Inspiration Monday: Country Without History

This week Ed Stockham made a video that could go with last week’s title prompt, friendly fire. Coincidence? Or could he secretly be an InMonster???

Check out this fantastic work by some official InMonsters while you ponder the possibility:

Chris (part 3 in his choose-your-own-adventure story!)

DJMatticus

Elmo

PinkWoods

ARNeal

Oscar

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

COUNTRY WITHOUT HISTORY

HAPPY HUNTING

WRONG NOTE

THE LAST PEN

THE CROWD GOES “MOO”

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.

Inspiration Monday: Friendly Fire

The glory of three-day weekends: resting on Sunday to write a ton on Monday. Also, I scored gold at two different Half Price Books sales: an illustrated Hobbit, a hardcover Dune (forty cents, baby!), a couple of Wodehouses (thanks, Anne, now I’m addicted), and more, including What If the Earth Had Two Moons? which I’ve been wondering for years.

I’m excited about reading them all, which is what you should be about these:

ARNeal

Craig

DJMatticus

AMushyRat

Carrie

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

FRIENDLY FIRE

SUSPICIOUS CLICK

ARROW FELL

CUT IT OFF

GRINNING SILENCE

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.

Inspiration Monday: It Came in Waves

So guess what. Chris is writing a choose-your-own men’s adventure serial with a touch of steampunk! Once you stop drooling, head over there to read part one, then read and vote on part two, which includes three of last week’s prompts.

Additional amazingness follows here:

Jubilare

ARNeal

MrPerfect and another

Elmo

Raina

Carrie

Oscar

Sam

Kim

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

IT CAME IN WAVES

MASKED

FORTUNE FAVORED THE COWARD

BLASTED UMBRELLA

WORN FIRE

 

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.

7 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Write

 

Photo by Anthony PC

Photo by Anthony PC

It hardly ever fails. Just when you sit down to write, no matter how long you’ve been waiting for the chance, you suddenly feel like doing anything else.

Check Facebook. Watch Netflix. Clean toilet.

Part of it is being tired. I know. Most of us are writing in the wee spare hours between the full-time job, school, cooking, cleaning, child-rearing and whatnot.

But if you wait to feel like writing, you never will. If you wait for inspiration to find you, it never will. You have to make it happen.

Here are some ways to do that.

1. Publicly commit to a deadline

There’s nothing like accountability. If I wasn’t committed to posting on this blog every Monday and Friday, you’d probably never hear from me. Make your own commitment by meeting regularly with a writer’s group or a critique partner, or try signing up for NaNoWriMo or the 3-Day Novel contest (please note I recommend spending considerable time after these writing marathons editing your work).

2. Keep a favorite book close

Is there a particular book that always gives you the urge to put pen to paper? Keep it close to your writing space and read a few pages when you sit down to write. I find great motivation in Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing.

3. Train your brain

Develop a routine: Choose the same time to write every day (when your mind is freshest, if possible). Listen to the same type of music, drink the same type of tea, light the same scented candle – or all three. In time, the sensory repetition will help to trigger that writing urge in you.

4. Escape from the Internet

Web 2.0 has turned the Information Age into the Distraction Age. Remove yourself completely from the temptation to surf by taking your laptop to a place without Wi-Fi, or just use a notebook or old school typewriter (don’t you love the sound anyway?).

5. Take the hint

If you can’t get the motivation to write because you’re just bored with it, chances are your readers will be bored with it, too. Find a more interesting way to tell the story. Revisit your plot to find opportunities to increase drama and decrease exposition.

6. Get your 8 hours and drink a cup

I’ve heard some people don’t need a full 8 hours of sleep per night, but personally, I function much better after 8 hours of sleep vs. even 7. And when you’ve had a full night’s rest, caffeine doesn’t just resuscitate your zombie self – it makes you want to write and create and be generally brilliant at turbo speed. NOTE: I decrease my coffee consumption throughout the week (e.g. one cup Monday, down to a quarter cup on Friday, another full cup the following Monday) so I don’t have to keep upping the dose to get the same “buzz.” This method also prevents caffeine headaches if you go a day without it.

7. Visualize the finished piece

I know this sounds rather hippie-zen, but it’s actually pretty powerful. Do you want to be just working on this book forever? Or do you want to hold the hardcover edition in your hands with your own name staring back at you in glorious black and white?

Thanks to Spider42 for suggesting this topic. Want a topic you want talked about? Drop it in the Suggestion Box!

coffee

7 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Write

Inspiration Monday: can’t stop crying

I’m guest-posting over at Raina’s home base, Writer’s Club KL,  going a bit more in-depth on a subject frequently discussed here: the power of storytelling. Check out the first installment here.

In other news, something is wrong with my comment system. Many real comments (including my own) are being shuffled into the spam folder. I’ve been checking the spam regularly to rescue them, and  I’m looking for ways to fix it. In the meantime, it may simply take awhile for your comments to appear on the site.

Okay, news over – enjoy this week’s reading!

ARNeal

Chris

Raina

LadyWhispers

Carrie

Barb

Kim

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

CAN’T STOP CRYING

NEW CLOTHES

SPENT

CUTTING THROUGH THE HAZE

MAKING HATE

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and link back to today’s post (here’s a video on how to do it); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at bekindrewrite (at) yahoo (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

* MC = Mature Content.

Opinions expressed in other writers’ InMon pieces are not necessarily my own.