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How To Write When You Don’t Feel Like It
By Christine Hennebury Do you fall into the trap of thinking that you have to be motivated in order to write? Writing is often *easier* when we are motivated but it is indeed possible to write without feeling like it. I’ve found that a lack of motivation to write often has little to do with writing itself and, instead, just reflects how challenging it is for us to switch tasks. Switching tasks is hard. When you are already doing something, even if it is just sitting on the couch, the energy cost to start doing something else can feel prohibitive. If the new task is something that you feel apprehensive…
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Apples to Apples to Words
Since it’s the weekend, we want you to have a little fun with your writing* so we’re bringing back the Apples to Apples Challenge! This is *not* a contest, we’re just playing with words today, but here are the rules: Incorporate the words in large text from the cards below into a short piece of writing – 250 words or less. Once you’re done, post it in the comments for us all to enjoy. Please keep it family friendly! We want to show off your well-crafted work but we can’t keep it on our site if it goes against our family-friendly policy. You can explore dark topics but you have…
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How Marie Kondo Can Change Your (Writing) Life
By Katharine Grubb Back in 2008, when I first started setting my timer in 10-minute increments to write, I had five children who were 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2. I discovered pretty quick;y that in order to maximize the writing 10 minutes, every other 10 minutes had to be maximized too. So let’s say I’m preparing a meal when I’m not writing. Wouldn’t it make sense to be as efficient and organized as possible while I was doing it? If I’ve already planned my menu, already bought the necessary groceries, already knew the recipe, already understood the tasks required, already had all of the tools I needed in the…
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Apples to Apples to Words
Since it’s the weekend, we want you to have a little fun with your writing* so we’re bringing back the Apples to Apples Challenge! This is *not* a contest, we’re just playing with words today, but here are the rules: Incorporate the words in large text from the cards below into a short piece of writing – 250 words or less. Once you’re done, post it in the comments for us all to enjoy. Please keep it family friendly! We want to show off your well-crafted work but we can’t keep it on our site if it goes against our family-friendly policy. You can explore dark topics but you have…
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Apples to Apples to Words: Writing Challenge
Since it’s the weekend, we want you to have a little fun with your writing* so we’re bringing back the Apples to Apples Challenge! This is *not* a contest, we’re just playing with words today, but here are the rules: Incorporate the words in large text from the cards below into a short piece of writing – 250 words or less. Once you’re done, post it in the comments for us all to enjoy. Please keep it family friendly! We want to show off your well-crafted work but we can’t keep it on our site if it goes against our family-friendly policy. You can explore dark topics but you have…
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Apples to Apples to Words: Weekly Writing Challenge
Since it’s the weekend, we want you to have a little fun with your writing* so we’re bringing back the Apples to Apples Challenge! This is *not* a contest, we’re just playing with words today, but here are the rules: Incorporate the words in large text from the cards below into a short piece of writing – 250 words or less – and post it in the comments for us all to enjoy. Please keep it family friendly! We want to show off your well-crafted work but we can’t keep it on our site if it goes against our family-friendly policy. You can explore dark topics but you have to…
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You Don’t Need Permission To Write
…but I’ll give you some anyway. The writing world is alive with the ‘rules’ of writing. Everyone and their uncle has something to say about what you should write, when you should write it, how you should write it, and why you should write it. Naturally, a lot of that advice is contradictory. After all, while we can all expand our practice and our skills, we each have to make our own way to the page. We each have our own interests, our own reasons for writing, and our own hopes for what will become of our words. But a lot of us get tangled in all of the writing…
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Apples to Apples to Words: Weekly Writing Challenge
Since it’s the weekend, we want you to have a little fun with your writing* so we’re bringing back the Apples to Apples Challenge! This is *not* a contest, we’re just playing with words today, but here are the rules: Incorporate the words in large text from the cards below into a short piece of writing – 250 words or less – and post it in the comments for us all to enjoy. Please keep it family friendly! We want to show off your well-crafted work but we can’t keep it on our site if it goes against our family-friendly policy. You can explore dark topics but you have to…
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Be Your Own Valentine: 5 Writerly Gifts To Give Yourself Today
Even though Valentine’s Day is already here, it’s not too late to give your writerly-self. I’m sure a lot of us dream of the perfect writing lifestyle, a delightful haven in which everything contributes to our ability to surrender to our muse. Most of us, however, lead the kinds of lives where writing needs to be crammed in among a host of other things. That means that instead of giving ourselves gold pens, or exclusive writing retreats, our writerly-selves probably need more intangible but practical things – changes in attitude or approach- that would make our writing lives easier. Here are 5 of our suggestions. What would you add? Give…
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5 Questions: An Interview with Katharine Grubb
This is the first of a new interview series that we’ll be publishing on the last Thursday of each month here at 10 Minute Novelists. We’ll ask the same 5 Questions of every author and we’ll see what interesting things they have to tell us. We’re starting, of course, with our founder and leader, Katharine Grubb. 1) Where and when do you write? I write every morning at my desk, which is just a corner of my bedroom. Our homeschool morning starts at roughly 8:30, so I try to get an uninterrupted hour of writing in before then. If I don’t meet my word count goals for the day, I’ll…
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100 Words at a Time: Getting That New Project Started
By Christine Hennebury. Half the battle with writing is getting started. The blank page seems enormous. Your brain flashes a million ideas past you…or it goes blank. Every idea you do manage to hold on to seems trite or overdone. It’s not a fun feeling. Yet, you know you *want* to write. You would love to have a story or essay or novel written. What you need is something to grab onto, a handhold, a way to pull yourself forward just a little bit. You need 100 words.* Sure, 100 words is not a full story (unless you are writing a drabble!), it’s not even enough to describe an elaborate…
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“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. -Paulo Coehlo Sometimes we get stuck, not because we don’t have any ideas but because we have too many. And if you are like me, you want to work on the ‘right’ one at the ‘right’ time so you don’t ‘waste’ time and energy. Of course, the truth is that, aside…
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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 to be dedicated writers who are doing things right gets in the way of our goals sometimes. I’d like to help you sidestep that instinct for a little while so you can remember what you like about writing. After all, it’s a lot easier to keep coming back to a task you basically enjoy…
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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 or not at all. I believe, however, that creativity can be encouraged. We can play with our own minds in such a way that can help solve problems and get good ideas. Here’s a long list of ways to be more creative. Try some! And leave a comment if you got them to work! 1.…