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It's a New Year! by
Pattie Reitz, Staff Writer
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Happy New Year!
It's a new year . . .
now what?
The Christmas
decorations are all put away. The urge to shop has waned
since the bills are piling up. The kids are back at school,
you're back at work, and perhaps the post-holiday blues have
set in. The compulsion to write your New Year's resolutions
has come and gone, and if you've written them, you're
probably still working on them. If you haven't written them
(nay, even scoffed at them and those who write them), life
is back to "normal" (whatever that means).
Did you know the
average new year's resolutions only last two weeks, but it
takes 21 days to make something a habit? Depressing, isn't
it?
A few years ago, I
assigned my students a journal topic: "New year's
resolutions get a bad rap. Write five goals for the new
year." The incredibly observant students said, "There's no
difference between a resolution and a goal, is there?” I
replied, "It's all a matter of semantics." I was teasing
them a bit, but it's still true. Resolutions, goals, list,
whatever you call them, they are the human's desire to
perfect, to improve, to make life just a bit better.
Benjamin Franklin called this the "bold and arduous project
of arriving at moral perfection." In his "Autobiography,"
he wrote, "I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of
faults than I had imagined." Really? As my
daughters would
say, "Duh!"
Read more...
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From Conception to Conclusion: The Life of an Idea by
Kevin Kilgarriff, Staff Writer
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Writing can sometimes be a little like having a
baby - although, I imagine not as uncomfortable and normally without
any physical pain. Random thoughts converge inside your mind and,
in an instant, an idea is conceived. That idea becomes a part of
you, growing inside your mind as you nurture and care for it until
it’s ready to be born into the world.
Maybe you’re lucky enough to have someone want
to publish your baby and you get the opportunity to cut the cord.
You hesitantly make the decision to let go, kind of like sending it
off to college, hoping that its editor won’t be a bad influence on
it. It’s a tough time. But soon enough you learn to live in an
empty house and find other things, or topics, to help fill your
time.
Eventually, the date of publication arrives.
This is akin to your baby’s graduation. All of the hard work, the
late nights, the study breaks and the parent-teacher meetings are
paying off. But then it ends. It’s off of the newsstand. Your
baby is on its own.
So you concentrate on having more babies. If
you’re lucky, you’ve already got more kids in school and another bun
in the oven. Your oldest babies have moved out of the house and
you’ll probably never hear from them again – except maybe if they
start a family of their own, i.e. re-prints.
Sometimes, though, you find out that your baby has actually been
working all along to do what babies like to do - please Mommy and
Daddy. Simply put, your baby spoke to someone!
Read more...
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4. New Column: "Come Write With
Me" by Barbara Deming,
Staff Writer
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The Idea FilesOn my computer I have set up a
file titled Ideas. Very
original, I can hear you say. I
use this ordinary file for story
and article ideas that have been
scribbled in that small notebook
I always carry, on scraps of
paper, or on trashed envelopes.
Sometimes I open the file to
allow my muse to control
entries—not such a good idea on
days when your brain is as
scattered as mine can sometimes
be. But who knows? From those
hit and miss ideas may sprout
the story of the century.
Despite the electronics era we
find ourselves in, however, this
is not my favorite file. I keep
manila file folder(s) for
clippings, those random articles
I just had to keep because they
tweaked my interest, that
picture that said a thousand
words if I could only arrange
them into a story, and those
brochures I always pick up when
I travel. If you open my file
today you will find newspaper
clippings, pages from magazines,
special stories I read (both
fiction and non), quotes, even
items I have printed off the
Internet when doing research for
other projects. I advise every
writer to keep those clips of
interest.
Read more...
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5. Forum Discussions
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When did you know you wanted to
write?
Read more...
New Year's Writing Resolutions?
Discuss them here!
Did you receive any books as
gifts this holiday season?
Tell us!
Join us over at the
Writers Remember forum, and share in the
discussions, or start a discussion of your own!
Click here!
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6. Prompts & Exercises
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Questions for the New Year by
Pattie Reitz, Staff Writer
Out with the old, in with the new!
Responding to Quotations
by Pattie Reitz, Staff
Writer
Sometimes all it takes for inspiration is the inspiring words of
others.
Visit our
Prompts & Exercises forum
for some great fun!
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7. Affiliates
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8. Ad Swaps
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