christmas day is passed but we are still smack dab in the middle of the busy holiday season. and as much as i LOVE this time of year i am always a little bit frustrated that i can't find as much time to write. i'd love to know how you get around this issue. do you simply decide to put it off until january 4th of the new year? do you stay up later and wake up earlier with hopes to get a few new words down? do you surround your toddler with all of his new toys and hope it entertains him long enough for you to get out a few pages? (yes, i am guilty of this.)
one thing i do is take any opportunity i can to do mental writing workouts. ok, it sounds kine of strange but the same way i get out of shape physically when i stop exercising - i can get out of shape mentally if i don't keep the stories flowing. so whenever i'm doing the dishes or cooking a meal, or cleaning the toilets... i try to come up with random scenerios in my head and make a good story out of it. its like my own secret aerobics class - only its in my head and i'm excercising my creativity.
i find that if i do this a few times a day the ideas flow more freely when i do find that miraculous moment to write.
what do you do?
How funny that you should post this right after I read this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-writing-exercises-to-tighten-your-writing/
Great ideas about exercising creativity!
thanks for the link donna! i'll definitely take a look at it!
ReplyDeleteNatalie!!!! You crack me up. I love your mental aerobics class. I'm impressed you can do it when you're pregnant--I feel like my brain turns to mush! So I not-so-subtly asked for your BOOK for Christmas, and I finally had time to DEVOUR it (whole, all in one piece--the most delicious way to read) yesterday. Weeeehawwww! It was awesome! Even though I haven't seen you or technically talked to you since Chile, I swear I could hear you telling the story, like all those goofy stories we told each other on long bus rides!! It made me love the story even more. I thought about emailing you this note, but then I thought maybe other people would like to read something positive about your book so I decided to put it here instead.
ReplyDeleteSo my Mom is the one who gave the book to me, and she confessed on Christmas morning that she read it before she wrapped it. (My mom is a book-a-holic by the way, with very refined GOOD book taste). She said she likes your book and that it was really cute and fun! (she got herself the Kindle edition) Can I just say: WELL DONE!!! and YOU ROCK! and you're a superstar!!
con un abrazo fuerte ~Shaina
ps um wow, that's the first time I've used Spanish in a LONG time. :)
pps I hope this message doesn't sound too hyper or weird--it's hard to make words look like they sound in my head. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about...