Workin’ for the Weekend

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had one heck of a week since the last time we met here at the Scribes blog.

I’ve been super busy getting ready for this weekend, as in day after tomorrow. Our RWA chapter (CTRWA) is hosting a writer’s conference on Saturday. We’ve got 135 attendees, 15 workshops, and 15 editors and agents ready to take pitches. This year I’m involved in the planning and execution phase of the conference, and let me tell you, unless you’ve seen it firsthand, you would not bee-leeve the amount of work that goes into preparation for a conference of this size and scope. Others have worked far, far harder than I (you know who you are), so I’m not looking for sympathy here! The next time you attend a conference — even if it turns out to be not everything you’d hoped for — take the time to thank the organizers, who are probably volunteers. You could also buy them a drink, just sayin’.

Dream it and Achieve it, Baby!

In the midst of the preconference frenzy, I’ve been putting final touches on my manuscript and practicing my pitch for the agents and editors I’ve targeted as likely to want my story. Consequently, I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. Very sweet. Here’s one of my family’s favorite cookie recipes. Hope you enjoy it! And if you decide to make it, could you drop a few off at my house? I just don’t have time to make my own right now!

ORANGE DREAM COOKIES

• 2-1/4 c. flour
• 3/4 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 c. butter
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 T. finely grated orange peel (orange part only, not the bitter pith)
• 2 cups (or one package) white chocolate chips
• 1 cup orange flavored dried cranberries (such as Craisins) – optional, but I like the way they “tart up” these quite sweet cookies and intensify the orange flavor

Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a larger, separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and orange peel and mix well. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the white chocolate chips and cranberries.

Drop by rounded teaspoonsful onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silicone baking mat, and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, or until just set and very lightly browned. Don’t overbake these cookies, as the chips tend to get grainy and the cranberries get too dry.

Enjoy!  And if you’re pitching this weekend, Good Luck! I’d love to hear how you’ve prepared yourself.

Taking a time-out

PJ here. I hope you’re all enjoying this fabulous stretch of weather. It’s going to reach 80 degrees here in New England on this first day of Spring–the earliest in 116 years according to the Farmer’s Almanac. I’m so tempted to bag all of my responsibilities and hang out in the garden all day or take off for the beach. But alas, since I am neither slacker nor without responsibilites today, I’ll be here pecking away at the keyboard for most of it.

That’s not to say I won’t get outside and enjoy some of the day. I’ll take the dog for his walk and later this afternoon, I’ll be heading to my sister-in-law’s house for her Equinox celebration this evening. There will be a campfire, a bit of story-telling, some singing, and a feast of wonderful and healthy eats. I could pass up on this delightful event in lieu of staying the course with the boatload of work I have to do, but I recognize that taking care of my mental, physical, and spiritual health will make me a much happier and more productive worker in the long run. And since I’m the boss, I insist!

My sister-in-law’s quarterly gatherings are a time of celebration and renewal that I have grown to appreciate and enjoy. She does a traditional Native American ceremony that is a powerful reminder of our connection and responsibility to the earth. It’s also a time to remind ourselves to take a moment to stop and celebrate the beauty of nature and reconnect with ourselves and each other.

So make sure you take a time-out today and smell the new life in the air, reconnect with nature, and celebrate the dawning of Spring.

What will you do to celebrate today?

The Proof is in the Pudding

Welcome to Tuesday at the Scribes. I’d like to talk about pudding…well…really I’d like to talk about proofing. Proofreading, that is. But first, since I don’t want to be accused of false advertising, I’ve included my favorite recipe for Bread Pudding on our Scribe’s Savories and Sweets recipe page. There’s nothing low fat or cholesterol free about this yummy comfort inducing dessert, which doubles for breakfast in a pinch, (eggs+bread+milk=breakfast), but it was one of my dad’s specialties. My dad made the best peanut butter fudge on the planet. His bread pudding was a close second, although he would be the first to give credit to Betty Crocker. He always said that the secret to his success was in the details. I couldn’t agree more.

 This leads me to my real reason for being here today. When it comes to producing a quality product, whether it be for publication or contest entries, the importance of proofreading cannot be overstated. And the more eyes, the better.

Part of my indie-pub process after the book has been professionally edited, is ordering proof copies from CreateSpace a few weeks before I upload to Kindle Direct Publishing, B&N Pub-it, and Smashwords. I give one to my editor to read through again, and I hand off a couple of copies to beta readers willing to write reviews and give me feedback. I go through my copy with a fine-tooth comb, finding a remarkable amount of typos, overused words, weak verbs, punctuation problems and formatting issues. It’s not that I haven’t been through the manuscript a hundred times already, but my eyes miss things on the computer that they pick up on the printed page.

It takes me a week to read through and mark up my copy. I try to read it like an editor, being picky about word choices, characterization, and adding depth or cutting anything non-essential. I’m basically looking for anything I need to change at the last minute to make the book really shine. From the missing quotation mark at the end of a sentence to ‘does the last line of the book tie it all together?’ I then collect feedback from my editor and my readers, make all the necessary changes to both the inside content and the cover of the book, and then upload again to CreateSpace. I order a second round of proof copies, go through it all again on my own, as well as having it proof read one more time, and  then do a final upload.

At this point I order about fifty hardcopies to start. I’m relatively certain I can sell, gift, or use that many copies for reviews and giveaways, but it’s not so many that I’m “stuck” with them if there are any remaining errors that got by me and my team. One of the nice things about self-publishing is that if I still find errors, I can go back and fix them before I print any more hardcopies. I can also make corrections at any time on my digital copies, which takes a lot of the stress out of trying to get it exactly perfect. Since I’m all for saving myself time and headaches, however, I try to make it as best I can on the first print run.

 You’d think after three projects, I’d have it down to a science, but no matter how many times I go through one of my books, I can always find something that needs fixing or changing. So before I do that final upload, I do hire a proofreader–someone who does this for a living. I pay this woman about $100, and it is money well spent. Even after all the eyes that have been on the book, she still finds a significant amount of tiny details that need fixing. She catches misplaced commas, compound words that I missed, and any misspellings that don’t show up on spell check that I and my editor may have missed.

Each time I’ve gone through this process, I’ve been down to the wire on getting those hardcopies back in time for my release date. This time is no different. I’ll have my second proof copy of SAVAGE CINDERELLA this Thursday, do a final read-through and have my “proofer” go through it, and do my upload on Sunday to get my final copies for the 15^th. I pay some whopping shipping fees for that kind of turn-around time, but it’s a necessary evil to get it right and get it quick. No monkeying around. I’ll admit that I stress myself out a bit by cutting it so close and being so picky, but I can’t seem to do it any other way. I bet my dad would approve of my method. And to ease the stress, I can always bake some bread pudding while I wait.

How do you ensure that your work is “perfect” before you submit? Do you have a proof reader, critique partner, or beta readers? Any ideas on how I can streamline my process?

E-Books Beyond Amazon and B&N

Hello Scriblers!  Happy Saturday to you again!  J here.  Wow, this day comes around fast.  I’m going to change things up a bit – here’s today’s secret, right at the beginning: You can buy e-books for your Nook or Kindle (or other e-reader) in more places than just Barnes&Noble or Amazon.  You might already know about this, but whenever I’m out and about talking about e-books (often, very often) people I’m talking with have never heard of Smashwords.com.

In case you are one of those people, let me tell you about Smashwords.  Smashwords is an author driven publisher of e-books.  The authors set the prices and the authors get a higher percentage of the purchase price as a royalty.  Lot’s of authors set their prices at $0.00.  Yes, that’s FREE!  I love free stuff, don’t you?  And there are lots and lots of authors with books out there for less than $5.00.  Since traditional publishers are charging a teensy bit less for e-books than for print books (highway robbery if you ask me since there’s no paper, printing, shipping or storage costs) you can really feed your reading habit on a budget using a site like Smashwords. 

Of course, shopping at Smashwords is like shopping at Marshalls or TJ Maxx.  You can find designer stuff at wicked cheap prices if you take the time to look through all the…well, let’s call it less than designer quality stuff. 

For example, I recently “discovered” author Sharon Gerlach.  She has written a few books, the two I’ve read were women’s fiction/romance stories. These were “designer” quality – for sure.  They were very good, well written, well-edited, intriguing stories with compelling characters.  Office Politics is $1.49.  Very reasonable!  She could easily be charging more – perhaps you could ask her about that when I interview her in a few weeks.  I’ve read, well started, a book by a different “unknown’ author and it was terrible.  You win some, you lose some.  But if it’s free (or practically free!) who cares if some of them are less good than others.  Most of the books I’ve bought at Smashwords were great.

When you buy books at Smashwords, you do need to have your computer handy.  Once purchased, you download the file type you need (I need mobi for my Kindle) and save it somewhere.  Then you plug your e-reader into your computer with that handy-dandy cord they give you when you buy it and drag and drop the file to the device. 

It does take a couple of minutes more than ordering from Amazon through Whispernet, but since the books are so cheap, you can load up a bunch at once.  Also, if your Kindle 2 is nearly dead like mine (I can’t use Whispernet to download books anymore, I have to use a computer – I understand this is a somewhat common problem for the older Kindles) you can still use it if you buy from Smashwords.

There are also many new digital publishers popping up these days and a couple of our very own Scribes are publishing with some established ones.  Perhaps Casey and Katy can tell us a bit about buying books through those sites. The point is this: E-book buyers, you have options when it comes to choosing a place to purchase your books.  Shop around.

Today’s Question: What new authors or book stores have you discovered lately?

Just for fun: here’s a bit of eye candy to get you through the rest of the day.

 

he-he   

 

Long and Slow . . . That’s How I Cook My Chicken Soup

Greetings, all! Suze here.  I’ve been battling a cold for the last few days and I’m still under the weather.  I’m in the middle of a few projects too, so I’m not all in the mood to cook–or eat–complicated meals.  When I’m sick, or someone in the house is sick, my thoughts naturally turn to that old standby, chicken soup. It’s good for the soul, and it’s good for busy people.

Could our cheeks be any rosier?

Now, the Scribes run a judgment-free blog, and if you want to open a can of Campbell’sand crumble in some crackers, nobody here will think any less of you. But I’m going to let you in on a Secret (and you know how we love Secrets around here!). Making your own chicken stock, which you can morph into countless meals, is easy-peasy. No peas needed though. Peas are Suze’s most-hated vegetable.

Suze’s Easy-Peasy Chicken Stock

To get started, you’ll need a whole cooked chicken. I happen to have a rotisserie attachment for my gas grill, and unless it’s the dead of winter I rotis a whole chicken at least once a month. But you can also bake a whole chicken, or go the absolute easiest route and buy one at the store. Make and eat your dinner of choice with the chicken.

After dinner, pick all the extra meat off the chicken carcass and store the meat in the fridge. Place the carcass, bones, skin, (yes, the skin. It adds lots of flavor to the stock, and the fat will be removed, I promise), and the tips of the wings into your slow cooker. If it doesn’t fit, you can break up the carcass so it does. Add the following:

-2 carrots, peeled or washed well and chopped into a few big pieces

-2 stalks celery, chopped into a few big pieces (this is a great time to use up the leaves!)

-1 or 2 yellow onions (cut off the root end and discard) Chop the rest of the onion into large pieces, papery skin and all. The skin adds some color to the soup)

-2 bay leaves

-1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed (no need to chop) (optional)

-1 parsnip, peeled or washed well and chopped into a few big pieces (optional)

-a teaspoon of celery seeds (optional)

-a few grinds (or a pinch) of white or black pepper

Now add 2 to 3 quarts of water. The measurement doesn’t have to be exact, and it depends on the size of your slow cooker. I add enough water to submerge the carcass about 2/3 of the way. Put the lid on the slow cooker and turn it on high for an hour or so. The contents look like a disgusting mess. Don’t worry. Before you go to bed, turn the slow cooker to low.

In the morning, turn off the slow cooker. Let the mixture cool slightly, then strain the liquid into a large container. I like to strain twice, once through a colander with small/medium holes, and then again through a fine mesh strainer. Discard the solids, put a lid or plastic wrap on the container in which you’ve saved your stock, and refrigerate all day.

Once it’s good and cold, the fat will rise to the top. Just scoop it out and throw it away. What’s left is your chicken stock (it may be thick like Jell-O – don’t worry about that. It’s normal). There may be some fine solids at the bottom. I just ladle off the stock gently and throw the stuff at the bottom away. But it won’t hurt you even if you eat some. Now you can save out about a quart and freeze the rest in containers.

See? That wasn’t hard at all, was it? A little bit messy maybe, but not at all difficult.

Suze’s Chicken Corn Chowder

Now, when you want chicken soup, here’s what you do. Chop up some fresh celery and carrots (a couple of each) and half a small onion if you like, add them to a medium sized saucepan, and saute the veggies in a little butter or

A la Cuisine!

olive oil till they are soft but not brown. Pour in the chicken stock and simmer over medium heat for ten minutes or so.  If you want to intensify the chicken flavor, add a spoonful of chicken bouillon powder (I usually use Herb Ox instant bouillon and seasoning), or a cube if that’s what you have on hand. We’re not competing on Iron Chef here. It’s OK to use this stuff, and it really helps the soup.

Add one can of creamed corn (two if you like a thicker chowder) and the leftover chicken from the first meal. Add salt (you won’t need more than a pinch) and pepper to taste.  Heat gently, and serve in big mugs or bowls.

Enjoy!  I’ll be posting other recipes that use this stock as a base, so check back from time to time for those.  Heck, come back every day!  There’s always something interesting going on at the Scribes.

When you’re sick, or busy, or both, what’s your favorite go-to meal?  (And for your sake, I hope you’re just busy!)

Happy Hog Day!

Hello, my lovelies!  Suze here, wishing you a very Happy Groundhog’s Day!

Put me down! You're squishing me!

That Punxsutawney Phil. He’s so darned cute.  You’ve seen the ceremonies on TV, right?  Where a guy dressed in tails and top hat holds a big, fat, floppy groundhog named Phil up to the sky, then determines whether Phil can see his shadow?  If the critter does, there are six more weeks of winter.  If he doesn’t, spring is right around the corner (What does that mean?  How good a prognosticator is he, really, if he won’t commit to a date?).

If, like me, you can’t make it to Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania at 7:20 a.m. today (Drat!  Next year for sure!), you can watch the festivities by clicking here.

If, also like me, you’re a nerd about things like learning the origin of folk traditions, you can read more about them here. For the non-nerds, or the non-link-clickers, Groundhog’s Day as we know it is based on ancient European traditions, but it’s a bear or badger who emerges from its winter lair (the groundhog a/k/a woodchuck or whistlepig) is a North American animal).  It may go back even farther into Celtic times to the festival of Imbolc, a turning point of the Celtic calendar.  I get my information from Wikipedia, peeps, so pagan experts out there feel free to correct me!

Groundhog’s Day is one of my favorite holidays.  Yup, I consider it a holiday, even though I have to work.  Back in my single days, my housemates and I hosted a “Hog Day” party every February 2.  Trust me, it was the social event of the season.  Why did we choose Groundhog’s Day?  Because it was undercelebrated, I guess, unless you live in Pennsylvania.  We didn’t really need a reason.

So, what’s today’s Secret?  Simple.  You’ve been working really, really hard.  I know I have.  Stop at the bakery and bring home a cake for your family (or, gasp! just for yourself.  Then you can get the kind you like). If you’re so inclined, have a glass of champagne or something else fizzy.  If you’ve got party hats and noisemakers left over from New Year’s, now’s the time to bring them out.  Click here to get yourself in the mood. Dancing? Why not? Spring’s coming, you’re alive, and that’s reason enough to celebrate.

What about you?  Have you ever celebrated for no reason?  What’s your favorite silly holiday?  If you miss Groundhog’s Day, National Pig Day is coming up on March 1.  And do you call it a groundhog, woodchuck, whistlepig, or something else (roadkill, or destructive garden-munching rodent)?

Review of Every Body Matters by Gary Thomas, and Touchy Subjects

Hello, Scribe Fans, Katy Lee here. I am not only a writer, but I am also a speaker. When I stand in front of a crowd it is usually to share the message that everybody matters. And I typically do this through sharing my experience of my daughter’s adoption from six years ago. So, imagine my surprise when Zondervan Publishing sent me Gary Thomas’s latest book to review, titled Every Body Matters. I thought what a great title and dived right in.

However, once I started reading, I realized the author was on a mission. It would seem the goal Gary Thomas had in writing this book was to link a strong spirit with a strong body, and to prove you can’t have one without the other. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but I had no idea it was more painful too. Thomas does not sugarcoat anything in this book. He sets out to prove Socrates’s idea that all exercise and no study creates only half a man, just as all study and no exercise also creates half a man—a soft, overly sensitive man who isn’t tough enough to address real life.

I’ll be honest, I felt like I was being attacked. And I exercise on a regular basis. (But I do love my sweets!) This book is not for the faint-hearted, and in fact, after doing some research, I found many people raised their eyebrows at Thomas’s proposal to write this book. They knew it had the potential to make a lot of people mad. Especially people who stand up in front of crowds to teach and inspire.

And I was one of those mad people—until I reached a part in the book where he introduces a woman who gained a lot of weight during the pregnancies of her three children. The third one was adopted.

It hit home for me because I was the same way. You’re not supposed to gain weight with adopted children. That is supposed to be a perk for adopting, but it wasn’t for the woman in the book. And it wasn’t for me. So, I had to ask myself, why? Was the reason I gained so much weight after the adoption because of something I didn’t want to address in real life?

Maybe Gary Thomas was on to something after all.

The whole adoption process and the trials of bringing a confused five year old into an already established home upset my spirituality, and then my healthy lifestyle. I was under a lot of stress, experiencing many disappointments when things weren’t going the way I had envisioned. All of this led to my comforting fallback—food. And lots of it. I didn’t care about my physical diet, which led to not caring about my spiritual one as well.

Every Body Matters explores how positively addressing our physical condition can lead to a fortified soul better able to serve and love others. And looking back through the pages, I can see where Gary Thomas did this, even if it was a hard pill to swallow. We can’t strengthen our souls without strengthening our bodies. I get it, but it was a risky thing for him to write. Then again, I guess it’s called a risk for a reason.

As a writer, I wonder if I could take such a risk. Could I be so bold in my writing if there was a chance I would lose my reader’s loyalty?

The Unlocked Secret: I know my writing will not please everyone. It is impossible to do so. But, I suppose, if it is a matter of feeling strongly about something, and I have the facts to back it up, I would have to follow my heart and write it. But, I would be sure to write it with a high level of respect. No one likes to be talked down to or berated.

Question: How would you approach a touchy topic in your writing? Do you worry you might offend someone? Or do you follow your heart?

Single Girl Stew…

DISCLAIMER: I can in fact cook but only because my mother broke all sorts of child labor laws and forced me to do so when I lived under her roof.

Because it’s the season of giving I am gifting you with five days worth of easy, recipes?,um, meals for the single diner. Enjoy!

Nothing says lovin' like the something from, the oven.

Day 1

 Ineedtofindamenu 

Step one: Open refrigerator door.

Step two: Seeing nothing edible jump out at you, move bottles of water and a nearly empty carton of milk out of the way.

Step three: See container of mysterious substance in the back and wonder what could be inside.

Step four: Think back to the last time you had actual food and then open the container.

Step five: Upon seeing that substance is covered with green fur, smells like a sewer and is possibly alive,gag, scream, toss in garbage. Double bag said garbage. Spray closed bag with bleach and inside of refrigerator for good measure.

Step six: Order take out.

Day 2 Crunchy Surprise Oh My

Step one: Walk into kitchen.

Step two: Remember what happened the day before and eat an entire bag of barbecue potato chips.

Step three: Feel guilty and run instead of walk upstairs to your bedroom in a feeble attempt to burn off calories.  

Day 3

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

Step 1: Crave chicken

Step 2: Open refrigerator in hopes to find a fully roasted one with all the fixings waiting for you.

Step 3: Become really disappointed.

Step 4: See that you still have milk and it’s only one day past its expiration.

Step 5: Pour cereal into whatever clean bowl you can find, then pour milk on top.

Step 6: Realize that there is barely enough milk to moisten the cereal.

Step 7: Grumble about eating barely damp cereal and complain about the lack of food in your house.

Day 4 

 Four Food Groups Feast

Step one: Open freezer.

Step  two: Find chicken , broccoli and cheese Hot Pocket! (SCORE!!!)

Step three: Eat before it cools off and burn the bejesus out of your tongue.

Day 5

Nothing But Condiments

Step one: Open refrigerator

Step two: See only ketchup, mustard, and salad dressing.

Step three: Sigh pathetically

Step four: Promise yourself you are going to go grocery shopping.( All the while knowing you probably won’t.)

Step five: Text BFF to complain about the state of your refrigerator.

Step six: Receive text from BFF saying the same thing.

Step seven: Agree to meet BFF at favorite restaurant and proceed to spend next week’s grocery money on adult beverages.

NOTE: If you don’t have a Hot Pocket, peanut butter right out of the jar is an acceptable substitution. Old, dusty cans of soup or a sleeve or nearly stale crackers will work too.

I hope you are enjoying the Scribes’ sweet and savories and do feel free to try out these recipes anytime in the next few weeks.

Your turn! Enjoy cooking for one? Think it stinks? Hate to grocery shop? Hate to cook? What’s your favorite food to take out? Any and all comments are welcome!

Wyatt’s Whoopie Pies

Happy Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here. I hope you are all enjoying holiday treats week!

One quick announcement – the winners of Embrace the Highland Warrior are: Gerri Brousseau and Anne Francis. Congratulations ladies!

Mmmm...delicious.

In case, you haven’t noticed, I have a thing for chocolate.

One of my favorite indulgences is Whoopie Pies.

For those unfamiliar with Whoopie Pies, they are a Northeastern treat whose origin is hotly contested. Maine claims to be the home of the Whoopie Pie while Lancaster, Pennsylvania begs to differ.

I’m not getting in the middle of that debate! 

So what is a Whoopie Pie?  Some call it a cake, others a cookie, but one thing it’s not is an actual pie. There is no tin. No flaky crust. Usually they are chocolate, but I’ve seen gingerbread, pumpkin, and red velvet varieties.

I like to think of Whoopie Pies as an inside out cupcake (because the frosting is on the inside!) My favorite recipe uses boxed cake mix (hey, I like it easy) and homemade filling. You can find a link for the recipe at the end of the post.

The first time I made Whoopie Pies, two Christmases ago, I made them for a holiday party at a friend’s house. Within the first hour, my intrepid, chocolate loving friends were already sneaking them off the plastic-wrapped plate. By the time desert rolled around, a noticeable dent had been made.

These are yummy too!

Of course, I knew who the culprits were. My friends have no shame. Chocolate was involved so the little Whoopies were fair game. (Rhyme unintended). Friends are funny. Mine claim that there are no calories in food eaten at parties. Just like there are no calories in food eaten standing up.

Uh. Huh. Don’t we all wish?

I won’t lie, these treats take a little more work than cupcakes. First, you have to make the chocolate “pie” by dropping teaspoons of batter onto a cookie sheet. Once they cool off, they need to be assembled like Oreo cookies. And, of course, you have to resist the urge to eat them under the thinly veiled disguise of “quality control”.

But they are worth the effort. And I love to see the smiles on my friend’s faces. If you’d like to try making  these delightful chocolate treats, click here!

What treats do you like to make? What brings smiles to your friends and family?

Let’s Get Physical

Now don’t get out of your seat, it’s just me, Katy Lee, and the kind of exercise I’m talking about lets you sit right where you are. You see, this exercise is one for your mind, particularly the part where your writing comes from.

Since the freak snow storm and week-long power outage, and now with the stressful holiday season upon us, my writing has come to a screeching halt. Lately, I find when I sit to write I end up making out my shopping lists instead. Anyone else going through this? Perhaps it is just the season and after I lose my yearly Thanksgiving weight gain all will be back to normal, but I’m not waiting to find out. Instead, I’m getting physical.

To do this, I needed some instruction. So, I signed up for an online creative writing exercise class. There’s a bunch to choose from, and having never taken one, I opted for a class on food, hence the weight gain. Anyway, I needed something to jump start my brain as aerobics jump starts my day, and after completing the first exercise, I knew it was just what the doctor ordered.

The class began with a simple first person narrative describing a food experience. Nothing to break a sweat over and totally unrelated to my WIP. (Work in Progress) And I got to eat. This was the best exercise ever!

It was a fun and low stress practice piece with nothing riding on it and no pressure to get it “right.” But something it did do is remind me of why I write. And that is because I am happiest when I am doing it. My kids tell me they can always tell when I am writing at my laptop. They can tell because I am smiling. And while writing this piece I could feel my smile getting stronger. Of course, it could have been the chocolate.

The next assignment called for using four descriptions from the first exercise in a scene with my main characters from my WIP. It was now my characters turn to partake in the food I had just eaten, and it was exactly what I needed to refresh my mind of who my characters were and their motivations. Would they like the food? Would it end in a food fight? Or would their meal bring them closer together?

I won’t go into all the assignments but with each one I was effectively brought back to the task of finishing the book. A writing exercise’s main purpose is to trigger your imagination and help you come up with great ideas for your stories, and they can also refocus your mind when it decides to block up. But wait, there’s more. A bonus just for you! Performing these exercises can also perfect your writing skills.

The Unlocked Secret: Don’t ever look at a writing exercise as a waste of time. They will help you with your metaphors, spelling, character profiles, plotting, and much, much more. Using writing exercises to help you refocus can only make you a stronger writer. And if you’re anything like me, your smile will prove that you’ve been working out.

Question: What kind of prompts or exercises have helped cure your writer’s block?