.  Maybe tomorrow. After several days and never seeing the creature again, I gave up. Okay, so maybe it was my imagination. Then again, maybe the octopus was shy and hiding behind one of the small rocks. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

I loved my imagination then, and I still love it now.

In writing non-fiction about places to visit, people to know, or things to do in NH, I rely on my past real experiences.

But what I love most is combining imagination and life experience.

For instance, in the image below is a large tree that I see when I walk up my road.

Let's dance, Tree.

It probably isn’t big news that there are trees in New Hampshire, right? There are a lot of pine trees, in particular, too. So it’s hard to think any one tree would stand out.

But the moment I saw this, I thought “dance”. I see a swirl starting with a pine bough in the center of this portion of the tree that angles down to the right. (The green seems longer on the right side.) And the non-needled branches add to the swirling sensation. (And the brown branches seem shorter than the green.)

This tree makes me think about a dress swooping around as a woman twirls around her partner. It may even be a poodle skirt with petticoat in the midst of a twirl. Can you see it?

If you’re familiar with Hip Hop Abs, there’s a dance move called the “throw down.” It’s where two arms cross in front with fisted hands toward the floor and the back leg extends in the same direction. There’s a ‘swish’ as the arms come across the body and down.

Thanks to my imagination and ‘hip hop’ dance experience, this tree has become more than just another pine tree in the state. How could I not write about this tree?

I’m ready to dance, are you?

Have you noticed when your reality and imagination collide in your writing?

Lisa Jackson is an independent editor, writer, journalist, and chocolate lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to network with writing professionals on a weekly basis. © Lisa J. Jackson, 2011

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Welcome home old friend

Anyone who knows me knows that there is one and only one book that I can truly call my favorite of all time. I’ve spoken of it (many times) before in this forum.

It’s a book I read in high school and I credit it for my ultimately becoming a writer.

You might think it’s something like The Elements of Style written by E.B. White (who is my great uncle) and while, yes, that is a fine book (along with pretty much every other book he wrote) my favorite, life changing book is “The Princess Bride.” (I know, I know what you’re thinking – not again!)

But yes, again. I have to tell you about this book because there is new news regarding this book in my life that I need to share with you. But before that, a little bit of back story.

I used to hang around in high school with a friend named David Kelleher. David introduced me to such delights as Monty Python and Fawlty Towers. That bizarre kind of humor would have me absolutely rolling on the floor. I got British humor. I think a dead parrot is hysterical. Each Sunday night, David and I would grab a Rolling Rock and sit crowded together in front of his family’s TV (stashed away in an alcove to make it less desirable to the kids) and laugh at all the British comedies.

Pure joy.

So when David told me that I had to read a book called of all things “The Princess Bride” I only hesitated for a few minutes.

“The Princess Bride” I asked. “Really?”

“Really.” was his reply.

I went out and bought myself a copy.

Didn’t look like much. It had a red cover with a painting of a castle on the front. I wasn’t a princess kind of gal but on David’s recommendation, I read the book.

And then I read it again.

And again and again.

All the time, I kept saying to myself “wait, you’re allowed to say stuff like this in a book?” I couldn’t believe that the author, William Goldman, could inject so much humor into a story. That he could stop mid-sentence to come out of the story in order to address the audience. That he could imply so much with his hit-the-nail-on-the-head dialog.

Goldman had turned a story about a princess, something I would have never picked up on my own (a princess? Yuk!) into a stunning, intelligent, piece of art. It was a set of wings.

As a direct result of reading this book, I started to write a little differently. I began to inject humor, observation, and personal statements in my writing (to the point where when I submitted an essay FILLED with so many parenthetical phrases that you couldn’t tell the essay text from my own thoughts, my only feedback from the teacher was “for the love of God will you just shut up and write?!”)

My teacher was wrong. I didn’t need to shut up and write, I just needed to harness that energy and focus it a bit more. I had to use the force but with direction. My voice belonged in my writing.

I would have never gotten to that point or even that realization if I hadn’t been inspired by The Princess Bride to even try.

College instructors started telling me I had a unique voice in my writing. They started telling me that my writing style “worked” and was “effective” and that my voice was “authentic.” Pretty heady stuff for a young kid. It turns out my voice had been there all along, it just took a book to let me know I had the freedom to use it.

Back story is over.

So why am I bringing this up (yet) again?

It’s because I have dozens of editions of this book, ebook, 10th anniversary, movie tie-in, one on my phone, a copy with an updated forward by the author, and even a copy in French (mais oui). I have copies all over my office. They speak to me, they inspire me, they tell me to keep it real.

But what I didn’t have was a first edition of “The Princess Bride”. Mine had been lost in my many moves and I just never had the money (first editions can go for up to 500 dollars) to replace it. The book had become a dream lost, vaguely remembered impossible to fully recall.

This fall my son was preparing to leave for college, what better gift than a copy of the book that had given me an author’s freedom? I ordered a used copy for $6.94 so that I could tuck it in his bags. A gift of inspiration from mom. Use it well.

When I received the package in the mail, I frowned just a bit, it was a little thicker than the edition I had of the first reprint of the first edition, new publisher (it’s the closest I’d come to the Holy Grail.) I slowly opened the envelope and like Charlie with his Golden Ticket, as soon as I saw the corner of the red cover, I knew what I was holding in my hands. I knew that I had won.

I was sold a first edition of “The Princess Bride” as a used book. I literally jumped up from my seat. “Oh callooh callay!” my heart sang.

The book now sits in a prominent position in my office (I gave my reprint of the first edition, new publisher to my son). I’m looking at it right now. It reminds me of my youth, of my evolution as a writer, of good times and even better times. It is my muse, my inspiration, and my raison d’etre.

I’ve already read it (did you think there was even a chance I wouldn’t have dropped everything around me to sit down and read?) and look forward to reading it again (and again). Welcome home, old friend, welcome home.

The Holy Grail

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens).

And yes, the movie is good but read the book, it’s even better. 

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Cleaning House

I spent a perfectly good workday cleaning. I started with my writing studio, a single, tiny, room. Nevertheless, I moved all the furniture away from the walls, brought in a stepladder and a vacuum and chased cobwebs out of corners. I washed the windows – inside and out. I polished the woodstove with stove black, and I cleared my desk.

What inspired such uncharacteristic behavior? Last week, I finished a book.  It’s a novel, tentatively titled Elegy for a Girl.

I’ve finished it before, several times under different titles and at least once or twice with this one. And I may have to rewrite it once – or twice – again. But for the time being, I’m done, and I’m moving on to something else: a novel currently titled Ellen. This story has also had several titles, but I’ve never finished it – even momentarily. And that’s about to change.

Before I can step into this new, alternate, universe, however, I have to clear away the old one, and that has meant a thorough housecleaning, not something I’m particularly diligent about in the ordinary course of daily life, but something that provides me with enormous solace as I transition from one novel to another.

Clearing my desk and cleaning my studio is the physical equivalent of opening a new ream of paper. By taking my workspace down to the bones, I’m opening it up to new characters, locales, complications (aka plot). And because I’ve been here before, in that blank room where everything is possibility – and sometimes very scary – I know to ground myself with housecleaning. I even look forward to these episodes – which come infrequently enough.

Once my writing room is clean, I’ll move on to the house. I’ll hoe out the cupboards, sort through stacks of outdated magazines, try to match orphaned socks.

This sifting through things becomes a meditation of discovery and organization. And I’m pretty sure that long before I’ve gone through every drawer and closet, I’ll find my story, and abandon my cleaning – until next time I finish a book.

Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of the award-winning novel, Into The Wilderness, “a fiercely intelligent love story” set in Vermont in 1964. She is a regular Commentator on Vermont Public Radio and teaches for the Vermont Humanities Council. Learn more at her website: www.deborahleeluskin.com

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Advice from a virtual mom

I had originally intended to write a post about how important it is for writers to keep exercising their brains (this on the heels of my being able to read an entire New Yorker magazine for the first time in years) and perhaps next week I will write that post but instead I’m going to put up an open letter I wrote to my teen son who is in St. Louis with his HS robotics team at the FIRST competition.

After looking it over, I figured that it might just not be bad advice for writers to also hear. So here you go, some life advice from a virtual mom.

****

Griffin,

• Have fun with your friends
• Eat good food and each day try at least one thing that is new or local
• Pick up a local newspaper and see what is going on around you
• Find a radio and tune into a local station for a bit
• Compliment every female you see on something – a book they are reading, a necklace they are wearing. Trust me, you’ll make their day.
• Likewise, if you see someone walking a dog comment on how handsome the dog is. No doubt, that dog will get extra attention as a result.
• Touch base with home – we care and worry about you
• If you get lost ask for directions
• If you get cranky – either rest or eat some protein – it helps
• If you win, you deserve it. Your team worked hard.
• If you don’t win – no worries, your team still won because they worked hard.
• I know you don’t want to but take your meds.
• I know you don’t want to but take a shower – every day (chicks dig it)
• Know that I have absolute confidence in you. You are an incredible person who has already made an impression on this world of ours.
• Continue to always grow – know in your heart that nothing, absolutely nothing can ever stop you.

Take care and drink lots of water

love,

mom

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens).

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Making the World Your Info-Oyster

Today’s post is by guest blogger Marlene Caroselli, M.Ed.

I’ve never understood writers who claim to have writer’s block. If you are alive, your brain is working. And, if it’s working, you have access to numerous article or book ideas every single day.  The content for a book or article might come from meeting a sexy octogenarian, from a news report, from a given sentence, even from a given word.

We writers, after all, all share a love of the written word. We are drawn to the nuances, the finely wrought juxtapositions, the resonance that is created by “les mots justes” or “the exact words.” Picasso asked, ‘Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?’ Writers wonder the same thing about words.

To illustrate, I saw a news article about the president buying shaved-ice cones for his daughters while vacationing in Hawaii. Immediately, a new American word was coined–’Snowbamas.’ I used the word as the lead-in to an article about portmanteaux (word blending) and the flexibility of our wondrous language.

As you work to become more receptive to the possibilities out there in the universe, look, too, to what you’ve already written. I’m a strong believer in recycling, regifting, reusing; I try to optimize everything I write. So if I’m writing a curriculum, I’ll convert parts of it into several articles. And, if the curriculum has enough meat, I’ll flesh it out and create a book.

Even papers you’ve written for high school or college classes have some “meat” in them. People you know all have stories hidden inside them, wonderful stories seeking a writer. I swim at the Y several times a week. The other swimmers are a source of fascination to me.

For example, last week a septuagenarian told me Viagara caused a temporary memory loss in her husband–now there’s a great concept for an article about memory or a screenplay about sex and senior citizens. A 92-year-old woman told me she has been friends for more than 70 years with another swimmer. When the second woman’s husband died, the 92-year-old told her, “You will never have to eat alone.” She invited her over for dinner with her and her husband every single night. When the husband of the 92-year-old later passed away, the two women vowed to have one meal together each day.

My advice to writers old and new: Remain open to the world around you and let it suggest ideas. The “blocks” you’ve heard about don’t truly exist.

Dr. Marlene Caroselli is the author of 60 business books and uncountable curricula and articles. She has served as an adjunct professor at UCLA and National University, while conducting training for Fortune 100 companies and numerous federal agencies. Her assignments have taken her all over the country and the globe as well.

Hew newest book, Jesus, Jonas, and Janus: The Leadership Triumvirate explores leadership through the prism of historical figures.

In addition to books, Dr. Caroselli writes frequently for Stephen Covey’s Executive Excellence, for the Employment Times, as well as for numerous other print and electronic publications. She also writes podcasts for Workplace English Training E-Magazine.

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Teenage inspiration through poetry

Last Thursday, March 17, I had the great opportunity to be a volunteer for the NH Poetry Out Loud competition held in Representative’s Hall in the State House.

Since my writing focuses on non-fiction and fiction, poetry is exciting for my muse. This particular event is the culmination from several state-wide high school competitions. The contestants select 3 poems from a specific list and present their chosen poems in a way that (hopefully) engages the audience – especially the judges.

There aren’t any props or an official dress code. The teens’ poetry choices are submitted in advance and have to be presented in under four minutes.

The Poetry Out Loud recitation program is supported through the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and state arts agencies, which in NH is the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Competition starts in the fall at the high school level, moves to state regionals, and then the state finals competition are in the spring. The national competition is at the end of April in Washington, DC.

Poetry Out Loud encourages teens throughout the U.S. to learn about great poetry via memorization and performance. The competition helps with public speaking skills, building self-confidence, and learning about literary and cultural heritage. There isn’t any charge to compete and students from any high school—public, private, parochial, and home schoolers—can compete.

The 12 finalists who participated Thursday night each had 3 poems memorized.

• In the first round, speakers went in alphabetical order and performed their first poem.
• The second round was also all 12 contests in reverse alphabetical order, but with different poems.
• The third round consisted of the top 4 highest-scoring contestants from the combined first two rounds. They were named in alphabetical order, then drew for the order in which they’d perform their third poems.

The Champion of the evening was 14-year-old- freshman Olivia Vordenberg of Souhegan High School, Amherst. She won, among other things, cash for herself and for her school’s library, and an all expense paid trip with a chaperone to the National competition at the end of April.

The variety of poems and how they were presented intrigued my muse. I loved seeing teenagers embracing poetry with a fierce determination. These young people worked hard to memorize several poems over several months and present them in front of audiences of various sizes. If I had had the same opportunity at their age, I believe I would have passed – since standing in front of a crowd for any reason was the last thing I ever wanted to do!

Kudos to these young people for grabbing on to the opportunity to push themselves out of their comfort zones. Maybe some will become writers, since they already love words.

Lisa Jackson is an editor, writer, and chocolate lover. She’s addicted to Sudoku, cafés, and words. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has a blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to network with writing professionals on a weekly basis — and you can, too! © Lisa J. Jackson, 2011

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Art & Architecture

When Virginia Woolf recommended A Room of One’s Own for women writers, she couldn’t have anticipated the open concept in architecture, or understand fully how children can interrupt a mother with their needs even when they’re not there.

I’ve always had a room of my own – it was a condition of cohabitation when my husband and I first joined households – and it worked well when the kids were in school. The problem with my allocated room wasn’t during the week, but during vacations, holidays and weekends, when I still had deadlines to meet, when the kids were home and would interrupt me, or when I had to give over my room to guests. I know this is bad parenting on my part – I tried to teach my kids the meaning of a closed door. But the fact of it is, when I was writing and they were home, I was always torn between needing to work and wanting to be with them. So for a while I switched from Woolf’s theory about needing a room of one’s own to Ursula LeGuin’s theory as put forth in her essay, “The Fisherman’s Daughter,” where she says that all a woman who writes needs is a pen and some paper.

According to LeGuin, the fisherman’s daughter is a mother and a writer who sits on the riverbank with a pad and pen and writes while keeping an eye on her kids playing nearby. If this sounds distracting – it is. But as I discovered with a room of my own, my maternal tasks were distracting whether my kids were banging on my door or at school. When my children were young and my concentration broken, fears rushed in. If the school secretary called mid-morning, I anticipated the worst schoolyard accident possible, and it would take a while for the poison of my maternal anxiety to subside and allow me to concentrate again, by which time the school day was over and my shift as chauffeur started, driving kids to the orthodontist and soccer.

And then, one day, the kids were grown up – in college, traveling to far reaches of the world and out of the house. I missed them, even as I relished the silence of the house and my genuine, satisfying, productivity, productivity that came to a grinding halt every time they came home for a weekend, or a week – and sometimes longer. And they came home with friends. Suddenly, I was running a youth hostel, complete with meals for voracious appetites.

I love having my kids and their friends home; and I hate it. No matter how early I creep to my desk and how late they sleep, those morning hours aren’t enough to accomplish what I need to, and outside of my office, chaos reigns. I find myself simultaneously urging the kids to take over the meal preparation and kitchen clean up while running a mental inventory of what’s on-hand and what groceries need to be fetched. I have trouble giving up household control. Even when the kids make dinner, it’s a production, and no matter how many sit down to dinner and how good the conversation, the sheer volume of people, food and conversation drains me. I collapse into bed before the dishes are washed. This is not a good way to fall asleep.

So I asked my husband for a room of my own – outside the house.

“You have an empty nest and you need a separate space?” one friend asked, with both incredulity and criticism in her voice.

“I need quiet,” I explained. “A place where I won’t see or be seen. A place out of sight of the front door, and a place where I won’t be oppressed by laundry or bills or household tasks staring at me from across the hall, or where there’s the phone and the internet to tempt me to distraction. To write fiction,” I explain, “I need quiet and solitude.”

Another friend asked why I didn’t just apply for writing residencies.

“Because I like to be home,” I said. Indeed, I moved to Vermont the summer after attending the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, because more than rubbing elbows with other writers, what I wanted was to live in this beautiful landscape I now call home. My ideal is a daily writing retreat.

After twenty-five years of marriage, my husband knows just how important this solitude is to my work and well-being, so last year, he and his brother started building me a studio in my own backyard.

We broke ground last May. Because my builders have other jobs, it’s taken ten months of weekends to complete, but it’s now done: a 96 square foot, free-standing studio about a hundred and fifty-feet from the house, with a meadow view. For the ten months of construction, I’ve been joking about digging a moat and stocking it with piranha. It’s my way of explaining that I don’t want to be disturbed there – at all.

I still have my room in the house. The Office, we call it. And that’s where I conduct the business related to writing: the queries, the filing, the bookkeeping, and my teaching materials. I can be interrupted when I’m taking care of business. But when it’s time to write fiction and essays, I can now retreat to A Room of My Own. Wouldn’t Virginia Woolf be proud?

Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of Into The Wilderness, “a fiercely intelligent love story,” set in Vermont in 1964. Luskin is a regular Commentator on Vermont Public Radio, an editorial columnist, and a free-lance writer. In addition, Luskin teachers literature and writing in prisons, hospitals and libraries; she holds a PhD in English Literature from Columbia University.

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Inspiring and entertaining the muse

Like my cat, my creative muse needs entertaining now and again. Also like my cat, the muse needs variety in the entertainment, otherwise it gets bored and stagnant. To that end, I’m always looking for new and stronger brands of catnip for my cat (I will get a laser pointer one day), and different methods and ways to excite and inspire my muse.

Here are a few that you can try. I suggest trying something new at least once, if you don’t like it, then never come back to it. I keep an open mind and give things a shot.  If I try something and don’ t like it, my subconscious still tends to find ways to use the experience in my writing.

Guided meditation – Mark David Gerson, a writer, has a (f-r-e-e) guided video meditation posted on YouTube called “You Are a Writer.” It’s less than 5 minutes long and can be a nice way to break from the page for a breath of inspiration. He also has “Rules for Writing” that may tickle the muse’s fancy. You can find those in the middle of this page.

Writer’s/Artist’s dates – Julia Cameron describe’s an artist’s date in her book The Artist’s Way. Lee talked about the weekly 2-hour blocks of time dedicated to rejuvenating the muse in this January post. I find these invaluable and wish I did them weekly. A few examples of what I do for a ‘date’ to absorb new creative energy:

• Go to f-r-e-e lunchtime summer concerts at my library
• Try my hand at sampler craft workshops (such as pottery)
• Pull out a box of 120-Crayola crayons and a coloring book every now and then (I don’t have kids, the crayons are just for me)
• Check out flea markets and craft stores
• I sit in on f-r-e-e lectures on topics I know nothing about
• Stroll the beach in the off-season
• Find a quiet spot near a lake and breathe in nature during the summer

Music – Different moods are made up of different rhythms. Different rhythms are different blends of sounds. Listening to new-to-me music tends to get the muse boogeying onto the creative dance floor. Pandora radio is great for finding new music and creating ‘stations’ based on types of music. You can craft your own ‘mix tapes’ based on a song title or artist or type of music. If you have speakers or earbuds, you can listen without leaving your computer.

What ways do you keep your muse entertained?

Lisa Jackson is an editor, writer, and chocolate lover. She’s addicted to Sudoku, cafés, and words. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has a blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to network with writing professionals on a weekly basis — and you can, too! © Lisa J. Jackson, 2010

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