Itty Bitty Baby Steps

In honor of the Life List Club Milestone Party, I’d like to share one of my favorite guest posts so far. This was originally posted at the blog of the fabulous Catie Rhodes.

Itty Bitty Baby Steps

Sail around the world. Climb Mt Everest. Lose 30 (or 40 or 50 or 100) lbs. Eat a 10lb burrito slathered in ghost pepper hot sauce. Write a novel.

All huge undertakings.

Okay…maybe writing a novel isn’t quite the same feat as the others…but it sure feels like it sometimes. Sometimes it feels bigger than that because we have to invent something that’s never existed before, our story.

Any big task or change can feel like trying to climb a mountain. We might stand at the base, look up at the vast distance between where we are and where we need to be, and just freak out.

But…maybe, just maybe, there’s a better way.

The Reply (A 50-Word Story)

I’m thrilled to be participating in another 50-word story challenge from Cafe M. I’m amazed at how much these writing challenges are energizing my creativity. They make me want to write, write, write!

This time around, I found it both easier and still surprising challenging to write a 50-word story given five words to be included and

New Page Up and Running: Microfiction Tidbits

I created a page for my flash fiction and microfiction pieces. Currently, the page contains only the pieces created with the OneWord writing exercises. In the very near future I hope to post more pieces created beyond that.

Marmalade

I was standing in my backyard a few days ago wondering what on earth I was going to do with the overwhelming number of oranges we had our tree. The branches were drooping under the weight of all that fruit. I thought it was highly unlikely that we could eat all that fruit…at least without serious digestive repercussions. Maybe I could give a bunch of it away. Yet, I had let the fruit stay on the tree so long I didn’t know how long it would keep after picking. Shame to only be able to enjoy our own fruit for such a short time.

I pondered the question a little while as the fruit continued to drag the tree branches down. Then a friend mentioned using

In a Flash

I’ve been hearing a little bit about flash fiction since I came back to my writing. I hadn’t tried it though because it seemed a little intimidating somehow. However, my experiences with the OneWord writing exercise made me brave enough to try. This morning (as a part of my new morning writing routine…yay me!), I looked up writing prompts on Writer’s Digest and discovered this gem: “Only two weeks into the New Year had passed and Tim had already broken his first resolution: Don’t kill anyone. Write this scene.” I gave it a whirl and was pleasantly surprised to find I was actually able to finish a whole story. It’s in very rough form but nothing a little editing won’t fix. It needs some cutting to really qualify for flash fiction (under 1000 words, I think) unless I decide to expand it into a short story. Either way, I am well pleased.

I’ll share the story here when I’m done editing and rewriting. Not sure when that will be because I think I want to try to write a few new short stories or flash fiction stories before I edit anything else, including my manuscripts. I think that would help build up a little confidence in my own productivity.

I’m also thinking that my renewed efforts with the Morning Pages (see Morning Pages Inspiration) is beginning to pay off. My muse is no longer giving me the silent treatment…even if she is still a little scary.

Faster Makes it Go?

I’ve heard similar advice from several sources: put your pen to the paper or your fingers on the keyboard and just write. Write as fast as you can. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation or anything. Just write. Fast. The idea is that writing faster makes the creative side of the brain go while the critical side is left in the dust (probably standing there with torn, dirty jeans shaking its fist in fury).

I wasn’t entirely sure what to think of the idea. It sounds pretty good but it’s so hard for me to just let it flow without at least