13 Reasons to (Not) Cut Up a Magazine

Hello! Happy Spring! The last two months have found me on a blogging hiatus and for a very good reason: I was busy revamping my website, Valeriestorey.com. It was time for a change, and most of all, time to start selling my beaded bookmarks, jewelry, and artwork online. Hope to see you there!

Now that's done, however, it's back to blogging and one of my favorite topics: using magazines as a source for art and writing prompts.

I love prompts for any kind of creativity, even for game playing. Over the years I've used prompts in so many ways I can barely remember a time when I didn't use them. From Susan G. Wooldridge's Poemcrazy and her idea of creating "word pools," to simply having stacks of photo references for NaNoWriMo, magazine prompts have been my go-to method of writing forever. In my opinion, nothing matches an intriguing photo or a mysterious phrase to get a new scene or manuscript really going.

There's just one small problem: I can't find enough magazines! Always in the past free magazines seemed to be everywhere I went. I found them in local tiny libraries or for the grand price of twenty-five cents in thrift stores. Friends would happily give me several at a time, saying, "Oh, you like to cut things up. Take these--please!"

But lately my sources have dwindled. People don't subscribe like they did before, or they read online. So when I do come across a magazine full of great pictures or stories, I don't automatically grab my scissors. Instead, I'm keeping the pages intact and using every little thing they have to offer.

The upside to keeping magazine pages whole rather than shredded is I have a fresh outlook on how I use them, almost as if they were a type of multi-purpose reference book. I've discovered that I can more easily carry an individual magazine with me any time I choose to write outside or at my favorite cafe--no more dropped cut-outs scattering each time there's a breeze. Another benefit to working from a single magazine is I've discovered each issue will have a certain consistency that brings cohesion to a theme or a "look" for when I'm searching out characters or settings. For instance, take:

1. Characters. Because so many magazine issues are built around a single theme or subject, especially the month-by-month issues, it's easy to find groups of people (characters) who belong together. Whether they're all on vacation, all bankers, all celebrating Easter, or all wearing the strangest clothes ever designed in the whole of human history, page after page will feature people in related poses or situations. Regarding them as a group can create a cast of characters with a natural reason for knowing or meeting each other. Even the people and pets in the ads can fit into this united gathering.

2. Settings. Travel destinations. Art galleries. Home improvement. Magazines dedicated to single subjects will have multiple articles and ad repetitions of offices, bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, gardens, hotel rooms and restaurants providing so much detail, detail, detail you might never stop writing. When these details come from the same source, you once again have a more unified vision of where your characters interact and why.

3. Phrases. Article titles or ad-copy headlines are perfect for structuring story themes, or even adding to dialogue when they share a common purpose. For instance, art and design magazines will use a lot of technical references; literary magazines tend to be more poetic. Having a full list of phrases from a single source can be an excellent way, for instance, to title chapters or create a logical plot.

4. Found poetry. I love found or "black-out" poetry, taking shortened versions of existing phrases or lines out of context and placing them into new--often startling--arrangements. My personal preference is to use food magazines, but any magazine focusing on just one topic can provide an underlying consistency to your work, resulting in a more complete and better-crafted poem. To keep the magazine in top shape, consider photocopying the pages so that you can experiment with different ideas more than once.

5. And speaking of food . . .  Recipes! It's rare for a magazine that includes recipes to simply present a grab-bag of ideas somewhere on the back pages. Individual issues will instead usually choose one food type, such as salads, pasta, or a thousand-ways-with-eggs to complete each month's edition. "Recipe groupings" are great sources for character "show, don't tell" when you want to describe any of your characters' food preferences, dislikes, or allergies. They can eat the same thing over and over but cooked in a variety of ways, or avoid certain dishes with valid authority rather than "I don't like it."

6. Respond to a magazine's theme. Study each page and/or article as a whole and freewrite your feelings about what you read or saw. Sometimes the general color scheme alone can inspire a wealth of emotional response.

7. Add your own article or story. When you're finished reading a magazine, write something of your own to add to it. You might even want to write a piece in the voice of one of your characters to explore what truly interests them or how they feel about any given subject.

8. Get mad! Conversely, something about a magazine might bother you. You don't like the message, or how it was presented. Get snarky, be rude! Throw it at those horrible people in their dreadful glass houses with too much furniture and artwork. Let 'em have it. And make sure your characters behave even worse.

9. Get published. Why not? Magazine editors are always complaining about submissions that have nothing to do with a magazine's theme or requirements. But if you like a magazine, have studied it thoroughly, and think you have something to contribute, write a piece and submit it. Contact information and submission guidelines are usually listed in the first few pages.

10. Don't just sit there--read. With a magazine in your sketch- or writing-kit, you'll never be bored and will always have something to read wherever you go. You can't do that with a folder full of cut-outs.

11. DIY. Fashion, decorating, style--the things we're attracted to might be things we'd like to imitate or make ourselves. Creative prompts aren't exclusive to writing or painting. Ideas for knitting, pottery, or sewing can be as readily based on a magazine prompt as a story.

12. Art school. On a completely different note, magazines are fun to sketch with. I like to copy, trace, or find color palettes as exercises to fill my sketchbooks.

13. Break the rules. Draw on the pages. Add doodles, improve the view, change the colors of everyone's clothing. Use gesso to glue pages together and turn the whole thing into an altered book for more drawing or collage. (Of course you now have to go find a new magazine for new prompts, but at least you had fun!)

Tip of the Day: If you haven't already, gather a limited number of magazines that inspire you. I find six is a good number without being too cluttered. Personally I like to have a combination of art, fashion, interior design, food, and some kind of subject I wouldn't normally choose, say, a pet magazine. A good literary magazine is essential too. And don't overlook shopping catalogs. When you're ready for a new collection, simply pass your used copies on to your other writer friends and start all over again!

2024: My Year to Keep Going!

Even if you only have 60 seconds for a gesture drawing, take them!

Happy 2024, everyone. A whole new twelve months to explore, create, and discover an entirely new set of favorite whatevers.

I can't believe it's been a full year since I shared the most difficult post I have ever written: My Year of Letting Go when I wrote about losing my husband. In that post I talked about how much he would have wanted me to build a good life, not only for 2023, but for every day of my future. One year later, I hope I have made him proud:

• I sold our business.
• I sold his car restoration projects--one of them all the way to Germany!
  
• Sold my daily driver. (Had to. The thing blew up on me.)
  
• Filed the last business taxes ever. (Can't say I have too many regrets about this one. Tax preparation was often the worst part of any year.)
  
• Dealt with every scrap of sadmin, from closing bank accounts to setting up my own cable and internet accounts.
• Found and joined an amazing grief group centering on support rather than therapy (which I didn't want).
• Made a focused and joyful effort to participate in adventures with friends at least once a month.
• Sold a painting for the first time! Thank you Twitter Art Exhibit (recently renamed Postcard Art Exhibit). The 2023 show was for the benefit of Canadian Native Youth, a cause I really appreciated.
• I completed Camp NaNoWriMo--50K words.
  
• Took part in Inktober--31 inky sketches.
  
• Nearly completed NaNoWriMo--43K words I can't wait to edit.
  
• Learned to make breakfast at last. (Whoever knew toast could be so difficult??)
• I blogged. Eight times!
  

It was a lot to do and there were many days I had no idea how I could do any of it, but not a minute was wasted, not a second lost. If I had to list what I've come away with, it would be:

1. "Stay Creative Every Day" is still one of the most important goals I believe worth having. Daily painting, drawing, journaling, and writing will always give my days structure. meaning, and purpose.

2. Don't worry about the how. Rather than worry, just sit down, stay in place (tea and chocolate helps), and start doing something--anything! Before you know it, you've done something good.

3. Don't worry about sequence. If Chapter One seems overwhelming, write Chapter Thirty-three. If you can't think of what you want to paint, throw some color on paper anyway. If you have to write a business email, just say what you want to say in the worst possible way in a draft and send it later when you're ready to fix your grammar. The point is, just begin at any point in the narrative; go where your steps or the mood takes you.

4. Go fast. Write fast, draw fast--at least in the beginning when you're resistant to starting. Set a timer if it encourages you to speed up and get going.

5. When you're tired, rest. As much as I want to build Rome in a day, I've had to acknowledge both physical and mental exhaustion more often than not. I tend to be impatient about lots of things anyway, including healing from grief, yet some of my most productive ideas have come from forced stoppage, allowing myself to rest, read, and yes, even sleep!

Something that came into my possession last year was a pen with the words "Take More Risks!" printed on the side. At first I thought it was silly, but as the year went on, I began to consider the message more seriously. I'm not exactly prone to do things like jump off tall buildings or even run with scissors, but there are definitely areas I could dive into on a deeper level, such as offering more artwork for sale, or submitting my writing to places I always thought too difficult or edgy to approach. I'm excited to at least try some new things in 2024 and I hope you will be too. 

So glad I risked sending this to TAE '23 . . .

 Tip of the Day: As an exercise for the year, try creating your own set of inspirational challenges designed just for you. For instance, instead of following along with NaNoWriMo because "it's there," think outside the box and try "April is Collage Month" or "Found Poetry Month" in August because that's your cat's birthday. Write your ideas down in a calendar or a planner and start brainstorming how you can use the year to "take more risks" and see how far you can go.

NaNoWriMo '23 -- It's All About Me! (And You Too!)

 

So here we are again: November and National Novel Writing Month and the eternal question: Why am I doing this??

Because I love it, I suppose!

Whatever the reason, this year has found me throwing myself into creative challenges with more than reckless abandon. I had barely recovered from July's Camp NaNoWriMo when I decided to go for Inktober '23 (31 days of daily ink drawing with mandatory social media posting) and then the next thing I knew I had to do "the real" NaNoWriMo . . . and off we go.

When I first thought about signing up for NaNoWriMo 2023, my intention was to simply continue the story I had started in July. Although I had reached my 50K goal, the manuscript was in no way complete, so it made sense to think November would be a good time to write another 50K to finish things off. 

That all changed several weeks ago when I couldn't sleep one night and got up to write instead. Suddenly I was immersed in a new story, one I hadn't expected to write and one I didn't really want to write. Working on a "shiny bright idea" with so many other projects calling for attention felt like a very bad idea. But there it was and it wouldn't go away so I thought, use it for NaNoWriMo!

While it was easy enough (maybe too easy) to switch gears into a new plot and theme, the abruptness of the change didn't give me any time to assemble my usual scrapbook-style journal of prompts and photo references. I had a great journal full of mood boards and creepy settings to use back in July, but there wasn't a single item I could use toward my new story. Very quickly I had to come up with an entirely fresh approach: rather than rely on my usual magazine cut-outs, I could dive into my own life and make the prompts all about me! (Sort of.)

I was inspired by the example set by one of my Twitter (X) friends, writer and poet, Janis La Couvée, who is currently exploring memoir writing. Her recent tweets on the subject reminded me of a workshop I had taught while I was living in Carrollton, Georgia: "Write Your Memoirs, You're Never Too Young To Start." It was a fun class and I know of several full-length manuscripts that were written for both family record-keeping as well as more general publication. However, other than a blog post with the same title, I haven't thought of memoir for a long time until it occurred to me that using prompts from my own daily life and memories could be what I needed for NaNoWriMo. 

In other words, I'd be "memoir writing" but with a twist. I could assign my memories to fictional characters who could take them wherever they wanted to go. For instance, as a small child I wanted to be an archaeologist, something I obviously never did (unless you count Albuquerque yard work as a trial run), but a fictional character could actually work for a museum.

With that direction in mind, I've made a quick 30-day list I'm happy to share for any kind of writing you might be doing this month yourself, whether it be NaNoWriMo, a genuine memoir, or even a month of poetry.

Taking the words: "base a scene on," or "your main character remembers (something from the list) which then triggers (action or emotion)," try:

1. A favorite song.
2. A disliked poem.
3. Most hated childhood food.
4. Most frightening moment.
5. Happiest day.
6. Three items inside your handbag or pockets.
7. Three items of clothing you love.
8. Three items of clothing you never wear.
9. Favorite pet.
10. Worst day of school.
11. Your best childhood friend.
12. A letter you never wrote.
13. Favorite book: go to page 93 and use the first line you read.
14. A restaurant you would never go to and why.
15. Your attitude to shopping.
16. A hobby or skill you would love to have.
17. A place you have always wanted to travel to.
18. Favorite color.
19. Most disliked color.
20. Your last argument.
    
21. Something you're allergic to.
22. Your car (or lack of one).
23. An item in your house you wish you could get rid of.
24. An item you wish you still had.
25. Greatest fear or phobia.
26. Housework.
27. Favorite movie.
28. What you are wearing this very minute.
29. What you really want to say to your neighbor(s).
30. Your daily routine as it is now, or how you'd like it to change.
    

And there you go: 30 prompts for 30 days! Feel free to use them in daily order or for a more spontaneous writing session, mix them up and use at random. Or add your own ideas; after all, you know your own life best!

Tip of the Day: Although NaNoWriMo requires both planning and organization, you can still start a day or two late and be a winner. One way I'm focusing on writing, and writing only, is to clear my work space and limit my writing tools to the basics: my Alphasmart; a lined notebook for writing in cafes, parks, or the middle of the night; and a new sketchbook with a small number of my favorite pens and pencils. The sketchbook is for visual brainstorming in between writing sessions and to keep the creativity flowing whenever I need a break. Now to go write my 50,000 divided by 30 equals 1666.666 words for the day. Happy November! Happy Writing!

Return from #CampNaNoWriMo 2023

Lakeside, CampNaNoWriMo 2023

 

 

Back home from CampNaNoWriMo at last! Well, okay, so I never went farther than the Albuquerque Museum Cafe and any relation to travel, camping, or singing 'round the campfire was all "let's pretend." But isn't that the definition of creativity? Using the imagination and taking it as far as it will go?

One thing I couldn't pretend away though, was how difficult CampNaNo turned out to be, and it wasn't just the very-real mosquitoes. Getting up every day to write close to 1700 words eventually became a Herculean effort and I did have to spend several days catching up with my word count, July 31st being the worst. I didn't finish writing that night until 11:44 PM. On the dot. It was a long evening indeed, but I made it across the finishing line just as the first street racers started roaring outside my windows down Route 66.

Now that two weeks have passed since the end of camp, I guess the big question is, WHY? Why did I want to do something so, well, challenging? Short answer: I wanted to see if I could. This year has been difficult for me on so many levels, and despite hours and hours of grief journaling, my creative writing often found itself buried under mounds of administrative paperwork. Signing up for CampNaNo was an opportunity to start over and see what direction I truly wanted to follow.

It was a good choice. As soon as I actually sat down to write I was back in one of the safest places I know: the blank page. I wrote in cafes. I wrote beside my condo's swimming pool. I wrote in the park. I wrote in bed. I got it done and I'm glad. There are so many benefits to joining in with a writing challenge, starting with:

1. Discipline. No excuses. You just have to write--so do it!
   
2. Commitment. Setting a challenge goal of 50K words or simply 50 pages is a promise to yourself, one you want to keep. It feels good to keep your promise.
   
3. Finding a schedule. A challenge is a good way to figure out your best writing times of the day or night. For me it turned out to be mid-afternoon. With a latte.
   
4. Visible progress. A writing challenge can bring a good dose of instant gratification. Watching your word counts and pages add up is immensely satisfying.
   
5. Freewrite like you mean it. I love freewriting, letting the words pour onto the page without editing, censoring myself, or worrying about "what people will think." Participating in a challenge leaves little time to do anything other than write, write, write, and often you have to abandon linear thinking, switching scenes on the fly, inventing new characters, ignoring transitions. It's great.
   
6. You're part of a global effort. It's fun to imagine all those other writers out there suffering enjoying themselves day after day, night after night. Writers tend to be loners, so what's better than a world-wide writer's group?
   
7. That idea you always wanted to play with? Now's the chance to go for it.
8. Beginner's mind. When you're writing fast you don't have time to think about the rules or the "right" way to approach your story. Every sentence is a new beginning, a new way to express yourself. You don't need answers, you just need to listen to that voice asking "what if?" and follow what first comes to mind.
   
9. A chance to experiment with form and genre. Bored? Turn your mystery into a series of short stories. Or add some recipes. Or poetry. Mix and match styles and write outside the box--you might find a brand new voice for yourself, the one you've always been looking for.
   
10. You can discover what it is you don't like to write. 20,000 words into your manuscript you might discover that you hate writing novels, and that's just fine. Maybe you would much prefer to specialize in personal essays, or you might never want to pick up a pen again, deciding that abstract landscape painting is your true calling. Now's the perfect time to find out.
    
11. You'll have 50K words to edit. I'm sure you've heard the truism that writing is re-writing. Except you can't rewrite a manuscript without a first draft. Join a challenge and you're guaranteed a first draft to rewrite for as many drafts as it takes.
    
12. You'll have a manuscript to publish. Yay! What more incentive do you need?
    

Regarding that last point about publication, as worthy as it is to eventually publish your work and while 50K is an excellent start, a full-fledged, polished manuscript really needs a minimum of 75,000 to 100,000 words to be a satisfying read. My plan is to go for that 100K goal after taking a several-month break. For the moment my pages are packed away in a folder, but as soon as November's National Novel Writing Month 2023 rolls around I plan to jump in with both feet and get that story finished. Until then, you can find me in the craft room painting more landscapes.

Tip of the Day: Now's the time to consider signing up for what will be the 24th year of NaNoWriMo. Begin by collecting writing prompts, character and other reference photos, and doing any research you might need to have in place before November 1. Even if it's a simple outline or a plan dividing 30 days into plot points and chapter breaks, it can be helpful to have your compass ready and your backpack full of ideas ready to go. As they like to say at camp, "Be prepared!"

My 12 Top Reasons for Loving NaNoWriMo (Even if I Can't Join in This Year)

 

Here we are: halfway through National Novel Writing Month, the greatest novel writing challenge on earth; 50,000 words in thirty days. If I wasn't so absorbed with polishing my final draft of Ghazal, I'd be right in the thick of things, too, armed with my favorite fountain pen and a brand new journal.

Sitting out this year, however, doesn't mean I'm ignoring the NaNoWriMo.org website, one of the best resources writers have for discovering fresh advice, solid encouragement, and a wide array of writing tools. And for anyone who's sitting on the fence wondering it they should have signed up, well, go for it! Even if there are only two weeks left, you can still have more fun than a barrel of monkeys because:

1. You can write for yourself. Completely, indulgently, luxuriously, unashamedly. Who cares if your manuscript gets published, or rejected, or even liked by someone else? Just write and use the month to please yourself and no one else.
2. It's a unique opportunity to experiment. Always wanted to write a murder mystery? A novel in verse? A dystopian literary romance? Here's your chance. Go for it.
3. When you decide to join the NaNoWriMo community you join as a writer, not a "wannabe," a word I've never really liked much, but one that many new writers wrongly apply to themselves. If you're putting words on paper, you're a writer. NaNoWriMo gives you your credentials.
4. You can write the most overblown, purple-tinged, excessively detailed info drops and descriptions without a twinge of discomfort. The wordier the better. Why? Well, to start with you need the words, as many as possible, in order to achieve your daily word count. More importantly however, the longer and crazier you can make your sentences and paragraphs, the more certain you are to hit pay dirt when you edit. Writing in minute detail the contents of your main character's closet, for instance, will give you more information than you would ever dream of including in a final, edited draft, but it may give you the hidden gun or stolen armadillo shell that will propel your plot, conflict, and motivation into a bestseller.
5. NaNoWriMo is an opportunity to discover how much free time you really do have to write a novel. If you can find the time to write during November, you can find the time to write all year long. Small sacrifices such as reducing the time you spend on social media sites or binge watching television programs add up to big gains. Thirty minutes here, ten there, it's all waiting for you to seize and use for writing time.
6. 2020 may take the cake for being one of the most challenging years of our lives, but that doesn't mean we get a free pass to wallow and stare out the window. Taking part in NaNoWrimo 2020 may be one of the most positive and productive things you've been able to do all year. No one can ever lock you down or restrict your creativity.
7. Breaking away from the need to be entertained during these difficult times is good for your brain and self-esteem. Taking charge and creating your own entertainment rather than being a passive viewer is good for your overall emotional, physical, and mental health. Focusing on your creativity rather than the many things you may fear or feel you can't do is one of the best "vitamin supplements" on the market.
   
8. NaNoWriMo is a community. 2020 participants may not be able to gather in the all-day, late-night socializing and group write-ins of past years, but they can certainly share and converse with each other through a variety of forums, not the least being the actual NaNoWriMo site itself. Make new friends!
9. When you are free to experiment without expectations you have permission to express and discover what you don't like about writing or what you don't like to write. For decades you may have been dreaming about writing a medieval romance set in France, but after two weeks in you may find you detest "happily ever after" and your real passion is hard-boiled true crime. Great! Toss France out the window and go for murder on the high seas with a dash of larceny for luck, the story that truly feeds your soul.
10. On the other hand, though, if medieval France turns out to seriously be your thing, NaNoWriMo lets you go full immersion. Spending quality time on research, language studies, and even travel plans for the future to add realistic details to your story can set the stage for a productive and engaging 2021.
11. Whether you write 100,000 words or five pages during the month of November, you will have something to show at the end of the day. Something that with a little dedication and discipline can be turned into a real, live manuscript.
    
12. And best of all, even if you started out on the NaNoWriMo path with the intention to just play, guess what? You've got the makings of a book! Which is how many of the best published books you've ever read started out, a little idea that made history.
    

Tip of the Day: If for some reason you're like me and can't participate in NaNoWriMo this year, you can always plan ahead for next year. Start a file folder with ideas, writing prompts, and magazine cut-outs so that you'll be raring to go for 2021!

Hello Inktober 2019!

© Creative Commons Zero / Dreamstime.com

Ready for a month of inky fun? Me too!

Now that October is here, so is Inktober, a 31-day drawing challenge where artists from all over the world make a daily drawing in ink and then post their work as they go on a social media site. 

An optional, and very helpful, aspect of the event is to use the list of word prompts provided on the Inktober website. This year the first word on the list is "ring" and because I decided to use the challenge as an opportunity to create a travel journal based on my trip to the UK last month, my first picture is . . . Stonehenge! (It's a ring, right??)

I'm not all that in love with this piece, having doodled it at my desk while at work and wearing the wrong glasses, but the whole point of Inktober is to just draw and not worry about the results or sharing them. (Or so I've been told.)

Throughout the month and in spite of my many worries and fears I'll be using a variety of inks and pens, all on a watercolor wash background in a small landscape-sized Global Arts watercolor journal. My pen choices will include bamboo pens, fountain pens, dip pens, brush pens, technical pens, and even ballpoints. Ink isn't the easiest medium in the universe, but it's a medium I enjoy despite my dozens (hundreds) of setbacks. 

I like Inktober and drawing along with a world-wide community of other artists at all skill levels. It's an inspiring challenge, one that forces me out of my comfort zone and gives me a daily art goal for the month. It also reminds me that things could be worse: it could be November and National Novel Writing Month, and believe me, 31 ink drawings is a whole lot easier than a 50K writing marathon. I think. Right. Yes. Okay, I'll let you know after Halloween. Trick or treat.

Tip of the Day: Even if you're not an artist or don't like drawing with ink, you can still use Inktober as a fun exercise. Instead of using the posted prompts as art themes, why not use them for some daily freewriting? Handwritten, of course, and in your favorite journal!

I Didn't Win NaNoWriMo and That's OK--Really!

Image © Commonsstockphotos

Nope, didn't win. And I'm just fine with that, especially as my true goal this year was to write. Now if I had reached my goal of 50K, that would have been wonderful too, but more than anything I just wanted to get back into a daily writing schedule. 

I may not have been a winner this year (and huge congratulations to all of you who did win), but neither do I feel that I came home empty-handed. Not only did I have the fun of once again being part of an international month-long community of writers, but I also feel as if I won an entire basketful of door prizes, starting with:

• A cast of interesting characters and a strong story outline for a YA mystery set in a remote mountain boarding school. Prior to sitting down and writing the words "Chapter One" I had no idea these people were even in my head!
• I learned I still could do it. After what has been nearly a year of condo renovations, and then all of the discombobulation of selling my home and moving into said condo, I wondered if I would ever be able to write again. Fortunately the answer is "Yes, of course I can!" making me feel a lot more confident about heading into 2019.
• I discovered some new places to write, my favorites being the downtown Albuquerque library and the Albuquerque museum. Very inspiring.
• I returned to writing by hand and absolutely loved going "old school."
• I discovered a fun set of exercises I used as writing prompts that I can use with my writer's group.
• After each writing session, I went back to my also-neglected drawing and painting. Sketching out my NaNoWriMo settings helped re-orient me back into my creativity on many levels.
• I bought some lovely new writing tools: a new notebook from Spain decorated with flower-laden llamas, and several varieties of smooth-writing pens such as Marvy's  Le Pen, and Pentel Energel (both in violet ink, of course!).
•  I found I could most easily write in 300-word sprints, something I can continue to fit in anywhere, anytime, any place e.g., at my desk eating lunch, before work, waiting for my laundry to dry.

Best of all, I'm now recharged to return to my revisions on my novel, Ghazal, which was the whole point of joining the challenge in the first place. My NaNoWriMo story will have to go onto a back-burner for a while, and that's another thing that's okay with me. Before you know it, July's Camp NaNoWriMo will be here and I'll have a head-start on characters, plot, and setting. See you there! 

Tip of the Day: National Novel Writing Month doesn't end in November. No matter what time of year it is, you can always visit Nanowrimo.org to explore a wealth of tips, advice, inspiration, and motivational prompts.

The Big Move to Small Condo Life

Photo by ©creativecommonsstockphotos

We did it! Sold our house, finished renovating (most of) the condo, moved into said condo, and are now tackling the last of the to-do list, e.g., buying curtains and installing a new glass shower door. But other than that, we've got our keys, downstairs storage locker and parking space, and can actually find where (most of) our belongings are without too much confusion. We've even started taking the long-dreamed-of downtown walks I had so very much wanted to be an integral part of moving in the first place. It's all better than good; 845-square-feet have never felt more spacious, comfortable, and easy to clean. (Low maintenance being high priority for sure.) So. Here we are, settled, unpacked, down-sized, and happier than clams. (Why clams are happy, I have no idea, but maybe it has something to do with being cozy in their shells, an apt metaphor for our tiny but far-from-cramped new urban lifestyle .)

To celebrate getting everything into place after several months of constant anxiety, uncertainty, sore muscles, and a complete absence from the Internet, neither blogging nor tweeting or even writing a fraction of the emails I'm dreadfully behind on, I decided to go completely wild and crazy and sign up for . . . drum roll, please . . . NANOWRIMO! IT'S TRUE! Yes, I've gone completely mad, but I can't think of a more invigorating way to jump-start my sorely-neglected creativity than with a brand new manuscript, especially the one I said I would never, ever write. Ever.

One of the things that pushed me to go for NaNo this year was the wonderful opportunity I now have to write in not only downtown cafes and parks, but the local museums too, all of which are just a few minutes away by foot. And don't even get me started on all the great gathering spaces I have both indoors and out within the condo complex (including our very own library). I'm well aware that I have several other manuscripts I should be revising, editing, and preparing for publication now that I'm not focused on bubble wrap and paint chips, but I don't seriously think the literary world is going to implode if I take an extra 30 days for myself to freewrite, explore, and go for that always-exciting 50K goal. Besides, what else do I have to do now that I only have one bathroom to clean and a small balcony to sweep? Other than the day job and  collecting quarters for the laundry room, my time is pretty much my own once again. And that, dear reader, is better than all the clams you can shake a stick at, or whatever it is one does with clams besides make soup. 

Tip of the Day:  This one's easy: get on over to National Novel Writing Month, sharpen your pencils, and start your engines. Your novel awaits, as do all your potential writing buddies. In the meantime, Happy Halloween!
 

Short Stories or Novels?

Short stories or novels? Which are best to write? Which are best and/or easiest for beginning writers? I've thought about these questions ever since I took my first writing class way back in Mission Viejo, California. As a new writer, I was drawn to the immediacy (and abbreviated length) of short stories, but our class instructor had different ideas. She believed one-hundred-percent that new fiction writers should begin their careers with novels. Her advice worked well for me--I wrote two novels right off the bat and learned so much about writing I then went on to teach writing classes of my own.

Since then I've experimented with many kinds of writing: screenplays, poetry, nonfiction, and even short stories which I rarely, if ever, thought about submitting for publication. To me short stories were exercises in freewriting, practice pieces for fun and entertainment. However, that all changed this past July when I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo and decided to write a sequence of short stories in lieu of a novel. It was time well spent, allowing me to both create a body of work while also discovering some important reasons why some people (including me) might like to consider short story writing as a serious publishing path. For instance:

• Regardless of your initial enthusiasm for writing a novel, there eventually comes a day when the writing feels like more of a chore than a joy. One of the most difficult challenges for any writer is to muster the courage, strength, and willpower to stick with a book-length manuscript. Short stories are an excellent pick-me-up to provide some diversion and a fresh approach during the dark nights of novel-writing.
• Writing a novel is a long-term relationship. Short stories are more like speed dating: Meet, write, move on! At best you might meet the story of a lifetime. And if you don't, well, it's all good life-experience.
• With short stories, your time frame and cast of characters is much smaller than that of a novel, making everything much easier to keep track of. If your story starts out with a 36-year-old archaeologist working on a Saturday morning, chances are even if she quits her job she'll still be the same age when your story ends in the afternoon.
• How often have you heard not to start your novel with too much information or back story? But with a short story, the back story IS the story! Tip: That juicy stuff you have to leave out of your novel? Turn it into short stories, the more the merrier.
• For creative types who love starting projects but have trouble with completion, writing a short story a day or a week provides an endless wealth of new beginnings. Every writing session allows for a fresh start, a clean slate, and a chance to explore and experiment with voice, style, and subject matter.
• Best of all, finishing a short story provides a wonderful sense of achievement and accomplishment. You did it!
• And if by some terrible chance you don't like what you're writing or have written: End it. Toss it. Write the next one!
• You can write short fiction on the go. Wherever you are: at work, on vacation, waiting in the car or for an appointment, you can write and finish a short story. And they're easier than ever to submit and publish thanks to the Internet.

November's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is just around the corner. If you're thinking of signing up, here's a suggestion: How about bending the rules a bit and rather than going for the traditional novel, set a goal of writing 30 (one a day) short stories? Ray Bradbury famously said that writing a story a week for a year would give you 52, and out of 52 at least one of them had to be good. Same out of 30, I'd say!

Tip of the Day: In many ways short stories are the equivalent of poetry: succinct, metaphoric, and intended to leave a powerful impression. The best way to understand what goes into them is to read as many as you can. Your local library will have numerous anthologies categorized by individual author as well as genre. I've always been a big fan of the Ellen Datlow editions of horror stories--just right for Halloween!

How to Solve any Problem with Beads

Some of the beads I've gathered abroad,
or just from a trip to the craft store.

How to Solve any Problem with Beads. Really? Well, that's the title/theme I've just been given from my latest discovery: a blog post generator! 

Back story: I was scrolling through Twitter (when I was supposed to be editing my poetry manuscript) when I read a tweet that totally intrigued me, a reference to using a blog post generator. Naturally, I had to check it out, mainly because I've never come across a creativity generator I didn't like. Whether it's been to name a foreign character, find a setting for my National Novel Writing Month plot, or match a profession to a villain, generators are fun. 

The blog post generator I found was no exception, the only difference being that I had to enter three nouns before the generator could assign my topic. My choices were: creativity, beads, and writing. I then clicked on "go" and ta-dah: How to Solve any Problem with Beads. 

I had a good laugh, and then thought, hey, why not? That's a great topic! The only trouble was, I didn't know whether it meant how to solve big problems, like, how to bring about world peace, or how to get your neighbor's dog to stop barking; or did it mean, how to solve any problems you're having with beading, such as how to correctly fit those pesky crimp covers used for finishing the ends of necklaces and bracelets. If so, I have to admit I don't have any solutions for crimp covers (the bane of my beading life) other than try, try, try again, but I also know that in the trying I've been able to zone out and solve (or at least meditate upon) quite a few day-to-day challenges including writing and painting problems.

My (tiny) bead table.

I know I'm not alone in my fascination with beads. Beads in all forms and shapes have a long history of decorative and spiritual use, from Buddhist malas to Christian rosaries and burial relics in ancient grave sites.

5000-year-old beads I saw at the National  
History Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

I've always been particularly intrigued by a story I once heard on NPR about the tradition of making rosaries from actual rose petals. The petals are boiled, rolled and formed into beads for drying and stringing. Holding the finished rosary in one's hands supposedly emits a strong scent of roses, something that must be quite heavenly to experience.

Unfortunately, I can't get a rose bush to thrive long enough to bloom, let alone think of gathering its petals for bead-making. On the other hand, finding beads while traveling, even if it's only to the next town has solved the  "what to bring home as a souvenir or gift" dilemma nicely. 

More than anything, beading has been a way for me to take a break from writing or painting, although there are some nice parallels to the visual arts, especially when it comes to working with color. I often like to start with a single shade and then search out whatever in my collection matches or complements that choice. Once I have all the beads I think I might want to use, I rarely settle on one design; I change, rearrange, or completely re-think the entire scheme several dozen times before I'm satisfied with the outcome.

Works-in-progress! Note the tiny gold crimp
covers lying there all on their loathsome lonesome. 
I'll get to them . . . soon . . . 

Right now I'm doing my best to solve my bead storage problem. It's amazing how many little containers and boxes are required to keep everything in order. For a born-minimalist like me, it's a nightmare. To make more room I've decided to use up all the beads I have before I buy anything new. Part of this clean-up effort has been to toss the less-attractive beads I've been hanging on to for no good reason other than they were part of my favorite way of buying beads in grab bags--random assortments that suit the puzzle-solver in me to a T. Now if I could just get those crimp covers to work . . . 

Tip of the Day: Try beading! A simple way to dive in is to visit your local bead or craft store and buy not only a grab bag but a few "focal beads," the larger, flashier beads meant for the center of a necklace or bracelet. You don't have to make jewelry or buy expensive tools to get started. Instead, string a few beads together to tie on to gift packages, the ends of bookmarks, or to decorate your journal. After that, you might want to carry on to the real thing, thereby giving yourself all kinds of interesting problems to solve. Happy Summer!