Welcome to the end of  another week; hopefully yours was a happy one.

Mine was definitely a busy one, probably busier than it should have been because I spent too much time reading when I was supposed to be working on other things (like work and studying).

In my defense, someone on another blog mentioned a series of what could best be described as Regency Cozy Mysteries, and reading them turned out to be a lot like eating chips – difficult to stop after just one.  The stories aren’t great (which is why I’m not mentioning the titles), but the characters are just interesting enough for me to want to continue to read about what is happening to them.

I’m determined that the current story I am reading will be my last in this series, but I’m not sure I believe me.  After all, I’m pretty sure I said the same thing during the previous book.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

For now, I’ve set my reading aside and am about to pick up my notebook and pen and give today’s writing prompt and random words a go.

Care to join me?

For those of you working away on a story (whether a first draft or a polished version on its way to publication), if you’re not feeling random, we’d love to hear a bit – whether it’s a scene, a paragraph, or even a phrase that you are especially pleased with and would like to share.

If you don’t have a story in progress, or just want to work on something new, I hope today’s random words and writing prompt will catch your creative fancy.

Ready?

Note:  Today’s story prompt and random words come to us from a comment Kay made on my Wednesday love story post.  I hope you have fun with them.

What if: “Your character gets involved with a reality TV show?

Feel free to interpret the “What if” any way you choose (or ignore it completely) and include any (or all) of the following random words:

shackle         brilliant        shameful         crooked 

blaclklist      blossom        wig                    picnic

bronze          guilty              horseback      crowd

drone            exorcism       confession      crayon

I look forward to seeing your stories in the comments.  If you’re not feeling in the writing mood today, or don’t have time, feel free to post suggestions you might have for future “what-if” prompts.  Ideas are always welcome.

Happy writing to all!

Happy Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day or Friday  or whatever your preference is.

I’m afraid the holiday has caught me a bit by surprise.  I usually like to do a little holiday-themed decorating, but this year the assortment of random sized and colored hearts never even made it out of the storage box in the garage.  To be completely honest, there are still a few random Xmas decorations up around the house.  Guess I’ll just go directly to Marci Gras or St. Patrick’s -whichever comes next.

Though I don’t have any Valentine’s decorations around the house, I do have my writing notebook and pen ready and waiting for me to put them to use.  I think I’ll start with today’s writing prompt and/or random words..

Care to join me? Continue reading →

Happy Friday!

I don’t know how you spent your week, but I spent mine at an environmental conference in Arizona where it was surprisingly chilly.  My hotel room got down to 60 degrees before I finally found the heater control.  Thank goodness for fuzzy bathrobes and down comforters.

The conference itself was great, although like all environmental conferences I’ve been to, the tone did tend to fluctuate between “it’s too late, the world is ruined beyond repair” and “we can fix this!”.  Fortunately, there was excellent food to compensate for the emotional ups and downs and I had a great time using my fancy new work title. Really, it’s amazing how much enjoyment I get out of that.

Now that I’m home and unpacked, it’s time to get back to work.  I had a new story idea while waiting at the airport today, but before I dive into that, I think I’ll give today’s writing prompt and/or random words a try to warm up my creativity.

Care to join me?

Continue reading →

Welcome to another Friday.  Hope your week has been a good one or at least a trauma-free one.  Mine had a very busy start, but is having a relaxing end due to two days off from work.

Part of my “follow-through” goal this year includes following through on scheduling, and more importantly taking, days off work on a regular basis.  An unfortunate Catch-22 situation about having been at a company for a long time is that you tend to earn a lot of paid-time-off, but it can be very difficult to ever take any of it.

A recent New York Times article touted the benefits of time off (see quote below), so I’m doing my best to change my long-hour-working ways and start building time off into the schedule.  I’m feeling more creative already!

“[time off] literally makes us more creative, better at problem-solving, better at coming up with creative ideas.”

Now that I an well-rested with two fun-filled days of doing virtually nothing under my belt, I’m going to take advantage of my increased creativity and give today’s writing prompt and/or random words a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

Welcome to Friday – also known as Day 3 of the prosecution in the president’s impeachment trial.

What fun!

If you had told me months ago that I’d be spending time glued to coverage of the trial in the Senate, I’d have called you crazy (and maybe suggested therapy).

And yet, here I am, spending far too much time with the dial tuned to the news.  I’m sure the Hallmark channel is devastated by my current lack of viewership.  Hopefully their WinterFest will survive without me.  The fate of democracy, however, isn’t quite so secure.

With the trial in recess for the night, it’s time for me to do some work on my To Do list.  First up is giving today’s writing prompt and/or random words a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

Friday already?  How did that happen?

This week didn’t include much writing outside of the day job, but I did do a great job on my “get rid of one thing every day” goal.

At the end of last year Michille posted about the successful completion of her 2019 goal to basically “get rid of stuff.”  Inspired by her resulting empty drawers and clean mudroom, I decided to adopt the goal for 2020.  I don’t have a mudroom, but I’m visualizing a tidier garage and maybe some empty dresser drawers too.

It’s currently day 16 and I’ve already gotten rid of close to 100 items.  True, many of them were holiday decorations that hadn’t been out of their boxes for years, but I’m pretty sure they still count.  Next up is the household-goods cupboard in the garage.  Since I’m pretty sure I have pots and pans out there that came from my parents house, I’m sure to find plenty of things to part with.  I’m visualizing an empty shelf in my future.

Now that I have my tidiness goal well underway, it’s time to turn my sights on writing.  I think I’ll start things off by giving today’s writing prompt and/or random words a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

Happy Friday!  I’d like to say I had an extremely productive week, getting lots of writing done and tasks completed.

Sadly, that would be a  work of fiction.  In reality, I spent far too much time this week falling down the rabbit-hole that is Twitter following the RWA implosion.

On the plus side, I’ve been exposed to a whole new set of writers and learned a lot.  On the day job front, this week been a combination of wrapping up 2019 end-of-year stuff and doing 2020 planning.  We always say we’re going to get the planning all taken care of in November so we can hit the new year running, but it never, ever happens that way.

One bit of 2020 planning that I did manage to take care of this week was getting my calendar set.  I’ve scheduled regular days off each month and blocked off specific writing times.  I’ve also blocked Friday afternoons off for “quiet time” so I can get things done without interruptions – all part of my less stressful / more productive 2020 plan.  We’ll have to wait and see how that all works out.

I’m thinking this Friday’s quiet time will be a the perfect time to give today’s writing prompt and/or random words a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →