“An Open Oven Bakes No Bread” – choosing which great idea to pursue.
by Christine Hennebury You are free but you have to choose. An open oven bakes no bread. […]
Category: Creativity
Writerly Warm-Ups – 5 fun ways to prepare to write your story
by Christine Hennebury Are you a SERIOUS writer? Are you maybe even a bit TOO serious? Writing well requires discipline. We all know that, and we all try to practice that. Well, more like, we are all hard on ourselves for not practicing that enough. I feel like our desire […]
Eleven Tips To Help You Be More Creative!
Who wants more ideas? Who needs a brilliant thought? Who could stand a new insight? A fresh perspective? A story idea? Who needs more creativity? I know I do! I just wish I could turn on good ideas like I turn on the tap. It’s too bad our muse only shows up at inconvenient times […]
16 Simple Things To Do To Be More Creative
Everybody wants to be more creative. Creativity is that moment when your ideas come together in just the right way, you may see something that no one else did. Creativity is problem solving, but it’s also strategy, connections and applications of concepts. When we’re on fire creatively, sometimes we don’t know where the original spark […]
Into the Heart: Writing Flash Fiction
by Christine Hennebury I really enjoy writing flash fiction because I can finish a draft quickly, polish it and do something with it right away. That’s not to say that flash fiction is easy, or that you can just toss out any old thing and call it flash fiction. This type of writing takes skill, […]
Celebrate Writing: An Inventory of the Good Stuff
by Christine Hennebury A lot of my columns here on 10MN have been about ways you can tweak or improve your writing experience to make it a little easier on yourself. Today, I would like you to take a moment to celebrate the things that are already good about your writing experiences. You might even […]
Use What You Know: Improve Your Writing With Transferable Skills
by Christine Hennebury Everyone is familiar with the idea of ‘write what you know’ but have you ever USED what you know as a framework to improve your writing? One of my favourite things to do is to use my skills and experience from area and try it out in another context. Lessons from […]
Flicking the Switch: Activate Writer Mode!
by Christine Hennebury Thanks to Katharine’s terrific example, we all know that 10 minutes a day is enough to keep your creative life chirping along. But do you find it a challenge to make good use of that short period of time? Do you find it hard to stop your regular life and activate your […]
Bullet Journaling for Writers
by Joanna Maciejewska At some stage of my life, I gave up on buying diaries, calendars, and planners. They all had “wrong” layouts, not enough space or too much of it, and in the end I never really used them much. Then, a year and a half ago, I discovered bullet journaling and fell in […]
Become A Seasonal Anthropologist: Holiday Writing Research
By Christine Hennebury Holidays are full of opportunities for us to play anthropologist and observe the culture we are participating in. We can choose to pay attention to the emotional, social, and sensory details of the season. That way we can bring vivid detail to our future writing. I’m not suggesting that you spend your […]
Getting to ‘What if…’ Sparking Ideas For Your Writing
by Christine Hennebury Writers often say that their stories started with a ‘What if…?’ Sometimes, though, it’s a challenge to get to that starting point. It’s okay if you have trouble coming up with ideas, even if it happens frequently. But, to save yourself some stress, I recommend having some idea-generating techniques ready to go […]
A Better Toolkit: The Value of Practice Writing
by Christine Hennebury Note: I know that a lot of people don’t like to do writing exercises, or in fact,do any writing that isn’t their WIP. If that’s the case for you and things are going well, carry on! However, if you are finding it hard to get your writing done, you might want to […]
Persistence, Perspective, and Fun: Working Through Writing Challenges
by Christine Hennebury Writing can be a lot of fun but it also involves a lot of hard work. If you find ways to add fun while sticking to your project, you’ll be a lot more satisfied with your progress. When we first imagine ourselves as writers, we envision fun things like best-selling books, […]
Prompts Are Everywhere: Using Writing Prompts to Spark Creativity
Have you ever needed that spark to write? Try writing prompts. A blank page glares back at you, taunting you to write something. Anything. A minute passes. Then another. Three cups of coffee later, you find yourself on social media watching cats riding Roombas and the page remains woefully blank. Ideas are everywhere, but sometimes we […]