S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 66

Write Habits

Daily writing is not for everyone, but if you want to produce new work more frequently than once every blue moon you should consider making a weekly writing committment. I started this last year with Just Write Thursdays so I could get back to my old habit of trying some new ideas and having fun with story. Thursday is now my favorite day of the writing week.

I think the first step is decide what you most like to write. For me books are inevitably creative marathons, but writing short stories aren't. Short stories have always been my idea test strips, and I like that I don't have to spend months working on them before I reach the finish line. Blogging, journaling, and writing poetry are also fun for me and are even shorter than my short stories.

If you're not sure what form of writing would best fit as a new write habit for you, try prompts. I spotted this button for The One-Minute Writer over at Terlee's blog, and this gal offers daily prompts that are brilliant (and even better, brief.) The idea is simple, too: pick a prompt and write about it for sixty seconds. P.S., if you can't spare one minute to write, you should maybe stop calling yourself a writer.

Other habit-forming write exercises:

Carry a notepad with you the next time you leave the house, and when you see an interesting stranger, jot down a new name for him or her.

Compose your official author bio (and if you want it to sound professional, lie about everything.)

Describe a character with twenty-six words, using one letter of the alphabet for every word.

Make up a list of titles for stories you'd like to write (or that you'd never write.)

Open your dictionary to a random page, close your eyes, point to something on the page, and then write a story premise using that word.

Pen an acceptance speech for an award you'd like to win -- then write one for an award you'd hate to win.

Take five names from different random pages in your telephone book and make up a character for each one by inventing a description, occupation, and a conflict for them.

Tell a story using only one complete sentence.

Write down every word you can think that describes your favorite color, then do the same for your least favorite.

Do you have any tricks you use to get you back in the writing habit? Let us know in comments.

Wizards of the Wheels

Sometimes people do things that seem ordinary but when you slow them down they reveal an amazing, poetic magic to them; this short films shows how much there is in skateboarding (with background music, for those of you at work):

LOCAL from Sean Slobodan on Vimeo.

Just Write

Today I'm off to write something new and post it online before midnight. Everyone inclined to do the same is invited to join me.

My link: More on Club Denizen , with new material beginning on page 27.

For more details on Just Write Thursdays, click here to go to the original post.

Image credit: windujedi

Club Denizen Final Cover

I appreciate all the feedback for my Just Write cover quest. I was rather surprised by the responses (my favorite starting out was actually #1) but what you told me made lots of sense. I fiddled a bit with the final choice in Photoshop, and here's the result:



Stop by tomorrow if you'd like to read more of the story.

Sub Op

Quarterly journal Farrago's Wainscot publishes "original fiction and poetry in the literary weird mode. Style: Experimental, cross-genre, or other interstitial forms that challenge or expand standard narrative mechanics." What they'd like to see from the poets: "We are open to all subjects, styles, forms, and genres, especially, but not exclusively, those moments where lyric collides with narrative. We are most excited by poems that do or say something, those attentive to the musicality of language and to voice, that do their work subtly and surprisingly, that blindside us with epiphany or heartbreak or both together, that make us want to get up and walk away for a bit to digest. We like poems that whisper, poems that haunt, poems that know when to croon and when to punch." Length fiction: 2-4K; poetry unspecified; Payment: $0.06 USD per word for fiction, $20.00 USD per poem up to four poems. No reprints, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details.

Got Indy?

Dying Embers. Although B. has a print edition option I bought the Kindle format so I could use it as a test book on their stupid Cloud thing. It turned out to be my good luck charm novel, too, because with it I finally figure out how to close/go back/reopen my purchases. Which means that once I finish B.'s novel I can also read that Anne Stuart Kindle-only book I bought like two years ago and have never been able to reopen.

Are you buying more indy books these days? Got any title recs you want to share? Let us know in comments.

Opinions Wanted

I'm tinkering on cover art for my current Just Write Thursday story and would appreciate some opinions. I'll likely be changing the title and byline fonts, and polishing the final product in photoshop, but which do you like best?

Cover #1:



Cover #2:



Cover #3:



Please let me know what you think in comments (and there are no wrong answers.)

Image Credits:

Mask by belchonok

Figure in Tunnel by eugenesergeev

Old Door by exile7

Wishing You

Image credit: StockPhotosforFree.com

Crazy Little Thing Called

In honor of the big V day I have for you a very short, very cute film about the L word (with narration and background music, for those of you at work):

Foolishly Seeking True Love from Jarrett Lee Conaway on Vimeo.

Just Write

Today I'm off to write something new and post it online before midnight. Everyone inclined to do the same is invited to join me.

My link: a bit more on Club Denizen , with new material beginning on page 25.

For more details on Just Write Thursdays, click here to go to the original post.

Image credit: windujedi