Heather Wright's Blog, page 2

Writing Prompts for May 2020

We’re starting our 8th week of isolation, social distancing, whatever you want to call it, and there are moments when the day-to-day coping is a real challenge. Generally I muddle along just fine, but at other times I’m anxious about all the sanitizing and the people going for walks behind our house that don’t keep their distance. I’m, worrying about the COVID-19 statistics that, for me, aren’t improving fast enough, feeling for those I know with new grandchildren they can’t hug or with family that they can’t visit in hospital or mourn with the comforting hugs of friends and family. It doesn’t take a lot for my thoughts to head into a downward spiral. I don’t think I’ve ever been ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for April 2020

Last week I was sitting outside on a lovely April morning and listening to the buzzer sound at the nearby school. It goes on marking the end of classes while teachers and children continue to stay at home to keep their friends and family safe. Teachers are now online valiantly conquering new technology, inventing and creating new ways to communicate to home learners and surviving it all while coping with caring for their own loved ones at the same time. The world has changed. My husband works from home, my son teaches piano lessons online, and I bake bread and sanitize my groceries that I pick up after pre-ordering from the store—and no, I don’t have hoards of flour or ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for March 2020

I don’t know why the shortest month always seems so long, but it does. I think one reason this year is because I’m anxious to get to March and April because I have a lot of fun things planned for those months. In March, I’ll be taking my books to two events, one smaller craft market, and the other, the very busy KW Women’s Show. I’ll be sharing those days with Lori Wolf-Heffner, author of the Between Worlds series. We go back many years to when I was her high school English teacher, and now, I act as her writing coach while she creates her wonderful YA series—Book 6 is out in March. We sell our books under the banner ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for February 2020

If you’re wondering why there are daisies in my photo today, it’s because, where I live, January had only 12 hours of sunshine. Something cheery was required. On the plus side, gloomy days do encourage the drinking of warm beverages and curling up with books to read and journals to write in–and naps. All good. I’m taking part in a writing challenge with a friend, and if you’re finding it hard to keep to your resolution about writing every day, I encourage you to do the same. If you know someone who has made any kind of resolution (exercising, eating less sugar, finishing a knitting project, decluttering a room) team up with them to send a weekly accountability message. If ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for January 2020

I chose a photo of a road for my header today because I’m looking ahead at a year that seriously needs a sense of direction. Last year, I created 4 new books and had fun on the craft market circuit selling books and promoting my coaching. Yes, I had fun, but not what you’d call success. This year I need to focus on marketing and promotion and deciding my purpose. What I love is presenting workshops and working one-on-one with coaching clients. How do I reach them? Do I rent rooms and promote workshops, do I run webinars, do I create online courses, do I venture onto YouTube–yikes! Decisions need to be made, risks need to be taken, marketing needs ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for November and December 2019

Image by Terri Cnudde from Pixabay  I hope your November is off to a good start! If you’re in the midst of NaNoWriMo, I wish you lots and lots of words and every success. I hope you have wonderful holidays ahead with friends and family, and that, sometime in the following weeks, you are able to sneak in all the writing time you need to keep your imagination and your heart happy. Here are some writing prompts to brighten your imagination as winter closes in.  It’s cloudy and snowing hard here right now, and the plow has just gone by and filled up the end of my driveway. It’s times like these that I’m so grateful I’m a writer because I can sit ... Read more...

Writing Tools to KICKSTART Your Writing & Writing Prompts for September 2019

After years of attending and teaching school. September always seem like the best time for new beginnings. If you’re planning to kickstart your writing after a busy (or lazy) summer, here are some old and new tools that I’ve created to help you reach your writing goals. Character Template – Maybe answering these questions will give you a new insight to your character that suggests a new plot twist or tangle in a growing relationship. I also suggest reading Lee Martin’s chapter, “Subversive Details and Characterization” in Naming the World: And Other Exercise for the Creative Writer, a fabulous book edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. Plot planner – Use the Brain-Dump Method to jot down scenes and moments that you can ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for July and August 2019

I hope that you’ve left behind a healthy and creative June, and that you’re beginning the second half of this year with lots of plans for new stories or for finishing those you’ve begun. I’m happy to say that I finished my last of four take-action workbooks. This one is about writing memoir. I’ve included 45 writing prompts in this workbook to help you mine the memories you need to fill your pages, along with strategies for discovering more about the places and people that influenced your life Find out more here: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Memoir... I’m on a deadline for a freelance contract, so I won’t be posting a blog or new prompts in August. To give a creative boost to your ... Read more...

writing Prompts for June 2019

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a guest blog for Elizabeth Spann Craig whose blog I’ve been following for years. Elizabeth is a cozy mystery writer who posts regularly with writing tips and behind-the-scenes peeks at her publishing journey. She also compiles a weekly list of links, Twitterific, packed full of information of interest to writers and self-publishers. I always find something helpful or inspiring in the articles she chooses. I decided to write my guest post about journaling, a writerly task that I have never even remotely mastered. In spite of that failing, journaling does have a helpful and inspiring place in my writing life. If your relationship with journaling is an uneasy one, please check out my ... Read more...

Writing Prompts for May 2019

I’m so excited to announce my three new books are now available on Amazon.com. These books have been a labor of love, and I hope that the genre writers among you will find them useful. These workbooks will help you keep all your research, character ideas, setting notes, writing schedule, plot outlines, etc., all in one place as you work through your first draft. Click here to see sample tables of contents and links to Amazon. A shout-out to D’vorah Lansky at Share Your Brilliance for inspiring me to write these books. Here are your writing prompts for May. Use one, some, or all of the words in one of these groups to inspire a story or poem.1. clouds, heat, ... Read more...