Have you ever noticed that writing has a mind of it’s own.  I start with the idea to write one kind of thing and end up with a completely different scene from a completely different genre in the end.  What I’ve been learning over the last few days is that fighting with my [...]]]>

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Have you ever noticed that writing has a mind of it’s own.  I start with the idea to write one kind of thing and end up with a completely different scene from a completely different genre in the end.  What I’ve been learning over the last few days is that fighting with my Muse is a big mistake.  If I try to hold her focus on what I want to write, I get ridiculous drivel that I don’t even want to read again, let alone post for others.  On the other hand, if I give in to my Muse and just provide her with a playground filled with blank pages, colored pens, and all the weird cluttered stories in my mind, she comes up with some interesting shit.

For today’s writing prompt, I started with an assignment that actually bored me, almost to tears.  But, halfway through I was reminded of one of the novellas I was working on earlier this year (a story that never went anywhere except the round file, unfortunately).  And an exciting piece of background story just popped onto the page in front of me. In an effort to show you what I mean, I included the first few sentences that I wrote down, so you can actually see where my Muse took over.

Let me warn you, this piece is raw, with plenty of swearing and violence.  So, if that’s not your bag, I suggest you check out one of my personal development articles and sit this one out.  In any case, thanks for reading this far.  –LV

One of the many delights of fiction is naming.  Name something.  Start there. –The Pocket Museby Monica Wood

Buffy Billsner.  Robert Monahan.  Gyration and the Circle Band.  Bill the Comet. Grable Jones. Uniper Cherry. Jasper Phillipson. Rasien.  The Graspers.  Clamp Dogs.  Xyxtal from an alien world.  He’s come to eat your laundry machine lint.  He loves the taste of lint…. Sasha!

Sasha obviously had some unfinished business with clowns.

“Fucking shut up and answer the question Louie,” Sasha’s small, agile fingers waved the knife in front of his face.  He grinned, assuming this was part of the sex games that he’d payed for.

“Yeah.  I’ve been a bad boy.  You should punish me.” Louie licked his lips in anticipation and started to get a hard on.

“No problem.” Sasha slashed the knife across his forearm avoiding the rope she’d used to tie him up.

“Fuck,” Louie dropped to half mast. “That shit hurts. You’re supposed to play rough, not cut me up.”

“Don’t you remember me, Louie? Don’t you remember buying me from Clovis the Flying Clown,” She slashed across his other forearm.  “It was 4 years ago.  I was only 14.”

“Fucking Bitch. You turned out just like your mother.” Sasha shook her wavy red hair off her shoulders and calmly placed the blade an inch from his right eye.

“Say something about my mother again, Louie, and you won’t be able to tell the difference between a bitch and a dog. I’ll make sure of it.” Louie stopped struggling to keep from cutting his face open.

“Okay, yeah, I remember you now. So what?”

“So what happened to Clovis?”

“Hell, I don’t know.  He just took all that money and left.  He didn’t even stick around to find out where we were sending you two whores.”

Sasha scratched the knife across his cheek and watched him bleed.  Louie shouted again but Sasha knew no one would interrupt them.  Everyone knew Louie liked it rough.  Sometimes the girls came back so messed up they could turn tricks for a week. But since he worked for the Dogtown Brothers, nobody could do anything about it.

“Where is he now, Louie?  You mean to tell me that my dad payed his debt and then just up and quit gambling.  I don’t buy it.”

Louie spat onto the floor, “Last I heard he was in it up to his eyeballs in LA, but that was four months ago.  Hopefully somebody has put the old bastard out of his misery by now.”

“Nobody but me is going to kill that clown Louie, you can bet on it.” Sasha lowered the knife and turned away.

“They aren’t going to let you walk out of here, Bitch.” Louie yanked his right arm free of the ropes and tried to lunge out of the chair,  “I’ll make sure of that.”

Sasha pivoted around and slammed the knife into Louie’s ear, embedding all 5 inches of steel into his brain.  She smiled as Louie twitched and wished it was her father.  “Looks like our session time is up.   I think I’ll pack.”

How does your Muse communicate with you and how has it changed your writing? What kind of signs tell you to listen to your writer’s intuition?

Comments, links to your writing prompt results, and lurkers are always welcome.

find a forum about your writing topic, join, and participate in the discussion.  If [...]]]>

1.  Walk a Labyrinth

Find a labyrinth near you (check out this site http://labyrinthlocator.com/), define a question or pick a single focus such as Gratitude, Peace, Joy, Understanding, Love, Truth, etc, and follow the path to the center and back.

2.  Join a Forum

find a forum about your writing topic, join, and participate in the discussion.  If you are brand new to the topic, ask the forum members to help you get started.

3.  Take a Nap

4.  Write a Letter to a loved one thanking them for being in your life

First write the letter, then decide if you want to send it, or better yet, visit them and read it to them directly.  This one was inspired by A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

5.  Have a Paper Airplane Contest

Pick three topics, three ways to slant a project, or three different scenes.  Take three pieces of paper and write one at the top of each piece.  Fold each piece of paper into an airplane (using a slightly different method for each plan).  Throw all three planes.  Whichever goes the farthest is the topic you will choose.  Unfold the winning plane, and write about that topic until the paper is filled on both sides.

6.  Start a Story Circle

Using a writers forum (or a series of forwarded emails between a writer’s group) begin a story.  Write one scene and then pass it on to another person, either by randomly choosing their name from the list, or simply letting anyone add a scene whenever they like.  As the story “owner” make sure that at least one scene is added every week.  At then end of two or three months, have a Story Circle reading, where someone reads the story and people talk about the parts that they really liked.

7.  Postcard Surprise

Ask your friends and family to pick out two postcards wherever they are today and send you a note.   Once you get the postcards, use one word, or one picture as the inspiration for your writing project.   Don’t forget to call each person and thank them!

8.  Meditation

set aside 15 minutes every day to sit comfortably, breath easily, and relax your mind.   If you’ve never meditated before, simply breath in to a count of 8 and breath out to a count of 8, keeping your body still.  If your mind wanders, focus it back onto your breath and keep counting.  Don’t forget to set a timer so you won’t have to worry about watching the clock.

9.  Retail Therapy

Don’t always buy all your writing tools and books immediately, use a trip to the bookstore as a great way to distract your conscious mind and let your subconscious mind work on the writing problem.   Plus, you’ll have something new to play with when you get back to your writer’s desk.

10.  Use a Timer

Get an egg timer or an online timer (like this one).  Set it for 15 minutes and make yourself write about your topic continuously until the time goes off.  After your time is up, you can take a break, change topics, or if you’ve got more to write, reset the timer and start again.  You can use this technique with just about any  writer’s block buster.

12.  Create a Writers Group

Get your fellow writers or even your friends together at least once a week for a creative sessions.

13.  Designate a Writing Buddy

Find one writing buddy that you can contact day or night to bounce ideas off of.  The goal is to get immediate feedback about a topic you are working on, network with other writers, provide inspiration to others, and share success together.

14.  Take a Clarity Day

Designate one day a week to spend some time away from work (whether writing is your day job or your hobby).  Set aside 2 or more hours (I prefer 4 or more) and go to a public place where you can wander.  Take your writer’s journal and a pen.  Walk around and use your senses to experience the location you’ve chosen.  If you feel inspired, sit and write about what you see, feel, hear, taste, and touch (and any other senses that are tingling).  List any writing ideas that pop into your mind, either from your surroundings, your internal thoughts and emotions, or from the people talking around you.

15.  Change of Scenery

Pack up the essential parts of your work and move to a different location; preferrably out of the house.  Take your laptop, writing journal, and pens to a coffee shop, a restaurant, a bookstore, a library, a friends house, a park, a shopping mall, a museum, an aquarium, a marina, or a boat.  Find a place to sit and see how a different environment effects your writing.  This method is great to write fictional scenes or describe someones place of business (office, lab, manufacturing floor, etc).

16.  Backup your files

17.  Review your Life Purpose, Goals, and ToDo List

18.  Read a Book Within your Genre or Expertise

19.  Read a Book Outside of your Genre or Expertise

20.  Subscribe to and Read an inspirational Blog (LiraVaughan.com)

21.  Bake a cake

Or brownies, or cookies, or even bread pudding.  Finish working while it is baking, but don’t eat any until you’re done writing.

22.  Find 5 new markets for your writing

Pick up a copy of 2009 Writer’s Market (if you’re in the US) and find 5 new publishers, magazines, blogs, or ezines to submit your writing.

23.  Rewrite a Query Letter

Take one of your article ideas that hasn’t sold yet and rewrite the query letter with a slightly different angle using any feedback you’ve received.

24.  Reread the books that inspired you to become a writer

Mine are Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1) , Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting , and The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

25.  Take a pottery class

26.  Take a photography class

27.  Learn to Draw on the Right Side of the Brain

28.  Get Inspired by Creative People talking about what they love

Check out Ted Talks

29.  Volunteer Your Time

30.  Interview a Stranger

Introduce yourself to a stranger and ask what they think about your current writing topic.

31.  Go to a Movie, Musical, or a Play

Consider the universal theme and how it relates to your topic

32.  Read about why Nobel Prize Winning Writers Write

33.  Update Your Resume

Describe all your recent accomplishments, training, and experience and remember how much time and effort you’ve put into your writing abilities.  Consider using a professional resume writer to get the best result. (www.LiraVaughan.com/resume-writing-services/)

34.  List 25 New Topics that you’ve never written about before

35.  List 25 Topics you’ve written about but using a Different Slant, Genre, or Point of View

36.  Rewrite a previously published article, short story, or scene from the opposite Point of View(POV)

Protagonist vs antagonist, positive vs negative, male vs female, etc

37.  Search 3 off-topic magazines for ideas

Pick 3 magazines you don’t usually read, and find at least 3 ideas that can be used in your current writing project.

38.  Read a history book

Pick at time in history, find a book that summarizes that time, place, lifestyle, environment, politics, health, etc.  Describe the universal themes that were important to both that historical time and your project.

39.  Visit a Sanctuary

Go to a Church, Mosque, Monastery, or Retreat and soak in the contemplative environment with gratitude and acceptance.

40.  Listen but do not speak

Designate a day to only listen.  Go about your day but do not speak to anyone verbally.  Instead use nonverbal cues such as smiling, nodding, hand gestures, etc.  You may also use written communication if absolutely necessary, but try to avoid it.

41.  Pay attention to nonverbal communication

Go to a public place such as a coffee shop, a mall, or a restaurant where you can sit quietly and observe the conversations going on around you.  Try to figure out which smiles are real, and which are forced.  Who is happy to be there, and who would prefer to be somewhere else.  Use this knowledge in your next scene, in your next presentation, or in your next training/process development project.  Check out this book for more details The Definitive Book of Body Language

42.  Start a Garden

Get dirty and watch the growth process of plants to learn more about Universal themes.

43.  Get introspective in your Journal

Use your writing journal or a separate personal development journal and answer this question…”I love to write because…”  Pick out your top ten reasons and post them by your writing desk (or use them as your screensaver).

44.  Use a writing prompt from your favorite book

My favorite book for this is Room to Write.

45.  Use an inspirational quote as a writing prompt

Here’s my favorite Quotable Quotes, and online random quote generator.

46.  Stream of consciousness

Start with a basic thought such as “Today I want to write about…”  or “The most important aspect of my topic is….” and simply write down everything as it comes to your mind.  The initial goal here is quantity, not necessarily quality.  Let your random thoughts release your subconscious onto the paper.

47.   Physical Exercise of any kind

Get the endorphins racing through your body, creating energy, excitement, and enjoyment.  Then come back to your writing.

48.  Bubbling

A great brainstorming method where you take your topic of interest, write it on the middle of a big piece of paper and circle it.  Then you draw 7 to 10 lines off of your center bubble and brainstorm anything that comes to mind (by free association or by sub-topic focus).  Circle each of your new bubbles, and repeat the process, either letting your mind find connections between bubbles, building off of new bubbles, or off the original bubble.  Its important not to censure your subconscious so use colored pens instead of pencils so you can’t erase anything.  You can also try a program called Cayra if you want a software interface instead of paper & pen.

49.  Call Your Creative Muse

Develop a ritual to get you into the writing mood and get your subconscious (or your Muse) working.  My ritual includes making a cup of tea, opening the window shades to let in the sunlight, sitting down at my desk, clearing a space to begin brainstorming, taking a few easy breaths with gratitude in my heart, asking my Muse to visit me today, picking the highest priority writing task on my ToDo list and using one brainstorming or writer’s block busting technique to get my creative flow started.

50.  Research Your Topic

Open up your web browser or go to the library and find three (3) to five (5) new facts about your topic that you didn’t know before.  Don’t allow yourself more than 1 hour of search time or you’ll just be procrastinating!   Then take your new information, reform your topic idea, and start writing.

51.  Find a Writing Mentor

Search online or in your writing classes for seasoned writers that inspires you to write.  Contact them, explaining how much their work encourages you, and ask them to mentor you through a project or particular problem.  Remember to respect their time and experience and be grateful for any advice they provide.

Happy writing!