Category: The Writing Life

The Writing Life

Finding My Happy

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I haven’t had the best day.

I woke up on the proverbial “wrong-side of the bed.” Then I rushed out of the house to meet someone for coffee only to find out, after I arrived at the cafe, she’d sent an email earlier to cancel.  

To say I was annoyed is understatement. 

I spent the next several minutes on a rant – in my head – about all the people who were pissing me off. I even went so far as to get the journal from my car so that I could write about it. But that didn’t help me to feel any better. In fact, the more I wrote, the more frustrated I got. And to make matters worse, today’s blog was hanging over my head. I tried to steer my journaling to a topic that might lead to a blog post. But I kept coming back to my various frustrations, a result of the many years practicing stream of consciousness writing.

I glanced around to see if there was something else in the store to write about. The two ladies sitting near me were having an in-depth conversation about one lady’s carpal tunnel. The barista was giving another employee directions about ordering supplies. Neither conversation was blog worthy or even that interesting. But then my eye landed on the owner of the shop. She was standing on a ladder right outside the door hanging Christmas lights. I watched, wishing I had same tenacity in my writing that she has with her business.

Years ago she started a cupcake/cake business in her kitchen. It grew to the point that she had to rent commercial kitchen space in order to fill her orders. Then she expanded her cupcake business into a restaurant. And a few years later – about the time I first met her – she began to talk about opening a European market that would sell coffee and pastries as well as wine and cheeses. It would be part Georgia, part France. To be honest, the idea seemed odd to me. I couldn’t quite picture it in my head. 

But then she opened Roswell Provisions.

Not only did it turn out just as she described, it has become one of the most popular places on the block. A casual observer might think things have come easy for her, but as her friend I have seen how much time and energy she puts into her business to make it successful. No matter the challenge, she never losses sight of her goals. 

Once during conversation, she explained what drove her determination: “My business makes me happy. You have to find your happy.” 

Over the last few years, I’ve thought a lot about “my happy”. I assumed it was writing but I wasn’t driven to make it priority. I rationalized that it wasn’t as important to me because I didn’t depend on it for my livelihood. But finding your happy is more about accomplishing your goals than receiving a paycheck. It is about doing the thing that satisfies your soul. So even though my day didn’t get much better, I made myself sit down and write. 

Writing is my happy. It isn’t always easy or fun, but it always satisfies. 

December Writing Challenge
Goal Setting · The Writing Life

December Writing Challenge

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Confession –– I shopped on Black Friday.

The frenzy and crowds kick off the Christmas shopping season for me. It all started years ago when my husband and I began taking our kids to see the holiday windows displays on State Street in Chicago. The lights and animated puppets never failed to put us in a festive mood.

While there are no windows displays in Atlanta, the people watching never disappoints. I always come away from our Black Friday shopping amused though often empty-handed.

It’s a horrible day to actually shop.

That said, I did manage to buy something this year –– a pen. I probably paid more than I should have, but I couldn’t resist. As I walked through the mall with my new purchase, I promised myself I would write everyday in the month of December. It wasn’t until I got home that I started to feel more than a little guilty. Did I really just spend that much on a pen? I contemplated taking it back, especially in light of my lower than average percentage of follow through with writing promises.

Then I wrote with it.

The way the ink flowed on the paper was almost magical. It made me want to start a new project. I suddenly wanted my writing life back.

The past year has taken its toll on my writing life. Mostly I dabble. And though I write in my journal regularly, I haven’t been able to finish anything other than my editor letters for Minerva Rising. It would be easy to blame the change in my writing life on grieving or life in general, but the reality is I haven’t said yes to writing. I have allowed other things to take over. While I don’t have much control over the grieving process, there are some things that don’t require as much attention and time as I give them. I spend a lot of time doing things that don’t add value to my life. And many of those things actually deplete my energy.

Facebook comes to mind.

Though I don’t post very often, I’m on everyday. I have watched more mindless videos and read more pointless articles than I care to admit. Rarely do I come away from the activity feeling better about myself or having moved any closer to my goals. And yet I say yes to spending my time that way everyday. That’s time I could spend writing. Why don’t I?

Writing is a lot like exercise. Not only is it good for me, I always feel better after I do it. But much like exercise, I procrastinate and create 99 excuses. I have good intentions, but allow my momentary comfort to circumvent my long term goals. It’s only after my body starts to ache or I can’t button my jeans that exercise becomes critical. My discomfort moves me to action.

The same holds true for writing. The decision not to say yes to my writing time creates negative energy. I find myself feeling guilty about all the things I should be doing, especially when someone ask about my book. The stress of unfinished projects blocks new ideas. thoughts, anxieties and doubts swirl around my head with no place to go. And when my head feels as if it’s going to explode I know I need to start writing again. I need it as much as I need exercise. It feeds my soul. Clears my head. It opens my eyes and heart to the world around me. And most importantly I spend less time obsessing over minutia –– which is another thing I spend way too much time doing.

All of this came to me while I was journaling with my new pen. I even had an idea for a writing challenge. What if I blogged every day for the month of December? It would definitely get me back on track with my writing life. It would stretch me and take me out of my comfort zone. Then I immediately came up with a ton of reasons (excuses) why now wasn’t the right time to start a writing challenge. It’s December. What about the preparation for the holiday party I’m hosting? And Christmas shopping for my family?

When would I possibly have time to write?

But what better time to challenge yourself than when you know that you are going to be busy. And lets face it, the rush of the holidays has never stopped me from watching television or scrolling through Facebook. Why should it stop me from writing?

So there it is. I’m announcing it to the world. I am writing a new blog every day for the month of December. Here are the ground rules.

  1. Each blog will be at least five hundred words
  2. It will be posted everyday by 8:00 p.m.
  3. There will be no interaction on any social media –– Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc until it’s done

I’ll admit I’m nervous. But the more you write, the better you write. So it begins. . .

If you would like to join me in the challenge to write more this December, email me here. We can encourage one another as we take our writing to another level.

Books · The Writing Life

Reading is Fundmental

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Sometimes the hardest thing about writing is getting started. First, you fight the internal battle to sit your bum in the chair. Once you actually sit, you have to figure out what to write. Then there’s the issue of having an idea in your head only to forget it the moment you open a document on the computer. Or if your remember what you wanted to write, you can’t think of how to say it. The words don’t seem to make sense. 

This situation reminds of the advice I read in Writing Down the Bones. Natalie Goldberg suggested that writers keep a page in their notebook with ideas of potential topics. But there are times when even coming up with a list can be a struggle.  A few days ago, I tried to develop a list but ended up writing things like Oreo cookies, ocean waves or asking questions like why am I stuck.  And while that type of question could be inspirational, it’s usually the result of a deeper existential crisis, which by the way never inspires me to write. So I’m left either whining about my life or writing about how I don’t know what to write about. Not exactly the type of thing that awakens one’s muse.

Whenever I’m stuck in a rut, it’s usually because I’m spending too much time in my head. I allow myself to frequent those dark places that rehash old hurts and play out terrifying what-ifs. Sometimes those thoughts are so overwhelming that I find myself saddened to the point of tears.  And as a result, not only don’t I write, I don’t read either. It’s as if I check out of the writer’s life. 

To be honest, I have struggled with this issue on and off for the last year or so.  But recently I bought Call me, Zelda by Erika Robuck from a local
independent bookstore. I had gone to hear another writer speak, but I found myself more intrigued by the cover of Robuck’s book. It reminded me of The Great Gatsby.  Turns out Zelda Fitzgerald was one of the characters in the novel. The story is about the friendship that forms between Zelda and her psychiatric nurse, Anna Howard. Like many fictionalized stories of famous writers, the story dealt with elements of the writing life. In fact, early in the novel Anna encourages Zelda to write in order to aid in her healing. I was excited by the whole premise, because it reminded me of the novel I’m revising about a woman who develops a mentoring relationship with Langston Hughes. I knew it would inspire my writing in some way. But what I hadn’t expected was how strongly my muse responded to Zelda’s reasons for not sharing her work with F. Scott Fitzgerald, her husband. I stopped reading, pulled out my journal and wrote continuously for the next forty-five minutes.

I hadn’t realized how much reading fed my spirit. It is a conduit to creativity and awakens my muse.  Natalie Goldberg writes:

 . . your writing comes out of a relationship with your life and its texture.

Reading is an essential part of the writing life. It gives us fresh eyes with which to view our world. It ask questions and challenges us to think in new ways. It engages our senses and makes the writer within come alive. When we find ourselves struggling to put words on the page, it may be an indication that we aren’t reading enough or the right type of things to foster a sense of curiosity, indignation or wonder.

Have you read today?

The Writing Life

The Next Big Thing: Cora’s Kitchen

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Isla McKetta, author of the forthcoming Murmurs of the River, tagged me to interview myself in The Next Big Thing blog chain. Isla is a novelist and book reviewer with the most infectious smile. She is on the board of Hugo House in Seattle, Washington. Not only is Isla a beloved friend, but she has consistently encouraged me to be true to my art. Be sure to check out her blog at the A Geography of Reading.

Now on to the ten questions about my new project:

What is your working title of your book (or story)?

Cora’s Kitchen

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea came from several conversations with a friend about our mothers. We used to tease about writing a book where the two of them became friends. The question of what that friendship would be like, given their differences in race, education and social class, became an obsession for me. And it only seemed natural to push the idea to the 1920’s since I’ve always been fascinated with that time period.

What genre does your book fall under?

Literary Fiction

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I’d love to see Viola Davis as Cora. Michael Early would be the perfect Langston Hughes. And Anne Hathaway would play the part of Eleanor.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

An African-American woman, who longs to be a writer, learns to embrace her dream through an unlikely friendship with Langston Hughes and a wealthy white woman.  

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Though I am seriously considering self-publishing, I would love to have an agent represent the book.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took me about a year and a half to write the first draft and about six weeks for a second full revision. It has spent the last year and a half marinating in a box. Now I’m back for another revision.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’d compare Cora’s Kitchen to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows because it is also a collection of letters and journal entries. But Cora’s Kitchen could also be compared to The Help because it is tells the story of racism and sexism during a time when African American women didn’t have a voice.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

African American history is so marred in the violence of slavery, Jim Crow laws and the fight for civil rights that it’s difficult to remember that there was more to life than the struggle. African American people had dreams. They feel in love. They planned for the future. I wanted to write about a period in history where African Americans were alive with hope and creativity.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Cora’s Kitchen is epistolary novel that uses poetry and literature to ask the question: how does a woman claim herself in midst of her responsibilities and roles? Also, there are lots of writing tips within the book that were used by Langston Hughes himself.

NEXT UP ON THE NEXT BIG THING

Thanks for reading about Cora’s Kitchen. Check out the following writers next week to learn more about their upcoming projects.

Icess Fernandez Rojas is a fiction writer, blogger and journalist. She has a MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and lives in Shreveport, Louisiana. Icess is a social media goddess and the person to go to if you want something done. Her story, “Beginnings,” appeared in the inaugural issue of Minerva Rising.

Kim Green‘s debut novel, Hallucination, beautifully chronicles one woman’s journey after being diagnosed with Lupus (an autoimmune disorder). For the last four years, she is the leader of the UUCA Women Writers Group and was the chair person for their 2011 conference, Getting in Touch with the Source.  I’m so grateful to Kim for pulling me into the fold of her writing group and helping me to find a writing community in Atlanta.

Sandra Marchetti is a poet who recently won The Midwest Writing Center Mississippi Valley Chapbook Contest. She lives in the Chicago area and teaches writing at Elmhurst College. Sandra recently become the Poetry Editor at Minerva Rising and hit the ground running. I feel very lucky to have her as a part of our team.

 

The Writing Life

Getting Back to It

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I’ve been out of the loop of writing this blog. I don’t actually have any particular excuse for stopping. It’s sort of like exercising. One day of not working out becomes two days and the next thing you know you haven’t been to the gym in four months. And though I didn’t gain any weight, my writing became slightly sluggish. So I avoided blogging.

But there was this constant buzzing in my head asking me when I planned to get back to the blog. It’s the same annoying voice that bugs me about cleaning out my closet and organizing my cabinets. Try as I might to ignore her, she is persistent.

Then God stepped in and administered the divine two by four to get my attention.

The owner of a local antique shop asked me to teach a blogging class at her store.

I panicked. How could I teach a blogging class when I no longer blogged?

“Wait,” I thought, “I blog once a month on the Minerva Rising Blog.”

Of course, God doesn’t work that way. When He wants you to do something, He means for you to listen.

I get to the class and my only student is the friend who got me to start blogging in the first place. It seemed odd that she would be taking a class on blogging since she had a wonderful blog. Well, it turns out she hadn’t blogged in several months and was looking for guidance on how to get back on track with her blog.

Funny, huh?

So there I was face to face with my own predicament. Suddenly, I was forced to figure out how to get back on track myself.

None of this was by chance. God has really been dealing with me lately about finishing what I start and the blog is only the tip of the iceberg. He has also been nudging me about the novel that’s shoved in a box in the corner of my office. He’s been saying it’s time to revise it and get it out into the world.

To be frank, I’m scared. What if I don’t have what it takes to revise it yet another time? What if it isn’t any good? But I’m reminded of what the senior pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Dave Ferguson, once said: “Work like it depends on you, but pray like it depends on God.”

So, I’m diving back into blogging as the Confident Writer with a new twist. I will now be blogging about the process of revising a novel. My weekly post will be about my individual progress on the novel as well as the process of revision. Occasionally, I might throw in a post on what I’m reading or what motivates me.

I hope you will come along for the ride as I get back to living the writing life.

 

 

 

 

 

The Writing Life

It Takes a Group to Raise a Writer

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Last night I attended my monthly writing group, but I didn’t enjoy it. To be honest, my head wasn’t in the game. I’m still recuperating from my trip to the west coast last weekend. All I really wanted to do was curl up in a chair with a book and a glass of wine. But I forged ahead because I had committed to being the group’s facilitator. So like it or not that meant I had to go.

Once we started talking about the writing, it was obvious the other writers were not interested in critiquing their pieces. They wanted affirmation that the writing worked as is. And though I continued to try to interject suggestions and comments about the work, there was palpable resistance to feedback.

Now maybe my issue is that my feelings were hurt because the other writers didn’t seem interested in my
advice. As obnoxious as it may sound, I pride myself on my experience as a writing teacher. I wanted to be able to share my understanding of their pieces and to ask the questions that came to my mind. But in retrospect, I’m convinced the real problem was the lack of a clear group objective.

If the writer simply wants to be heard and the group critiques the work, the writer is going to walk away with hurt feelings. If the writer has specific questions about what works and what doesn’t work, he or she has to be open to listening. I know it’s hard to hear what feels like criticism of our work. But knowing who we are writing for puts the feedback we receive into perspective. If we are writing for our own edification, it doesn’t matter what others think. If we are writing to communicate, we need to know where the holes are. That doesn’t mean other people get to write our stories for us. It means that we have to learn to look at our work more objectively. Call me a stickler, but I think it’s a waste of time when the writer defends what isn’t there.

I totally understand the urge we have to defend our work. It is like protecting our children. And on more than one occasion, I have been poised for battle.

Recently, I submitted the first twenty pages of my novel to my local writers club to be critiqued by a New York Times Best Selling Author. I mention her credentials because she referenced them several times in our 15-minute meeting and even more in the nine-page letter she wrote. The self-promotion annoyed me almost as much as the fact that she tore my twenty pages apart with her suggestions and chicken scratch. I wanted to defend my writing to her. I wanted to explain why she was wrong. After all, I had rewritten those pages a half-dozen times. I pooh-poohed her comments, telling myself that she didn’t understand what I was writing. I chalked the whole thing up as a waste of time and money. But after I had some time to cool off, I realized there must have been a part of me that needed an objective look at the work. Why else had I submitted to be critique in the first place? I read through her comments again. Some had value. Others did not. I got over my hurt feelings and started yet another rewrite.

Too often we view feedback as a correction, reminiscent of some elementary school teacher scolding us for making a mistake. My first grade teacher, Sister Ernesta, is one of the voices in my head that admonishes me for my writing. Not to mention the fact that I personally blame her for my horrible handwriting. Who hits a six-year-old on the hand with a pointer for tracing over her letters? But I digressed.

The point is feedback isn’t a correction. It’s an opportunity for a writer to understand how the reader experiences your words. It’s raw data on what works and what doesn’t work. And the beauty of a group of writers working together is that no one person has it all figured out. So you aren’t bound by anyone’s suggestion. There’s a synergy in the process that creates fertile ground for new ideas and insights.

Maybe I didn’t enjoy last night, because I more focused on being a facilitator than a writer. Not bringing my own work to the group made it easy for me to forget that the process of sharing establishes the trust and safety necessary to have honest conversation. Being elevated by the collective energy of our peers makes us better writers. It takes a group to raise a writer.

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The Writing Life

This is not Bobby’s World

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When my boys were little, they watched this cartoon called Bobby’s World . The show was about a four year old little boy named Bobby Generic, who had an overactive imagination. I’m pretty sure I liked the show more then either of my sons did. I loved how the mother used to say, “Don’t cha know.” But my absolute favorite memory is Bobby singing this song about why he loved his birthday. “It’s all about me, me, me,” he sang.

I think about that song a lot when I’m writing, especially when every sentence seems to start with “I”. It’s as if all I can see is me, me, me. And while it may be fun to engage in deep navel gazing, it makes for dull reading.

Virginia Wolfe wrote about this phenomenon in A Room of One’s Own.

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But after reading a chapter or two a shadow seemed to lie across the page. It was a straight dark bar, shadow shaped something like the letter “I.” One began dodging this way and that to catch a glimpse of landscape behind it . . .. But—here I turned a page or two, looking for something or other—the worst of it is that in the shadow of the letter “I” all is a shapeless as mist.

Though this particular passage refers to Wolfe’s opinion of men and their over inflated sense of self, it is also a cautionary warning to all writers to remember the landscape behind them, and to make room in their writing for the reader. It’s sort of like selling your house. If the potential buyer sees too much of your family in the house, they can’t picture themselves living there.

When the page is covered with “I”, the writer is like a four year-old screaming, look at me, look at me. And consequently, the reader either loses interest or struggles to make sense of it all.

Wolfe illuminates the problem with self conscious writing in the phrase “ . . . the worst of it is that in the shadow of the letter “I” all is shapeless as mist.” Excessive use of “I” cast a haze over writing. It’s narcissistic and one-dimensional.

We write out of a desire for self expression, but if our writing becomes like Narcissus looking at his reflections in the pool of water, it loses it’s potential to effect the reader. The sense of self blocks the reader from his or her own insight and understanding of the work.

Images · The Writing Life

Back to School Blues

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School is back in, which usually means it’s time to get back into a productive routine. But for the first time in eighteen years, I don’t have to take anyone to school. My daughter is a junior in high school and drives herself. So consequently, the beginning of the school year doesn’t mean I have to get organized. I don’t even have to get out of bed at any particular time. In fact, the only thing that woke me up this morning was my daughter yelling good-bye on her way out the door. And though I used to fantasize about how much I’d get done when my schedule was no longer defined by the school day, this week has been a total flop. I’ve accomplished less this week than any other week this summer. The first two days I crawled right back into bed after my daughter left and slept another two hours.

I thought maybe I had a bug or something. But today I decided it could be depression.

 

I’ve been a mother for twenty-three and a half years. Caring for my children has always structured my day, even when I worked full-time. I’d get up, take a shower, get dressed and then wake up the kids.  Once they were dressed, I’d give them breakfast. We’d be out the door before 7:30 so I could be at work by 8. I tried to make their mornings as relaxed as I could. I didn’t want my kids to have memories of me yelling “hurry up” all morning like I had of my own mother. But as they leisurely ate their cereal, I suppressed a tremendous sense of guilt. I worried that I wasn’t giving them enough time and that I was going to miss some big milestone while they were at day care. Things got easier once they started elementary school. My husband had a new job that made it possible for me to work part-time. I arrange my schedule so that I worked while the kids were in school. It was the best of both worlds. I didn’t have a lot time of writing back then. I believed I would be able to write more once I wasn’t bound by my kid’s school schedule. In many ways, that was true. But as recently as last year, I seemed to only hit my stride about the time I needed to leave to pick up my daughter from school. I looked forward to this school year so she could drive herself.

This past Monday morning, a group of parents, including dads dressed for work, waited with cameras for the school bus to pick up their children. I wanted to join them and celebrate the first day of school. But instead I took a few pictures of my daughter before she climbed in her car. As I watched her turn at the corner, the last thing I wanted to do was write.

I decided to give myself the rest of this week to settle into this part of motherhood. After all, she is my baby. But starting next Monday I’m back on track with a fresh set of writing goals for the 2012-2013 school year.

 

 

Quotes · The Writing Life

My Little Secret

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I’ve been keeping a secret from the followers of this blog. I’m not quite sure why I haven’t written about it before. Nonetheless, here it is.

I started a literary magazine designed to celebrate the creativity and wisdom in every woman. It’s called Minerva Rising. The idea came to me in January while I was planning my goals for the year. One of my goals was to get my short stories into a literary goal. I went through the Literary Journal and Magazine database on Poets and Writers, but most of the journals seemed too experimental or academic for my stories. None of them focused on the everyday life of women. I began to imagine a literary journal that would publish the types of stories women share with one another – kind of like a girl’s night out in print.

Girl’s night out is so important because it’s a time when women get together to share the stories of their lives. Sure there’s lots of wine and martinis, but there is also a strong sense of camaraderie. Women are empowered through the exchange of ideas and the sharing of experiences. There’s a communal understanding of the various roles we play and the sacrifices we make. We find validation and acceptance.

Toni Morrison says:

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

So I decided to start the journal I wanted to read.

Now this isn’t the first time I’ve thought of starting a magazine. Nine years ago, I bought the book Starting & Running a Successful Newsletter or Magazine by Cheryl Woodard.

But I actually never read it. I simply came up with a theme for the first issue and wrote the letter from the editor. I asked a friend to join the effort, but it never got much further than my letter and an unfinished article of friendship.

But this time I spent a fair amount of time thinking about the magazine’s focus. I knew if the foundation was strong enough, it would develop the momentum and strength to stand on it’s own. I combined my life long mission of empowering women with my love of literature and art. And as you know from “Support Your Local Independent Bookstore”, I’m a sucker for anything in print, so I knew the journal would have to be in print.

I shared the idea with three women whose talents and knowledge seemed to be just what a project like this needed. Each one of them loved the idea and wanted to be a part of it. Together we began to build Minerva Rising.

It’s amazing what it has grown into in just six short months. We have not only come up with our name, logo and mission, but we’ve also accepted sixteen pieces of literature and poetry from our first round of submissions. Our first issue will be in print the first week in September.

I share all of this, in part, to indirectly explain my somewhat sporadic posts the last few months. Most of my time has been spent on getting Minerva Rising up and running. As a way to get people excited about the project, we started a literary blog called The Keeping Room. It’s a casual forum where we share stories related to the current them of the journal. My Associate Editor, Dulcie Witman and I share writing responsibility for the blog. There’s a new post every Monday. Check it out. This week I write about painting and perfectionism.

Now that the secret is out, take a look at our website. Let me know what you think.

I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop going forward.

Images · The Writing Life

Five Ways to Refresh Your Writing

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Nothing kills creativity like being stuck in a writing rut. Circling around the same old tired topics make writing flat and uninspiring. And if you’re like me, you find yourself avoiding your writing time. The kitchen has to be cleaned. The dogs fed. Facebook checked. But there are five ways you can breath new life into your writing.

1.  Take an excursion to some new in your community.

Visiting somewhere new stimulates our senses. I recently went to an art fair in an
Atlanta neighborhood. The architecture of the homes was so different than the suburb where I live.

People hung art on their siding. The houses were painted wild and interesting colors. It made me think about the differences between someone who would live those homes and someone in the suburbs. I started to do little character sketches in my mind. I regretted not having my camera to capture what I saw.

2.  Look at old photos

Photographs are excellent writing prompts. But old photos elicit memories and images of time gone by. I came across on an old photograph of my grandparents’ house. It was taken before I was born. The neighborhood looked different, but the house was exactly the same. As I studied the picture, I was reminded of the generations that had grown up in and around that house. I remembered the warm summer evenings sitting on the porch, rocking back and forth on the glider.

I also found a picture of me as the flower girl in my aunt’s wedding. My mind drifted back to the days before smart phones and cable television. It made me want to write about that little girl’s world.

3.  Visit an antique store

There are so many interesting items in antiques stores. There have tons of jewelry, coins, furniture, household tools, dishes and clothing to spark your imagination.  You could write about how a particular item wound up in the shop or use as a prop in your story. The Secret Lives of Dresses is a novel about a woman who discovers each dress in her grandmother’s vintage dress shop has a special story.

4.  Eavesdrop

I had mixed emotions about adding this to the list. But to be honest, I have gotten some the best lines from things that I’ve overheard at the grocery store. Of course, restaurants are wonderful because of the interaction between people as they eat. Sometimes I pay more attention to what’s going on at other tables than my own. Some might call that nosy, but I call it research.  In fact, I wrote an entire short story from a conversation I heard while waiting at a restaurant bar for my girlfriends. I was so inspired that I woke up the next morning writing. It was exciting to have a fresh idea to work with.

5.  Change your perspective

We often write from our own perspective. I always look at the story or the issue through the eyes of a woman. However, sometimes I switch perspectives to get a better view of the story. It helps me to see the situation differently. I end up noticing things I wouldn’t have otherwise. I begin to understand what motivates people to do and think like they do. I wrote a story years ago about a woman who left her husband. One of the writing groups I shared it with said she was a complete bitch. I was so angry about their assessment. I ended up abandoning the story after several rejections. Recently, I rewrote the story from her husband’s perspective. Not only did it help me to get a more complete picture of the story, it also helped me to see why the other group thought she was a bitch.

There are a ton of other things you can do to refresh your writing, but I’m going to stop here.

How do you liven things up in your writing?

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